The Ark of Safety, druid bardos, feathered serpant esp atlantian pyramidal immortal sorciety.....
wild...@peconic.net
The Ark of Safety, druid bardos, feathered serpant esp atlantian
pyramidal immortal sorciety....
this is the time of the end where the dead asleep in god
wake up and smell the coffee and the indian maharishi tea.
don juan is the feathered serpant and baha ullah is the
father on mt carmel who gathers the tribes of isreal
the lost tribe being the feathered serpants of atlantis
including toltec egyptian druid mayan inca and other
pyramidal esp sorciety jain hindu
and other times angelic civilization
where we pause between the moments
and literally
WAKE UP!!! AND SMELL THE COFFEE...
good morning to you and your body...
the feathered serpant is the one deep in the heart
of the earth..the time is now for a new heaven
and earth...
pack your luggage and wait for the bus...
the yellow rainbow submarine is coming soon
its name is azazerial the angel of death,
a living void or bardos at best...
a dreamtime that is real and you find out
what you been doing in eternity...and who you are.
you find out what the judgement is on mankind/
and yourself..
you see all, including the green insect that lunches
on leftover bodies that are left
unattended at death..it is the eagle..
if you have an immortal body not a problem
so iit is good to be awake even though it hurts
holy spirit is wonderful and rapture in the heavens
with the christ spirit is best..
wow,,its been one revelation after another for me
the angel of death plays its trumpets loud
to put me to sleep and i just dont go under any more.
i am always hearing the verses of truth within this
celtic and world embracing bardos..
orin really did me good and plenty.
now i am wondering what to do
what id like to do is go'
to disneyland..
ha...
wildwings.
8. CAN WOMEN BECOME DRUIDS?
Yes! The mythologies record that many Druids were women; in fact
Celtic women enjoyed more
freedom and rights than women in any other culture of that time,
including the rights to enter battle,
own and inherit property, trace her kinship matrilinially (through her
mother's family line), and
choose and divorce her husband. The Irish hero Cu/Chullain was trained
by a land-owning warrior
queen named Scathach, for whom the Scottish island of Skye is named.
In the Welsh myths, there is
the powerful sorceress/Goddess Cerridwen, and also Arianrhod who ruled
Caer Arianrhod. (See
Gods) In Briton, Boudicca was a female chieftain of the Iceni tribe,
powerful enough to lead a revolt
of united Celtic tribes against the Romans in 61 BCE. Her patron was
the Andrasta, a goddess of
ravens and of battles, similar in many ways to the Irish war goddess
Morrigan. Similarly, Irish
women have a heroine in Queen Maeve of Cruachan, who led an army
against the province of Ulst
er, all to establish her equality in her marriage. Mogh Roith, who was
one of the greatest Irish
Druids, was taught by a female Druid named Banbhuana, the daughter of
Deargdhualach.
Women were also permitted to become Fianna. (see Warriors) Fionn
MacCumhall, from the Irish
Fenian myths, was trained in poetry and magic by a Druidess. A woman
named Asa (Irish for
"Gentle") became Fianna and took the name Ni-Asa ("Not Gentle"), which
eventually became
"Nessa", at the time she became mother to King Conchobar. Her
influence was such that her son
kept her name instead of his father's name, thus: "Conchobar Mac
Nessa", or "Conor, son of
Nessa".
Celtic law identified up to nine different types of marriages, some
differentiated on the basis of how
much property was brought into the marriage by each partner, and some
differentiated by the
circumstances of meeting her partner. The latter type is apparently
designed to protect the rights of
children. Here is a list of nine marriage types from Irish law:
"union of joint property" in which the man and woman contribute the
same amount of property.
"union of woman on man's property", in which the woman brings
little or nothing into the
marriage.
"union of man on woman's property", in which the man brings little
or nothing into the marriage.
a less formal partnership in which the man visits the woman who
still lives with her own kin.
a union in which the wife's kin does not consent to the marriage.
an abduction, in which the wife willingly elopes but her kin does
not permit her to go.
a partnership of secrecy,
a one night's stand or "soldier's marriage"; apparently this is to
protect the rights of children who
might issue from a rape, and finally
the marriage of two insane persons.
Many of the most powerful gods in Celtic mythology were female. But
the gender of deities is not a
reliable guide for determining what each deity's area of
responsibility is. There are male earth gods,
female sun gods, female animal gods, female war gods, and male &
female fertility gods, which is
very much in contrast with contemporary Western occultism, especially
Wicca. There are also
female river gods, male smithcraft gods, male & female soverenty gods,
and so on which is similar
to conventional occultism. Your humble author thinks that this is
because the old celts did not view
gender as the most defining attribute of a deity. With their
shape-changing powers, perhaps species
is not a definitive attribute either!
Thus there is no good reason to believe that Druidism was strictly and
unilaterally patriarchal in
ancient times, and modern Druidism certainly is not remotely
patriarchal.
9. DID THE DRUIDS PRACTICE HUMAN SACRIFICE?
The Romans recorded that the Druids sacrificed condemned criminals.
Judicial executions were no
different elsewhere in Europe, including Saxony. The Romans wrote that
such victims were tied into
huge wicker man-shaped effigies and burned alive. There were also some
forms of punishment in
Celtic law deemed worse than death, such as banishment. Some
mythologies describe one person's
life being sacrificed so that a terminally ill noble would survive,
thus indicating a belief in a cosmic
balance of forces. The archeological record does reveal a number of
sacrificial deaths, such as
"triple-deaths", of which the most famous is the "Piltdown Man", who
was recovered from a bog
near the border of Wales on 1st August 1984. He had been
simultaneously strangled, drowned, and
clubbed. The absence of any signs of struggle on the body seems to
indicate that he did not resist
the sacrifice but rather agreed to it willingly. To the Celts, death
was not the frightening, final thing it
is to most of us born in the 20th century (see Belief), and human
sacrifice may not have been so
immoral. Rather, it was a very special and powerful ritual, performed
only in times of serious need.
It is important not to assume that ancient people held the same values
that we do today.
However, there is some debate over this; the written records of Druid
sacrifices may have been
nothing more than anti-Druid propaganda. Julius Caesar had good reason
to make the Druids look
bad, because, after all, he was trying to conquer them. It would fuel
interest in his campaign back
home if he could prove that the Celts engaged in such barbaric
practices. Yet the Romans would kill
people in gladiatorial games, for the entertainment of the people. The
Druids, if they did sacrifice
people, could claim religious sanction. The archeological record is
ambiguous if such sacrifice was
judicial or ceremonial. Furthermore there is no evidence of human
sacrifice in Ireland's archeology,
to my knowledge, though there is evidence of animal sacrifice there.
Rest assured that modern Druids do not sacrifice anything at all
(though the author of this paper is
fond of sacrificing an occasional pint of Guinness!).
10. WHAT ARE SOME OTHER COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS OF
DRUIDISM?
