BreadAleWineGrainA boundary stone setWater from a spring
Invocation Approach
Tone
Steady and earthy
Address
SucellosThe Good StrikerHammer-Bearer
Relationship
The god who strikes the ground so that it gives
Warning
He is known from stones and not from stories so do not invent his myth
Resonance
Those who keep a boundary those who work the land
Symbols
MalletOllaBarrelRavenThree headed dog
Mythology Summary
Sucellos, 'the good striker' from su- plus a stem for striking, is a Gaulish god known from about ten votive inscriptions and well over a hundred images, concentrated in the Rhône and Saône valleys and reaching the Rhineland, Britain and the Danube. He is shown as a bearded man in Gaulish dress with a long-handled mallet in one hand and a round-bellied pot in the other, sometimes with a raven, a dog or a snake, and often paired with the goddess Nantosuelta, as on the Sarrebourg altar's dedication Deo Sucello Nantosuelte. No myth of him survives: his character is disputed between a god of abundance and fertility and a god of the underworld, and he is partly assimilated to Roman Silvanus, with dedications naming him Sucellus Silvanus.
Modern Practice
Worked with for boundaries, for the fertility of a place, and for the dead who belong to the ground; springs were placed under his protection, so water is the natural offering. The practice is local and material - a stone set at a boundary, a pot of grain, a mallet kept by the door.