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According to classical sources[who?], the ancientCelts wereanimists. They honoured the forces of nature, saw the world as inhabited by many spirits, and sawthe Divine manifesting in aspects of the natural world.[1]
TheCelts of the ancient world believed that manyspirits anddivine beings inhabited the world around them, and that humans could establish a rapport with these beings.[2]: 196 Thearchaeological and theliterary record indicate that ritual practice in Celtic societies lacked a clear distinction between the sacred and profane; rituals, offerings, and correct behaviour maintained a balance between gods, spirits and humans, and harnessed supernatural forces for the benefit of the community.[1]
TheCeltic religion perceived the presence of the supernatural as integral to, and interwoven with, the material world. Everymountain,river,spring,marsh,tree androcky outcrop was inspirited.[3]: 29 While the polytheistic cultures ofancient Greece andRome revolved aroundurban life, ancient Celtic society was predominantlyrural. The close link with the natural world is reflected in what we know of the religious systems of Celtic Europe during the late 1st millennium BCE and early 1st millennium CE. As in manypolytheistic systems, the local spirits honoured were those of both the wild and cultivated landscapes and their inhabitants. As Anne Ross observed: "... god-types, as opposed to individual universal Gaulish deities, are to be looked for as an important feature of the religion of the Gauls ... and the evidence ofepigraphy strongly supports this conclusion."[4] As what some may consider spirits are considered by other authors to be deities, thelist of Celtic deities derived from local inscriptions can at times be rather long.
The ancient Celts venerated the spirits who inhabited localmountains,forests and springs. Certain animals were seen as messengers of the spirits or gods.[citation needed] In tribal territories, theground and waters which received the dead were imbued with sanctity and revered by their living relatives.[3]: 24 Sanctuaries were sacred spaces separated from the ordinary world, often in natural locations such as springs,sacred groves, or lakes. Manytopographical features were honored as the abodes of powerful spirits or deities, with geographical features named for tutelary deities. Offerings of jewellery, weapons or foodstuffs were placed in offering pits and bodies of water dedicated to these beings. These offerings linked the donor to the place and spirits in a concrete way.[1]
The spirits of watery places were honoured as givers of life and as links between the physical realm and theother world.Sequana, for example, seems to have embodied theRiver Seine at its spring source, andSulis appears to have been one and the same as thehot spring atBath, Somerset, (RomanAquae Sulis) not simply its guardian or possessor.[3]: 24
In Ireland, the tutelary goddessesBoann and Sionnan give their names to the riversBoyne andShannon, and the tales of these goddesses are the origin stories of the rivers themselves. The threefold goddessBrighid is associated with a number ofholy wells andThe Morrígan is connected with the River Unius.[5]
There is abundant evidence for the veneration of water by the Celts and indeed by their Bronze Age forebears. In thePre-Roman Iron Age,lakes,rivers,springs andbogs received special offerings of metalwork, wooden objects, animals and, occasionally, of human beings. By the Roman period, the names of some water-deities were recorded on inscriptions or were included in contemporary texts. The ancient name for theRiver Marne wasDea Matrona (Goddess Matron); theSeine wasSequana; theSevern,Sabrina; theWharfe,Verbeia; theSaône,Souconna; there are countless others.[6]
Natural springs were foci for healing cults: Sulis was prayed to as a healer atAquae Sulis and the goddessArnemetia was hailed as a healer atAquae Arnemetiae.[3]: 25 Nemausus, for example, was not only theGallic name for the town ofNîmes but also that of its presidingspring-god. He had a set of three female counterparts, theNemausicae. In the same region, the town ofGlanum possessed a god calledGlanis: analtar from a sacred spring is inscribedto Glanis and the Glanicae.[3]: 29
Meteorological patterns and phenomena, especially wind, rain andthunder, were acknowledged as inspirited and propitiated. Inscribed dedications and iconography in the Roman period show that these spirits were personifications of natural forces.Taranis's name indicates not that he was the god of thunder but that he actually was thunder.[3]: 24 Archaeological evidence suggests that the thunder was perceived as especially potent. Inscriptions toTaranis the 'Thunderer' have been found inBritain,Gaul,Germany and the formerYugoslavia and the Roman poetLucan mentions him as a savage god who demandedhuman sacrifice.[7]
