Symbols

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The Triskelion vs. The Celtic Cross: Choosing a Symbol for the Decentralized Struggle

How two ancient symbols tell the story of chaos, order, and the ongoing battle between decentralized freedom and centralized power

Symbols matter.

They carry meaning across centuries, often long after the cultures that created them have vanished. When we talk about the clash between decentralized systems like cryptocurrency and the centralized empires of modern banking, we are, knowingly or not, echoing an ancient struggle — one that played out between the Celts and the Romans nearly two thousand years ago.

In building this analogy, one is faced with a simple but important question:

What symbol best represents the Celtic, decentralized worldview?

Two contenders stood out: the Triskelion and the Celtic Cross.

Their meanings, however, could not be more different.

The Triskelion: Pure, Organic Decentralization

The Triskelion — three spirals locked in perpetual motion — is one of the oldest symbols of European prehistory. It predates Christianity, Roman imperialism, and even the written histories of the Celtic peoples. It represents motion, cycles, nature, and spiritual flow — a universe without a fixed center, always evolving, dynamic and unpredictable.

This perfectly mirrors the ethos of decentralization.

In ancient Celtic society, there were no rigid empires. Wealth, leadership, and power were distributed among tribes and families, shifting with alliances and circumstances. Their world, like the triskelion, was fluid, cyclical, and resistant to authoritarian control.

If one wanted to pick the most ideologically “pure” symbol for the decentralized spirit, the Triskelion would be the obvious choice.

The Celtic Cross: Assimilation, Hybridization, and Recognition

The Celtic Cross, however, tells a different story.

It is a product of post-conquest, Christianized Celtic lands. The cross — the symbol of Roman order and Christian authority — is laid over a circle, a faint echo of the earlier Celtic reverence for cycles and nature.

By the time the Celtic Cross emerged, the Celtic world had already been subsumed. Its decentralized tribes had been absorbed into the Roman-Christian empire. The cross represents a compromise, an act of hybridization and assimilation. The circle remains, but the cross dominates.

In many ways, this symbol reflects the historical process of centralized systems co-opting decentralized cultures — much like modern regulatory efforts to “tame” decentralized finance and blockchain technology.

The Dilemma: Purity vs Popularity

For this project — an exploration of how the ancient battle between Celts and Romans mirrors today’s tension between decentralized crypto ecosystems and centralized financial powers — the Triskelion would have been the “correct” choice.

But symbolism is not just about ideological purity.

It’s about communication. Recognition. Reach.

And today, the Celtic Cross is the far more recognizable symbol. It appears everywhere — from jewelry and tattoos to graveyards and pop culture. Even those who know nothing of Celtic history instantly associate it with a mysterious, ancient, defiant spirit.

Not because it perfectly reflects the decentralized ideal, but because it tells the more complete story. It carries within it both the memory of freedom and the mark of conquest. It is a symbol of the ongoing struggle — the cycle of chaos and order, freedom and authority, decentralization and centralization.

And in reclaiming it for this project, we remind ourselves that history never ends.

The battle between empires and tribes, banks and blockchains, is not a war to be won — but a cycle to be understood.

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