God of the sun
The lines surrounding Belenus’s head
may depict the warm, glowing rays of
light emanating from the sun god.God of the sky
This sky god, with his wheel and
lightning bolt, may represent a
deity who is a combination of
Taranis and Jupiter, the sky god
of the invading Romans.Lightning of the Gods
The Celts considered thunder and
lightning to be evidence of the
supernatural activity of the gods,
and treated places struck by
lightning as sacred spots.Wheel of Taranis
The spoked wheel, representing
both the sun’s rays as well as its
movement, was used in the Celtic
world to represent the sun and its
deities, possibly including Taranis.Triple deities
Celtic reliefs often showed the
trio of goddesses carrying
baskets that probably contained
fruits or vegetables, representing
the bounty of the Earth.MYTHS OF THE ANCIENT CELTSTRIPLE DEITIES
The Celts were fascinated by things that came in threes. They
made images of bulls with three horns and gods with three
faces or heads. The Welsh and Irish wrote triads, poems with
three lines that described three concepts. And Celtic legends
often speak of people with three sons or daughters. Gods and
goddesses also came in groups of three. A number of Celtic
carvings and reliefs show a trio of female deities standing
together. This trio of goddesses or “triple mother” seems to
have been considered particularly powerful by the Celts. They
represent both human fertility and the bounty of the Earth,
and have dominion over human life and wellbeing. They
also seem to symbolize the span of human life – many trios
of goddesses take
the form of women
of diferent ages.THE THUNDERER
Taranis was a sky god and a major deity in Celtic
Britain; he was apparently much worshipped
when the Romans invaded the island in the
1st century CE. Latin writers described him as
a god of war and likened him to Jupiter; the
common attribute between Taranis and Jupiter
being the control of thunder. The Celts also had
a sky god who was represented by a wheel or
disc and who governed the sun. Sometimes, this
wheel god is equated with Taranis. The Romans
observed that worshippers of Taranis comprised
a cruel cult. The Celts made sacrifices to Taranis,
with the oferings sometimes including humans
who were burned alive in wooden boats or left to
drown in bogs. This form of worship may confirm
that Taranis, although a sky god, was
related to the Romano-Celtic god
Dis Pater, an Underworld deity.
GOD OF FIRE AND LIGHT
Belenus, also known as Bel or Belus, was a Celtic god of light
and the sun. All his names include an element meaning either
“bright” or “shining”. A widely worshipped deity across much
of Europe, Belenus had shrines that were located as far apart as
Britain, Austria, and Italy. Being associated with healing as well
as the sun, Belenus is also believed to be the Celtic equivalent
of Apollo. As with Apollo, some of Belenus’s shrines
were built near springs, where worshippers went to
drink water in the hope of a cure. The springtime feast of
Beltane in Celtic Britain, during which
fires were lit to mark the lengthening
of the days and the better weather,
may have been linked with the
worship of Belenus.69