Propitiatory and Divination ‘Sacred Rocks’ in Celtic Iberia

Abstract

The folklore of Western or Atlantic Iberia retains a consistent propitiatory and divination ritual consisting in tossing 1 or 3 pebbles at the summit of certain big rocks; if the stones do not fall to the ground, you will get a wish, usually to be married within the year.

These rites come from pre-Roman traditions, related to “sacred rocks”. It is analyzed the history of research, the ritual types (a propitiatory ritual and a divination one), and its origins, parallels and survivals. These “sacred rocks” were numina loci in which these rites were held as umbilical points or axis mundi. These rites extended over the territories of the Atlantic Celts and they are related to the oldest divination rites documented in Greece, Italy and Germany, whose roots back to animist beliefs related to the “external soul”. These “sacred rocks” constituent an essential key to interpret the Celtic “sacred landscape”.