Steel Bars, Sacred Waters: Celtic Paganism for Prisoners

Cover Art by Carl Fairweather, Design by Armi Dee

(This is the Home page because we obviously want you to buy the book. However, below is our blog with all sorts of posts like how the book helped a transwoman who survived rape in prison start her PTSD recovery process, little known Germanic deities, further information on Celtic deities and religious practices, the possible Celtic Festivals of Sulis, Telesphorus, Brigantia, Aine, Neto, Ataegina & Erecura, Mercury/Lug, Andraste, free resources for prisoners, support and guidance for penpals of prisoners, African Diaspora Religions, Indo-European religious practices, quotes from academic peer-reviewed journals and much more. The Menu has information about supporting incarcerated Pagans- especially donating books on (almost) any topic, Resources for Pagans in Prison, information about Gullveig Press, tips on writing incarcerated Pagans, and Contact. Please explore!)

The first release from Gullveig Press is now available! We’re proud to announce that the Celtic Paganism “all-in-one” book Steel Bars, Sacred Waters: Celtic Paganism for Prisoners has already become a well-loved treasure trove for Pagans on the outside and in prison alike. At 556 pages and 8.5″ x 11″ (21.59 x 27.94 cm) in size, you’ll be reading and rereading these essays, performing these rituals, and admiring the art for quite a long time. (Want to read some of the book just to make sure? Visit here for excerpts and check out our awesome contributors!)

Price for people in prison, Pagan Prison Ministries*, and prisoner rights organizations*: US $7.52 plus shipping and taxes. US $12 in continental USA. BULK RATE: 5 copies for only $46.50 in continental USA!

Buy a copy for an incarcerated Pagan and receive a free pdf of the book! $12!

Price for people neither in prison nor involved in Pagan Prison Ministries or Activism: $23.99 (and whatever shipping fees and taxes apply; $4 in the continental United States). To order, contact us. ALL PROFITS GO TOWARDS PROVIDING COPIES TO PAGANS IN PRISON. Note: This is a lower price than on Amazon because Amazon takes a large cut.

If you are buying a copy for someone in prison, a Prison Ministry, or to donate to a “free books to prisoners” organization, please contact us. Let us know the address of where you want the book shipped so we can calculate shipping costs and taxes. We will respond by email with the price including shipping and our PayPal account information. Copies for incarcerated persons or established “free books to prisoners” organization will be mailed directly to them once we receive payment. (Either choose a program here or we can choose for you.)
If you would like to share information about ordering Steel Bars, Sacred Waters with people in prison, thank you! Please let them know that they can send a MoneyGram to Gullveig Press, PO Box 126, St. Johnsbury, VT 05819. Continental USA price plus shipping and taxes: $12. Remind them to include their full name, prison ID number, and address.

*For Prison Ministries (and other organizations helping prison in prison), we also need your mailing address for calculating shipping, along with the following information: who you are; what your organization is; what you do involving prisons; what prisons you serve; why you want a copy of Steel Bars, Sacred Waters; and a link to your website, so we can verify that you actually are working with Pagans in prison.

Authored by Heather Awen, Rev Donna Donovan, Viducus Brigantici filius, Erynn Rowan Laurie, Hester Butler-Ehle, Eddie Marsson, Emma Restall Orr, Armi Dee

An “all-in-one” pan-Celtic polytheist resource of cosmology, deities, virtues, history, rituals, meditations, magic and the future of Celtic Paganism, rooted in scholarly research.

One of only three full-size books for incarcerated Pagans, Steel Bars, Sacred Waters also fulfills the need for a historically accurate guide to ancient Celtic religions that many have sought.

Highlights include:

• rituals for 11 traditional holy times and seasonal changes based on Gaelic, Gaulish, Welsh and Manx practices;
• information about (and invocations for and prayers to) 160 Celtic deities;
• the Other Life/Otherworld;
• daily practices for the Celtic Pagan;
• Celtic virtues and how they can be lived today;
• exploration of different Celtic cultures through time and space;
• Iberian Celtic deities never before included in a Pagan book;
• neglected Gaulish deities;
• how Celtic tribes adapted Roman religion to existing cults and created new ones;
• the cultural intermixing between Celts and Greeks, Celts and Germans, Celts and Norse Heathens;
• the “horse, head and hero” cult;
• modern and traditional meditations;
• documented Celtic magic;
• known teachings of the Druids;
• ogham divination guide;
• Celtic mythology in context, with explanations of how political factors from the times they were written affected the versions we have today;
• proto-Celto-Germanic-Finnish words used by some Indo-Europeans 4,000 years ago and the Gaelic, Germanic and Norse deities, rituals and magic that continued from them;
• common practices among Celtic peoples worldwide;
• sacrifice and hospitality;
• maps of the Celtic world, with cities, tribes, temples, rivers and other places of interest mentioned in the essays on history and deities;
• The Oran Mor (Song of the World);
• moon rituals;
• working with ancestors;
• animism and land spirits, especially in lands new to Celtic Paganism;
• the connection between Lugus and Woden;
• Celts in a multicultural society of many polytheist cults;
• land, sea and sky cosmology;
• 5 directions of Ireland cosmology;
• Gaelic and Welsh mantras;
• the file (poet-prophet);
• Celtic heroes and heroines;
• the Fianna (hunter-warrior band);
• saining (Scottish purification);
• devotional polytheism, the community and the environment;
• root meaning of Norse seidR and its ancient link to Celtic magical religious practices;
• the king-making ritual;
• the British Old North, a unique mixture of Britons, Angles, Gaels and Picts, home to “Merlin”, ancient poetry, and Hiberno-Saxon art;
• pathworking (guided meditations) to different deities;
• cloud scrying and other forms of divination;
• the Neolithic roots of the swine cult;
• instructions for making a St Brigid’s Cross;
• why Anglo-Saxon and Brythonic magic is so similar;
• making and working with prayer beads;
• the role of ritual music and improvising ancient Celtic instruments;
• Celtic funeral practices;
• the importance of ecological issues in modern Celtic Paganism;
• journaling questions about essays;
• pronunciation of deities’ names and important terms;
• shrines;
• the political, legal structure of kingdoms;
• Fairies;
• Celtic openness about homosexuality;
• Celtic astronomy;
• explanations for why Celtic Paganism cannot be Folkish, racist, homophobic or limited to Ireland and the British Isles;
• visions of Celtic Paganism’s future;
• Celtic Paganism and the 12 step program and CBT, DBT and ACT therapies;
• forming and maintaining a diverse Pagan group;
• drawing and creative writing exercises;
• recipes for “make do” crafts including papier mache, print making, and the 6th century paint glair used in medieval manuscripts;
• around 100 drawings or photographs of archeological finds, depictions of Celtic deities both ancient and modern and Celtic culture;
• crossword puzzles;
• resources for incarcerated Pagans;
• and much more.

Although written for Pagans in prison who are possibly alone with only paper, pencil and tap water, “outside” Pagans are provided with the background information to expand their own practices. A valuable tool for Pagan Prison Ministries, volunteers and penpals, Steel Bars, Sacred Waters was partially shaped by communication with Pagans in prison. Their needs were generally no different than those of frustrated Pagans on the outside seeking an accurate education about the Celts. The main difference was lack of access to books, services and especially the Internet, where so much research is scattered. Both communities needed that research organized, including the recent Iberian, Balkan, Gallo-Roman and Celto-Germanic discoveries. The result is a book that explores the ancient Celtic peoples and their religions from Ireland to Turkey, Portugal to Ukraine, and their role in over 1,000 years of European history. The Celts influenced the cultures with whom they interacted and were changed by those near them – including other Celts.

All profits go to supplying Pagans in prison with copies of the book. The U.S. incarcerates 1% of its population, more than any other nation. Most convictions are connected to addiction. The American prison population is 8-12% Pagan. This means that 1 in 1000 Americans are incarcerated Pagans! Providing low cost, high quality information to Pagans in prison is the goal of Gullveig Press.

Please note: The content by Laurie, Restall Orr and Butler-Ehle have been published elsewhere or are available online.

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The Prison Industry in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery?

By Vicky Pelaez

Source: Global Research

Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, “no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens.” The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world’s prison population, but only 5% of the world’s people. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports.

What has happened over the last 10 years? Why are there so many prisoners?

“The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners’ work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself,” says a study by the Progressive Labor Party, which accuses the prison industry of being “an imitation of Nazi Germany with respect to forced slave labor and concentration camps.”

The prison industry complex is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States and its investors are on Wall Street. “This multimillion-dollar industry has its own trade exhibitions, conventions, websites, and mail-order/Internet catalogs. It also has direct advertising campaigns, architecture companies, construction companies, investment houses on Wall Street, plumbing supply companies, food supply companies, armed security, and padded cells in a large variety of colors.”

According to the Left Business Observer, the federal prison industry produces 100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98% of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93% of paints and paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armor; 36% of home appliances; 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21% of office furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people.

CRIME GOES DOWN, JAIL POPULATION GOES UP

According to reports by human rights organizations, these are the factors that increase the profit potential for those who invest in the prison industry complex:

. Jailing persons convicted of non-violent crimes, and long prison sentences for possession of microscopic quantities of illegal drugs. Federal law stipulates five years’ imprisonment without possibility of parole for possession of 5 grams of crack or 3.5 ounces of heroin, and 10 years for possession of less than 2 ounces of rock-cocaine or crack. A sentence of 5 years for cocaine powder requires possession of 500 grams – 100 times more than the quantity of rock cocaine for the same sentence. Most of those who use cocaine powder are white, middle-class or rich people, while mostly Blacks and Latinos use rock cocaine. In Texas, a person may be sentenced for up to two years’ imprisonment for possessing 4 ounces of marijuana. Here in New York, the 1973 Nelson Rockefeller anti-drug law provides for a mandatory prison sentence of 15 years to life for possession of 4 ounces of any illegal drug.

.The passage in 13 states of the “three strikes” laws (life in prison after being convicted of three felonies), made it necessary to build 20 new federal prisons. One of the most disturbing cases resulting from this measure was that of a prisoner who for stealing a car and two bicycles received three 25-year sentences.

. Longer sentences.

. The passage of laws that require minimum sentencing, without regard for circumstances.

