Celtic Gods: List of Celtic Gods and Goddesses. Celtic mythology, druidism and celtic legends in ancient Europe.
Celtic mythology
Celtic polytheism was animistic, believing in spirits existing in natural objects such as trees and rocks. Religious beliefs and practices of the Celts varied throughout the different Celtic lands. Celtic polytheism declined in the Roman Empire period, especially after the outlawing of one form of it, Druidism, by the emperor Claudius in 54 CE. Celtic mythology was preserved mostly in later christian legends (Merlin, King Arthur, Tristan and Isolde).
Celtic Priestess
Celtic druidism
In the early period, Druidic rites were held in clearings in the forest. Sacred buildings were used only later under Roman influence. The Druids were suppressed in Gaul by the Romans under Tiberius (reigned ad 14–37) and probably in Britain a little later. In Ireland they lost their priestly functions after the coming of Christianity and survived as poets, historians, and judges (filid, senchaidi, and brithemain). Many scholars believe that the Hindu Brahman in the East and the Celtic Druid in the West were lateral survivals of an ancient Indo-European priesthood. The Druids offered human sacrifices for those who were gravely sick or in danger of death in battle. Huge wickerwork images were filled with living men and then burned; although the Druids preferred to sacrifice criminals, they would choose innocent victims if necessary.
Celtic Druid - Merlin
Area of celtic tribes
Celts lived mostly in western and central Europe. Here is map of Celtic tribes.
Map of Celtic Tribes in Europe
List of Celtic Gods
AMAETHON : Welsh God of Agriculture. A son of Don and brother of Gwydion. Associated with plowing and husbandry. The modern Welsh name for a farmer is amaethwr and the Welsh word for plowman is amaeth.
ANGUS MAC OG : Ireland; god of youth, love, and beauty. One of the Tuatha De Danann, name means “young son.” He had a harp that made irresistible music, and his kisses turned into birds that carried messages of love.
ARAWN : Wales; god of the dead and the underworld Annwn. God of revenge, terror, and the dead.
BARINTHUS : Welsh, Anglo-Celtic, A charioteer to the residents of the Otherworld who was once probably a sea or sun God.
BELATUCADROS : British Celtic War God. His name means “fair shining one”.
BELI : Welsh, The primary Welsh father God, husband of Don, and father of Arianrhod. Also a minor sun God who some feel is the Welsh equivalent of Balor.
BORVO : Breton, God of healing. Borvo’s name means ‘to boil’, and he was a God of the hot springs.
BRAN THE BLESSED : Welsh, Pan-Celtic, Also Bran MacFebal. His name means ‘crow’, or ‘Raven’. Associated with ravens, he is the God of prophecy, the arts, leader, war, the Sun, music, writing.
CAMULOS : British, War God. Known from inscriptions and coinage bearing the symbol of a boar.
CERNUNNOS : Pan-Celtic, Known to all Celtic areas in one form or another. The Horned God; God of Nature; God of the Underworld and the Astral Plane; Great Father; “the Horned One”.
CONDATIS : Britain, God who personified the waters, his sacred sites were wherever two rivers or bodies of water met.
DISPATER : Continental, Also Dis Pater. Gaulish God, whose name means “the Father,” was a primal God of creation who later merged with both Don and Cernunnos, the Horned God. The Gauls all believed themselves to be descended from him.
DWYVAN : Welsh, Also Dwyfan. Dwyvan and his wife, Swyfach, are the heroes of the Welsh flood myth. Together they built an ark, filled it with animals, and survived the great flood caused by Addanc, a lake God/dragon/faery. Though later versions of this myth are distorted in order to make it conform to the Biblical verson. Later on the Christoan church went to great lengths to destroy any records on the truth of this history.
DYLAN : Welsh, God of the Sea. His symbol was a silver fish.
ESUS : Breton, Continental, Also Essus. A harvest God worshipped in Brittany, and in Gaul by the people known as the Essuvi.
GOVANNON : Welsh, God of smiths and metalworkers. The weapons he makes are deadly in their aim, the armor unfailing in its protection.
GRANNOS : Scottish, Anglo-Celtic, Continental, An early continental God of mineral springs whose shrines have been found in the Scotland town of Musselburgh, in Auvergne, France, and near Edinburgh, Scotland.
GWYDDNO : Welsh, This one time sea God came down in myth as a monster of faery of the ocean.
GWYN AP NUAD : Welsh, King of the Fairies and the underworld.
