The Mysterious Symbolism of the Ancient Triskelion

Because many of the primitive tribes of ancient Europe did not have a formal written language, they relied upon mystic symbols to convey their culture, wisdom, and spiritual meanings. One of the most powerful of these ancient symbols is the triskele, also known as the triskelion, a symbol that goes back 5,000 years or more, to the very dawn of civilization in Europe.

The Triskele consists of three interlocked spirals of equal size, connected at the center, and oriented either clockwise or anti-clockwise. Traditionally, the spirals are simple and straightforward in design, although there are stylized variations that can be quite elaborate.

The word Triskele itself comes from the ancient Greek term for three-times. Because the Celts placed major significance on the number three, it’s likely that the triskele represented cycles that consisted of three stages or events.

Timecodes:

00:26 - What is the Triskele's Design?
01:06 - Triskele as a Celtic Symbol
02:03 - Triskele as a Christian symbol
02:23 - Meaning of the Triskele

Follow us on:

#celticsymbols #triskelion #ancient #celts #celtic #symbols #meaning #christianity

[dallainesthomas]

I believe the triforce in Zelda is a variation of the triskelion where it represents courage, power and wisdom

[jake_]

Triskelle means "three legs", not three times. From "tria"=three and "skelos"=leg. Originally, the term was used for the ancient Greek three legged version. It was used for the spiral form only recently. Unlike the former, the latter was found all around Europe, in Ireland, Mycenae, Malta etc. However, since we do not know the actual name used for the spiral version by the people of that time, it is very difficult to discern its true symbolism and meaning.

Regardless, the meaning of symbols usually change over time following the current culture of the people using them. So it is likely that after it was originally created, it meant different things to different cultures.

[gabriellehumphreys]

The site you are speaking of is in the Republic of Ireland. Not British, as suggested.

[happierabroad]

There was an original Star Trek episode called "The Gamesters of Triskelion". I wonder if the scriptwriter had some esoteric meaning in mind.

[Iku-jsfe]

The shape of the triskellion came to me in meditation (which is why I use it for my profile pic), with the three mothers (just meant as a symbol, not as universal truth) Lilith, Eve and Mary Magdaline. Eve represented submission, Lilith represented power, and Mary represented balance. I looked the shape up on google, but this is a much better explanation for it. Groovy!

[talismanskulls]

You have to look at the oldest. Its two spirals spawning off a third. Its the duality of light and dark, fire and ice, and the interplay of the two giving rise to the world and all spawned from it. Its basically the predecessor to early Taoism in China.

We can see also with swastikas that they tend to be aligned with with 4 points f a daily cycle. Sunrise, New, Sunset and Midnight rotating from right to left. The ones in the opposite as left to right tended to be aligned with the concept of what we define as the four seasons rather than three. More or less winter at the top, spring on the right, summer at the bottom and fall at the left .

Then you have 8 spoke wheel shapes. It simply would then align with the 8 compass directions and the associated concepts would be based on the migration of such as caribou (reindeer) and other such animals.

The images in shields and other artifacts where out got an oval like shape in the center with two pots extending outward based on these concepts would like represent the "galactic" center of the the Milky Way that would have been far more visible for the lack of modern light and other pollution. Some of the claimed myths seem to reflect all this but those that recorded it were mostly Romans. That's why we have to consider the lore of people in the arctic regions that managed to avoid till the last century the complete wipe out of their lore, traditions and symbolism they were willing to share to have a better perspective.

Unfortunately all the wannabe types hijacking such and imposing occultist crap and later hippies have bent a lot of that out of context especially only added more distortions and imposed their own garbage and unfortunately so has shoddy scholarship that ha been an issue since the 1800s that's still in the books as it were and simply accepted as fact instead of being removed as nonsense and the arm chair academic speculative assumptions that they really are.

If we take :anything from Greek and Roman sources as vaguely reliable, which most of it isn't, it would also seem these or at least some of them, were more like atheists with an animist spin. That's how it comes across when some sources note that some of the Celts thought representing the forces of nature as people and animals was childish. They certainly, at least in that context didn't believe in some sort of anthropomorphic deities which would then mean if true, the various human figures native to such would have represented ancestors.

That's my take on it anyways, and to note, its obvious that these ancient European cultures were just as diverse in their concepts from region to region as those in ancient Africa and the Americas.

[r.i.poul-collecter]

Does Celtic heritage also cover Scotland aswell as Ireland ..not expecting an answer tho as nobody seems to want to😢pls🙏

[vijayayay]

What about the direction of the rotation? Does it change the meaning or is it just up to preference?

[TheEggmaniac]

I have not been able to find any examples of the triskele symbol, used in Celtic Britain, Ireland or any other Celtic culture. Only pre Celtic examples. Can you show me where to find examples from the Celtic period please? The standing stones in France were built by pre Celtic people, as was Newgrange in Ireland and Stonehenge in England.

[muttayya]

It seems that the Triskele got a re-invention few years ago, in the form of the "Fidget Spinner" toy that every child just HAD to Have and play with. Maybe it was spinning a new energy for our world - is it the same energy as of the Triskele ???

[alanraza]

When I look at it, I see 1 and 2 coming out of 0.

[omerfarukcelebi]

Triskele is the sign of Proto Turks since 20, 000.BC..Turk means we are Tur=Tir=Thor..it is the sign of Sky God which is three stars of Orion. Triskele is also the sign for Anatolia the Sacred Peninsula(three side covered by Sacred sea) which means we are from Sacred Anatolia. Kelts are Proto Turkish people it means Prince in Turkish and at the begining they must be a very powerful empire headed by the Prince not tribes.Their capital city was Turkije where today we call Turkey as Turkiye. Briton is also a Turkish word meaning Waterland. BIR=BR is number 1 in Turkish . In the ancient times number 1 always stated water. For example English number "one" is also an ancient Turkish word meaning Water. Again "First" in English comes from ancient Turkish meaning Sacred River Water/spring.. There are thousands of evidence that Kelts are Proto Turks. All the best from Tur-key...

[zzausel]

The triskele is a symbol of nondualism and, like the maze, spirituality. I don't like the attributions given here, because dualism is a thing of mind and cognition.