Danu, a collage by Lunaea Weatherstone using artwork by John Duncan

Danu, mother, queen, life giver,
your sweetness is the salt kiss
where ocean meets land.
You are the wellspring of fertility,
Queen of all Sidhe,
shining jewel of Ireland.
I am enveloped in your mist,
your loving embrace,
a child come happily home

Katrin Auch

Danu is the oldest Celtic Goddess, known also as Don and Anu. Her influence spread far across the British Isles and Europe, where the Danube river was named for her. Few stories about Danu have survived, and yet the reverence in which she was held still remains. It is told that those who worshipped her, the Tuatha de Danaan (the children of Danu), retreated into the hollow hills of Ireland when Christianity overcame the old ways. There, they became immortal, the Sidhe or faery folk, and Danu's legend lives on as the Goddess of faery ways. Danu is the power that is in the land, never to be overcome by mortals. And Her power is in the imagination of those who see magic in the twilight mist between the worlds.

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