Women of the Highlands by Katharine Stewart sampler

chapter 1
Early Women – Celtic Times
in celtic society in the first centuries ad women were held in
high regard. Their social status was quite remarkable. They could
become chiefs and take prominent roles in political, religious and
artistic life; judges, law-givers and bards. They could choose their
marriage partners and could divorce them if maltreated, having the
right to claim damages. Their dowry remained their property. In
Britain matri-linear succession to kingship was the rule until the
9th century.
In pre-Christian times Celtic female deities were all in the form
of an earth-mother. Lucius Apuleius, a Roman writer of the 2nd
century, observing this, had a poem:
I am she
That is the natural
Mother of all things,
Mistress and governess
Of all the elements
The initial progeny of worlds
Chief of the powers divine
Queen of all that are in hell
The principal of them
That dwell in heaven
Manifested alone
And understood form
Of all the gods and goddesses.
The belief in a goddess of creation was deep-rooted in many parts
of the world.
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