Celtic Moon Signs: How the Mystical Power of the Druid Zodiac Can Transform Your Life. Helena Paterson
Celi was a god of inspired vision, known as ‘Awen’, that manifested in a triple ray of light representing the one balancing light of the equinoxes and the two diverse lights of the solstices. It was also said to represent the powers of reasoning and the druids used three wands of the Rowan Tree to evoke this power in men and women.
Celi was commonly nameless like the Egyptian god, but the druids knew his name and kept it a secret because if spoken aloud in the wrong tone its vibration around the world could stop the courses of the stars and the Earth would stand still. The Celts, like the Egyptians, had tribal gods and absorbed many others during their various travels and migrations around the ancient world. The Celts were known to quickly grasp new ideas and fashion them into something of unique value to them. The Egyptian Neter may therefore have been the same nameless creator that the druids referred to. The idea of one god who created the world and all creation was perhaps a very radical belief at that period in history.
BRIGANTIA
Greek
Brigantia was associated with the initiation of fire and, like the Greek goddess Hestia or Roman Vesta, she was a guardian of the family hearth or home-fire. As an archetypal fertility goddess she can be identified with the Greek Earth goddesses Demeter, Persephone and Gaia, but above all else she was associated with protection. She was said to protect people and animals from fire, storms, lightning and disease.
Egyptian
Isis became the bride of Osiris at the advent of spring, which relates to Brigantia as an aspect of the great Mother goddess. An elaborate ceremony took place on the banks of the Nile, where she was carried on a flower-decked chair or throne supported by her handmaidens. The association with fire or the germination process of new life was symbolized with a lighted torch being thrown into the Nile. The size of the coming harvest was divined by observing how far the torch drifted away from the shoreline.
Celtic
Brigantia or Brighid was more than just a tribal goddess or an aspect of their Mother goddesses, she was a powerful goddess of obscure origins going back into the early dawn of universal sky gods.
Her most archaic symbol is the four-legged cross or firewheel known as the ‘swastika’, whose name is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘svasti’ meaning prosperity, from the belief that it brings good luck. It became a symbol of evil in the last century when it was reversed by the German Nazi Party and used as their national emblem or flag. There remains much speculation regarding its magical and mystical symbolism and whether the Nazis had sufficient or any knowledge of its occult powers. By reversing its true meaning perhaps they had unwittingly evoked the prime occult law of rebound by sowing the wind of fire and reaping the fire-storm.
Star Myths
CASSIOPEIA
Cassiopeia is among the leading constellations in the northern hemisphere and is often referred to as ‘the Seated Queen’. As a group of circumpolar stars, it never sets below the horizon.
Greek
In Greek mythology Cassiopeia was a proud queen, the wife of Cepheus and the mother of the lovely princess Andromeda. She unwisely boasted that her daughter’s beauty was greater than the sea nymphs or Nereids, the daughters of Poseidon or Neptune. He became so angry that he sent a huge sea monster to ravage her land. Terrified, Cassiopeia and Cepheus consulted the Oracle of Amon in Egypt, and it said Andromeda must be sacrificed to the monster to make amends. Fortunately for her and her people, the passing Sun hero Perseus, mounted on his fabulous horse Pegasus, came to her aid and slew the monster. The gods loved Perseus and when he died they placed him and Pegasus in the sky along with the family of Cassiopeia to commemorate his finest hour. Cassiopeia was, however, bound to her throne and condemned to circle the pole head downwards as a lesson in humility.
Egyptian
In the Egyptian Denderah zodiac, Cassiopeia and Andromeda were referred to as ‘The Enthroned Bride-Queen’ and ‘The Daughter of Splendour’. These two titles of queen and princess were two radiant star aspects of their great Mother goddess Isis, waiting to meet her bridegroom Osiris. It was a time of celebration marking the onset of spring. The Egyptians also associated Cassiopeia and Andromeda with the ability to heal the sick and dying.
Celtic
In a Welsh version of Celtic star myths Cassiopeia was the ‘Chair of Ceridwen’, their great Mother goddess, and Andromeda was known as ‘the Maiden’, a Celtic Moon goddess, and another aspect of Ceridwen. In Celtic myths, stars had corresponding earthly domains which were notable landmarks and Cassiopeia was associated with the highest mountain peaks in Wales. Andromeda and Brigantia became associated with the ‘Lady and the Dragon’ myths in pre-Christian times which continued long after the introduction of Christianity.
The Church became so worried about the pagan origins of this myth that it reinvented it as the story of Saint George and the Dragon, with a Christian saint rescuing the fair maiden from a wicked dragon, which had become a symbol of sin and paganism. Originally, however, the Green Dragon, symbolizing the tree spirit or dryad of the Rowan Tree, had never been a threat to the maiden as he represented the magical energies of fertility and new life, which she was about to embrace. She would then transform into the ‘Mother’ aspect of their goddess at Beltane – the start of summer. A mythical painting by Paolo Uccello (c.1460) of Saint George slaying a green dragon held on a silver chain by a maiden, whom she appears to be protecting, must have puzzled many people in its day – but perhaps the artist had been more inspired by the original myth.
AQUARIUS – THE WATER BEARER
Aquarius is known as the ‘Water Bearer’ and though it covers a large area it is an obscure constellation that has no well-defined myths.
Greek
Aquarius was said to represent Ganymedes, the most beautiful of mortals who was carried to heaven by an eagle to act as cupbearer to Zeus. In other accounts he was Deucalion, son of Prometheus who was placed in heaven in memory of a mighty flood from which only he and his companion Pyrrha was saved.
Egyptian
Aquarius is associated with the Egyptian god Hapi, who brought prosperity to Egypt by pouring two water jugs into the Upper and Lower Nile – a symbol of the sacred Nile springing from a heavenly source. They believed that when Aquarius set in the sky it caused the Nile to flood. This myth came originally from Babylon where it was associated with Ea, a great creator god who was sometimes called ‘the god of two streams’. But in earlier times it was associated with an obscure goddess of childbirth and healing.
Celtic
The Rowan Tree sign and month corresponds to the Aquarian sign and degrees, and there is an Irish myth relating to ‘a Waterman’ whose skills in dowsing produced all the mighty rivers and streams in Ireland. In another myth, Ireland’s rivers and streams were associated with Boannes, a great lunar goddess, but there are also many legends and folklore stories of water elementals that had been instructed by their Mother goddess, Danu, to create a fertile life across the land.
Star Prophecies
CASSIOPEIA
Greek
Cassiopeia, not surprisingly, is associated with pride, haughtiness and a boastful nature, but she is also associated with independence, a keen intellect, restoring weak bodies and strengthening limbs. Though travel by water could mean shipwrecks, rescue was said to be always at hand if you were prepared to take the risk. Life expectancy was said to be