Since the early Romantic Revival of Druidism, which began in the early
eighteenth century, there
have been many ideas on Druidism that owe more to imagination than to
history. Here are some of
the most common:
"The Barddas": a book of Welsh Bardic and Druidic knowledge. This
book is known to be
almost entirely forged by its author, Iolo Morganwyg. It claims as a
source the "Book of Pheryllt",
which is also a fictional work. It makes good poetry, but very poor
history. Distinguishing the two is
important, but almost never easy. (see also Romantic Druidism)
The Druids were Monotheists": A popular idea during the Romantic
Revival, but without
historical sanction, for there were many large and complicated
pantheons of Deities, and not all
were common to all the Celtic nations. Many of Druidism's early
revivers were strongly influenced
by Freemasonry and other similar fraternal orders, and attributed to
Druids the worship of an
exclusively male Christian God. Also, more recently, some have
believed that the Druids
worshipped the Earth Mother exclusively, but while Earth-mother
Goddesses are present in the
Celtic pantheons, they are not usually worshipped exclusively.
"The Druids were from Atlantis": There are many myths of magical
islands in the Atlantic,
but Atlantis was not one of them. The earliest documented evidence on
Atlantis comes from Plato,
who was a Greek and not a Celt, and was probably writing an allegory
and not a history. He wrote
that the chief god of Atlantis was Posidon, a Greek (not Celtic) God.
"Pumpkin Blossoms were a Holy Druidic Tree": Pumpkins are, for one
thing, not trees, and
secondly, not native to Europe. The ancient Druids could not have been
aware of their existence.
The Jack-o-Lantern used at Haloween (Samhain) would have been a
turnip, but that is not a tree
either. The function of the jack-o-lantern was to ward off the souls
of the dead, but this tradition
owes its origin to Mediaeval times, for the Celts had no great fear of
death.
"Samhain was a Celtic God": Samhain is the name of a festival, not
a God of the Dead,
though the festival is associated with the dead. In the Mediaeval
times the fear of the dead, and of
the old religion, was taught to the populace in order to integrate
Christianity more completely.
Indeed, most of the things we typically associate with Halloween
(vampires, devils, etc.) come from
this period and not Celtic myth.
"The Ogham Alphabet was used by Druids for divination": Virtually
all the Ogham
inscriptions that exist are burial monuments, property divisions, or
landmarks. The University of
Cork has an excellent collection of them. It's not enough evidence to
claim that Ogham was used as
an oracular tool by Druids, however, many modern Druids do use ogham
effectively for that
purpose. Historians cannot be certain because any Ogham inscriptions
carved on wood have rotted
away long ago; only stones remain. Each letter in the Ogham alphabet
was also the name of a tree,
which may have had a mystical meaning associated with each tree. (see
also Ogham )
"The Druids were celibate": Actually Druids were encouraged to
marry and raise families.
The Irish seer Cathbhad was the father of Conchobar Mac Nessa, for
example. (see Women) This
misconception is another attempt to christianize the early Druids.
11. WHAT ARE THE SYMBOLS OF DRUIDISM?
Druidism probably did not have one universal symbol to represent
itself, since it was differentiated
between seven different Celtic nations, and divided further into many
tribes within these nations.
Some of the most commonly used symbols are:
The Triskele: a rounded spiral with three arms radiating from a
central point, turning
counter-clockwise. It stands for any one of hundreds of Triads in
Celtic literature, but typically is
understood as standing for the land, sea, and sky, which composed the
foundation of the Celtic
cosmology.
The Spiral: Neo-lithic monuments typically have spiral patterns
carved into the stones. Being
pre-celtic, we have no clear idea what the Spiral meant to the people
who carved them, although it
is reasonable to believe they stood for the cycles of seasons, of day
and night, and of life and death.
If one stands facing south, the sun appears to trace a clockwise
spiral (deosil) as it rises in the east
and sets in the west; also, the stars turn in a counter-clockwise
(tuathail) as they rotate around
Polaris, the pole star. It is possible that spirals carved on to
pre-celtic monuments such as
Newgrange represent these astronomical movements.
The Awen: Three upright bars, with the tops of the outer two bars
leaning toward the top of the
center bar. Its first appearance in Druidism appears to be in the
Bardass, but its use by modern
Druids is widespread. Sometimes the Awen is draw with three stars
above it, and the whole
enclosed in three circles. The word "Awen" is Welsh for "inspiration".
The Circle: As with many indo-european sun symbols, the Circle is
the simple geometric shape
we all know and love. It makes up the pagan part of the Celtic Cross.
Circles are also the shape
that many megalithic monuments are constructed in, which is why we
call them "stone circles" and
"round barrows". The circle is a natural shape for religious symbols
across the world, for it is the
shape of the sun, the moon, the horizon, the bird's nest, and the
human eye.
The Celtic Cross: A Christian Cross with a circle surrounding the
middle point where the
vertical and horizontal lines of the Cross intersect. It is the
essential symbol of Celtic Christianity,
and is commonly used as monuments, grave markers, and landmarks
indicating holy sites. The
largest Celtic Crosses are carved from stone blocks and stand at
monastaries, such as at Iona and
Aberlemno. (see Christianity)
The Druid Sigil: A circle intersected by two vertical lines. In
Stuart Piggot's book "The Druids",
there is a photo of a Romano-British building, possibly a temple,
located at Black Holmes,
Thistleton, Leicestershire (England) in which this symbol forms the
foundation; other than that, this
author knows of no ancient origin for this symbol. The Henge of
Keltria, a large Druid organisation
in the United States, uses this symbol for itself.
The God with the Horns: An image of a male God with horns on his
head, usually stag antlers
but sometimes small bull horns. Though this symbol probably represents
the God in the image and
not Druidism as a whole, it is used quite commonly by modern pagans.
The stag antlers represent
tree branches, and thus stand for fertility; the bull horns stand for
power-- in a culture where the
measure of one's economic affluence was the size of one's cattle
herds, bull horns clearly symbolises
power. Goat horns were not used, nor introduced into Horned God images
until the Christian
period, and at this time the probably stood for subservience,
domesticity, and also sin & evil (hence
"Scapegoat").
The Crescent Moon: A symbol probably introduced into Druidism by
the Romantics, it stands
for the divine Feminine principle of fertility, corresponding by
opposition to the God with the Horns.
The Tree: A primary symbol of Druidism, however, each species of
tree known to the Druids
had a meaning of its own. There probably was no one symbolic meaning
applied to all trees. Trees
are important because they are bridges between the realms of Land and
Sky,they communicate
Water between these realms; the Irish God Bile is said to make this
possible. The Realms of Land,
Sea and Sky unite within a tree, as also at a seashore for example;
great power could manifest
there, and such places were best for poetic composition or
spellcasting.
The Head: Heads definitely had mystical significance. To the Celts,
it was the seat of the soul.
Mythologies report many heroes beheading their enemies to ensure they
stay dead (not an
unreasonable precaution in this time period) and numerous excavations
of Celtic buildings have
niche holes carved to hold human heads.
Long White Beards: Romantic period depictions of Druids in art and
in caricature typically
showed them with long white beards, long white hair, and long white
robes. Your author thinks they
look ridiculous.
12. FOUR ELEMENTS, FOUR DIRECTIONS; ISN'T THAT CELTIC?
Ancient celtic cosmology does not use nor require elabourate
correspondances of numbers,
directions, elements, colours, and the like as is found in
conventional occultism. Romantic Druidism
does tend to make use of such correspondances. Among the few numbers
the Druids did use,
Three was usually more significant, for Celtic cosmology tended to
organise the world in triads, and
not even numbers or mutually-opposite dualities. It is three Goddesses
whom the first mortal settlers
of Ireland encounter, three Realms that comprise the physical world,
three spirals that make the
arms of the triskele. To the Celts, two and four are not balanced
numbers because they do not have
anything in the middle, as do the numbers three and five!
