CELTIC RELIGION AND BELIEFS

Between the 6th and 4th century B.C. successive tribes of shepherds and warriors came to Britain and Ireland and gradually took the place of the Iberians. These tribes belonged to a people called the Celts. They included the Irish, Welsh, the Cornish, Breton and Scottish Gaelic and the people who spoke these languages. The term Celts was formerly applied by the Greeks and Romans to the people of Western Europe in general. Legend goes that Celtina, daughter of Britannus had a son by Hercules, who was named Celtus and was the progenitor of the Celts. The Celts became a distinct people in the Iron Age; they are distinct from their predecessors mainly in their use of iron, their art style, the role of the horse in their lives and the social stratification of their society. What we do know of the Celts today is largely due to the descriptions of Roman writers, including Herodotus, who named them the Keltoi. The Celtic tribes themselves were united by common speech, customs and religions. Each tribe was headed by a king and was divided by class into the Druids or priests, warrior nobles and commoners. In the same way as all other cultures, the lifestyle of the Celts influenced the structure and beliefs of their religion known as Druidism. The Druids were Celtic priests and they served as communicators between the common folk and Druidism, their religion. It consisted of Pagan beliefs, in deities of the Earth, spirits of the woodland, sun gods as well as
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elves and demons. The druids performed many of the functions that we would consider priestly functions including ritual and sacrifice, but they also included functions that we would place under education and law. Their religion was very much in harmony with the natural surrounding. The Celts measured time by nights followed by days, not the reverse as we do today. They even had a calendar, kept by the Druids, which was based on lunar motion rather than solar. Months, as well as days within each month, were believed to be auspicious or inauspicious and feasts, raids and other activities would have been planned accordingly. The Celtic tribe shared common religious bonds. Where kingship survived, the king had a sacral role, playing an active role in sacred rites. From what we know of the Celts from Roman commentators they held many of their religious ceremonies in woodland groves and near sacred water, such as wells and springs. The Romans speak of human sacrifice as being a part of Celtic religion. The most honored social class was represented by priests or druids themselves. They were well trained and besides their religious role, they were also the judges of the clans they belonged to. The druids were similar to the Indian Brahman. Many of the Celtic myths reminded us of the Oriental ones. There was a yearly meeting of the druids, somewhere in the central area, maybe Stonehenge, but the Saints place was the Mona Isles. All the druids from the continent came to Britain for training. They learned a lot of lines which contained sacred elements of their religion. According to their concepts, death was only a change of the place, life continuing beyond the living limits, in the world of the Dead, which represented a resource of the available souls. They believed in metempsychosis, an element so specific to the Oriental world.
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The Otherworld of Celtic belief was the dwelling of the gods and other supernatural beings. It was a place of feasting and joy. It was not a heaven, but a magical counterpart of the natural world which every person, regardless of behaviour in life, would enter after death. The Otherworld was as real to the Celts as the natural world, and although humans did not normally visit it prior to their death, stories of such visits, or visits to the natural world by Otherworld folk were accepted as valid. The Celts had great respect for the Earth, so many natural elements and areas were considered sacred. The great oak tree was honoured and the mistletoe which grew on its branches was gathered during services. The rivers and lakes too were revered, some of them having mysterious healing powers and being places of pilgrimage. Their sacred places might have been where they held their religious festivals and made sacrifices. Such places might have consisted of a clearing in the deep woods, a special spring, a wood or stone temple structure, or a ritual or well. One or more of these elements might have been included in any given sacred place and been surrounded with an earthwork, palisade or ditch, usually circular or oval in place. Water sources were especially sacred, whether or not they were enclosed in a ritual site. They frequently were believed to possess healing powers and were also believed to be entrances to the Otherworld. Gifts were given in exchange for the use of sacred waters or special divine considerations and spoils of war were offered in token thanks for victory. Gifts of carven figures were often given for healing and perhaps other types of divine intervention. Such offerings were tossed into springs, rivers or down sacred wells as gifts to the gods.

The Celtic religion was strictly oral and in order to preserve it the Druids learned a large number of sacred texts and teachings by heart. They travelled widely in order to conserve the sense of unity between the many tribes. As priests, wise men and prophets it was their duty to keep alive learning and morality. It has been established that the Celts did practice human sacrifice, but the context of such sacrifices is not known. One thing we do know which is that the Celts revered human heads. The cult of the head, as the universal Celtic practice of head collecting has come to be called, was only quasi religious. The head was believed to be the seat of the soul or essence of a person. It was a symbol of divinity and the seat of all desirable qualities. The head was believed to be capable of remaining alive after being removed from the body, to sing, tell stories, offer advice and hold the power to avert evil. Heads were collected and kept for several reasons and those reasons are closely confusing. Celtic warriors would cut off the heads of their enemies in battle and display them as trophies. They mounted heads in doorposts and hung them from their belts. This might seem barbaric to us, but to the Celts the seat of spiritual power was the head, so by taking the head of a vanquished foe they were appropriating that power for themselves. The head of the fallen enemy could also be regarded as a talisman of victory and power, the magic inherent in the head could increase ones personal power or avert evil, or the possession of an enemys head could prevent that enemy from being reborn, either physically or spiritually. The heads of ones ancestors could be good luck talismans, avert evil and offer advice or entertainment. It was a kind of bloody religious observance.

