Honest Myth:Celtic- Sulis

I really needed a picture, but could not find any paintings of Sulis. I picked this cause it gave a good ‘Celtic’ style vibe. The art piece is called Innocence by Takato Yamamoto, a truly amazing artist.

I have been trying to keep the posts diverse, and not do too much of the same cultures (like I seemed to have been doing in the latest months). So here is a little information on an interesting goddess.

Sulis is the Celtic Goddess of hot springs and baths, especially of hot springs found at Bath, Somerset (England). Because of her connection to hot springs, Sulis is also connected to to healing waters and thus, medicine. She oversees the sacred wells and springs. These give healing and other blessings to those who pray at them. Not only can she cure people when worshiped, she can also curse others as punishment. This gave her the ability to witness oaths, catch thieves, and find objects that were lost.

She is often depicted as a young woman with bright orange hair and light pale green tinted dress, that represents the color of bath waters.

Through her name, many scholars associate her with the sun.

Sulis has also been known as the Goddess of Decisions and merged with Minerva/Athena when Romans and Celtics converged. Some symbols of Sulis include sun rays, eyes, and antlers.

Hope you enjoyed!

-Blog Barista

This site gave some incite (punny!) on Minerva in Celtic mythology: http://www.druidry.org/library/gods-goddesses/minerva

Here is a picture of the hot springs in Bath

Honest Myth:Celtic- Brigid

So I was pinteresting this morning, and I came across this picture of a statue (seen Left). I thought it was so beautiful, and could not help myself as I tried to find out who the subject matter was. Turns out, she is the Celtic Goddess Brigid. Other than the Celts, Brigid was a patron goddess (and later saint) to Britain. Unlike the Celts, the Brits saw her as a warrior maiden and protector of the country.

Brigid, whose name means ‘exalted one’ or ‘bright one’, is a Celtic Trinity Goddess. Sometimes she is said to be three sister goddesses with the same name, but usually she is one single goddess that has a triple aspect. She is the Goddess of three important skills for the Celtic people: Poetry, Smithing, and Healing. As the ‘bright one’, she is connected to fire, sun, and hearth. This is also her connection to Smithing. As the ‘exalted one’, she is connected to high places, like hills and such, and high state of mind, in essence wisdom.Since she is associated with wisdom, she is linked as the Goddess of Poetry and in some cases a Goddess of Art. Wisdom also makes her the Goddess of Healing and that, in turn, makes her the patroness of childbirth. Interestingly enough, she is said to be the daughter of Boann the Goddess of Fertility.

As a warrior maiden, which is a not a very predominant concept of this Goddess, she is seen as a virgin (much like Athena). But, in most Celtic Mythology, Brigid was a mother to a son with a mortal king (and husband). When her son died in a battle against the Fomorians (a chaotic race similar to the Greek Titans who were considered wild and uncivilized), she was said to be the first to keen, an Irish lamentation that combines weeping and singing. She is also said to be the inventor of whistling. so as to single to people at night as one is traveling.

Brigid is a very important Goddess in Celtic Mythology whose role/position in their ‘pantheon’ evolved becoming very complex. Learn more about her here: http://www.druidry.org/library/gods-goddesses/brigit

-Blog Barista

Anxiety of school starting soon will drive me crazy!