Nemeton Segomâros

Nemeton Segomâros

Gaulish Polytheism in the woods of Florida

Segomâros Widugeni
Segomâros Widugeni

Segomâros Widugeni is a well-­known leader in Gaulish Polytheism, having been practicing for almost two decades, and in other related communities for more than 30 years. He is a co­moderator of the Gaulish Polytheism Community on Facebook, as well. He has been active in the Celtic Reconstructionist group Imbas, and the Druid group Ar nDraiocht Fein. He is also the author, under the name Aedh Rua, of the book Celtic Flame, on Irish Polytheism. He hold two Master’s Degrees, in 20th Century German History and Library Science, and speaks two Celtic languages, one of them very rusty. He lives with his wife, who has her own careers, in the woods of rural Central Florida.

Impurity and Sin

This is the first post I have written in response to an ongoing Polytheist controversy. Depending on how it is received, it may be the last. For several weeks, now, the Polytheist blogosphere has been roiled by the question of the question of whether early Polytheisms had concepts of impurity, spiritual contagion, and sin, and, if so, what they entailed. The controversy was started by a warning that attendance at this year’s Many Gods West…

Îuos Lugous – The Feast of Lugus

I. This is a Gaulish ritual for Îuos Lugous, or Lughnasadh. It follows the pattern of other Gaulish rituals I have written, with the exception of the Natus, in this case, a praise poem directed to Lugus. Probably the best offerings to give would be hard apple cider, good wine, or hard liquor of any kind. The ritual should take place on the first of Elembiuos, or else the new moon closest to the first…

The Holidays

I. Rationale for the Placement of Holidays: As we have seen in our column on the Coligny Calendar, Garrett Olmsted translates the word IVOS as “festival”, and finds five major and two minor clusters throughout the year. If the calendar starts at Samhain, or close to it, as we have hypothesized, then we can very roughly place these clusters on the Gregorian Calendar as well. We find that they coincide very roughly with the traditional…

The Coligny Calendar

1. Basics: The Coligny calendar was unearthed in 1897 at Coligny, in France.  It consists of 16 columns inscribed on a sheet of bronze.  At the time of its discovery, it was in fragments.  Much of it is missing.  It is the longest single text in the Gaulish language.1 As we will see, the calendar is a thorough application of the Samos and Giamos principles applied to time. The calendar consists of a cycle of…

Iextâ – Language and Identity

The Gaulish word Iextâ apparently meant “language”.1 However it additionally meant rather more than that, for the cognates in modern Celtic languages include expanded meanings. The Goidelic, and later Irish icht meant “people” or “tribe”, without any linguistic connotation, while the Middle Welsh ieith, and later iaith, meant “language”, “nation” and “race”.2 We can assume, then, that the earlier Common Celtic and Gaulish word likely carried a similar connotation. Iextâ is the Gaulish word for…