The ways in which gender identities are embedded in religious rituals, symbols, institutions, and language reflect changing social and political power structures, especially in relation to women. One effect of this wider debate has been to look to the past to provide paradigms in which access to power and influence in the institutions of religious life have been more equally balanced. Since ancient Greek writers first identified the Celts as keltoi, this group has provided a powerful symbol of otherness for the perception of women and their function in religious contexts in Celtic society. The issue of gender, and how this shaped concepts of sacredness in the religious behavior of the Celts, has been a topic of discussion since the late nineteenth century, and ideas of Celtic pagan and Christian spirituality have played a prominent role in alternative spirituality movements since the...