Celtic Pagan Religion

A Narrative History

By Steven L. Akins

This website began life as an unpublished manuscript written between 1987 and 1990, which was circulated on a limited basis within the Pagan community, primarily among the friends and acquaintances of the author. It is the intention of this website to enable the visitor to have a better understanding of the origins behind the many fascinating myths, ideas, beliefs and legends shared by the Celtic peoples, and to show how these evolved and developed over a period of time spanning more than 30,000 years of human existence.      In researching the events discussed on this site it will be noticed that they fall into a number of successive periods, these have been catagorized into the following divisions in the interest of clarity and convenience:

Phase I..........................Maternal Era.......(30,000 B.C.E.* - 15,000 B.C.E.) Phase II.........................Faunal Era............(15,000 B.C.E. - 10,000 B.C.E.) Phase III........................Pastoral Era............(10,000 B.C.E. - 6000 B.C.E.) Phase IV........................Agrarian Era..............(6000 B.C.E. - 1800 B.C.E.) Phase V.........................Artisan Era...................(1800 B.C.E. - 800 B.C.E.) Phase VI........................Sacerdotal Era.................(800 B.C.E. - 392 C.E.*) Phase VII.......................Expulsion Era.......................(392 C.E. - 690 C.E.) Phase VIII......................Degeneration Era...............(690 C.E. - 1275 C.E.) Phase IX.........................Eradication Era.................(1275 C.E. - 1786 C.E.) Phase X...........................Assimilation Era...............(1786 C.E. - 1939 C.E.) Phase XI..........................Reformation Era..........(1939 C.E. - Present Day) Phase XII.........................Restoration Era..............................(Present Day) *note - the abbreviations B.C.E. (Before Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era) are used throughout this site as a secular alternative to B.C. and A.D.

While this site primarily focuses on the evolution and development of the native religion of those people who inhabit what has today become known as the "Celtic fringe" (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany and the Isle of Man), in many respects it also serves to chronicle the religious history of most of Europe: from the primeval origins of religious thought, to the development of pantheons and priesthoods. to the coming of Christianity and the decline of Paganism, to the modern day revivals of the native forms of worship.      As this site's purpose is to serve as a narrative history, as much first-hand information as possible has been included to allow actual figures from the past to tell  their own stories, while reserving the author's thoughts and comments for the purpose of bringing together these various accounts and pointing out significant details. In doing so a vast number of sources have been drawn upon to give a clearly defined panoramic view of the subjects discussed, leaving conjecture and speculation to a minimum.      It is believed that this site will be unique in that it offers a concise, factual account of the history of Celtic Pagan religion from beginning to its current status without the gaping voids often encountered in other works on the topic which are left for the imagination of the reader to fill. Much of what is presented here has of course been touched on in other presentations of the various aspects of the subject, but until now the many pieces have not yet been brought together to form a coherent whole allowing the true picture to be seen. It is hoped that here visitors to this site will find this intriguing and mysterious puzzle finally solved once and for all.

Note: all material appearing on this web-site is copyrighted (c. 1991) by Steven L. Akins. No part of this site or its contents may be reproduced by any means without permission from the owner.

Click Below to

ENTER