Theosophy in
Ancient & Modern
History of the Theosophical
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The Druids
Early Welsh Theosophists had a strong interest in The Ancient Druids
and many had connections with modern Druidry. Today
Theosophical interest in Celtic Traditions is still strong in
In the Celtic religion, the modern words Druidry
or Druidism denote the
practices of the
ancient druids, the priestly class in ancient Celtic societies
through much of
Druidic practices were part of the culture of all the tribal
peoples called
Keltoi and Galatai by Greeks and Celtae and Galli by Romans, which
evolved into modern English "Celtic" and "Gaulish".
Modern attempts at reconstructing practising druidism are called Neo-druidism.
From what little we know of late druidic practice it appears deeply
traditional,
and conservative
in the sense that the druids were conserving repositories of
culture and lore. It
is impossible now to judge whether this continuity had deep
historical roots and
originated in the social transformations of late La Tene
time, or whether
there had been a discontinuity and a druidic religious
innovation. The
etymological origins of the word druid are varied and doubtful
enough that the word
may be pre-Indo-European. The most widespread view is that "druid"
derives from the Celtic word for an oak tree (doire
in Irish Gaelic), a
word whose root
also meant "wisdom."
From what little we know of late druidic practice it appears deeply
traditional,
and conservative
in the sense that the druids were conserving repositories of
culture and lore. It
is impossible now to judge whether this continuity had deep
historical roots and
originated in the social transformations of late La Tene
time, or whether
there had been a discontinuity and a druidic religious
innovation. The
etymological origins of the word druid are varied and doubtful
enough that the
word may be pre-Indo-European. The most widespread view is that "druid"
derives from the Celtic word for an oak tree (doire
in Irish Gaelic), a
word whose root
also meant "wisdom."
Their influence was as much social as religious. Druids used not
only to take
the part that
modern priests would, but were often the philosophers, scientists,
lore-masters, teachers,
judges and councillors to the kings. The Druids
linked
the Celtic
peoples with their numerous gods, the lunar calendar and the sacred
natural order. With
the arrival of Christianity in each area, all these roles
were assumed by
the bishop and the abbot, who were never the same individual,
however, and might
find themselves in direct competition.
Our historical knowledge of the druids is very limited. Druidic
lore consisted
of a large
number of verses learned by heart, and we are told that sometimes
twenty years were
required to complete the course of study. There may have been a Druidic
teaching center on
purely druidic,
without a Christian overlay or interpretation.
Much traditional rural religious practice can still be discerned
beneath
Christian interpretation, nevertheless, and survives in practices
like Halloween
observances, corn
dollies and other harvest rituals, the myths of Puck,
woodwoses,
"lucky" and "unlucky" plants and animals and the like.
Orally-transmitted material may have exaggerated deep origins in
antiquity,
however, and is
constantly subject to influence from surrounding culture.
Roman Sources
We find in Caesar's Gallic Wars the first and fullest account of
the Druids.
Caesar notes that all men of any rank and dignity in Gaul were
included either
among the Druids
or among the nobles, two separate classes.
The Druids constituted the learned priestly class, and they were
guardians of
the unwritten
ancient customary law and had the power of executing judgment, of which
excommunication from society was the most dreaded. Druids were not a hereditary
caste, though they enjoyed exemption from service in the field as
well as from
payment of taxes. The course of training to which a novice had to
submit was
protracted. All instruction was communicated orally, but for ordinary purposes,
Caesar reports, the Gauls had a written language in
which they used the Greek characters.
No druidic documents have survived. "The principal point of
their doctrine",
says Caesar,
"is that the soul does not die and that after death it passes from
one body into
another". This led several ancient writers to the unlikely
conclusion that the
druids must have been influenced by the teachings of the
Greek philosopher Pythagoras. Caesar also
notes the druidic sense of the
guardian spirit of
the tribe, whom he translated as Dispater, with a
general
sense of Father Hades.Writers like Diodorus and Strabo with less firsthand
experience than Caesar,
were of the opinion that this class included Druids,
bards and
soothsayers.
Pomponius Mela is the first author who says that their instruction
was secret
and carried on
in caves and forests. We know that certain groves within forests
were sacred
because Romans and Christians alike cut them down and burned the wood. Human
sacrifice is sometimes attributed to Druidism; it was an old
inheritance in Europe,
(although this might be Roman propaganda). The Gauls
were accustomed to offer human sacrifices, usually criminals.
of the order
was held within the territories of the Carnutes in
Gaul.
attended by a Druid,
for they are the intermediaries. Before a battle they often
throw themselves
between two armies to bring about peace.
Druids were seen as essentially non-Roman: a prescript of Augustus
forbade Roman
citizens to practise druidical rites. In Strabo
we find the Druids still acting as arbiters in public and private matters, but
they no longer deal with cases of murder. Under Tiberius the Druids were
suppressed by a decree of the Senate, but this had to be renewed by Claudius in
54 CE.
In Pliny their activity is limited to the practice of medicine and
sorcery.
According to him, the Druids held the mistletoe in the highest
veneration.
Groves of oak were their chosen retreat. When thus found, the
mistletoe was cut
with a golden
knife by a priest clad in a white robe, two white bulls being
sacrificed on the spot.
