Ancient Celtic Women And The Earth Goddesses

Ancient Celtic women served as both soldiers and influential ruling queens. Young girls and boys were trained to fight with swords and other weapons starting at the age of seven. Women could become poets, druids, priestesses, and healers. Celtic women acted as mediators or judges in military or political disputes. They played similar roles in mediating disputes within their own families and communities. The ancient Celts viewed marriage as an equal partnership, and women had legal rights and could not be married against their will.

• Location: Europe

• Ancient religion: Celtic polytheism

• Celtic languages: Brittonic, Breton, Cornish, Welsh, Irish, Manx, Scottish-Gaelic

Let’s talk about the earth goddesses.

These Celtic earth goddesses were not sweet earth mothers by any means.While they represented the fertility of the land and the nurture of its people, they were often portrayed as harsh or even cruel, much like nature itself. A number of goddesses were associated with the sovereignty of the land, and most of these were also goddesses of war and death. They embodied the earth itself in both its positive and negative aspects. The most famous of the goddesses of sovereignty was the Morrigán, whose name means “great queen” or “phantom queen.” The Morrigán was of fearsome aspect, often appearing in the form of a carrion crow.

She was primarily a goddess of war, ruler of the battlefield and the taken of fallen warriors. Despite the seeming contradiction, the Morrigán was also the goddess of fertility, cattle, and crops. While it may seem a contradiction that a goddess of life and fertility would also be a goddess of war and death, it is actually an insight into the worldview of the Celts, who correctly observed that death was necessary for the generation of life. The rulership of kings was only by proxy, by authority of the goddess. Kings were symbolically wed to the goddess, and their time to rule depended on the whim of the earth — if the crops failed or natural disasters struck, this could be seen as the goddess self-expressing displeasure with her earthly husband.

Here are the names of the Morrigan Celtic Goddess:

1.Morrigan

2.Badb

3.Macha

4.Nemain

Here are the top 5 Celtic earth goddesses:

1. Danu: The nurturing mother goddess associated with the earth and water.

2.Gaia: While primarily associated with Greek mythology, Gaia represents the personification of Earth’s abundance and fertility.

3.Brigid: A complex Celtic goddess associated with healing, poetry, and the earth, embodying the cycle of life and nature’s abundance.

4.Cerridwen: A Welsh goddess of magic and transformation connected to the earth’s cycles and the transformative power of nature.

5. Epona: A Gaulish goddess associated with horses, fertility, and abundance, embodying the protection of nature and its creatures.