Here are a few invocations, in Gaulish and English, to enable you to call on the Dêuoi.

To Cernunnos:

Gediyins gwuyûmi
Eti woxtlus wegyûmi
Carnonon wediûmi
Tigernon Caiti
Dîclâwetos Cingi
Dêwos Arelayetyo Marwon
Eti detyo ulânon
Yo dîclâwetis Cingon Dêwobo,
anson gediyins Dêwobo beretyo.

Prayers I pour out
And words I weave
Carnonos I invoke
The Lord of the Wood
The Opener of the Way
The God Who Guides the Dead
And gives prosperity
That he open the way to the Gods
bear our prayers to the Gods.

To Sironâ:

Gediyins gwuyûmi
Eti woxtlus wegyûmi
Sironin wediûmi
Dêwin Lugrâs
Dêwin Admesserâs
Ariyin Natrigon
Ariyin Andounnânon
Yâ detsi slaniyin amê
Eti wirobo anextlon bouboc.

Prayers I pour out
And words I weave
Sironâ I invoke
The Goddess of the Moon
The Goddess of Time
Lady of Serpents
Lady of Wells
That she give health/safety to us
And protection to people and cattle.

To Rosmertâ:

Gediyins gwuyûmi
eti woxtlûs wegyûmi
Rosmertin wediûmi
Weletin Mârin
Wegyetin Tonketi
Tigernin Tirri
Dêwin Medi Wlati
yâ detsi boudin
eti wirobo anextlon bouboc.

Prayers I pour out
and words I weave
Rosmertâ I invoke
The Great Seeress
The Weaver of Fate
The Lady of the Land
The Goddess of the Mead of Sovereignty
that she give prosperity/victory
and protection to men and cattle.

To Lugus:

Gediyins gwuyûmi
Eti woxtlus wegyûmi
Lugun wediûmi
Dêwon Gaisi
Tigernon Methâs
Dêwon Alkerdânon
Tigernon Louketi
Yo detis wissun me
Eti wirobo anextlon bouboc.

Prayers I pour out
And words I weave
Lugus I invoke
The God of the Spear
The Lord of the Harvest
The God of All Arts
The Lord of Lightning
In thanks that he gave death to the disease
And protection to people and cattle.

To Eponâ:

Gediyins gwuyûmi
Eti woxtlus wegyûmi
Eponin wediûmi
Dêwin Epon
Rîganin Tîri
Dêwin Ulaties
Rîganin Methâs
Yâ detsi boudiyin amê
Eti wirobo anextlon bouboc.

Prayers I pour out
And words I weave
Eponâ I invoke
The Goddess of Horses
The Queen of the Land
The Goddess of Sovereignty
The Queen of the Harvest
That she give prosperity to us
And protection to people and cattle.

To Taranis:

Gediyins gwuyûmi
Eti woxtlus wegyûmi
Taranin wediûmi
Dêwon Taranês
Tigernon Nemi
Dêwon Rotâs
Tigernon Wiriâs
Yo detis boudiyin amê
Eti wirobo anextlon bouboc.

Prayers I pour out
And words I weave
Taranis I invoke
The God of Thunder
The Lord of Heaven
The God of the Wheel
The Lord of Truth
That he give victory to us
And protection to people and cattle.

To Grannus:

Gediyins gwuyûmi
Eti woxtlus wegyûmi
Grannon wediûmi
Dêwon Sunni
Tigernon Slani
Dêwon Tenetodubri
Tigernon Louki
Yo detis slaniyin amê
Eti wirobo anextlon bouboc.

Prayers I pour out
And words I weave
Grannos I invoke
The God of the Sun
The Lord of Health/Safety
The God of the Fiery Water
The Lord of Light
That he give health/safety to us
And protection to people and cattle.

