CELTIC RELIGION

religious beliefs and practices of the ancient Celts. The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apogee of their influence and territorial expansion during the 4th century BC, extending across the length of Europe from Britain to Asia Minor. From the 3rd century BC onward their history is one of decline and disintegration, and with Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul (5851 BC) Celtic independence came to an end on the European continent. In Britain and Ireland this decline moved more slowly, but traditional culture was gradually eroded through the pressures of political subjugation; today the Celtic languages are spoken only on the western periphery of Europe, in restricted areas of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Brittany (in this last instance largely as a result of immigration from Britain from the 4th to the 7th century AD). It is not surprising, therefore, that the unsettled and uneven history of the Celts has affected the documentation of their culture and religion. the religious beliefs and practices of the ancient Celts. Because of their great reverence for the art of memory, the pre-Christian Celts themselves left no writings. Other than a few inscriptions, the principal sources of modern information about them are contemporary Greek and Latin writers, notably Poseidonius, Lucan, and Julius Caesar. Insight can also be gleaned from the sagas and myths, particularly of Ireland and Wales, that were recorded by native Christian monks centuries later. Celtic myth is for the most part a disorganized collection of remnants, difficult to sort out. Roman writers such as Caesar made a great effort to syncretize the Gallic gods with their own. While a common Indo-European heritage did manifest itself in certain parallels between the two cultures, their contrasts were far more striking. Celtic theology and eschatology were pervaded by a spirit of animism and a dreamlike consciousness that bore little resemblance to the rather impersonal Roman state religion. Among the male Celtic deities, the god Lugus (or Lug) was prominent. Greek writers identified him with the sun god Apollo, with whom he shared also the mastery of crafts and the patronship of music. Caesar appears to have associated him with Mercury because of his ubiquitousness. Another important god is Cernunnos, the stag-horned, shamanistic Lord of the Animals. Stags play an integral part in the Celtic literature recorded in the early Christian period, apparently embodying the attributes of the shaman. Many other animals, including the raven, the crane, the bull, and the boar, are also accorded divine significance. Among the female deities, the mare goddess, variously called Epona (Gaul), Macha (Ireland), and Rhiannon (Britain), is a very powerful force, as is the crow-goddess Morrgan. These two figures seem to have ruled most closely the fortunes of king and tribe, the former personifying fertility, the latter, death and rebirth. Goddesses frequently manifested themselves in triple aspects or in groups of three. Examples include the Gallic Matronae, or three mothers; the Irish Brigits, who rule over poetry, healing, and metalcraft; and the great queen Morrgan, whose three aspects represent death-prophecy, battle-panic, and death-in-battle. According to Lucan, the Gauls also had a triple god in whose honour they practiced human sacrifice. His aspects comprise thunder, war, and a mysterious bull, which may represent fertility. Celtic worship centred upon the interplay of the otherworld or divine element with the land and the waters. Wells, springs, rivers, and hills were believed to be inhabited by guardian spirits, usually female, the names of which survive in many place-names. The land itself was regarded anthropomorphically as feminine. The ocean, ruled by the god Manannn, was also, particularly in British and Irish cosmology, a force of great magic and mystery. The Celtic otherworld was conceived of as a group of islands far across, or sometimes under, the Western ocean. Its eternally young inhabitants were believed to celebrate continuously with feasts, music, and warrior-contests. Many heroes in the Irish sagas are lured away by women from these islands, and later Christian saints were said to have sailed off in search of them. Based upon a fluid cosmology in which shape-shifting and magic bonds between humans and other creatures are commonplace, Celtic myths point to a strong belief in the transmigration of souls. Such artifacts as the Gundestrup Caldron (found in Denmark) and the so-called Paris relief depict scenes of shamanistic woodland ritual, and much of Celtic poetry well into the Christian period reflects a preoccupation with transformations and animal consciousness. Trees were a central element in ritual, several types of wood being regarded as oracular. The letters of the alphabet and the names of the months were based on tree-symbols. The Druids took their name from an ancient Indo-European word meaning Knowing the Oak Tree. Irish cult life revolved around seasonal observances. One of the two greatest yearly festivals was Samain (November 1), Summer's-End, or the Feast of the Dead. The other was Beltine (May 1), Bel's-Fire, which honoured the god Belenus and his province of war as well as other goings forth to pasture, to the hunt, to wooing, and so on. These periods were in turn divided by the lesser feasts of Imbolc (February 1), the beginning of the spring season sacred to the goddess Brigid, and Lugnasad (August 1), the feast of the marriage of Lugus and the day of the harvest fair. Christianity absorbed and incorporated these great festivals, some of the original spirit of which can be seen in the corresponding modern observances. Additional reading John Rhys, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by Celtic Heathendom, 3rd ed. (1898, reprinted 1979), although the classic work in English, is now out-of-date. Useful accounts include Joseph Vendrys, Ernest Tonnelat, and B.-O. Unbegaun, Les Religions des Celtes, des Germains et des anciens Slaves (1948); and Paul-Marie Duval, Les Dieux de la Gaule, new ed. updated and enlarged (1976). John MacNeill, Celtic Religion (1911?), provides a brief outline for an overview of the subject. Thomas F. O'Rahilly, Early Irish History and Mythology (1946, reissued 1971), contains massive learning based on a great wealth of material, including some fanciful conclusions. Marie-Louise Sjoestedt, Gods and Heroes of the Celts (1949, reissued 1982; originally published in French, 1940), is an extremely perceptive reading of the heroic function in Celtic mythological tradition. Jan de Vries, Keltische Religion (1961), is a comprehensive survey, useful as a reference work. Proinsias Mac Cana, Celtic Mythology (1970), contains a concise presentation and evaluation of the evidence, with copious illustrations. Claude Stercks, lments de cosmogonie celtique (1986), contains a fine interpretive essay on the goddess Epona and related deities. Proinsias Mac Cana