Since we are diving deep into the kolbrin which informed the Celtic world and that is clearly part of the corpus held in Egypt during the bronze age as it includes material from Mesopotamia as well, we are running this material around European Druidism which is linked.
All the Kolbrin material informed the writers of the Hebrew Bible as well around 700 BC who would then have had access to this same work in Egypt. It is apparent so far that the Hebrew bible is in fact an edited version of Egyptian materials and errors or lack of understanding led to significant omissions and deletions. The kolbrin needed keepers who mastered the script and kept the documents intact as much as possible. That they survived until recent times is remarkable. The same has occurred though in India so it was not impossible. I suspect that the most important material is intact though.
Thus we come to Celtic materials. First off, i want to say that the vernacular Gods and Godesses of the Celtic and Greek world were the direct equivalent of our Saints at the least and possibly even our angels although their human aspects appears to make this unlikely.
Thus we are led to an ancient tradition converted to christian usage.
The Bavarian Triple Goddess - A Study of the Cult of the Three Bethan
by Eilthireach
http://www.druidry.org/library/gods-goddesses/bavarian-triple-goddess-study-cult-three-bethan
Foreword
In the material provided for the OBOD Druid grade course, there was a
picture of the Genii Cucullati, three hooded figures representing a
triad of deities. This brought me to think about the Bavarian Bethen, a
female triad of later Christian saints rooted in pre-Christian religion.
On the occasion of bringing the studies of the Druid grade to an end,
I decided to mark this important point in my life through a regional
study of the Bethen. I was especially interested in the question who the
Bethen were, and how much of their original meaning they were able to
retain after Christianization.
Since the topic is quite vast I had to limit my studies to the area
where I live in, which is Southern Bavaria, but I will make
cross-references to other regions as well.
Introduction
An Unexpected Meeting
South of Munich, where the green foothills of the Bavarian Alps start
to rise against the massive granite wall of the Alps, there is a little
valley with a river running through it. It is called Mühltal (Mill
Valley). The stream is lined with unusual steep hills covered with dense
beech forest. The area is especially known for its Celtic remains,
including a well preserved Viereckschanze and several hill grave
cemeteries. It is remarkably rich with natural wells.
Branching off sideways from the valley, there is a small road leading
to the tiny hamlet of Leutstetten. It has only a few houses, a horse
breeding farm and a castle owned by Bavaria’s former royal family, the
Wittelsbach dynasty. At the village entrance there is a chapel standing
in the middle of a small cemetery.
After entering the chapel the visitor notices an image of three women
on the right wall. The image is from 1620 CE. According to local lore,
it depicts three noble virgins who never married and gave all their
money to church as a donation in order to enable the building of the
chapel. The chapel was built and the image of the three women, who are
known today as 'the three sacred virgins', was put inside in
rememberance of their noble deed. Their names are inscribed as 'AINPET,
GBERPET, FIRPET'. Since there is a castle adjacent, one could think of
three unmarried noblewomen devoting their lives to god and their money
to the church, hoping for a good afterlife in paradise.
But there is something wrong with the chapel’s foundation legend.
Local historians have checked it and found not a single piece of
evidence confirming its truth. The three virgins were apparently neither
born nor did they die. And in the church registers, which have survived
into our times safe and sound, the donation at Leutstetten does not
shine up.
And this makes very good sense! Because Ainpet, Gberpet and Firpet
never lived as humans. Nor are they Christian saints. They are pagan
goddesses, deeply rooted in the pre-Christian European past. Pagan
goddesses in a Catholic church?
Well, this is a long story!
In Bavaria, the three women in the chapel are mostly known as
Ainbeth, Borbeth and Wilbeth. Since their names all end with ‚ beth‘,
they are usually called ‚die drei Bethen' (the three Bethen). They also
appear as,
Aubet, Cubet and Quere
Ainbet, Gwerbet and Wilbet
Embede, Warbede and Wilbede
Ambede, Borbede and Wilbede
Ainpet, Gberpet and Firpet
'Beten' in modern German means 'to pray'. Probably the act of
worshipping the Bethen was so important and widespread that their name
left its mark on the word for praying to them. Firpet or Firbet, the
name of the third woman on the Leutstetten image, in modern German
sounds pretty much like 'Fürbitte' (intercession).
