Ataegina Lusitanian goddess

I have talked about the Lusitanians recently and one of the most famous gods of their pantheon, so you might want to check the posts of April 2013 for more information about it and about the Lusitanians and who they were, for in this post, the main theme is another deity of their pantheon so i will not waste time in resuming who the Lusitanians were or i would skip the subject.

I will talk about Ataegina, after Endovélico, this deity was also very famous not only among the Lusitanians and other Celtic tribes but also to the Iberians, Celtiberians and to the Romans, she may have been of a greater importance than what we know today, for the Lusitanians like all other Celtic tribes had a culture that wasn't supposed to be written or leave any evidence about their culture, so most of we know about the Lusitanians is in the exact same way we know about the other Celtic tribes all over Europe, by what the Greeks and Romans have written about them by watching how their enemies behaved towards life, their rituals, gods, celebrations, religion etc. which leaves us with a knowledge about these people not very plausible or accurate, since they were enemies to the Romans and the religions and spiritual beliefs were so different but archeology helps a lot nowadays.
So Ataegina or Ataecina was a very Celtic-like goddess, probably her name among the Lusitanians wasn't this one since they were Celts in nature, because the name Ataegina sounds a lot with a more latin language, and the romans actually adopted this goddess for their own, associating her with Proserpina or Persephone, so once again it is hard to know the true name of places, people, deities etc. in old Lusitania, we know about these through the Romans who started to write about these things in their own fashion with their own language, giving that latin touch, it's not like the Lusitanians didn't knew how to write, like all other Celtic tribes they had and alphabet they learned about it, they knew about numbers and other symbols as well, but in their culture the use of those wasn't of primary importance. People say that her name might come from the Celtic words atte- and geno- which means "Reborn" or from ad-akī (in Irish - adaig) meaning "night", i can't tell you if this is true because i know only a few words of Celtic, my field is old Norse, but what we can be sure about, is that her name was something between those words for she was a Celtic goddess.

Ataegina is the goddess of Spring, of nature and she is associated with all things that die and are reborn, she isn't closely associated with death itself although that i a natural part of the cycle of life, she is linked to life itself, the transformations of life, this is why she is associated with Spring, the season when nature is reborn after Winter when all natural things wane and die, the transformation of a dead carcass into rich minerals that will give life to some creatures and also to the earth, generating fertility soils that will give life to flowers, grass and trees which in turn will give life to other animals. She is also associated with the goat, the sacred animal. In these times the Celts like most other European cultures used to sacrifice animals, giving them as gifts to the gods, sharing with them the meat we mortals consume, also reading and interpreting the fate of the community or a certain person in the entrails of the animals, animals were also sacrificed in order to ask the gods the various gifts they can give depending on the field of expertise of each deity, so speaking of Ataegine the goddess of nature and transformation of death into life, the sacrifices were probably placed directly into the natural soil, giving it to the earth, this might be a reason why there isn't any temple found in Portugal nor in Spain, for Ataegina's temples were probably in the forests, in the wilds, made of some stones and wood, no fisical structure. 
Ataegina is also associated with magic and with the night, which is the part of the day most mystical and filled with symbolism in the Celtic culture, which is interesting to know that people say that the Portuguese are night people, and the night is very important to them as it was to the Lusitanians the ancestors of most Portuguese, for these people made most structures, from religious ones to the social ones, at night and also some harvesting was made at night, again a close association with nature. Ataegina is the goddess that symbolizes the moon and the most mystical place in Portugal and the stage of thousands of mysteries and stories with spiritual and religious themes is Sintra or the so called "Monte da Lua" which means Mount of  the Moon, a place filled with wondrous natural diversity, so this might have been the place where Ataegine was most venerated, worshiped, were her priests and priestesses dwelled, and she might have been of such importance that her very essence still lingers in the name of this place after a few thousand years.