THE HORNED GOD : Pan-Western European, Opener of the Gates of Life and Death; Herne the Hunter; Cernunnos; Green Man; Lord of the Wild Hunt. The masculine, active side of Nature; Earth Father. His sacred animals were the stag, bull, goat, bear.
LLUD : Anglo-Celtic, Welsh, Known in Wales as the son of Beli, and a death God in his own right.
LUGH : Pan-Celtic, The Shining One; Sun God; God of War; “Many Skilled”; “Fair-Haired One”; “White or Shining”; a hero god.
MANDRED : Cornish, In Cornish legends, Mandred is the true name of God which, when pronounced, draws the All-Power to the one speaking it.
MYRRDIN WYLLT : Welsh, A woodland God who deliberately grew feathers so he could leap from tree to tree.
OGHMA : Scottish, Irish, God of communication and writing who invented the Ogham Alphabet and gave it to the Druids.
List of Celtic Goddesses
ACHTLAND : Pan-Celtic, A Goddess queen whom no mortal man could satisfy, she took a giant from the faery realm as her mate. Legend says that she took great pleasure combing his long, fair hair.
ADSULLATA : British, A Goddess of hot springs who came to Brittany from Celtic Gaul. She is the origin of the Anglo-Celtic sun Goddess Sul, and was most likely a minor sun Goddess in her own right before the time when the Celts relegated the majority of their sun images to male deities, and moon images to female ones.
AERTEN : Cornish, Anglo-Celtic, Welsh, Also spelled Aerfen, or Aeron. A Goddess of fate who presided over the outcome of war between several Celtic clans.
AGRONA : Welsh, Anglo-Celtic, Goddess of slaughter and war often equated with the Morrigan.
AIFE : Irish, Scottish, Also spelled Aoife. Aife was a Goddess and queen of the Isle of Shadow, an honor she shared with her rival and sister Scathach.
AINE : AN-yuh, Ireland, a woman of the Leanan Sidhe (Sweetheart of the Sidhe). Some said she was the daughter of Manannan, some said she was the Morrigan herself.
ANDARTA : Gallic, Fertility Goddess and patron Goddess of the Vocontii tribe.
ANDRASTE : Romano-Celtic; British; Anglo-Celtic; Continental Europe, The patron Goddess of the Iceni tribe.
ANU : Ireland, goddess of plenty and Mother Earth. Greatest of all Irish goddesses, deity of cattle, health, fertility, prosperity, and comfort.
AOIBHELL : Evill, Ireland; another woman of the Sidhe, she made her dwelling in Craig Liath.
ARIADNE : Continental European, This Goddess of ancient Crete is the only Greek deity known to have been worshipped in Celtic Gaul.
ARIANRHOOD : Wales; goddess of beauty, fertility, and reincarnation. Known as Silver Wheel and the High Fruitful Mother, the palace of this sky goddess was Caer Arianrhold (Aurora Borealis).
ARNAMENTIA : Anglo-Celtic, Romano-Celtic, British, Water Goddess known only from inscriptions.
AVETA : Romano-Celtic Gallic, Goddess of birth and midwifery.
Badb : Bibe, Ireland, goddess of enlightenment, inspiration, life, wisdom. Sister of Macha, the Morrigan, and Anu, the name of this goddess means “boiling,” “battle raven,” and “scald-crow.”
BELISAMA : Celtic, Goddess of light and fire, the forge and of crafts. She is the wife of the god Belenus (Beli) and the Goddess of the Mersey River.
BLODEUWEDD : Welsh, “Flower Face”; “White Flower”. Lily maid of Celtic initiation ceremonies. Also known as the Ninefold Goddess of the Western Isles of Paradise.
BRIGANTIA : British, Anglo-Celtic, “High One”; pastoral and river goddess. Associated with Imbolc. Flocks, cattle, water, fertility; healing; victory.
BRITANNIA : Romano-Celtic British, Tutelary Goddess. The genia loci of Britain who first appears on the coinage of Antoninius Pius in the 2nd century AD. She became the symbol of the British Empire after being partly syncretized with the war goddess Minerva.”
CAILLEACH BHEUR : Scottish, Irish, Manx, Great Goddess in her Destroyer aspect; called “Veiled One”. Another name is Scota, from which Scotland comes. In parts of Britain she is the Goddess of Winter. She was an ancient Goddess of the pre-Celtic peoples of Ireland. She controlled the seasons and the weather; and was the goddess of earth and sky, moon and sun.
CERRIDWEN : Scottish, Welsh, Moon Goddess; Great Mother; Grain Goddess; Goddess of Nature.
