Father Gods

The Father Gods represent authority, channelled power, benevolence and altruism, nobility of purpose, expansion and limitless potential.

Dagda

Dagda, the Father God in the Celtic tradition, was also called Eochaid Ollathair (Father of All) and Ruadh Rofessa (the Red One of Knowledge). He was the first King of the Tuatha de Danaan, the Irish gods, and it was believed that he performed miracles and saw to the weather and the harvest.

Dagda was lord of life and death and the primary god of fertility. With his huge club, he made the bones of his people's enemies 'fall like hail beneath the horses'. With one end of the club, it was said, he could kill nine men with a single blow and with the other could instantly restore them to life.

His great cauldron was handed on to his daughter Brighid (Cerridwen in the Welsh tradition). In some legends, Dagda is associated with Balor, the Sun deity of the Formoiri, enemies of the gods, who was slain by Lugh, the young solar god, at the Battle of Moytura, thus representing the ascent of the new Sun.

The death of the old order, as a necessary requirement for the new, is a central motif in spirituality and so Dagda can offer a focus for rites of passage where change is necessary, but not necessarily welcomed.

Odin

Odin is the Viking Father God, known as the All-Father, god of inspiration, wisdom and poetry as well as war. Odin was desperate to acquire the wisdom and knowledge of the older order of giants. He traded one of his eyes for wisdom and obtained the knowledge of the runes, the ancient symbols of spiritual knowledge, by sacrificing himself on the World Tree.

Odin can be invoked for magic and divination, especially for casting runes, for inspiration with words and oratory, for expansion of horizons and for male power magic.

If Frigg is also invoked, the energies are more balanced.