. A large expansion of work by prisoners creating profits that motivate the incarceration of more people for longer periods of time.

. More punishment of prisoners, so as to lengthen their sentences.

HISTORY OF PRISON LABOR IN THE UNITED STATES

Prison labor has its roots in slavery. After the 1861-1865 Civil War, a system of “hiring out prisoners” was introduced in order to continue the slavery tradition. Freed slaves were charged with not carrying out their sharecropping commitments (cultivating someone else’s land in exchange for part of the harvest) or petty thievery – which were almost never proven – and were then “hired out” for cotton picking, working in mines and building railroads. From 1870 until 1910 in the state of Georgia, 88% of hired-out convicts were Black. In Alabama, 93% of “hired-out” miners were Black. In Mississippi, a huge prison farm similar to the old slave plantations replaced the system of hiring out convicts. The notorious Parchman plantation existed until 1972.

During the post-Civil War period, Jim Crow racial segregation laws were imposed on every state, with legal segregation in schools, housing, marriages and many other aspects of daily life. “Today, a new set of markedly racist laws is imposing slave labor and sweatshops on the criminal justice system, now known as the prison industry complex,” comments the Left Business Observer.

Who is investing? At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom’s, Revlon, Macy’s, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more. All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Just between 1980 and 1994, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion. Inmates in state penitentiaries generally receive the minimum wage for their work, but not all; in Colorado, they get about $2 per hour, well under the minimum. And in privately-run prisons, they receive as little as 17 cents per hour for a maximum of six hours a day, the equivalent of $20 per month. The highest-paying private prison is CCA in Tennessee, where prisoners receive 50 cents per hour for what they call “highly skilled positions.” At those rates, it is no surprise that inmates find the pay in federal prisons to be very generous. There, they can earn $1.25 an hour and work eight hours a day, and sometimes overtime. They can send home $200-$300 per month.

Thanks to prison labor, the United States is once again an attractive location for investment in work that was designed for Third World labor markets. A company that operated a maquiladora (assembly plant in Mexico near the border) closed down its operations there and relocated to San Quentin State Prison in California. In Texas, a factory fired its 150 workers and contracted the services of prisoner-workers from the private Lockhart Texas prison, where circuit boards are assembled for companies like IBM and Compaq.

[Former] Oregon State Representative Kevin Mannix recently urged Nike to cut its production in Indonesia and bring it to his state, telling the shoe manufacturer that “there won’t be any transportation costs; we’re offering you competitive prison labor (here).”

PRIVATE PRISONS

The prison privatization boom began in the 1980s, under the governments of Ronald Reagan and Bush Sr., but reached its height in 1990 under William Clinton, when Wall Street stocks were selling like hotcakes. Clinton’s program for cutting the federal workforce resulted in the Justice Departments contracting of private prison corporations for the incarceration of undocumented workers and high-security inmates.

Private prisons are the biggest business in the prison industry complex. About 18 corporations guard 10,000 prisoners in 27 states. The two largest are Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut, which together control 75%. Private prisons receive a guaranteed amount of money for each prisoner, independent of what it costs to maintain each one. According to Russell Boraas, a private prison administrator in Virginia, “the secret to low operating costs is having a minimal number of guards for the maximum number of prisoners.” The CCA has an ultra-modern prison in Lawrenceville, Virginia, where five guards on dayshift and two at night watch over 750 prisoners. In these prisons, inmates may get their sentences reduced for “good behavior,” but for any infraction, they get 30 days added – which means more profits for CCA. According to a study of New Mexico prisons, it was found that CCA inmates lost “good behavior time” at a rate eight times higher than those in state prisons.

IMPORTING AND EXPORTING INMATES

Profits are so good that now there is a new business: importing inmates with long sentences, meaning the worst criminals. When a federal judge ruled that overcrowding in Texas prisons was cruel and unusual punishment, the CCA signed contracts with sheriffs in poor counties to build and run new jails and share the profits. According to a December 1998 Atlantic Monthly magazine article, this program was backed by investors from Merrill-Lynch, Shearson-Lehman, American Express and Allstate, and the operation was scattered all over rural Texas. That state’s governor, Ann Richards, followed the example of Mario Cuomo in New York and built so many state prisons that the market became flooded, cutting into private prison profits.

After a law signed by Clinton in 1996 – ending court supervision and decisions – caused overcrowding and violent, unsafe conditions in federal prisons, private prison corporations in Texas began to contact other states whose prisons were overcrowded, offering “rent-a-cell” services in the CCA prisons located in small towns in Texas. The commission for a rent-a-cell salesman is $2.50 to $5.50 per day per bed. The county gets $1.50 for each prisoner.

STATISTICS

Ninety-seven percent of 125,000 federal inmates have been convicted of non-violent crimes. It is believed that more than half of the 623,000 inmates in municipal or county jails are innocent of the crimes they are accused of. Of these, the majority are awaiting trial. Two-thirds of the one million state prisoners have committed non-violent offenses. Sixteen percent of the country’s 2 million prisoners suffer from mental illness.

Desultory Heroics

By Vicky Pelaez

Source: Global Research

Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus…

View original post 1,661 more words

Mercury Retrograde (Prisoner Resource)

Gullveig Press logo design by Onje Keon Pierce

Gullveig Press sends an 18 page detailed polytheist calendar with dates of new (NOT dark) and full moons, Mercury Retrograde and lots of information about other Pagan cultures’ division of the year, month and week to incarcerated prisons for $2.25. But if you are pen pals with a Pagan in prison, you can copy each month’s calendar from this blog, print and mail! It’s posted around the 23rd because snail mail often takes a week.

This is our Mercury Retrograde section. Print it, mail it and work with it! Your pen pal will probably be especially grateful for this information.

Make sure that you included the Introduction to the Calendar so they can understand the Athens calendar, the Julian calendar and have the dates for the new and full moon. Thank you for doing this work for your pen pal!!

Gullveig Press Pagan Festival Calendar by Heather Awen, author of “Steel Bars, Sacred Waters: Celtic Paganism for Prisoners” Gullveig Press, PO Box 126, St Johnsbury, VT 05819, 556 pages, $12 includes shipping.

What is Mercury Retrograde? From our perspective, 3 times a year it looks like the planet Mercury stops its orbit, moves backwards, stops again and then retraces its orbit to where it was before it appeared to stop at the beginning. Then Mercury resumes its normal orbit until the next Mercury Retrograde.

How does it affect the world? Mercury rules travel, communication, technology, commerce and Magick. During Mercury Retrograde these things become delayed, break or are misunderstood. Phones and computers may not work, mail and paperwork could be lost, money transfers delayed, people misunderstand each other, traffic is worse, flights possibly cancelled, things bought may break or are not as advertised, business slows down and it is generally harder to move forward. Mercury is a fast planet that stays close to the sun. Our society tends to image time as a straight line, always progressing, without any breaks to review or reconnect with the past. But in a society that based on seasonal cycles, Mercury Retrograde can be a blessing.

Tie up loose ends. Review your past decisions and learn from them. Brush up on skills you already have. Meditate without judgement on your psychological and behavioral patterns and their origin. Prepare to prevent possible relapses. Expect delays. Don’t make any major purchases or sign important contracts unless you have already researched them. Don’t expect people to understand you. Ask them repeat what you said back to you. Repeat back to others what you think they said to make sure that you are on the same page. Reread important information. Practice deep breathing with long exhales. Don’t hold your breath. Reconnect with old friends and clients. Organize your paperwork but don’t throw out any until Mercury Retrograde is over. Reschedule meetings about the future if possible. Practice divination about the past. Be mindful of your limits when exercising. Pay attention to dreams and subconscious issues coming out in your behavior or thoughts. Enjoy old hobbies and interests. Practice patience and a sense of humor.

When does it start and end? The dates below cover the official Mercury Retrograde, but there is a “pre-shadow” before and “post-shadow” after. About week before Mercury Retrograde the conditions for that Mercury Retrograde move into place. During the week after, it’s often easier to learn from what happened during Mercury Retrograde.

Dates: October 31 to November 20 2019 * February 2nd to March 30th 2020 * June 18th to July 26th 2020 * September 23rd to November 20th 2020

Weekly & Lunar Pagan Holy Days Resource

Gullveig Press logo design by Onje Keon Pierce

Gullveig Press sends an 18 page detailed polytheist calendar with dates of new (NOT dark) and full moons, Mercury Retrograde and lots of information about other Pagan cultures’ division of the year, month and week, to incarcerated prisons for $2.25. But if you are pen pals with a Pagan in prison, you can copy each month’s calendar from this blog, print and mail! It is posted on the 22nd or 23rd usually.

This is our “Weekly and Lunar Calendar” with new and full moon dates.

Make sure that you included the Introduction to the Calendar so they can understand the Athens calendar, the Julian calendar and other important information. Thank you for doing this work for your pen pal!!

Gullveig Press Pagan Festival Calendar by Heather Awen, author of “Steel Bars, Sacred Waters: Celtic Paganism for Prisoners” Gullveig Press, PO Box 126, St Johnsbury, VT 05819, 556 pages, $12 includes shipping.