The Bethen were venerated especially in the presence of trees, wells
and stones. This finds its expression in the terms 'Bethelbäume'(Bethen
trees),'Bethenbrunnen' (Bethen wells) and 'Bethensteine' (Bethen
stones). As we know, worship at wells, in forest groves and near unusual
stones was a widespread feature in Celtic and Germanic religion, so we
can safely assume that the Bethen cult has pre-Christian roots.
In some cases, 'Betenbrunnen' have been renamed to 'Petersbrunnen'
(St. Peter’s well). This can have something to do with the linguistic
likeness, with the changing popularity of different saints over the
centuries, it could also have to do with the suppression of pagan cults
through Catholicism and the replacement of 'dubious' saints through a
more 'reliable' one .
Coincidentally there is a 'Petersbrunn' chapel in the Leutstetten
area and it is erected right above a natural well. It is quite certain
that this was a Celtic sacred place later overbuilt by a Christian
chapel, an adaption of an old place to the new faith that we see so
often.
Some 'Betensteine' have been renamed into 'Muttergottessitze' (Our
Lady’s seats). Much of the veneration of the earlier Bethen seems to
have been absorbed by the cult of St.Mary in later centuries. It makes
sense then, that the places of worship were also renamed.
There are also quite a few 'Hexensteine, -sitze, -bänke' (witches'
stones, seats, benches) retained in Bavarian folk memory and folk lore,
mostly referring to significant stones in the landscape. Obviously the
Bethen cult was in some cases absorbed into the greater and later cult
of Mary, the mother of Christ, in other cases it was downgraded into
plain witchcraft. In one way or another, the Bethen were gradually
replaced after the late Middle Ages.
In spite of this, the Bethen are still remembered in the names of
important Christian pilgrimage sites like Betbrunn or Bethenbrunn
(Bethen-well) or Maithenbeth (maiden?). There are numerous landmarks
still bearing a name containing the syllable 'bet' this is also true for
single Bethen, for example at 'Einbettl' (after Ainbeth), a settlement
near Leutstetten. This also shows that the three Bethen were recognized
as individual personalities, not just a group of three as the 'Matronae'
who will be discussed later, or the Genii Cucullati.
A Mother Cult?
In Bavaria, there is the almost died-out custom of three disguised
women known as 'Berchten' moving in procession through the village on
January 6th (Epiphany) or the evening before. This is also the day when
'C+M+B+2004' (CMB with crosses between them and the date of the new
calendaric year) is signed with white chalk above every door of the
house. In general understanding this means 'Christus Mansionem
Benedicat' (May Christ bless the house), some authors point out that CMB
are also the first letters of Catherine, Margaret and Barbara, the
later Christian names of the three Bethen. Be that as it may, it is at
least interesting that three women appear on January 6th and that
'Berchten' is linguistically not very far from Bethen. Berchta is the
Southern Germanic deity personificating the land and patroness of
mothers. In Northern Germany she is called Hulda.
There seems to have been a connection between the Winter Solstice and
the goddess of the land, because the Venerable Bede calls Christmas in
his Historia Ecclesiastica 'Modranecht' (mother’s night). This and the
appearance of the three 'Berchten' during the twelve holy nights hints
at that our ancestors did not only worship the reborn Solstice Sun at
the time of the Winter Solstice, but also his mother, the Earth Mother,
and that she appeared in three aspects:
The Saligen
Some authors try to establish a link
between the Bethen and the 'Saligen' or 'wild women'. The Saligen are
nature spirits, living in the mountains of the Bavarian, Austrian and
Swiss Alps. Sometimes they help humans with their work, but if one calls
them by their names or offers them clothing, they disappear and never
come back. In this, they behave very similar to the dwarves and house
spirits of the Germanic tradition. The Saligen are clearly not deities
and to my knowledge never appear in three. I don’t see a connection
between them and the Bethen.
Deae Matronae
In the Rhine area of Germany, in the former Roman provinces of
Germania Superior and Germania Inferior, there is a female triad rather
similar to the Bavarian Bethen. They are called 'Matres' or 'Matronae'
(mothers), in rarer cases even 'deae Matronae' (mother goddesses). They
always appear in three and are usually depicted with chalices, stalks of
grain, baskets of fruits and other agricultural products. There are
also depictions showing sacrificial acts and trees, hinting at the fact
that like the Southern German Bethen, the Matronae were especially
venerated in locations with trees and/or wells. Votive stones to the
Matronae have been found everywhere between the Alps and the North Sea,
but the cult center was in the Rhine valley around the city of Bonn.
