Author Topic: Gaulish Polytheism/Paganism (Read 4368 times)

Cali · « **on:** July 29, 2013, 11:36:05 pm »

When I first looked into Paganism, initially, I gotta admit my first reaction on Gaul was Gaul = French...eww! I explored other cultures and pantheons, however as time went on I found a strange attraction to Gaulish deities that I never expected or seemed to have with the others that I looked into. I do not have any French ancestry (that I know of) and have mostly Irish and Danish ancestry, so it puzzled me initially. But the more I think about it, the more it just feels right. The gods I feel close to are Belenus, Rosmerta, Grannus, Sucellus and Epona. Does anybody work with any of these deities? If so, how do you see them?

The thing is, information on Gaulish Paganism is scarce and there seems to be very few Gaulish Pagans out there. Is there anybody on the forum who is a Gaulish Pagan? I was wondering if there was any books/websites/anything else you could recommend that I look at.

Gilbride · « **Reply #1 on:** July 30, 2013, 07:27:06 am »

Quote from: Cali;117331

I was wondering if there was any books/websites/anything else you could recommend that I look at.

Top-notch info in large quantities here:

http://deomercurio.be/en/dii.html

MattyG · « **Reply #2 on:** July 30, 2013, 12:52:16 pm »

Quote from: Cali;117331

When I first looked into Paganism, initially, I gotta admit my first reaction on Gaul was Gaul = French...eww!

To be fair, the Gauls are really radically different from the French. The modern French that we know are descendants/a mix of of Germanic tribes, living in Celtic lands, and speaking a Latin language.

LiminalAuggie · « **Reply #3 on:** July 30, 2013, 03:15:06 pm »

Quote from: Cali;117331

The thing is, information on Gaulish Paganism is scarce and there seems to be very few Gaulish Pagans out there. Is there anybody on the forum who is a Gaulish Pagan? I was wondering if there was any books/websites/anything else you could recommend that I look at.

Hi! I've been really absent from the forums for a while, but I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.
I consider myself Gaulish-influenced. My practice is sort of cobbled together solitary, but the deities I somehow found myself drawn to are Gaulish or possibly-Gaulish-possibly-lots-of-things. I mostly honor Belenos, Sequana, and an unnamed "Gaulish Mercury" type fellow who has been pestering me, he might be Swiss/Etruscan in nature or also possibly someone who popped out of my own head during the research process? It's a jumble, as you can see. :/ feel free to PM me if you want more info.

As for resources, I definitely second the Deo Mercurio site. It's got some really, really great information, particularly on how difficult (and, IMO, a little pointless) it is to separate what is "pure" Gaulish from Roman influence, for example. But that's sort of an issue that will likely depend on how Reconstructionist you want to be in your approach, and whether you are focusing on a particular area or nation of Gaul.

Other sites:

This Belenos site is old and no longer updated, but it's a pretty good resource, I think, if you can read French or parse google translate.

Nemeton Deuognaton is run by Arrin, who is really ridiculously helpful and smart but I think he's gotten mostly offline because of community drama, so he might be difficult to contact. But the stuff up on the site is still good. He's got a great book list, for one thing!

this user on Scribd has a lot of personal research he's done, I don't have any personal interaction with him and I'm not recon-oriented at all so I can't say how sound the research is, but I've found some of the info useful.

One of my absolute favorite tumblr blogs is Fields of Stone, she writes devotional poetry for Celtic and Germanic deities and has a huge selection of works focusing on Gaul. She's put a book out on Lulu and I think there's a second edition in the works, if it isn't out already.

That's about all I can think of for now, but I'll keep an eye on this thread and I can dig through my cluttered doc files later and see if there's any other resources I've forgotten. Hope this helps!

Materialist · « **Reply #4 on:** July 30, 2013, 07:22:05 pm »

Quote from: LiminalAuggie;117424

It's got some really, really great information, particularly on how difficult (and, IMO, a little pointless) it is to separate what is "pure" Gaulish from Roman influence, for example. But that's sort of an issue that will likely depend on how Reconstructionist you want to be in your approach, and whether you are focusing on a particular area or nation of Gaul.

This is excellent advice to remember, Cali. I had to deal with the same problem when researching Roman Britain. There is no such thing as pure religion, pure culture, etc. I learned to stop worrying and love the syncretism.