The spirits of watery places were honoured as givers of life and as links between the physical realm and the other world. These offerings linked the donor to the place and spirits in a concrete way. Offerings of jewellery, weapons or foodstuffs were placed in offering pits and bodies of water dedicated to these beings. Many topographical features were honored as the abodes of powerful spirits or deities, with geographical features named for tutelary deities. : 24 Sanctuaries were sacred spaces separated from the ordinary world, often in natural locations such as springs, sacred groves, or lakes.
In tribal territories, the ground and waters which received the dead were imbued with sanctity and revered by their living relatives. Certain animals were seen as messengers of the spirits or gods. The ancient Celts venerated the spirits who inhabited local mountains, forests and springs. and the evidence of epigraphy strongly supports this conclusion." As what some may consider spirits are considered by other authors to be deities, the list of Celtic deities derived from local inscriptions can at times be rather long. As Anne Ross observed: ". god-types, as opposed to individual universal Gaulish deities, are to be looked for as an important feature of the religion of the Gauls. As in many polytheistic systems, the local spirits honoured were those of both the wild and cultivated landscapes and their inhabitants. The close link with the natural world is reflected in what we know of the religious systems of Celtic Europe during the late 1st millennium BCE and early 1st millennium CE. : 29 While the polytheistic cultures of ancient Greece and Rome revolved around urban life, ancient Celtic society was predominantly rural.
Every mountain, river, spring, marsh, tree and rocky outcrop was inspirited. The Celtic religion perceived the presence of the supernatural as integral to, and interwoven with, the material world. : 196 The archaeological and the literary record indicate that ritual practice in Celtic societies lacked a clear distinction between the sacred and profane rituals, offerings, and correct behaviour maintained a balance between gods, spirits and humans and harnessed supernatural forces for the benefit of the community. The Celts of the ancient world believed that many spirits and divine beings inhabited the world around them, and that humans could establish a rapport with these beings.