Below the altar of the cathedral (Münster) of Bonn there have been found
36 votive stones dedicated to the Matronae. In the Rhine area 1,300
inscriptions referring to the Matronae have been catalogued until 1987.
From their attributes and the fact that votive stones to the Matronae
were in most cases dedicated by women, historians say that the
veneration of the Matronae shows features of a fertility cult. This
corresponds fully to the folk customs of the Alpine regions where women
whishing for a child visited a Bethen stone. In some locations this
practice continues to the present day.
The Matronae are provincial Roman deities, consisting of local Celtic
and Germanic roots and a Roman interpretation, an 'overcoat' so to
speak. There unusual names like 'Matronae Vacallinehae', 'Matronae
Alafherviae' or 'Matronae Fachinehae' show their native roots, referring
to people or places in native languages.
The Germania provinces were home to both Celtic and Germanic tribes,
in most cases the Romans couldn’t tell who was who. The Matronae worship
can‘t be limited to Germanic peoples or Celts, but belonged to both.
Unlike the Bethen, the Matronae are never known individually by a personal name, only collectively as triad.
Why are the Bethen three?
There are several theories to that.
One theory says that the Bethen are personifications of Sun, Moon and
Earth, expressing the triad of heaven, earth and underworld. This is
difficult. The Celts certainly watched the Sun and the Moon, but it is
not to expect that they interpreted the Earth as a planet, nor that they
knew the exact planetary movements. Moreover, there are no direct links
between single Bethen and one of the planets. The according symbolism
is lacking.
Another theory says that the three Bethen represent the three stages
in the fertility cycle of a woman. White is the state of the maiden, red
(blood) is the state when a woman is able to have children, while black
is the state of the old woman beyond her fertility. This would link the
Bethen to the classical neopagan triad of 'maiden, mother and crone'.
If we look at the imagery of the Bethen, we don’t notice a difference in
age between them. But they are indeed very often depicted with clothing
in white, red and black. In most cases they wear mantles in these
colors, in other cases some kind of cloth or scarves.
The cycle maiden, mother and old woman would also correspond with the
yearly agricultural cycle of growth, harvest and bare fields. We know
that the Celtic fire festivals are agricultural in nature. The Celts had
a thorough understanding of all aspects of the wheel of the year
because their survival depended on the crops. This way, the Bethen could
symbolize the eternal natural cycle of becoming, being and vanishing,
the cycle of life.
The Austrian author Georg Rohrecker gives an interpretation of the colors as follows:
white – becoming, waxing – sunrise
red – fertility, being in full blood – midday
black – waning, going down, being at home - nightfall
Unfortunately the first depictions of the Bethen in these colors date
from the high middle ages. There is no way of telling if the colors are
an invention of medieval artists or if they are indeed rooted in the
pre-Christian past.
The Coming of Christianity
Obviously, it took rather long to adapt and adopt the Bethen into
Christianity. In the rules for a good Christian confession contained in
the 'Decretum Collectarium' of bishop Burchard of Worms (d. 1025 CE) it
is mentioned that 'certain women lay out a table with food and drink and
three knifes for the three sisters'. The first depiction of the three
Bethen as saints is dated from 1127. It is in the church of Wielenberg
near Bruneck, Pustertal, Southern Tyrolia, Italy. From then, the Bethen
seem to have become more and more popular saints until in the late
middle ages popularity gradually shifted to Mary, under whose mantle
many of the female aspects of Catholicism were (and are) gathered.
In their christianized version, the Bethen are St. Margaret, St.
Barbara and St. Catherine. In Bavaria and parts of Austria they are
known by the old folk rhyme
Margareta mit dem Wurm,
Barbara mit dem Turm,
Katharina mit dem Radl,
das sind die drei heiligen Madl.
Barbara mit dem Turm,
Katharina mit dem Radl,
das sind die drei heiligen Madl.
(Margaret with the worm, Barbara with the tower, Catherine with the wheel, those are the holy three girls).
This refers to the attributes of the saints, which I will explain
later. Dragons and snakes are often referred to as 'worm' in the
languages of the Alpine countries.
They are also called the 'Holy Three Virgins' and as such Margaret of
Antiochia, Catherine of Alexandria and Barbara were among the most
popular Christian saints of the Middle Ages. All three saints are
'legendary' which means that they have never lived as human beings. The
Catholic church has acknowledged this by taking Barbara and Catherine
off the official list of saints (decanonizing) in 1969. I don’t know why
Margaret remained on the list.
