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#Gaulish prayers
nehalenniaspeil · 3 months
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— A little prayer to Rhiannon and Epona 📜
🌞 🌿 TO RHIANNON
Bright Rhiannon
Full of grace
Maiden of otherworld
Shining in the light of Bealtaine
The power is within
Be with us now and always
Blessed be
🏛️ 🪙 TO EPONA
Hail Epona
Noble and bright
Shining in the light of Winter
Holy mother
Queen of horses
The power is within
Be with us now and always
Blessed be
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paganpillar · 2 years
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"My thoughts arise. May good things be thought by me today.
I open my eyes. Let good things be seen by me today.
I open my lips. Let good things be said by me today.
The grace of the Gods upon this day. I walk with the Gods."
Gaulish Prayer by Ceiswr Serith
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silverthornwitchery · 6 months
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To Apollon
Hail Apollo! Beloved from Greece to Rome to Gaul, And of Gaul I do Honor thee, And all your faces! Shining Belenus, the sun who shines upon my skin, The healing Grannus, who tends to the sacred springs, To Maponos, the beloved bard, and keeper of the autumnal sun. O Apollon, Sanavolos I call thee, When I see your raven, I see you, When I feel the sun warming my flesh, I feel you, Bearer of the light, I adore thee!
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mask131 · 2 months
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The gods of Gaul: Introduction, or why it is so hard to find anything
As I announced, I open today a series of post covering what some can call the "Gaulish mythology": the gods and deities of Ancient Gaul. (Personal decision, I will try avoiding using the English adjective "Gaulish" because... I just do not like it. It sounds wrong. In French we have the adjectif "Gaulois" but "Gaulish"... sounds like ghoulish or garrish, no thank you. I'll use "of Gaul", much more poetic)
[EDIT: I have just found out one can use "Gallic" as a legitimate adjective in English and I am so happy because I much prefer this word to "Gaulish", so I'll be using Gallic from now on!]
If you are French, you are bound to have heard of them one way or another. Sure, we got the Greek and Roman gods coming from the South and covering up the land in temples and statues ; and sure we had some Germanic deities walking over the rivers and mountains from the North-East to leave holiday traditions and folk-beliefs... But the oldest gods of France, the true Antiquity of France, was Gaul. And then the Roman Gaul, and that's already where the problems start.
The mythology of Gaul is one of the various branches of the wide group known as Celtic mythology or Celtic gods. When it comes to Celtic deities, the most famous are those of the British Isles, due to being much more preserved (though heavily Christianized) - the gods of Ireland and the Welsh gods are typically the gods every know about when talking about Celtic deities. But there were Celts on the mainland, continental Celts - and Gaul was one of the most important group of continental Celts. So were their gods.
Then... why does nobody know anything about them?
This is what this introduction is about: how hard it actually is to reconstruct the religion of Gaul and understand its gods. Heck we can't ACTUALLY speak of a Gaulish mythology because... we have no myth! We have not preserved any full myth or complete legend from Ancient Gaul. The pantheon of Gaul is the Celtic pantheon we probably know the least about...
Why? A few reasons.
Reason number one, and the most important: We have no record of what the Gauls believed. Or almost none. Because the people of Gaul did not write their religion.
This is the biggest obstacle in the research for the gods of Gaul. It was known that the art of writing was, in the society of Gaul, an elite art that was not for the common folks and used only for very important occasions. The druids were the ones who knew how to read and write, and they kept this prerogative - it was something the upper-class (nobility, rulers) could know, but not always. Writing was considered something powerful, sacred and magical not to be used recklessly or carelessly. As a result, the culture of Gaul was a heavily oral one, and their religion and myths were preserved in an oral fashion. Resulting in a great lack of written sources comng directly from the Gallic tribes... We do have written and engraved fragments, but they are pieces of a puzzle we need to reconstruct. We have votive offerings with prayers and demands inscribed on it - and while they can give us the names of some deities, they don't explain much about them. We have sculptures and visual representations of the deities on pillars and cups and jewels and cauldrons - but they are just visuals and symbols without names. We have calendars - but again, these are just fragments. We have names and images, and we need to make sense out of it all.