In some of West and Central Africa the week is five days long, with six weeks forming a month. The names of the days of the Yoruban week are: 1. Ako-ojo. (First day.) 2. Ojo-awo. (Day of the Secret, sacred to Ifa). 3. Ojo-Ogun. (Ogun‘s Day.) 4. Ojo-Shango. (Shango‘s Day.) 5. Ojo-Obatala. (Obatala‘s Day.) To use this religious calendar, start at the new (not dark) moon. Then divide the 30 day lunar month into six weeks of five days.
Most days of the week are named after Roman deities or Their corresponding deities in Germanic Paganism. Sunday is for Sol Invictus or Norse Goddess Sunna who drives the sun’s chariot. Monday is for Roman moon Goddess Luna or the moon’s chariot driver, Norse God Mani. Tuesday is dedicated to Mars, war God who originally defended the boundaries the farm and the young city of Rome, or Tyr, Norse God associated with the laws that preserve society including duels. Wednesday is named for the messenger of the Gods Mercury, who rules over travel, commerce, communication, trickery, leading the dead and (through His association with Greek God Hermes) Magick, and Anglo-Saxon Woden (Odin), God of Magick, trickery, communication and death. (The most important day in Saxon Pagan England was Wednesday. Germans just call this Middle Day because Woden’s worship continued in Christian times.) Thursday (the most important day in Heathen Iceland) is devoted to Roman sky father Jupiter and Norse Thor, thunder God and friend of farmers. Friday is named after the Roman love and fertility Goddess Venus and the Anglo-Saxon Goddess of marriage (which meant managing a huge household) and spinning the yarn of fate, Frigga. Saturday is dedicated to Saturn, the God of right agricultural timing, limitations and structure. It became the Jewish and early Christian church’s Sabbath (day of rest), so in Heathen Iceland it was known as the day for doing laundry!
The Yoruban Orisha Eshu Ellegua and Haitian Vodou lwa Legba (originally from Kingdom of Dahomey) are always the first spirits to be honored in ceremonies, for They allow offerings to reach the other Orishas or lwas. When West Africans were forced into European culture, Their worship became Monday, 1st day of the week. (In many Catholic nations the last day of the week is Sunday, because in their mythology God rested on the last day on the week.)
Obatala/ Oxala is the Yoruban “white Orisha” of purity, divine order, wisdom and the sky often honored on Friday in Brazil, where Orisha is spelled Orixa.
Nana is a Vodoun (“deity”) from Dahomey often included in Brazilian Orixa religions. Mother of Dahomey’s deities, She is a grandmotherly, dignified, patient water Orixa often honored on Tuesday.
Omula, also known as Sopaka, Babalu-Aiye and other names, is Orixa of the earth, healing and smallpox. He’s also associated with HIV/AIDS and honored on Monday by many in Brazil.
Yemaya/ Iamanja (originally a Nigerian river Goddess) is the Yoruban Orixa of the ocean, sometimes considered the mother of the Orixas, honored in much of Brazil on Saturday.
Ogun, the Yoruban Orixa who is iron and all the farming tools and weapons it makes, is associated with soldiers, surgery, liberation, employment and clearing paths. He’s honored by many Brazilians on Tuesday. He is the ex-husband of Oya and also worshiped in Dahomey and Haitian Vodoun.
Chango/ Xango is the Orixa of thunder, law, justice, courage and was once king of the Yoruban city-state Oyo, honored on Wednesday by many Brazilians. He is married to Oya, Oshun and Oba.
Oshun/ Oxun is the Osun River in Nigeria. Yoruban Orixa of love, diplomacy, the arts, beauty and fertility, seductive Oshun is associated with fresh water, especially rivers, and often honored on Saturday by Brazilians.
Oya/ Yansa (originally the long Niger River, important for trade) is the Yoruban Orixa of the marketplace, cemetery, tornado, lightning and guide of the dead, honored on Wednesday in much of Brazil.
Ochossi/ Oxossi, the protective Yoruban Orixa of hunting and justice, is often honored in Brazil on Thursday.
Ossain is Orixa of magical and medicinal herbalism who lives in the woods, honored by some Brazilians on Saturday.
The loving rainbow serpent who changes genders is known as Oxumare in Brazil and often honored on Tuesday.
Pomba Gira spirits of Brazilian Umbanda are usually given offerings on Monday. Exu spirits of Umbanda are usually given offerings at midnight on Fridays.
The New Orleans Voodoo Saint Expedite is usually petitioned for help on Wednesdays.
Some occultists time their spells on days that are associated with different planets or spirits that support their Magickal intention.

In Roman tradition Juno is worshipped on the 1st of each month, originally the new crescent moon.
In the Scottish Highlands, people turned over silver coins in their pockets and praised the new moon when they first saw Her. The new moon was considered the most fortunate day and people often received hair cuts then.
A Celtic tribe in Portugal famous for its ferocity and hospitality worshiped a God whose name is lost to us. On the full moon an animal sacrifice was made at the front door of each home in His honor.

The only full Greek calendar we have is for the city-state Athens. The new year started on the new moon after the summer solstice. Start keeping track of the Greek lunar months from then. The first day of the month is Noumenia, when the crescent moon is first spotted. It was the holiest of days, when all deities received offerings. The deities prefer simple offerings like bread. On the next day offerings were made to Agathos Daimon (“Good Spirit”). He is a protective, generous household snake spirit. Day 3 was dedicated to the Goddess of all skills including military strategy Athene, Goddess of Athens.
Day 4 honored one hero, Herakles, and 3 deities: God of commerce, communication and Magick Hermes; imported romantic love Goddess Aphrodite, from a long tradition of Middle Eastern Goddesses of the planet Venus (the Morning Star and Evening Star) like Astarte, Ishtar and the ancient original, the Sumerian Inanna. (Hebrew followers of jealous Yahweh destroyed their version of this Goddess’s sacred groves); and Eros, love God who later because associated with homosexual relationships between older and younger men.
Day 5 was a break. Day 6 was dedicated to the worship of the virgin Goddess of midwives, Artemis, who hunts in the wild woodlands with Her band of nymphs. On day 7 Her bisexual twin brother Apollon, God of music, healing and prophecy, received His sacrifices. On day 8 the river, sea, earthquake and horse God Poseidon and the hero who founded Athens, Theseus, were honored. On the 30th day (dark moon) the imported Goddess of witchcraft Hekate was left food offerings at Y-shaped crossroads. Poor people took the food home after the ritual.

After Sunday Mass, Marie LaVeau the elder led dances in New Orleans’ Congo Square that mocked racism and politicians. She swayed in one place, moving with the snake wrapped around her, entering a deep trance. Slaves and free people of color danced to the drums and left offerings of food, drink and 3 coins for the spirits and the poor.

2019-2020 New & Full Moons The Dark Moon is the day before the New Moon. Remember that the new moon was determined by when it was first sighted. The new moon dates here obviously have not yet been seen by anyone because they are in the future. However, they should be a good prediction of when a Priest would see the first crescent moon if the sky was clear. During the full moon police and hospitals report more crime and accidents.

New Sat August 3 2019, Full August 15
New Sun September 1 2019, Full September 14
New Mon September 30 2019, Full October 13
New Wed October 30 2019, Full November 12
New Thu November 28 2019, Full December 12
New Sat December 28 2019, Full Jan 10 2020
New January 25 2020, Full February 9 2020
New February 24, Full March 9 2020
New March 25, Full April 8 2020
New April 24, Full May 7 2020
New May 23, Full June 5 2020
New June 22, Full July 5 2020
New July 21, Full August 3 2020
New August 20, Full September 2 2020
New September 18, Full October 1 2020
New October 17, Full October 31 2020
New November 16, Full November 30 2020
New December 15, Full December 30 2020

 

If we’ve missed a traditional Pagan festival please let us know! Include information about the festival and the source of the information.

The Bronze Age Celto-Germanic Linguistic & Archeological Link: Spain and Scandinavia?

Lots of research is being done on the Celto-Germanic words that appear to have developed between Norse sailors trading amber with Celtic coastal Iberian sailors who had copper during the Bronze Age. Iberian Celts with their many Celtic languages may have been influential in the creation of the Celtic languages.

These words are thought to have originated about 4,000 years ago around the Czech Republic. They link directly to Nerthus, Macha, Nemed, Babd and the new interpretation of the root of Freya‘s and Frey‘s names, “free people, friends” (as opposed to slaves). Priya no longer meant beloved. There’s evidence of the Celto-Germanic shared culture along the northern Atlantic coast.

A pre-Celtic culture spread along the Atlantic coast from the Pillars of Hercules (Straight of Gibraltar) to Scotland, with similar tomb design and decorations. There’s a 6th century BCE inscription to Lug (Lugus) written in Phoenician script from the southwest coast of Portugal. Iberian Celts lived in a cattle-based hillfort culture very similar to Ireland’s in some places, and large walled cities like the Gauls in others. Some evidence shows that there were more Celtic settlements in Iberia than France. Deities Lugus and Epona were very popular.

And it’s where the newest discoveries are being made, totally changing our ideas about the history of the wide diversity of Celtic peoples. If you aren’t paying attention to Iberia, you’re missing out on the “new Celtic history.”

 

Bibliography

Hyllested, Adam, The Precursors of Celtic and Germanic, Proceedings of the 21st Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference (2010)

Koch, John T., Rock art and Celto-Germanic vocabulary: Shared iconography and words as reflections of Bronze Age contact, Adoranten (2018)

Celtic Festival Calender: Taranus and Reue & Trebaruna

Taranus wheel by Armi Dee

September 1, date of ceremonies held for Jupiter Tonans (“the Thunderer”) and Juno Regina, is the date that started my adventure in noticing times in the Roman calendar that would nicely match celebrations of many Celtic deities. Gaulish deity Taranus (pronounced “tah-RAH-nus”) is an all-seeing sky God whose name relates to thunder. He was associated with Jupiter, the traditional Indo-European sky father and head of the Roman pantheon. As Jupiter Tonans, the two Gods have the most in common.

The Jupiter columns in southern Gaul often maintained the Celtic tradition of depicting Gods with Goddesses: Jupiter sits on His throne by Juno Regina, Juno in Her Queen aspect. Some scholars consider this part of Celtic cosmology, where the king only rules because he’s been chosen by the Sovereignty Goddess. Ancient Gaulish burials often had similar stone carvings of a husband and wife side by side on thrones. The Jupiter columns are a good example of Gallo-Roman religion, where aspects of each culture are merged into something that everyone could understand in their own way.

So here we have a day dedicated to not just Jupiter Tonans, but Juno Regina as well! The first of the month (probably the new moon in the older calender) is always dedicated to Juno; it’s just fascinating that as Juno Regina She happens to share the date with Jupiter Tonans, the aspect of Jupiter most like Taranus.

In Eastern Gaul She was also called (dea) Regina (“Queen Goddess”). Regina is a Latin version of the Celtic deity name Rigani associated once with the Celtic Goddess Rosmerta (“Great Provider”). Three times in Upper Germany Celts called Juno (dea) Candida Regina “the Bright Queen Goddess,” a title unused by Romans. This adds an even greater Celtic depth to the date.

