The Celts emerged as a group around 3,000 BCE and fanned out west on horseback all across Europe. They were described as looking something like a stereotypical "ancient Highlander", but they were neatly groomed and they had colorful cloaks clasped with cunningly wrought brooches. The status of the women in Celtic society was horrifying to the Romans and later to the Christians: not only did women own cattle and keep their possessions when they mated, they also held political power and often times led the men into battle. They also worked as druids, satirists, and tellers of tales.

Religious beliefs and practices of the Celts varied throughout the different Celtic lands. Celtic polytheism began it's decline during the time of Roman expansion, especially after Druidism was outlawed by the emperor Claudius in 54 CE. The Celtic people had no written language in those days so their beliefs were passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. As with Norse myths, most of what survives of the lore of the Celts was written down by monks and missionaries, many of whom looked down on the indigenous stories as superstitious nonsense. This usually occures when a society that considers itself civilized conquers an indigenous people they do not understand and therefore consider them as heathen. The result is as though someone reduced the Library of Congress to four or five old books, in this case with the gods and monsters converted into heroes and historical figures in a kind of reverse euhemerism. Because of this our imagination is needed to fill in the gaps as we invite these mythic figures to dream themselves out of the darkness of forgotten times.

Only now are we becoming more aware of a small portion of their religious practices and deities, thanks to the professionals deligently working to unearth and discover these people and their story.

I've endeavored to compile as complete a list as possible, from every source I could find and place the information here at one location. Highlighted names are links that will (in most cases) have a picture. The pictures were gleaned from the internet and are nothing more than an enhancement to the description of the deity. I hope you'll enjoy the material as much as I've enjoyed gathering it. Please bookmark the site and come back often. I'll be adding more pages along the way.