by Peter Berresford Ellis
The Celts were identified as a distinct and cohesive group in the ancient world by the fact that they all spoke the same tongue; this was descended from the Indo-European form of language which is common to most languages of Europe and northern India (such as is found in English, Welsh, Greek, Latin, Russian and Sanskrit words). The Celtic language also changed in time from the earliest Goidelic form to the later Brythonic form, with "qu" sound becoming "p", so that the word "mac" meaning son in Goidelic (e.g. MacDonald) becomes "map" in Brythonic, "ceann" meaning head becomes "pen". The modern survivors of the ancient languages are Irish, Manx, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish and Breton.
The Celts also shared a common culture, and one part of this was a religious prohibition on committing knowledge to writing. However, there are still funeral inscriptions from the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C., and some major texts such as the Coligny Calendar. Personal names and individual words were also recorded by the Greeks and Romans. Also in Ireland, an alphabet called Ogham was devised, and some 369 inscriptions are known, mostly dated to the 5th and 6th century A.D.
The Celts had advanced metalworking skills, and this meant they had sophisticated weaponry, and a plough which was a more efficient design than the Roman ones. The Romans, in fact, began to adopt Celtic weapon design for themselves.
The druids were first recorded in the Aristotelian work "Magicus" (c.200 B.C.) in which they are termed "druidae". The origin of the word is unknown, although the ancients (Strabo, Pliny) speculated that it meant "oak knowledge" (dru-wid), although it is known from other sources that the favourite tree of the Druids was in fact the rowan; however, the hazel and yew were also important to them.
Many churches have names associated with oaks in Ireland - Kildare (church of the oak), Durrow (plain of the oaks), Derry (oak grove of Calgaich), and "we have reason to assume that many ancient churches were built on the site of Druidic oaks". Given the Breton connection with Jersey, it is interesting to speculate if St John’s Church - full name St John in the Oak Wood - may have a Celtic connection. From early records we know that extensive oak forests covered Europe; the oak was a symbol of plenty. It was important for the acorn as a food which could be stored and later used. Hesiod, Pausanias and Galen all speak of acorns as food. According to Pliny, the acorn was ground and baked into bread. Strabo speaks of acorn bread as a stable diet of the Celts of Iberia, and a Glendalough text of AD 1150 still speaks of acorn as a food alongside grain.
Trees also provided wood both for fires and for dwellings. A knowledge of the trees was important for the tribe, and here we see the worship of the oak tree, and the emergence of Druidic lore. The Druids were the knowledgeable ones, the intellectual caste of the Celtic peoples, not unlike the Brahmins. They were also not a male elite (although this came over time), but consisted of both men and women.
Strabo (64 BC-AD24) mentions the Druids and says: "The Druids, in addition to the science of nature, study also moral philosophy. They are believed to be the most just of men, and are therefore entrusted with the decision of cases affecting either individuals or the public." He also mentions embalming the heads of their enemies. But it should be remembered that he was an apologist for Caesar, who was intent of defeating the Celtic tribes. Didorus mentions human sacrifices as a means of divination and placating the gods before battle, and Caesar also mentions human sacrifices; yet it is apparent that here they are referring to hearsay, and not person knowledge. Caesar in many passages holds the Druids in high esteem, yet he sees them as the leaders of the tribes, and therefore any propaganda against them would be a useful tool for removing the druids. The suppression of the Druids was a major part of the strategic conquest of the Celtic lands by Caesar; in this way, he removed the leadership, and replacing druid with Roman governance.
What was the religion of the druids? The names of Celtic gods and goddesses include many local deities particular to each tribe. But some names occur with greater frequency, and it is possible that the main pantheon of gods (and goddesses) numbered thirty-three, which is the same number as the Hunda and Persian gods. Indeed, just as the number 40 has a particular significance in the Judeo-Christian tradition, the number 33 has a similar significance in Celtic mythology.
One interesting fact, confirmed in various sources, is that the Celts did not look upon their gods as creators, but as their ancestors, more as supernatural heroes and heroines; this is akin to Hindu myth and saga. There is a water goddess, Danu of light and good, and an evil goddess Domnu, of darkness and evil (and the world); their children are in perpetual conflict, and the children of Domnu are never completely overcome. Danu’s name we find in the River Danube, the River Don in Durham and Yorkshire, the Don in Scotland and in France.
Another god was Bel, or Bile or Belenus, whose feastday of Beltaine is still recognised today. Belenus was venerated in Gaul for many centuries after the Roman conquest, and many places are named after him. In London, there is Billingsgate. He also appears as a god of the dead, sometimes also as Danu’s consort. Many skulls from the Celtic period have been discovered in the Thames and around London, as votive offerings, and were probably taken through this gate. The Thames, in fact, may have been a sacred river (like the Ganges). Why skulls? The head was important because the Celts believed that the soul reposed in the head, not the heart. Why water? Bel is transporting the dead to the divine waters of Danu, his consort.
