Tag: Celtic Mythology

Arianrhod, the Welsh goddess of the silver wheel: her story in the Mabinogi, Caer Arianrhod, the stars and the moon

Arianrhod is the Welsh goddess whose name is usually translated as silver wheel, and who is linked today with the moon, the stars and a castle beneath the sea. In the old tales she is proud, wronged and fiercely her own. Here is the story of Arianrhod, what is old and what is new about her, and how people honour her now.

Who Is Arianrhod?

Arianrhod is one of the children of Dôn, the great family of magicians in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi. Her brother is Gwydion, the most famous enchanter in Welsh story. Her uncle is Math, the magician king of Gwynedd. She lives apart from them all in her own fortress by the sea, Caer Arianrhod, and she answers to no one.

Today Arianrhod is one of the best loved goddesses in modern paganism. Her name and her fortress tie her to silver light, the night sky and the tides, and many people honour her as a goddess of the moon and the stars, of fate and the turning of time, and of a woman’s right to say no.

The Story of Arianrhod

The test at Math’s court

Math, king of Gwynedd, could only live while his feet rested in the lap of a maiden, except when he was at war. When his footholder was lost to him, Gwydion suggested his own sister, Arianrhod. Math tested her by asking her to step over his magic wand. As she did, she gave birth to a fine boy with yellow hair, and as she ran for the door, something small fell from her. Gwydion caught it up, wrapped it in silk and hid it in a chest at the foot of his bed.

The first boy, Dylan, made straight for the sea. As soon as he reached it he took on its nature and swam as well as any fish, and was called Dylan Eil Ton, Dylan son of the wave. The second child grew up in Gwydion’s care.

She was publicly shamed at her uncle’s court. Everything she does afterwards makes more sense once you remember that.

Three destinies

When Gwydion brought the boy to Caer Arianrhod, she was furious to be reminded of her shame. She swore three destinies on him. He would have no name unless she gave him one. He would bear no arms unless she armed him. And he would never have a wife of any race now on the earth.

Gwydion answered each of them with trickery. First he and the boy came to her fortress in a boat disguised as shoemakers. When the boy struck a wren with a single deft shot, Arianrhod laughed and said the fair one had hit it with a skilful hand, and so, without meaning to, she named him Lleu Llaw Gyffes, the fair one of the skilful hand.

Later the two returned disguised as bards. In the night Gwydion conjured the sound and sight of a hostile fleet, and in the panic Arianrhod armed the young man herself. The third destiny could not be tricked, so Math and Gwydion made Lleu a wife from flowers. You can read where that led in our guide to Blodeuwedd.

The woman who said no

Arianrhod is hard to love on a first reading. She curses her own child. Yet look again at what happened to her. She was tested in public, shamed in front of the court, and then her brother kept bringing the evidence to her door. Some readers think Gwydion himself was the father, which the tale hints at but never says. Seen that way, her three destinies are a refusal, a woman declining to play the part others had written for her.

That is why so many people today honour her as a goddess of sovereignty and self possession. She keeps her own fortress, she says no, and she cannot simply be pushed into line.

Caer Arianrhod, the Castle in the Sea

Off the coast of Gwynedd, near the Iron Age hillfort of Dinas Dinlle, a reef of rocks rises from the sea at the lowest tides. It is called Caer Arianrhod, Arianrhod’s fortress. Local tradition says her court once stood there and was swallowed by the waves, and fishermen used to tell of walls glimpsed under the water.

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales surveyed the reef from the air in 2010 and found no convincing sign of anything built by people. It is a natural reef, about 900 metres out, its top showing only at the lowest spring tides. Even so, standing at Dinas Dinlle at low water and watching the line of rocks appear is a moving thing to do. The hillfort itself, partly lost to the sea, is cared for by the National Trust, and you can read about it on Coflein.

Arianrhod, the Stars and the Moon

In Welsh star lore, the constellation Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown, is called Caer Arianrhod, and the Milky Way is Caer Gwydion, her brother’s fortress. It is a beautiful idea: brother and sister set side by side in the night sky. The Northern Crown is a small, curved ring of stars, easy to find on spring and summer evenings between the bright stars Arcturus and Vega.

Her link with the moon comes from her name. A silver wheel turning through the dark is an easy image of the moon, and in the twentieth century Arianrhod came to be honoured as a moon goddess. Many people today work with her at the full moon, when the silver wheel is at its brightest, and at the new moon, when she withdraws into her fortress.

If moon goddesses are your path, our guide to moon goddesses from around the world is a good next read.

The Honest History of Arianrhod

Her story is medieval. Arianrhod appears in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, preserved in the White Book of Rhydderch of the mid fourteenth century and the Red Book of Hergest from around 1400. You can read Lady Charlotte Guest’s translation on sacred texts. She also appears in the Welsh Triads, where she is named as a daughter of Beli, and in a poem in the Book of Taliesin that calls her Arianrhod of fine appearance, dawn of serene weather.

Silver wheel may not be what her name first meant. The oldest spellings are Aranrhod or Aranrot. The second part, rhod, does mean wheel or circle, but the first part may not be arian, silver, at all. Some scholars think it meant huge or round, which would make the silver wheel a later and very attractive reading. Mary Jones’s Celtic Literature Collective gathers the evidence.

The star name is not ancient. Caer Arianrhod as the name of the Northern Crown is first recorded in the nineteenth century, in a collection drawn from the papers of Iolo Morganwg, a brilliant Welsh scholar who is also known to have invented a good deal of his material. It may record genuine folk tradition, but it cannot be traced further back.

The moon goddess is modern. Historian Ronald Hutton notes in his lecture Finding Lost Gods in Wales that Arianrhod has been seen as a star goddess only since the twentieth century, and Robert Graves folded her into his White Goddess in 1948. The Mabinogi itself never calls her a goddess.

None of this makes the modern Arianrhod any less meaningful. A goddess of the silver wheel who keeps her own fortress by the sea has spoken to a great many people. Knowing which parts are medieval simply lets you hold both: the proud, wronged woman of the old tale, and the moon and star goddess she has grown into.

Crystals for Arianrhod

No medieval source links Arianrhod with crystals. The stones below are modern correspondences for her silver wheel, her moonlight and her stars. All are stocked at Mystic Grove.

Moonstone, for the silver wheel

Moonstone glows with a soft blue white sheen, the closest a stone comes to moonlight. It is the first choice for Arianrhod and a gentle companion for intuition and cycles. See our moonstone spheres or choose a moonstone tumblestone.

Rainbow moonstone, for the turning sky

Rainbow moonstone flashes with blue and violet as it turns, like light moving across the night sky. A rainbow moonstone tower makes a lovely focus for full moon work.

Selenite, for clear silver light

Selenite is named after Selene, the Greek moon goddess, and has a soft, silky shine. Many people use it to cleanse their space and other crystals. Our selenite moon bowls are perfect for charging stones under the full moon. Keep selenite dry, as water damages it.

Clear quartz, for the crown of stars

Clear quartz catches light like a star. Seven small pieces laid in a curve make a simple table version of the Northern Crown. Try our clear quartz palm stones or tumblestones.

Labradorite, for the tides and the hidden fortress

Labradorite looks grey until it flashes blue, like a reef appearing out of the sea. It suits Arianrhod’s castle that shows itself only at the lowest tide. See our labradorite towers.

Lapis lazuli, for the night sky

Deep blue lapis flecked with gold has been likened to a starry sky for thousands of years. It is a fine stone for working with Arianrhod as a star goddess. Try a lapis lazuli sphere.

A Simple Full Moon Practice for Arianrhod

This practice is for the full moon, or any night when you want to honour your own choices. You need a white chime candle, a moonstone and somewhere you can see the sky, even through a window.

• Set your space. Place the candle on a white plate or cloth with the moonstone beside it. If you like, lay the seven stone crown described above.
• Look for the moon. If the sky is clear, take a moment to find it. If it is cloudy, that is fine. The wheel still turns.
• Light the candle and say her name three times. Arianrhod, Arianrhod, Arianrhod.
• Hold the moonstone and name one thing that is yours to choose. A boundary you want to keep, a yes or a no that belongs to you, a direction for the next month.
• Rest for a few minutes. Breathe slowly, feel the weight and coolness of the stone in your hand, and let the room fall quiet.
• Close. Thank Arianrhod, put out the candle, and leave the moonstone on a windowsill overnight if you wish.

