Figure 39. The three-fold Celtic leaf expresses the concepts of the trinity, the three circles of initiation, and the multi-dimensional levels of reality.
This trinity can also be seen in the classic emblem of Druidism, three golden rays of light. It is also revealed in the ancient symbols of the threefold oak leaf, and three rotating spirals. The first symbol contains the Vesica Pisces, formed by the merger of two interlocking circles, the perfect balance of male and female, and also forming the shape of an Eye, a symbol sacred to many traditions and honored by the Egyptians, the Buddhists, the Celts, the Greeks, and the Hindus under a variety of names. In the 1525 Renaissance painting the Supper of Emmau, it appears above Jesus' head enclosed within a triangle. It has been painted within the walls of the Vatican, and above the altar of Saint Aloysius Church in London, which was built by French Catholics in 1808.
The symbol represents the spiritual Sight, or Third Eye, that each initiate must awaken, a sight Jesus referred to in the Gospel of Thomas when he said: “When you make [the two] eyes into an eye … then you will see the Kingdom of Heaven.” The Druids' belief in a trinity, which can be found throughout their celebrations and teachings, also related to the past, present, and future—represented by Beli, meaning “light, Taran, whom many equate with the Greek, Roman, and Sumerian gods of thunder, and Yesu, whom they predicted as the ruler of the coming age.”
And this three-fold symbolism appears under many other guises as well. The Welsh Triads, a collection of medieval manuscripts preserving Welsh history and folklore, reveal three objects of remembrance essential to a soul's enlightenment: the properties of all being, the knowledge of all things, and the power to conquer evil. The Druids acknowledged three masculine qualities—courage, honor, and manliness—and three feminine qualities—decency, chastity, and decorum. They defined three kinds of knowledge: the knowledge to name each thing, the knowledge to learn its cause, and the knowledge to understand its influence. They sought the decrease of three things in the world—darkness, falsehood, and death—and the increase of three others—light, life, and truth. The Druids were physicians, poets, and prophets, and their educational system was superior to that of their colleagues on the Continent. Like others who honored nature as their finest teacher, the Druids strove to live in harmony with the Earth. They believed in a fairyland of nature spirits that manifested in the mortal world. “All happenings were motivated by an interplay of unseen rays from the Source. Therefore the running of a hare, flight of birds, fall of leaves, patterns in sand, and the sound of waters, were all meaningful.”
The Kolbrin Bible, a collection of ancient writings preserved at Glastonbury Abbey, says that the Druids “believed in the One Supreme Being, but also held that there was a body of lesser Beings.” Similarities between the Druid tradition and Christianity run deep.
Manly P. Hall writes: The Druids had a Madonna, a Virgin Mother, with a Child in her arms, who was sacred to their Mysteries; and their Sun God was resurrected at the time of year corresponding to that at which modern Christians celebrate Easter.
Both the cross and the serpent were sacred to the Druids, who made the former by cutting off all the branches of an oak tree and fastening one of them to the main truck in the form of the letter T. This oaken cross became symbolic of their superior Deity…. They also had great veneration for the Nature spirits, little creatures of the forests and rivers to whom many offerings were made.”
— Jesus: The Explosive Story of the 30 Lost Years and the
Ancient Mystery Religions by Tricia McCannon