CLIODNA : Irish, Scottish, Goddess of beauty and the otherworld. A Tuatha sea and Otherworld Goddess who often took the form of a sea bird and, as such, symbolized the Celtic afterlife.
CLOTA : Scottish, Popular Goddess of the River Clyde.
CONDWIRAMUR : Welsh, Cornish, An archetypal guardian of the feminine mysteries and a Goddess of sovereignty who appears briefly in the Grail legends as the wife of Sir Percival.
CORRA : Scottish, A Goddess of prophecy who usually appeared in the form of a crane.
COVENTINA : Anglo-Celtic, Scottish, British, Tutelary and water Goddess of uncertain affinities.
CRED : Irish, Scottish, Also Creide. This faery queen Goddess is associated with Dana’s mountains, the Paps of Any.
CREDDYLAD : Welsh, Daughter of the sea god Llyr.
CYHIRAETH : Welsh, Once a Goddess of streams, she later bacame thought of as a faery spirit who was a portent of death.
DAMARA : Anglo-Celtic, An English fertility Goddess associated with Bealtaine.
DAMONA : Gaul, Goddess of fertility and healing; her name means “divine cow”. Cow Goddesses were linked to fertility and abundance.
DIVONA : Gaul, A fertility Goddess associated with water and known only from inscriptions.
DRUANTIA : Breton, “Queen of the Druids”, Mother of the tree calendar; Fir Goddess. Fertility, passion, sexual activities, trees, protection, knowledge, creativity.
EPONA : Pan-Celtic, “Divine Horse”; “The Great Mare”; Goddess of horses; Mother Goddess. Fertility, maternity, protectress of horses, horse-breeding, prosperity, dogs, healing springs, crops.
Epona - Celtic goddess of horses
ERCE : Anglo-Celtic, Earth mother and harvest Goddess symbolized by a womb or by an over-flowing horn of plenty, believed to be Basque in origin.
GOEWIN : Welsh, The Goddess of sovereignty who held the feet of Math while he reigned. She was only exempt from doing so when he went to war.
HABETROT : Anglo-Celtic, Habetrot was a “spinning” Goddess. Spinning is both Pagan lingo for spell casting and for the turning of the Wheel of the Year.
HENWEN : Anglo-Celtic, A sow Goddess much like her Welsh counterpart Cerridwen. She is the deity who brought abundance to the land by giving birth to an assortment of “litters” throughout England.
LATIS : Anglo-Celtic, Goddess associated with water. She was originally a lake Goddess who became a Goddess of ale and meade.
Le FAY : Welsh, Cornish, LeFay was a Goddess of the sea an dof the Isle of Avalon.
MARCIA PROBA : Anglo-Celtic, This English Goddess’ Roman name means “deep march” or “long march”, a Celtic warrior queen who lived around the third century BCE. Her laws, known as the Marcian Statutes, some scholars claim these statutes laid the ground work for the Magna Carta.
MODRON : Welsh, Goddess whose name means “divine mother”. She is one of the most potent of the Celtic archetypal mother Goddess.
MORGAN LeFAY : Welsh, Welsh death-goddess; Morgan the Fate. Glamorgan in Wales is said to be her sacred territory. She can cast a destroying curse on any man.
MORGAY : Scottish, Anglo-Celtic, A harvest Goddess from the Scottish/English border.
MORRIGAN : Pan-Celtic. Also the Morrigu; “Great Queen”; “Supreme War Goddess”; “Queen of Phantoms or Demons”; “Specter Queen”; shape-shifter. Reigned over the battlefield, helping with her magic, but did not join the battles. Associated with crows and ravens. The Crone aspect of the Goddess; Great Mother; Moon Goddess; Great White Goddess; Queen of the Fairies. In her Dark Aspect (the symbol is then the raven or crow) she is the goddess of war, fate and death; she went fully armed and carried two spears. Goddess of rivers, lakes, and fresh water. Patroness of priestesses and witches.
NANTOSUELTA : Continental, Also Nantsovelta. Her Breton name is Nataseuelta. She is a river Goddess from Celtic Gaul whose name means “of the meandering stream”.
NICEVENN : Scottish, “Divine”; “Brilliant”. A Samhain witch-goddess; equated with the Roman Goddess Diana.
NIMUE : Welsh, Cornish, Celtic Moon Goddess; also called Morgan.
OANUAVA : Breton, Continental, An ancient earth Goddess from Celtic Gaul.
Celtic warrior
Roman and Celtic swords – Excalibur swords