Signs Arianrhod May Be Calling You

• You feel pulled toward the moon, the stars and the night sky.
• Silver jewellery, wheels, spirals or circles keep catching your eye.
• You are learning to say no and to keep your own boundaries.
• The sea, tides and coastlines feel like home.
• You feel drawn to Wales, especially to Gwynedd and the coast near Caernarfon.

Not sure yet? Our guide to which goddess is calling you has gentle ways to find out.

Questions People Ask About Arianrhod

What is Arianrhod the goddess of?

Today Arianrhod is honoured as a Welsh goddess of the moon, the stars, fate, the sea and women’s sovereignty. In the Mabinogi she is a powerful enchantress who keeps her own fortress by the sea.

How do you pronounce Arianrhod?

Say ar YAN rod. The Welsh rh is a breathy r, as if you breathe out as you say it.

What does Arianrhod mean?

The name is usually translated as silver wheel, from arian, silver, and rhod, wheel. The oldest spellings suggest the first part may originally have meant something else, so silver wheel may be a later reading.

Is Arianrhod a moon goddess?

Not in the medieval sources, but she has been honoured as one since the twentieth century, and she is now one of the best known moon goddesses of the Celtic world.

Where is Caer Arianrhod?

Caer Arianrhod is a reef off the coast of Gwynedd near Dinas Dinlle, south west of Caernarfon. Its top is only uncovered at the lowest spring tides. The same name is used in Welsh star lore for the constellation Corona Borealis.

Who are Arianrhod’s children?

Dylan Eil Ton, who went to the sea, and Lleu Llaw Gyffes, raised by her brother Gwydion. A Welsh Triad also names two other sons, Gwenwynwyn and Gwanar.

Bring Arianrhod home

The Arianrhod artwork from this series now comes on a 13oz white ceramic mug and a 20oz skinny tumbler wrapped all the way round in silver stars and spinning wheels. Each one comes with a printed card telling her story, so it is ready to keep or to give.

Arianrhod Goddess Mug 13oz
£9.99Arianrhod Goddess Tumbler, 20oz Skinny with Straw
£19.99

See all the goddess tumblers

The Danu goddess of Ireland and Dôn of Wales: the mother of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the rivers that may carry her name, and what the old texts really say

Danu is honoured today as the great mother of the Irish gods, the goddess the Tuatha Dé Danann are named after. Yet the Danu goddess is also one of the quietest figures in all of Celtic myth, a mother known almost entirely through her children. Here is what we know, what we do not, and how people connect with her now.

Who Is the Danu Goddess?

In Irish myth the old gods are called the Tuatha Dé Danann, usually translated as the people, or tribe, of the goddess Danu. They are the shining, skilled race who came to Ireland in a cloud of mist, fought the Fomorians, and finally withdrew into the hollow hills when the ancestors of the Irish arrived. The Dagda, Lugh, Nuada, Brigid and the Morrígan all belong to them.

Danu is the goddess they are named after. That makes her, in the way most people tell it today, the mother of the Irish gods: the source from which the whole family flows. She is linked with rivers, with the fertile land, with abundance, and with the deep, slow kind of care that feeds a family over generations.

What makes her unusual is that she has almost no stories of her own. She does not fight, travel or speak in any surviving tale. She is simply there at the root, present in the names of those who came after her.

The Tuatha Dé Danann, the People of Danu

The fullest account of the Tuatha Dé Danann is the Lebor Gabála Érenn, the Book of the Taking of Ireland, put together by Irish monks around the eleventh century. It tells of a series of peoples who settled Ireland one after another. The Tuatha Dé Danann are the second to last. They arrive skilled in magic and craft, defeat the Fir Bolg at the first battle of Mag Tuired, and the Fomorians at the second.

Later, when the Milesians, the ancestors of the Irish, arrive, the Tuatha Dé Danann do not vanish. They go into the sídhe, the hollow hills and ancient mounds, and become the Aos Sí, the people of the mounds. Many Irish stories treat them as still living there, close by and out of sight. If you would like to know more about them, our guide to the Sidhe and Celtic fairies goes deeper.

A people who never quite left, named after a mother who never quite appears.

Interestingly, the monks who wrote the Lebor Gabála were careful to present the Tuatha Dé Danann as a people of the distant past rather than as gods. Reading between the lines, most scholars agree they were the gods of pre Christian Ireland, recast as ancestors so that their stories could be kept.

Danu and the Rivers

One of the loveliest ideas about Danu is that she may be a river goddess. Her name has often been linked with an old word for flowing water, a root that may also sit behind the names of great rivers: the Danube in Europe, and the Don in Russia and in Scotland and England. If that is right, she would be one of the oldest divine names in Europe, a goddess remembered in the water itself.

Scholars still argue about this, and some think the Danube took its name from a separate word for river. Even so, the image has stuck, and for many people Danu is first and foremost the goddess of the river: the source that keeps moving, feeds everything along its banks and always finds its way.

Anu and the Paps of Anu

Many writers treat Danu and Anu as the same goddess, or two forms of one name. Anu, sometimes spelled Ana, appears in Cormac’s Glossary, written around 900, where she is called the mother of the gods of Ireland, who fed the gods well. The Lebor Gabála also names Anand as one of the forms of the Morrígan.

Her clearest mark on the landscape is in County Kerry, where two rounded mountains are called Dá Chích Anann, the Paps of Anu, the breasts of the goddess. Each summit carries a stone cairn. Few places in Ireland show so plainly the old idea of the land as a woman’s body, a mother who feeds all who live on her.

Dôn, the Welsh Mother

Wales has its own version of this hidden mother. In the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, the great family of magicians in Gwynedd are called the children of Dôn. Gwydion the magician is Gwydion son of Dôn. Arianrhod, the silver wheel, is Arianrhod daughter of Dôn. Yet Dôn herself never appears, never speaks and is never described.

Many people see Dôn and Danu as two forms of the same ancient mother, one Irish and one Welsh, since the names are so close. In Welsh star lore first written down in the nineteenth century, the constellation Cassiopeia was called Llys Dôn, the court of Dôn, and the Milky Way Caer Gwydion, the fortress of her son. It is a beautiful image of a family that begins in the river and ends among the stars.

You can read more about Arianrhod, her most famous daughter, in our guide to Arianrhod, the silver wheel.

The Honest History of the Danu Goddess

Danu is a good example of how a goddess can grow far beyond her sources, and the shape of it is simple enough to follow.

The name Danu itself does not appear in any medieval Irish text. What survives is the form Danann, as in Tuatha Dé Danann, which is a possessive, meaning of Danu. Scholars worked backwards from it to the name Danu. Even the earliest texts often call the gods simply the Túath Dé, the tribe of the gods, with Danann added later. You can follow this on the Danu entry on Wikipedia, which sets out the debate clearly.

The great mother goddess image is mostly modern. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries writers filled the gap with a grand earth mother, a Celtic counterpart to Demeter. The medieval writers themselves were far less sure that the Tuatha Dé were gods at all.

Dôn may not even have been female. The Mabinogi never says whether Dôn is a mother or a father. Some early modern antiquarians assumed Dôn was a king. Linking Dôn with Danu is a reasonable modern reading rather than something the old texts state.

The river link is a theory. It is a lovely and quite possible one, but scholars also suggest the name may come from words meaning skill, or good, or that Danu began as Anu with a D added.

Knowing all this does not take anything away. A goddess who survives only in the names of her children, in two mountains and perhaps in a few great rivers, has been remembered in a very particular way. Modern devotion to Danu has built something real on that quiet foundation, and plenty of people find her deeply present in their lives.

Crystals for the Danu Goddess

No old source gives Danu any crystals. The stones below are modern correspondences chosen for what she stands for today: rivers and water, the fertile land, the family line and the stars her children became. Each one is in stock at Mystic Grove.

Moss agate, for the land

Moss agate holds green, plant like patterns inside clear stone, as if a tiny garden were growing within it. It is the classic gardener’s stone and a natural fit for a mother of the land and its abundance. Look at our moss agate towers and spheres.

Ocean jasper, for flowing water

Ocean jasper is covered in soft circles and ripples that look like water moving over stones. It suits a river goddess beautifully and makes a calm, steady companion. See our ocean jasper towers.

