Iberia - Blog Posts
New Banner Feature: Iberian Tribes: pre-Roman Iberia was awash with tribes of varying heritages, many of which gained Celtic layers, as the focus here on individual tribes often reveals.
The Iberian peninsula prior to the Carthaginian invasion and partial conquest was a melange of different tribal influences, with the Celtic influx being the most recent and most pervasive as this map shows.
could you tell us of your religious journey? i've never had any real religious beliefs, but i've been trying to explore and it's hard to know where to start, so i was wondering if you had anything you could share that could help. maybe even some blogs you could point me to?
hey anon! i just got back from work so sorry if my thoughts are jumbled, but this is a great question!!
so like a lot of folks around here, i was raised catholic before i became pagan. i considered myself agnostic for a while after getting confirmed, but after about a year and a half, i had to reckon with that because of apollo reaching out to me! it was a crazy feeling, i jokingly say he was "tugging on my sleeve" for a while till i got the picture haha.
after that i just kinda ambled through religion for a while, cuz i was like 15 and didn't really know what i was doing, and just kept tacking gods onto the list of gods i wanted to worship, though i didn't really do anything for them. see, when i'm not in my dorm, i've got to practice in secret (still do), so i was sort of limited in what i (thought) i could do (until i started learning more about devotional activities and whatnot).
i'm not sure what made me stick specifically with the hellenic pantheon, but that's what i did for about 4 years. it took nearly 3 of those 4 years before i actually started researching the gods, the ancient cult they received, and ancient practices, so that's when my religious practice really started to finally take shape. i saw what others were doing and tried to work it into my practice in a way that worked for me, so i began doing morning prayers and weekly libations. it's important to make sure that you do these in a way that works for you instead of just parroting someone else! there are tons of academic books you can read about ancient greek life and religion, which a lot of blogs on here have links for. if you can't find any by just scrolling through the hellenic polytheism tag, i have a google drive of my own that i can hook you up with.
then, last july-ish, i became interested in learning more about the ancient gods of the place where most of my family came from, so i began researching the pre-roman gods of the iberian peninsula (specifically the area that later became portugal). from there, learning about them turned into wanting to connect to them, and after a year of on-and-off learning i'm finally beginning to do that! it's been a much more delicate process, because there's little surviving information on these gods, so it's been a big puzzle game of piecing together what information i have with practices from other areas and faiths to fill the gaps.
for as long as i've been a pagan, i've always been sort of an ominist, though i didn't know there was a word for it for a while. so it's really been a matter of putting out feelers about what i want to do, and what gods i want to include in my practice, and seeing what works (and being okay with something not working!). so my biggest advice is really just to stay open minded, and see what interests you instead of feeling a need to do things like everybody else.
this turned into quite the ramble lol but i hope this answered your question!! if you have any other questions, feel free to reach out again!
Celtiberian Roots
I thought for my first personal post, going back my ancient historical roots would be apropriate, so hereby I present you:
Celtiberian deities
The Celtiberian were one of the many barbarian people and cultures that lived in the Iberian peninsula (aka. Spain and Portugal today) before the Romans conquered them.
As the name may suggest, they were a mix between the Celts that inhabited the North-West and the Iberians, on the Eastern part of the peninsula. They lived in the middle area, and had their own settlements, culture, societies and religion.
Today I did a little bit of research on their known deities, since, being from that area, I thought it would interesting to explore the ancient gods of my land, get to know them and… who knows? Maybe bring them back to memory from the depths of Roman erasure, and give them live again.
Here are the more detailed ones:
• Ariconā - goddess of tribal protection and dogs
• Banda (Bandis) - goddess of the entrance to the Otherworld, water protection
• Besenclā (Besenclae) - a community and house protector
• Cernunnos - horned God or God of fertility, life, animals, wealth and the underworld
• Corvā - war and defense goddess
• Dēvās Nemucelaecās - celestial goddesses
• Epona - godess of horses and passing/ride through the afterlife
• Erbina - a goddess of wild animals, hunting, and domestic security
• Harācos - agricultural and prosperity god
• Icconā - healing and medicine goddess
• Laneana (Laneanis) - a goddess of springs and floods
• Lidā - land and fertility goddess
• Limia - goddess of the Lima river
• Matres Termegiste - a triad of mother goddesses
• Moricilos - a god of winds, sky, and battle
• Nabia (Navia) - versatile goddess
• Neton - a war god
• Nimedos - a military protection god
• Reva (Reua) - personification of water flows
• Senaecos - a primordial god
• Sūliās - goddesses associated with medicine and springs
• Tarbucelis - war god
• Togotis - a god of community protection, war, and oaths
• Turculā - a boar goddess
• Vaelicos - a god of wolves and wild animals
Here I leave some useful links to some websites (some in English, some in Spanish) with the little information that is available about Celts, Celtiberians and their cultures and deities
https://www.timelessmyths.com/celtic/iberian.html
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/la-religin-cltica-en-la-pennsula-ibrica-0/html/001186c0-82b2-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_2.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Celtic_deities
https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celta
https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celt%C3%ADberos
~ Enthrelle 🧙🏻♀️