For many thousands of years our ancestors have been visiting and venerating the power places of Europe. One culture after another has often frequented the same power sites and the story of how these magical places were discovered and used is filled with fairies and nature spirits, sages and astronomers, and enigmatic myths of world destroying cataclysms.

Read more here: » Sacred Sites: Pilgrimage in Ancient Europe - Megalithic and Celtic Sacred Space

See also:

Lugus, Lugus - Gaulish Mercury, Lugus - Iconography, Lugus - Triplism, Lugus - Sacred Sites, Lugus - Continuity in later Celtic narratives, Lugus - Foreign Parallels, Lugus - Etymology, Lugus - Survival of the name in toponyms, Lugus - Bibliography

Read more here: » Lugus: Encyclopedia II - Lugus - Etymology

His name was commemorated in numerous place-names, such as Lugdunum (Celtic *Lugdunon or *Lugudunon, "fort of Lugus"; modern Lyon, France), capital of the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis. Other such place-names include Lucus Augusti in the Galician area of Spain (modern Lugo, Spain), Lugdunum Clavatum (modern Laon, France) and Luguvallium (modern Carlisle, England). Other places which are likely named after him include: Loudun and Montluçon in France; Loudon ...

See also:

Lugus, Lugus - Gaulish Mercury, Lugus - Iconography, Lugus - Triplism, Lugus - Sacred Sites, Lugus - Continuity in later Celtic narratives, Lugus - Foreign Parallels, Lugus - Etymology, Lugus - Survival of the name in toponyms, Lugus - Bibliography

Read more here: » Lugus: Encyclopedia II - Lugus - Survival of the name in toponyms

Creating Sacred Space In Your Home

Many modern Celtic pagans today are faced with a difficult question: how can I bring my religion into my home? Whether we live in a dormitory, an apartment, a duplex or a mansion, most of us like to have our homes reflect our personalities and the things we are interested in, and that includes our spiritual practices, but many of us don't have back yards in which to practice and set up more permanent shrines, or 24/7 access to our favorite places in nature. For some, just setting up an altar somewhere in the home is either undesirable, unachievable or just not enough.

Read more here: » SacredSpace: Creating Sacred Space In Your Home

Abandinus is an obscure Celtic deity, possibly a river-god. He is currently known only from a single inscription from Godmanchester in Cambridgeshire, England: a bronze votive feather is dedicated to him with the fragmentary text "to the god Abandinus, Vatiaucus gave this from his own resources" inscribed on a plaque. Some believe that Abandinus was associated with the river Ouse, which is near the Godmanchester temple site and was formerly known as Aban. Additionally, Abona or Afon are Celtic river names, ...

Read more here: » Abandinus: Encyclopedia - Abandinus

Avalon (from the Celtic word abal: apple) is a legendary island somewhere in the British Isles, famous for its beautiful apples. It is sometimes referred to as the legendary location where Jesus visited the British Isles with Joseph of Arimathea and that it was later the site of the first church in Britain. This location of the Isle of Avalon is usually associated with present day Glastonbury. It is also said to be the place where the body of King Arthur is buried. He was supposedly brought there via boat by his half sister, Morgan le Fay. According to some legends Arthur merely ...

Including:

• Avalon - Popular culture

Read more here: » Avalon: Encyclopedia - Avalon

The Callanish stone circle is situated in the village of Callanish (spelled Calanais in Gaelic) on the west coast of the Isle Of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland (58.197° N 6.734° W). Dating from around 2000 BC, the 13 primary stones form a circle about 13 m in diameter, with a long approach avenue of stones to the north, and shorter stone rows to the east, south, and west (possibly incomplete avenues). The overall layout of the monument recalls a distorted Celtic cross (although of course ...

Including:

• Callanish - The stones in folklore
• Callanish - Other nearby sites

Read more here: » Callanish: Encyclopedia - Callanish

Bangor, in north Wales, UK, is one of the smallest cities in the United Kingdom. It is a university city with a population of around 20,000, of whom about a third are students at the University of Wales, Bangor. The origins of the city date back to the founding of Bangor Cathedral by the Celtic saint Deiniol in the early 6th century AD. The name 'Bangor' itself comes from a Welsh word for a type of fenced-in enclosure, such as was originally on the site of the cathedral. The present cathedral is a somewhat more recent building ...