Driving west over the Whitehair Bridge, across the Saint John’s River, there is an abrupt transition from restaurants and marinas to deep forest. The trees are suddenly dense, the ground marshy, dotted with pools of water. Down there, a few feet north of the bridge, on the west bank, where the forest is deepest, there was once a town called Crow’s Bluff. It lasted from the 1870s to the 1930s. They finally took out the post office in 1932, and the last family moved away following floods in 1938. It was doomed almost as soon as it was founded, as the new railroads cut into the riverboat trade on which its economy depended. Now, where there were once houses, a hotel, and a service station, at the least, are now not even foundations. The forest has taken it all back. But the spirits aren’t all gone. They persist, giving a faint sense of uneasiness to even the least sensitive. The current owners of the land block all access to the old town site, for reasons unknown. Perhaps it’s to escape liability for injured hikers, perhaps to hide illegal activity of some sort, or perhaps they know something of the spirits that are there. There are a lot of ghosts along the Saint John’s.

This river has seen a lot of history. Three genocides, three conquests, at least four wars, slavery and Jim Crow, the coming and disappearance of languages and cultures, settlements and farms, hopes and dreams. It was first named Rio de San Juan by the Spanish who conquered Florida in the 1500s. In the process, the diseases they brought wiped out 90% of the population, hundreds of thousands of human beings. Before the Spanish renamed it, the Timucua, about forty miles downstream from the bridge, called the river Welaka, “Chain of Lakes”.

The Timucua were not the first in this part of the river, though. That distinction belongs to the Mayaca, a fishing people whose language is lost except for a place name or two and the name of the tribe itself. Their main settlement was at Mayaca town, now Astor, twenty miles downstream, halfway to Timucua country. The Mayaca had a village on the site of what is now Hontoon Island State Park, upstream, a couple miles south of the bridge. They were apparently divided into animal clans, who lived in their own parts of the village, because great wooden statues of an owl and an otter have been dredged from the river-bottom. When the Spanish first got here, they were a numerous people, powerful in their section of the river. By the time the Spanish got around the sending them missionaries, fifty years or so later, their numbers had been greatly reduced by plague.

In the early 1700s, Muskogee and Hitchiti Creeks, in the employ of the English settlers of South Carolina, began raiding the Florida Indians for slaves. The people kidnapped were taken to Charleston and sold to plantation owners in the Caribbean. Those Caribbean plantations were essentially death camps for Indians. Overwork and disease killed almost all the Timucuas and Mayacas sent there. In the mid 1700s, the last remaining Mayacas moved south to the shores of Lake Okeechobee, where they fought for survival with the local peoples. A few Timucuas apparently settled Hontoon Island for a while, but they didn’t last long. By 1763, when the Spanish turned Florida over to the English, there were fewer than 100 Timucuas left, out of an original population of 250,000 to half a million. They had all moved to Saint Augustine, where Spanish guns could protect them from the slave raids. When the Spanish left, they took these last survivors with them to Cuba. A few Cuban families are said to claim Timucua ancestors to this very day, but I am not aware of any Mayacas left.

During the period of English rule in Florida, the Creeks moved south into the now empty province of Florida and settled along the Saint John’s. English-speaking Scots-Irish settlers also did, at about the same time. So, too, did displaced Yamasees from South Carolina, and Yuchis from what would later be called Tennessee, and runaway African-American slaves from Georgia and South Carolina. All settled along the river, bringing their cultures and histories with them, leaving their spirits behind, shaping the land. The Creeks, Yamasees, Yuchis, and African-Americans gradually combined into a single people, the Seminole, who still speak three languages – English, Muskogee Creek, and Mikasuki, a descendent of Hitchiti.

The American Revolution at first had hardly any effect, here. Neither did the return of the Spanish administration as a result of the Treaty of Paris, in 1783. The population remained the same mix of Seminoles and whites as before, living in the same uneasy tension as ever. The American conquest in 1819 brought changes, though. American rule brought more white settlers, who came into conflict with the Seminoles over land, grazing, springs, and hunting rights. The first Seminole War was fought mainly in north Florida, and affected the middle Saint John’s valley mostly by causing an influx of Seminoles after the war, to land promised them to replace land stolen. The Third Seminole War was fought in south Florida down in the Everglades. But the Second Seminole War, fought in the 1840s, took place right here, on either side of the Saint John’s. It was an affair of small unit engagements, grinding guerrilla war, massacres and atrocities by both sides. It went on for years. In the end, the whites won. The land was “ethnically cleansed”, most of the Seminoles deported to Oklahoma, where the bulk of the Seminole people still reside. A few escaped south to the Everglades, where they fought for generations until they finally won recognition and rights. They are also still there, as the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