Blue lace agate, for the gentle current

Pale blue banded agate carries the colour and pattern of a shallow stream. Many people use it for gentle, honest speech, which suits a goddess people pray to for steady care rather than drama. It comes as a tumblestone.

Lapis lazuli, for the starry family

Deep blue lapis flecked with gold pyrite has been compared to the night sky for thousands of years. With Danu it speaks of the children of Dôn who were written into the stars. Try a lapis lazuli sphere.

Bloodstone, for the family line

Green with red flecks, bloodstone has long been linked with courage and with the strength of a lineage. It is a fitting stone for honouring ancestors, the family you come from and the family you have chosen. You will find it in our tumblestone range.

Clear quartz, for the source

Clear as spring water, quartz is the all purpose stone that can stand in for any other. For Danu it represents the source itself, the clear spring where the river begins. A clear quartz palm stone sits comfortably in the hand.

A Simple River Offering to Danu

This practice can be done beside any river, stream or spring, or at home with a bowl of fresh water. It is a gentle way to say thank you to the people and places that raised you.

• Find your water. Go to a river or stream you love, or fill a clear bowl with water and set it on a table with a dark blue chime candle beside it.
• Light the candle, if you are at home, and hold a stone from the list above.
• Name your river. Say aloud the name of the water in front of you, or of the river nearest your home. Then say Danu’s name.
• Give thanks for your family. Speak the names of the people who helped you grow, by blood or by choice. Living or gone, they all belong in the list.
• Listen. Spend a few minutes with the sound of the water, or rest your fingertips on the surface of the bowl and notice how it feels. Breathe slowly and let your thoughts settle.
• Close. At a river, leave only your words. At home, pour the water onto a plant or the earth outside and put out the candle.

Signs Danu May Be Calling You

• You feel calm and at home beside rivers, springs and moving water.
• Your family history, your ancestors or the people who raised you are on your mind.
• You find yourself drawn to the old gods of Ireland, but none of them feels like your first home.
• Oak trees, river stones or the night sky keep catching your attention.
• You are building something slowly, for those who will come after you.

If you are still not sure, our guide to which goddess is calling you has simple ways to listen for an answer.

Questions People Ask About the Danu Goddess

What is Danu the goddess of?

Today Danu is honoured as the mother goddess of the Irish gods, the Tuatha Dé Danann, and as a goddess of rivers, flowing water, the fertile land and abundance. The old texts say very little about her directly.

How do you pronounce Danu?

Say DAH noo, with the stress on the first syllable.

Is Danu Irish or Welsh?

Danu is Irish. Wales has a very similar figure called Dôn, the mother of Gwydion and Arianrhod, and many people treat the two as one.

Is Danu the same as Anu?

Many writers think so. Anu is called the mother of the gods of Ireland in Cormac’s Glossary, and the Paps of Anu in Kerry are named after her. Scholars are still not certain whether they began as one goddess or two.

Who are the children of Danu?

The Tuatha Dé Danann as a whole, including the Dagda, Lugh, Nuada, Brigid and the Morrígan. In the Lebor Gabála, Brian, Iuchar and Iucharba are named as the three gods of Danu.

Is Danu connected to the River Danube?

Possibly. Both names may come from an ancient word for river, but scholars are divided and it cannot be proven.

Bring Danu home

The Danu artwork from this series now comes on a 13oz white ceramic mug and a 20oz skinny tumbler wrapped all the way round in salmon, water lilies and reeds. Each one comes with a printed card telling her story, so it is ready to keep or to give.

Danu Goddess Mug 13oz
£9.99Danu Goddess Tumbler, 20oz Skinny with Straw
£19.99

See all the goddess tumblers

Cerridwen, the Welsh goddess of the cauldron: her story, the awen, the three drops, the chase and the birth of Taliesin

Cerridwen is the keeper of the cauldron of inspiration in Welsh tradition, the one who brews for a year and a day and does not give her gift easily. Here is who the Cerridwen goddess is, where her story really comes from, what her cauldron means, and the crystals and quiet practices people use to work with her today.

Who Is the Cerridwen Goddess?

Cerridwen is a figure from Welsh legend who owns a great cauldron. In it she brews a mixture that, once ready, gives whoever tastes it the awen: the Welsh word for poetic inspiration, the flowing spirit that the old bards believed came to them from outside themselves.

She is not one of the gods of the Mabinogi. She belongs to a separate tale, the story of how the greatest Welsh poet, Taliesin, came to be born. In that tale she is a powerful wise woman, a mother, a brewer of herbs and a shapeshifter. Over the centuries poets called her cauldron the source of their art, and in the last two hundred years she has grown into one of the best loved goddesses of modern witchcraft.

People come to Cerridwen for three things above all: inspiration, transformation and the courage to begin again. Her story is the old pattern of an initiation, where the self that went in does not come out the same.

The Story of Cerridwen and Gwion Bach

A cauldron for her son

Cerridwen lived with her husband, Tegid Foel, at Llyn Tegid, the lake now known as Bala Lake. They had a daughter, Creirwy, said to be the most beautiful girl in the world, and a son, Morfran, also called Afagddu, said to be the most unfortunate looking. To make up for her son’s looks, Cerridwen decided to give him something better: wisdom and inspiration so great that no one would ever think less of him.

She gathered herbs at their proper times and set her cauldron to boil. The brew had to simmer without stopping for a year and a day. An old blind man named Morda kept the fire, and a village boy, Gwion Bach, was set to stir.

Three drops

At the very end of the year, as the brew finished, three drops leapt out of the cauldron and landed on Gwion’s finger. They burned, and he put his finger in his mouth. In that moment all the wisdom meant for Morfran passed to him. The rest of the brew became poison, the cauldron cracked, and the poison ran away into a stream.

The gift was never meant for Gwion. It found him anyway, and he spent the rest of the story running from what it cost.

The chase

Gwion knew at once that Cerridwen would come for him, so he ran. What follows is one of the great chases of Celtic myth. Each time he changed shape, she changed into the creature that hunts it.

At last Gwion fell into a barn as a single grain of wheat among thousands. Cerridwen became a black hen, scratched through the floor and swallowed him.

The child in the leather bag

Nine months later Cerridwen gave birth to a baby boy. He was so beautiful that she could not bring herself to harm him, so she wrapped him in a leather bag and set him adrift on the water. The bag was caught in a salmon weir, where a young man named Elffin found it. When he opened it and saw the child’s shining forehead, he called him Taliesin, which means radiant brow. Even as a baby, Taliesin spoke in verse.

What the Cerridwen Story Means

Read slowly, the tale follows the shape of an initiation. Gwion takes something he was never offered. He is hunted through every form he can think of. He is swallowed, carried in the dark, and born again with a new name. Gwion Bach ends and Taliesin begins.

That is why Cerridwen is so often called the demanding one. She is not a gentle fairy godmother who hands out talent. Her inspiration is boiled for a year and a day, it burns, and it changes the person who receives it. For anyone who writes, sings, makes or teaches, her story is a reminder that real creative work asks something of you.

The cauldron in Welsh tradition

Cauldrons appear again and again in Welsh story. There is the cauldron of rebirth in the Second Branch of the Mabinogi, which brings dead warriors back to life, and the cauldron of the Head of Annwn in the old poem The Spoils of Annwn, which will not boil food for a coward. Cerridwen’s cauldron sits in this company as the cauldron of knowledge and poetry. Many people today simply say there is one cauldron with many stories.

The awen

Awen is a Welsh word that is still used today. It means inspiration, the creative spark a poet waits for. In modern Druidry it is often chanted as three long sounds, AH, OO, EN, and drawn as three rays of light. The three rays are a modern symbol, created in the eighteenth century revival of Druidry, but the word itself and its link to Cerridwen’s cauldron are genuinely old.

Cerridwen, Samhain and the Moon

No medieval source gives Cerridwen a festival. Today, though, many witches and pagans honour her at Samhain, at the end of October, when the year tips into its dark half. The cauldron is one of the great symbols of Samhain, a place where old things are broken down so that new life can form, and her story of death and rebirth sits naturally in that season. Some versions of the tale place Taliesin’s discovery at the start of May or at Samhain itself, which may have helped the link along.

In modern moon work Cerridwen is usually honoured at the waning and dark moon, the nights for letting go, brewing ideas in private and waiting before you act. A year and a day is also a figure that still lives on in magical practice. Many traditions use it as the length of study before an initiation, which owes something to her slow brewing.

