Celtic pagan religion refers to the spiritual beliefs and practices of the ancient Celtic people, who lived in parts of Europe from around 500 BCE to the 8th century CE. The Celts worshipped a pantheon of deities and held various rituals and ceremonies to honor these gods and goddesses. The Celtic pantheon was vast and diverse, with different deities worshipped by different Celtic tribes and regions. Some of the most well-known Celtic gods and goddesses include Brigid, the goddess of fire, poetry, and healing; Lugh, the god of crafts and skills; and Morrigan, the goddess of war and fate. These deities represented different aspects of life and nature, and the Celts believed that offering worship and sacrifices to them would bring favor and protection. Celtic religious practices were closely intertwined with nature and the changing seasons.

Celtic religion

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Senior Professor of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1949–72. Author of Early Irish Society.

Senior Professor, School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Author of Celtic Mythology and others.

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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 (58–51 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.

Celtic religious practices were closely intertwined with nature and the changing seasons. Druids, who were the religious leaders and spiritual guides of the Celts, performed rituals and ceremonies in sacred groves, forests, and other natural sites. These rituals often involved sacrifices, divination, and chanting or singing.

Sources

Two main types of sources provide information on Celtic religion: the sculptural monuments associated with the Celts of continental Europe and of Roman Britain, and the insular Celtic literatures that have survived in writing from medieval times. Both pose problems of interpretation. Most of the monuments, and their accompanying inscriptions, belong to the Roman period and reflect a considerable degree of syncretism between Celtic and Roman gods; even where figures and motifs appear to derive from pre-Roman tradition, they are difficult to interpret in the absence of a preserved literature on mythology. Only after the lapse of many centuries—beginning in the 7th century in Ireland, even later in Wales—was the mythological tradition consigned to writing, but by then Ireland and Wales had been Christianized and the scribes and redactors were monastic scholars. The resulting literature is abundant and varied, but it is much removed in both time and location from its epigraphic and iconographic correlatives on the Continent and inevitably reflects the redactors’ selectivity and something of their Christian learning. Given these circumstances it is remarkable that there are so many points of agreement between the insular literatures and the continental evidence. This is particularly notable in the case of the Classical commentators from Poseidonius (c. 135–c. 51 bc ) onward who recorded their own or others’ observations on the Celts.

Ancient Celtic Religion

The polytheistic religion of the ancient Celts in Iron Age Europe remains obscure for lack of written records, but archaeology and accounts by classical authors help us to piece together a number of the key gods, sacred sites, and cult practices. Variations existed across regions and the centuries, but common features of the Celtic religion include the reverence for sacred groves and other natural sites like rivers and springs, the dedication of votive offerings to gods such as foodstuffs, animal and (more rarely) human sacrifices, and the depositing of valuable and everyday goods with the deceased in tombs. With a religion led by druids who were loath to commit their knowledge to writing, there are no sacred texts, hymns or prayers which survive in written records. There are also significant gaps in our knowledge such as the Celtic view of their own origins, the universe and their place within it, and the ultimate fate of their world. Nevertheless, we do have, thanks to a combination of studies and methodologies, a reasonable if tantalisingly incomplete picture of the gods, beliefs, and religious practices of pre-Christian Europe.

The Celtic Gods

The ancient Celtic pantheon had over 400 gods, but these may not have been envisaged with human characteristics as was the case in, say, the ancient Greek religion. Neither can one really say there is a pantheon of universal gods worshipped everywhere speakers of the Celtic language lived. Rather, the Celts across Europe venerated some gods which were also venerated in other regions and those which were entirely local. To add further complexity to a subject already made difficult by a lack of extensive written records from the Celts themselves, the people of Iron Age Europe were influenced by the gods and religious practices of earlier and neighbouring cultures, but just how remains conjecture. Further, when the Roman Empire expanded across Europe, the Celts adopted and adapted many facets of the Roman religion.

Celtic gods were given all-embracing powers & a myriad of associations, many of which overlap with other deities.