To try to find the explanations behind these fragments, comparisons to other Celtic religions and mythologies are of course needed - since they are all branches of a same tree. The same way Germanic mythology can be understood by looking at the Norse one, the same way Etruscan, Greek and Roman mythologies answer each other, the mythology and religion of Gaul has echoes with the Celtic deities of the Isles (though staying quite different from each other). The other comparison needed to put things back into context is reason number 2...
Reason number two: The Romans were there.
Everybody knows that the death of Ancient Gaul was the Roman Empire. Every French student learns the date of Alesia, the battle that symbolized the Roman victory over the Gallic forces. Gaul was conquered by the Romans and became one of the most famous and important provinces of the Roman Empire: it was the Gallo-Roman era.
The Romans were FASCINATED by Gaul. Really. They couldn't stop writing about them, in either admiration or hate. As a result, since we lack direct Gallic sources, most of what we know about Ancient Gaul comes from the Romans. And you can guess why it is a problem. Some records of their religion were written in hatred - after all, they were the barbarian ennemies that Romans were fighting against and needed to dominate. As such, they contain several elements that can be put in doubt (notably numerous references to brutal and violent human sacrifices - real depictions of blood-cults, or exaggeratons and inventions to depict the gods of Gaul as demonic monstrosities?) But even the positive and admirative, or neutral, records are biased because Romans kept comparing the religion of the Gauls to their own, and using the names of Roman deities to designate the gods of Gaul...
Leading to the other big problem when studying the gods of Gaul: the Roman syncretism. The Gallo-Roman era saw a boom in the depictions and representations of the Gallic gods... But in their syncretized form, fused with and assimilated to the Roman gods. As such we have lots of representations and descriptions of the "Jupiter of Gaul", of the "Mercury of Gaul", of the "Gallic Mars" or "Gallic Minerva". But it is extremely hard to identify what was imported Roman elements, what was a pure Gallic element under a Roman name, and what was born of the fusion of Gallic and Roman traditions...
Finally, reason number three: Gaul itself had a very complicated approach to its own gods.
We know there are "pan-gallic" gods, as in gods that were respected and honored by ALL the people of Gaul, forming the cohesion of the nation. But... Gaul wasn't actually a nation. It was very much like the many city-states of Greece: Ancient Gaul was unified by common traditions, a common society, a common religion and a common language... But Gaul was a tribal area divided into tribes, clans and villages, each with their own variations on the laws, each with their own customs and each with their own spin on religion. As a result, while there are a handful of "great gods" common to all the communities of Gaul, there are hundreds and hundreds of local gods that only existed in a specific area or around a specific town ; and given there were also many local twists and spins on the "great gods", it becomes extremely hard to know which divine name is a local deity, a great-common god, a local variation on a deity, or just a common nickname shared by different deities... If you find a local god, it can be indeed a local, unique deity ; or it can be an alternate identity of a shared divine archetype ; or it can be a god we know elsewhere but that goes by a different name here.
To tell you how fragmented Gaul was: Gaul was never a unified nation with one king or ruler. The greatest and largest division you can make identifies three Gauls. Cisalpine Gaul, the Gaul located in Northern Italy, conquered by the Romans in the second century BCE, and thus known as "the Gaul in toga" for being the most Roman of the three. Then there was the "Gaul in breeches" (la Gaule en braies), which borders the Mediterranean sea, spanning between the Alps and the Pyrenean mountains, and which was conquered in the 117 BCE (becoming the province of Narbonne). And finally the "Hairy Gaul", which stayed an independant territory until Cesar conquered it. And the Hairy Gaul itself was divided into three great areas each very different from each other: the Aquitaine Gaul, located south of the Garonne ; the Celtic Gaul located between the Garonne and the Marne (became the Gaul of Lyon after the Roman conquest) ; and finally the Belgian Gaul, located between the Marne and the Rhine. And this all is the largest division you can make, not counting all the smaller clans and tribes in which each area was divided. And all offering just as many local gods or local facets of a god...
