Paper — Pen — Portal

Duveroth
Apr 3
3 min read

A silver piece of jewelry featuring a triskele with a small triquetra in the center, resting in an open crystal geode.

The seed

I wore a triskelion for many years and then lost it. A little over ten years later, I felt drawn to buy one that passed through my online feed. It carried a small triquetra at its centre — something I barely noticed at the time. It was decorative, and I had no idea it was the seed speaking to me. It took root quickly, and barely six months later, I was sitting at my desk feverishly searching for a triple triquetra online.

The one who couldn't be found

I searched the way I always search when I know something wants to come through. With an image in my head and a search field in front of me. Triquetra. Triple. Correct Celtic knot. Image after image rolled past and none of them were right — not because they were wrong, but because none of them were triple in the right way. Not even AI could find it.

It simply didn't exist. Yet.

And do you know what's almost funny about that? I wasn't even surprised. That's exactly how it tends to go with things that already exist — they don't show up in a search bar. They wait for you to bring them into form.

Two hand-drawn sketches of the triple triquetra on paper — the process of untying the knot, with a pencil lying nearby

Paper and pen—a knot to solve

So that was precisely what I did. Paper. Pen. And that inner image that had been clear long before the pen began to move forward.

I knew what it looked like. The only thing I needed to solve was the system. How the threads actually travel when three triquetras are to be woven together and still remain one whole. How the knot holds without losing its integrity. So I sketched, corrected, sketched again — not to find the symbol, but to draw something that already existed and was waiting for me to finally be ready to receive it.

And then it was there. A central triquetra, and one that doubles itself as it winds around and encloses the other, and a triple emerges.

Wholeness enclosed within itself

A triquetra is a Celtic knot symbol with deep roots — three interconnected movements forming a flow without beginning and without end. Three aspects of a whole. It exists in Celtic tradition, in Norse, and in early Christian iconography.

But triple it — and the dimensions deepen. Three triquetras, three aspects each — nine dimensions of wholeness woven together in one movement. The number of completions. The one that always returns to itself.

Already Is, built into every knot.

The triple triquetra in metal against a background of open fire — the symbol in its alchemical power. — The alchemy of the Triple Triquetra - AI-generated

Portal

It's on my site now — and it holds what it has always held.

It brings me joy in a way that is both simple and vast. The kind of joy that arises when something that has always existed finally takes its place.

Because it's not just a symbol that has come into place — it's a direction.

The triskelion spirals outward — the energy that seeks, that moves toward something not yet here. The triquetra moves toward nothing. It circulates within itself, enclosed by its own wholeness. Nothing is missing. Nothing is sought.

This is an alchemical movement through life that cannot be undone. From earning your place to belonging to it. From energy reaching outward — to energy that is already home.

Already is.

Annette's triple triquetra — a three-layered Celtic knot symbol, tinted from white to deep burgundy against a white background.

Triskelion: One of the oldest known Celtic symbols, with roots stretching back at least 5,000 years. Three spirals radiating outward from a common centre point. Symbolises movement, cycle and progression — the path of the sun, the three stages of life, the flow of time. The energy is centrifugal: it moves outward from the centre to the periphery.

Triquetra: A Celtic knot symbol consisting of three interconnected arcs forming a continuous flow without beginning or end. Found in Celtic, Norse and early Christian tradition. Symbolises trinity in various forms — body, soul and spirit; land, sea and sky; past, present and future. The energy is centripetal: it circulates within itself, enclosed and whole.

The number 9 in numerology: Nine is the number of completion — the highest single digit, the point where the cycle ends and returns to its source. What makes 9 unique is that it always returns to itself: regardless of what number you multiply 9 by, the digits of the answer always sum back to 9. It never dissolves itself. In many traditions, 9 symbolises wisdom, universal wholeness and the fulfilment of something that was always already true.