The father of the rest of the gods was the Dagda, Danu’s son by Bel. He is the patron of Irish Druidism, and carries a club; one end can slay, the other can heal. He has a black horse, and a cauldron of plenty, and a magic harp.
Another gods include Lugh (feast day 1st August), the god of the long arm or hand, a solar god, but also a god of craftsmen. In this guise, he becomes a god of cobblers, then a fairy craftsman, a fairy cobbler, Lugh-chromain, or leprechaun.
Many Celtic gods were worshipped in triune or triple form, as a kind of three personality god. This is like the Hindu Trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, the Greek Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. There is a triune female goddess of Ireland (Eire, Banba and Fotla). It is interesting that the Gaulish Celt and Christian, Hilary of Poitiers (315-317 AD) wrote his greatest work on "De Trinitate", defining the concept of the Holy Trinity. It is as if there is a threefoldness echoing in the different mythologies, and strangely anchored in the time of Jesus.
The Greek and Latin writers speak also of female druids - druidesses or Dryades. The Celtic society was not a matriarchal society, but it was a society in which women enjoyed an equal status with men. The most famous example, of course, being Boudicca, the ruler of the Iceni (AD 6). Of her, Tacitus remarked in his Annals: "It is not the first time that Britons have been led to battle by a woman.", as is confirmed by such female warriors leaders in the records as Cartimandua, Onomaris, and Eponina, alongside those of the men. Tacitus mentions that "in Britain, there is no rule of distinction to exclude the female line from the throne, or the command of armies." The long-lasting Brehon Law system of Ireland found women as lawyers and judges, could inherit property, and remained the owner of any property brought into a marriage.
There were also clearly female druids. Plutarch mentions Camma of Galatia, a hereditary priestess of the goddess Brigit. Celtic women were often appointed ambassadors and diplomats. The 4th century Gaulish writer Ausonius Magnus, mentions his aunt called Dryadia (meaning druidess). Tacitus mentions Veleda, a seeress, of the druid caste. The Larzac inscription found near Millau, dated to 90-110 AD, lists nine druidesses.
Later in the records, Christian sources turned druidesses into witches who practised sorcery, but in fact, they were overlaying their own conception onto the past. The rituals of the druids and druidesses were quite different from this picture.
Water initiation was for everyone, but for initiation into the druids themselves only survives in fragments, and any certainty is speculative. There seems to be evidence from some sources that it was a right of purification in a cauldron, but nothing can be stated for sure.
Another rituals may have involved fire walking - to arouse visions and previsions, and there were certainly fire customs. But "Crom the god of fire or the winds" are modern fictions, "the dreams of persons who never undertook the labour of investigating the matter by reference to the ancient authentic literature of the country".
The Irish Druids saw a persons life divided into two halves of three periods each. The first half had infancy, childhood and puberty. The next half had manhood, old age and senility!
Funeral rituals took the form of a celebration, a feast ("fled co-lige") followed by funeral games "cluiche caintech"). It was a celebration because it celebrated the rebirth of the dead one in the Otherworld. The body was washed, then wrapped in a shroud and watched or waked for one or more nights, sometimes as long as twelve nights. The body was then placed on a bier which was afterwards destroyed to prevent evil spirits using it. A ritual or requiem was sung or chanted over a grave, often accompanied by clapping of hands, and then a funeral oration was given. The body was brought to the grave in a covering of green bushy branches of birch. The druids used a rod of aspen to measure the graves, and this was regarded as unclean to touch except by the grave measurer. A dead warrior of note might be buried standing upright with his weapons. Usually, the body was laid flat, and sometimes cremated first. It should be noted that the idea was not that the dead spirit be reborn in this world, but the shade would go to another life in an "other world" elsewhere.
The most famous ritual mentioned by Pliny the Elder is the cutting of mistletoe from a sacred oak with a sickle on the sixth day of the moon, the sacrifice of two white bulls following. However, this probably related to continental practice alone, because mistletoe was not a plant indigenous to Ireland, and was not grown there until the eighteenth century, so there is no Old Irish word. The modern Irish for mistletoe is "Drualus" or Druid’s weed, but this is clearly a borrowed word created from the records in Pliny. It should also be noted that Pliny is the only source for the mistletoe ritual, it is found nowhere else in the classical traditions, so it should be treated with care.
Druids could pronounce a "geis" on people who broke laws and customs. This was a prohibition, not imposed lightly, which placed a person outside of society, as an outcast. It was akin to a curse or excommunication from Celtic society.
