The Celtic Goddess
()
About this ebook
Related to The Celtic Goddess
Related ebooks
Pagan Portals - The Cailleach Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pagan Portals - Gods and Goddesses of Wales: A Practical Introduction To Welsh Deities And Their Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Spirit of the Celtic Gods and Goddesses: Their History, Magical Power, and Healing Energies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brigid: History, Mystery, and Magick of the Celtic Goddess Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pagan Portals - Celtic Witchcraft: Modern Witchcraft Meets Celtic Ways Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fairies:: A Guide to the Celtic Fair Folk Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pagan Portals - Fairy Queens: Meeting The Queens Of The Otherworld Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Celtic Myth & Magick: Harness the Power of the Gods & Goddesses Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Book of Celtic Magic: Transformative Teachings from the Cauldron of Awen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shaman Pathways - The Druid Shaman: Exploring the Celtic Otherworld Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Faery: A Guide to the Lore, Magic & World of the Good Folk Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Druid Way Made Easy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brigid: Goddess, Druidess and Saint Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Druidic Art of Divination: Understanding the Past and Seeing into the Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Everything Celtic Wisdom Book: Find inspiration through ancient traditions, rituals, and spirituality Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Secrets of the Druids: From Indo-European Origins to Modern Practices Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Druidcraft: The Magic of Wicca and Druidry Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Word: Welsh Witchcraft, the Grail of Immortality and the Sacred Keys Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5iPagan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeeking Faery: An Introduction to the Hidden World of the Fae Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPagan Portals - The Power of the Elements: The Magical Approach to Earth, Air, Fire, Water & Spirit Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Irish Paganism: An Introduction to Irish Folklore and Spiritual Practices Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShaman Pathways - Way of the Faery Shaman: The Book of Spells, Incantations, Meditations & Faery Magic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Samhain: The Roots of Halloween Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Celtic Wicca Spell Book: The Magick and Mythology of Celtic Witchcraft Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Celtic Tree and Animal Spirit Astrology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Body, Mind, & Spirit For You
Practicing the Power of Now: Essential Teachings, Meditations, and Exercises from the Power of Now Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don't Believe Everything You Think: Why Your Thinking Is The Beginning & End Of Suffering Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Power of Your Subconscious Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Element Encyclopedia of 20,000 Dreams: The Ultimate A–Z to Interpret the Secrets of Your Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scientific Healing Affirmations Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming the One: Heal Your Past, Transform Your Relationship Patterns, and Come Home to Yourself Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shadow Work: Face Hidden Fears, Heal Trauma, Awaken Your Dream Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Be Here Now Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Holistic Herbal: A Safe and Practical Guide to Making and Using Herbal Remedies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Game of Life And How To Play It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Game of Life and How to Play It: The Complete Original Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need: Twenty-First-Century Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gospel of Mary Magdalene Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Feeding the Soul (Because It's My Business): Finding Our Way to Joy, Love, and Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Complete Papyrus of Ani Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Warrior Goddess Training: Become the Woman You Are Meant to Be Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Course in Miracles: Text, Workbook for Students, Manual for Teachers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Emotional Intelligence: Exploring the Most Powerful Intelligence Ever Discovered Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Secret Language of Your Body: The Essential Guide to Health and Wellness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom (Hardcover Gift Edition): A Tarot Journey to Self-Awareness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Energy Codes: The 7-Step System to Awaken Your Spirit, Heal Your Body, and Live Your Best Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Experiencing God (2021 Edition): Knowing and Doing the Will of God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lost Books of the Bible: The Rejected Texts, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Linda Goodman's Love Signs: A New Approach to the Human Heart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Secret History of the World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Reviews for The Celtic Goddess
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Celtic Goddess - John Hunt Publishing
Savage
The Goddess in Celtic Culture
Morgan Daimler
The Goddesses of Celtic culture have long fascinated and drawn people, surviving into modern times in folklore and poetry, in fairy tales and modern fiction. For neopagans, however, these Goddesses remain essential parts of spirituality, and many modern seekers find themselves on quests to better understand who these deities were and are. This text is meant as a guide along that quest, a first step towards meeting a variety of Goddesses from several different Celtic cultures. Each is rooted in shared mythic symbolism and language but each is also distinct and comes with her own stories and personality. In the following chapters you will get to meet six of them, from the perspectives of different authors, and hopefully these introductions will be solid first steps on a much longer journey.
People often mistakenly think there is a single cohesive Celtic pantheon, and indeed many pagan books will offer lists of deities in this pantheon, although it is something of a misnomer. It would be more accurate to say that there are multiple Celtic cultures, related by language and art, and that each of these has unique pantheons to be appreciated. The term ‘Celtic’ is something of an umbrella term used by academics and adopted by popular culture to describe these related cultures. We might say that these different Celtic cultures are like siblings in the same family, who have many things in common but are not identical to each other. We can appreciate that the place of one Goddess in the Welsh pantheon, like Rhiannon, may bear some resemblance to an Irish deity like the Morrigan while also appreciating the things that make each of them unique. There are also a handful of pan-Celtic deities to be found who we can see guises of in all or many of the different cultures; Brighid is one example of a pan-Celtic Goddess. It’s important to understand these various cultures for what they are both because it allows us to appreciate the modern living cultures fully and also because it gives us a deeper understanding of the amount of material and context that we may have for each deity. Learning about the Celtic Goddesses then begins with an appreciation for the different roots they each have within these various cultures and how those roots have shaped them over time.
Goddesses have always played an important, one might even say intrinsic, role within Celtic cosmology and spirituality and that role has not diminished in the modern era. When we look at historic Celtic belief we can find this central role of Goddesses reflected in the pattern of kings having to marry or otherwise receive the blessing of the sovereignty Goddess in order to secure their right to rule. If that king later proved unfit or ruled badly the goddess would intervene to remove him and make way for a new, better, candidate to take over. We also see this importance reflected in the variety of local Goddesses, usually deities of sovereignty for their own specific areas, and in the way that Celtic Goddesses aren’t pigeon holed into specific limited purviews but could be and were powerful deities of war, battle, kingship, and wisdom. Perhaps we can also argue that we see their deep value in the way that no matter how the world has changed, no matter how the cultures they are anchored in have changed, they have found ways to survive hidden in saints and fairy queens and fairy tales. Times change but the Goddesses find ways to remain with us, evolving as our needs evolve so that they are as relevant today as they ever have been yet still cloaked in ancient power and mystery. Celtic Goddesses shaped the world in many stories, they foretold victory and success, they guarded the harvest and gave fertility to crops and livestock ensuring their people thrived. These Goddesses have always been and remain active forces in the world.
Those who seek Elen, Brighid, the Cailleach, Rhiannon, the Morrigan, and Badb will find a good beginning here. The first step in connecting to any of these Celtic Goddess is often to find out as much as you can about her and while this may sound simple it often presents a far greater challenge than anticipated. These are ancient deities, without doubt, but often their pasts are shrouded in mystery, with as many things about them that we may never know with certainty as questions that can be easily answered. As we move towards understanding who they are sometimes a good beginning will come in a personal anecdote of modern connection from a fellow traveller on this same path; other times the road may start in older mythology; sometimes the best start will lie in a blend of both. None of these deities exists only in the cold pages of the past but all are living and vital today and to find and understand who they are we must find their roots in history as well as their living truth now. The more you look the more you will realize waits to be found.
Celtic Goddesses are complex and multi-layered as you will see as you read further. Their stories weave throughout the land and spirit of the various Celtic countries and their power shines still in the hearts of those who honour them. They are divine Queens and wisdom givers, healers and prophecy speakers, and all