Below is a transcription of the notes on a work of art by professor Alexander John Haddow (1912- 1978) by himself, and published in his book The history and structure of Ceol Mor, posthumously published in 1982. It took professor Haddow 19 years to complete this work of art (1949-1968). Alas the printing quality of the drawing in the book is not too good. Click on the thumbnail-picture left to get a larger picture (1008 x 1122 pix / 140 kB) to get a much better view. At appropriate point in the notes I have put a picture of the corresponding detail of the drawing, for reference. Imbolc 1999, Peter van den Berg. Copyright contr.

The famous Celtic manuscripts, such as Book of Durrow, Kells and (particularly) Lindisfarne contain much pagan symbolism handed down from a remoter past. This is embodied in numbers and symbols and derives ultimately from the worship of the morther Goddess or Triple Goddess.
One may, for example, find a page with 44 panels or ornament of which two have been left uncoloured so as to give one of the particularly sacred numbers, 42.
In Celtic countries this Goddess was Brigid, later made respectable as St. Bride, who is still greatly revered in Gaelic Scotland and Ireland.

The design here exhibited is meant to appear just a design to the uninitiated, while a more knowledgeable person might recognize symbols peculiar to St. Bride. The adept would, however, realize that it is dedicated to her pagan predecessor, who was important as a Goddess of the moon, fire and the hearth, childbirth, and of the early alphabets and calendar. Many birds and orther creatures were sacred to Brigid, together with a number of colours. Thus her triple nature was expressed in her basic colours of white, red and black (not maiden, wife and mother but maiden, mother and black hag).

Many of the numbers associated with Brigid are still regarded as lucky or unlucky and they are often multiples of three. Some of them are 3, 5, 7, 9, 13, 15, 18, 19, 21, 42 and 72.

Libraries have been written about Brigid as a Celtic Goddess and of course as the triple Mother Goddess of the East. All that can be given here are a few basic clues to the designs here exhibited. Note that no design is repeated. If you see three apparently identical panels all in the same colours, closer inspection will show that, while they balance, each is different.
The design is cruciform, but the cross is the pre-christian three-limbed tau cross. At the point where in a Celtic cross a circle would cross the arms, a crescent symbolising the moon, has been used.

The various elements are as follows:

Centre circle 9 units of design in 3 colours.

Adjacent to it 3 panels in red and yellow each with 5 units: 5+5+5=15 the numer of increase (guess why?) another sacred one. In one of these is a motif of snake heads -On St. Bride's day, 2nd February, the first day of spring in the old Highlands, "The serpent comes from the mound". In another shark heads are introduced, as in some of her aspects the Goddess had power over large sea creatures.

Three Circles with trumpet spiral design In each there are 9 main units of design in 3 colours. Again the serpent and shark appear.

Animals in 3 lozenges Cat and hare were sacred to Brigid and of course echo down the centuries as whichcraft animals. The cock refers to 2nd February, St. Bride's day, when cockfighting was a custom in the West Highlands till the late 19th century (ordinary unarmed cocks - a harmless custom). Below the cock a spiral of 9 units in 3 colours.

The crescent Each half has 9 units of design, total 18, another sacred number, also the number of letters in one ancient Gaelic alphabet.

Circles outside crescent Three red and yellow panels, 3+3+3=9. Three panels of interlaced animals, 4 in each of the lower ones and 5 in the top = 13. In all there are six purple animals (the 30 day months of the sun's increase) and six grey ones (the sun's decline). The top (green) animal is the Lord of Misrule for the residual 5 days after which he becomes the spring sacrifice. The theme of the hero and his 12 companions is very ancient and widespread.

No two of the 20 birds are identical (look at check patch, tail and arrangement of colours of wingfeathers). These are stylised lapwings - the crafty birds to whom King Solomon whispered his secrets, 20 because another ancient gaelic alphabet had 20 letters, named after trees (as gaelic letters still are) or somemtimes after birds.

Three panels of similar but different design, each of 19 units referring to the 19-year lunar cycle (still relevant in relation to Easter!)

Top left a black, a red and a white mare approach a stallion - the king animal who will be killed. mares were sacred to some aspects of the Mother Goddess...

...as were sows (top right panel) which here attack a boar.

Bottom panel - two large white hounds with red ears (traditional appearance of the Gabriel Ratchets or Hounds of Hell) bring to bay a white roebuck - an animal with a major significance in Celtic mythology and involved in countless fairy tailes.

These panels are surrounded by a red and yellow pattern of 42 units. This mysterious number crops up again and again. See Elishas'she-bears in II Kings 2. "And there came forth two she bears out of the wood and mauled forty and two children of them". This is really an oblique reference to the Brauronia ritual of Artemis Callisto where 2 girls in yellow (the 'Big Bear'and the 'Little Bear') rushed savagely on boys attending the festival. Osiris was judged by 42 infernal juryen. There were 42 books of hermetic mysteries. This was also the number of letters in one of the secret and never-to- be-spoken names of God.

Outside the red and yellow ornaments are a surround of green interlace. The units in these three total 72, one of the most sacred of all numers. Like 42 it delimits one of the cycles of years when lunar and sidereal time, starting together, almost exactly coincide once more. It occurs in very many early myths and rituals, from Pythagoreans to the 72 translators of the Septuagint. See, for example Aaron and his 72 companions, 72 languages at the tower of Babel, number of strokes in Ogham alphabet, and number of letters in the longest and most secret name of God.

The outermost design
From the pair of birds on a limb of the cross to the next there are 42 units of running design. Thus the total is 3 x 42. The birds themselves:

Top - oystercatcher, still known in the Highlands as 'Ghille Bhridein', St. Bride's (or Brigid's) page, and wearing her red, white and black colours.

Top left - swan; in very many Gaelic invocations and charms Bride is 'The white swan, queen among them all'

Bottom left - shag or green cormorant - a bird with various religious associations, particularly with the Easter period, and also associated with Brigid.

Bottom - crane; throughout Europe associated with the Mother Goddess (crane dances etc.) and also with the alphabet as its flocks 'make letters in the sky' (cf. Palamedes and the cranes).

Bottom right - gannet or solan goose; the unchancy bird who can see below the waves, in Gaelic 'Sulaire', the eye-bird, whose cold grey blue eyes may have originally made it sacred to the Eye Goddess, and which are of the same colour as Pallas Athene's eyes - 'and Athene, thy own sea-grey eyes behold'.

Top right- Another black, white and red bird closely associated with man, the stork, which goes south with the dying sun and returns with the strengthening sun, bringing the baby as we all know. There are 7 kinds of birds in the design (excluding the lapwing circle, which is a thing apart) and there are 13 of them in all.

There is no space here to comment on the colours here used. All are associated with the mother Goddess in one of her innumerable aspects, or with her victims such as Adonis and Attis.

On completing this design why was I not struck by lightning? Apart from pairs of birds, or animals confronting each other, any creatures where there is a free choice should be going round the wheels widdershins, whereas most of them are going round clockwise or deasail, with the sun. So this 'triumph of misplaced ingenuity' embodies the most elementary of errors!
A.J.H.