Celtic Gods and Goddesses!

Hello my wonderful readers,

Religion has played a key role in humanity, even more in ancient times. Starting with the Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, moving onto the Greek ones with Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, etc…all the way to Christianity and every other religion that has remained alive over the millenia. 

Every country, tribe, and person has believed in something. But what did the Scots believe in, before the arrival of Christianity?

Well, due to them being so closely related to the Irish, they would share the same Gods, obviously. Essentially, what we know as Celtic mythology (and those we know as Celtic gods and goddesses) is borrowed from a patchwork of oral traditions and local tales that were conceived in pre-Christian Gaul (France), Iberia, Britain, and Ireland. The Celtic Gods and Goddesses are actually mostly tribal and not national. They even had a god named Teutates, which means God of the Tribes!

Let’s learn some specifics about them!

Irish Legends – Tribes of the Goddess Danu. Image Source.

Ana or Danu/Dana

The primordial Goddess of Nature. One of the most important and most ancient deities of the Celtic Religion. She is the “Mother Goddess”, considered as the divine mother of the Tuatha Dé Danann (‘people of Dana’) – the supernatural race (or tribe) of Celtic gods that possibly formed one of the major pantheons of pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland. 

She is often portrayed as a beautiful and mature woman, with the aspects of prosperity, death, regenation, and wisdom as her main concerns.

The Dagda. Image Source.

Dagda

The cheerful Chief of Gods. He is the most important father-figure of the Celtic Gods (An Dagda – the Good God). He was associated with fertility, agriculture, weather, and masculine strength, while also embodying the aspects of magic, wisdom, knowledge, and Druidry. 

A learned advisor and master of druidic magic, he possessed a cauldron that provided plenty, a massive club that granted life or death, and an enchanted harp that ordered the seasons.

Angus/Aonghus

The youthful God of Love (like the Greeks had Aphrodite!). He was the son of the Dagda. It was said that the Dagda made the sun stay still for nine months, so Angus was born in a day. 

He is kind of a mix of Aphrodite and Apollo – he wrote music and poems that charmed women, inspired kings, and won his enemies’ property from under their noses. He always had four birds hovering and chirping around his head. Despite being a charmer of women, he was later himself charmed by Caer Ibormeith, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

Morrigan. Image source.

Morrigan

The mysterious Goddess of Fate, or else ‘The Phantom Queen’. She was the Goddess of War, Fate, and Death. She was able to shapeshift (usually a cow – the badb) who foretold doom and incited men into a war frenzy. 

She was so often associated with other Gods of war that she was presented, at times, as three sisters (or even a whole group of beautiful women that would transform to screeching crows over battlefields). 

She could issue terrifying prophecies and foretell the deaths of warriors and kings.

Which God or Goddess did you like more?

Let me know in the comments!

Until next time…

Written by Eloise Madigan