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  • Dec. 1, 1856
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The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, Dec. 1, 1856: Page 4

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    Article ON THE RELIGION OP THE CELTS, AND THE CU... ← Page 4 of 7 →
Page 4

Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

On The Religion Op The Celts, And The Cu...

Teutate ' s and fierce Hesus ' s altars load , And barbarous Taranus , his shrine that vies With curst Diana ' s Scythian sacrifice . ' " Fourthly . —Belinus , the Baal of the Scripture , identified with Apollo , the god of the sun . A wood in the neighbourhood of Lausanne is still known as

" Thirdly . —Taranis from Taran , s thunder' ( Celtic ) , the Jupiter of Greece and Rome , and the Thor of the northern nations . The present appellation of Thursday ( Dies Jovis ) is , at this day , ' Donnerstag , ' literally the Thunder-day . In the year 1653 , a Roman altar was discovered at Chester , with an inscription uniting the name of this Celtic divinity with Jupiter , viz . : —

J : O : M : Tanaro ( Jovi Optimo Maximo Tanaro ) . Lucan , in the c Pharsalia , ' has thus enumerated these deities : — ( Efc quibus immitis placatur sanguine diro Teutates , horrensque feris altaribus Hesus ,

Et Taranis Scythicae non . mitior ara Dianse . Translated in Campden ' s ' Britannia , ' p . xix . : — ' And those vile wretches that with human blood ,

Sauvebelin , viz . Sylva Belini ; and traces of this name are to be found m many parts of England . The custom of kindling fires about midnight on the Eve of St . John ' s Day , at the moment of the summer solstice , which was considered by the ancients a season of divination , is a vestige of Druidism , in honour of this deit " y F . ifthly . —Cisa , who was more particularly worshipped in the Grisons , or Rhcetian Alps . Tuesday , in some of the German cantons of Switzerland , is said

to be called Oistag , or Zistag . " Sixthly . —Penninus . —The Convent of St . Bernard still occupies the site of the Temple of the Pennine Jupiter . Pen ( Celtic , a summit or head ) is applied at this day to the mountainous region of the Apennines ; and the same word is to be found in various parts of Wales , viz ., Penman-ma . wr , Pen-y-gwint , & c . "

On the conquest of Gaul by the Romans , the mythology of the latter nation was introduced ; but notwithstanding all means were taken to eradicate the Druidical religion , which also were put in force both in England and "Wales , many usages were so deeply rooted and established , that they remained till the introduction of Christianity , and tbeir vestiges may still be traced . Thus the custom in the Alps of nailing up dead animals , or the heads of birds of prey , over the doors of the houses is a repetition of the usage of the

Celtic hunters , to return thanks to the divinities of the chase for their success ; and the hanging up garlands or whisps of straw , which frequently occurs in mountainous districts , is a description of sortilege or divination , which goes back as far as the times when the oak or the pine were objects of adoration . This mention of the oak or pine leads to a consideration of that estimation in which trees were held , as derived from the earliest ages

of the world . The Hebrew name " Elah" is rendered in the Septuagint and Vulgate by the expressions ( Spue and tepe'GwOoc , guercus and tcrdmithus . Thus we find ( Gen . xxxv . 4 ) that Jacob hid the images of the strange gods " under the oak that was by Shechem " ( suiter terelinthum , Vulg . ) ; and " Deborah ( viii . ) the nurse of

