We are preparing for our Wicker man Beltane bash at the Child of Bones H.Q. dedicating our celebration to the Celtic God of Thunder – Taranis.

We wanted to say a few words about the great god…

Taranis or Taranus is an old Celtic God of thunder. Barely any remnants of his historical worship remain today but for a few surviving altars mentioning his great strength as a thunder god. Sky gods are depicted in many ancient cultures where communities depended on agricultural and horticultural as a means for survival. These gods were intimately entwined with the communities’ survival and were petitioned to ensure fecundity and fertile harvests. The surviving images of Taranis have him sporting a beard, a sky wheel and holding a thunderbolt. Thunderbolts symbolize a god with tremendous power and magickal might. People would worship and honour sky gods such as Taranis in the hope of controlling the weather that could ruin or bless their crops and therefore ward off starvation and famine.

Taranis hit the big time in our modern culture in the 1970’s and then again in 2006 with the remake of the cult classic ‘The Wicker Man’. The film depicted an effigy of a man to be sacrificed in a pagan ritual by the community in order for the God of the weather and/or Sun to bless their failing crops. Although the 1970’s original film doesn’t call to Taranis directly, there is written historical referencing that links this practice to our Celtic God of Thunder. Julius Caesar documented that large sacrificial wicker men were set alight with human sacrifice inside to honour and appease lightning gods such as Taranis.
However, although the Romans scribed well their version of Druidic events (whilst invading these lands - weren’t they busy!) not a lot of evidence remains after a ‘good burning’ to completely substantiate their claims.

It is said that when a ‘human effigy’ is used in a burning sacrificial ritual it is a call to the heavens requesting deity’s assistance for the fertility of the earth. The actual sacrifice (human or animal) whether it is alive (as depicted in the horror film) or symbolic in intention only and contains nothing but flammable grasses, like straw, is then burnt completely to the ground in ashes. On a practical horticultural level this practice is believed to refurbish the land bringing changes in soil temperature, soil moisture and nutrient availability.

From an esoteric perspective calling out to a god of thunder with a ritual sacrifice (such as burning a wicker man) shows the participant’s desire to gain his attention in order that Taranis will be aroused to intervene; striking his magickal (phallic) thunderbolt power to mingle with the Earth Mother. This then becomes an esoteric union to bring much needed fertility and revitalization to the land; ‘the union of heaven and earth’.

Hail Taranis! Hail Mother earth!