We are on firmer ground when examining the role of certain gods in Celtic culture. Votive inscriptions, rituals, and burial practices indicate that the gods were thought to control humanity in some way, or at least have a strong influence on the welfare of people. They were often given all-embracing powers and a myriad of associations, many of which overlap with other gods, and this is a point of distinction between the Celtic religion and those of the contemporary Mediterranean cultures.

Celtic gods were associated with such phenomena or natural places as the sun, lightning, warfare, rivers, and particular tribes, settlements, and families. One of the widest-venerated gods was Lugus (who became better-known as Lugh in the Middle Ages). He may be the god that Julius Caesar (c. 100-44 BCE) describes as the supreme Celtic god, but scholars are not all in agreement on this point. He represents the sun and light and was regarded as an all-wise and all-seeing deity. Lugus gave his name to many places such as Lugdunum, modern Lyon in France.

Perhaps the god most depicted in Celtic art is Cernunnos, often described as simply 'the horned god'. Typically shown seated and wearing stag antlers or horns, he remains a mysterious figure. He is famously depicted on the Gundestrup Cauldron (perhaps 1st century BCE) where he wears torcs, another common association. Other major gods include Sequana, a healing goddess particularly venerated at the source of the River Seine in central France. Brigantia was an important goddess in Britain whom the Romans equated with Nike/Victory. The goddess Epona was worshipped across Europe and associated with horses, Esuss with his hammer-like staff was perhaps a patron of crafts, and Rhenus was the god of the Rhine river.

Several gods were viewed as a trio, perhaps representing three different aspects of the same divinity, an example being the three mother goddesses, the Matronae who represent individually the similar concepts of strength, power, and fertility. Of the many local and regional gods, many were associated with those things of primary concern to everyday ancient Celtic society such as warfare, sovereignty, tribal identity, healing, and the protection of specific groups like mothers, children, fishermen, and so on. Finding daily food was an obvious concern, and many deities are associated with hunting and with particular animals, especially those of the forest like boars and stags.

Besides gods, animals were also important to the Celts and were perhaps themselves regarded as sacred, especially the bull, boar, stag, and horse. Many of these animals were regarded as totems with protective qualities and so they appear frequently in designs on weapons and armour. Another source of protection was amulets, considered to protect both the living and the deceased on their journey into the Otherworld. Amulets were thought to ward of dangers (as opposed to talismans which bring luck) and are found in particular in the graves of children and women. Amulets could take unusual forms such as miniature wheels, shoes, feet, and axes.

Druids

The religious leaders in Celtic communities, and those regarded as intermediaries between humanity and the gods, were the Druids, a class of individuals known for their great wisdom and knowledge of traditions. Not only priests who managed all religious rituals such as sacrifices to the gods, druids were able to give practical help by interpreting events of nature, divining the future as soothsayers, and making medicinal potions, especially using sacred plants like mistletoe. Druids were repositories of the community's history and may also have been required to cast geissi or taboos (often less accurately called spells) on people, ensuring compliance to the society's rules and inclusion in community religious activities. Evidence that women were druids in antiquity is scarce, although there is no evidence, either, that they were prohibited from the role.

Natural sites of importance such as rivers, lakes, & bogs were held as sacred by the Celts as water was considered a conduit to the Otherworld.

Druids, then, enjoyed a high status in Celtic society and may have emphasised their unique role by wearing long white robes and perhaps, too, unusual headgear such as helmets with horn or antler attachments. To become a fully-practising druid took a great deal of effort, some 20 years of training. The emphasis on oral learning between druids and novices has, unfortunately, meant that we have next to no first-hand written records of their activities. Roman writers, for example, often misinterpreted the role of druids and sometimes give fortune-telling duties to a separate class of individuals, the seers who interpret such things as flights of certain birds. Another figure sometimes equated with druids is the fili or learned poet-historian of ancient Ireland. Whether druids, seers, and fili were entirely separate individuals or could be found in a single individual is still much debated by scholars.

Druids had their own sacred places where they gathered at annual events. Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE) mentions in his Gallic Wars such a site in the region of the Carnutes tribe in central France (around modern Orléans), and we know, too, that Mona (Anglesey, Wales) was considered a holy island for druids prior to the mid-1st century CE.