And if it wasn't hard enough: given all the sculptures and visuals depictions of the gods of Gaul are very "late" in the context of the history of Gaul... It seems that the gods of Gaul were originally "abstract" or at least not depicted in any concrete form, and that it was only in a late development, shortly before the Roman invasions, that people of Gaul decided to offer engravings and statues to their gods, alternating between humanoid and animal forms.
All of this put together explains why the gods of Gaul are so mysterious today.
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Reaching out, or rather, returning the call I suppose. I’m way out of my comfort zone, I feel silly. I’m doubting myself; though I can’t ignore this..this.. fire? Idk how to describe the pull I feel towards her- it’s like my spirit is ablaze with yearning ( cringe Ik).
Tsirona, Damona, Brixta
Stellar Queen I beseech Hail, Hail
Star, Cow, Moon, Sorceress Great, Hail
I, humble, who you have called to
I, having given praise, art, Hail
Do now call, Shinning one- hear me
To my prayer kindly incline, Hail
Threefold Queen Divine; cosmic spring
Tsirona, Damona, Brixta
This prayer was inspired by the octosyllable formula found in Gaulish curse tablets
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blesscernunnos · 2 years
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If you don't mind me asking, what was your first experience with Cernunnos?
I'm so sorry if this has been in my inbox for a long time, life and death caught up to me and wowie, I got busy!
My first experience with Cernunnos came through Wicca. I'm not Wiccan anymore, but Wiccans tend to venerate the Mother Goddess and Horned God.
A lot of people think Cernunnos and the Horned God are separate because there are a lot of differences between them. However, my experience was that the Horned God is just another facet of Cernunnos, a way for Him to connect with modern people. After all, we are much different from the Gaulish worshippers of old! Change is natural...
So I worshipped mostly the Mother Goddess for quite some time but then I started to get a feeling that I should worship the Horned God more. His presence was amazing and beautiful. As I left Wicca and became more of a "non-denominational" pagan, The Horned God came to me more and more as not a nameless title but as Cernunnos. As I read about Cernunnos in the Gaulish context I realized that this was absolutely Cernunnos, and His consistent presence, acceptance of offerings, acceptance of my prayers, and the peace I felt reading about Him confirmed that.
I don't have a first experience as in a specific event, it's more of a timeline of experiences that lead to this point.
Hail Cernunnos!
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druidicentropy · 1 month
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*H₂eryo-men
* H₂eryo-men is the fictitious name for a deity in Proto-Indo-European religion, linked to healing, the formation of marriage, and the construction and maintenance of roads or paths. The deity is believed to be responsible for community well-being.
The noun *h₃eryos, which means "a member of one's own group" or "someone belonging to the community," as opposed to a foreigner, is the source of the term *h₂eryo-men. Further derivatives of this root are the Indo-Iranian *árya, "noble, hospitable", and the Celtic *aryo-, "free man" (most notably as aire, "noble, chief" in Old Irish, and as arios, "free man, lord" in Gaulish).
Xaryomen is another spelling of his name.
The Vedic god Aryaman, who is mentioned in the Vedas for his ties to social and matrimonial ties, is one of the descendant deities in later traditions. Similarly, the Iranian god Airyaman, mentioned in the Gāthās, is invoked in prayers to ward off illness, sorcery, and evil. He represents the larger tribal community or alliance. The legend that tells the story of Ireland's founding names the hero Érimón as the first king of the Milesians, the mythical people who inhabited the island after it was taken from the Tuatha Dé Danann. This legend also addresses the roles that  *h₂eryo-men played in marriage by giving wives to the Cruithnig, the mythical Celtic Britions or Picts. The influence of the deity is further demonstrated by the Gaulish name Ariomanus, which means "lord-spirited" and was frequently used by Germanic chiefs.