Only a little more than a decade elapsed between the end of the Second Seminole War and the start of the American Civil War. During that time, slavery put down roots in north Florida, and, to a limited extent, also in the central Saint John’s Valley. There was a sugar mill up near DeLeon Springs with slaves, Volusia Plantation, across the river from what is now Astor, and a couple plantations near Ocala, about an hour from here by car. The sugar mill was burned by Union troops during the Civil War, when Union raiders moved up and down the Saint John’s, chased by Confederate defensive boats.

With the end of the Civil War came another influx of white settlers, this time many of them from up north or from Europe. Towns like Crow’s Bluff, Saint Francis, and Oldtown were settled, persisted awhile, and then faded. This land is dotted with ghost towns, more than in most parts of the country. A few settlements, Astor, twenty miles north of here, or Paisley, eight or nine miles west of the river, last to this day. African-Americans also came, drawn by the turpentine industry, but laboring under the restrictions of full-on Jim Crow segregation.

The Great Depression hit the area hard. Many towns died, and those who remained survived by subsistence agriculture and moonshining. Prosperity didn’t come until the years after the Second World War, and then it was modest. Still, roads were paved, the Whitehair Bridge built, businesses established, Jim Crow replaced by subtler forms of discrimination, tar paper shacks replaced by trailer homes, libraries and schools and community centers established. People of many kinds moved in, and the population, always diverse, became more so. For an area that had never had it very good, it was progress, of a sort.

And all this has left its mark on the land. The spirits of all these peoples persist and linger on. This land, like any other, is the product of all of its history, the hopes and the horrors, the heroes and the villains, and those who were both. The layers pile up, and pile up, and new history grows from them. But older than all of them, older than even the Mayacas, older than human settlement in these lands, there is the river, flowing endlessly northward to the sea.

This is an outline for a possible reconstructed Gaulish ritual system, adapted to modern circumstances. The basic sources for this are Indo-European ritual, as reconstructed by Ceisiwr Serith and others, Greco-Roman sacrificial custom, modern Druid ritual, and the rituals of related cultures like the Germanic and Baltic peoples. In addition, it is influenced by what can be learned from the archaeological record. It is designed for one-person or small-group indoor rituals, and so is missing the procession, which formed a part of much Iron Age ritual practice.

A word should be said about what is acceptable to offer to the Gods. In ancient times, animals were the main offerings. They were consumed in the feast after the ritual, if the rite was to Dêwoi Ueronadoi, and buried whole without a feast, if the rite was to Dêwoi Andernadoi. For offerings to Dêuoi Ueronadoi, the animals of choice were pigs and sheep. For Dêuoi Andernadoi, the preferred offerings were cattle, often old cattle that were near the end of their natural lifespan.

In modern times, animal sacrifice is likely to be rare or nonexistent, so substitutes must be used. Animals made of bread may be used. In this case, they should represent an appropriate type of animal. Alcohol is always a good offering to the Gaulish deities, and may be of several types. Mead should not, however, be offered to Rosmertâ or Eponâ, as these Goddesses give mead. Wine is always acceptable, as it was a high-prestige drink in ancient Gaul. The exception to this may be Sucellus and Nantosueltâ, who are deities of wine. Juice or soft drinks are never acceptable, and might be seen as trying to cheat the Gods. Whole milk is a good offering, though not as good as alcohol. Skim or reduced fat milk is not acceptable, for the same reason as juice. Prepared foods, a feast or meal, is acceptable, for Dêwoi Ueronadoi only, provided the above rules are adhered to.

I. Urextus Noibodubri/Making of Holy Water: This is designed to bless water for use in purifying people before ritual. It is a modern innovation. In ancient times water from a holy well would have been used, or morning dew, or water taken at dawn from a stream over which the living and the dead have passed.