Read more here: » Bangor Wales: Encyclopedia - Bangor Wales

The Capitoline Hill (Capitolinus Mons), between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the most famous and highest of the seven hills of Rome, the site of a temple for the Capitoline Triad: the gods Jupiter, his wife Juno and their daughter Minerva. The temple was started by Rome's last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and was considered one of the largest and the most beautiful temples in the city. When the Celtic Gauls raided Rome in 390 BC, the Capitoline Hill was the one s ...

Including:

• Capitoline Hill - External link

Read more here: » Capitoline Hill: Encyclopedia - Capitoline Hill

A mother goddess is a goddess portrayed as the Earth Mother who serves as a general fertility deity, the bountiful embodiment of the earth. From the elegant snake-offering goddess figures of Knossos to the rock-cut images of Cybele, to Dione ("the Goddess") who was invoked at Dodona, along with Zeus, until late Classical times, it is sometimes too facile to class all archaic female goddesses as manifestations of the mother goddess. Archaeologists tend to avoid such theories in interpreting sites and material remains and sometim ...

Including:

• Mother goddess - Matriarchy and goddess history
• Mother goddess - Sumerian Mesopotamian and Greek goddesses
• Mother goddess - Celtic goddesses
• Mother goddess - Norse goddesses
• Mother goddess - Olympian goddesses
• Mother goddess - Hinduism
• Mother goddess - Shaktism
• Mother goddess - Mother goddess worship in Catholicism
• Mother goddess - Neopaganism

Read more here: » Mother goddess: Encyclopedia - Mother goddess

The Urnfield culture (c. 1300 BC - 750 BC) is a pre-Celtic culture of central Europe, considered by some scholars to mark the origin of the Celts as a distinct cultural group. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were then buried in fields. The Urnfield culture followed the Tumulus culture and was succeeded by the Hallstatt culture. Urnfield - Chronology. In some areas like south-western Germany, the date is taken as 1200 BC (beginning of Ha A), but the ...

Including:

• Urnfield - Chronology
• Urnfield - Origin
• Urnfield - Distribution and local groups
• Urnfield - Burial
• Urnfield - Construction of the graves
• Urnfield - Grave gifts
• Urnfield - Upper-class burials
• Urnfield - Material culture
• Urnfield - Pottery
• Urnfield - Tools
• Urnfield - Weapons
• Urnfield - Chariots
• Urnfield - Iron
• Urnfield - Settlements
• Urnfield - Open settlements
• Urnfield - Pile dwellings
• Urnfield - Fortified settlements
• Urnfield - Hoards
• Urnfield - Cult
• Urnfield - Economy
• Urnfield - Ethnic ascription
• Urnfield - Migrations
• Urnfield - Related cultures
• Urnfield - Sites
• Urnfield - Sources

Read more here: » Urnfield: Encyclopedia - Urnfield

Julius Caesar in his De Bello Gallico identified six gods worshipped in Gaul, giving the names of their nearest Roman equivalents rather than their Gaulish names. He said that "Mercury" was the god most revered in Gaul, describing him as patron of trade and commerce, protector of travellers, and the inventor of all the arts. The Irish god Lug bore the epithet samildánach (skilled in all arts), which has led to the identification of Caesar's Mercury as Lugus. Juliette Wood interprets his name as deriving from Proto-Celtic *lugios, oath, which would support this identification od Mercury as a god of contracts. < ...

See also:

Lugus, Lugus - Gaulish Mercury, Lugus - Iconography, Lugus - Triplism, Lugus - Sacred Sites, Lugus - Continuity in later Celtic narratives, Lugus - Foreign Parallels, Lugus - Etymology, Lugus - Survival of the name in toponyms, Lugus - Bibliography

Read more here: » Lugus: Encyclopedia II - Lugus - Gaulish Mercury

Wilrijk - 19th century. Wilrijk - 20th century until fusion with Antwerp. ...