Very excited, I said to myself, “I finally have a time each year to honor Taranus!” It’s hard to try to plan ahead for the year’s first thunder storm, although I always welcome Him. This way, a deity very important to me gets an annual offering and is the focus of my devotion. If Taranus was paired with a Goddess, we don’t know who She was, but an altar was found for the son of Taranus in modern Germany.

Most people think His name is spelled Taranis, the way the Roman poet Lucan later recorded it, but many scholars think that Taranis was a Celtic epitaph for Jupiter. With Gauls in the Roman military, the God traveled to Britain, where an inscription read “To Jupiter Best and Greatest Tanarus.” If any Britons worshiped Taranus before the Roman invasion is unknown. The earliest known mention of Taranus is from a 1st century CE dedication where lightning had struck. This was a common practice in Southern Gaul, although other names for local thunder Gods were also used. Perhaps Taranus was one of many titles for this Gaulish deity.

He is not named in many inscriptions, but the Gaulish Celts must have viewed Taranus as a very powerful God, watching from the heavens and controlling the thunderbolt. It is believed, that like Lugus, Taranus was originally very popular, but much of his cult merged with a Roman deity. That is why in the Roman era, when things were written, there was so little written about Him.

Luckily, we have lots of His symbol, a sky or sun wheel. Originally the wheel was very large and seems to have been a tribal offering. The Romans brought mass produced offerings for the individual to buy and use. Taranus‘s wheel became small and bronze, buried with Gaulish princes. Others made offerings of the wheel in wells. It’s a popular symbol for modern Gaulish polytheists including as a pendant. (Check Etsy for the hard-to-find Taranus wheel. Use “Taranis wheel” because most people don’t know how to spell His name.)

I have been very blessed by Taranus, who told me to make an outdoor shrine to Him so He, in His form as the storm would skip over my home. I thought He was speaking metaphorically, but I’ve learned that the deities are normally very direct. Hurricane Sandy hit a few months later, and while I was annoyed the cable went out for 20 minutes, the town’s fire trucks were washed off bridges, my neighbor’s has a branch destroy their car, and almost everyone for miles didn’t have electricity for days. It was a lesson in pre-verbal communication, and the old metal wheel I’d found one day picking up trash and foraging carried a strong message.

A friend found it important to point out that deals with deities don’t always work. Her aunt was certain a certain Saint would heal her, but she didn’t get better. So I want to make clear that the two times deities clearly helped me in dangerous situations They spoke first and gave Their own instructions. Freya asked for me to write about Her “cousin deities” and my other ancestral deities, the  Celts, in Steel Bars, Sacred Waters in exchange for curing me of Lyme and Babesia; Taranus told me to build the shrine. In the case of Brigid saving my life, that was Her grace, and I believe She’s a very generous Goddess even if I don’t feel a deep connection with Her. Her offerings from Catholics and Pagans both keep Brig well fed!

Reue and Trebaruna

Although not associated with Thunder, the Iberian God Reue (pronounced “RU-eh”) was probably later linked to Jupiter. From the mountain where Reue‘s energy was said to reside, Larouco in Portugal, He had an excellent view of the other mountains. Another inscription near the Sierra Marão named him as the God of Them. Indo-European sky fathers are usually connected to tall mountains, and for that reason some scholars consider Reue an Iberian version of Jupiter.

Reue‘s name, however, possibly means “river” and many rivers were named after Him. Perhaps Reue is a title meaning “God of this river” and modern Celtic Iberian polytheists could name their local river Reue (name of river).

How could an important deity like Reue be both the mountains and the rivers? Rivers are fed from tributaries in the mountains which converge and flow into the valleys. (We see this also with the Goddess Abnoba.) For a culture that honored fresh water with such devotion, the source of the water – be it mountaintop or spring welling up from the ground – was sacred. It obviously needs to be the same for Celtic Pagans, with real action taken to clean them out, use biodegradable nontoxic cleaning supplies (including on the body and hair) and protect them from agricultural and factory run off.

Gaulish Druids were said to teach in caves, although they have fine homes. Some scholars believe that the darkness helped people listen and learn from an oral tradition. In the cave of Cabeço das Fraguas two deities were worshipped, Reue and Trebaruna (pronounced “treb-ah-ROO-nah”). They may have been a divine couple.

Trebaruna‘s name combines “home” with “mystery” suggesting that Trebaruna is a Goddess of protecting the home and family. Two small shrines dedicated to her have been found in Portugal. One mentions the sacrifice of the sheep.

I’m really not sure why based on the meaning of Her name and the material evidence, but some modern Pagans worship Her as a battle Goddess. Perhaps they consider Her a Sovereignty Goddess, defending Her home lands?

From Steel Bars, Sacred Waters:

“Invocation to Trebaruna by Heather Awen

“I call to you, Trebaruna,
Protecting hearth and home.
Your arms hold every babe, your eyes watch every child.
You protect the women spinning yarn
And weaving fates.
This space is sacred;
Your spirit guards the door.
Mystery of life, strength of family and friends,
Trebaruna, may my life honor your name.”

Although there is no direct evidence that Reue was associated with Jupiter, scholars believe it is likely that He was. Any time I can bring Iberian Celtic deities to the attention of the public, I will! Most of them had large followings and are only known today in academic journals. 

Tomorrow I’ll catch you up on the Iberian Celtic and Scandinavian connection!

 

(Much of the information in this post is from Steel Bars, Sacred Waters: Celtic Paganism for Prisoners – available here for less than Amazon. Please order a copy so we can use the profits to send more copies to prisons!)

Selected Bibliography

Arenas, Jesús Alberto, Celtic divine names in the Iberian Peninsula: towards a territorial analysis, Celtic Religion Across Time and Space, Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha (2010)

Bernstein, Francis, Classical Living: Reconnecting with the Rituals of Ancient Rome. Harper Collins e-books (2000)

Cunliffe, Barry, The Ancient Celts. Oxford University Press (1997)

Haussler, Ralph, How to identify Celtic religion(s) in Roman Britain and Gaul, Divinidades indigenas em analise, J. d’Encarnacao (ed), (2008)

Haussler, Ralph, Interpretatatio Indigena: Re-Inventing Local Cults in a Global World, Mediterraneo Antico, xv, 1-2 (2012)

Haussler, Ralph, The Civitas Vangionum: a new sacred landscape at the fringes of the Roman Empire?

Nova Roma, http://www.novaroma.org/nr/Roman_religion

Pedreño, Juan Carlos Olivares, Celtic Gods of the Iberian Peninsula, Guimarães, Portugal: E-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies (2005)

Sjoestedt, Marie-Louise, translated by Myles Dillon, Celtic Gods and Heroes. Dover (2000)

Viducus Brigantici filius, Deo Mercurio, http://www.deomercurio.be/en/

September Pagan Holy Days Resource

Gullveig Press logo design by Onje Keon Pierce

Gullveig Press sends an 18 page detailed polytheist calendar with dates of new (NOT dark) and full moons, Mercury Retrograde and lots of information about other Pagan cultures’ division of the year, month and week to incarcerated prisons for $2.25. But if you are pen pals with a Pagan in prison, you can copy each month’s calendar from this blog, print and mail! It’s usually posted on the 23rd so you have a week for sending by snail mail.

Make sure that you included the Introduction to the Calendar so they can understand the Athens calendar, the Julian calendar and have the dates for the new and full moon.

Thank you for doing this work for your pen pal! Gullveig Press is pretty swamped with projects – we just found an inmate with perfect spelling and grammar who has never used a computer to be our copy editor! While he’s in training and snail mail carries our work back and forth, it’s great that other individuals and groups are helping those in prison who can neither find nor afford decent Pagan resources. You rock!

The Anglo-Saxon name for September translates into “holy month,” possibly due to the many harvests.
The full moon started the very popular Greek Great Mysteries of Eleusis, a secretive initiation of rebirth that guaranteed a good Afterlife. It was based on Greek grain Goddess Demeter’s search for Her daughter Persephone.
On the 7th the Orisha Yemaya is celebrated for easing of sorrow, fertility, nurturing and protection of the home.
During September 6th to the 19th, Jupiter Optimus Maximus was celebrated with the Ludi Romani, the famous games of Rome. On the 13th (or full moon) a sacrifice was made to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, whose statues were dressed for the occasion. Tables of food were set before Them. The event was attended by every Senator.
A couple days before the dark moon, one neighborhood of Athens made sacrifices to Gaia, Greek Earth Mother, Hermes, and the nymphs (female nature spirits who are the daughters of Gaia or Zeus).
The 8th is sacred to Orisha Oshun as Our Lady of Charity.
Around the 6th day of the September-October lunar month, Athens may have offered some of the last year’s grain to Demeter before ploughing and sowing again.
Also around this time was a race held for Dionysos, Greek God of grapes and wine.
The 15th is sacred to Haitian lwa of romance and beauty Erzuli Freda.
On the 1st quarter moon of the September-October lunar cycle in Eleusis, Apollon was given sheep, male goat meat and other foods. A new eiresione (a sacred fertility symbol) was made and kept by the front door. An eiresione is an olive branch wound with wool yarn with hanging models of figs, cakes and jars of honey.
The next day Athens made offerings to the legendary Amazons.
After the September rye harvest, Lithuanian women would braid some grain tufts and lay the braid over an offering of bread and salt, saying, “Davei manei, Žemele, duodame ir tau.” (You gave for us, Mother Earth, we are giving for you, too.)

During the days before the full moon in the September-October lunar cycle, Greeks honored Demeter at the Thesmophoria, one of the rare times women could leave home without a male escort. Piglets, pine boughs and bread shaped like snakes and phalluses were offered on the first day. The next day women fasted, then feasted on the third and last day, drinking pomegranate juice. Goddess of a beautiful birth, Kalligeneia, was also worshiped.
Thesmophoria was celebrated throughout the Mediterranean for a long time. In Sicily its Priestesses were older, respectable women from noble families. A month before the rite they offered pigs to Ceres. On the first day of Thesmophoria a procession of women walked to the ritual huts where they stayed during the ritual. A Priestess had gathered the rotting remains of the pigs, which were put on the altar. The women mourned for Persephone. Reenacting Ceres searching for Persephone, the next night they wandered with torches, calling out at crossroads. On the last day they danced and sang and had feast which included phallic-shaped cakes, but forbid pomegranates.
On September 25th the Orisha Obatala of wisdom and purity is often honored in Lucumi.
According to Roman records, a Germanic tribe held a ritual on September 29 dedicated to a Goddess named Zisa in gratitude for victory. Popular theory thinks Zisa is wife of Tyr, who then was the sky father of the Germanic deities.
On the 29th the lwa Damballa Wedo is honored by those involved with Spiritualist Voodoo.
From September 29 to November 10, Latvian dead called Veļi were invited home for a feast. A male elder called the names of all the ancestors who had lived in the house that the living remembered. The spirits were scolded for not having helped the household enough and asked to do better this coming year. Together, the living and dead shared a meal. The dead were then rushed out, the house cleaned and, to protect the living, dirt was thrown in water.