Hold cup of water or point at it. Say:

Esîtu matir Dêwon, Woberos albiwâs
Esîtu berus alwissous, al runodelgetâ
Esîtu Alboudidêwâ, Dêwâ Ulani
Esîtu Dêwâ Talamonos, berus alwlatês
Cenâ tu wastî emmos, canti tu emmos lânos.

You are the Mother of the Gods, the Source of All Life
You are the source of all wisdom, the keeper of all secrets
You are the Goddess of All Victories, the Goddess of Prosperity,
You are the Lady of the Land, the source of all sovereignty
Without you, we are empty, with you we are full

II. Glanosagon/Purification: This is the actual purification of the participants. Other Indo-European cultures have used hand washing, or other similar rites.

Sprinkle water onto all participants. Say:

Glanosagûmi suos, entrâseteyos in anton noibon, enceseteyos are Dêwobi.

I purify you all, that you may enter the holy place, that you may come before the Gods.

III. Kentus/ The Beginning:
A. Tauselos/ Quiet: This establishes a holy silence for ritual to begin. The holy space is separated out from the mundane realm, and belongs to some extent to the realm of the Gods. Therefore, things said in ritual can echo through the worlds, and have a greater impact than words spoken in other settings.

Say:

Tauelete, tauselete, tausete
Tauselos noibos bieto.

Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet,
Let there be a holy quiet.

B. Urextos noibotenetos/Making of Sacred Fire: The Sacred Fire represents Brigantiâ, the daughter of Taranis, and the Goddess of high places, and of the hearth. It is the holiest part of the sacred space, and forms a route of communication with the divine realm. Its light protects the sacred space, and it serves as a symbol of the presence of the divine spirit and the sacred center of all things. For indoor rituals, we use a candle, but for outdoor rituals, a fire is more appropriate.

Light the fire candle. Say:

Esîtu medyos alpetânon, aidus cintus in tanî cintî
Esîtu louxs sonni, randityo dîyon es noxtiê
Esîtu aidus papas aidletâs, papon aidun âwotor es te
Esîtu duxtir Taranês, Anatiâ Albiyin in Bitê
Te âwûmi, aide, in cinge Brigindonâs

You are the center of all things, the first fire at the beginning of time
You are the light of the sun, which marks out day from night
You are the fire of every hearth, all fires are lit from you
You are the Daughter of Taranis, the Soul of Heaven in This World
I make you, fire, in the way of Brigindonâ

C. Urextus Cagi / Making the Rampart: This is a modern innovation, and can be omitted when the ritual is being held in an existing holy place, or a dedicated ritual space used for no other purpose. However, these days, very few of us have access to such spaces. Personal rituals are often held in living rooms or bedrooms, or other places with multiple uses. Public rituals are held in multi-use facilities, or the back rooms of New Age shops, which are often used by readers and the public. This part of the ritual, then, purifies those sorts of spaces, and makes them suitable for ritual use.

Light small candle (or take a splint from the fire), take it about the holy place, saying

-Glanâmi soanton noibon
-Loukê noibê

-I purify this holy place
-By holy light-

IV. Areadbertâ/Pre-Offering:

A. Adbertâ Tenetê/Fire Offering: This part of the offering honors and strengthens the Sacred Fire, to help protect the sacred space. It is one of the most traditional and common elements of our ritual system. Here we light incense from a candle. If there is an actual, outdoor, sacred fire, it is better to put powdered incense directly into the fire. Butter or oil can also be used.

Light incense with fire candle. Place in holder, saying:

Demmos sotun tei, tenete
Demmos sotun tei, Duxtir Taranês
Demmos sotun tei, Brigindonâ
Esîyo nertos,
Eti anegesyo soanton uritt aldrukon.

We give you this incense to you, fire,
We give this incense to you, Daughter of Taranis,
We give this incense to you, Brigindonâ,
That you are strong,
And that you protect this place against all evil.

B. Adbertâ Carnonû/Offering to Cernunnos: This is a small offering to Cernunnos, so he will open the way to the other deities and divine realms. This makes certain that prayers go where they are supposed to, and that clear communication is maintained. Cernunnos is called on in every ritual as gatekeeper and Opener of the Way.