Sacred Sites, Sanctuaries & Temples

Natural sites of importance such as rivers, lakes, and bogs were held as sacred by the Celts as water was considered a conduit to the Otherworld. For this reason, springs and river confluences were considered especially sacred. Hilltops, mountains, and sacred groves of trees (nemeton), especially oaks, also hosted rituals and ceremonies. Even individual trees, particularly large oaks, could be held as sacred, and community elders gathered for assemblies under their shade. All of these places were considered potential meeting places between the physical and supernatural worlds.

Such sacred sites were often prepared in some way. In the more natural locations, this could be little more than a clearing, but nearer urban settings, they might have purpose-built earthworks, ritual gates, shrines, and temples added. The Celts likely also used megalithic structures that had been set up centuries earlier but they then developed their own unique religious architecture. One type of Celtic sacred area was a square or rectangular cleared area surrounded by earthworks. These are sometimes known as Viereckschanzen after a great number were discovered in southern Germany, even if they exist in one form or another at Celtic sites from France to Bohemia. The perimeter of the space was given a rampart, outer ditch, and a single gate (most often on the east side). The bare sacred space often had wooden poles driven into it, presumably for supporting a number of roofed structures and/or for carving symbols and images on. Some had deep shafts dug in them where votive offerings were placed. Pottery shards in these shafts most often date to the 2nd and the 1st century BCE.

Stone temples first appeared amongst the Celts from the 4th century BCE. Typically given monumental doorways decorated with reliefs and paintings, the roofing was made of thatch or intertwined branches which were then covered with clay and lime. For the Celts, the head was considered the home of the soul and so it is not surprising that masks were a common decoration of temples and even real human heads taken from sacrificial victims. After the Roman conquest, Celtic temples often adopted the design features of classical architecture.

Sacred sites were given statues and artworks representing gods, particularly tall wooden, often featureless figures wearing metal torcs and representations of heads. Gods were not commonly represented in stone it seems prior to the Roman conquest, a period that also saw standing stones carved into pillars and domes and decorated with reliefs of heads and vegetal designs.

Rituals, Offerings & Sacrifices

Rituals were held in accordance with a particular schedule based on the cycles of nature, astronomy, and, in particular, the phases of the Moon. Prayers and incantations were offered to the gods. Votive offerings were made at sacred sites to thank or appease the gods, or to gain their favour for future events or to avoid disasters like war, famine, and drought. Such offerings could take the form of foodstuffs, precious jewellery, decorated weapons and armour (particularly those taken from an enemy), or finely made pottery vessels, and, in the case of recovery from illness, small models of the sufferer or the affected part of the body. Often, precious objects were bent or broken before they were offered to the gods. Sacred sites near lakes, rivers, or bogs typically received goods thrown into the waters. Excavations at Anglesey, for example, revealed a mass of swords, shield bosses, spear points, cauldrons, decorative metal pieces for riding gear and chariots, slave chains which include collars, and a great number of animal bones.

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Animals were sacrificed to the gods. Burned or buried intact at a site, oxen, bulls, dogs, and horses (or the leg of a horse) seem to have been the most common offering. There is, too, evidence that feasting went on where part of the animal was eaten before the remains were left to the gods. Humans were also sacrificed, much more rarely and very likely restricted to times of great stress to the community such as natural disasters or wars. Captured enemy warriors were likely the most common source. A possible sacrificial victim (not all scholars agree) is Lindow Man, a corpse discovered at Lindow Moss, a bog near Cheshire in England. Lindow Man lived no later than the turn of the 1st and 2nd century CE, and he was in good health. He died in what seems to have been a standard manner for ritual killings: hit on the head, strangled, and had his throat cut. The corpse was put in water for some time and then buried.

Other methods of human sacrifice, as described by Roman writers, were sometimes particular to specific gods. Victims for Teutates were drowned; for Esus, they were hung from a tree and had their limbs removed; and for Taranis, they were placed in a hollow tree or wooden vessel and burnt alive. The most elaborate of all methods (according to Strabo, c. 64 BCE - 24 CE), was to build a gigantic human figure using straw and wood, stuff it with cattle, wild animals, and humans, and then set the whole thing ablaze.