Now... those of you who have read my blog and know about the themes i write in here, know the importance of shamanism and how i work with shamans, but all in the Northern-Tradition paganism, the Norse gods and wights and you might also know about my own spiritual journeys with the Norse gods, so i will share with you here my personal spiritual journey with Ataegina ( although being very brief and with no importante knowledge obtained whatsoever ) so far the only non-Norse deity i have ever had any contact with, so it is a very personal story.

I was shrouded by fog, a very soft mist gently and slowly passing through the land, i was walking on an unpaved road, no more than a dirt track, and i went off my course to the left into a vast field of grass, fresh and green, wet with dew drops so it might have been at dawn, yet the sky was grey but bright. As i went further, i saw one huge shape forming in the mist, as i got closer, i saw it was a green hill, so tall it was that another path was carved by foot steps in a serpentine manner all the way to the top, or at least it seemed, i couldn't see the top, what was veiled by the mist, this aroused the curiosity in me and so i followed the trail that led to the top of the hill. Once i was on the top i saw two or three people in white tunics and leather belts with daggers made of bronze, one of these people had a torc, i couldn't say if they were all male of female, but they were very busy doing something which i didn't pay much attention to, actually these people were like shadows in the mist, blurry to my eyes because i was focused on a great stone, as large and tall as two big cars with other two on top of them and steps stairs were carved into the stone and they led up into a wooden house built on top of the stone and i entered the house. Inside i noticed the floor was the top of the great stone where a hole in a shape of a rectangle was carved and another larger in the shape of a square and deeper filled with water where a person might wash herself, and a wide and large stone with straws on top of it, it might have been the bed. There wasn't any window and the door was on the ground where one might go down stairs to the outside where i came from, and there wasn't a nywall on the west side of this house, one could see the entire landscape below and to the distant horizon. There was a figure in the middle of the house, a woman with a light brown hair ending in a pigtail, brown eyes and pink skin, she was wearing a white tunic fastened to leather belt and also a white skirt all the way to her ankles, she wasn't wearing any kind of footwear, but she had beautifully bronze made jewelry, a necklace, a bracelet on her left arm, some bracelets on both wrists and some rings, one with a green emerald stone in the left hand. She was very beautiful and she looked at me but she didn't talked, not with words ar least but in my mind i heard a gentle woman's voice telling she was Ataegina, only this, she stretched her right arm towards me and gave me a woolen bag with something inside which i dare not to look, but it wasn't heavy, but i knew i was to deliver that to someone and i went off down the hill and a light rain started. When i reached the bottom of the hill, the mist disappeared and the sun ripped the clouds, suddenly the sky was painted of a very light blue, cloudless, and i could see the surroundings so green and bright. I made my way into the only forest there into the north, where a tiny stream of a great river flowing to the south ended, children giggling and running behind me like butterflies, playing some sort of game, waking up from winter, embracing the happiness of that spring day and thus... i woke up...

Note: The artwork to illustrate this post is a drawing of Ataegina made by me. If you have any questions for me or if you want to see my artistic works, check out my Facebook page and make a Like if you can by following this link --> http://www.facebook.com/ArithHarger

The Lusitanian people and Culture

Those who know me, are aware that i'm a practitioner of the Northern-Pagan Traditions, the spiritual paths of my ancestors from my mother side, both Germanic and Nordic, however, from my father side, there is a mixture of both Germanic and Celtic blood and also Lusitanian blood, so i feel the need to write in here who the Lusitanian people really were, in honor of those people who are my ancestors also. I am a walking cocktail of European bloodlines, with Nordic blood, Celtic blood, Lusitanian blood, some drops of Germanic blood and possibly some Latin blood. But enough about me, lets start our History lesson.