The Druid's elements may have been eight or The pillars of the modern
Druidic symbol called the
awen, /|\ stand for truth, knowledge, and justice; the triskele (which
looks something like a spiral
with three arms) also demonstrates the significance of the number 3,
and may stand for any triad
though usually understood to stand for the realms of Earth, Sea, and
Sky. (see Symbols)
Celtic mysticism also includes at least one case of spiritual dualism,
and it is the coupling of fire and
water. These are the opposing forces out of which are born the three
realms, and all life. But as both
fire and water have constructive and destructive qualities, it would
be wrong to say that the fire and
water represent good and evil, male or female, or some other pair of
human qualities. They simply
are two different kinds of divine force.
There is a strong case to be made that the Druids made use of four
directions. The well of healing
constructed by the Irish god Diancecht, to aid the gods in their
battle against the Fomorians,
required four operators (himself and his three children) and it is
reasonable to presume that they
stood in the four cardinal directions of north, east, south, and west,
with the well in the middle.
Ireland itself is divided into four territories, called provinces:
Ulster in the north, Lenster in the east,
Munster in the south, and Connaught in the west, but in ancient times
there was a fifth province in
the center, called Meath, and it is in this province that the hill of
Tara, seat of the high kings, was
located. Many european ritual sanctuaries, such as Gournay-sur-Aronde
in northern France (ancient
Gaul), are constructed with solar and astronomical alignments that
correspond to the same four
cardinal directions, anchored by votive offering pits in the center.
So it would seem that the ritual
"center" "middle" or "between" place is central to old Druid magic, no
matter what other number
symbolism is being employed.
#13. WHAT RITUAL IMPLEMENTS DID THE DRUIDS USE?
Curved blade; sickle or scyth Pliny, a Roman historian, recorded a
Druid ritual in which
mistletoe was cut from an oak tree by a Druid in white robes, using a
gold sickle. The mistletoe was
to be caught in wicker baskets and not allowed to touch the ground.
One must not assume (as
apparently Pliny did) that all Druid rituals involve the use of
mistletoe, scythes, and white robes; and
what is more, gold is too soft a metal to be used as a cutting tool.
In modern Druidism the curved
blade has entered common use as a cutting implement, for harvesting
particular plants and herbs at
particular times of the year. Its cutting action in ritual is not so
much one of taking down, but of
releasing and freeing, as in "to cut free"; the energy freed by the
cut plant is sent on to the Gods or
blessed upon the assembly. Its shape is also reminiscent of the
crescent moon.
Druid Rod Some legends show Druids using wands, staves, and rods to
direct their energy
when working magic, usually when cursing or shape changing. It was
made from hazel and had to
touch the thing that it was directed at.
Bell Branch This was traditionally a silver tree branch with gold
bells attached to it. The sound
of the bells is pleasing to the Gods and attracts their attention,
while at the same time it is offensive
to the ears of malevolent spirits who are thereby driven away. It is
no wonder that the faerie host
have silver bells on the harnesses of their horses! Modern Druids use
the Bell Branch to make calls
to spirits and deities, and to purify a person on a spiritual level.
Crane Bag The only mythological reference to this ritual object
that this author knows of is the
Crane bag that belonged to Cumhall, father of Fionn Mac
Cumhall, which Fionn had to
recover when it was stolen. It contained many treasures from
such deities as Manannan and
Giobhniu, and would be full at high tide and empty at low tide.
Its function appears to be
similar to that filled by the medicine bundle of native north
americans. The poet W.B.Yeats mentions
a "bag of dreams" in his poem "Fergus and the Druid".
Cauldron Two prominent Celtic deities have magical cauldrons, the
Irish Dagda and the Welsh
Cerridwen, both of these cauldrons posess the property of granting
wisdom to any who drink from
it. Archaeologists have uncovered several cauldrons and buckets that
may have had ritual uses; this
conclusion is based on how they are decorated. Modern Druids use
cauldrons to make or distribute
offerings.
Druid Egg The Druid's Egg was described mythologically as a small
object formed from the
dried spittle of serpents, and possessing magical healing qualities.
Pliny (a Roman historian) said he
was shown one of these by a Druid from Gaul, who told him it was
called an "anguinum". Existence
of eggs in Druidic mysticism causes some scholars (and new-age fiction
authors) to believe that the
Druid's creation-myth was the same as the Sumerian creation story, in
which the world was hatched
from a divine primordial egg. It is not a widespread tool in modern
Druidism, although it is used by
some as a ritual implement for "grounding", or, drawing unhealthy
energy from a patient into the egg
where it is supposed to be incubated and transformed ("hatched") into
positive energy.
Animal and plant remains There is no doubt that ancient Druids used
animal and plant remains
for decorative, medicinal, and religious purposes. One ritual called
the Tarb Feis requires the Druid
to sleep under the skin of a freshly killed bull, so that the spirit
of the bull can send prophetic dreams
to the sleeper. Some Druids used colourful bird feathers in their
cloaks to denote their rank. On
continental europe, Druids used mistletoe for its magical healing
quality (ironic since mistletoe is
poisonous!). The use of sacred plants in old european paganism was so
strong that the Catholic
Church forbad the presence of mistletoe and holly in its churches.
Musical instruments Musical instruments are, of course, constructed
entirely from animal and
plant remains. The myths make frequent reference to harps in
particular, and the celts may also have
used drums, but with reference to old Celtic religion, these tools are
in the domain of the Bard rather
than the Druid. But just like the Bards themselves, musical
instruments were certainly a part of
public Druid ceremonies.
Stones A ring of stones in the ground was the most probable
"temple", or place where religious
ceremonies took place. It is difficult to speculate if the ancient
Druids attributed particular qualities
to particular "species" or rock or crystal, but many modern Druids
employ the correspondances of
modern occultism and witchcraft to good ends. Stones could channel,
store, and direct
earth-energy, and thus were used for markers, set in circles, and
libations were poured over them in
sacrifice.
[ Previous Page / Next Page ] Copyright 1998 by Brendan Myers. All
rights reserved.
8. CAN WOMEN BECOME DRUIDS?
Yes! The mythologies record that many Druids were women; in fact
Celtic women enjoyed more
freedom and rights than women in any other culture of that time,
including the rights to enter battle,
own and inherit property, trace her kinship matrilinially (through her
mother's family line), and
choose and divorce her husband. The Irish hero Cu/Chullain was trained
by a land-owning warrior
queen named Scathach, for whom the Scottish island of Skye is named.
In the Welsh myths, there is
the powerful sorceress/Goddess Cerridwen, and also Arianrhod who ruled
Caer Arianrhod. (See
Gods) In Briton, Boudicca was a female chieftain of the Iceni tribe,
powerful enough to lead a revolt
of united Celtic tribes against the Romans in 61 BCE. Her patron was
the Andrasta, a goddess of
ravens and of battles, similar in many ways to the Irish war goddess
Morrigan. Similarly, Irish
women have a heroine in Queen Maeve of Cruachan, who led an army
against the province of Ulst
er, all to establish her equality in her marriage. Mogh Roith, who was
one of the greatest Irish
Druids, was taught by a female Druid named Banbhuana, the daughter of
Deargdhualach.
