Druids

 

 

From: Oxsan
Date: 24 Mar 2001
Time: 23:24:06

Druids have fascinated me since I was a teenager and read The Purple Pirate by Talbot Mundy, a series of six books about Tros of Samothrace. Tros was a piratical sea captain, a Prince of Samothrace, and the implacable foe of Julius Caesar and thus of Rome. He fought constantly against Caesar when he was not dallying with Cleopatra, which did not make Caesar any more fond of him. Every teenager should read about Tros of Samothrace; they are great adventure stories. I re-read them nearly every year.

Tros was an initiate of the Mysteries of Samothrace and as such was the holder of arcane knowledge that was part and parcel of the rites and ritual of the Druids. As such when he met the Druids in Gaul and Britain they were his natural allies against Caesar who was dedicated to stamping out the Druidic order. Anyway, Mundy's books have chapter headings attributed to the Druid Taliesin. When I first read these I thought that Taliesin was a fictitious character like Tros and that Mundy had just made the chapter headings up. Since then I have learned that Taliesin was a real live Druid and that he is probably the best known Druid to modern historians. Just to give you some idea of what these chapter headings were like I will reproduce a couple below: "I have spoken unto weariness. Yet know this! Listen ye that heard yet heard not! It is manlier to slay and be slain than to escape by cowardice from dangers that a little wisdom could have taught you to avoid. Aye, to the shambles with you! To the houghing! Return not to pity from me if ye run from the terror that ye have brought upon yourselves. A coward is a mocker of his own soul."

"If it were true, as ye say, that to slay is to prevail, then why not kill me? Ye could wear my robes and occupy my seat. But could ye know what I know? Could ye think what I think? Could ye do what I do? Could ye have my vision and enjoy that, merely by proving that violence slays and that flesh becomes dust?"

"Knowledge? Any fool can have it. But wisdom with which to interpret knowledge and to use it, that is something that each must learn for himself in the school of existence. It is a mark of the wise man that he can listen to fools and learn from them, although their speech is folly."

That was strong stuff for a fourteen year old in the simple life of the year of 1941; simple up to December that is.

Recently I have read The Druids by Peter Beresford Ellis and have updated, revised and replenished my knowledge of Druids - not that I am an expert after only that book - so below I tell you a few things about Druids:

1. THE CELTIC CONNECTION---I had always thought of the Druids as solely Celts and as never having existed before the Celts became prominant in world history. It is true that Druids reached the zenith of their culture among the Celts and were a very prominent segment of Celtic society in the general period 200BC to 400 AD (BCE and CE ) for those of you who are fussy about political correctness). They were chieftans and kings and counselors to kings and the Celts held them in the utmost respect. Scholars have noted however that there are striking resemblances between known Druidic incantations and certain Hindu and Egyptian documents . Especially in the "Declaration of Krishna" in the Hindu Bhagavad-Gita and for instance the Poem below attributed by historians to the Druid Taliesin: I have been a blue salmon I have been a wild dog I have been a cautious stag I have been a deer on a mountain And a stump of a tree on a shovel I have been an axe in the hand A pin in a pair of tongs A stallion in stud A bull in anger A grain in the growing I have been dead, I have been alive I am a composer of songs For I am Taliesin.

This declaration is not only strikingly similar to certain Hindu incantations but there are also many name cognates between the two cultures. The worship by the Druids of the goddess Danu (for whom the Danube River is named) also leads modern scholars to believe that the Celts had their cultural origin in India, the Caucasus or the Near East.

2. DRUIDS AS PRIESTS---I had always considered Druidism to be a priestly order and primarily concerned with religion. Ellis says not so. It is true that nearly all the priests in the Celtic society were Druids but it is not true that all the Druids were priests or even connected with religious rites. According to Ellis, the Druids of the Celtic Society were an intellectual association composed of persons who possessed certain arcane secret knowledge which might or might not be religious in nature. There were Druids who were kings, healers, counselors, warriors, merchants as well as priests. The Druids considered their "gnosis" or special wisdom to be dangerous in the hands of the uninitiated so they insisted on a lengthy novitiate and a gradual revelation of their "gnosis".