In the following there is a brief overview of the qualities of each
of the three saints, complete with a very short summary of their
legends.
St. Margaret of Antiochia
martyr
commemoration day: July 20
attribute: dragon, torch
patroness of farmers, virgins, for matters of childbirth and fertility
St. Margaret was the daughter of a pagan priest. She converted to the
Christian faith and as her father noticed this, he brought her before
court. The court ordered Margaret to be burned, but the fire didn’t harm
her and so she was beheaded. Before that, the devil in appearance of a
mighty dragon tried to lead her into temptation, but she did not give
in.
St. Catherine of Alexandria
martyr
commemoration day: November 25
attribute: wheel, broken wheel
patroness of girls and women, scholars, craftsmen and all people who have to do with wheels
Catherine was the daughter of King Costus of Cyprus. Being of
Christian faith, she was sentenced to death under the rule of Emperor
Maxentius of Rome because she denied to do the customary sacrifice to
the pagan gods. Her sentence was to be put to the wheel, but all wheels
broke and Catherine was finally beheaded.
St. Barbara
martyr
commemoration day: December 4
attribute: tower, torch
patroness of miners, the artillery, craftsmen, girls, prisoners and against lightning, fire and sudden death
Barbara was the daughter of a pagan father, Dioscuros of Nicomedia.
He had her locked into a tower, where she was blessed by the Holy Spirit
and converted to Christianity. As soon as her father found out, she was
brought before the Roman prefect Marcianus who tried to force her to
renounce Christian faith. As she refused, she was tortured and ordered
to present herself naked on the marketplace. But clouds of fog covered
her from the looks of the people. Her father then beheaded her, after
which he was burnt to ashes by a lightning strike.
The legends are strikingly similar. Each of the three saints
• - lives in the zone of influence of Hellenistic culture
• - has a pagan father
• - converts to Christianity
• - is therefore brought before a worldly authority
• - declines to renounce the faith
• - is sentenced to death
• - the execution fails in the first instance
• - and is then completed through beheading.
Are the legends so similar because they have been purposefully
constructed at the same time, in order to take the Bethen into the
Christian boat? Does the father-daughter conflict has something to say?
Do the beheadings hint at the Celtic head cult? Do the traditional
connections between the continental Celts and the Hellenistic culture
play a role? There are more questions than answers here.
The objects each of the saints is usually depicted with are symbols
of their Christian legends. I doubt if these objects say something about
the prior qualities of the Bethen as pagan goddesses. At the same time
this cannot be ruled out with certainty. Dragon, wheel and tower were
all known to the Celtic and Germanic peoples alike and it is not
excluded that the Christian legends were constructed around the ancient
attributes. Again, we don’t know. We have no depictions of the Bethen
from Celtic times. In case of the Rhine area Matronae these attributes
do not show up.
Each of the three saints has at least one connection to the female.
Margaret is patroness for childbirth and fertility, Catherine of girls
and women, Barbara of girls. Beyond that, there is no evident connection
to female mysteries.
In Germany’s Rhine area where there is a stronger Roman heritage than
in Bavaria, the holy three maidens are also referred to as 'fides,
spes, caritas' (faith, hope and love). I think this was a simple
renaming of the three Bethen/Matronae in order to be able to keep their
veneration under the roof of the Christian church. An intended
personification of abstract Christian virtues is unlikely. Instead,
somebody well known to the people, the Bethen, were taken and
'christened' through the application of the names of three Christian
core principles.
In this context it might be interesting to take a short look at other Christian triads:
St. Anne
mother of St. Mary
commemoration day: July 26
attributes: none
patroness of mothers and marriage, housewifes, widows, craftsmen, for a happy marriage and childbirth
St. Anne was the mother of St. Mary and thus the grandmother of
Jesus. The cult of Anne reached its zenith in the late Middle Ages. In
1484 she was officially admitted into the Roman calendar.
As 'Anna Selbdritt' ('selbdritt' - Middle High German 'as three') St.
Anne is depicted together with St. Mary and the child Jesus. Here, the
classic child-mother-old woman triad exists! It is interesting that in
Bavarian folk legends the child Jesus often gets mixed up with with a
little angel, who is understood as girl with long blonde hair.
That
St. Mary in these images is usually not depicted as mother herself, but
with long and open hair (sign of a young unmarried maiden) can be
attributed to the rules of medieval religious imagery. The role of St.
Anne as a saint would not have allowed to depict her as old woman. So in
order to make the triad 'work', Mary had to be 'reduced' in age
instead.