As in many cultures the Celts developed pantheons gods, goddesses and other heroes. They had gods of the hunt, gods and goddesses of agriculture, love, war, creation, the sun, the moon. There were gods and goddesses of places like sacred trees, clearings, wells and the lake. Most male gods were associated with a female consort, often mother goddess figures. The supreme god of the Celts was Lug, who gave its name to the city of Lyons. Taranis or Dagada as he was known in Ireland was the god of the spiritual world. Ogomis, the god of warriors and kingship, was said to have a face which smiled to the right but glowered on the left. Fertility gods and goddesses were abound in Celtic tradition including Cernunos who was also the god of the untamed forces of nature and Bridget, the patroness of fire. Goddesses in Celtic belief were generally triads and most often their influence was tied to a specific geographic area. The earth mother, raven, or war goddesses sometimes were or sometimes were not such a triad. She was the consort of the divine father or tribal god and was concerned with the fertility of the land, crops, and herds, as well as people. She would also defend the tuath when threatened using magic rather than physical weapons. Bridget was one triadic goddess for whom we have a name. Her influence was widespread as a mother goddess, patroness of arts and crafts, healing, poetry and traditional learning, livestock and produce, and the rites of spring. Each of her three aspects had the same name and one version of the division of responsibility had her first aspect being concerned with poetry and traditional learning, her second aspect concerned with healing, and the third with smithcraft. The triadic goddesses, whether as embodiments of the earth mother or not, were very powerful and their dominion always included fertility aspects
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and frequently magical warfare. The mother goddess aspect of the triads, concerned with fertility is most frequently depicted in the nurturing role. Various triadic goddesses were associated with war, healing waters and woodlands and mastery of animals. Another named goddess, sometimes triadic, sometimes not, was Epona, also referred to as the Horse Goddess. She was variously depicted with, seated on, or as a horse and her influence was widespread. Shape shifting was common among Celtic gods and goddesses who often took the form of their favoured animals. Animals held great significance in the religious beliefs of the Celts. Birds were linked with the gods as bringers of omens and messengers. Swans in particular, if portrayed wearing gold or silver chains, were supernatural, often gods in bird form. Ravens were special favorites as messengers of the gods and their calls were considered prophetic. Geese were also sacred and associated with various deities. They were particularly connected with deities having war or healing attributes. The boar, often symbolizing strength and power, and the pig, favoured as food by both men and gods, both had ritual significance as well. The stag was associated with the Honored god. The bull and the horse were associated with the gods also. Rams and serpents frequently appear in ritual context and occasionally dogs. The salmon was regarded as the holder of Otherworld wisdom and a symbol for sacred rivers and pools. The salmon was also considered prophetic as well as the trout. Magic and ritual was how humans had interaction with the gods. The Celtic gods and goddesses were not omnipotent or incorruptible as the modern, western religious usage of the word implies. They were simply supernatural, immortal or near immortal counterparts to humanity with the added power of magical abilities. They were not believed to normally
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intervene in mans affairs, but could be persuaded to do so by appropriate sacrifices and entreaties. They were not worshipped in the way that Christian, Islamic and Jewish people worship God today. The Druids taught that the soul does not die. The soul of a man who died in a battle would pass to another body and Caesar thought that this belief partly explained the bravery of the Celts in war. From an archeological perspective it is clear that the Celts believed in an after-life, for material goods were buried with the dead. Since the soul was immortal, the places of living and the dead were continually changing. The warrior princes of Early Celts were buried in their chariots with all their weapons and household possessions. The tomb was covered with a funeral mound and often a statue was placed on top. From the physical evidence provided by the archeologists we can reach the conclusion that the Celtic spiritual life was very rich and very diverse. Their religious beliefs determined them to behave accordingly.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. MAUROIS, ANDRE, Istoria Angliei, Editura Politic, Bucureti,

1970
2. NICOLESCU, ADRIAN, Istoria civilizaiei britanice, Editura

Institutul European, Iai, 1999

3. NICOLESCU, CORNELIU, Anglia i spiritul englez, Editura Pro

Vita, 2005
4. TREVELYAN, G. M., A Shortened History of England, Penguin

1972
5. X X X, Dictionary of British History, Wordsworth, 1995

6. X X X, Msn Encarta Encyclopedia, 2003