Tree of Life: Book of Kells

In May of 2001 I was in Ireland for 10 days as part of a landscape photography course, while there I purchased a book called Celtic Art: The methods of construction by George Bain (My father in law bought the same book, here in the US).  However, until today I never really used it...today it helped me make a Celtic Tree of Life similar to the ones depicted in the Book of Kells. The concept of a tree of life as a many-branched tree illustrating the idea that all life on earth is related has been used in science, religion,philosophy, mythology, and other areas. My name is Teresa and one of my many nicknames is Tree, I love trees and have long been fascinated by the tree of life...this may be a new project, to experiment with the different trees in different cultures.  How appropriate to start on St. Patrick's day with the Celtic Tree of Life:

Fin MacCumhail

Why do  witches, mystics and druids always mess things up? I'll explain myself...why do these seers and prophets tell their ignorant rulers the so called future and fulfill the prophesies...my guess is they made it all up and were just using these stories to manipulate their rulers and the outcomes, which is as smart as it is diabolical. I just hate when innocents get dragged into it...which brings me to the story of the birth of Fin MacCumhail (by the way, Cumhail loosely translates to "son of cool"). Alright Macart Cumhail is a Champion from the West of Erin who receives a prophesy that if he marries it will lead to his death, sure many men believe this, but in his case it's said he will die in battle the next day. So, he does his best to stay away from the fairer sex, but of course he can't do this and falls in love with a Princess (her name is not given) whose father the King receives a prophecy that her daughters son will takeover the Kingdom one day (not sure why that's bad) so he keeps her away from all men.  Macart and the King's daughter are married in secret and Macart confesses to his mother what happened and warns her he will be killed tomorrow and if the Princess has a son by him the King will have him killed.  Of course this all happens and the King throws the young Prince into the loch to drown. Macart's mom watched as the boy sank but then resurfaced near shore holding a salmon in his hand, upon seeing this she said "He is my grandson, the true son of my own child" grabbed him and ran, named him Fin and he grew up to take over the kingdom. The end...here's my interpretation of little Fin MacCool surviving his dip in the lake:

Brigid

With St. Patrick's day coming up soon I wanted to put some focus on Irish legends and deities...the logical place to start was with the classic Celtic triple goddess Brigid who was later adopted by the Catholic Church as St. Brigid.  Some of her symbols such as her cross and the eternal flames survived that transition (not a shock, everyone knows how the Catholics feel about crosses and fire) Her hammer and the baby symbolizing fertility are symbols of the "sisters" and they have not been adopted.