Both human and animal sacrifices were also used to divine future events. Victims were scrutinised as they died, and their death throes, the direction of flowing blood, and even their entrails were examined for particular signs.

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Another type of offering, and one which has delighted intrepid amateur archaeologists, is the burial of hoards: precious goods buried in shallow pits. Typically, several items were bundled together such as broken or complete torcs, necklaces, and coins. Such deposits were often added to over a period of years, and the number of hoards found in close proximity to each other suggests that the general location was regarded as sacred in some way. For example, at the site of Hallaton in England, archaeologists discovered over 5,000 coins buried in 16 different places. The collective value of these goods and the number of deposits indicates they were not merely safe deposits but had some ritual meaning now lost.

Burial Practices

Archaeological evidence is strong that the Celts believed in an afterlife. Burials of rulers and elite individuals (both men and women) often have the deceased interred along with their personal possessions, weapons, armour, tools, eating utensils and paraphernalia for Celtic feasts, board games, extra clothing, foodstuffs, and precious objects like fine imported pottery or bronze vessel and gold jewellery. The deceased, if sufficiently important, was often placed in a wood-lined chamber deep within a large mound of earth. Within the inner chamber, the corpse was frequently laid out on a four-wheeled waggon (usually dismantled) or bench and dressed in all their finery. Burials in mounds could be for a single individual or have other occupants added later over time. Several mounds have been discovered in close proximity to each other at major Celtic settlements. Burials in flat graves gradually replaced the use of mounds.

The burial of objects with the deceased indicates a belief that they would need these things either on the journey to or upon reaching their final destination, or both. Our knowledge is limited but the Otherworld may have been considered like this life but without all the negative elements like disease, pain, and sorrow. Certainly, this was the view of Celts in medieval Europe. In this sense, then, there was little to fear from death when one’s soul departed one’s physical body.

Not all Celts were buried. Cremation became more common from the 2nd century BCE onwards, probably under influence from the Mediterranean cultures. Sometimes the cremated remains were then buried. Another alternative was excarnation - where the corpse was left exposed to the elements for a period and the bones then either buried or kept for future religious ceremonies.

Decline

From the 1st century BCE and the conquest of Gaul, the Roman Empire at first took a less aggressive stance against the Celtic religion, satisfying itself with robbing Celtic temples of their treasures. Statues of Roman gods appeared in Celtic temples and shrines, but some Celtic deities were adopted by the Romans, too, particularly members of the Roman army, and some sanctuaries were expanded. Then, during the 1st century CE, as the Romans sought to tighten their grip on conquered peoples, measures were taken to eradicate cultural leaders, notably the druids. Druidism was forbidden, and such important sanctuaries as the one on Anglesey were attacked and destroyed. Then, in late antiquity, there was something of a revival of the Celtic religion when the Roman Empire fell into decline and Christianity had yet to tighten its own hold on European religious practices.

Some of the ancient Celtic gods did survive and morph into new versions in unconquered Ireland and Scotland, as well as parts of Wales, but these seem not to have been directly worshipped as such, and they largely became humanised hero-figures in epic poems. The ancient pagan gods, made benign in harmless medieval literature, had become an acceptable face of a religion now lost. Ultimately, the Celtic religion was a victim of military and cultural conquest, a religion that could never be revived in its original form, despite spurious attempts from the 19th century CE onwards, for lack of written records.

Celtic Religion and Beliefs

It can be hard to get a real understanding of Celtic religion and beliefs anywhere in Europe because there is little recorded. However, in Ireland, Christian monks did write down many of the ancient Celtic tales and Celtic traditions which helps us to understand beliefs and religious practice in early Gaelic Ireland. Because of their work we can say the following.