Women were also permitted to become Fianna. (see Warriors) Fionn
MacCumhall, from the Irish
Fenian myths, was trained in poetry and magic by a Druidess. A woman
named Asa (Irish for
"Gentle") became Fianna and took the name Ni-Asa ("Not Gentle"), which
eventually became
"Nessa", at the time she became mother to King Conchobar. Her
influence was such that her son
kept her name instead of his father's name, thus: "Conchobar Mac
Nessa", or "Conor, son of
Nessa".
Celtic law identified up to nine different types of marriages, some
differentiated on the basis of how
much property was brought into the marriage by each partner, and some
differentiated by the
circumstances of meeting her partner. The latter type is apparently
designed to protect the rights of
children. Here is a list of nine marriage types from Irish law:
"union of joint property" in which the man and woman contribute the
same amount of property.
"union of woman on man's property", in which the woman brings
little or nothing into the
marriage.
"union of man on woman's property", in which the man brings little
or nothing into the marriage.
a less formal partnership in which the man visits the woman who
still lives with her own kin.
a union in which the wife's kin does not consent to the marriage.
an abduction, in which the wife willingly elopes but her kin does
not permit her to go.
a partnership of secrecy,
a one night's stand or "soldier's marriage"; apparently this is to
protect the rights of children who
might issue from a rape, and finally
the marriage of two insane persons.
Many of the most powerful gods in Celtic mythology were female. But
the gender of deities is not a
reliable guide for determining what each deity's area of
responsibility is. There are male earth gods,
female sun gods, female animal gods, female war gods, and male &
female fertility gods, which is
very much in contrast with contemporary Western occultism, especially
Wicca. There are also
female river gods, male smithcraft gods, male & female soverenty gods,
and so on which is similar
to conventional occultism. Your humble author thinks that this is
because the old celts did not view
gender as the most defining attribute of a deity. With their
shape-changing powers, perhaps species
is not a definitive attribute either!
Thus there is no good reason to believe that Druidism was strictly and
unilaterally patriarchal in
ancient times, and modern Druidism certainly is not remotely
patriarchal.
9. DID THE DRUIDS PRACTICE HUMAN SACRIFICE?
The Romans recorded that the Druids sacrificed condemned criminals.
Judicial executions were no
different elsewhere in Europe, including Saxony. The Romans wrote that
such victims were tied into
huge wicker man-shaped effigies and burned alive. There were also some
forms of punishment in
Celtic law deemed worse than death, such as banishment. Some
mythologies describe one person's
life being sacrificed so that a terminally ill noble would survive,
thus indicating a belief in a cosmic
balance of forces. The archeological record does reveal a number of
sacrificial deaths, such as
"triple-deaths", of which the most famous is the "Piltdown Man", who
was recovered from a bog
near the border of Wales on 1st August 1984. He had been
simultaneously strangled, drowned, and
clubbed. The absence of any signs of struggle on the body seems to
indicate that he did not resist
the sacrifice but rather agreed to it willingly. To the Celts, death
was not the frightening, final thing it
is to most of us born in the 20th century (see Belief), and human
sacrifice may not have been so
immoral. Rather, it was a very special and powerful ritual, performed
only in times of serious need.
It is important not to assume that ancient people held the same values
that we do today.
However, there is some debate over this; the written records of Druid
sacrifices may have been
nothing more than anti-Druid propaganda. Julius Caesar had good reason
to make the Druids look
bad, because, after all, he was trying to conquer them. It would fuel
interest in his campaign back
home if he could prove that the Celts engaged in such barbaric
practices. Yet the Romans would kill
people in gladiatorial games, for the entertainment of the people. The
Druids, if they did sacrifice
people, could claim religious sanction. The archeological record is
ambiguous if such sacrifice was
judicial or ceremonial. Furthermore there is no evidence of human
sacrifice in Ireland's archeology,
to my knowledge, though there is evidence of animal sacrifice there.
Rest assured that modern Druids do not sacrifice anything at all
(though the author of this paper is
fond of sacrificing an occasional pint of Guinness!).
10. WHAT ARE SOME OTHER COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS OF
DRUIDISM?
Since the early Romantic Revival of Druidism, which began in the early
eighteenth century, there
have been many ideas on Druidism that owe more to imagination than to
history. Here are some of
the most common:
"The Barddas": a book of Welsh Bardic and Druidic knowledge. This
book is known to be
almost entirely forged by its author, Iolo Morganwyg. It claims as a
source the "Book of Pheryllt",
which is also a fictional work. It makes good poetry, but very poor
history. Distinguishing the two is
important, but almost never easy. (see also Romantic Druidism)
The Druids were Monotheists": A popular idea during the Romantic
Revival, but without
historical sanction, for there were many large and complicated
pantheons of Deities, and not all
were common to all the Celtic nations. Many of Druidism's early
revivers were strongly influenced
by Freemasonry and other similar fraternal orders, and attributed to
Druids the worship of an
exclusively male Christian God. Also, more recently, some have
believed that the Druids
worshipped the Earth Mother exclusively, but while Earth-mother
Goddesses are present in the
Celtic pantheons, they are not usually worshipped exclusively.
"The Druids were from Atlantis": There are many myths of magical
islands in the Atlantic,
but Atlantis was not one of them. The earliest documented evidence on
Atlantis comes from Plato,
who was a Greek and not a Celt, and was probably writing an allegory
and not a history. He wrote
that the chief god of Atlantis was Posidon, a Greek (not Celtic) God.
"Pumpkin Blossoms were a Holy Druidic Tree": Pumpkins are, for one
thing, not trees, and
secondly, not native to Europe. The ancient Druids could not have been
aware of their existence.
The Jack-o-Lantern used at Haloween (Samhain) would have been a
turnip, but that is not a tree
either. The function of the jack-o-lantern was to ward off the souls
of the dead, but this tradition
owes its origin to Mediaeval times, for the Celts had no great fear of
death.
"Samhain was a Celtic God": Samhain is the name of a festival, not
a God of the Dead,
though the festival is associated with the dead. In the Mediaeval
times the fear of the dead, and of
the old religion, was taught to the populace in order to integrate
Christianity more completely.
Indeed, most of the things we typically associate with Halloween
(vampires, devils, etc.) come from
this period and not Celtic myth.
"The Ogham Alphabet was used by Druids for divination": Virtually
all the Ogham
inscriptions that exist are burial monuments, property divisions, or
landmarks. The University of
Cork has an excellent collection of them. It's not enough evidence to
claim that Ogham was used as
an oracular tool by Druids, however, many modern Druids do use ogham
effectively for that
purpose. Historians cannot be certain because any Ogham inscriptions
carved on wood have rotted
away long ago; only stones remain. Each letter in the Ogham alphabet
was also the name of a tree,
which may have had a mystical meaning associated with each tree. (see
also Ogham )
"The Druids were celibate": Actually Druids were encouraged to
marry and raise families.
The Irish seer Cathbhad was the father of Conchobar Mac Nessa, for
example. (see Women) This
misconception is another attempt to christianize the early Druids.
11. WHAT ARE THE SYMBOLS OF DRUIDISM?
Druidism probably did not have one universal symbol to represent
itself, since it was differentiated
between seven different Celtic nations, and divided further into many
tribes within these nations.
Some of the most commonly used symbols are:
The Triskele: a rounded spiral with three arms radiating from a
central point, turning
counter-clockwise. It stands for any one of hundreds of Triads in
Celtic literature, but typically is
understood as standing for the land, sea, and sky, which composed the
foundation of the Celtic
cosmology.
