Andrasta,, Arnemetia, Belatu Candus, Brigantia, Cocidus, Coventina, and Ocelus

Andrasta

Other Names: Andraste, Andate, Andarta

Andrasta ("Invincible One") was a warrior Goddess (also one of victory) of the Iceni tribe, who accepted sacrifices of hares and, perhaps humans. She is perhaps best known as the deity invoked by the Iceni warrior-queen Boudicca in her rebellion against Rome.

Dio Cassius says she made human sacrifices of captive Roman women to this god in AD 61. Boudica's daughters were raped by Roman soldiers in front of her, and in revenge when she sacked the Roman cities of Colchester, London and Verulamium, she sacrificed the women of these cities in unspeakable manner to Andrasta.

She is sometimes compared to the goddess Andarte, a deity worshipped by the Vocontii of Gaul.

Arnemetia

Arnemetia ("She Who Dwells At the Sacred Grove") was a British-Celtic water goddess. The Celtic people of Britain, worshipped her at Buxton in Derbyshire. There arose two springs the Celts deemed sacred; their goddess presided over them, and those who drank of her waters were cured of wasting disease and sickness.

For many centuries a healing spring known today as St Anne's Well at Buxton, Derbyshire, attracted multitudes of people anxious to partake of its water in the hope of obtaining cures for a variety of ailments. Prior to the Reformation it had been a pilgrim shrine, perhaps the best known in Derbyshire. In fact the healing spring was sacred long before the coming of christianity, for when the Romans arrived in what was eventually to become Derbyshire in search of lead and silver, they found a sacred spring and named their settlement at Buxton Aquae Arnemetiae ; Arnemetia being a Celtic deity.

Her name consists of two parts, or elements, meaning 'in front of', and nemeton, 'a grove', thus the name the Romans gave their settlement can be said to mean the 'water of she who dwells against the sacred grove'. The name, it will be noted, may well have druidic undertones or associations. When the missionary monks of the Celtic Church brought their faith into the remote wilds of Derbyshire they would have come across the great healing spring at Aquae Arnemetiae. Now the Celtic Church was not adverse to utilising pagan holy places and beliefs to promote christianity. Indeed, they openly continued the time honoured practice of the 'Fathers of the Church' of taking over pagan beliefs and practices. Now while it cannot be proved from documentary sources it is likely that either they confused Arnemetia with a Christian saint, or (most likely in my opinion) they sought to show that the goddess was really St Anne under another name.



Belatu Candus

Other Names: Belatu Codres

Belatucadnos ("Fair Shining One") was the British god of war and of the destruction of enemies. He was worshipped in Britain, primarily in Wales. Belatucadnos was probably equated with Cernunnos, because he was similarly depicted with stag-like antlers or horns. The Romans identified Belatucadnos with the Roman god of war, Mars. There is no iconography which is specifically linked with epigraphic dedications to the god, but in the same region, several nameless representations of horned, naked warrior-gods were set up, and it is more than likely that Belatucadros can be identified with some of these depictions.

Brigantia



Other Names: Bride, Brighid, Bridindo Father: Dagda Symbols: Spear, Mural Crown, Globe

Brigantia ("High One") was the patron goddess of healing, smithcraft, and poetry, which represent the mysteries of renewal, transformation, and inspiration. She was considered the all embracing deity of the North Kingdom. She is also associated with fertility as she presides over the birthing of lambs. In Celtic mythology she was at one time the wife to Bres, the half-Formorii ruler of the Tuatha De Danann, and bore him one son Ruadam. When her son was killed in battle "Was the first time Ireland heard crying & shrieking". She was one of the few Goddesses who was a very outspoken critic of war. Later she married Tuireann and had three sons: Brian, Iochar, and Iocharba, who later gained infamy for the killing of Cian, Lugh's father.

She is frequently associated with water and herding and typically resembles the Roman Minerva. She is the Goddess whose face and sovereignty are the source of the appellation Britannia for Great Britain. As a Goddess of sovereignty, she is usually thought of as the Brid of England. In 1667 Charles I had her face placed on the coinage where it remains today, reviving an old custom, first instituted by the invading Romans who adopted her as their own.

As the years went by her importance grew until she took on Danu's attributes of Great Goddess and Progenitrix of the Celtic races. Brigantia is more commonly revered in the British Isles as St. Brigid, whose legends borrow extensively from the goddess. St. Brigid was actually a historic person, living from 450-523 c.e., and founding an abbey in Kildare in the sixth century. She is refered to as "Mary of the Gael" and the foster-mother of Christ. There are more sacred wells to her in Ireland than even St. Patrick, and her legends are many. She was born at sunrise, the house in which she was living blazing into flame which reached to heaven. A pillar of fire rose from her head when she took final vows. She was the mid-wife to the Virgin Mary and helped find the boy Jesus by using divination when he was lost in Jerusalem. She also was said to have diverted Herod's soldiers so that the Holy Family could escape into Egypt. Attributed powers include breathing life into the dead, multiplying food and drink for the needy, and turning her bath water into beer

Cocidus



Cocidius ("The War God" or "Red One") was associated with forests, hunting, and war. With respects to war he was most known as the god of slaughter and bloodshed. He was sometimes equated with the Roman Gods Silvanus and Mars. It was also thought that he was related to the god Segomo. The name Cocidius is obscure, but it is possible that it may refer to 'red', perhaps reflective of bloodshed. He is often depicted as a stylized Celtic warrior with spear and shield. Stone relief was found in Risingham, Yorkshire. One of his major cult centers may have been Hoddam near Dumfires.

Coventina

Coventina was a purely local British goddess of some importance. She is best observed from the period of the Roman occupation, at which time she shows a classical influence but is clearly Celtic in origin. On one bas relief found at Carrawburgh (her main cult center), her name is associated with three nymphs holding vessels with issuing streams of water; on another she is pictured as a water nymph on a leaf, pouring water from a vessel.

It is known that she was looked upon as the queen of river goddesses, particularly of the watershed where the Celtic believe the power of the river deity could be seen and its energy most keenly felt. She was most closely associated with England's Caldew River.

Like other river deities, she represented abundance, inspiration, and prophecy. A well near the river Tyne (Carrowbaugh, Northumberland) was dedicated to the goddess Coventina. Coins were typically offered to the goddess her, and when this well was excavated, it contained 13,500 coins dating from AD 41 to AD 383. The well also contained inscriptions, pottery, a bronze dog and horse, pins, bells, incense burners, objects of jewelry, and even a human skull. These were perhaps thrown in to ask Coventina for favors such as healing. In Scotland she was also the Goddess of featherless flying creatures which may have represented some type of blockage to passing into the Otherworld. There is also evidence of her having been worshipped in Celtic Gaul where reliefs have been found depicting her reclining on a floating leaf.

She apparently had high status, and is referred to in inscriptions as "Augusta" and "Sancta." Coventina is usually portrayed as a water nymph, naked and reclining on lapping waves. She holds a water lily, and in one depiction is shown in triplicate with each aspect holding up a jar of water in one hand and pouring out water with the other. Local springs were held in reverence as natural foci of divine energy.

Ocelus

Other Names: Ocelos

Ocelus was the Celtic god of healing and silures. He is recorded on three inscriptions found in Britain, two of which are from Caerwent, Wales. In one he was identified with the Celtic god Vellaunus in a dedication to "the god Mars Lenus or Ocelos Vellaunus." In the third dedication, from Carlisle, England, he is invoked as Mars Ocelos. He was probably the same as Mars Lenus, who is linked with Ocelos at another dedication at Caerwent

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