The Celts were polytheistic

Celtic tradition and stories are full of gods and goddesses. However, unlike in Greece and Rome, Irish gods and goddesses did not have clear functions. It seems that at different times in different stories, different gods have responsibility for a single aspect of human life or of a part of nature. When the Romans write about Celtic beliefs, there is great confusion. For example, when they looked for the equivalent god of War, Mars, among the Celtic gods, they found 69 or more. It seems that many gods had responsibility for war in Celtic beliefs, depending on the circumstances. In total, the Romans recorded almost 400 Celtic god names. Nonetheless, it seems that there were 4 or 5 'biggies' and the rest were associated with a particular Celtic tribe or 'tuath'. In early Irish literature this local loyalty can be seen in the oath 'I swear by the gods my people swear by.' Return to top

The Celts practised both animal and human sacrifice

In many ancient religions and in some areas of the world today, the giving up of a life, either animal or human, can be considered 'desirable' by the gods. For pre-Christian Celts, when they made a sacrifice, it had to be destroyed in order for it to be passed over to the gods. For this reason animals had to be killed and offerings of any objects destroyed. Human sacrifice of slaves and enemies among Celts in Europe did happen but it was not common. A druid would stab the victim and interpret the process of the unfortunate person's death. It's less certain whether human sacrifice was part of the Irish Celtic religion. Why did the Celts make sacrifices? According to Celtic tradition, they did so in the hope of receiving good luck or other favors. In order to ward off the bad or evil side of the spiritual world, it was necessary to pacify the gods with gifts. Return to top

Celtic Religion was strong on communal and ritual celebration

When sacrifices were made, elaborate feasting on sacrificed animals provided a communal link with the supernatural world. A good example of ritual religious practice is the Bull Feast (known as Tarbhfhess in Gaelic). This was the Celtic means of choosing a King, especially the King of Tara. A bull was sacrificed and a chosen man drank the blood and ate its meat. He would then go to sleep to the incantations of 4 druids (Celtic priests) and have revealed to him in a dream who should be the rightful king. This was only part of the election process but it shows the importance put on gaining the approval of the gods. Return to top

Celtic beliefs involved a variety of supernatural beings

It seems that the early Celts believed in lots of supernatural beings who occupied and controlled parts of the natural world. This gave rise, for example, to lots of Celtic legends about fairies. Return to top

The Celts believed in immortality

It seems that the Celts believed in life after death, but there is little to show how they thought that this could be achieved. In fact, there is little in the way of ethics in Celtic religion. Prior to the arrival of Christianity, the concept of punishment by the gods for 'behaving badly' did not seem to exist. It appears as if the gods were not interested in 'good or evil'. While the Continental Celts were prepared for the other world by being buried with their treasures, it seems that the Irish Celts most likely favoured cremation as there has been so little evidence of burial sites found. Return to top

Celtic Religion placed great importance on animals

The Celts seem to have recognised that animals occupy the world in their own right. In fact, gods appeared in many animal forms. Because of this, Celts were often cautious and respectful towards animals. It also helps explain why animal imagery is so much more common in Celtic Art than in the Roman or Christian tradition. Animals such as birds were particularly important, had supernatural powers and their singing was considered to have healing magic. Celts also believed that animals like cattle, horses, pigs, dogs, deer, bears, snakes and birds were protected by gods, or more commonly, goddesses. Return to top

The Celts believed that the world was alive

Part of Irish Celtic religion was the belief that naturally occurring things such as rocks, rivers and trees had spirits. These were not necessarily good or bad spirits but could react in a certain way, depending on how they were treated. Return to top

The Irish Celts celebrated four main dates

The four main Celtic festivals are:
Imbolc - the first day of Spring. It is celebrated on 1 Feb. This later became Christianized as St. Brigid's Day. Beltaine - This marks the end of the dark part of the year and the welcoming of summer. It was celebrated on 1 May (Bealtaine is the Gaelic word for the month of May). It is the day associated with moving cattle to higher pastures and beginning new projects. Lughnasa (or Lughnasad) - was celebrated on the 1 August. (The word for August in Gaelic is Lúnasa). It is closely associated with the Celtic god Lug. It was also an important communal date with a big feast to mark the occasion. Celts gathered at one of a number of traditional sites around the country. Samhain - traditionally has been a very important date in the Irish calendar. It takes place on 1 November (again the Gaelic for November is Samhain) and it marks the end of one year and the birth of another. In Celtic religion, it was considered a time when the gods were hostile and dangerous and had to be pleased by making sacrifices. Return to top