If you would like to read more about the season she belongs to, our guide to Samhain covers its history and traditions.

The Honest History of Cerridwen

Cerridwen is much loved, so it helps to know which parts of her story are old and which are recent.

What the old sources say

The earliest mentions of Cerridwen are in the work of Welsh court poets of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, who name her as the source of their inspiration, much as a classical poet might call on the Muse. Two of these poems survive in the Black Book of Carmarthen, written down around 1250. She also appears in poems in the Book of Taliesin, a manuscript of the early fourteenth century.

The full story of the cauldron, the chase and the leather bag is later still on paper. The earliest surviving copy was written in the sixteenth century by Elis Gruffydd, a Welsh soldier based at Calais, in a vast chronicle of world history. Scholars think the tale itself is centuries older, since the poets clearly knew it, but the version most people read today is a nineteenth century English retelling. You can read an older translation on Mary Jones’s Celtic Literature Collective, and the Eryri National Park has a lovely short retelling tied to the real places around Bala.

What is modern

The idea of Cerridwen as the great goddess of ancient Britain began with the Welsh antiquarian Edward Davies in 1809. In 1948 Robert Graves made her a dark moon and crone goddess in his book The White Goddess, and modern witchcraft took much of its idea of her from there. Historian Ronald Hutton, in his Gresham College lecture Finding Lost Gods in Wales, explains how figures like Cerridwen were built up into deities in modern times.

None of that makes her less real to the people who work with her today. A living tradition grows, and Cerridwen has grown a great deal. It simply means you can enjoy the medieval tale for what it is, and know that the crone of the dark moon is a newer and still meaningful layer.

Her name is also debated. The ending probably comes from an old Welsh word for woman. One scholar read the whole name as crooked woman, another suggested a link with words meaning fierce or to be believed in. No one knows for certain.

Crystals for Cerridwen

No medieval text links Cerridwen with any crystal. The stones below are modern correspondences, chosen for what her story is about: the dark cauldron, the long brew, the change of shape and the spark of inspiration. Each is one we stock, so you can find it in the shop.

Labradorite, for shapeshifting and change

Labradorite looks grey and plain until the light catches it and blue and gold flash across its surface. It is the stone people most often reach for with Cerridwen, because it mirrors the chase: one thing becoming another. Hold a labradorite tumblestone while you journal about a change you are in the middle of, or keep a labradorite tower on your writing desk.

Black obsidian, for the dark of the cauldron

Obsidian is volcanic glass, formed when molten rock cools too quickly to crystallise. That fits a goddess whose cauldron melts things down. It is a traditional Samhain stone and a good companion for the waning moon, when you are clearing out what no longer serves. See our obsidian collection.

Amethyst, for wisdom

Amethyst has been linked with a clear and sober mind since the ancient Greeks. With Cerridwen it stands for the wisdom in the brew, the knowledge that came to Gwion in a single taste. A piece of amethyst by the bed suits dream journalling.

Citrine, for the spark

Golden citrine carries the colour of the three drops. Use it when you want ideas to come, for a writing project, a new course or a creative business. Our natural citrine points and tumblestones both work well.

Smoky quartz, for letting the old self go

Smoky quartz is clear quartz darkened deep in the earth. It is a grounding stone, often used when an ending feels heavy. With Cerridwen it speaks to the part of the story where Gwion has to stop running. Try a smoky quartz tower.

Fluorite, for study

Fluorite is sometimes called the student’s stone. Cerridwen gathered every herb at its proper hour and watched her brew for a whole year, which is about as dedicated as study gets. A rainbow fluorite tower makes a quiet desk companion for anyone learning a craft.

A Simple Cauldron Practice for Cerridwen

This is a gentle practice for the waning or dark moon, or for any evening when you want to call in fresh ideas. You need a small cauldron or heatproof bowl, a yellow chime candle, a pen and paper, and one of the stones above.

• Set your space. Place the cauldron in front of you with the candle beside it and the stone in your hand.
• Light the candle. Say her name aloud three times: Cerridwen, Cerridwen, Cerridwen.
• Write what you are ready to leave behind. A habit, a fear, an old way of seeing yourself. Fold the paper and place it in the cauldron. If it is safe to do so, burn it there. If not, tear it up and leave it in the bowl.
• Write what you are stirring. One idea, one project or one question you would like inspiration for. Keep this paper.
• Sit with the brew. Rest your hands on the warm sides of the bowl, or simply breathe slowly. Some people like to hum or chant the three sounds of the awen, AH, OO, EN, on the out breath. Others sit in silence. Either is fine.
• Close. Thank Cerridwen, put out the candle, and keep the second paper somewhere you will see it for the next month.

Signs Cerridwen May Be Calling You

• You keep returning to cauldrons, brewing, herbs or kitchen witchcraft.
• You are in a season of big change, where the old version of you no longer fits.
• A creative project will not leave you alone, even when you try to set it down.
• Hens, hares, otters or hawks keep appearing in your days or dreams.
• You feel drawn to Wales, to Welsh poetry or to the Welsh language.

If you are not sure which goddess is reaching for you, our guide to which goddess is calling you has some simple ways to find out.

Questions People Ask About Cerridwen

What is Cerridwen the goddess of?

Cerridwen is the Welsh goddess of the cauldron of inspiration, known for wisdom, poetry, transformation and rebirth. In modern witchcraft she is also honoured as a goddess of herbs, magic and the dark moon.

How do you pronounce Cerridwen?

Say ke RID wen, with the stress on the middle syllable. The c is hard, like a k.

Is Cerridwen a moon goddess?

Not in the medieval sources. The link with the moon, and especially the dark moon, comes from the twentieth century, largely through Robert Graves. Many people today still honour her at the waning and dark moon, and that modern practice is perfectly valid.

Is Cerridwen a crone goddess?

In modern witchcraft she is often seen as a crone, the wise elder of the triple goddess. In the old tale she is a mother of grown children, a wife and a skilled brewer, with no mention of great age.

Who is Cerridwen’s son?

Her first son is Morfran, also called Afagddu. Her second, through the swallowed grain, is the poet Taliesin.

What are Cerridwen’s symbols?

The cauldron above all, together with the three drops, the hen, the grain of wheat, the greyhound, the otter, the hawk and the leather bag on the water.

Bring Cerridwen home

The Cerridwen artwork from this series now comes on a 13oz white ceramic mug and a 20oz skinny tumbler wrapped all the way round in cauldrons, hares and herbs. Each one comes with a printed card telling her story, so it is ready to keep or to give.

Cerridwen Goddess Mug 13oz
£9.99Cerridwen Goddess Tumbler, 20oz Skinny with Straw
£19.99

See all the goddess tumblers

Who Brigid is, the three fires she keeps, how the goddess and Saint Brigid of Kildare became so closely woven together, and how to make a Brigid’s cross for St Brigid’s Day

Few figures in Irish tradition are loved as much as Brigid. As a goddess she keeps the fires of poetry, the forge and healing. As a saint she founded a great church at Kildare and gave her name to wells, crosses and a spring festival still kept on 1 February. Here is her story, her symbols, her honest history, and a few gentle ways to honour her at home.

Brigid at a Glance

• Who: an Irish goddess of fire, poetry, smithcraft and healing, and Saint Brigid of Kildare, one of the patron saints of Ireland
• How to say it: BRIJ·id in English; in Irish, Bríd is said BREED. You will also see Brighid, Brigit and Bride
• Name meaning: “the high one” or “the exalted one”
• Family: daughter of the Dagda; mother of Ruadán
• Known for: the three fires, the perpetual flame at Kildare, holy wells, the protection of cattle and the home
• Symbols: Brigid’s cross, the eternal flame, sacred wells, bells, doorways, arrows
• Animals: cows, bees, owls and serpents
• Festival: Imbolc and St Brigid’s Day, 1 February. Next: Monday 1 February 2027
• Colours: white, green and red

Who Is the Goddess Brigid?

In Irish mythology Brigid belongs to the Tuatha Dé Danann, the family of gods who ruled Ireland in the old stories. She is a daughter of the Dagda, the great father god whose cauldron never runs empty. Her name comes from an old Celtic word meaning “the high one” or “the exalted one”, and that sense of brightness and height runs through everything told about her.