The circle was also very important. Rituals imitated the course of the sun, and went right-handed, as around healing wells, sacred stones, cairns or churches. This was "deiseal", as opposed to lefthand-wise or "tuaithbel".
The final ritual mentioned here is the divination ritual for selecting a High King of Ireland in the Pagan period. A druid would eat the flesh of a slain bull and drink its blood, he then went to sleep, watched by four other druids, and the person of whom he dreamt would be the future high king.
Lastly, we must consider the charge laid against the druids, as for example by Caesar, that thy practised human sacrifice. There was clearly slaughter of prisoners after a battle, but this was a commonplace in the ancient word; the Romans were notorious in their use of crucifixion. But it seems apparent that the stories of human sacrifice as ritual were propaganda. It is notable that St Patrick in his own "Confession", his biography, in which he strongly criticises pagan practices, has no reference to human sacrifice, not to any of the Celtic saints Lives: "it seems obvious that the Christians had no genuine ‘human sacrifice’ material at all to seize upon."
The idea behind this was that the Truth was the Word, and the Word was sacred and divine and not be profaned; the Celts believed in the magic power of the Word: "Truth is the foundation of speech, and all Words are founded on upon Truth". But it was only Druidic knowledge that came under this prohibition. The Continental Celts used Greek, Etruscan and Latin letters, as can been seen from early Celtic funeral inscriptions, from between 4 BC and 2 BC. The Calendar of Coligny (1 BC), and the Larzac inscription, a leaden tablet, also show a literate society.
But in Ireland, the proscription did not appear to apply. It is from here that we find inscriptions on stone in the distinctive alphabet called Ogham. It should be noted that Ogham was an alphabet, and there is no evidence for the so-called Tree Alphabet, which is a modern creation, and while very inspiring in its mystic focus on trees, has an entirely spurious and fallacious history.
Ogma was the god of eloquence and learning, and also the god of the Druids. But unfortunately these inscriptions are very late, around 600 AD, so well within the Christian epoch. But could Ogham have existed before? Both the Irish sagas, the "Immrain Brain" and the "Tain Bo Cuailnge" have their heroes composing in Ogham, both poetry, warnings and challenges. Stories about the Druids from the 8th century mention them writing in Ogham for learning, and for magic incantations. There is also clear evidence that there were "libraries" of rods which were inscribed in Ogham. It seems that these wooden records may have perished by burning by enthusiastic Christian missionaries. This was a lamentable destruction.
Even in modern Irish the all embracing idea of Truth survives, so that to say that someone is dead, is to say "he/she is in the place of Truth now". This is also very akin to the Hindu Vedas where Truth is a land in the highest state of paradise, and the source of the sacred Ganges; "by means of Truth the earth endures" says one of these Vedas. The same idea of Truth permeates the Stoics, where Herecleitus of Ephesus says that nature or the universe was controlled by "logos", the Word or reason, which was Truth and synonymous with Godhead. The concept was retained by Platonists such as Philo (30 BC-45 AD), and from there influenced the Gospel of St John, with its introduction of a "logos" theology.
In many Celtic myths, there is also the idea that telling lies brings retribution, often in the form of blemishes or visible marks. The most famous modern survival of this is found in the 1883 tale of Pinocchio, where his nose grows larger every time he lies.
The further importance of the Word in Druidic lore is seen in the idea that naming something brings it into being. In Old Irish, "ainm" was not only the word for name, but for soul and life. The world was created by the Word, by the means of language; until something is named, it remains unknown, without place or purpose.
On one night of the year, the Otherworld became visible to mankind. This was the feast of Samhain, in which the gates to the Otherworld were opened, and the inhabitants could seek justice from the living in this world who had wronged them.
Portrayals of the Otherworld among the Celts range from the dark, brooding purgatory of the Fomorii islands to the sunny, pleasant lands of the Land of Promise.
The Celtic teaching impregnated the Celtic form of Christianity. Pelagius (AD 354-420) was a Christian philosopher accused by his enemies of trying to revive the "natural philosophy of the druids". He went to Rome in 380 AD, and was appalled by the laxity of moral standards there; he blamed it on the doctrines coming from Augustine of Hippo, who maintained that everything was pre-ordained, and that man was polluted and sinful because he took on the original sin of Adam. As it was ordained by God, man had no free will in the matter. Pelagius saw this as dangerous to moral law - if men and women were not responsible for their good and evil deeds, there was nothing to restrain them from indulgence in sin on the basis that it was preordained anyway. In his earliest known writing, he argued against this: "if I ought, I can".
