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In Ireland and Great Britain, there are many ancient "Druid" altars, beds, rings, stones, stone circles and temples. However, radio-carbon analyses assign dates such as 1380 BCE (Wilsford Shaft) to 3330 BCE (Hembury). Again, ancient Druids may have used these megalithic monuments, but did not necessarily build them Ireland now has countless wells and springs dedicated to the Christian Saint Bridget. She was obviously descended from the Celtic Goddess Brigid/Brigit. "Finding the cult of Brigit impossible to eradicate, the Catholic church rather unwisely canonized her as a saint, calling her Bridget or Bride." The sacred ownership of the various Pagan holy sites was simply translated from Goddess Brigid to St. Bridget after the area was Christianized.
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Among their number were an elite group of wise elders whose job it was to memorize in verse all of the knowledge and history of their tribe and pass the wisdom on by word of mouth. Often the keeping of this hidden knowledge was the traditional responsibility of certain clans or families. In this way, the family and societal histories were kept alive within the oral tradition. These wise elders were known as the Druids, Ovates and Bards. Among their ranks were the educated leaders of the Celtic people... the historians, astronomers, philosophers, judges, royal advisors, doctors and musicians, shamans and diviners. With their concentrated system of learning which was known in Ireland as the Brehon Law, they grew in power and stature until they were as or more powerful than the Kings and Queens they served. Celtic Bards and Druids were allowed to pass unhindered between different warring tribes even though they were, at a later time, formally prohibited from carrying arms or using any physical weapon. But such was their position that they were capable of using words alone to vanquish their enemies when the need arose. The Druids had a very special relationship with nature. They saw that human life was but a small fragment of a much larger pattern, and that the shape of life rhythms could be worked out by the careful observation of, and the strict adherence to, an annual cycle. The Druids used a complex system of time-keeping based on their awareness of solar and lunar cycles. According to the Coligny Calendar, they measured the passage of time by observing the lunar orbit around the Earth (a lunar month.) A Druid Cycle of five years was known as a 'Lustre'. At the end of six Lustres, or one month of years (30), a Druidic Cycle was complete. A period of 21 months of years corresponded to a Druidic Era. Eras dated from the Second Battle of Mag Tuireadh in Ireland, at which the Tuatha Danann vanquished the Fomorians. Greek was originally known and used by the Ancient Druids until the arrival of Christianity when Latin was adopted as the new religious and scientific language. However the Druids also used a secretive hieratic alphabet as a special means of communicating with each other. It was known as the Ogham, or Beth-Luis-Nuin alphabet. It was limited to mnemonic learning by question and answer, and embodied special symbolic uses that are lost to us.
They underwent lengthy training: some sources say for more than 20 years. Druids led all public rituals, which were normally held within fenced groves of sacred trees. In their role as priests, "they acted not as mediators between God and man, but as directors of ritual, as shamans guiding and containing the rites." Most leaders mentioned in the surviving records were male. It is not known whether female Druids were considered equal to their male counterparts, or whether they were restricted to special responsibilities. References to women exercising religious power might have been deleted from the record by Christian monks during the Celtic Christian era.
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shaman flight. Literally, Immram means "sea journey", for it is in the western ocean that the islands of otherworldly paradises were located.
speaks of. Possibly, Imbas refers to altered states of consciousness.
This way of magic often happens "accidentally" to heroes, warriors, and hunters.
Druids do".
of nature, Note the significance of Truth and Justice being in the same word. |
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But its history isn't of easy digging due to the lack of written direct sources and to the fact that most of their myths, habits, information of any kind came to us through their enemies. The druidic world soon evokes a life in full connection with the surrounding nature, and a deep knowledge of it as plants and trees were used in all kind of rituals, were used as a form of language, and were used as astrologic symbolism. In few words plants and trees were the basement of Celt-druidic religious, ritual, magical and social life. Caesar's De Bello Gallico gives us some information about who the druids were. They were part of the priest class, together with the bards (or filid - the Irish version) and with the diviner (this last category sometimes is associated with the druids in just one class). The druids held role of philosophers, judges, mages, teachers, they held sacrifices and - if we consider the diviners among druids - also diviners and mystical's. The druids, especially in Ireland, were even doctors and held the secrets of the medicinal herbs and plants. Their knowledge was handed down orally as they believed that writing down is to weaken the power of edidic memory and to dishonor the thing written down. The plants and trees held a fundamental role in the druidic rituals and life, as each tree or plant was connected to special powers or characteristics, with special healing properties. In fact the tree was the primary symbolic reference within the druidic tradition. The trees were bridges between the realms of Land and Sky, they communicate Water between those realms, and a tree could symbolize also the three realms united in harmony, and as it happened on a riverbank, on a seashore etc. there would be a great sacred place for poetic inspiration and spell casting.
In their magic and divination rituals they would use Hazel sticks, according to the fairies book. The stick should be cut off in a new-moon night, choosing a blooming branch, in order to keep the life and power carried by the young blooming branch. The Willow held also a very important role within the druidic world. Another water-loving tree, it is related to the gift of prophecy and it was supposedly used by druids in associations with the ritual of the wearing of animal's skins to reach a deeper contact with the nature and its powers. The Walnut-tree was respected and feared among Celts because of its tight connection with prophecies and the belief that it was dangerous to fall asleep under its shadow. The druids would use the leaves to make potions and infusions to arrange fascinations and witchcrafts.
Mistletoe was held in great reverence by the Druids. They went forth clad in white robes to search for the sacred plant, and when it was discovered, one of the Druids ascended the tree and gathered it with great ceremony, separating it from the Oak with a purified knife. The Mistletoe was supposed to be cut only at a particular age of the moon, normally in the beginning of the year, and it would be seek by the druids only when they had visions that would lead them to the sacred plant. When no visions would occur for a long time, or the Mistletoe would fall to the ground that would be considered as a very bad omen bound to bring misfortune on the nation. The Mistletoe was considered to be a strong protection against all kind of evil. There is another tree which held a very important role for its symbolic and religious aspects: the Yew. The Yew is connected with the death and the birth, it stands between this world and the Other world. From its wood the Celts made spears and shields. The wheel of the druid Mog-Ruith - hypostasis of Dagda, a God with many skills and among them the power over the elements -, doctor and warrior (Fianna), was made out of Yew. The druid's name Mog-Ruith means "servant of the wheel" and according to F. Le Roux he held the cosmic wheel that blinds who looks at it and deafen who hears it. It is believed that over Yew's woods the Irish "filid" would carve their charms. The name "Eoclaid", which is a typical royal name, means "he who fights with the Yew". |
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