God of the Month Votives
By Michael Small
Introduction
A few years ago H. Jeremiah Lewis, aka Sannion, came up with the idea of doing a series of devotional activities to the Gods that he called “God of the Month Club”. The idea being to learn more about a god or goddess by making a concerted effort to concentrate on one deity at a time for each month of the year. The first year I participated I chose a more academic approach and made offerings to each God after doing research into their history, mythology, etc. I also found images of these gods online (or in books) that most appealed to me and framed them (I later transferred these pictures into a paper journal for posterity). Anyway the second year I decided to up the ante and go outside of my comfort zone by creating votive statues for each of the Gods I had chosen by lot. Here is what I came up with - some of them I quite like, others just didn’t work out as I’d hoped.
Votive Offerings
I drew names of twelve gods by lot at Samhain, the “Celtic new year”, which is a time when my polytheist friends and relations tend to do divinations. The idea was to have this run from November to October, but it didn’t work out that way for various reasons. In any case I completed all twelve statues and I present them here in the order in which they were created. Not all of these gods are specifically Roman or Romano-Celtic, but I want to present the whole thing as they are all part of a series of votive offerings.
FAND
Fand is an Irish goddess who is married to Mananan. Since this was my first attempt I really didn’t know what to do and so I sort of let my hands do what they wanted.
It ended up as this sort of bell shaped thing with apples, spirals, and the alchemical symbol for water. This makes some sense by association with her husband - who is the god of the sea and who has a home on an otherworldly island associated with apples.
JUPITER
This next piece is dedicated to Jupiter. It didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted but it wasn’t bad for a second attempt.
Basically I wanted to create a Jupiter Column with an eagle on top. The eagle doesn’t look quite right, but the rest is just the way I wanted it. My understanding is that Jupiter columns were particularly common in Celtic and Germanic regions, which is one of the reasons why that particular style resonated for me.
DIAN CECHT
This is an Irish god who is associated with healing. In the the Second Battle of Moytura he brings warriors of the Tuatha De Danann back to life using a healing well.
This is actually one of my favourite pieces. I chose to emulate the style you see in various stone figures around the British Isles. Here I have created a warrior, having been resurrected in Dian Cecth’s well, rising up with his spear in hand.
DIANA
This next votive was created for Diana. I wanted to find a way to highlight her associations with both the moon and as a huntress. The piece in the middle is actually a bar of soap.
Unfortunately it ended up cracking, but I am still generally pleased with this piece - I think with more practice this sort of piece could have worked out much better.
AENGUS
Aengus is an Irish god. He is said to have tricked his father Dagda out of his home in Bru na Boinne. This depicts Aengus at Bru na Boinne defending his territory. 
The piece also features one stone with a sun and the other with moon, and these point to the trick of logic Aengus used to win his territory. Also an argument could me made linking Aengus to the likes of Sol or Apollo based on this and other potentially shared associations.
APOLLO
This next piece for Apollo is definitely one of my favorite votives. It depicts Apollo holding a spear (I could not find a way to make a convincing bow) and sun wheel standing over the python whom he has recently defeated.
The tactile nature of the piece and its imagery resonate well for me.
VESTA
For Vesta I chose to make a tripod that can hold small votive candles. I wanted to represent Vesta in the truest possible form: as ritual fire (or hearth fire).
The tripod legs originally had little balls but they started to fall off so I changed it to just be straight wooden points and this ended up working better in the end.
DONN
Donn is an Irish chthonic deity who is quite similar to Dis Pater in some respects. The dead are feasted in his home in the afterlife. The image depicts him on a balcony in this home offering a jewelled cup as a sign of welcoming hospitality.
I keep this piece on a shrine for the ancestors and the honoured dead.
MIDHIR
Midhir is the mythological foster father of Aengus (mentioned above); Midhir falls in love with Etain in the famous Wooing of Etain, which makes his wife jealous causing her to seek vengeance on the girl. She ends up going through a series of magical transformations in the myth, including the form of a butterfly, which makes it difficult for Midhir to find his now lost lover.
This scene depicts Midhir searching the world for his beloved Etain. What I like about this votive is the curve in his back that really makes it look like he is looking around the room, and his long walking stick; I also like the look of anguish on his face while he searches in vain for the girl (who is right under his nose of course).
ETHNIU
Ethniu is the mother of Lugh (whom I associate with Lugos Mercury). Her father, Balor, imprisoned her in a crystal tower in an attempt to avoid a prophecy that he would be murdered by his grandson (Lugh). 
Ethnui has been described as being the North Star (on the New Tara website for example) and as such I chose to represent her inside her celestial tower instead of trying to anthropomorphize this goddess. I opted to draw the tower onto a monolithic structure along with celestial imagery on all sides.
DAGDA
Dagda is the father of the Tuatha De Danann and a rather important deity in the Irish pantheon. He has power over life and death, and his magical harp controls the turning of the seasons. In many of his stories he is described as rather oafish and almost comical. 
This depicts him after having eaten a huge earthen vat full of porridge (that contained tons of meat from variety of animals) using a spoon big enough for a man and a woman to sleep in (although here I’ve given him a giant fork instead). Dagda’s harp had been stolen by the Fomorians and they tried to thwart him by forcing him to eat every drop of porridge so as not to be disgraced - much to their chagrin he ate every bite and managed to recover the harp. I really like the spiral in the pit and Dagda’s club - it should be easy to spot which side represents death dealing.
NUADA
Nuada is the king of the Tuatha De Danann and may related to the Romano-British god Nodens Mars. He ruled as king until his hand was lost in a battle with the Fir Bolg; however because he lost his hand he was unable to rule until it was later restored by Dian Cecht. 
Nuada’s replacement hand was famously made of silver, hence one of his epithets “Silver Hand/Arm,” which I depict in this votive holding aloft his mythical sword. I was trying to make it look like he is wearing chain mail but it didn’t quite turn out the way I’d hoped -- so I just let my hands go and this is what came out in the end.
Conclusion
As you can see most of the deities are Irish, but many of these deities have similar stories or characteristics in common with Roman and especially Romano-Celtic deities. Each of these votive pieces was created as part of a vow I made to the gods in question. I hope that in sharing these pictures and providing some explanatory text that others might be encouraged to create and share similar votive pieces. I would also encourage others to try the God of the Month exercise if they want to get to know more about their Gods and (ideally) stretch the boundaries of their own creativity by getting a little outside their comfort zones in order to honour said deities. The act of creating something specifically dedicated to a deity (be it votive art, an essay, poetry, or song) is a powerful, meaningful, and deeply personal form of spiritual expression.
