🐻 Artio is the Celtic bear goddess…
She is the Celtic Goddess of Wildlife, Transformation, and Abundance. I am a Wildlife Biologist in my “day job”, so it is little wonder that I needed to travel down this rabbit hole…
Artio is one of the more obscure goddesses in the Celtic pantheon. She is often shown with baskets of plenty and surrounded by animals. 🥰 
The information below comes from this link ⬇️
https://feminismandreligion.com/2015/08/26/artio-celtic-goddess-of-wild-life-transformation-and-abundance-by-judith-shaw/
Artio is frequently depicted as a bear. Her name comes from the old Celtic word for bear, arth(e), which the Romans Latinized to artos.
Artio arrived in western Europe with the Helvetii, a Celtic tribe who migrated to Switzerland around 450 BC.  They worshiped Her as the “She-Bear”.
But Her origins could be even older than that. Some feel that the bear is the oldest European deity, as bones and skulls of bears have been found lovingly arranged on niches found in caves across Europe.
Further evidence of Artio’s ancient origins is found in the first written sentence from the “Old Europe Script”, invented around 6,000 years ago, long before the Celts arrived.  It reads:
“The Bear Goddess and the Bird Goddess are the Bear Goddess indeed”. 
As crazy as I am about birds, could this connection be any more PERFECT?
The reference artwork in the photos is not my own… but you can find it on Etsy! ⬇️
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1654469981/artio-celtic-goddess-of-the-wilderness?ref=share_ios_native_control