The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

For those honoring the Gaelic deities, how do you view the various mythical reports of gods "dying?" This can obviously apply to any other pantheons, but it's something that I particularly keep running into with the Tuatha de Danann.

Nuada, for example, is supposed to have been slain during the Tuatha de Danann's original invasion of Ireland. Do you still invoke / pray to / work with Nuada? Did the ancient Gaels?

Lugh is supposed to have been killed by the sons of Cermait, but he certainly seems to remain popular among modern pagans.

How does "death" work for the gods?

 

In the Irish pantheon, death doesn't seem to be "the end" of a god but merely a change in being. This pattern manifests itself in the traditional Gaelic holidays: Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnasadh, going from dark to light in a cyclical manner, from sundown to sundown. There's evidence that different Celtic tribes might have believed in reincarnation, so that's another consideration. The gods aren't mortal, so the idea of death doesn't really apply to them in the same way it does for humanity.

I don't really have any experience with Nuada and only a little with Lugh, but life, death, and rebirth is a recurring theme in Gaelic lore. However, the Irish Gaels didn't leave written records on what their theology was concerning the death of the gods, and we can only infer with what was written down by Christian monks, histories by foreigners, and through archaeology. That is what modern day pagans have to work with, so it's a matter of how they personally want to approach the issue.