The Spiral: Neo-lithic monuments typically have spiral patterns
carved into the stones. Being
pre-celtic, we have no clear idea what the Spiral meant to the people
who carved them, although it
is reasonable to believe they stood for the cycles of seasons, of day
and night, and of life and death.
If one stands facing south, the sun appears to trace a clockwise
spiral (deosil) as it rises in the east
and sets in the west; also, the stars turn in a counter-clockwise
(tuathail) as they rotate around
Polaris, the pole star. It is possible that spirals carved on to
pre-celtic monuments such as
Newgrange represent these astronomical movements.
The Awen: Three upright bars, with the tops of the outer two bars
leaning toward the top of the
center bar. Its first appearance in Druidism appears to be in the
Bardass, but its use by modern
Druids is widespread. Sometimes the Awen is draw with three stars
above it, and the whole
enclosed in three circles. The word "Awen" is Welsh for "inspiration".
The Circle: As with many indo-european sun symbols, the Circle is
the simple geometric shape
we all know and love. It makes up the pagan part of the Celtic Cross.
Circles are also the shape
that many megalithic monuments are constructed in, which is why we
call them "stone circles" and
"round barrows". The circle is a natural shape for religious symbols
across the world, for it is the
shape of the sun, the moon, the horizon, the bird's nest, and the
human eye.
The Celtic Cross: A Christian Cross with a circle surrounding the
middle point where the
vertical and horizontal lines of the Cross intersect. It is the
essential symbol of Celtic Christianity,
and is commonly used as monuments, grave markers, and landmarks
indicating holy sites. The
largest Celtic Crosses are carved from stone blocks and stand at
monastaries, such as at Iona and
Aberlemno. (see Christianity)
The Druid Sigil: A circle intersected by two vertical lines. In
Stuart Piggot's book "The Druids",
there is a photo of a Romano-British building, possibly a temple,
located at Black Holmes,
Thistleton, Leicestershire (England) in which this symbol forms the
foundation; other than that, this
author knows of no ancient origin for this symbol. The Henge of
Keltria, a large Druid organisation
in the United States, uses this symbol for itself.
The God with the Horns: An image of a male God with horns on his
head, usually stag antlers
but sometimes small bull horns. Though this symbol probably represents
the God in the image and
not Druidism as a whole, it is used quite commonly by modern pagans.
The stag antlers represent
tree branches, and thus stand for fertility; the bull horns stand for
power-- in a culture where the
measure of one's economic affluence was the size of one's cattle
herds, bull horns clearly symbolises
power. Goat horns were not used, nor introduced into Horned God images
until the Christian
period, and at this time the probably stood for subservience,
domesticity, and also sin & evil (hence
"Scapegoat").
The Crescent Moon: A symbol probably introduced into Druidism by
the Romantics, it stands
for the divine Feminine principle of fertility, corresponding by
opposition to the God with the Horns.
The Tree: A primary symbol of Druidism, however, each species of
tree known to the Druids
had a meaning of its own. There probably was no one symbolic meaning
applied to all trees. Trees
are important because they are bridges between the realms of Land and
Sky,they communicate
Water between these realms; the Irish God Bile is said to make this
possible. The Realms of Land,
Sea and Sky unite within a tree, as also at a seashore for example;
great power could manifest
there, and such places were best for poetic composition or
spellcasting.
The Head: Heads definitely had mystical significance. To the Celts,
it was the seat of the soul.
Mythologies report many heroes beheading their enemies to ensure they
stay dead (not an
unreasonable precaution in this time period) and numerous excavations
of Celtic buildings have
niche holes carved to hold human heads.
Long White Beards: Romantic period depictions of Druids in art and
in caricature typically
showed them with long white beards, long white hair, and long white
robes. Your author thinks they
look ridiculous.
12. FOUR ELEMENTS, FOUR DIRECTIONS; ISN'T THAT CELTIC?
Ancient celtic cosmology does not use nor require elabourate
correspondances of numbers,
directions, elements, colours, and the like as is found in
conventional occultism. Romantic Druidism
does tend to make use of such correspondances. Among the few numbers
the Druids did use,
Three was usually more significant, for Celtic cosmology tended to
organise the world in triads, and
not even numbers or mutually-opposite dualities. It is three Goddesses
whom the first mortal settlers
of Ireland encounter, three Realms that comprise the physical world,
three spirals that make the
arms of the triskele. To the Celts, two and four are not balanced
numbers because they do not have
anything in the middle, as do the numbers three and five!
The Druid's elements may have been eight or The pillars of the modern
Druidic symbol called the
awen, /|\ stand for truth, knowledge, and justice; the triskele (which
looks something like a spiral
with three arms) also demonstrates the significance of the number 3,
and may stand for any triad
though usually understood to stand for the realms of Earth, Sea, and
Sky. (see Symbols)
Celtic mysticism also includes at least one case of spiritual dualism,
and it is the coupling of fire and
water. These are the opposing forces out of which are born the three
realms, and all life. But as both
fire and water have constructive and destructive qualities, it would
be wrong to say that the fire and
water represent good and evil, male or female, or some other pair of
human qualities. They simply
are two different kinds of divine force.
There is a strong case to be made that the Druids made use of four
directions. The well of healing
constructed by the Irish god Diancecht, to aid the gods in their
battle against the Fomorians,
required four operators (himself and his three children) and it is
reasonable to presume that they
stood in the four cardinal directions of north, east, south, and west,
with the well in the middle.
Ireland itself is divided into four territories, called provinces:
Ulster in the north, Lenster in the east,
Munster in the south, and Connaught in the west, but in ancient times
there was a fifth province in
the center, called Meath, and it is in this province that the hill of
Tara, seat of the high kings, was
located. Many european ritual sanctuaries, such as Gournay-sur-Aronde
in northern France (ancient
Gaul), are constructed with solar and astronomical alignments that
correspond to the same four
cardinal directions, anchored by votive offering pits in the center.
So it would seem that the ritual
"center" "middle" or "between" place is central to old Druid magic, no
matter what other number
symbolism is being employed.
#13. WHAT RITUAL IMPLEMENTS DID THE DRUIDS USE?
Curved blade; sickle or scyth Pliny, a Roman historian, recorded a
Druid ritual in which
mistletoe was cut from an oak tree by a Druid in white robes, using a
gold sickle. The mistletoe was
to be caught in wicker baskets and not allowed to touch the ground.
One must not assume (as
apparently Pliny did) that all Druid rituals involve the use of
mistletoe, scythes, and white robes; and
what is more, gold is too soft a metal to be used as a cutting tool.
In modern Druidism the curved
blade has entered common use as a cutting implement, for harvesting
particular plants and herbs at
particular times of the year. Its cutting action in ritual is not so
much one of taking down, but of
releasing and freeing, as in "to cut free"; the energy freed by the
cut plant is sent on to the Gods or
blessed upon the assembly. Its shape is also reminiscent of the
crescent moon.
Druid Rod Some legends show Druids using wands, staves, and rods to
direct their energy
when working magic, usually when cursing or shape changing. It was
made from hazel and had to
touch the thing that it was directed at.
Bell Branch This was traditionally a silver tree branch with gold
bells attached to it. The sound
of the bells is pleasing to the Gods and attracts their attention,
while at the same time it is offensive
to the ears of malevolent spirits who are thereby driven away. It is
no wonder that the faerie host
have silver bells on the harnesses of their horses! Modern Druids use
the Bell Branch to make calls
to spirits and deities, and to purify a person on a spiritual level.