See also:

Wilrijk, Wilrijk - Overview, Wilrijk - Demography, Wilrijk - Evolution of the population size, Wilrijk - 19th century, Wilrijk - 20th century until fusion with Antwerp, Wilrijk - History, Wilrijk - From a Celtic settlement to a modern suburb, Wilrijk - Wilrijk as a suburbian town, Wilrijk - Wilrijk as part of Antwerp, Wilrijk - Lange Wapper, Wilrijk - Cultural Activities, Wilrijk - Goat parade Geitestoet, Wilrijk - Annual FairJaarmarkt, Wilrijk - Sport, Wilrijk - Twin town, Wilrijk - Commercial/industrial/institutional sites

Read more here: » Wilrijk: Encyclopedia II - Wilrijk - Evolution of the population size

Wilrijk - From a Celtic settlement to a modern suburb. Probably the first time people lived in this area was around 600 BC. In 1003 the first document appeared in which the name uuilrika was mentioned. This document tells about the existence in 743 AD of a community living around the central square in Wilrijk which is called Bist. The triangular shape of the Bist shows the Frankish past of Wilrijk. One of the current theories is that the name Wilrijk is actually derived from the ...

See also:

Wilrijk, Wilrijk - Overview, Wilrijk - Demography, Wilrijk - Evolution of the population size, Wilrijk - 19th century, Wilrijk - 20th century until fusion with Antwerp, Wilrijk - History, Wilrijk - From a Celtic settlement to a modern suburb, Wilrijk - Wilrijk as a suburbian town, Wilrijk - Wilrijk as part of Antwerp, Wilrijk - Lange Wapper, Wilrijk - Cultural Activities, Wilrijk - Goat parade Geitestoet, Wilrijk - Annual FairJaarmarkt, Wilrijk - Sport, Wilrijk - Twin town, Wilrijk - Commercial/industrial/institutional sites

Read more here: » Wilrijk: Encyclopedia II - Wilrijk - History

Lange Wapper is a mythical being that appears in a lot of folk tales in Flanders. According to belief (especially from people living in Wilrijk) Lange Wapper was born in Wilrijk, near the Hoven van plaisantie De Brandt and Middelheim on the fields of farmer Peer-Jan. One day he found a huge red cabbage between his vegetables. He touched it, and found out that it was actually a newborn. Because he was too poor to raise the child, it was adopted by a family from Antwerp. The boy grew up, and he became known as someone w ...

See also:

Wilrijk, Wilrijk - Overview, Wilrijk - Demography, Wilrijk - Evolution of the population size, Wilrijk - 19th century, Wilrijk - 20th century until fusion with Antwerp, Wilrijk - History, Wilrijk - From a Celtic settlement to a modern suburb, Wilrijk - Wilrijk as a suburbian town, Wilrijk - Wilrijk as part of Antwerp, Wilrijk - Lange Wapper, Wilrijk - Cultural Activities, Wilrijk - Goat parade Geitestoet, Wilrijk - Annual FairJaarmarkt, Wilrijk - Sport, Wilrijk - Twin town, Wilrijk - Commercial/industrial/institutional sites

Read more here: » Wilrijk: Encyclopedia II - Wilrijk - Lange Wapper

Wilrijk - Goat parade Geitestoet. In the period that Wilrijk was still a poor town, a lot of people kept a little goat at home, to give them some meat and milk if needed. Because of this, the richer people were laughing with the silly people from Wilrijk with their goats. When in 1895 there was an election for the town council, there was a big election fight between the Catholic and the liberal parties. The liberals accused the Catholics of fraud, and because the people of Wilrijk didn't want to listen to them, t ...

See also:

Wilrijk, Wilrijk - Overview, Wilrijk - Demography, Wilrijk - Evolution of the population size, Wilrijk - 19th century, Wilrijk - 20th century until fusion with Antwerp, Wilrijk - History, Wilrijk - From a Celtic settlement to a modern suburb, Wilrijk - Wilrijk as a suburbian town, Wilrijk - Wilrijk as part of Antwerp, Wilrijk - Lange Wapper, Wilrijk - Cultural Activities, Wilrijk - Goat parade Geitestoet, Wilrijk - Annual FairJaarmarkt, Wilrijk - Sport, Wilrijk - Twin town, Wilrijk - Commercial/industrial/institutional sites

Read more here: » Wilrijk: Encyclopedia II - Wilrijk - Cultural Activities

The indigenous Celtic beliefs and ways have had a large impact on the modern Celtic cultures. Mythology based on (though, not identical to) the pre-Christian religion was common place knowledge in Celtic speaking cultures up to today, though it is now dwindling. Additionally, many unofficial saints are believed in, such as Brìd in Scotland (Brighid in Ireland), which have the same names as known deities. Various rituals involving acts of pilgrimage to sites such as hills and sacred wells which are believed to have curative or ...