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boarseye · 3 months
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Ancestors/the Dead
As I work out who to include and what role ancestors/the dead play in my local cultus, I decided to make this glossary for study and comparison of different cultures and traditions- this is not implying that these cultures should all be combined or borrowed from, as the boundaries of those traditions will vary.
I've decided to included house spirits in this list, as they often overlap a lot with ancestor cults, household worship. Or I may put them in a different list.
apotheosis- Greek- elevation of a human soul to godhood
Dii Manes- Roman- Divine Dead
disir- Collective of Norse female divine ancestors- cognate with the German idises, Celto-Roman matronae- associated with fertility, childbirth, dead, often depicted with fruit, grain, cornucopias, distaffs, spinning wheels. Some specific goddesses that may be related to the matronae include the Frisian/Dutch Nehalennia, the Gaulish Rosmerta.
euhemerization- the view that deities were once historical people. Some we have myths explaining that a human was deified or became a bodhisattva
hero (fem- heroine) Greek- a legendary person known for great deeds. Sometimes deified, often seen as semi-divine or a demigod/dess that is more powerful than a regular ancestor spirit.
folk saint- a saint that is venerated but not officially recognized by the Roman Catholic or an Eastern Orthodox church.
kula devata- in Hinduism, the guardian/patron deity of a family, clan or village. Sometimes an aspect of one of the major Hindu deities.
martyr- Greek- someone who died for their beliefs (religious and/or political) While typically associated with Christians there are a number of polytheist, pagan & heathen martyrs.
Mighty Dead- used for spiritual leaders, clergy, founders of traditions honored in modern Pagan and Witchcraft traditions (I'm not sure of origin of this term- I recall it first being used in British Traditional Witchcraft (BTW) but not positive.
restless dead- Spirits of those that died angry, with unfinished business, trauma. In some traditions they may be approached with caution and calmed with particular rituals, offerings and prayers so that they can move on to the afterlife, and bless descendants. They also may cause harm.
transcestors- modern portmanteau for transgender/transsexual ancestors/dead coined/used by some Pagans, polytheists, witches etc. especially for honoring folks on Trans Day of Remembrance. (TDoR)
Wild Hunt- legend/belief in a procession of spirits and other beings riding horses led by a deity, hero or legendary being. Legends of the Wild Hunt are found all over Europe and have many regional variations.
House Spirits
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racout · 10 months
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La Tarasque
Note: I'm an English learner and I wrote this text to practise my written English. If you want to give me feedback about my English, please go ahead!
The Tarasque is a legendary creature from the commune of Tarascon, Bouches-du-Rhône. It was a half-dragon, half-fish beast that lived a long time ago in the Rhône, terrorising the locals, until St. Martha tamed it. This is the story told by Jacobus de Voragine in The Golden Legend, a collection of stories about the lives of several saints.
It seems that these events take place during the 1st century A.D. Martha, who devoted herself to serving Jesus Christ, travelled on a boat with her brother and her sister. Although they lost the sails, the oars and the rudder, they managed to reach Marseille. Then, they travelled to the area between Arles and Avignon. This is where Martha heard about a half-dragon and half-fish creature. She was told that it was bigger than an ox or a horse, and its maw was full of enormous teeth. People said it was the descendant of a sea monster and it came from the Galatia sea. This creature attacked travellers and sank boats sailing on the river. Martha decided that she had to help the local population. She went on the bank of the Rhône and met the ferocious beast. She poured holy water on it and brandished a cross. Thus, the monster became gentle and docile. Martha fastened it with her belt and took it to the villagers. The latter attacked it and killed it to finally make it pay after all these years of terror. Martha stayed in the village and devoted her life to prayer and fasting. She was considered a saint and in the XVth century the Sainte-Marthe Church was built.