The story of her birth is pure fire. Brigid was born at the break of dawn, and as she came into the world a tower of flame rose above her head. The light spread across the land. Cattle thrived, crops grew and people rejoiced. From that first morning she was a goddess of fire and inspiration.

She is also a healer. It is said that wherever she walked, springs of fresh water welled up from the earth, and she became the guardian of healers and midwives. Poets and craftspeople looked to her too, for she was the patron of bards and the one who sparked new verse and new work.

Brigid, Bres and Ruadán

Not all her stories are bright. To make peace between the gods and the Fomorians, Brigid was married to Bres, son of a Fomorian king. Their son Ruadán fought on the Fomorian side in the great battle of Mag Tuired and was killed. Brigid came to the battlefield and grieved for him so loudly that, in the old telling, it was the first keening ever heard in Ireland. It is a reminder that the goddess of the hearth also knows loss.

One old tradition says that one side of Brigid’s face is beautiful and the other is not. Many see this as a sign that she holds both sides of life, the warm and the hard, in the same gaze.

The Three Brigids and the Three Fires

Brigid often appears as three sisters, all called Brigid. Cormac’s Glossary, written in Ireland around the year 900, describes Brigid the poet, with her sisters Brigid the healer and Brigid the smith. Each keeps a different fire:

• The fire of inspiration: poetry, music, words and new ideas
• The fire of the forge: smithcraft, metalwork and making things with your hands
• The fire of healing: warmth, care and the tending of others

These are not three separate goddesses so much as three sides of one creative power. Three is a pattern you meet again and again in Celtic tradition, with three Morrígans and three mothers as well as three Brigids. To know one face only is to know her in part.

Brigantia and the High One

The same old root word that gives us Brigid also gives us Brigantia, the goddess of the Brigantes, a large tribal confederation in northern Britain whose lands ran from what is now Yorkshire to the Scottish border. Carved stones from the Roman period name her. Whether Brigid and Brigantia are the same goddess known in two places, or two goddesses who share a name, is not something the tradition settles, and it is fine to leave the question open. What they share is the sense of height, of sovereignty, and of a protective power watching over the land and its people.

Saint Brigid of Kildare

Saint Brigid lived in the fifth and early sixth centuries and founded a monastery at Kildare, from the Irish Cill Dara, “the church of the oak”. Her feast day is 1 February, the same day as Imbolc. The stories told of her are full of generosity: giving away her father’s goods to the poor, turning water into ale for visitors, and a favourite legend in which a king offered her as much land as her cloak would cover, only to watch the cloak spread across the plain.

The saint carries so many of the goddess’s gifts, fire, healing, wells, cattle and poetry, that a tradition many keep sees them as one beloved figure who simply changed her clothes when Christianity arrived. The Irish loved Brigid too much to let her go. Historians still talk over the details, and both the goddess and the saint can be honoured in their own right.

The perpetual flame at Kildare

At Kildare a fire was kept burning in Brigid’s honour. In the twelfth century Gerald of Wales wrote that nineteen nuns took turns to tend it, and on the twentieth night the fire was left to Brigid herself, and still it did not go out. The flame burned from the fifth century until 1220, when the Archbishop of Dublin ordered it put out. In 1993 the Brigidine Sisters relit it in Kildare, and it has been tended there since.

Holy wells

Brigid’s wells are found all over Ireland, and in parts of Britain too. Two of the best known are at Kildare and at Liscannor in County Clare. People still visit them around her feast day, walking around the well, saying prayers and tying ribbons or strips of cloth to nearby trees. It is one of the clearest places where you can feel how close the goddess of healing springs and the saint of the wells still stand.

St Brigid’s Day today

Since 2023 Ireland has marked a public holiday for St Brigid’s Day, the first named after a woman. It falls on the first Monday of February, or on 1 February itself when that day is a Friday. In 2027 the holiday and the feast day fall together on Monday 1 February. Brigid is also at the heart of Imbolc, the festival of the first light of spring.

Brigid’s Symbols

• Brigid’s cross: the woven rush cross hung over doors for protection
• The eternal flame: her fire at Kildare, and any candle lit in her honour
• Wells and springs: the healing waters that rose where she walked
• Cows and milk: she was said to have a white cow, and she protects cattle and dairy
• Bells and doorways: thresholds, welcome and the turning from winter to spring
• Snowdrops and crocus: the first flowers of her season
• The rowan tree: sacred to Brigid in Celtic herb lore

Brigid and the Cailleach

In Scottish and Irish lore, Brigid meets the Cailleach, the old woman of winter, each year at the turning of the seasons. The Cailleach strikes the ground with her staff to freeze it. Brigid brings the thaw. In some tellings they struggle for the land, and in others the Cailleach rules from Samhain to Beltane and Brigid rules the bright half, so the year passes between them. You can read more in our posts on the Cailleach and her father the Dagda.

How to Make a Brigid’s Cross

Making a Brigid’s cross is the most loved Brigid tradition of all. Rushes were pulled by hand on the eve of her feast, and the cross was made by the fire that evening. If you cannot find rushes, long stems of dried grass, wheat straw or even paper straws work well.

You will need: about 16 rushes or straws, soaked for an hour if they are dry, and four short pieces of thread or small elastic bands.

1. Start with one. Hold one rush upright between your finger and thumb.
2. Fold the second. Fold a second rush in half around the middle of the first, so its two ends point to the right.
3. Turn. Hold the centre firmly and turn the whole piece a quarter turn anticlockwise, so the folded rush now points upwards.
4. Add the third. Fold a third rush in half over both strands of the upright one, so it points to the right again.
5. Turn and repeat. Turn a quarter anticlockwise again, fold the next rush over the strands pointing upwards, and keep going. Hold the centre tightly as you work.
6. Watch the square grow. After a few rounds you will see a woven square form in the middle, with four arms reaching out.
7. Tie the arms. When the centre is as large as you like, usually after 12 to 16 rushes, tie the end of each arm with thread.
8. Trim. Cut the ends of the arms so they are even.

Hang your cross above the front door or over the hearth. Traditionally the old cross from the year before is taken down and burned or returned to the earth when the new one goes up.

Crystals for Brigid

The old correspondences link Brigid with amethyst, jasper, agate and warm metals such as copper and gold. A few stones that suit her well:

• Red jasper: a warm, earthy stone for the fire of the hearth and the forge
• Chevron amethyst: amethyst is one of her traditional stones, and its bands of purple and white suit clear, calm inspiration
• Goldstone: made in fire and flecked with copper, a fitting stone for the smith goddess
• Lapis lazuli: long associated with words, wisdom and the voice, for the poet in her
• Howlite: white like milk and snowdrops, for her season

A Simple Candle Practice for Brigid

This short practice can be done on Imbolc, on a Friday, the day of Venus, her traditional planet, or whenever you would like to ask for inspiration, healing or a fresh start. You will need a white candle, a small bowl of water, and a poem or a few lines of your own writing.

1. Prepare. Tidy your space and set the candle and the bowl of water side by side, fire and well together.
2. Breathe. Take a few slow breaths and let the day settle.
3. Light the flame. Light the candle and say, “Brigid of the three fires, I light this flame in your honour.”
4. Bring her to mind. Many people like to close their eyes and picture her flame rising, or simply sit with the warmth and the quiet sound of the room.
5. Offer your words. Read a poem aloud, or speak a few lines you have written. Poetry and spoken word are her traditional offerings.
6. Ask. Name one thing you would like her help with: a creative project, care for someone you love, or the courage to begin.
7. Bless the water. Dip your fingers in the bowl and touch your forehead, as people do at her wells.
8. Close. Thank her, then snuff the candle. Pour the water onto the earth or onto a plant the next day.

If you would like to see which other goddesses may be close to you, try our gentle guide, Which Goddess Is Calling You?

Signs Brigid May Be Calling You

• You feel a strong pull to write, make or create, especially in the dark weeks of winter
• Candles, fire and the hearth have started to feel important to you
• You keep noticing wells, springs, snowdrops or Brigid’s crosses
• You find yourself caring for others and want to do it with more warmth
• February has always felt like a turning point in your year
• Her name keeps coming up, in books, places or conversations

Questions People Ask

What is Brigid the goddess of?

Brigid is the Irish goddess of fire, poetry, smithcraft and healing, often described as keeping three fires. She is also linked with wells, cattle, the home and the coming of spring at Imbolc.