If we’ve missed a traditional Pagan festival please let us know! Include information about the festival and the source of the information.

Pagan Holy Days Calendar (Prisoner Resource)

Gullveig Press logo design by Onje Keon Pierce

Hi! Gullveig Press sends an 18 page polytheist calendar to incarcerated Pagans for $2.25. However, if you have a Pagan pen pal in prison, we’d love for you to copy each month’s holidays and send them to your friend! Just tell them it’s from Heather Awen at Gullveig Press, please, and mention Steel Bars, Sacred Waters. (I even put that information at the beginning of the Introduction!) Each month’s calendar will be posted at least a week before the month begins. Snail mail can really sometimes be very slow.

Who needs an introduction to a calendar? Pagans! We’re working with lunar months, the Julian calendar and lots of stuff that doesn’t fit into our Gregorian calendar easily. Someone working with this calendar will need the new and full moon dates, which are at the end of this post.

I got the idea for this large project when someone in prison asked me about some very made-up holidays of Mabinogi deities. Evidently a group of Pagans were sending out a free calendar zine but not explaining that they invented it. It’s great to see other Pagans looking out for our incarcerated members of our community! But I hear the same complaints: Why can’t we get researched, high quality Pagan information? When you send information to people in prison tell them if it’s just your personal way or something your tradition does. If you researched using academic peer -reviewed papers, well-regarded modern polytheists’ blogs and books and history books from several decades, please tell them that the information is subject to change or it’s one theory. Help them understand that scholars constantly find new information and interpret old information in new ways.

The education system utterly failed many of these people which is why donating fiction and graphic novels along with non-fiction serious reading materials gives them a chance. Many are functionally illiterate which means that they can’t get a job that requires filling out an application or read well enough to be promoted to supervisors and other better paying positions.

(Dictionaries are the most requested books in prison. If your pen pal has some trouble writing and reading, consider buying them the inexpensive, new paperback Merriam-Webster Dictionary from Amazon. If mailing to Ohio state prisons, check from where prisoners can receive books since Amazon was banned recently. For all facilities it’s best to check anyway! Prisoners don’t have spell check or Wikipedia so a dictionary is helpful in general.)

If you send books and essays, discuss them in letters. Encourage their opinions and show your critical thinking skills. Ask them questions and show interest in their answers. Most have been convinced that they’re stupid when they just haven’t had anyone pay attention to how they learn and teach more about how to learn.

Introduction

Gullveig Press Pagan Festival Calendar by Heather Awen, author of “Steel Bars, Sacred Waters: Celtic Paganism for Prisoners” Gullveig Press, PO Box 126, St Johnsbury, VT 05819, 556 pages, $12 includes shipping.

There is a Pagan zine listing holy days for deities based on nothing historical. Frankly, the days are made up. The truth is that most ancient Pagan cultures used a lunar calendar AND a solar one. This means that the dates won’t match our calendar.

Ever notice that Jewish and Muslim holy times start on different solar days each year? They still follow traditional lunar calenders. Hinduism does the same. So does Easter. Our ancient Pagan calendars also had lunar festivals that happened at different times each solar year. Plus, each tribe, city or kingdom had their own variations and regional deities. Not all German tribes worshipped Hariasa, but we know She defended the city of Cologne. Each city in Egypt and Greece had their own mythology from before the cities were unified into Empires. In the huge Roman Empire, people often honored the deities of where they were born, the deities of where they had moved and the Imperial deities that everyone celebrated. Multicultural diversity in polytheism is normal.

The lunar year and solar cycle don’t match. It takes about 29 and 1/2 days for the moon to circle the Earth. It takes the Earth about 364 and 1/4 days to circle the Sun. A year of 12 lunar months leaves many days of the solar year not included in a calendar. This was solved kind of like how we fix the difference between our solar calendar and the real amount of time it takes for the Earth to circle the sun: we add an extra day to February each Leap Year. Ancients had their own versions of “Leap Year” usually by adding an extra month. Celtic Gauls in modern France had a five solar year calendar with 29 and 30 day long months. Periodically, an extra month was added so the lunar and solar calendars matched. The only complete Greek calendar we have is from the city-state Athens, which includes an extra month every 3rd, 6th and 8th year.

As in Islam, the Pagan month usually started at the first sighting of the new moon. New moons aren’t dark moons. The new moon is a slight crescent in the sky. The dark moon is the day before that when the moon never appears. Most astrological sources for the new moon actually are dates of the dark moon. The first Roman calendar was lunar and months began at the first sighting of the crescent moon. The first day of the Roman month is sacred to Juno, the Queen Goddess married to Jupiter. Roman holy days originally occurred from the new moon to full moon, never during the waning moon.

This calendar developed into a solar year a lot like the one we currently use. Today’s it’s called the Julian calendar. Juno’s new moon rites were moved to the first day of each solar month. Full moon sacred days were held on the 13th or 15th. Waxing moon rites were held on the 5th or 7th. We know the dates for many Roman festivals on the Julian calendar from the 1st to 3rd centuries CE.

But the Julian calendar was still not a perfect match with the actual solar year. By the late medieval era European nations were off by around 11 days. So, the modern Gregorian calendar with its Leap Year was created. The 2 calendars were 11 days apart. Different places began using the Gregorian calender at different times, causing a bit of chaos. Today we still use the Gregorian calender.

For modern Pagans seeking to worship on the same days as our spiritual ancestors, it can be tricky. Irish manuscripts stating Beltain is May 1st were written by Christian monks using the old, Julian calendar. On our Gregorian calendar Beltain is May 12th. The Anglo-Saxons first used a lunar calendar, but when they converted to Christianity they changed to the Julian calendar. The Germanic names of the Pagan months tell us what cultural events happened when in the year, but the Anglo-Saxon months also don’t exactly match with the months of our calendar.

As if this wasn’t confusing enough, until recently few Europeans other than Christian clergy were able to read. Rural people often relied on natural signs to guide them in timing rituals. The climate is different in different parts of Britain and Ireland, so agricultural events like Beltain probably happened at different times, like when the first hawthrown bush flowered. Other places looked to the stars. In Egypt when Sirius rose, people knew that the life-giving Nile River ruled by Isis would flood. Farmers in Iceland started sowing seeds when the Pleiades rose.

During a solstice the sun appears to stop moving for 3 days. This probably made people very anxious. Solstices were usually celebrated when people actually saw the sun began moving again. On December 25 and June 24 we can see that the sun’s journey has resumed. Evenings of December 24 and June 23 began many solstice celebrations.

Ancient Pagan religions were mostly communal and based on ancient traditions that almost no one questioned. Festivals in rural societies often included political and legal events. Instead of focusing on the individual, originally rites were more concerned with what kept people alive: the community and ecosystem. If Ares blessed His Greek city-state Sparta and you lived in Sparta, you were also blessed. Religion was woven into culture. Removing religion from culture unravels the ancient ways. Due to this, there’s no real way to reenact truly authentic cultural rites.

Many uprooted people in the highly mobile Roman Empire faced the same problem. One popular solution was to be initiated in secretive Mystery Religions. Replacing the old tribal community were the other initiated “brothers and sisters.” Likewise, modern people have created new initiation-based religions like Wicca and Lucumi. Others research and worship old deities, alone and sometimes in rather rare groups. Ancient rites are adapted for today’s culture. Keeping the traditional parts that work for our situation, we continue ancient religions in new variations.

What follows is a calendar based on “around when” ceremonies were held with brief explanations. Even in prison you can usually find ways to participate. Religion, for all its focus on tradition, has always been ever-changing. To stay relevant, religion must adapt to changing cultural norms, ecosystems, governments, trade partners, scientific discoveries, etc, while maintaining its cosmology (worldview).

It’s normal for polytheists to adopt deities from other cultures. The multicultural Roman Empire spread across Europe, the Mediterranean, the Near East and North Africa. Celts, Syrians, Egyptians, German mercenaries, Greeks and other peoples celebrated many Roman festivals and Romans flocked to many imported religions from other lands.

In the 1980s translation began on a 4th century CE Greek collection of Magick from the Greek-Egyptian city of Alexandria. It shocked scholars. Names of Jewish angels, secret titles for Jesus, Greek and Egyptian sacred words, symbols and deities plus parts of the Mystery Religions popular were combined in the spells. Magicians were obviously trading information, creating something new. Today Chaos Magick is similar.

As long as someone fulfills their vows to one religion, they are free to practice another. Ethnicity does not matter! The deities choose us. (New Orleans has a white Jewish vegan Voodoo Queen initiated in Haiti also trained in Western Ceremonial Magick.) Unless a rite is just for the initiated or for only men or women, worship Whomever calls you on the calendar.

The exception is the traditional religions of Native Americans. If you are invited to participate by a respected member of a tribe, that’s fine, but these ancient cultures have been raped and plundered for the benefit of white people for hundreds of years. To take more from people still literally struggling to stay alive and unassimilated into European -American culture is incredibly offensive. Cultural misappropriation pretends to value a culture while ignoring the struggles and values of the culture to make a commodity for money. Other examples include the predominantly white music industry’s treatment of African American artists, yoga classes taught as mere physical exercise without Hindu religious context and books on fictions like “Celtic Shamanism.” People in the dominant culture exploit other cultures for money without even providing financial and other practical support to those whom they’ve ripped off. Don’t be a culture vulture. If you have a traditional healing session or divination consultation with a trained African, Caribbean or Native American, pay the expected fee or what you pay a doctor.