Rebekah was buried beneath Bethel , under an oak" ( suiter qucrcum

“The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine: 1856-12-01, Page 4” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 9 May 2025, django:8000/periodicals/mmr/issues/frm_01121856/page/4/.
  • List
  • Grid
Title Category Page
ON THE RELIGION OF THE CELTS, AND THE CUSTOMS THENCE DERIVED. Article 1
LA VENDEE. A DRAMATIC POEM. Article 7
REVIEWS OF NEW BOOKS. Article 10
A LOVE-TOKEN". Article 11
CORRESPONDENCE. Article 12
THE MASONIC MIRROR. Article 16
METROPOLITAN. Article 28
PROVINCIAL. Article 34
EOYAL ARCH. Article 49
THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED RITE. Article 51
KNIGHTS TEMPLAR. Article 51
MARE MASONRY. Article 52
SCOTLAND. Article 52
IRELAND. Article 57
COLONIAL. Article 59
INDIA. Article 61
AMERICA. Article 63
SUMMARY OF NEWS FOE NOVEMBER Article 64
Obituary. Article 68
NOTICE. Article 71
TO COEEESPONDENTS. Article 71
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

On The Religion Op The Celts, And The Cu...

Teutate ' s and fierce Hesus ' s altars load , And barbarous Taranus , his shrine that vies With curst Diana ' s Scythian sacrifice . ' " Fourthly . —Belinus , the Baal of the Scripture , identified with Apollo , the god of the sun . A wood in the neighbourhood of Lausanne is still known as

" Thirdly . —Taranis from Taran , s thunder' ( Celtic ) , the Jupiter of Greece and Rome , and the Thor of the northern nations . The present appellation of Thursday ( Dies Jovis ) is , at this day , ' Donnerstag , ' literally the Thunder-day . In the year 1653 , a Roman altar was discovered at Chester , with an inscription uniting the name of this Celtic divinity with Jupiter , viz . : —

J : O : M : Tanaro ( Jovi Optimo Maximo Tanaro ) . Lucan , in the c Pharsalia , ' has thus enumerated these deities : — ( Efc quibus immitis placatur sanguine diro Teutates , horrensque feris altaribus Hesus ,

Et Taranis Scythicae non . mitior ara Dianse . Translated in Campden ' s ' Britannia , ' p . xix . : — ' And those vile wretches that with human blood ,

Sauvebelin , viz . Sylva Belini ; and traces of this name are to be found m many parts of England . The custom of kindling fires about midnight on the Eve of St . John ' s Day , at the moment of the summer solstice , which was considered by the ancients a season of divination , is a vestige of Druidism , in honour of this deit " y F . ifthly . —Cisa , who was more particularly worshipped in the Grisons , or Rhcetian Alps . Tuesday , in some of the German cantons of Switzerland , is said

to be called Oistag , or Zistag . " Sixthly . —Penninus . —The Convent of St . Bernard still occupies the site of the Temple of the Pennine Jupiter . Pen ( Celtic , a summit or head ) is applied at this day to the mountainous region of the Apennines ; and the same word is to be found in various parts of Wales , viz ., Penman-ma . wr , Pen-y-gwint , & c . "

On the conquest of Gaul by the Romans , the mythology of the latter nation was introduced ; but notwithstanding all means were taken to eradicate the Druidical religion , which also were put in force both in England and "Wales , many usages were so deeply rooted and established , that they remained till the introduction of Christianity , and tbeir vestiges may still be traced . Thus the custom in the Alps of nailing up dead animals , or the heads of birds of prey , over the doors of the houses is a repetition of the usage of the

Celtic hunters , to return thanks to the divinities of the chase for their success ; and the hanging up garlands or whisps of straw , which frequently occurs in mountainous districts , is a description of sortilege or divination , which goes back as far as the times when the oak or the pine were objects of adoration . This mention of the oak or pine leads to a consideration of that estimation in which trees were held , as derived from the earliest ages

of the world . The Hebrew name " Elah" is rendered in the Septuagint and Vulgate by the expressions ( Spue and tepe'GwOoc , guercus and tcrdmithus . Thus we find ( Gen . xxxv . 4 ) that Jacob hid the images of the strange gods " under the oak that was by Shechem " ( suiter terelinthum , Vulg . ) ; and " Deborah ( viii . ) the nurse of

Rebekah was buried beneath Bethel , under an oak" ( suiter qucrcum

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