The Fusion of Celtic Cross and Iron Cross, a Symmetry Symbol

Symmetry in everyday language refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. It find its ways into architecture at every scale, from the overall external views of buildings such as Gothic cathedrals; Islamic buildings such as the Taj Mahal and the Lotfollah mosque make elaborate use of symmetry both in their structure and their ornamentation. Moorish buildings like the Alhambra are ornamented with complex patterns made using translation and reflection symmetries as well as rotations. It has been said that only bad architects rely on “symmetrical layout of blocks, masses and structures”, modernist architecture, starting with International style relies instead on “wings and balance of masses”.

The author and creator of the featured transcendental art was practicing the automatic drawing (2005), the symmetry symbol in the fusion of Celtic Cross and Iron Cross can be considered an inspired revival Medieval art pieces regardless of the zero influences in the Celtic myth, culture and history. In the automatic drawing, a quarter piece does not give a total image of the assembled symmetrical 4-pieces. The cross in Christian story, an epitome of Jesus Christ crucified in the cross left the trail of Holy Grail (holy blood) in the early European myths and legends that unified the pantheon worshiping culture into one mystical relationship of man with one God.

The message fulfills the characterization and symbolization of a unified Europe must be cleansed of its collective karma in its ancient past without further shed of violence which led to the first and second World War.

Iron Cross

The Iron Cross German: Eisernes Kreus, was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia and later in the German Empire (1871 - 1918) and Nazi Germany (1939 - 1945). It was established by King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and first awarded on 10 March 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars (EK 1813). The recommissioned Iron Cross was also awarded during the Franco-Prussian War (EK 1870), World War 1 (EI 1914), and World War II (EK 1939, re-introduced with a swastika added in the center). The Iron Cross was normally a military decoration only, though there were instances of it being awarded to civilians for performing military functions. Two examples of this were civilian test pilots Hanna Reitsch who was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class and 1st Class and Melitta Schenk Grafin Von Stauffenberg, who was awarded Iron Cross 2nd Class for their actions as pilots during World War II.

The design of the cross symbol was black with a white silver outline. It was ultimately derived from the cross pattee occassionally used by the Teutonic Order from the 13th century. The black cross patty was also used as the symbol of German Army from 1871 to March/April 1918, when it was replaced by the bar cross. In 1956, it was re-introduced as the symbol of the Bundeswehr, the modern German armed forces.

Celtic Cross

Celtic cross (Irish: cross Cheilteach, Scottish Gaelic: crois Cheilteach, Manx: cross Cheltiagh, Welsh: croes Geiltaidd, Cornish: krows keltek, Breton: kroaz geltek) is a symbol that combines a cross with a ring surrounding the intersection; the cross’ stem being longer than the other tree’s intersection. It belongs to a wider group of crosses with a nimbus. The Celtic Christians combined the Christian cross with the nimbus to create high crosses – a free standing cross made of stone which was often richly decorated. Nimbus is a motif of ring of light that surrounds a person in the art.

Image 2: A black and white Celtic Cross with Nimbus (halo)

The Celtic Revival shape, usually decorated with interlace and other motifs from insular art, became popular for funerary monuments and other uses, and has remained so, spreading well beyond Ireland.

Popular legend in Ireland says that the Celtic Christian cross was introduced by Saint Patrick or possibly by Saint Declan, though there are no examples from this early period. It has often been claimed that Patrick combined the symbol of Christianity with the sun cross to give pagan followers an idea of the importance of the cross. By linking it with the idea of the life-giving properties of the sun, these two ideas were linked to appeal to pagans. Other interpretations claim that placing the cross on top of the circle represents Christ’s supremacy over the pagan sun.

The Celt History, Culture and Civilization

The history of pre-Celtic Europe remains very uncertain. According to one theory, the common root fo the Celtic languages, a language known as Proto-Celtic, arose in the Late Broze Age Urnfield culture of Central Europe, which flourished around 1200 BC. In addition, according to a theory proposed in the 19th century, the first people to adopt cultural characteristics regarded as Celtic were the people fo the Iron Age Halstatt culture in central Europe (c.800-450 BC), named for the rich grave finds in Halstatt, Austria. Thus, this area is sometimes called the ‘Celtic homeland’. By or during the later La Tene period (c. 450 BC up to the Roman conquest), this Celtic culture was supposed to have expanded by diffusion or migration to the British Isles (Insular Celts), france and the Low Countries (Gauls), Bohemia, Poland and much of Central Europe, the Iberian Peninsula (Celtiberians, Celtici, Lusitanians and Gallaeci) and northern Italy (Golaseccans and Cisalpine Gauls) and, following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC, as far as central Anatolia (Galatians).

The Celts in the ancient Europe worshipped pantheon of gods, by mid 1st millennium AD, with the expansion of the Roman Empire and the Great Migration (Migration Period) of Germanic peoples, Celtic culture and Insular Celtic had become restricted to Ireland, the western and northern parts of Great Britain (Wales, Scotland and Cornwall), the Isle of Man, and Brittany. Between the 5th and 8th centuries, the Celtic-speaking communities in these Atlantic regions emerged as a reasonably cohesive cultural entity. They a common linguistic, religious and artistic heritage that distinguished them from the culture of the surrounding polities. By the 6th century, however, the Continental Celtic languages were no longer in wide use. Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of the Gaels (Irish, Scottish and Manx) and the Brythonic Celts (Welsh, Cornish and Bretons) of the medieval and modern periods. A modern “Celtic identity” was constructed as part of the Romanticist Celtic Revival in Great Britain, Ireland, and other Euorpean territories such as Portugal and Spanish Galicia. Today, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Breton are still spoken in parts of their historical territories, and Cornish and Manx are undergoing a revival.

Remarks:

Please feel free to download the image in Art and Humanity. Both of the colored and black and white Celtic Cross were created in 2005. They are 11 years old to this date.

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