During the same century, king René invented les Fêtes de la Tarasque, a festival to celebrate Saint Martha and the beast. He also founded l'Ordre des Chevaliers de la Tarasque (the Order of the Knights of the Tarasque) of which members are called Tarascaïres. Les Fêtes de la Tarasque are still celebrated today, every year in June, and are inspired by the legend. Numerous shows are organised, including the running of the Tarasque, during which the Tarascaïres carry around a reproduction of the beast, teasing and scaring the public. The creature is green and red, with a tail and a shell covered with thorns on its back. This event is also an occasion to celebrate more aspects of the local culture. Thus, one can see people dressed in traditional clothing during the parade, or participate in activities about Alphonse Daudet's character Tartarin of Tarascon. These few days have a religious importance too, as the local Christian community also celebrates St. Martha. The cleric, for instance, blesses the Tarasque at the opening of the event.
Some think the Tarasque could represent the river overflowing and destroying everything around. Or they see in this legend the victory of Christianity over Gaulish beliefs: the Tarasque personifies the pagan cult, "defeated" by St. Martha after she spreaded Christianity. After all, it seems that one of the reasons for her journey was to convert new believers.
In conclusion, I want to draw attention to the Tarasque's likeness to the Drac of Beaucaire. Beaucaire is on the opposite side of the Rhône, and the similarity between Tarascon’s and Beaucaire’s creatures is probably not a coincidence, in my opinion.
Also, I found some Christian website that has, apparently, the full version of The Golden Legend. Here is the list of all the Saints. And here, St. Martha's story.
Sources below
BELOUET Guy. La Tarasque. www.universalis.fr [online]. Encyclopædia Universalis France. Visited between 25/09/22 and 30/09/22.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica. Tarascon. www.britannica.com [online]. June 30, 2017. Visited between 25/09/22 and 29/09/22.
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Jacques DE VORAGINE. Légende de Sainte Marthe. In: La Légende dorée : Volume 1. Paris : Charles Gosselin, 1843, p. 191.
Le Parisien. Ses chevaliers perpétuent la tradition. www.leparisien.fr [online]. 12 août 2014. Visited between 25/09/22 and 29/09/22.
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Marie GASPA, Perrine ALRANQ. Les fêtes de la Tarasque. www.culture.gouv.fr [online]. Visited between 25/09/22 and 30/09/22.
URL (PDF)
Musée du Vieux Nîmes. Fiche pédagogique sur la Tarasque. nimes.fr [online]. Visited between 25/09/22 and 29/09/22.
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Ville de Tarascon. Les Fêtes de la Tarasque. www.tarascon.fr [online]. Visited between 25/09/22 and 29/09/22.
URL
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moninamie3448 · 2 years
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Check it out
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jasper-pagan-witch · 2 years
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(Photo by Livin4wheel on Unsplash)
O Cernunnos, He of Liminality
Horned One, Keeper of Riches
The one who dwells both sides
Bridge and guide from one state to another
Thank you for your aid, your guidance,
Your wisdom, your knowledge
O Cernunnos, He Who Sits At Crossroads
We thank you
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paganpillar · 2 years
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Thank you for the winds which carry your powerful paroxysms .
Thank you for the rain which strengthens and nourishes my home.
Bring the heavy rains which soak our ground with you almighty power.
Blow the winds and spread the seeds of life to regenerate what we have destroyed.
Awaken us with your commanding call and announce your undeniable presence,
So that we may remember again.
Thank you Taranis of the Sky, for this beautiful gift you have given me today.
May you continue to grace us with what we so desperately need.
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Taranis
Gallo-Roman God of: Thunder, lightning, thunderstorms, the spoked wheel, and protector. Sometimes attributed to Jupiter.
