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 de 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
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