The Druids were an ancient order of Celtic priests in the societies of Western Europe, Great Britain, and Ireland. Celtic Druids served their communities by combining the duties of seer, priest, poet, philosopher, historian, scholar, teacher, physician, astronomer, and astrologer. The Celts had developed a very sophisticated religious system, with three divisions of men who were held in exceptional honour; the lowest division were called ovatethe second division was called bards and then him druids. The ovados were the healers and seers; the bards memorized the songs, poems and stories of the tribe (historians); while the Druids taught moral philosophy and were experts in the workings of the natural sciences.
The Celtic druids were the rulers of the time, acting as judges in disputes, overseeing executions and even controlling the judicial system. They were held in such respect that if they intervened between two armies they could stop the battle. Druid priests and priestesses acted as means through which spirits could be summoned and heard, with rituals throughout Celtic Druid history being enacted in sacred oak groves and circles of standing stones.
The earliest and most complete surviving account of the Druids and their religion is given by Julius Caesar in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico, Book VI, written in Gaul in 59-51 BC. In general, not much can be said about druids for sure, as sources of information about them are limited. However, they continued to feature prominently in later sources of Irish myth and literature. Thus, the history of the Celtic druids presents many obscurities and our main literary sources go back to the second century BC with Pliny and The Commentaries of Caesar.
“The main point of his doctrine”, Caesar wrote, “is that the soul does not die and that after death it passes from one body to another.”
Caesar continued:
“Regarding your current course of study, the primary goal of all education is, in your opinion, to imbue your students with a firm belief in the indestructibility of the human soul, which, according to your belief, simply passes away at the death of from one dwelling to another, because only by such a doctrine, they say, which strips death of all its terrors, can the highest form of human worth be developed.As a subsidiary of the teachings of this fundamental principle, they hold various conferences and debates on astronomy, on the extent and geographical distribution of the globe, on the different branches of natural philosophy, and on many problems connected with religion”.
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Julius Caesar, “De Bello Gallico”, VI, 13
After the 1st century BC. C., the continental druids disappeared completely and were only referred to very rarely. However, there is some evidence that the Druids of Ireland survived until the mid to late 7th century. In the De Mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae of Augustinus Hibernicus, local magicians are mentioned as teaching the doctrine of reincarnation in the form of birds.
During the first millennium, Celtic and Druid spirituality was preserved by Christian clerics who performed the valuable service of recording many of the stories and myths through which the oral teachings of the Druids were passed down. People who think that Druidism was destroyed with the arrival of Christianity do not understand the resistance of spiritual teachings when they are codified in myths and stories: and it is thanks to the recording of these tales by clerics that we can draw inspiration from them today. . Saint Patrick also recorded all of the ancient Druid laws in Ireland, giving us invaluable insight into the ethics and social structure of Celtic Druid culture.
DRUID CIRCLES
A druid’s circle is a popular name for circles of standing stones such as Stonehenge, which is the most famous example. These are also known as the “Temples of the Druids”. Large earthen mounds were also built where the practice of seeking rebirth within the Earth was performed (in which initiates sat in darkness awaiting the moment of their rebirth). The best example of this is found at New Grange in Ireland, where a well is oriented towards the sunrise of the winter solstice, so that the rays of dawn can bathe the initiate in sunlight after his overnight vigil.