Pour out a small amount of wine or whatever else you are offering into the offering bowl. Say:

Gediyins gwuyûmi
Eti woxtlus wegyûmi
Carnonon wediûmi
Tigernon Caiti
Dîclâwetos Cingi
Dêwos Arelayetyo Marwon
Eti detyo ulânon
Yo dîclâwetis Cingon Dêwobo,
anson gediyins Dêwobo beretyo.

Prayers I pour out
And words I weave
Carnonos I invoke
The Lord of the Wood
The Opener of the Way
The God Who Guides the Dead
And gives prosperity
That he open the way to the Gods
bear our prayers to the Gods.

V. Adbertâ/Offering: This is the main offering of the ritual. It is the heart of the ritual, in which gifts are given to the Gods. We use our offering to Sironâ as an example.

Open bottle of wine and pour out. Say:

Gediyins gwuyûmi
Eti woxtlus wegyûmi
Sironin wediûmi
Dêwin Lugrâs
Dêwin Admesserâs
Ariyin Natrigon
Ariyon Andounnânon
Yâ detsi slaniyin amê
Eti wirobo anextlon bouboc.

Prayers I pour out
And words I weave
Sironâ I invoke
The Goddess of the Moon
The Goddess of Time
Lady of Serpents
Lady of Wells
That she give health/safety to us
And protection to people and cattle.

VI. Natus/Chant: This is where the work of the ritual is performed. In seasonal rituals, seasonal chants or re-enactments may be used here. Or, divination may be done, or any sort of prayers made. Here, we include a healing spell, from a healing ritual I did some time ago.

Say:

Âwûmi umê
Brixtom are waiton
Brixtom are cîcin
Brixtom are cnamûs
Brixtom are anatlin

Âwûmi umê
Brixtom uritt kwurmin
Brixtom uritt anxton
Brixtom uritt aglon
Brixtom uritt trougon

Slanos wer suos bieto
Dîwedos wer sueson anxton bieto
Dîwedos wer sueson kwurmin bieto
Ma trougos wer suos sindiu bietutu
Slanos we suos baragiê bieto

In anuani Dêwin Lugrâs
In anuani Dêwin Admessarâs
In anuani Ariyin Natrigon
In anuani Ariyin Andounnânon
In anuani Sironâs

Duci Bieto

I make for you
Spell for blood
Spell for flesh
Spell for bones
Spell for breath

I make for you
Spell against worm
Spell against pain
Spell against wound
Spell against suffering
Health be on you
An end upon your pain
An end upon your worm
If there is pain on you today
Health be on tomorrow

In the name of the Goddess of the Moon
In the name of the Goddess of Time
In the name of the Goddess of Serpents
In the name of the Goddess of Wells
In the name of Sironâ

So mote it be.

VII. Clawiyâ/Closing:

A. Braton Sironî/Thanks to Sironâ: Here, we give thanks to the main deity called on for the rite, in this case Sironâ. Other deity names may be substituted without any other alteration.

Say:

Braton tei, Sirona,
Are slanon
Are boudion
Are anextlon
Molammos te!

Thanks to you, Sironâ
For health
For prosperity
For protection
We praise you!

B. Braton Carnonû/Thanks to Carnonos: Here, we give thanks to Cernunnos for opening the way to the deities, and ask him to allow space to return to its normal configuration.

Say:

Braton tei, Carnone
Are diclawiyin cingi
Are beriyin anson gediyins
Nu wediemmos te , yo clawes cingon
Eti molammos te!

Thanks to you, Carnonos
For opening the way
For bearing our prayers
No we pray you, that you close the way
And we praise you!

C. Clitâ Noibotenetos/Covering the Sacred Fire: Here, we respectfully put out the Sacred Fire, using the term “covering”, which was used for banking a fire to that would not go out overnight. If using a real fire, it should be carefully banked or covered with ash, with the top smoothed.