Crane Bag The only mythological reference to this ritual object
that this author knows of is the
Crane bag that belonged to Cumhall, father of Fionn Mac
Cumhall, which Fionn had to
recover when it was stolen. It contained many treasures from
such deities as Manannan and
Giobhniu, and would be full at high tide and empty at low tide.
Its function appears to be
similar to that filled by the medicine bundle of native north
americans. The poet W.B.Yeats mentions
a "bag of dreams" in his poem "Fergus and the Druid".
Cauldron Two prominent Celtic deities have magical cauldrons, the
Irish Dagda and the Welsh
Cerridwen, both of these cauldrons posess the property of granting
wisdom to any who drink from
it. Archaeologists have uncovered several cauldrons and buckets that
may have had ritual uses; this
conclusion is based on how they are decorated. Modern Druids use
cauldrons to make or distribute
offerings.
Druid Egg The Druid's Egg was described mythologically as a small
object formed from the
dried spittle of serpents, and possessing magical healing qualities.
Pliny (a Roman historian) said he
was shown one of these by a Druid from Gaul, who told him it was
called an "anguinum". Existence
of eggs in Druidic mysticism causes some scholars (and new-age fiction
authors) to believe that the
Druid's creation-myth was the same as the Sumerian creation story, in
which the world was hatched
from a divine primordial egg. It is not a widespread tool in modern
Druidism, although it is used by
some as a ritual implement for "grounding", or, drawing unhealthy
energy from a patient into the egg
where it is supposed to be incubated and transformed ("hatched") into
positive energy.
Animal and plant remains There is no doubt that ancient Druids used
animal and plant remains
for decorative, medicinal, and religious purposes. One ritual called
the Tarb Feis requires the Druid
to sleep under the skin of a freshly killed bull, so that the spirit
of the bull can send prophetic dreams
to the sleeper. Some Druids used colourful bird feathers in their
cloaks to denote their rank. On
continental europe, Druids used mistletoe for its magical healing
quality (ironic since mistletoe is
poisonous!). The use of sacred plants in old european paganism was so
strong that the Catholic
Church forbad the presence of mistletoe and holly in its churches.
Musical instruments Musical instruments are, of course, constructed
entirely from animal and
plant remains. The myths make frequent reference to harps in
particular, and the celts may also have
used drums, but with reference to old Celtic religion, these tools are
in the domain of the Bard rather
than the Druid. But just like the Bards themselves, musical
instruments were certainly a part of
public Druid ceremonies.
Stones A ring of stones in the ground was the most probable
"temple", or place where religious
ceremonies took place. It is difficult to speculate if the ancient
Druids attributed particular qualities
to particular "species" or rock or crystal, but many modern Druids
employ the correspondances of
modern occultism and witchcraft to good ends. Stones could channel,
store, and direct
earth-energy, and thus were used for markers, set in circles, and
libations were poured over them in
sacrifice.
[ Previous Page / Next Page ] Copyright 1998 by Brendan Myers. All
rights reserved.
8. CAN WOMEN BECOME DRUIDS?
Yes! The mythologies record that many Druids were women; in fact
Celtic women enjoyed more
freedom and rights than women in any other culture of that time,
including the rights to enter battle,
own and inherit property, trace her kinship matrilinially (through her
mother's family line), and
choose and divorce her husband. The Irish hero Cu/Chullain was trained
by a land-owning warrior
queen named Scathach, for whom the Scottish island of Skye is named.
In the Welsh myths, there is
the powerful sorceress/Goddess Cerridwen, and also Arianrhod who ruled
Caer Arianrhod. (See
Gods) In Briton, Boudicca was a female chieftain of the Iceni tribe,
powerful enough to lead a revolt
of united Celtic tribes against the Romans in 61 BCE. Her patron was
the Andrasta, a goddess of
ravens and of battles, similar in many ways to the Irish war goddess
Morrigan. Similarly, Irish
women have a heroine in Queen Maeve of Cruachan, who led an army
against the province of Ulst
er, all to establish her equality in her marriage. Mogh Roith, who was
one of the greatest Irish
Druids, was taught by a female Druid named Banbhuana, the daughter of
Deargdhualach.
Women were also permitted to become Fianna. (see Warriors) Fionn
MacCumhall, from the Irish
Fenian myths, was trained in poetry and magic by a Druidess. A woman
named Asa (Irish for
"Gentle") became Fianna and took the name Ni-Asa ("Not Gentle"), which
eventually became
"Nessa", at the time she became mother to King Conchobar. Her
influence was such that her son
kept her name instead of his father's name, thus: "Conchobar Mac
Nessa", or "Conor, son of
Nessa".
Celtic law identified up to nine different types of marriages, some
differentiated on the basis of how
much property was brought into the marriage by each partner, and some
differentiated by the
circumstances of meeting her partner. The latter type is apparently
designed to protect the rights of
children. Here is a list of nine marriage types from Irish law:
"union of joint property" in which the man and woman contribute the
same amount of property.
"union of woman on man's property", in which the woman brings
little or nothing into the
marriage.
"union of man on woman's property", in which the man brings little
or nothing into the marriage.
a less formal partnership in which the man visits the woman who
still lives with her own kin.
a union in which the wife's kin does not consent to the marriage.
an abduction, in which the wife willingly elopes but her kin does
not permit her to go.
a partnership of secrecy,
a one night's stand or "soldier's marriage"; apparently this is to
protect the rights of children who
might issue from a rape, and finally
the marriage of two insane persons.
Many of the most powerful gods in Celtic mythology were female. But
the gender of deities is not a
reliable guide for determining what each deity's area of
responsibility is. There are male earth gods,
female sun gods, female animal gods, female war gods, and male &
female fertility gods, which is
very much in contrast with contemporary Western occultism, especially
Wicca. There are also
female river gods, male smithcraft gods, male & female soverenty gods,
and so on which is similar
to conventional occultism. Your humble author thinks that this is
because the old celts did not view
gender as the most defining attribute of a deity. With their
shape-changing powers, perhaps species
is not a definitive attribute either!
Thus there is no good reason to believe that Druidism was strictly and
unilaterally patriarchal in
ancient times, and modern Druidism certainly is not remotely
patriarchal.
9. DID THE DRUIDS PRACTICE HUMAN SACRIFICE?
The Romans recorded that the Druids sacrificed condemned criminals.
Judicial executions were no
different elsewhere in Europe, including Saxony. The Romans wrote that
such victims were tied into
huge wicker man-shaped effigies and burned alive. There were also some
forms of punishment in
Celtic law deemed worse than death, such as banishment. Some
mythologies describe one person's
life being sacrificed so that a terminally ill noble would survive,
thus indicating a belief in a cosmic
balance of forces. The archeological record does reveal a number of
sacrificial deaths, such as
"triple-deaths", of which the most famous is the "Piltdown Man", who
was recovered from a bog
near the border of Wales on 1st August 1984. He had been
simultaneously strangled, drowned, and
clubbed. The absence of any signs of struggle on the body seems to
indicate that he did not resist
the sacrifice but rather agreed to it willingly. To the Celts, death
was not the frightening, final thing it
is to most of us born in the 20th century (see Belief), and human
sacrifice may not have been so
immoral. Rather, it was a very special and powerful ritual, performed
only in times of serious need.
