Anu
Celtic Goddess of Fertility
Anu, pronounced an-oo, (aka Anann, Dana, Dana-Ana) is the Irish
Goddess of plenty and is the maiden aspect of the Morrigu. She
is the Mother-Earth Goddess and the flowering fertility Goddess.
Ireland – Mother Earth; Goddess of plenty, another aspect of the
Morrigu; Great Goddess; greatest of all goddesses. The flowering
fertility goddess, sometimes she formed a trinity with Badb and
Macha. Her priestesses comforted and taught the dying. Fires
were lit for her at Midsummer. Two hills in Kerry are called the
Paps of Anu. Maiden aspect of the Triple Goddess in Ireland.
Guardian of cattle and health. Goddess of fertility, prosperity,
and comfort. Anu is associated with the Celts as the mother
Goddess of the ancestors, reaching so far back into time there
is very little record of her… externally at least. She is
identified with the Goddess Danu and the Children of Danu
(Tuatha De Danaan) and the four great cities Falias, Gorias,
Finias and Murias. In the beginning it was Anu who watered the
first Oak tree Bile from the heavens and granted life to the
earth, from the tree fell two acorns which Anu nurtured as her
own and in turn they became the God Dagda and the Goddess
Brighid. Anu has been known to appear in the form of a swan,
representing the purity of the female and gracefulness in
motherhood.
Anu is considered to be the ancestor of all the Gods, the Tuatha
dé Danann, who found themselves obliged to reside in the
Otherworld when Miled brought the Celts to the British Isles.
She still looks down on us from the night’s sky where she
appears as Llys Don, better known as the constellation of
Casseopeia. Anu was especially popular in Munster, though her
most lasting memorial is a mountain in County Kerry called the
Dá Chích Anann or “Breast of Anu”. The Dane Hills in
Leicestershire are also named after her and this area, perhaps a
major centre for her cult, is where her memory lives on as Black
Annis. This hideous old crone’s habit of eating young children
was, no doubt, invented by incoming Christians to blacken the
name of the Celtic Goddess. In Christendom, the lady usually
took on the guise of St. Anne, however, in order to smooth the
path of conversion. This saint’s popularity in Brittany probably
stems from the previous worship of the Celtic Goddess there. Anu
was also the patroness of springs and fountains, hence the
numerous St. Anne’s Wells throughout Britain today. Symbols:
Emeralds, Blood, Moonstones