Christianity requires only the faith of the deceased, hence the lack of grave goods. Each animal traditionally possessed specific attributes and associations, which their artists may have trying to evoke. The siting of symbol stones near to or coinciding with an ancient site may relate the Picts belief in a supernatural otherworld and their feeling that certain places were numinous. They may have regarded such sites as gateways between the worlds at certain times in the annual or lunar cycle. Documentary references The drowning of Talorc and Talorcan may have been ritualistic.
Pictish sculptures show a man dropped headfirst into a cauldron.
Columbas incident with the fountain evidences the Picts belief in the sacredness of water, particularly of wells. I symbols that the pagan religion practised by the Picts was like that of the other Celts. Picts - the Name and the People . The Picts, A New Look at Old Problems. Alan Small, Dundee , 1987.