It is important not to assume that ancient people held the same values
that we do today.
However, there is some debate over this; the written records of Druid
sacrifices may have been
nothing more than anti-Druid propaganda. Julius Caesar had good reason
to make the Druids look
bad, because, after all, he was trying to conquer them. It would fuel
interest in his campaign back
home if he could prove that the Celts engaged in such barbaric
practices. Yet the Romans would kill
people in gladiatorial games, for the entertainment of the people. The
Druids, if they did sacrifice
people, could claim religious sanction. The archeological record is
ambiguous if such sacrifice was
judicial or ceremonial. Furthermore there is no evidence of human
sacrifice in Ireland's archeology,
to my knowledge, though there is evidence of animal sacrifice there.
Rest assured that modern Druids do not sacrifice anything at all
(though the author of this paper is
fond of sacrificing an occasional pint of Guinness!).
10. WHAT ARE SOME OTHER COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS OF
DRUIDISM?
Since the early Romantic Revival of Druidism, which began in the early
eighteenth century, there
have been many ideas on Druidism that owe more to imagination than to
history. Here are some of
the most common:
"The Barddas": a book of Welsh Bardic and Druidic knowledge. This
book is known to be
almost entirely forged by its author, Iolo Morganwyg. It claims as a
source the "Book of Pheryllt",
which is also a fictional work. It makes good poetry, but very poor
history. Distinguishing the two is
important, but almost never easy. (see also Romantic Druidism)
The Druids were Monotheists": A popular idea during the Romantic
Revival, but without
historical sanction, for there were many large and complicated
pantheons of Deities, and not all
were common to all the Celtic nations. Many of Druidism's early
revivers were strongly influenced
by Freemasonry and other similar fraternal orders, and attributed to
Druids the worship of an
exclusively male Christian God. Also, more recently, some have
believed that the Druids
worshipped the Earth Mother exclusively, but while Earth-mother
Goddesses are present in the
Celtic pantheons, they are not usually worshipped exclusively.
"The Druids were from Atlantis": There are many myths of magical
islands in the Atlantic,
but Atlantis was not one of them. The earliest documented evidence on
Atlantis comes from Plato,
who was a Greek and not a Celt, and was probably writing an allegory
and not a history. He wrote
that the chief god of Atlantis was Posidon, a Greek (not Celtic) God.
"Pumpkin Blossoms were a Holy Druidic Tree": Pumpkins are, for one
thing, not trees, and
secondly, not native to Europe. The ancient Druids could not have been
aware of their existence.
The Jack-o-Lantern used at Haloween (Samhain) would have been a
turnip, but that is not a tree
either. The function of the jack-o-lantern was to ward off the souls
of the dead, but this tradition
owes its origin to Mediaeval times, for the Celts had no great fear of
death.
"Samhain was a Celtic God": Samhain is the name of a festival, not
a God of the Dead,
though the festival is associated with the dead. In the Mediaeval
times the fear of the dead, and of
the old religion, was taught to the populace in order to integrate
Christianity more completely.
Indeed, most of the things we typically associate with Halloween
(vampires, devils, etc.) come from
this period and not Celtic myth.
"The Ogham Alphabet was used by Druids for divination": Virtually
all the Ogham
inscriptions that exist are burial monuments, property divisions, or
landmarks. The University of
Cork has an excellent collection of them. It's not enough evidence to
claim that Ogham was used as
an oracular tool by Druids, however, many modern Druids do use ogham
effectively for that
purpose. Historians cannot be certain because any Ogham inscriptions
carved on wood have rotted
away long ago; only stones remain. Each letter in the Ogham alphabet
was also the name of a tree,
which may have had a mystical meaning associated with each tree. (see
also Ogham )
"The Druids were celibate": Actually Druids were encouraged to
marry and raise families.
The Irish seer Cathbhad was the father of Conchobar Mac Nessa, for
example. (see Women) This
misconception is another attempt to christianize the early Druids.
11. WHAT ARE THE SYMBOLS OF DRUIDISM?
Druidism probably did not have one universal symbol to represent
itself, since it was differentiated
between seven different Celtic nations, and divided further into many
tribes within these nations.
Some of the most commonly used symbols are:
The Triskele: a rounded spiral with three arms radiating from a
central point, turning
counter-clockwise. It stands for any one of hundreds of Triads in
Celtic literature, but typically is
understood as standing for the land, sea, and sky, which composed the
foundation of the Celtic
cosmology.
The Spiral: Neo-lithic monuments typically have spiral patterns
carved into the stones. Being
pre-celtic, we have no clear idea what the Spiral meant to the people
who carved them, although it
is reasonable to believe they stood for the cycles of seasons, of day
and night, and of life and death.
If one stands facing south, the sun appears to trace a clockwise
spiral (deosil) as it rises in the east
and sets in the west; also, the stars turn in a counter-clockwise
(tuathail) as they rotate around
Polaris, the pole star. It is possible that spirals carved on to
pre-celtic monuments such as
Newgrange represent these astronomical movements.
The Awen: Three upright bars, with the tops of the outer two bars
leaning toward the top of the
center bar. Its first appearance in Druidism appears to be in the
Bardass, but its use by modern
Druids is widespread. Sometimes the Awen is draw with three stars
above it, and the whole
enclosed in three circles. The word "Awen" is Welsh for "inspiration".
The Circle: As with many indo-european sun symbols, the Circle is
the simple geometric shape
we all know and love. It makes up the pagan part of the Celtic Cross.
Circles are also the shape
that many megalithic monuments are constructed in, which is why we
call them "stone circles" and
"round barrows". The circle is a natural shape for religious symbols
across the world, for it is the
shape of the sun, the moon, the horizon, the bird's nest, and the
human eye.
The Celtic Cross: A Christian Cross with a circle surrounding the
middle point where the
vertical and horizontal lines of the Cross intersect. It is the
essential symbol of Celtic Christianity,
and is commonly used as monuments, grave markers, and landmarks
indicating holy sites. The
largest Celtic Crosses are carved from stone blocks and stand at
monastaries, such as at Iona and
Aberlemno. (see Christianity)
The Druid Sigil: A circle intersected by two vertical lines. In
Stuart Piggot's book "The Druids",
there is a photo of a Romano-British building, possibly a temple,
located at Black Holmes,
Thistleton, Leicestershire (England) in which this symbol forms the
foundation; other than that, this
author knows of no ancient origin for this symbol. The Henge of
Keltria, a large Druid organisation
in the United States, uses this symbol for itself.
The God with the Horns: An image of a male God with horns on his
head, usually stag antlers
but sometimes small bull horns. Though this symbol probably represents
the God in the image and
not Druidism as a whole, it is used quite commonly by modern pagans.
The stag antlers represent
tree branches, and thus stand for fertility; the bull horns stand for
power-- in a culture where the
measure of one's economic affluence was the size of one's cattle
herds, bull horns clearly symbolises
power. Goat horns were not used, nor introduced into Horned God images
until the Christian
period, and at this time the probably stood for subservience,
domesticity, and also sin & evil (hence
"Scapegoat").
The Crescent Moon: A symbol probably introduced into Druidism by
the Romantics, it stands
for the divine Feminine principle of fertility, corresponding by
opposition to the God with the Horns.