Say, to the candle flame:

Esîtu medyos alpetânon, aidus cintus in tanî cintî
Esîtu louxs sonni, randityo dîyon es noxtiê
Esîtu aidus papas aidletâs, papon aidun âwotor es te
Esîtu duxtir Taranês, Anatiâ Albiyin in Bitê
Te celûmi, aide, in cinge Brigindonâ

You are the Center of Creation, the first fire, at the beginning of time
You are the light of the sun, which marks out day from night
You are the fire of every hearth, all fires are lit from you
You are the Daughter of Taranis, the Soul of Heaven in This World
I cover you, fire, in the way of Brigindonâ

Now, put out the candle flame. A fire may be put out here, or allowed to burn through the feast and then put out. Say:

Adbertin uregetar, uregetar Litun. Con nertê, anextlêc Dêwon au nemeton exsagomos.

The offering is done, done is the rite. With strength, and the protection of the Gods, let us go from the nemeton.

VIII. Ulidos/Feast: Following the ritual, it is customary to feast, when calling on Dêwoi Ueronadoi. This can be as simple as sharing a glass of wine or milk, or as elaborate as you wish. Note that the feast is omitted when calling on Dêwoi Andernadoi.

Nemeton was the Gaulish term for a sacred place, a sanctuary.¹ The term is probably derived from: Nemos: Heaven, Sky², though even the earliest Nemetâ have pits and other elements suggestive of Underworld connections.

Elements of a Nemeton:

Nemetâ were built over the course of many centuries, and so have diverse designs. One of the more common designs is the Belgic type of sanctuary, typified by such Nemetâ as Roquepertuse, Gournay, and Ribemont.³ Some of the elements common in such Nemetâ include:

Randon: The Boundary, usually a ditch and bank⁴.

Duoricos: The entrance, a point of communication between the sacred and the profane. Usually takes the form of a bridge over a ditch, and often a monumental gate or portico. Normally in the East.⁵

Tenos: The Fire, usually a campfire, or a candle in much modern usage. Symbolizes the sacred center of the Nemeton, and represents the Goddess Brigantiâ, as well as a point of communication between the Upper Realm and this world.⁶

Andounnâ: The Well, also at the center of the sanctuary. Word can mean “water from below”, but here denotes a pit into which offerings are put, representing a point for communication with the Lower World.⁷

Liccâ: The Altar, a flat stone, often given to the sanctuary by way of dedication, onto which sacred objects may be placed, or offerings poured.⁸

Deluâ: The Image, a statue or post, representing deity. Usually at the center of the Nemeton, sometimes in the Andounnâ.⁹

Tegiâ: The House, usually just a building designed to provide shelter for sacred supplies, divine images, and the like.¹⁰

Platoi Noiboi Alioi/Other Sacred Places:

In addition to formal sanctuaries, a wide variety of places were, and are, recognized as sacred, either as inhabited by land spirits, or else due to their inherent connections to the other worlds. A few of them are listed below:

Andounnâ: A Sacred Well, in this case meaning a spring or water source. Often sacred to healing deities.¹¹

Locus: A lake, usually the home of a spirit, or an entrance to the Underworld, or both.¹²

Abonâ: A river. As we have seen, often sacred to Toutodêwâs.¹³

Liccâ: Here meaning just “stone”. Prominent stones were occasionally the object of cult, and seen as the dwelling place of local divinities or spirits.¹⁴

Bilios: Here meaning “large (holy) tree”. Certain large and prominent trees were seen as the swelling place of spirits, and so more sacred than others.¹⁵

Brigantion: A high place, a mountain or hill. Usually sacred to Toutatis or Brigantiâ.¹⁶

Brogilos: A small, enclosed grove. May be sacred to any number of possible deities and spirits.¹⁷

Pettiâs Noibâs Aliâs/Other Sacred Things:

Here a few objects and/or symbols that might appear on altars or in people’s possession. –Citations are for the –Gaulish terms for these things:

Parios: Cauldron, useful for cooking sacred meals. Used by some as a substitute for the Andounnâ. Used by some as a symbol for the west (Wiccan-derived symbolism) or the east (Irish-derived symbolism).¹⁸

Gaisos: Spear. Used by some as symbol of the south (Wiccan-derived symbolism), or the west (Irish-derived symbolism), or as a symbol of Lugus.¹⁹

Slattâ: Staff, wand. Symbol of the office of welitâ. Some use as a symbol of the office of a druid.²⁰