(Today, the issue of men’s and women’s mysteries is being challenged by people born intersex (having or developing male and female genitals) or who identify as non-binary (neither male nor female). Gender was understood differently in other cultures. The Kongo Kingdoms had people Portuguese slavers called male but who demanded they were women. They had been clergy involved with funeral rites. Dahomey sold slaves who the Portuguese considered men who also insisted that they were women and wore women’s clothing. On the southern shores of the Baltic Sea 1st century CE Germanic Priests dressed in women’s clothes. Priests of the Near Eastern Goddess Cybele, in a devotional frenzy, cut off their testicles and penises as a sacrifice to their Goddess and then were dressed as women. The incredibly popular Greek God Apollon has many mythological lovers male and female. Images of people with both breasts and penises are found in Central European Celtic art. Greeks, Celts and other warrior cultures openly celebrated their gay lovers. A Roman Emperor even started a cult for his young, dead male lover that continues to have followers today. The participation of the LGBTQIA community is firmly established in ancient Paganism. However you gender or sexually identify, you’re welcomed by the majority of Pagans on the outside.)

The dates dedicated to the Orishas/ Orixas and lwas may differ from house to house. The dates honor Catholic Saints with whom West African spirits were secretly associated, but not everyone used the same Saints.

2019-2020 New & Full Moons The Dark Moon is the day before the New Moon. Remember that the new moon was determined by when it was first sighted. The new moon dates here obviously have not yet been seen by anyone because they are in the future. However, they should be a good prediction of when a Priest would see the first crescent moon if the sky was clear. During the full moon police and hospitals report more crime and accidents.

New Sat August 3 2019, Full August 15
New Sun September 1 2019, Full September 14
New Mon September 30 2019, Full October 13
New Wed October 30 2019, Full November 12
New Thu November 28 2019, Full December 12
New Sat December 28 2019, Full Jan 10 2020
New January 25 2020, Full February 9 2020
New February 24, Full March 9 2020
New March 25, Full April 8 2020
New April 24, Full May 7 2020
New May 23, Full June 5 2020
New June 22, Full July 5 2020
New July 21, Full August 3 2020
New August 20, Full September 2 2020
New September 18, Full October 1 2020
New October 17, Full October 31 2020
New November 16, Full November 30 2020
New December 15, Full December 30 2020

Festival of the Celtic Vulcan & Venus (Ucuetis & Bergusia, Gobannus, Goibnui & Gofannon)

Statuette of Vulcanus © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons

The Celts created their own relationships with Roman deities, obviously viewing Them through cultural lens. Today it’s become more common to discuss the “native” Mars or “native” Jupiter of a Celtic region. Celtic polytheism did not appear to be as concerned  with the names of deities as much as the cultural context of Them. Who the Romans thought a “native” Mars or Jupiter was not relevant. This was explored in the post about the native Diana and Abnoba.

In some places we’ve lost the names of the Celtic deities, although archeological and historical evidence clearly points to a Celtic interpretation of the Roman deities. Sometimes the name of the Celtic deity became an epitaph for a Roman deity, but in other cases a Roman deity was embraced without a Celtic title. 

Two deities embraced by the Gauls and worshipped in Britain* are the Goddess of gardens Venus and the smith God Vulcan. The two were never considered a couple in Roman mythology or ritual, but in Celtic mythology and ritual it appears that They were. First a little information about these Roman deities, especially before discussing Their association with the Greek Aphrodite and Haephestus.

On August 23 is the Roman Festival Vulcanalia, the anniversary of the eruption of mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Vulcan is the Roman God of destructive fire, lightning bolts (which He made for Jupiter) and craftsmanship. Under the volcano Mount Etna Vulcan forges weapons for Gods and heroes. Vulcan was in some ways connected to the Greek God Haephestus, the cuckold husband of Aphrodite. However, Vulcan and Venus were never a couple to Romans. Instead, Vulcan was sometimes married to Maia.

The season of drought** brought risks of fires. Even the temples of Vulcan were normally built outside of cities for protection from His wild fire. On August 23rd people gathered on the banks of the River Tiber and sacrificed living fish to bonfires. The ritual was probably meant to appease Vulcan and prevent dangerous fires.

In the north of England* when the Roman military, especially Gauls and Germans, defended Roman Britain, many inscriptions to Vulcan were carved.

The “Good Goddess” usually worshipped by women, Bona Dea, had a festival which shared the date of the Vulcanalia with Vulcan.

Venus became popular in Gaul much like the Roman God Mercury. Although She later gained attributes of the Greek Aphrodite, Venus was originally a goddess of fruit trees and market gardens. A fertility Goddess, as Venus Genetrix She became the mother of the Roman people through Her son Aeneas. Julius Ceasar, who conveniently claimed to be a direct descendant of Aeneas, started the cult of Venus Genetrix with a temple built in 46 BCE. As Venus Libitina, She is associated with death. A temple on Mt. Eryx celebrated Venus as the Goddess of love and beauty. In Britain six engraved gems to Venus Victrix (“Victorious”) wearing a helmet and holding a shield have been found, along with four other gems to Venus.

An incredibly multifaceted Goddess, the Gauls probably understood Venus as a powerful Goddess of the life force, as described by Roman poet Lucretius: “Throughout seas and mountains and sweeping torrents, and the leafy dwellings of birds and lush green plains, the Goddess Venus strikes soft love into the breasts of all creatures. She cause them to be lustful, and reproduce” (De Rerum Natura 1.1–15 LCL).

The Celtic peoples were used to Goddesses who were life-nurturing, deciders of death on the battlefield, mothers of dynasties, and guides to the Realm of the Dead. It’s possible that the complex Venus may have been the Roman Goddess Who made the most sense to the Gauls. Titles of deities often changed; as with Greek and Roman polytheism, many Celtic Gods appear to have  had several descriptive names. To replace a local Goddess with the name Venus wasn’t difficult, but the local Celtic Venus would be different from the Goddess Romans knew.

The Galicians in Iberia, according to Saint Martin, the Bishop of Braga, still celebrated the Vulcanalia in the mid-6th century and couples still married on Friday, the day of Venus.

As seen with Mercury and Rosmerta and  Nemetona and Mars, it probably did not make sense to Celtic peoples that deities would not be in couples. Venus and Vulcan appear to be a couple in the Gaulish religion. They were often depicted together.

Gaulish Vulcan was especially popular in Eastern Gaul, from Metz to Worms. Usually depicted in the traditional Graeco-Roman style, a 1st century CE relief of the smith God with Venus provides a very different image. Vulcan is young and without a beard. A stag stands behind Him. His right hand holds a torch as if it is a scepter.

Elsewhere in Gaul a two sided relief allows us to view the Celtic Venus and Vulcan. On one side Venus stands naked, her left hand holding Her hair while Her right hand gently touches a winged Cupid. On the other side Vulcan holds His hammer and tongs, a stag again behind Him. There’s no Roman mythology to account for the stag. This is an interpretation of Vulcan that is Gaulish. The stag may represent the annual vegetative cycle of death and rebirth, as its antlers are shed and grow back. Or it could refer to the Celtic nobles’ recreation of hunting.  There’s even a chance it’s a magickal stag like in the first book of the Mabinogi.

As in most Pagan cultures, the Celtic peoples revered the apparent magic of the blacksmith. In Alesia, Burgundy, the Gaulish God Ucuetis and Goddess Bergusia were honored by craftsmen who worked with metals, while the Gaulish Gobannus was probably a God of smiths near Bern. The Gaelic smith God Goibnui serves the Ale of Immortality to the Tuatha De Danann and owns the cow whose milk is now the Milky Way. Smiths were associated with Druids in Ireland when Druid simply meant sorcerer, someone who works with mysterious forces and should be feared.

Currently the general consensus is that Venus and Vulcan were understood by the Gauls to be providers and protectors of the land’s fertility. In typical Celtic fashion, They have many aspects to Their power and need to be in a heterosexual couple to access them.

Although Ucuetis and Bergusia were not associated with Vulcan or Venus, the Vulcanalia may be the best time to honor Them. At Alise-Sainte-Reine is the inscription, “Martialis, son of Dannotalos dedicates this keliknon (small temple?) to Ucuetis – together with the smiths, who (worship) Ucuetis in Alesia.” An image of a Romano-Celtic God with a hammer and Goddess with symbols of abundance was discovered there, so perhaps Ucuetis and Bergusia are not so different from the Gaulish Vulcan and Venus. They certainly deserve the worship They once received!

Celebration Possibilities

Today’s Celtic Pagans could put statuettes of Venus and Vulcan in their gardens or with houseplants. Gauls especially loved Venus and bought pre -made little terra cotta statuettes of Her. Give prayers and offerings to form a relationship with these deities of great, wild powers that include everything from sexual passion to fires raging out of control. Pay attention to how the seasons change your potential food intake.

If you live where there’s a threat of wildfires, offerings to Vulcan should be made. You may also want to do this if you live near an active volcano. Real fish or Goldfish crackers burned in a fire pit or outdoor grill would be appropriate offerings. If you know the indigenous name of the mountain, use that after you’ve studied the indigenous cultures of where you are. You don’t want to offend any deities or spirits. To prevent cultural misappropriation, follow your usual ritual format, but include the name of the local volcano. (If there’s any traditional taboos, likes and dislikes of the indigenous deity, definitely follow those!)

This is a festival that could be for the wealth of craftspeople. Bergusia seems to be associated with prosperity and Ucuetis with smiths. Any artists and makers could keep a shrine to the divine couple to guide, protect and bless their workspace, and to ensure fair payment.

As we have no dates for a Festival of Gofannon, Goibnui or Gobannus, if you want a date for worshipping Celtic smith Gods, August 23rd may work for you.

Archeological site of Alesia, in Alise-Sainte-Reine, Burgundy, France: monument to Ucuetis. Photo by Myrabella/ Wikimedia Commons.

 

*Many of the deities, including Celtic deities, that we know were worshipped in Britain were not native, but instead were brought by the Roman military which included a lot of Gauls. These Gaulish deities, especially at Hadrian’s Wall where most names are found, were honored by the soldiers policing or actively opposing the native Britons. We don’t have many names of the Brythonic deities worshipped by the native Britons in the Iron Age.