Celtic beliefs did not die after arrival of Christianity

The legends and stories of pre-Christian Ireland survived alongside the growth of Christianity from the 5th Century. Lots of folk belief and practice remained and even in the 13th, evidence exists of the Bishop of Raphoe (County Donegal) complaining about the worship of idols. Celtic beliefs influenced the practice of early Christianity in Ireland in some of the following ways. - A sense of nearness to the spirit world
- Belief in the goodness of the natural world
- A belief in the closeness of eternity to everyday life
- A weak belief in the idea that humans are tainted by original sin
- A tendency to personify evil forces
- A tendency to express religious truths through poetry and analogy rather than analysis
- A focus on mystical understanding rather than structure I have relied on the Encyclopedia of Irish Spirituality (2000) by Phyllis G, Jestice for many of the details above. This gives a comprehensive insight into Celtic and Christian religious practice in Ireland. Return to top

The Celts believed that their connection to nature and the land was deeply spiritual and sought to maintain harmony and balance with it. One of the most famous aspects of Celtic pagan religion is the belief in the Otherworld. The Otherworld was a supernatural realm parallel to the physical world, inhabited by gods, spirits, and mythical creatures. The Celts believed that the veil between the two worlds was thinnest during certain times of the year, such as Samhain (Halloween), and they would hold rituals and festivals to honor and communicate with the Otherworldly beings. With the arrival of Christianity in the Celtic regions, the old pagan religion gradually declined and was eventually replaced by the new faith. However, many elements of the Celtic pagan religion survived in folklore, legends, and traditions passed down through generations. Today, there is a growing interest in Celtic spirituality and a revival of certain pagan practices among those seeking to reconnect with their Celtic heritage. Overall, Celtic pagan religion was a complex and deeply rooted belief system that played a significant role in the lives of the ancient Celts. It encompassed a rich mythology, rituals honoring the gods and goddesses, reverence for nature, and a belief in the Otherworld. Despite its decline, the influence of Celtic paganism can still be felt in the cultural and spiritual traditions of Celtic lands..

Reviews for "Sacred Animals in Celtic Pagan Religion"

1. John - 1/5 stars - I found Celtic pagan religion to be nothing more than a hodgepodge of superstitions and outdated beliefs. It lacked a coherent theological framework and seemed to be based on fear and appeasing various gods and spirits. There was no logical or rational explanation for the rituals and practices involved, and it felt like an attempt to cling to a primitive belief system rather than engaging with the modern world.

2. Sarah - 2/5 stars - I tried to embrace Celtic pagan religion out of curiosity, but I couldn't shake off the feeling that it was steeped in a romanticized and idealized version of ancient history. The lack of historical accuracy and the glorification of a pre-Christian era made it difficult for me to take it seriously. The rituals and ceremonies felt like empty gestures with no real spiritual depth. Overall, I couldn't connect with the beliefs and practices of Celtic pagan religion.

3. David - 2/5 stars - Celtic pagan religion seemed to be more focused on aesthetics and symbolism rather than actual spirituality. The emphasis on rituals, costumes, and intricate ceremonies overshadowed any genuine connection with the divine. There was also a sense of cultural appropriation, with people adopting Celtic beliefs without truly understanding the culture and history behind them. It felt like a mere trend or fashion statement rather than a sincere religious practice.

4. Emma - 1/5 stars - I found Celtic pagan religion to be overly mystic and filled with pseudoscience. The claims of ancient wisdom passed down through generations felt more like a marketing ploy than genuine wisdom. The insistence on the mystical powers of crystals, astrology, and various divination practices left me skeptical and unconvinced. It lacked a logical and evidence-based approach to spirituality, and I couldn't find any real substance in its beliefs and practices.

The Role of Bards and Poets in Celtic Pagan Religion