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| The History of Druids Iron Age The Druids 750 BC - AD 61 The fullest account of the Druids and their religion is that given by Julius Caesar in his history of his wars in Gaul in 59-51 BC. Caesar is insistent that Druidism originated in Britain, although there is no necessity to believe that all the features of the religion as it was practised in Gaul were present in Britain. Interpreting Druidism is difficult, for the Druids refused to commit anything about their beliefs and rituals to writing, and modern inquirers are obliged to rely on the accounts of the classical authors who have a tendency to concentrate upon the ghoulish, the bizarre and the malign. Later evidence in the early literature of Wales, and more particularly in that of Ireland, can be useful, although what has been preserved went through a process of selection and modification by Christian scribes. The essence of Druidism seems to have been a kind of Pantheism, and links have been discerned between it and some aspects of Hinduisim. The names of some 400 gods are known, most of whom seem to have had a very localised cult. The correct performance of ritual was central to the religion, and the prescribed pattern of ceremonies presumably constituted the greater part of the 20-year training undertaken by a apprentice druid. Human sacrifice was practised. When the druids of Anglesey were attacked by the Romans in AD 61, their altars, according to Tacitus, 'were drenched with the blood of prisoners'. As the Romans considered druidism to be a nationalistic religion underpinning British resistance to the Empire, they were determined to suppress it. In the 18th century, with the growing interest in natural religion and in 'the noble savage', druidism captured the imagination of the European intelligentsia. In Wales, the Welsh poetic tradition was believed to have been inherited from the druids, and Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg) succeeded in 1820 in grafting druidical ceremonies of his own devising upon the cultural festival, the eisteddfod, an association which has lasted until today. The Druids followed much of Celtic cultures and ways of life, by their Celtic Wheel of the Year, or Sabbats, and their Religious faith. They gathered in Groves, or places of worship hidden among trees, or in the hillsides of the Irish countryside. Many Druids had a very natural way of practicing their Religion, and they were very Spiritual. All things had balance, and equality. It is an empathy much lacking in more modern religions today. From the Celtic Tree of Life they found their knowledge, for everything continued in a Cycle, and everyone within the Cycle had a connection. Animals, Plants, Water, Sky, it all joined together to create a rhythm and harmony that still exists in Druid Society's today. Druids were more than just magic and nature, they also were Bards, Ovates & Druid Priest's & Priestesses. The Bards were the Storytellers. They kept the local news, and history, the facts, and the overall banter of the Clan alive. The Ovates were the healers, the seer's and the ones who held Shamanism above else to their very existance. The Druid Priest's and Prietesses were the Teachers, the Astronomers, the Judges, the Council, the Clergy, the very vein of the Clan. They organized, they gathered, and they helped keep generation after generation of Druid on the Path. There are still society's of Druids today. You can find them if you only but look. |