The Lusitanians were a group of people from a Celtic tribe which came to the Iberian Peninsula along with other Celtic tribes when the Celts started their migrations around 3000 B.C.
The Celts origins are where Czech Republic and Germany are today, and they started a huge migration in all directions in Europe, one of the first places they settled, was in the Iberian Peninsula where the countries of Portugal and Spain are today, many tribes of Celts came there, one of those were the Lusitanians, some Archaeologists and Historians think they where the Celtic tribes who came from the Helvetic mountains in modern Switzerland.
The Iberian Peninsula had its inhabitants along the coast of Spain from the east side, they were called Iberians, and the South of Portugal was inhabited by Phoenicians and people from northern Africa and from Carthage, along the coastline to the west by the Atlantic ocean to the modern capital of Portugal ( Lisbon ) it was inhabited by Greek colonies, so the center of Portugal all the way to the north and most parts in the north of spain, were in this time, almost empty. So it was easy for the Celts to settled in those parts, and they took the lands with no problems, what is today Galicia, northern Spain, all the way to its center and northern Portugal till Lisbon, was Celtic territory. The Iberian Peninsula had a very fertile soil, not only for agriculture but it was also rich in ore, all kinds of metals, and the Celts were very good in working those metals, this was the Bronze age, and now they had access to such a huge quantity of metals, they had everything they wished for, their wealth increased, and they prospered. Of all the Celtic tribes in the Iberian Peninsula, only one grew in such a way, that they formed the first nation in Europe ( The Romans did not existed yet ), they were called Lusitanians, and they had the largest Celtic territory of all, all Center of Portugal and parts of Spain was theirs, they had the best lands for agriculture and they worked the metals like no one, the tools, weapons and objects they made were so beautiful and well crafted, that it was coveted by all Europeans and people from all over the place in Europe, from North, East and South, came to Lusitânia, to exchange and buy the things the Lusitanians crafted. These Celts and the other Celtic tribes in the Iberian Peninsula, were the first people to literally make trade routes, the first to make roads, unlike it was said for so much time, that the Romans were the first to build roads, the Celts made them before, the Romans just re-built roads on top of the already existing ones. The Lusitanian people were the strongest and most powerful people in the Iberian Peninsula, they had the most fertile lands, thousands of cattle, the best weapons and the largest villages, towns and strongholds. The Romans gave them this name, Lusitans/Lusitanians, from the word Luso, which was a Roman god, thought to duel in those parts and the Lusitanians were his children. However, the Lusitanians were Celts and they worshiped Celtic deities obviously, their language was the Leukaeke, a Celtic dialect, unfortunately, like the Cornish language of Wales, the Leukaeke was completely lost, 1500 years earlier than the Cornish, the last words of Leukaeke were spoken in the V century A.D. although many people are trying to bring it back in a modern way, the neo-lusitanian language called Leukantú, notice that this language is not similar in any way to the Portuguese language. The Lusitanians called their land, Leukitanea, the land of light, so probably these names came from their celtic tribe name.
These Celts were much feared and also respected and time passed and they lived wealthy, happy, joyful and increasing their lands, they even went to Great Britain with other Celts, when they started their migrations to those lands, but most of the Lusitanians went to Irland, so many people in Irland are related with the Lusitanians. But the Romans were growing in numbers and in strength and they had a nation of their own and soon they started conquer other lands in Europe, increasing their empire. The wealth and power of the Lusitanians soon came to the Romans' ears, and their lands were so rich in everyway, that the Romans really wanted them, it would increase their wealth, because the Celtic Lusitanians had a lot of gold also, strategic lands to plan invasions into other countries, extremely fertile soils, because they were also a possible threat to the Empire and because the very lands of the Lusitanian people were thought to be divine, made by the gods, a place where the gods could rest.. and that turned to be true, because when the Romans took those lands, they add the Lusitanian gods to their list of gods, these Celtic-Lusitanian gods were much feared and respected and also too powerful and great.
The lands of the Lusitânia covered much of what Portugal is today and a part of Spain. Now you may be thinking, why the Portuguese and Spanish people share the same language base of the French and the Italian, ( the Latin ) if they were Celts, with a Celtic and Germanic language? Well that is simple, those were the first countries to be conquered by the Romans, and the people of those places stood too long, under the Roman influence, the Romans had time to build a lot of cities, impose their culture, building their temples, making their own trade routes, and the native people of those countries, were either slaughtered or became romans and adopted the latin as their main language as an easy way to exchange and trade products with the Romans and survive. So the latin became the main language, and when the christian faith came, latin was still the main language for many centuries.
In Portugal today, most of that Celtic anf Germanic heritage was lost, and the Lusitanian spirit and their gods are now hidden throughout the beautiful landscape, even knowing that other germanic tribes came and settled, the Wandalns the Swabians, the Visigoths, the Vikings and so on, but the christian faith was too powerful, and brought down all of them.. This is a pity, for Portugal was forged by great cultures and has an extremely rich cultural past. All those cultures fought to survive and to maintain their gods, their beliefs, their way of living, people often talk about what christians did in other countries of Europe, bringing down ancient pagan temples, forests, slaughtering everyone, trying to wipe out those ancient pagan European beliefs, but the Iberian Peninsula suffered greatly with that and amazing cultures almost disappeared. Today, some people are trying to bring all of that, back, awaking the old gods, its hard to pick anything to start, for the romans and christians did a great job in cleaning those beliefs, but i hope, with my contribution and the contribution of such others, we might bring it all back again. There are still some many Germanic and Celtic descendants in Portugal, who have no clue of their ancestry...