St. Anne is the archetypical mother and therefore the patroness of
mothers, marriage, childbirth and all related matters. Her motherhood is
much more emphasized than in case of the three Bethen, who are never
depicted with children and who were later understood as 'virgins'.
Because of her archetypical motherhood, St. Anne is sometimes said to be
the Christian saint corresponding to Isis.
The Three Marys
In medieval paintings, there are sometimes depictions of three women
standing together in a group who are known as 'the three Marys'. They
are known from the New Testament (Matthew 27, 56 Mark 15, 40 John 19,
25) as Mary Magdalene, sister of Lazarus and Martha, Mary, the wife of
Kleophas and Mary, the wife of Salomas.
While Mary Magdalene is known from the gospels as redeemed sinner,
the other two Marys are legendary, i.e. only known from non-biblical
legends, where they are said to be half-sisters of Mary, the mother of
Jesus.
The three Marys are widely unknown, even to practising Catholics, and
if they ever had a cult of their own, its meaning has been lost. There
is no visible connection to the Bethen.
The Bethen Today
The Bethen are forgotten in most places today. The only exception are
some remote Alpine villages, where an image of the Bethen is still
carried in procession over the fields and where women wanting a child
still visit a Bethen stone.
There are efforts especially by feminist groups to revive the cult of
the Bethen. Representative for those groups is the author Erni Kutter
(see bibliography). These groups claim that the Bethen carry features of
the Great Mother goddess who was venerated in the originally
matriarchal societies across Europe. The female mysteries were then
suppressed with the upcoming of male dominated societies and totally
eradicated with the arrival of Christianity. Thus, these groups say, the
Bethen represent the suppressed original matriarchy and their worship
would be an act of female liberation.
I acknowledge the existence of gender mysteries, but doubt that the
Bethen cult was originally reserved to women. If the Bethen incorporated
aspects of the goddess of the land, they did so for everybody.
First Summary: Are the Bethen Aspects of the Earth Mother?
It depends on how you look at the evidence. There are similarities
between the Bethen, the Germanic 'Berchten' and the
Roman-Celtic-Germanic Matronae speaking in favor of this theory.
On the other hand, Christian saints modelled to replace pagan deities
usually carry on some of the aspects of the deity. The mother role in
medieval Christian imagery and symbolism is already given to St. Anne.
And none of the medieval depictions of the Bethen include attributes
that are usually given to mothers in the widest sense. Any reference to
Earth (fruits, harvest etc.) is missing as well.
On the picture of the Bethen in the Leutstetten chapel they carry two
books (wisdom, the word of god), two palm branches (martyrdom) and two
arrows (?). An arrow is not a symbol of motherhood and the Bethen have
no obvious connection to the hunt or to war. What are those arrows
standing for? Arrows struck people suddenly and unforseeable. Could they
be a symbol of fate?
Sisters of Fate
Another context where three women repeatedly appear as a group in
different mythologies is 'fate'. In many cultures and spiritual
traditions we find that the matter of 'human fate' in the sense of
destiny, of past, present and future, or more precise of birth, life and
death, is ruled by three female deities.
- The Hethites have the Gul-shesh or Gul-ashshesh, goddesses of fate,
manifesting mostly as more than one person and deciding over life and
death, sending good and bad things. They have power even over other
deities.
- The Greek have the Moírai (Gr. moíra - fate), a group of three fate
deities who deal out to humans their fate. They are daughters of Zeus
and Themis. They are Klothó, who spins the thread of life, Láchesis who
measures it and Átropos who cuts it, meaning death. The Moírai are
controlled by Zeus.
- The Romans have the Parcae (Lat. parere - to give birth). In
earlier times Parca (singular) was the goddess of birth, later she
developed into three goddesses of birth and fate, dealing out to every
mortal his or her fate, luck, bad luck, death.
- In the Germanic tradition we have the three Norns (Nord. norn - the
whispering one). They are goddesses of fate and midwifes. They spin the
thread of fate (life) for humans and gods. They are Urd (past),
Verdandi (present) and Skuld (future). They live next to the Well of Urd
(the well of fate) beneath the world tree Yggdrasil, watering its
roots. To their well ride the Aesir to hold court, for even they are
subject to the goddesses of fate and time.
