Gods and Goddesses

by Dr. Jamie Ramsey I love Sheela na gig! I recall when I first met her in Scotland during my 20s, as my mother gifted me a ceramic necklace of her. She was fascinating! Ghastly and gorgeous, my image had a stark face, big sagging breasts (with a third nipple),...

by Stefan Kaiser Invocation   Great Nemetona, goddess of sacred space,Hear my call, come to this sacred place.With love and gratitude, I honour thee,And ask for your wisdom and guidance to see. Nemetona, lover of the shining knight and king,Bringer of fertility, your blessings they sing.The land blossoms with life...

by Joanna Van Der Hoeven Sometimes one has to retreat from the world, in order to better understand it. Finding sanctuary, a sacred space where we can open our souls without fear, where we can simply be, is a glorious experience. It happens a lot less than we need in...

The early Celts savoured the dark side of life. They embraced war like a lover, plunging into battle naked, singing gloriously boastful songs. They were fearless in the face of death, which their belief in reincarnation taught them was ‘…but the centre of a long life.’

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from Voices from the Circleby Caitlin Matthews Iron on the king’s thigh,Plough in the loam.Call the maidens to the danceAt the King’s Stone. Each young man or woman comes at some point to an understanding of the indwelling inspirer, giving them a unique insight, for men, of the Divine Feminine,...

Who was Taranis? The name Taranis derives from the Celtic (or Indo-European) root ‘taran’ meaning thunderer or thunder. A bronze figurine was found in Le Chatelet, France and is dated to the 1st to 2nd century BCE. It shows a wise, patriarchal being holding a lightning bolt and a solar...

by Bill Blank There is a Romano-Celtic solid bronze votive in the form of the helmeted head of Minerva (1st century CE, 1.5″, 3.8 cm tall). Intensely stylized, she wears a high crested helmet decorated on either side with dolphins. Her hair falls in locks at the perimeter of her...

Image by Dare Evan by Paul Sandover Her History When natural features or entities in the landscape, such as springs or mountains, receive human reverence or veneration over a period of time, the feature or entity acquires a level of consciousness that it would not otherwise possess. So, if enough...

by Erynn Laurie Devotionals are ritual acts and meditations that are designed to focus your attention on a particular deity or group of deities. These rituals express connections between you and your Gods and Goddesses. They can also be done for Ancestors, as they often are in Shinto and other...

by Joanna Van Der Hoeven Hail to my Lady of the twilight,of stillness and sanctuary,who calls and welcomes me into her cool embrace,offering shelter, comfort, stillness and the freedom to simply be.You of the sacred grove, of the temple, of a quiet room, of calm in chaos;I honour you with...

by Maria Ede-Weaving The Goddess I personally associated with the Spring Equinox is the Anglo-Saxon Eostre. Although she is historically obscured by the mists of time, something about her has always drawn me. For me, she is the spring maiden of vibrant new life in abundance but also the golden...

by Akkadia Ford There is a special place in my heart for Brighid – perhaps it is the ancestral call of her ancient fire blazing, that potent ashless fire tended by both female Druids and by the Goddess Herself, which reawakens in me an ancient urge to create. It is...

by Maria Ede-Weaving Imbolc is finally and thankfully upon us. It is traditionally seen as a festival of inspiration; it certainly feels a relief to be anticipating those first green shoots after a long, cold winter. And yet, the irresistible sense of anticipation felt as the year gradually accelerates can...

by Paul Sandover   The deities considered here are associated with the Celts, and Druidic nature spirituality. These deities are often of the land and waterways, etc. There are deities of rivers, for example Severina (or Sabrina) of the River Severn.  Yet the material presented here can be adapted to...

by Eilthireach ForewordIn the material provided for the OBOD Druid grade course, there was a picture of the Genii Cucullati, three hooded figures representing a triad of deities. This brought me to think about the Bavarian Bethen, a female triad of later Christian saints rooted in pre-Christian religion.On the occasion...

by Wesley Hooper ~  In the story of the Tuatha De Danann, (People of Danu) we come across several of the Celtic gods and goddesses who are children of Danu and are destined to populate the world. Dagda and Danu had many sons and daughters of which one was named...

by DaRC ~  Summary This summarizes the conclusion below which defines the details of my thoughts. The main thrust here is that the Celts were amongst the earliest European tribes to smelt iron, their culture thus heavily influenced those tribes around them, particularly the Norse, Northern or Germanic tribes. Loki...

The Irish Morrigan, Goddess of Death and Guardian of the Dead by Honor Johnson ~ This article is about the Goddess Morrigan, whom archaeological evidence now tells us, dates back beyond the Copper age, and was the dominant Goddess of Europe called the Great Goddess. When I read the material about Morrigan,...

by Susa Morgan Black ~  Bi Bride bhithe, bhana, leinn. Brigit is the Celtic Saint and Goddess of Poetry, Healing and Smithcraft. She has been worshiped by the Celtic people as a Saint for over fifteen hundred years, and as a Goddess long before the Roman invasion of Britain and...

by Winter Cymres ~ I am Shethat is the naturalmother of all things,mistress and governessof all the elements,the initial progeny of worlds,chief of the powers divine,Queen of all that are in the otherworld,the principal of themthat dwell above,manifested aloneand under one formof all the Gods and Goddesses.– Lucius Apuleius Perhaps one...

Visualise far above you, a distant source of light which shines like a great star in the darkness. As it shimmers above you, the star seems to spin, sending off a Catherine wheel of sparks. It is as though the star has sent nine satellites of itself down through the...

Epona is also known as the Great Mare. She is, first and foremost, a Horse Goddess associated with the Gauls. Unfortunately, any legends Gaulish Celts may have had have been lost to us. However, the Gauls and others did leave a rich legacy of inscriptions and monuments and it...

At the Sacred Centre, in the Grove of all Worlds, He sits with legs crossed beneath an ancient Oak. Entranced, connecting the three worlds Earth, Sea, and Sky, and the worlds behind the worlds, the god and the Great Tree are One, His immense limbs widespread, stretching into distant sky...

Perhaps one of the most complex and contradictory Goddesses of the Celtic pantheon, Brigid can be seen as the most powerful religious figure in all of Irish history. Many layers of separate traditions have intertwined, making Her story and impact complicated but allowing Her to move so effortlessly down through...