In other posts, i will talk about the daily lives of the Lusitanian people, heroes, their gods and their culture, from spiritual beliefs to rituals and sacrifices, to the language and form of writing.

 If you have any questions for me or if you want to see my artistic works, check out my Facebook page and make a Like if you can by following this link --> http://www.facebook.com/ArithHarger

Curiosity: In old Lusitania

For those of you who dont know where Lusitania is or was, i will help you with that:


Lusitania was the country where the Lusitanian people lived, in the Iberian peninsula in the continent of Europe, where today exists the modern countrys of Spain and Portugal.
The Portuguese people and some of the spanish people, are decendents from the Lusitans, often people think about the Lusitans, as Iberians or Celtiberians, but in truth, the Lusitanian people were Celts. The Celts start their expansion over the European territories something like 1200 B.C./B.C.E. and that was the year when they first arrived to the Iberian peninsula, 200 years before they went to Great Britain. There were a lot of Celtic tribes in Spain and Portugal, and each tribe settled in a place, one of those tribes of Celts, were the Lusitans, or the Lusitanian peoples. Probably their name wasn't that, because the Romans called them Lusus/Lusos, probably they had an other name, a Celtic one. These tribe had the biggest part of Central Portugal and they became the most powerful people in the Iberian peninsula. They were no longer a Celtic Tribe, now they were a nation. They conquered most of Portugal exept the North that belonged to their other Celtic brothers, and conquered a large territory of Spain. Today we know that their language was of germanic source, it was found in archaeological discoveries, that they wrote in the celtic language called Ogham and also in the Runic Alphabet, not with the runes we know today, but with the first symbols where the runes came from, called ur-runes.


We have all heard about the Druids, but before the Druid's time, the Lusitanian people had already a spiritual guide, elders in each Lusitanian tribe, called Endre, in plural, Endres. These men and probably women, were something between a shaman and a druid, they were teachers of philosophy, anatomy, spiritualism, science etc. and they knew how to work with the neolithic monuments such as Dolmens, henges, sacred mounds, menhirs etc.


So this is very important to know, because most people think that the Lusitanian people were just Iberians, but in fact they were Celts, and the Celtiberians were the mixture with other Celts from the Central Iberian peninsula, with the Iberian people that were the native folk from the Cost line of Spain to the East and Northeast.

Also a very curious thing, when the Celts arrived in Irland, they have not passed through england to get there, they came by sea from the Iberian peninsula, some Celts, some Iberians and many Lusitans. So many people in Irland, have the same ancestry as the Portuguese people.

If you need more information or if you want to check my works, take a look at my Facebook page and make a like at --> www.facebook.com/ArithHarger