Today for Saint Patrick’s day I wanted to share how I pay tribute to the Celts. The Celtic people are a collection of ancient Indo-Europeans which includes the Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Bretons, Manx, Cornish, Gauls, and Gaelic tribes throughout history. For me personally, all holidays have a deeper meaning for us to explore ourselves and lives; an invitation to pause from daily schedules and media frenzied consumerism to reflect on history, simpler times, or some other deep nostalgia that can positively impact our lives here and now. Are we living on purpose? History becomes deep with a medicinal catharsis if we let it. By let I mean make the time for introspection and meditation. This timeline jumping to the past and back to the present moment to bring the teachings into the now is what can help us heal, forgive, learn, bridge, and evolve.
I always encourage people to explore their cultural roots as a joyous method for more self-discovery and empowerment. Oftentimes when we reflect back on the voyages, triumphs and hard times our ancestors not only endured but did so with the ultimate courage and self-reliance, it gives us some confidence, or genetic clout if you will to face another day when we feel overwhelmed or small.
One of my favorite ways to achieve a sense of connection to the past is through a directly activating experience, and it does not get more tangible than our food. Every chocolate I make by hand for Integrity Cacao is an invitation to activate a piece of your soul on a global and galactic level by connecting you to your heart, your soul’s truth, your heritage, and the earth herself based upon the formulas and where each ingredient comes from both culturally and geographically. Each raw vegan chocolate formula we offer contains very special, hand-selected ingredients that link us to our ancient heritage, re-ignite our lineages, initiate our own personal heroic journey, or invite us to explore others’ histories as well.
My Celtic Sea Salt organic raw vegan chocolate formula is kind of a big deal to me historically with my micro craft chocolate business, because it is actually the first chocolate I ever made when I just started playing around with cacao back in August of 2012. It is only three ingredients, and is still the most popular flavor, because as I always say, salty and sweet cannot be beat!
These 3 ingredients are the jungle-harvested organic Arriba National cacao from Ecuador, organic dark A maple syrup from Bascom maple farms in New Hampshire, and Celtic sea salt harvested the ancient way on the shores of the gorgeous beaches in Brittany, France. This Celtic sea salt is a raw living salt from the ocean, packed with incredible minerals, which is why I use it for this formula. It is so unprocessed that it is still damp from the sea, and is also the only doctor recommended sea salt. You can read more about this fabulous company, Salina Naturally here.
When I hired a graphic artist to help me design the posh packaging for retail, I had to sit and think for a minute. What does Celtic mean to me? My heritage is a combination of French, Sicilian, Welsh, and a dash of German. I have always been very enchanted with the history and culture of the ancient Celts. Their art, music, myths, languages, stone henge, Merlin, I could go on forever. I resonate strongly with the Druids of old, with their mythology and lore, their earth magic practices and reverence for the natural world, the faeiries and will-o-the-wisps, mermaids, poetry and the bards, yeah like I said I can go on forever with this tangent due to the immense passion I hold for my ancestors, my own roots.
So, I had to sit there for a good minute and ponder how to pay homage to this vast mystical culture that has been mysteriously under our noses for thousands of years aside from movies and comics. How can I honor them with one visual? Then it hit me. The Triskele. Three spirals connected together in the center with a triangle in their middle, continually flowing forward like a wheel. While the spiral as a symbol is a wonderful rabbit hole one could get lost in for months exploring all cultures’ sacred spiral symbolism -and I highly recommend it as a subject to get lost in- this one symbol of three interconnected spirals, the Triskele, is where we will stay today. This is a symbol that I first discovered while in France at the Ile de San Michel with my mom, and she bought me a Triskele pendant, introducing me to the lore of it and its philosophical significance. I wish to paint you a small verbal portrait of the energy of this place in France, as it IS the resonant blueprint for this chocolate formula and how I came to make it. I was overcome with the magic of this topsy turvy island/mountain/city whose access is cut off part-time with quicksand. You can only visit and depart this world with the timing of the tides. The cobble stones, bustling locals, restaurateurs and merchants remind one of Diagon Alley. Not to mention the massive golden statue of Saint Michael slaying a dragon at the very top of this amazing archaic mountain which dwarfs the whole isle. It’s truly a portal to another time where I expected to see Merlin pop out at any moment.
Anyhoo back to the chocolate. I chose the Triskele, also known as the Triskelion or triple spiral for the Celtic Sea Salt packaging to pay tribute to this ancient symbol which has been so beloved by the Celtics since the dawning of their culture, dating back to the Neolithic era of old Ireland. The Triskele represents many things to many people, depending upon the time and culture that was dominating that era. To me, it represents the original trinity of the old ways: the father-mother-child cycles in nature. I also particularly resonate with these other triple or trinity philosophy perceptions that are prevalent in many cultures: the life-death-rebirth cycle we witness in shamanism, and our generations, spirit-mind-body that we are learning to unify now, and past-present-future circular time that we are learning to work with now as a multidimensional reality.
To me, this symbol helps us to remember and activate within our highest potentials as we are tested sometimes daily, and yet carry on forward with courage and authenticity each day in our lives, despite all of our roles and responsibilities. I feel so strongly about this that I asked my mom, who is an amazing artist, to make me a custom power piece with the Triskele for me to wear when I need some empowerment whilst out in the big world. You can see a photo of this awesome statement piece below here:
The Triskele is a visual guide on a subconscious level, a gentle nudge forward to keep intending and thus achieving understanding and fulfillment. It is also a reminder of the conscious participation we can have in our daily lives by allowing and choosing mindfully to respond with ability, pure love, and compassion to anything that can be perceived as an obstacle or a psychological trigger.
So, long story short, this is why I chose the Triskele to be the symbol on my packaging in stores for the Celtic Sea Salt formula. Companies all over the world use symbols in their branding, so my intention with my formulas and their retail packaging is to do my part to represent a visual art activation that can help someone on their journey. I take it to a much deeper, multidimensional level than just branding. The formulas are meant to activate, and thus so is the artwork. The idea behind the power of symbols upon the subconscious is that when a person sees a symbol, it activates something in their awareness. This activation is entirely up the individual and no experience is the same from person to person.
Whether an inspiration, a memory, a dream long forgotten, or a desire that was subconsciously repressed, the cacao and the powerful ancient symbols I use in my conscious business are all tools to help folks raise their conscious awareness. We are all much more than we thought before.
Have a happy and safe Saint Patrick’s Day! Enjoy your roots.
<3
M.
References: https://www.blarney.com/triskele--triple-spiral--tri/