** Unless you live in certain parts of the USA, the four Gaelic Pagan festivals don’t match what is happening with the land where you worship. Festivals from Rome (or imported from the Eastern Mediterranean (like Greek city-states), Persia (Iran), the Levant and modern Turkey) allow Celtic polytheists a way to connect to the drought in the majority of states. Athens has a seasonal cycle close to SoCal, for example. The Celtic Galatians ruled part of Turkey, others settled in the Hungarian Plain and an incredible amount lived for many centuries in the temperate forests of inland or on the Atlantic Iberia. The land is the focus of most rites, so seek ones that make sense for where you are.

Selected Bibliography

Bernstein, Francis, Classical Living: Reconnecting with the Rituals of Ancient Rome. Harper Collins e-books (2000)

Butler-Ehle, Hester, Fieldstones: New Shoots from Stony Soil. Fieldstone Hearth (2013)

Cunliffe, Barry, On the Ocean: The Mediterranean and the Atlantic from Prehistory to AD 1500. Oxford University Press (2017)

Cunliffe, Barry, The Ancient Celts. Oxford University Press (1997)

Haussler, Ralph, The civitas Vangionum: A New Sacred Landscape at the Fringes of the Roman Empire?

Haussler, Ralph, How to identify Celtic religion(s) in Roman Britain and Gaul, Divinidades indigenas em analise, J. d’Encarnacao (ed), (2008)

Haussler, Ralph, Interpretatatio Indigena: Re-Inventing Local Cults in a Global World, Mediterraneo Antico, xv, 1-2 (2012)

Jones, Prudence and Pennick, Nigel, A History of Pagan Europe. Routledge (1995)

L. Vitellius Triarius, Meditations on the Roman Deities: A Guide for the Modern Practitioner. CreateSpace (2013)

Macculloch, J.A., The Religion of the Ancient Celts, Edinburgh: T. & T. CLARK (1911)

MacKillop, James, A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford University Press (2004).

Nova Roma, http://www.novaroma.org/nr/Roman_religion

Rankin, David & d’Este, Sorita, The Isles of Many Gods: An A-Z of the Pagan Gods & Goddesses worshipped in Ancient Britain during the first Millennium CE through the Middle Ages. Avalonia (2007)

Davies, Sioned, editor and translator, The Mabinogion. Oxford World’s Classics (2007)

Viducus Brigantici filius, Deo Mercurio, http://www.deomercurio.be/en/

A Brief History of the Ogham

Cu Chulainn’s death from ‘Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race’

The ogham alphabet emerged in Ireland in the 4th century CE. (Pronounce ogham as “oh-um.”) It’s also called by its older name, ogam. Each letter is called a fid and can be made with straight lines that are easy to carve.

Although once carved into wood, what has survived until today comes two sources. One is manuscripts, where each fid is often more decorative, with dots, loops or swirls. The other form is the ogham stones. As tombstones and boundary markers, they were mostly used in southern Ireland and parts of western Britain (modern Wales), where the Irish had settled. At that time, those who could read and write knew Latin. Ogham seems to be based on the Latin alphabet but probably was easier to cut into the edges of standing stones. The legends talk about their use on wood but none have survived.

The Pagan mythological “father” of ogham was the Gaelic God Ogma and the “mother” of ogham was the knife or hand. Ogma was one of the greatest warriors of the Tuatha De Danann and discussed in the last post. Many people believe ogham was a way for warriors to leave short, inconspicuous messages carved on wood for other warriors. It was also a form of sign language. The nose or shin could be crossed with fingers to make a fid. In this way it could serve as code for silent communication between soldiers. (Imagine a baseball pitcher’s and catcher’s silent communication of ear tugs and nose touches.) Ogma gave this knowledge to humans, and we give the ogham birth using the knife or hand.

Another saying tells us that the father and mother of ogham are “sound and matter.” Not just written, ogham is to be sung or chanted. Magical uses are found in many tales. Ogma, legendary Druids (meaning sorcerers, not the traditional Priests) and Cu Chulainn all carved them on twigs to communicate or for magical reasons. We have no information about how they were chanted, but Celtic magic is very song-based. There was a short charm or prayer for everything people did, such as healing or protecting the fresh butter from the Fae. At one time it seems that there may have been an ogham practice similar to the Norse magical practice of galdor, where the runes are sung. (Please note that any references to the runes are not to suggest a common history between the two alphabets, but to compare the ogham with something readers are possibly more familiar.)

The Christian mythology about the ogham claims that the ogham was created after the Tower of Babel. Gaelic was supposed to have been the true language. Although a manuscript states the fid were named for trees, its medieval author clearly writes that some of those trees no longer existed. Also, some do not mean a certain tree at all. This obviously causes confusion, which most books on Paganism ignore, still calling the ogham a “tree alphabet.” At least traditionally, that’s not really true.

The confusing history of the ogham, with its necessary medieval Christian ties, has not been explained by most Pagans writing about the alphabet. They usually skip over the fact that there are no known magical inscriptions written with the ogham and focus instead on the legendary Druids (sorcerers) use of them in spell casting. These incantations or carvings don’t make very much sense or are vague. Remember that all written languages have been used for Magick because only the elites had access to literacy, making letters very esoteric. Every letter is a symbol that someone gave meaning to years ago. On their own, just like the sounds of letters and words, they only mean what was decided. Otherwise they are gibberish. (Sigil Magick is often based on using our alphabet.)

Some scholars believe that the ogham fascinated the new Christian storytellers who wrote for long hours every day. It was old and mysterious. They gave the ogham a mystical power because it belonged to something earlier than themselves: traditional oral storytelling.

In archaeology the most common use of the ogham is that of a standing stone with a name carved along the edges to probably establish a family’s ancestral proof of land ownership. That’s not something most occultists find interesting and many Pagans seek occult (hidden, secret) knowledge more than cultural context of a religion. This is where we have to watch for cultural misappropriation. Taking the ogham out of its Gaelic legendary and proven mundane uses to create things like ogham reiki is pilfering from a culture that is losing its language. Language contains ideas that cannot be translated.

Using a language that you don’t know how to speak with no in-depth study of the culture’s cosmology for occult matters is both dangerous and a sign of entitlement and privilege issues. Everything does not exist for you to use. That mentality leads to slavery, ecological destruction and cultural genocide. There are many reasons why you need to immerse yourself in the history and “mundane” life of the culture. Some things just will not make sense without that context.

In traditional societies teachers guide the student’s levels of knowledge, making sure it had become wisdom preparing the student for the next level. Because of books, individuals can access knowledge without the needed previous wisdom. Information arrives without an understanding of its source, usually to help the individual get ahead and the important community aspects that held it together are lost.

The same thing applies for the runes. I have no idea how Kenaz means “enlightenment” to so many occultists and New Agers when the rune lore says it’s infected sores (inflammation) on sick children. Whenever I receive it as a sign, it’s about inflammation, a huge problem with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. When I had Babesia (sorta like malaria on steroids), Kenaz meant I’d have fevers. The Norse feared the death of their children to the plagues that commonly ravaged society as much as any culture. Odin gave us the runes for Magick, and cursing was a main focus in traditional Magick across Europe, the great coastal cultures on  the Mediterranean and parts of Mesopotamia.

The phrases for the ogham are much harder to apply to life than the full poems and kennings of the runes. The troll who hurts women and the thorn of Thurz make a lot of sense when I have terrible menstrual cramps. “One third of a chariot’s wheel” is harder to work with unless you have studied the use of the chariot in ceremony, warfare and the Heroic Cycle of stories. Even then a lot is theoretical. Before someone pours reiki of Tinne into you talking about the virtues of holly, I’d check that they understand what the ogham really is.

But if it’s not a tree alphabet or ancient Magickal spell, what is it?

Ogham seems to have been a memorization tool. Each fid is a letter, but it also is a word (like with the runes). Sometimes that word is a type of tree (again, like with the runes). However, there are around 150 other types of things that correspond with each fid! All that matters is they start with the same fid (letter). It’s like a much more complicated version of “A is for apple” or the jump rope song “My name is Abby, my husband is Albert, we live in Albuquerque! My name is Brenda, my husband’s name is Brian, we live in Boston!” etc. But instead of making up words beginning with the fid, the educated poet memorized the 150 official things that began with each letter.

Trees and shrubs were associated with each fid, but so were forts, rivers, herbs, birds, Saints －all the things a Christian medieval poet would have to know about the land and its history. That way, the ogham is like a filing cabinet. A Thelema teacher I had explained Kaballa as a system of organization. The ogham is very similar, except instead of organizing everything in the world by its qualities, the ogham leaves no room for error. There’s no intuition, only memorization of the most important factual information about Ireland at that time, organized alphabetically.

This could easily turn into some other type of cultural misappropriation. If you are thinking “What ogham am I? My name starts with M,” unless you were named for a Saint important in Celtic Christianity and know the Old Irish spelling, your name isn’t in the ogham. It can’t be because you were not important to people in medieval Ireland. And if your name is that of a Saint spelled in Old Irish, you probably won’t learn about yourself from the collection of things that simply begin with the same letter. The ogham frankly isn’t about you. It’s about Ireland during a certain time period.

If we think of the ogham as a memorization tool for poets (properly called file and someone of great value) who told stories about the world in which they lived, we are on the right track. But even then our sources on the original ogham are incomplete information. There is no complete list of all 150 or so things that begin with each fid. The written records leave us with large gaps of information.

Like the runes, we have mythological tales written by Christians clearly describing the ogham as having magical uses, and none that link it to divination. And yet like the runes, most modern Pagans use the ogham for divination or meditation. Also medieval monks, the new storytellers, seemed to be intrigued by the ogham symbols who spoke like the Pagan Priests which their clerical writing replaced. (See the last post on Ogma and how the ogham spoke to Him.) Symbols have power if you learn their meanings. The Stop sign is a great example of a symbol that “talks,” that gives us important information in our culture. A red octagon has other meanings in other cultures.

There are also a few manuscripts which contain phrases that go with each fid. They’ve been translated, which wasn’t easy to do because some cultural ideas cannot really be taken out of context. There are also often hidden meanings, perhaps from the stories and poetry a file also memorized, or perhaps local slang or puns. It’s impossible to know if the phrase sounded a lot like something else, giving it a different level of meaning, unless you can speak Old Irish. You need to hear the phrases and know what else they could allude to.