In the insular Celtic lands,Lugh is seen as a god of the storms, as are theCailleachan – Scottish storm hags[8][9] – and theCailleach herself, who brings the first winter snows to the land by washing hergreat plaid (Gaelic:féileadh mòr) in theWhirlpool of Coire Bhreacain. This process is said to take three days, during which the roar of the coming tempest is heard as far away as twenty miles (32 km) inland. When she is finished, her plaid is pure white and snow covers the land.[8]
From the earlyBronze Age, people in much of temperate Europe used thespokedwheel to representTaranis. The Romans imported their own celestial god,Jupiter, to continental Celtic lands byinterpretatio Romana, and his imagery was merged with that of a native deity to produce a hybrid sky-deity who resembled the Roman god but who had additional solar attributes.[3]: 25 Altars decorated with wheels were set up by Roman soldiers stationed atHadrian's Wall, and also by supplicants inCologne andNîmes.[3]: 29
The Celts believed that trees had spirits andrevered certain trees. The most sacred trees of Ireland were thebíle trees - old, sacred trees that stood in a central area and were often the social and ceremonial meeting place for a tribe or village.[10] According to theDindsenchas (lore of Irish places), the five sacredbíles of Ireland were theAsh of Tortu, the Bole of Ross (ayew tree), theOak of Mugna, and theAsh of Dathi. These trees were associated with the five Irish provinces then in existence.[10]
Among both the Continental and Insular Celts, the behaviour of certain animals and birds were observed for omens,[citation needed] and certain spirits were closely associated with particular animals. The names ofArtio, theursine goddess, andEpona, theequine goddess, are based onCeltic words forbear andhorse, respectively.[3]: 24 In Ireland, theMorrígan is associated withcrows,wolves, andhorses, among other creatures, and in ScotlandBrighid's animals includesnakes andcattle.
Certain creatures were observed to have particular physical and mental qualities and characteristics, and distinctive patterns of behaviour. An animal like astag orhorse could be admired for itsbeauty,speed, orvirility.Dogs were seen to be keen-scented, good at hunting, guarding, and healing.
Deer (who shed antlers) suggest cycles of growth;[1] in Ireland they are sacred to the goddessFlidais, while in Scotland they are guarded by theCailleach.[2]Snakes were seen to be emblematic of long (possibly eternal) life, being able to shed their skin and renew themselves.Beavers were seen to be skillful workers inwood. Thus admiration and acknowledgment for a beast's essential nature led easily to reverence of those qualities and abilities which humans did not possess at all or possessed only partially.[2]
Hunting deities, whose role acknowledges the economic importance of animals and the ritual of the hunt, highlight a different relationship to nature. The animal elements in half-human, antlered deities suggest that the forest and its denizens possessed a numinous quality as well as an economic value.[1]
Hunter-gods were venerated among the Continental Celts, and they often seem to have had an ambivalent role as protector both of the hunter and the prey, not unlike the functions ofDiana andArtemis inclassical mythology.[3]: 29 FromGaul, the armed deer-hunter depicted on an image from the temple of Le Donon in theVosges lays his hands inbenediction on the antlers of his stag companion. The hunter-god from Le Touget inGers carries a hare tenderly in his arms.Arduinna, the eponymous boar-goddess of theArdennes, rides her ferocious quarry, knife in hand, whilst theboar-god of Euffigneix in theHaute-Marne is portrayed with the motif of aboar withbristles erect, striding along his torso, which implies conflation between the human animal perception of divinity.[3]: 29 Arawn ofWelsh mythology may represent the remnants of a similar hunter-god of the forests ofDyfed. Additionally, in Welsh mythology the hunting of a sacred stag often leads the hunters into the otherworld.
As with many traditional societies, the hunt was probably hedged about with prohibitions and rituals. The Greek authorArrian, writing in the 2nd century CE, said that the Celts never went hunting without the gods' blessing and that they made payment of domestic animals to the supernatural powers in reparation for their theft of wild creatures from the landscape. Hunting itself may have been perceived as a symbolic, as well as practical, activity in which the spilling of blood led not only to the death of the beast but also to the earth's nourishment and replenishment.[3]: 30
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