Page 14 - The Flickering Cauldron Magazine - April 2022

14 | The Flickering Cauldron® Magazine - The Power of Nature
This ‘collective’ culture dates back to roughly 1300 BC. However, the origins of the people referred to as Celts dates back to several thousand years earlier...
It’s an awkward reality but we really don’t know what to call them, so we will settle for referring to them as Celts.
We know they believed in a very spiritual connection to the earth, they relied on it for their existence. So they would have worshipped both Gods and Goddesses of the elements of the earth that were important to them.
The most revered would have been mother nature herself, the Earth Goddess, (Danu) and beside her would have been (Cernunnos) the male God to represent fertility with the Earth Goddess. He was depicted as a man but with the antlers of a stag and was therefore understandably known as the Horned God.
However, the Celts knew that their lives were dependent on so many (natural) aspects of their lives, that they paid homage and indeed worshipped many individual Gods and Goddesses. This would have varied from one region to another, and would have reflected the needs of the community.
What’s really fascinating, is that spread across the vast swathes of the Celtic lands, consisting of Northern Europe, (and including a big chunk of what we now refer to as Spain and Portugal), the British Isles and Ireland, there was a commonality in their beliefs and rituals.
They shared the same Sabbaths, and in many areas a very similar language. However, to understand this, we have to appreciate that their bond was the belief that the power of nature affected every aspect of their lives.
To put the Druids into context here, they were the wise and therefore all powerful leaders of the Pagan Celts. Their wisdom and knowledge of the ‘magical’ powers of nature meant that their decisions or indeed judgements were not to be questioned or challenged.
The occasional human sacrifice to the Gods (the sacrificial being chosen by the Druids) and those chosen would be burned alive, understandably led to very few challenges.
Myth would have us believe that all early Druids were female. Whilst this would make sense as it was the Earth Goddess that was a focal point of worship. Historic male dominance leads us to believe otherwise. If this truly was the case, then it would have been short-lived.
We now know that the worship of nature wasn't limited just to the lands of the Celts, nor were their practices. Similarities (for example tree worship) are comparative with ancient rituals that have been found around the world.
Whilst the Celts were a fearsome bunch and a very formidable enemy, they were also artistic, creative and quite frankly, cultured. And contrary to accepted belief, they were an intelligent lot.
In Pagan Celtic rituals, numbers play a significant role, for example, the repeating of an affirmation during a ritual a certain amount of times may be required. We know that the numbers three, five, seven, nine and thirteen were very significant to them, as to why, well, we don’t think we’ll ever really know.