Still, by thinking about what those sayings would mean to an Irish person during that time, we can figure a lot out. But that means studying what had value for the medieval Christian Irish world. What else did the file know? When using a divination tool, we need to understand its meanings according to the culture that created it, before we begin putting our own meanings on them. I’ve repeatedly said that Celtic culture is many cultures, in many places and at many times, constantly growing while keeping to basic tribal values for survival. New elements from other cultures with which the Celtic tribes traded and often lived are apparent in changes to visual arts and clothing. But the ogham is an alphabet of a time and place.

Divination tools can be made using any symbols, numbers, lyrics, words etc that matter to you. You don’t need to use a different culture’s alphabet just because it’s old and mysterious. If you want to use the ogham, it should be while also studying early medieval Irish history, stories written at the same time as the writing about the ogham and the Christian mythology of the early Celtic church. Each of the forts and Saints associate with a fid were important to this society. Knowing why ought to help you understand the world contained in the ogham memorization system.

Please remember that anything from Robert Graves is not traditional. He was not a historian. His spiritual writing was his own poetic creation. There’s no Celtic tree calendar, for example. Well, there wasn’t until recently.

Bibliography

Bernhardt-House, Phillip A., Warriors, Words, and Wood: Oral and Literary Wisdom in the Exploits of Irish Mythological Warriors, Studia Celtica Fennica VI (2009)

CR FAQ: An Introduction to Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism, http://www.paganachd.com/faq/

Daimler, Morgan, Pagan Portals: Irish Paganism: Reconstructing Irish Polytheism. Moon Books (2015)

Ellison, Robert Lee (Skip), Ogham: The Secret Language of the Druids. ADF Publishing (2007)

Gregory, Lady Augusta, Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of the Tuatha De Danann and of the Fianna of Ireland. J Murray (1904)

Laurie, Erynn Rowan, Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom. A Megalithica Books Publication, An imprint of Immanion Press (2009)

Celtic Festival of Herakles, Ogmios, Ogma

This is part of the Celtic polytheist calendar I’ve been developing throughout this blog. (Click on the Subject “Festival” and you’ll find them all.) Basically, since we know that the Celtic speaking tribes had quite a lot of say in which Roman deities were associated with which native deities (based on their limited understanding of Roman religion) and changed Roman practices to fit the Celtic cosmology, I thought “Maybe some Celts used the Roman Festival calendar for their own purposes.” There were a lot of changes over a few generations, including a nostalgic, self-conscious effort to be “more traditional” especially in Britain. Celtic religion has never been static. Celts constantly, of their own volition, changed cultural elements since we know of their emergence into history.

The southern Gauls adopted some Greek architectural elements. They chose to include foreign deities to their pantheon like Apollon (Roman Apollo) and Hermes from the Greeks. Later the Romans recorded that the Celtic people were big followers of the Roman demi-God Hercules. It stands to reason that they may have already known Hercules from the Greeks, in His original spelling Herakles.

And some time in August, Athens had a festival for Herakles that involved feats of strength.

Aside from the possible inclusion of Hercules to your Celtic polytheist practice, this may be a good time for honoring Ogmios and Ogma. The Greeks and Romans understood that the deities were pleased with human excellence and so they involved the best of athletic and dramatic skills in festivals. Your Ogmios or Ogma festival could involve dedicating physical exercise (like your work out, dance class or hike) to the God. You also can’t go wrong with offerings of wine (Ogmios) or ale (Ogma), pork or animal crackers, fresh water, grains, organic grass-fed dairy, glass beads, metal symbols like a chain (Ogmios) or small sword, beeswax candle, singing, reciting of poetry, praise, prayer or depicting Him yourself. You may want to have Ogma bless your Ogham set.

Ogmios

Gaulish Ogmios was portrayed as an old bald man with dark skin, armed with a bow and club, leading smiling people whose ears were chained to his tongue. The Gauls thought of Ogmios as being like their favorite Greek/Roman hero Hercules, and from this we know He was a strong and clever warrior. But for the Gauls, His strength was not just brute force; His powerful words led people to follow him cheerfully.

In one cemetery Ogmios was depicted as a companion of Erecura who usually appeared in statues with the Underworld God Dis Pater. Herakles was (among many other things) a psychopomp, so perhaps Ogmios plays a role in the Underworld. He is petitioned for help on two curse tablets, so He’s used to people in need turning to Him.

From Lucian of Samosata’s Prolalia Herakles, we get this quote from a Gaul: “We Celts do not agree with you Greeks in thinking that Hermes is Eloquence; we identify Heracles with it, because he is far more powerful than Hermes…In general, we consider that the real Heracles was a wise man who achieved everything by eloquence and applied persuasion as his principal force. His arrows represent words, I suppose, keen, sure, and swift, which make their wounds in souls. In fact, you yourselves admit that words are winged.”

To most Celtic polytheists, He is a God of eloquence and persuasion. This fits with the Celtic belief that a chieftain or deity had to be both a warrior and a poet. A warrior could prevent a battle with his words or rally the troops with an inspirational speech. Words have magical power, and charms were spoken or sung to add the necessary energies of healing, protection, and cursing. Poets were also prophets who could predict the future and devise ways to work with it. Ogmios shows us the reverence the Celtic tribes had for the power of speech.

If you are at a loss for words, I include my Invocation to Ogmios from Steel Bars, Sacred Waters:

Invocation to Ogmios by Heather Awen
Hail, Ogmios!
God who gifts humans with language, powerful as any weapon,
God in the leopard’s skin, dark of complexion,
Your followers of old smiled upon hearing your words.
Speaker to oracles, God giving joyful news,
A hero who faces all challenges, a bard able to amuse,
Even followers today smile as your great power continues.

Ogma

Even though they look similar, the names Ogmios and Ogma are not great linguistic matches. However, They do seem to have a connection. Ogma is one of the greatest warriors of The Tuatha De Danann (pronounced TOO-ah-hah djay DAH-nahn). Known also as “Strong-Man,” “Sun-Faced” and “Sun-Poet,” he is eloquent like all good leaders of warriors. In Lebor Gabála Érenn he is described as so eager for battle that other warriors had to hold him back until it was time to fight. Ogma is the brother of the Dagda and Nuada.

Ogma invented the Ogham alphabet and many people studying the Ogham pray to him for guidance. In the mythological stories, the Ogham was a magic used by Druids (sorcerers) and a way for warriors to communicate about dangers. The knife that cut the wood is like a sword in battle.

Cú Chulainn is the greatest hero warrior in Gaelic mythology, just as Hercules is the greatest in Graeco-Roman myths. According to Bernhardt-House the connection between Ogmios and Hercules is found with Ogma and Cú Chulainn:

“The way this first ogam-cutting is described in the Book of Leinster’s version of the Táin is noteworthy: ‘Cú Chulainn went into the wood and cut a prime oak sapling, whole and entire, with one stroke and, standing on one leg and using but one hand and one eye, he twisted it into a ring and put an ogam inscription on the peg of the ring and put the ring around the narrow part of the standing-stone at Ard Cuillenn.’”

(Yes, he’s in the prophecy and Magick position also used by Babd and Lugh, the Crane Position.)

Celtic Pagans differ in how they relate to Ogma; some link him with speaking well, while others focus on his great skill as a warrior. Ogma is both and more. (Celtic deities are rarely as simple as “God of (this part of life).” They are usually talented in many ways, just like any Celtic chieftain would have been expected to be.)

Ogma found Orna, the sword of the powerful Fomorian king Tethra. After Ogma cleaned it, Orna told Ogma all the acts it had ever done in battle, another connection between battle and speech. (Animists often believe powerful tools have their own spirits and are living like everything else. This why many are named, like the harp the Dagda owns.)

With the help of the Ogham, Ogma could cause stones and sticks to speak. Things that normally cannot speak receive the ability to talk. If you are working on the psychic skills to learn the history of an object or place, perhaps Ogma would be a good teacher.

Invocation to Ogma by Heather Awen

Strong warrior, leader in the field,
Father of the Ogham alphabet
Valued by soldiers and Druids.
Ogma, powerful force for good,
Clever with signs and strategies,
Always ready to halt the source of injustice,
I call to you, and hope that you hear my words of praise.

Want to read about 159 other Celtic deities and heroes? Steel Bars, Sacred Water is available from us at a lower price than Amazon! Plus we receive more profits for buying copies for incarcerated Pagans!

 

Next Post: A historic overview of the Ogham!

Bibliography

Bernhardt-House, Phillip A., Warriors, Words, and Wood: Oral and Literary Wisdom in the Exploits of Irish Mythological Warriors, Studia Celtica Fennica VI (2009)

Cunliffe, Barry, The Ancient Celts. Oxford University Press (1997)

Daimler, Morgan, Pagan Portals: Irish Paganism: Reconstructing Irish Polytheism. Moon Books (2015)

Ellison, Robert Lee (Skip), Ogham: The Secret Language of the Druids. ADF Publishing (2007)

Gregory, Lady Augusta, Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of the Tuatha De Danann and of the Fianna of Ireland. J Murray (1904)

Guide to Gaelic Polytheism, http://www.GaelicPolytheism.info (accessed 2017)

Haussler, Ralph, Interpretatatio Indigena: Re-Inventing Local Cults in a Global World, Mediterraneo Antico, xv, 1-2 (2012)

Jones, Mary (ed), Jones’ Celtic Encyclopedia, http://www.maryjones.us/jce/jce_index.html

Laurie, Erynn Rowan, Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom. A Megalithica Books Publication, An imprint of Immanion Press (2009)

MacCulloch, J. A., The Religion of the Ancient Celts. Public Domain (1911)

Mierzwick, Tony, Hellenismos: Practicing Greek Polytheism Today. Llewellyn (2018)

Nova Roma, http://www.novaroma.org/nr/Roman_religion

Rolleston, Thomas William, Myths & Legends of The Celtic Race. Public Domain (1911)

Sjoestedt, Marie-Louise, translated by Myles Dillon, Celtic Gods and Heroes. Dover (2000)

Willoughby, Harold R., A Study of Mystery Initiations in the Graeco-Roman World (1929)