See also:

Celtic mythology, Celtic mythology - Historical sources, Celtic mythology - Julius Caesar’s comments on Celtic Religion and their significance, Celtic mythology - Branches of Celtic mythology, Celtic mythology - Celtic deities, Celtic mythology - The gods of the ancient Celts, Celtic mythology - The gods of Ireland, Celtic mythology - The gods of Wales, Celtic mythology - The Dagda, Celtic mythology - The Morrígan, Celtic mythology - Belenus, Celtic mythology - Lúgh/Lug, Celtic mythology - Other gods, Celtic mythology - Temples, Celtic mythology - Celtic worship, Celtic mythology - The druids, Celtic mythology - Significance of Prophecy in Druidic Ritual, Celtic mythology - Modern remnants, Celtic mythology - Druidism?, Celtic mythology - Books on Celtic Mythology

Read more here: » Celtic mythology: Encyclopedia II - Celtic mythology - Modern remnants

The indigenous Celtic beliefs and ways have had a large impact on the modern Celtic cultures. Mythology based on (though, not identical to) the pre-Christian religion was common place knowledge in Celtic speaking cultures up to today, though it is now dwindling. Additionally, many unofficial saints are believed in, such as Brìd in Scotland (Brighid in Ireland), which have the same names as known deities. Various rituals involving acts of pilgrimage to sites such as hills and sacred wells which are believed to have curative or ...

See also:

Celtic mythology, Celtic mythology - Historical sources, Celtic mythology - Julius Caesar’s comments on Celtic Religion and their significance, Celtic mythology - Branches of Celtic mythology, Celtic mythology - Celtic deities, Celtic mythology - The gods of the ancient Celts, Celtic mythology - The gods of Ireland, Celtic mythology - The gods of Wales, Celtic mythology - The Dagda, Celtic mythology - The Morrígan, Celtic mythology - Belenus, Celtic mythology - Lúgh/Lug, Celtic mythology - Other gods, Celtic mythology - Temples, Celtic mythology - Celtic worship, Celtic mythology - The druids, Celtic mythology - Significance of Prophecy in Druidic Ritual, Celtic mythology - Modern remnants, Celtic mythology - Druidism?

Read more here: » Celtic mythology: Encyclopedia II - Celtic mythology - Modern remnants

Mórrígan - Ulster Cycle. Her earliest apearances are in stories of the Ulster Cycle, in which she has an ambiguous relationship with the hero Cúchulainn. In Táin Bó Regamna (the Cattle Raid of Regamain), he challenges her, not realising who she is, as she drives a heifer from his territory, and earns her enmity. She makes a series of threats, and foretells a coming battle in which he will be killed. She tells ...

See also:

Mórrígan, Mórrígan - The sources, Mórrígan - Ulster Cycle, Mórrígan - Mythological Cycle, Mórrígan - Nature and functions, Mórrígan - Etymology of the name, Mórrígan - Arthurian myth

Read more here: » Mórrígan: Encyclopedia II - Mórrígan - The sources

The Mórrígan is often considered a triple goddess, but her supposed triple nature is ambiguous and inconsistent. Sometimes she appears as one of three sisters, the daughters of Ernmas: the Mórrígan, the Badb and Macha. Sometimes the trinity consists of the Badb, Macha and Nemain, collectively known as the Mórrígan, or in the plural as the Mórrígna. Occasionally Fea or Anu also appear in various combinations. However the Mórrígan also frequently appears alone, and her name is sometimes used interchangeab ...

See also:

Mórrígan, Mórrígan - The sources, Mórrígan - Ulster Cycle, Mórrígan - Mythological Cycle, Mórrígan - Nature and functions, Mórrígan - Etymology of the name, Mórrígan - Arthurian myth

Read more here: » Mórrígan: Encyclopedia II - Mórrígan - Nature and functions