Is St Brigid the same as the goddess Brigid?

They share a name, a feast day and many symbols, including fire, wells and cattle. A tradition many keep sees the saint as the goddess carried into the Christian age, while historians still discuss how much passed from one to the other. You can honour either, or both.

What is St Brigid’s Day?

St Brigid’s Day is 1 February, the feast of Saint Brigid of Kildare and the same day as Imbolc. In Ireland it is now a public holiday, held on the first Monday of February or on 1 February when it falls on a Friday.

What does a Brigid’s cross mean?

A Brigid’s cross is a woven rush cross made on the eve of her feast and hung over the door or hearth. It was believed to protect the house and everyone in it, and a new one was made each year.

Where do you hang a Brigid’s cross?

Traditionally it goes above the front door, over the hearth or in the rafters. Many people today hang it in the kitchen, near the heart of the home.

What offerings does Brigid like?

Her traditional offerings are poetry and the spoken word. Many people also offer milk, bread, a lit candle or water from a spring, and tend a small flame in her honour on 1 February.

A mini goddess body carving in grey calcite or labradorite makes a gentle focal point for a Brigid altar beside a candle and a Brigid’s cross. For a larger piece, see our goddess body crystal carving collection.

Bring Brigid home

The Brigid artwork from this series now comes on a 13oz white ceramic mug and a 20oz skinny tumbler wrapped all the way round in Brigid’s crosses, candles and snowdrops. Each one comes with a printed card telling her story, so it is ready to keep or to give.

Brigid Goddess Mug 13oz
£9.99Brigid Goddess Tumbler, 20oz Skinny with Straw
£19.99

See all the goddess tumblers

Keep reading: Imbolc Meaning and Traditions · The Dagda, the Good God · The Cailleach · Which Goddess Is Calling You?

The antlered god of the Celts: who Cernunnos was, how to say his name, his torc and serpent, the honest history behind the Horned God, and a quiet way to honour him in the woods

Cernunnos is the antlered god who sits cross legged among the animals, a torc in one hand and a serpent in the other. He is one of the most searched for figures in Celtic myth, and one of the most mysterious, because no story about him survives from the ancient world. What we have are carvings, a single inscription and a great deal of modern love. Here is what is truly old, what is newer, and how people honour him today.

Cernunnos is one of the deities in our guide to Celtic gods and goddesses, which sits within our wider guide to gods and goddesses of myth and magic.

Cernunnos at a Glance

• Who: an antlered Celtic god of the wild, of animals, of plenty and of the forest
• How to say it: ker·NUN·os
• Name means: usually read as “the horned one”
• Where he comes from: continental Europe, especially Gaul (roughly modern France)
• Best known image: the seated, antlered figure on the Gundestrup Cauldron
• Where his name appears: once only, on the Pillar of the Boatmen from Paris
• Symbols: antlers, the torc, the ram horned serpent, the stag, oak and acorns
• Season: honoured by many at Yule and Beltane; one tradition gives him the month of December
• Stones often linked with him: Whitby jet, serpentine, tiger’s eye, unakite, dalmatian jasper

Who Is Cernunnos?

Cernunnos is the name we give to a horned god who appears again and again in the art of the ancient Celts. He is shown as a man with the antlers of a stag growing from his head. He usually sits on the ground with his legs folded, calm and still, with wild animals gathered around him. He does not rule them from a throne; he sits among them.

More than thirty ancient images of an antlered god like this have been found across the Celtic world, so he clearly mattered to many people. In the tradition many keep today, he is a lord of nature, of animals and of abundance, and also a lord of the underworld and of souls: the one who watches over the turning of life into death and back into life again.

His name is usually explained as “the horned one”, from an old root word, ker, connected with horns and with growing large and strong.

The god with no surviving story

Here is the part that surprises people. Unlike Brigid, the Dagda or the Morrígan, Cernunnos has no ancient myth that has come down to us. The Irish and Welsh tales were written down by medieval monks, and he does not appear in them. Everything we know of him comes from stone, metal and one carved word. The stories told about him now, of a forest lord who drives back the darkness, are modern tales inspired by those images, and lovely to enjoy as exactly that.

The Gundestrup Cauldron

The most famous picture of Cernunnos is on the Gundestrup Cauldron, a great silver bowl found in a peat bog in Denmark in 1891. It is around two thousand years old, and it is covered inside and out with panels of gods, animals and strange scenes.

On one inner panel sits the antlered figure. His legs are crossed beneath him. Around his neck he wears a torc, and in his right hand he holds up a second torc. In his left hand he grips a serpent with the horns of a ram. Beside him stands a stag whose antlers match his own, and around him gathers a crowd of wild creatures. It is a scene of complete stillness in the middle of the wild.

Nobody knows exactly where the cauldron was made. What matters is the picture: a god rooted to the earth, holding power in one hand and the coiled life of the land in the other.

The Pillar of the Boatmen: The Only Place His Name Appears

So where does the name Cernunnos come from? From one carved stone in Paris.

In the early 1700s, workmen digging beneath the cathedral of Notre Dame found the blocks of a tall Roman era monument. It had been raised by the boatmen of the river Seine in the time of the emperor Tiberius, nearly two thousand years ago, and it is known as the Pillar of the Boatmen. Its sides show Roman gods and Celtic gods side by side. On one block is a bearded god with antlers, and from each antler hangs a torc. Above him, carved into the stone, is his name. The first letter has worn away, so it reads ERNUNNOS, and the missing C has been filled in ever since.

That is the only time the name is written anywhere in the surviving record. Other antlered gods in other places may well have been called by other names. We use Cernunnos as a convenience, a name that fits the images well, rather than as a certainty. The pillar is now kept in the Musée de Cluny in Paris.

His Symbols and What They Mean

The antlers

The antlers link him to the stag, the greatest wild animal of the old northern forests. A stag sheds its antlers in late winter and grows them again each year, and many read this as the cycle of the year itself.

The torc

A torc is a heavy neck ring of twisted metal, often gold, worn by Celtic leaders and gods as a sign of honour and authority. Cernunnos wears one and holds another, as if he has power to wear and power to give.

The ram horned serpent

A snake with the curled horns of a ram is one of the most unusual creatures in Celtic art, and it often appears with Cernunnos. A serpent lives close to the earth and sheds its skin, so it speaks of the land, of renewal and of hidden places. The ram’s horns add strength and fertility. Together they make a creature of the earth’s own life force.

The stag and the animals

The stag is his closest companion, and in the tradition many keep, bulls, dogs and even rats belong to him too. He is a god of all creatures, not only the noble ones. Oak, ivy, mistletoe and juniper are the plants most linked with him, with acorns as a favourite offering.

Honest History: What Is Old and What Is New

What is ancient. An antlered god was honoured across continental Europe in the Iron Age and Roman era. He is shown seated, with a torc and often a ram horned serpent, and surrounded by animals. One carved stone gives his name as Cernunnos. All of this is real and old.

What is uncertain. We do not know his stories, his festivals or exactly how he was worshipped. He is a continental figure, preserved in art rather than in writing, and he does not appear in the Irish or Welsh tales. Almost everything said about him beyond what the images show is interpretation.

What is modern. In the twentieth century, Cernunnos became the best known face of the Horned God of modern witchcraft and Paganism: the partner of the Goddess, born at Yule, in his strength at Beltane, and returning to the earth at the end of the harvest. This picture is much loved and deeply meaningful to many people, and it goes well beyond the ancient evidence. It is a modern construction built on an old image, and it is fine to hold it that way.

Herne the Hunter and Gwyn ap Nudd

Britain has its own wild figures often linked with Cernunnos.

Herne the Hunter belongs to English folklore. He is a ghostly huntsman with antlers on his head who is said to haunt Windsor Great Park, near an old tree known as Herne’s Oak. The earliest written mention of him is in Shakespeare’s play The Merry Wives of Windsor, from around 1600. Some feel he carries an old British memory of the horned god; others see a local ghost story.

Gwyn ap Nudd comes from Welsh tradition. He is a king of Annwn, the Welsh otherworld, and a king of the fair folk, remembered as a great hunter who rides out with his hounds. He is not antlered, but he shares the same theme: a figure who stands at the edge of the wild, between the world of people and the world beyond.

Neither is the same being as Cernunnos, and no ancient text joins them. What they share is an idea that runs deep in these islands: the lord of the forest who wears the wild as a crown.