In Southern Germany they are called 'Heilrätinnen' (advisers of hail,
welfare), in Northern Germany 'Metten' (from 'messen' - to measure
out), in Tyrolia they are the 'Gachschepfen' (Tyrolian 'gach' -
suddenly, quickly) those who bucket (from the well) suddenly. This name
would connect them to the wells at which they were worshipped, including
Leutstetten. 'Advisers of hail' shows that the Norns were not only
feared and appeased, but also asked for advice.
- The only Celtic deity immediately linked to fate is the Morrigan.
She is either one of a triad of sisters, or is the name of the triad as a
collective group. In the earliest copies of the Lebor Gabála Érenn, the
three sisters identified with the Morrigan are Badb, Macha, and Anann.
The first is usually identified with the raven and battle, a goddess
of war and of fate, deciding who lives and who dies on the battlefield.
Macha is the archetypical Celtic horse goddess (standing for
sovereignity). Anann (Anu, Danu) is the mother of the land, but also the
mother of gods and goddesses. Thus, the Morrigan triad is standing for
central aspects of Celtic life: battle, sovereignity and the land.
The Badb aspect later changed into Medb, the Washer at the Ford.
In a nutshell, one of the three aspects of the Morrigan is a fate aspect, but reserved for warriors.
There are other Celtic deities incorporating aspects of fate like
Taranis, the turner of the wheel and Brighid, the midwife and healer.
But we are looking for triads here and to my knowledge Celtic religion
did not have a triad of female deities ruling exclusively over fate
(similar to the Germanic Norns). Moreover, it is unlikely that the Celts
had an abstract concept of fate (in the sense of destiny) at all.
Second Summary: Who are the Bethen?
It is impossible to give proof if the Bethen are of Celtic or
Germanic origin, if they are aspects of the Earth Mother or sisters of
fate. All theories have some evidence speaking in favor of them. But
that doesn’t matter as much as it looks in the first place.
The Earth Mother rules over the land. The land nourishes the people,
the more so in an agricultural society as that of the Celts, whose
survival depended on the harvest, the breeding of livestock and the
hunt. If the land yielded not enough provisions, the people hungered and
sometimes even starved. There is a direct causal link between the land
and fate.
The concept of fate is expressed more immediately in the fate deity
triads mentioned above. Here, fate is handed down directly by deities to
humans. In the end, the topic of fate and survival is inherent to both
the Earth Mother and the fate deity triads.
Conclusion
A History Without Breaks
The Celts settled in Bavaria for about 800 years. Then came the
Romans. The breakdown of the Roman Empire enabled Germanic tribes to
move into lands that were without military protection, but not without
people. The previous Romano-Celtic population was integrated, not
extinguished. This eclectic mixture of Romano-Celtic, Roman and Germanic
inhabitants was then shaped into the Bavarian nation through the
erection of a common political and military rule by the first Bavarian
dukes of the Agilolfinger family around 550 CE. The ruling family
converted to the Christian faith rather soon, but as we can see from the
mentioning of the 'three sisters' by bishop Burchard of Worms at the
end of the first milennium, certain beliefs rooted in paganism remained
and were practised in the population for many centuries to come.
The history of the Bethen is a history without major breaks. Looking
at the Matronae, we can safely assume that a triad of goddesses ruling
over the land (and over fate, subsequently) was known to Celtic and
Germanic tribes alike. Then came the Romans, who normally left local
religions more or less intact. I would expect that the Bavarian
tribespeople following after the Romans took over some of the sacred
places and maybe some of the locally venerated deities as well. During
the Christianization of Bavaria, the Bethen survived again and made
another transition to Christian saints. This shows some of their
importance, since the Christian church took great efforts to integrate
the Bethen into the ranks of the saints, even together with some of
their sacred places.
This way, the Bethen survived thousands of years. From the late
middle ages on, their cult gradually declined, but as we have seen there
are still villages in the Alps caring for their special relationship to
the ancient goddesses of the land. Moreover, the Bethen are being
rediscovered by a growing number of pagans in their quest to reclaim the
spiritual heritage of their countries.
It is certainly possible to draw different conclusions from the
material presented, but one thing is sure: The Bethen are a regional
form of our common European pre-Christian heritage.
Bibliography
Martin Bernstein, Kultstätten, Römerlager und Urwege, 2000
Hans Haid, Mythos und Kult in den Alpen, 2002
Erni Kutter, Der Kult der drei Jungfrauen, 1997
Römer zwischen Alpen und Nordmeer, Katalog zur Landesausstellung des Freistaates Bayern, 2000
Georg Rohrecker, Die Kelten Österreichs, 2003
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