3. DRUIDIC RELIGION---Having said that the Druids were not solely a religious group they did at certain times in their long history share a common belief. Basic to their code of beliefs was worship of the goddess Danu, the primeval "Mother Goddess", creator (and destroyer) of the world. The Druids had a huge pantheon of sub-gods and goddesses such as Taranis, the thunder god. The Celts named a god or goddess for every river they ever came across (River Dee--goddess Deva,River Clyde--goddess Clota, River Severn-- goddess Sabrina, etc.). Origen claimed that the Druids were monotheistic but Ellis and other modern scholars consider this position nonsensical. Druidic gods and goddesses had companions of the opposite sex. This is once again reminiscent of the Hindu deity pairs (Indra and Saci, Shiva and Ua, Vishnu and Sri-Laksmi). After Christianity became dominant the Druids slowly and reluctantly assimilated its beliefs. It is interesting to note that in Ireland at least the Druidic gods and goddesses did not completely disappear. The Druids pushed them underground and relegated them to folklore as the "aes sidhe" which at that time meant "people of the hills". The word "sidhe" in modern Irish means "fairies".

4. DRUIDS AND TREES--I had always thought of Druids as tree worshipers. The word "Druid" is derived from the Greek "drus" which means "oak". Ellis agrees that the Druids did indeed venerate trees but insists that this was not really tree worship. The oak, the hazel and the rowan (European mountain ash) were especially used in Druid rites but Ellis does not believe this amounted to tree worship. Druids did believe that sleeping on rowan branches would give rise to prophetic dreams--I believe that eating a banana just before going to bed serves about the same purpose.

5. SECRECY----- Despite their intellectual stature no Druid ever wrote a book about their beliefs as such. There was a strict injunction against putting any of the Druidic gnosis in writing. About all we know of the Druids really comes from their deadly enemies, the Romans, who could not have been unprejudiced reporters.

6. GENDER---At a time when most European society treated women as mere animals and chattel the Druids and thus the Celts gave women an exactly coequal place with man. This coequality lasted until Rome and Christianity subdued the Celts and killed or drove underground the Druids.There were many women Druids.Women were queens. Boudicca (Boadicea) ruled the Iceni in AD61. She was almost surely a Druid and was a priestess of the goddess of victory, Andrasta. Tacitus says of Boudicca, " ...it is not the first time that Britains have been lead into battle by a woman." Medb, of Connacht was a famous woman warrior; Scathach, a woman was the instructor in martial arts for the famous Cuchulainn; Aoife, Scathach's sister, was considered as great a warrior as Cuchulainn himself. In Ireland was the Fianna, an elite band of women warriors led by Credne. Cartimandua, female ruler of the Brigantes, was married to Venutios who tried to surreptitiously take over the kingdom. Cartimandua divorced him and married his charioteer. Onomaris was a gaulish chieftainess who led the Gauls into Spain. And then there was Chiomara, wife of Ortagan, leader of the Tolistoboii, who was kidnapped and raped by Roman Gnaeus Manlius Volso in 189 BC who also sent a demand for ransome to Ortagan. A meeting on a river bank was arranged to make the exchange. Chiomara appeared alone at the site with Volso's head in her hand and told her husband, "A better thing that only one man be alive who ever had intercourse with me". Women served as lawyers, judges, could hold property, could vote, could institute divorce, were appointed ambassadors, and were responsible for their own debts but not those of their husbands. It was nearly two thousand years after the suppression of the Celts before women got all those rights again.

There are lots of other unusual things about the Celts and Druids but I am tired typing for now and must go eat. Mr Ellis has my thanks for teaching me about Druids---but one's learning is never complete. As Taliesin said:

"Ye have heard, ye have seen the sea and all its waves come thundering against the cliffs. Lo, it fails; it is hurled back upon itself. But does the sea cease? Neither shall envy and all its armies cease. It shall thunder and roar and suck and undermine, until ye learn at some time in this eternity, that Motion is Law----but ye think of the motion of chariots whereas I speak of the growth of wisdom."

Love

dad,granpa,ami