Cladios: Sword. Used by some as symbol of the east (Wiccan-derived symbolism) or the north (Irish-derived symbolism), or as a symbol of Toutatis and/or Nodens.²¹

Skênos: Knife. Used to cut things. Also, used by some a substitute for the Cladios.²²

Kankâ: Branch. Used to sprinkle holy fluids as part of offerings or magic.²³

Maniaces: Torc. A piece of Celtic jewelry of unclear symbolism. May symbolize binding, rank, or both.²⁴

Rotos: Wheel. A common symbol of the power of Taranis and the heavens. Often used in protective jewelry.²⁵

I. Talamonodêwoi: This term is again my own coinage, from “talamon”, meaning “ground, earth, soil”, and “dêwos”, meaning “deity, spirit”. The Talamonodêwoi, then, are the “Earth Deities”, another word for the Land Spirits. There are few actual examples attested, though there must have been more. A couple examples we do have are listed below:

A. Dusioi: Destructive forest spirits rather similar to the Greco-Roman satyrs, the Dusioi caused damage to orchards and crops, and came to sleeping women at night, having sex with them in the manner of an incubus.¹

B. Morâs: Female nightmare spirits. All we have is the name, reconstructed by linguists. There may or may not be some similarity to Greco-Roman ideas of lamiae, or the Germanic Nightmare.²

C. Bâdities: Here we have an example of why to be cautious of out of date sources. In several old sources, notably Stokes’ Urkeltischer Sprachschatz, this is listed as a word for “nymph”. More recent and better scholarship has disproved this, however. Delmarre lists it as the word for “water-lily”.³

II. Anderoi: A term meaning “Those Below”, this is an attested term for the spirits of the Underworld. Exactly who they are is unclear. From the Chamaliers Inscription, we know that their magic was well known in some way. That they included the spirits of some of the dead is likely. My own experience with them suggests they are unpleasant, including a variety of other “faerie” like spirits, of mischievous or malevolent nature, dwelling in the Underworld. In modern Celtic folklore, the line between the spirits of the dead and the mound-dwelling “faeries” was often very blurred to say the least.⁴

The Matres are an important type of female local or tribal deity found across the Gaulish-speaking world. Their iconography is distinct, and so they must be treated as different from the other types of local Goddess. This iconography suggests that they had connections to fertility, plenty, and fate. Some modern Germanic Heathens treat them as related to the Germanic Idesa, deified female ancestors, and I think there may be something to this, though it doesn’t appear to work in all cases. According to Green, they are depicted in groups of three with: “long garments, sometimes with one breast bared, accompanied by symbols of fertility: babies, older children, fruit, bread, corn, or other motifs of plenty”. They are also shown with spindles, suggesting the link to both spinning and fate. In the Rhineland, they are called by the Latin term Matronae, and their iconography is distinctive, according to Green: “The ‘Matronae’ of the Rhineland are distinctive in that their iconography almost invariably shows a pattern of two mature goddesses wearing huge linen bonnets, flanking a younger girl with long, flowing hair.”

According to Olmsted, there were Matres of:

1. Roman Provinces,
2. Individual tribes or regions,
3. Districts within tribes or regions,
4. Villages and settlements, and
5. Localities.¹

The list that follows, taken from Olmsted, is not meant to be comprehensive, again, but to give some idea of the many types of Matres, their function, and importance:

A. Matres Ollotoutes: This name meaning “Mothers of All Peoples, appears to be a general term, invoking the Matres of all nations, giving us good evidence as to how the Matres were conceived.²

B. Ambirenses Matronae: The Matres of the minor Rhenish tribe of the Ambireni.³

C. Eburnicae Matrae: The Matres of the Eburones tribe.⁴

D. Nemetiales Matrae: The Matres of the Nemetes. Note that they are distinct from Nemetonâ, or from Abnobâ, who were also associated with the territory of the Nemetes.⁵

E. Matres Treveri: The Matres of the Treveri tribe.⁶

F. Brittae Matres: The Matres of Britta, a town in Gaul.⁷

G. Matres Nemausicas: The Mothers of the town of Nimes.⁸

H. Materas Glanicas: The Mothers of the town of Glanum.⁹