How to Pronounce Cernunnos

Most people in Britain say it ker·NUN·os, with a hard K at the start, as in “kernel”, and the weight on the middle syllable. You will also hear ser·NUN·os, with a soft S, and both are widely used. The hard K is closest to how it was likely said, and speaking his name slowly, with care, is a simple act of respect.

Cernunnos and the Wheel of the Year

No festival of his survives, so people honour him at the points of the Wheel of the Year, kept by people of many paths, that feel most like him.

Yule, around the winter solstice on 21 December, is when many honour the horned god as the returning light in the darkest days, the stag sleeping in the frozen forest and waiting for spring.

Beltane, on 1 May, is when many honour him in his full strength: green, fertile and alive, the wild partner of the blossoming earth. Our guide to crystals for Beltane pairs well with this.

A god for December

There is a gentle tradition that gives each month of the year its own deity, drawn from the many cultures that shaped the northern world. In that calendar, December belongs to Odin or Cernunnos, a figure of magic, wisdom and prophecy, celebrated on 31 December, New Year’s Eve, a night for fortune telling and looking ahead. The trees of that month are elder and birch, its animals the owl and the goose, and its flower the narcissus. It is a tradition many keep, and a lovely reason to light a candle for the antlered one as the old year ends.

Crystals for Cernunnos

Earthy, rooted stones suit a god of forest and field.

• Whitby jet: a stone traditionally linked with Cernunnos, made from ancient fossilised wood, so it carries the old forest in it.
• Serpentine: green and smooth, its name and markings echo the ram horned serpent he holds.
• Tiger’s eye: warm and golden like the torc, a stone traditionally associated with steady strength and courage.
• Unakite: a mix of moss green and soft pink, often chosen for growth, patience and the slow cycles of nature.
• Dalmatian jasper: spotted like the coat of a young deer, a playful, grounding stone for honouring the animals in his care.

Green, gold and silver are the colours most linked with him, so a green, gold or white candle suits any of these. A white candle can always stand in for any colour.

A Simple Woodland Offering to Cernunnos

This is a quiet, traditional way to honour him, outdoors if you can, or at a window that looks out on trees if you cannot.

1. Gather your offering. Choose something natural and kind to the land: a handful of acorns, a few oak leaves, some oats or grain, or a piece of fruit. These are the offerings traditionally given to him.
2. Find your place. Walk into woodland, a park or your garden, and find a tree that feels welcoming, ideally an oak. At home, set a small altar with a green or white candle, your chosen stone and a sprig of ivy or evergreen.
3. Settle yourself. Stand or sit still. Take a few slow breaths and listen to the sounds around you: wind in the branches, birds, your own breathing. Many people like to picture the antlered god seated among the animals, as he sits on the cauldron.
4. Speak to him. Say his name three times, slowly. Then speak simply and from the heart, for example: “Cernunnos, horned one, lord of the wild, I bring this gift with thanks for the forest, the creatures and the turning year.”
5. Give the offering. Place your acorns, grain or fruit at the foot of the tree, or on a plate on your altar. Leave nothing outdoors that could harm wildlife, such as plastic, salt or ribbon.
6. Listen. Sit for a few minutes. Notice what you feel and anything that catches your attention. Write it in your journal afterwards.
7. Close gently. Thank him. If you lit a candle, snuff it rather than blowing it out, and return any indoor offering to the earth the next day.

Signs Cernunnos May Be Calling You

• You feel a strong pull towards woodland, and time among trees feels like coming home.
• Deer, stags or antlers keep appearing, on walks, in dreams, in pictures or in conversation.
• You notice oak trees and acorns everywhere you go.
• You feel moved to care for wild animals and wild places.

None of these is proof on its own. If you are wondering whether a deity is reaching out to you, our gentle guide to knowing which deity is calling you walks through it step by step.

Questions People Ask

Who is Cernunnos?

Cernunnos is an antlered Celtic god of nature, animals and plenty, shown in ancient art seated among wild animals with a torc and a ram horned serpent. He was honoured in Gaul around two thousand years ago and is widely honoured today as the Horned God.

How do you pronounce Cernunnos?

The most common pronunciation is ker·NUN·os, with a hard K and the stress on the middle syllable. Some people say ser·NUN·os with a soft S. Both are widely heard, but the hard K is closer to how the name was likely spoken.

Is Cernunnos Irish?

No. Cernunnos is a continental Celtic god, known from carvings and metalwork in places such as France, and he does not appear in the Irish or Welsh myths. Ireland’s great father god is the Dagda, and Britain has its own wild figures such as Herne the Hunter and Gwyn ap Nudd.

What is the symbol of Cernunnos?

His main symbols are stag’s antlers, the torc, a twisted neck ring standing for honour and authority, and the ram horned serpent. The stag, the oak tree and acorns are also strongly linked with him.

Is Cernunnos the same as Herne the Hunter?

Not exactly. Herne is an antlered ghost of English folklore tied to Windsor, first written about around 1600, while Cernunnos is a much older continental god. Many people feel the two share the same spirit of the wild, but there is no ancient source that makes them one.

When is Cernunnos celebrated?

No ancient festival for him survives, so people honour him today at Yule and Beltane, and one tradition gives him the month of December and New Year’s Eve. Our guide to Celtic gods and goddesses shows how he fits among the other deities.

Keep reading: Celtic Gods and Goddesses · The Dagda, the Good God of Ireland · Gods and Goddesses: A Guide to the Deities of Myth and Magic · Celtic Circles and Ancient Crystal Magic

The great father of the Tuatha Dé Danann: what his name means, the stories of his club, his cauldron of plenty and his harp of three musics, and a simple hearth offering for an abundant winter

Of all the old gods of Ireland, the Dagda is perhaps the easiest to like. He is huge, hungry, clever and kind, a god who carries a club that can take life and give it back, a cauldron that never runs empty, and a harp that can make a whole hall weep, laugh or fall asleep. As autumn turns to winter and thoughts go to warm kitchens and full tables, he is a lovely god to get to know. Here is who he is, where his stories come from, and a simple hearth offering for the season.

The Dagda at a Glance

• Who: the great father god of the Tuatha Dé Danann in Irish myth
• How to say it: DAG·da in everyday English; closer to DAHG·dah in Irish
• What the name means: “the good god”, good in the sense of good at everything
• Other names: Eochaid Ollathair, “father of all”, and Ruad Rofhessa, “the red one of great knowledge”
• Known for: strength, wisdom, abundance, druid magic, music and his huge appetite
• His three great possessions: a club, the cauldron called the Undry, and the harp Uaithne
• Family: son of Danu in the traditional teaching; father of Brigid and of Aengus Óg
• Festival: Samhain, when he meets the Morrígan by the river
• Symbols: club, cauldron, harp, torc, oak
• Colours: white and red

Who Is the Dagda?

The Dagda is the chief father figure of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the divine people who, in Irish myth, ruled Ireland before the arrival of mortal kings. The traditional teaching names his mother as Danu, the great mother goddess from whom the Tuatha Dé Danann take their name.

He is a warrior, a druid, a harper, a builder and a wise leader all at once. He is strong enough to turn a battle, clever enough to outwit his enemies and skilled enough to play music that changes how people feel. He is linked with fertility, the harvest, the weather and the good things of the earth.

He is also, unlike the graceful gods of Greece and Rome, wonderfully earthy. The old stories describe him as a huge man with a great belly, wearing a short rough tunic and dragging his club behind him so that it ploughed a track along the ground. He eats enormously and laughs easily. That roughness is part of his charm, and part of his meaning. He is a god of the body, the hearth and the land, and he does not pretend to be anything grander.

What Does Dagda Mean?

Dagda means “the good god”. This does not mean good in the moral sense, gentle or well behaved. It means good at things. In one story, when the Tuatha Dé Danann are preparing for battle and each of them lists what they can do, the Dagda says he will do all the things they have promised, by himself. Everyone agrees: he is the good god.

His other names fill in the picture. Eochaid Ollathair means “father of all”, a title of the great protector and provider. Ruad Rofhessa means “the red one of great knowledge”, pointing to his wisdom and his skill in druid magic.

The Club, the Cauldron and the Harp

The Dagda owns three famous magical possessions. Together they tell you almost everything about him.