Tacitus, in
describing the attack made on the
Mon in Welsh) by the Romans under Suetonius
Paulinus, represents the legionaries as being
awestruck on landing by the appearance of a band of Druids, who, with hands
uplifted towards heaven, poured forth terrible imprecations on the heads of the
invaders. The courage of the Romans, however, soon overcame such fears; the
Britons were put to flight; and the sacred groves of Mona were cut down.After the 1st century CE, the continental Druids
disappeared entirely, and were only referred to on very rare occasions. Ausonius, for instance, apostrophizes the rhetorician Attius Patera as sprung from a
race of Druids.
Early Druids in
The story of Vortigern as reported by Nennius is one of the very few glimpses of Druidic survival
in
The most important Irish documents are contained in manuscripts of
the 12th
century, but the
texts themselves go back in large measure to about 700.
In the heroic cycles the Druids do not appear to have formed any
corporation,
nor do they seem
to have been exempt from military service. Cathbu (Cathbad),
the Druid
connected with Conchobar, king of
accompanied by a number
of youths (100 according to the oldest version) who are desirous of learning
his art.
The Druids are represented as being able to foretell the future:
before setting
out on the great
expedition against
consult her Druid,
and just before the famous heroine Derdriu (Deirdre)
is born,
Cathbu prophesies
what sort of a woman she will be.
Druids also have magical skills: the hero Cuchulainn
has returned from the land
of the fairies
after having been enticed thither by a fairywoman
named Fand,
whom he is now
unable to forget. He is given a potion by some Druids, which
banishes all memory
of his recent adventures and which also rids his wife Emer
of the pangs of
jealousy. More remarkable still is the story of Etain.
This lady, now the wife of Eochaid Arem, high-king of
existence the beloved of
the god Mider, who again seeks her love and carries
her
off. The king
has recourse to his Druid Dalgn, who requires a whole
year to
discover the haunt of
the couple. This he accomplished by means of four wands of yew inscribed with ogam characters.
The following description of the band of Cathbus
Druids occurs in the epic tale,
the Tain bo Cuailnge:
The attendant raises his eyes towards heaven and observes
the clouds and
answers the band around him. They all raise their eyes towards
heaven, observe the
clouds, and hurl spells against the elements, so that they
arouse strife
amongst them and clouds of fire are driven towards the camp of the men of
Druids in Christian literature
In the lives of saints, martyrs and missionaries, the Druids are
represented as
magicians and diviners
opposing the Christian missionaries, though we find two
of them acting
as tutors to the daughters of Lóegaire mac Néill, the High King,
at the coming
of Saint Patrick. They are represented as endeavouring
to prevent
the progress of
Patrick and Saint Columba by raising clouds and mist.
Before the battle of Culdremne (561) a Druid made an airbe drtiad (fence of
protection?) round one of the armies, but what is precisely meant by the phrase
is obscure. The Irish Druids seem to have had a peculiar tonsure. The word drtu is always used to render the Latin magus, and in one
passage St Columba speaks of Christ as his Druid.
Druid Revival
William Stukeley created this version of
a Druid - shortening the beard, removed
the mistletoe,
turned the bag at his side into a sort of bottle or gourd, and
placed an axe-head
in his belt.
In the 18th century,
e. g. John Aubrey, John Toland and William Stukely. There is
strong evidence to
suggest that William
Blake was involved in the Druid revival and may have been
an Archdruid.
Aubrey was the first modern writer to connect
monuments with Druidry, a misconception that shaped ideas of Druidry during much of the 19th century.
Modern Druidic groups have their roots in this revival, and some
claim that
Aubrey was an archdruid in possession of
an uninterrupted tradition of Druidic
knowledge, though
Aubrey, an uninhibited collector of lore and gossip, never
entered a
corroborating word in his voluminous surviving notebooks.
Toland was
fascinated by Aubrey's
The Ancient Order of Druids itself was founded in 1781, led by
Henry Hurle and
apparently
incorporating Masonic ideas.
A central figure of the Druidic revival is Edward Williams, better
known as Iolo
Morganwg. His writings, published posthumously as The Iolo
Manuscripts (1848), and Barddas (1862), remain
influential in the contemporary Druidic movements.
Williams claimed to have collected ancient knowledge in a "Gorsedd of Bards of
the Isles of
Britain" he had organized, but in the 1970s, draft manuscripts of
the texts were
discovered among Williams' papers, exposing the texts as his own
compositions.
Druidism Today
Modern Druidism (a.k.a. Modern Druidry)
is a continuation of the 18th-century
revival and is thus
thought to have some, though not many, connections to the
Ancient Religion. Modern
Druidism has two strands, the cultural and the
religious. Cultural
Druids hold a competition of poetry, literature and music
known as the
Eisteddfod amongst the Celtic peoples (Welsh, Irish, Cornish,
Breton, etc). Modern
religious Druidry is a form of Neopaganism
built largely
around writings
produced in the 18th century and later, plus the relatively
sparse Roman and
early medieval sources.
It is not always easy to distinguish between the two strands,
because
religiously-oriented Druid orders
may welcome members of any or no religious
background while
culturally-oriented orders may not inquire about the religious
beliefs of members.
Both types of Druid order, then, may contain both
religiously-oriented and
non-religiously oriented members. Many notable Britons
have been
initiated into Druidic orders, including Winston Churchill.
Churchill's case illustrates the difficulty of distinguishing
between the two
strands, because
historians are not even certain which order he joined, the
Ancient Order of Druids or the Ancient and Archaeological Order of
Druids, let
alone for what
purpose he joined.
Theosophical Society,