Tribute Of The Witches

"I am the mother of all things and my love is poured out upon the earth." The Charge of the Goddess. Danu was one of the oldest Celtic gods. She was referred to as the mother of Irish gods and civilization. She represented the bounty and plenty of the land, and many place names in Ireland are associated with her. Most notably, the "Paps of Anu" in Kerry reassembled the breast of a woman and thus was associated to her fertile and abundant nature. The root of her name, "dan," in ancient Irish, meant art, skill, knowledge, and, more widely, wisdom. She was also a tree goddess associated with oak trees, which were sacred to the Celts. She was seen as the mother of the "Tuatha de Danaan," the "small people," or the land spirits. I see her as a personification of the land of Ireland, a goddess of all beings living of the land, and of fertility and bounty she offered to the people. In this way, she is a mother figure, not necessarily in the way we imagine it (in our Christian era of the virgin mother who is literally a mother) but rather as the body of the land itself, supporting all the creatures living on her. I represented her laying down as if she was sleeping on water or on the earth, with a loving and peaceful expression as a reassuring mother figure. Card: Peace, love, safety, and stability in life.