The club

His great club, called the Lorg Mór in the traditional teaching, is so heavy it takes several men to carry it. One end can kill nine men with a single blow. The other end, the handle, can touch the dead and bring them back to life. It is the power over life and death held in one hand, and it is the weapon he used to help win victory for his people at the Battle of Mag Tuired.

The cauldron of plenty

His cauldron, the Undry, is a cauldron of endless plenty. No company ever went away from it hungry, and no one ever left the Dagda’s presence unsatisfied. In the old tales it was one of four marvels the Tuatha Dé Danann brought with them to Ireland from the four great cities of their homeland, alongside the Stone of Fál, the spear of Lugh and the sword of Nuada. The cauldron is abundance and generosity in its simplest form: there is enough, and it is shared.

Cauldrons are central to Celtic myth more widely, from the Irish cauldron of plenty to the Welsh cauldrons of rebirth and inspiration, and the Dagda’s cauldron is one of the earliest and best loved.

The harp of three musics

His harp, called Uaithne in the traditional teaching, is made of oak and carved with great skill. It answers only to him. It is said to set the seasons in their proper order, and it can play three kinds of music: the music of sorrow, which makes all who hear it weep; the music of joy, which makes them laugh; and the music of sleep, which sends them into a deep slumber.

After the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, the Fomorians stole the harp and carried it off to their hall. The Dagda went after it with Lugh and Ogma. When he called out to it, the harp leapt from the wall into his hands. He played the music of sorrow, and the Fomorians wept. He played the music of joy, and they laughed. Then he played the music of sleep, and while the whole hall slept, the three gods walked out unharmed with the harp.

The club, the cauldron and the harp: the power over life and death, the abundance that feeds everyone, and the art that moves the heart.

The Dagda and the Battle of Mag Tuired

The Dagda’s greatest stories come from the tale of the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, when the Tuatha Dé Danann fought the Fomorians, a race of powerful beings linked with chaos and the deep, for control of Ireland.

Before the battle, the Dagda was sent to the Fomorian camp to ask for a truce. The Fomorians, knowing his love of porridge, set a test. They filled a pit in the ground with a vast meal of porridge, milk, meat and fat, and told him he must eat all of it or die. The Dagda took up a ladle big enough to hold a man and a woman, ate every last scrap, scraped the bottom of the pit with his finger, and then lay down for a well earned sleep. It is one of the funniest stories in Irish myth, and it shows his good humour as much as his appetite.

The Dagda and the Morrígan at Samhain

At Samhain, shortly before the battle, the Dagda went to the river Unshin in Connacht (written Unius in older spellings). There he found the Morrígan, the Great Queen, washing in the river with one foot on each bank. They came together there, and in return she told him where the Fomorians would land and promised to help the Tuatha Dé Danann win.

The traditional teaching says that the Dagda and the Morrígan consummate their union on Samhain so that crops, cattle and people would thrive in the year ahead. It is a meeting of two great powers: his abundance and her power over fate and death, coming together on the night the old year ends and the new one begins. In 2026, Samhain falls on Saturday 31 October. Our guide to the meaning of Samhain tells more of the festival.

His Family: Brigid and Aengus

The Dagda is the father of Brigid, the beloved goddess of poetry, healing and smithcraft, whose festival is Imbolc on 1 February. In some of the old sources she is three sisters, all named Brigid, each keeping one of the three sacred fires.

He is also the father of Aengus Óg, the young god of love and beauty. In a tradition many keep, Aengus was born of the Dagda’s meeting with the Morrígan by the river; other tellings name Boann, goddess of the River Boyne, as his mother. Aengus later won the Dagda’s great home at Brú na Bóinne, the ancient passage tombs by the Boyne that include Newgrange, by a clever trick. He asked to live there for a day and a night, and then pointed out that all of time is made of days and nights, so the house was his forever.

The Honest History

Everything we know about the Dagda comes from Irish stories written down by Christian monks, mostly from around the eleventh and twelfth centuries, although much of the material is older. The tale of the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, his most important story, survives in a single manuscript copied in the sixteenth century, while the text itself is centuries older.

The monks were not writing as worshippers, and some scholars think the comic picture of the Dagda, the huge belly, the short tunic and the porridge pit, may partly reflect their own humour at the expense of an old god. Others see it as true to a very old idea of the father god as earthy, generous and close to the land. Both may be true.

We have no inscriptions or temples naming him. Some scholars compare him with the Gaulish god Sucellus, the “good striker”, who carries a mallet and a pot, but that link is a suggestion, not a certainty. The way many people honour him today, as a god of abundance, the hearth and generosity, is a modern devotional practice built on the old stories, and a warm and fitting one.

Crystals for the Dagda

Earthy, warm stones suit his altar:

• Red jasper: grounding and steady, the stone most often linked with him, in his colour of red
• Tiger’s eye: golden brown and warm, traditionally kept for strength, confidence and good fortune
• Goldstone: glittering copper brown, a cheerful stone often kept for abundance and generosity
• Mahogany jasper: deep red brown like an oak hearth, a stone of stability and steady effort

Plants traditionally linked with him include oak, clover and aspen. Oak is especially fitting, as his harp was made of it.

A Simple Hearth and Abundance Offering to the Dagda

The offerings traditionally given to the Dagda are simple, everyday things: oats, grain, bread and music. This hearth practice suits Samhain night, Saturday 31 October 2026, or any evening as the moon grows towards the full Beaver Moon in late November, a waxing time traditionally used for growth and plenty.

1. Prepare the hearth. Choose a kitchen table, hearth or altar. Place a red or white candle there; a white candle can stand in for any colour. Set a small cauldron or bowl beside it, with your crystals around it.
2. Fill the cauldron. Add a handful of oats or grain, or a piece of fresh bread. If you are cooking a meal or a pot of porridge, set aside a spoonful for him.
3. Light the candle and call to him. Speak aloud: “Dagda, good god, father of all, keeper of the cauldron that never empties, I honour you at this hearth. May there always be enough here, and enough to share.”
4. Offer music. Play a piece of music you love, sing, hum or play an instrument if you have one. Music was one of his great gifts, and it is one of the best offerings for him.
5. Sit with the image of plenty. Close your eyes and picture a great cauldron over a fire, steaming and full, with people gathered round it. Notice the warmth and the sense of enough.
6. Write a list of plenty. In your journal, note the things you already have enough of, and one way you could share your abundance this winter.
7. Close with thanks. Thank him and snuff the candle.
8. Share the plenty. The next day, scatter the oats or bread outside for the birds, and if you can, give something to a food bank or a cause that cares for the land, an offering in his generous spirit.

Signs the Dagda May Be Calling You

• A pull towards cooking, feeding people and gathering friends round a table
• A growing interest in music, especially the harp or traditional Irish music
• Noticing oak trees, acorns and cauldrons everywhere you look
• A season of life where you need to provide for others or step into a leadership role
• A wish to feel more grounded, generous and at home in your own body

If you are drawn to the wider family of the old gods, our guide to Celtic gods and goddesses introduces them all.

Questions People Ask

What is the Dagda the god of?

The Dagda is an Irish father god linked with abundance, fertility, strength, wisdom, druid magic and music. He is the chief father figure of the Tuatha Dé Danann.

What does the name Dagda mean?

Dagda means “the good god”. The word good here means good at everything rather than morally good: he is warrior, druid, harper and leader all in one.

What magical items does the Dagda own?

He owns a great club that can kill with one end and bring the dead back to life with the other, the Undry, a cauldron that never runs empty, and the harp Uaithne, which plays the music of sorrow, joy and sleep.

Who is the Dagda’s partner?

His best known union is with the Morrígan, the Great Queen, whom he meets by the river at Samhain before the Second Battle of Mag Tuired. Some stories also pair him with Boann, goddess of the River Boyne. You can read more in our post on the Morrígan.

Is the Dagda like Zeus or Odin?

He is a father of the gods, and his name Eochaid Ollathair, “father of all”, is often compared with Odin’s title All Father. But he is much earthier than either, with a great appetite, a rough tunic and a strong sense of humour.

How do you pronounce Dagda?

Most English speakers say DAG·da. In Irish it is closer to DAHG·dah, and the modern Irish spelling is Daghda.

Keep reading: The Morrígan, Celtic Goddess of Prophecy · Brigid, Goddess of Fire and Spring · Celtic Gods and Goddesses · Samhain Meaning