Pelagius taught that the power of choice, which reaffirms the freedom of will, means that in each choice in life, at each moment of life, no matter what has happened previously to the individual, he or she is able to choose between good and evil. He used a triad - "posse, velle, esse:" - the ability, the will, the act. "The ability is in Nature, and must be referred to as God, who had bestowed this on his creature, Man. The other two, the will and the act, must be referred to mankind because they flow from the fountain of free will."
Seven accusations of heretical belief were made against Pelagius. That Adam would have died anyway. Adam’s sin injured only himself. New-born children did not inherit sin. The whole human race was not responsible for Adam’s fall. Obeying moral laws gives entrance to heaven as well as the gospels and church ritual. Even before Christ, men and woman were without sin and able to pass to the Otherworld. Infants unbaptised could still have eternal life. Much to Augustine’s fury, Pelagius persuaded the Church authorities that his arguments had merit. Unfortunately, after Pelagius’ death, the political forces of Rome gained the upper hand, not in argument, but in power, and declared his beliefs heretical.
It is interesting to note that the Celts had a word for culpability or responsibility, but not a clear idea of the concept of sin, and this is underscored by the Pelagian arguments. In the Celtic church confession of sin was not obligatory, and any confessing that was needed was made to a chosen "soul friend", who was a spiritual guide and counsellor, not confessor. This is very much the same as pre-Christian celtic society, where the "soul friend" was a position usually filled by a druid. It is also significant here that the "soul friend" in both pre-Christian Celtic society, and Celtic Christianity could be and often was filled by a woman.
The Celtic system was clearly a Lunar system, and the Gaulish Coligny Calendar, produced before the Roman conquest of Gaul, has a five year synchronisation of lunation with the solar year. It is a masterpiece of calculation. Against the months are subscribed the letters MAT and ANM, meaning good or not good. It shows 62 consecutive months, divided into a period of 29 or 30 nights each. In Celtic fashion, it reckons period by nights.
Lastly, the Druids were also known as "magi", and credited with special powers. There is evidence of curses, such as the "glam dichenne", to inflict injury on enemies, which was cast standing on one foot, one arm outstretched, and one eye closed. There is also a tradition of weather working, causing a dense fog to appear, or a storm to disperse enemies, heavy snowfalls, drought. The druids used a wand in their magic, on which little tinkling bells hung, which was also a symbol of their office. Another type of magic is the "Druidic sleeps", in which people reveal the truth when asked; a practice sounding like a hypnotic trance. There were healing charms, ones for fertility and good luck, and darker magic to cause death and disease.
The Druids and their history lay mostly moribund for hundreds of years. But around the 1600s, a new Romantic revival looked at the Druids again and started painting their own portraits of the Druids, drawing on classical sources, but overlaying these with their own ideas. There was a swing against the cold reason of the enlightenment, and reviving the Druids seemed a way forward. Writers such as Aubrey, and Stukely, poets like Blake, the architect John Wood, and the rector William Cooke all looked back to a golden age of the Druids. Megalithic monuments such as Stonehenge in England, and Faldouet Dolmen in Jersey, were recast as "druid temples". The druids were wise sages, cutting mistletoe, sitting under the shade of great oaks. Iolo Morganwan in Wales used his fertile literary imagination to create a Druidic ritual, and incorporated his Gorsedd into the Eisteddfod in 1819. This was not based upon primary sources, but put together from many literary strands; however, Iolo claimed this represented an "unbroken tradition", even though it was bogus. Yet now it has formed part of Welsh culture for two hundred years; however doubtful its origins, it has taken on a serious and respected life of its own.
The mishmash and balderdash of much of the historical fabrications made by the Romantics about the Druids was then taken up by Sybyl Leek, who plundered many of the writings of the 18th and 19th century for her "celtic witchcraft" Gavin and Yvonne Frost took this up, and produced more imaginary history. Here we have a race of Celtic tribesmen coming from Western China in 2000 BC, flowing through Europe, conquering and civilising as they came, until in turn they were driven out by fresh conquerors, being overrun in 52 BC by the invading Belgae! One wonders who the authors thought the Belgae were, if not Celts, and what evidence they had for their idea of a last ditch stand at Glastonbury!
In fact, Celtic civilisation is still very much alive today, but struggling in a real last ditch attempt to survive into the modern world. Only two and a half mission people of the sixteen million living in Celtic areas still speak a Celtic language. Language is the highest form of cultural expression. Now it is being lost because of a policy of persecution and suppression over the years. Once the languages disappear, then Celtic civilisation will cease to exist, and a cultural continuum of 3000 years will come to an end. What price is "spiritual awareness" with the ancient Celts, when we have stood by and allowed their modern descendants to perish?