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fernthewhimsical · 2 years
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You stand tall within your sacred grove,
The sun's rays shining through your antlered crown
I feel your call, oh, Cernunnos
You stand rooted deeply within the Earth,
Connected to all things living and passed,
I hear your call, oh, Cernunnos
You lead the dance ‘round the blazing bonfire,
The drums echoing the beat of your heart
I feel your call, oh, Cernunnos
You lead the hunt through forest deep,
The spirit of hunting wolf and hunted stag both,
I hear your call, oh, Cernunnos
You stand firmly ‘pon the threshold,
The liminal of body and time and place is yours,
I feel your call, oh, Cernunnos
You sit cross-legged between the standing stones,
The power of tree and root and fur and fang is yours,
I hear your call, oh, Cernunnos
You wear the torc of sun-bright shining gold,
The wealth of coin and wealth of life are yours to give,
I feel your call, oh, Cernunnos
You hold the horned serpent within your grasp,
The keeper of ancient knowledge and lore long forgotten,
I hear your call, oh, Cernunnos
[Poem/prayer by Marjolijn Ashara, a.k.a. me]
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apples-and-seagulls · 2 years
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prayer for an evening shower
Braton tei, Apollo Grannus,
Braton tei, Sirona,
For this water that I use this evening,
And its cleaning effects,
I praise you!
.
And I praise the many others,
Gods, spirits, and my fellow humans,
Who helped to bring this water here from far away.
Braton tei!
.
May this water cleanse my body of filth,
That I might be clean, comfortable, and healthy
And that I might avoid causing others around me to fall sick.
.
May this water cleanse my soul of filth,
That I might sleep peacefully
And greet the new day with happiness
And with the energy to do my duties.
.
Braton tei, Apollo Grannus!
Braton tei, Sirona! 
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When my Lord Cernunnos looks upon me he doesn't see what the eye of mere mortals see.
My body sits between the sexes, my mind between genders. My fellow mortals have pushed me aside for this, my society abandoned me, but not my Lord.
"They see not that you walk the border, that you embody the boundaries and the whole. Hold your head up, Mortal. Be proud to be the Other. You see beyond these feeble constructions of mankind."
My disabilities are ignored, my needs not met by others, I live without accomodations I need and barely get by, but He knows the truth of my pain and struggle.
"Do not blame yourself for the failings of a temporary vessel that only contains your wonderful soul for a blink in the eye of time, you are not this body."
I fight with my own broken instincts, I am often malnourished due to the affliction of disordered eating. He does not blame me for this, but he still reminds me of my needs.
"Nurture yourself with the bounty of this world, don't waste your offerings of food on my altar while you sit with an empty gut."
I live in constant mess, always toiling for my employer and left with no energy for my own housework. He does not cast judgement on me for this, for he sees my efforts.
"You work, you serve others and this is honorable. There is no shame in exhaustion, nor in rest."
When I struggle to see the future I live for, he reminds me that it is attainable.
When I feel guilt for the state of the world, he reminds me this is the fault of failing authorities, not the people at the bottom left with the mess.
When I am overwhelmed by this failing system I am forced to live with, he helps me endure, affirms that I can find my way out of it and thrive.
When I neglect my worship and the most I can do for weeks is simply to pray and think of my gods, he shows no impatience, no aggression.
He is understanding, wise, compassionate.
My Lord Cernunnos, Walker of the Woodlands, King of the Beasts, the Divine Stag. He wishes not to be feared, but loved. Not to be flattered, but respected. Where others have failed, he rises to the challenge and loves so dearly and unconditionally those who walk in his steps.
I am so very grateful for his watchful care and concern.
To be so lucky as to fall so inextricably in love with one's deity is transcendent, surreal. I cannot possibly in words convey the comfort and warmth of his presence.
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blesscernunnos · 3 years
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May Cernunnos watch over us as we slumber
And may He protect us when we rise
O Lord Cernunnos may we feel Your presence
In the seas and lands and skies
May the Liminal Lord accompany us in life
For every single breath
And may He take us by the hand
On the day we face our death
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