The Tree: A primary symbol of Druidism, however, each species of
tree known to the Druids
had a meaning of its own. There probably was no one symbolic meaning
applied to all trees. Trees
are important because they are bridges between the realms of Land and
Sky,they communicate
Water between these realms; the Irish God Bile is said to make this
possible. The Realms of Land,
Sea and Sky unite within a tree, as also at a seashore for example;
great power could manifest
there, and such places were best for poetic composition or
spellcasting.
The Head: Heads definitely had mystical significance. To the Celts,
it was the seat of the soul.
Mythologies report many heroes beheading their enemies to ensure they
stay dead (not an
unreasonable precaution in this time period) and numerous excavations
of Celtic buildings have
niche holes carved to hold human heads.
Long White Beards: Romantic period depictions of Druids in art and
in caricature typically
showed them with long white beards, long white hair, and long white
robes. Your author thinks they
look ridiculous.
12. FOUR ELEMENTS, FOUR DIRECTIONS; ISN'T THAT CELTIC?
Ancient celtic cosmology does not use nor require elabourate
correspondances of numbers,
directions, elements, colours, and the like as is found in
conventional occultism. Romantic Druidism
does tend to make use of such correspondances. Among the few numbers
the Druids did use,
Three was usually more significant, for Celtic cosmology tended to
organise the world in triads, and
not even numbers or mutually-opposite dualities. It is three Goddesses
whom the first mortal settlers
of Ireland encounter, three Realms that comprise the physical world,
three spirals that make the
arms of the triskele. To the Celts, two and four are not balanced
numbers because they do not have
anything in the middle, as do the numbers three and five!
The Druid's elements may have been eight or The pillars of the modern
Druidic symbol called the
awen, /|\ stand for truth, knowledge, and justice; the triskele (which
looks something like a spiral
with three arms) also demonstrates the significance of the number 3,
and may stand for any triad
though usually understood to stand for the realms of Earth, Sea, and
Sky. (see Symbols)
Celtic mysticism also includes at least one case of spiritual dualism,
and it is the coupling of fire and
water. These are the opposing forces out of which are born the three
realms, and all life. But as both
fire and water have constructive and destructive qualities, it would
be wrong to say that the fire and
water represent good and evil, male or female, or some other pair of
human qualities. They simply
are two different kinds of divine force.
There is a strong case to be made that the Druids made use of four
directions. The well of healing
constructed by the Irish god Diancecht, to aid the gods in their
battle against the Fomorians,
required four operators (himself and his three children) and it is
reasonable to presume that they
stood in the four cardinal directions of north, east, south, and west,
with the well in the middle.
Ireland itself is divided into four territories, called provinces:
Ulster in the north, Lenster in the east,
Munster in the south, and Connaught in the west, but in ancient times
there was a fifth province in
the center, called Meath, and it is in this province that the hill of
Tara, seat of the high kings, was
located. Many european ritual sanctuaries, such as Gournay-sur-Aronde
in northern France (ancient
Gaul), are constructed with solar and astronomical alignments that
correspond to the same four
cardinal directions, anchored by votive offering pits in the center.
So it would seem that the ritual
"center" "middle" or "between" place is central to old Druid magic, no
matter what other number
symbolism is being employed.
#13. WHAT RITUAL IMPLEMENTS DID THE DRUIDS USE?
Curved blade; sickle or scyth Pliny, a Roman historian, recorded a
Druid ritual in which
mistletoe was cut from an oak tree by a Druid in white robes, using a
gold sickle. The mistletoe was
to be caught in wicker baskets and not allowed to touch the ground.
One must not assume (as
apparently Pliny did) that all Druid rituals involve the use of
mistletoe, scythes, and white robes; and
what is more, gold is too soft a metal to be used as a cutting tool.
In modern Druidism the curved
blade has entered common use as a cutting implement, for harvesting
particular plants and herbs at
particular times of the year. Its cutting action in ritual is not so
much one of taking down, but of
releasing and freeing, as in "to cut free"; the energy freed by the
cut plant is sent on to the Gods or
blessed upon the assembly. Its shape is also reminiscent of the
crescent moon.
Druid Rod Some legends show Druids using wands, staves, and rods to
direct their energy
when working magic, usually when cursing or shape changing. It was
made from hazel and had to
touch the thing that it was directed at.
Bell Branch This was traditionally a silver tree branch with gold
bells attached to it. The sound
of the bells is pleasing to the Gods and attracts their attention,
while at the same time it is offensive
to the ears of malevolent spirits who are thereby driven away. It is
no wonder that the faerie host
have silver bells on the harnesses of their horses! Modern Druids use
the Bell Branch to make calls
to spirits and deities, and to purify a person on a spiritual level.
Crane Bag The only mythological reference to this ritual object
that this author knows of is the
Crane bag that belonged to Cumhall, father of Fionn Mac
Cumhall, which Fionn had to
recover when it was stolen. It contained many treasures from
such deities as Manannan and
Giobhniu, and would be full at high tide and empty at low tide.
Its function appears to be
similar to that filled by the medicine bundle of native north
americans. The poet W.B.Yeats mentions
a "bag of dreams" in his poem "Fergus and the Druid".
Cauldron Two prominent Celtic deities have magical cauldrons, the
Irish Dagda and the Welsh
Cerridwen, both of these cauldrons posess the property of granting
wisdom to any who drink from
it. Archaeologists have uncovered several cauldrons and buckets that
may have had ritual uses; this
conclusion is based on how they are decorated. Modern Druids use
cauldrons to make or distribute
offerings.
Druid Egg The Druid's Egg was described mythologically as a small
object formed from the
dried spittle of serpents, and possessing magical healing qualities.
Pliny (a Roman historian) said he
was shown one of these by a Druid from Gaul, who told him it was
called an "anguinum". Existence
of eggs in Druidic mysticism causes some scholars (and new-age fiction
authors) to believe that the
Druid's creation-myth was the same as the Sumerian creation story, in
which the world was hatched
from a divine primordial egg. It is not a widespread tool in modern
Druidism, although it is used by
some as a ritual implement for "grounding", or, drawing unhealthy
energy from a patient into the egg
where it is supposed to be incubated and transformed ("hatched") into
positive energy.
Animal and plant remains There is no doubt that ancient Druids used
animal and plant remains
for decorative, medicinal, and religious purposes. One ritual called
the Tarb Feis requires the Druid
to sleep under the skin of a freshly killed bull, so that the spirit
of the bull can send prophetic dreams
to the sleeper. Some Druids used colourful bird feathers in their
cloaks to denote their rank. On
continental europe, Druids used mistletoe for its magical healing
quality (ironic since mistletoe is
poisonous!). The use of sacred plants in old european paganism was so
strong that the Catholic
Church forbad the presence of mistletoe and holly in its churches.
Musical instruments Musical instruments are, of course, constructed
entirely from animal and
plant remains. The myths make frequent reference to harps in
particular, and the celts may also have
used drums, but with reference to old Celtic religion, these tools are
in the domain of the Bard rather
than the Druid. But just like the Bards themselves, musical
instruments were certainly a part of
public Druid ceremonies.
Stones A ring of stones in the ground was the most probable
"temple", or place where religious
ceremonies took place. It is difficult to speculate if the ancient
Druids attributed particular qualities
to particular "species" or rock or crystal, but many modern Druids
employ the correspondances of
modern occultism and witchcraft to good ends. Stones could channel,
store, and direct
earth-energy, and thus were used for markers, set in circles, and
libations were poured over them in
sacrifice.
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