 [Druidic Lexicon]Anam Anam is the gaelic word for soul. The anam cara is known as the “soul-friend” and has the responsibility to guide the person’s soul through life and into the gateways beyond. Augury Augury is the divination method of cupping your hands over your eyes or to your face in some method and creating a magical outcome. Bards cupped their hands to their cheeks for verse to come forward. The act of seeing at a distance comes with cupping your hands over your eyes and search or creating a scone and visualizing the person at the end of it until an image appears. Awen Inspiration. Balance The ultimate creed of the Druid is within balance. The creed of the Druid is the knowledge that there cannot be life without darkness and life without death. A Druid understands that with light and darkness there is a balance and one cannot outweigh the other and that all these things are part of the greater balance. Bard In the pre-Christian era bards were traveling minstrels that played a huge role in the world at large. They would bring news from neighboring countries by song or poetry. They became worldly, and understand the land through their travels and after a decade Druids would allow them to be initiated into their order, absorbing their knowledge and minstrel talents. Beltane Festival at the beginning of May marking the start of the harvest. Also the fertility moon and starting of spring. Centering Centering is a technique used to find the inner-self. One closes their eyes and finds that spot in their mind where they feel most at rest. Centering is often used prior to ritual so that the practioner enters the ritual will a strong sense of “self”. A method to reach this state is meditation or using a desired medium (i.e. Smell or sound). Ceridwen A goddess of mystery but mostly associated with Inspiration. Ceridwen is said to be one of the fairie folk, a shapeshifter and a sorcessoress gaining her powers from mystical means. Chalice Chalices are ceremonial goblets or glasses. They are commonly blessed prior to any ritual and used to hold the ceremonial drink. All of these drinking vessels (large or small) should be of horn, stoneware, metal, wood or other natural substances. Circle A circle is a designated space used for rituals. It can be in a room or in a cleared field. The boundaries of the circle are usually marked (i.e. Making circle in sand or laying down branches). Unlike in other religions a druidic circle is never closed to the outside world and any can enter or leave as they choose. A grove can create a physical circle by holding hands and using themselves as the boundary. Consecration Clearing an area such as your grove of all negative areas. This can be done by meditating in the designated area or purifying it by other means. Most tools are often consecrated with the intent of the ritual in mind and are prepared prior to a ritual. Cord The cord is a piece of rope Druids used as a belt or a method of closing their robe as well as a measuring device. The rope was usually six feet and divided into twelve equal lengths either by color or by knot. It was normally carried on them in a fashion sense but it’s primary use was for mathematics. Divination Divination is the art of telling the future. Several ways have come about using divination, such a palm reading, tarot reading, runes, and scrying. Palm Reading The art of reading the lines on a person’s palm and foretelling their destiny. This can explain their lifespan, any riches, disasters and such by the contours and lengths of the lines in the hand. Tarot Reading The art of telling the future using a tarot deck. The deck is shuffled by the person having their fortune told and is said to be charging the cards. This means that the cards will read for this person. The reader can use a manual or interpret them as they see fit. Runes Runes are made from a natural substance, wood or rocks. They have the witch’s alphabet on them and are designed for the maker. They can read for parties outside of the caster but tend to be less accurate or draw the maker back into the reading. Don Goddess of the fairy realm or the realm of the Sidhe. Druid Druids are considered Celtic-Pagan. They existed pre-Christian era and were quickly vanquished with the up-rise of the new religion. They came in three levels, a Bard, the Druid, and the Seer. The Druid was the active member and the dominant level within the society. They are considered solitary protectors of the earth, with the utmost respect for all the life on it, plant, stone and animal. Grove The sacred space most commonly used. In the past they were mostly groves and glens in the deep forest, or high places. A grove is often used by one particular practioner. This can be a clearing in the forest or by brook-side. A grove can also describe a sect of druids working together with the same principles and beliefs. Grounding Grounding is the technique of making a physical and psychic connection to the earth. It’s used for gaining spiritual energy and a way to release excess energy to the ground during rituals. This can be done in a spiritual sense of feeling the essence of the earth around yourself or physically by making skin-to-earth contact with the ground. Invoking Calling another source of power other than a mortal. Beckoning to the earth, spirits or goddess and gods is a form of invoking. To invoke a power you are offering your body as a vessel for these energies. Invoking a minor spirit can cause the wind to stir or offer life, invoking a major spirit is giving yourself fully to the powers you worship. Meditation Used in the process of centering prior to rituals. It offered a person a chance to look within themselves and on a different level of consciousness, explore their existence within the world. It also allowed a Druid time to work on their own inner balance, pushing away the influences of the outside world. Merging The act of several Druids aligning themselves together in harmony for the use of a ritual. It allows multiple Druids to enter a circle and join their individuality together for a higher purpose, such as invoking or casting. Rite A rite is a specific ritual used for an occasion. These occasions could be a birth, death, wedding, coming of age, or holiday. Each of these rites have a specific ritual used, developed by a particular Druid. Ritual A ritual is a ceremony performed by a Druid or a grove of Druids with intent. The intent can be something simple as saying grace, or something more intense as invoking spirits. It is use of energy that has specific steps involved. Robe AKA a mantle, they are used as a means of physical protection from the environment as well as protection against psychic natures. Because of being worn outside they are commonly made out of wool or leather though for special ceremonies they are made out of finer materials. Each druid makes their mantle and the effort of their work helps place the charm into the materials. Rod Much like a Staff it stands roughly six feet. It’s often measured exactly and used as a method of telling distance in a circle. Stand the staff up, and the circle is two staff lengths across. They are ornamented like staves and usually have ogham characters placed about the length of the staff. Sacrifice In long days past prior to any rituals a blood offering was made to show the deities that this was a serious cause and let them know you were a devout follower. Many of the goddesses and gods do not believe in offering of blood. Only in the most extreme cases is this to be used (and in the highest cause your own blood). Sacrifices can come in the form of offering of jewelry, poetry, or other personal items depending on the deities worshipped. Second Sight The Second Sight or The Sight refers to the ability to see between the two worlds of what is and what is but not seen. Nature herself has a memory of all it’s surroundings and keeps these impressions known as “morphogenetic fields.” Second sight allows a person to read this and see at a distance, or in places where they are not able to see with their physical eyes. Seer A seer is the highest level of Druids. A seer oversees rituals when the opportunity arises and offers divine guidance. A seer is said to be in direct communication with the goddess, gods or spirits through dreams, divination or trances. It was said that often in sacrifice for these gifts that a seer would lose their eyesight and see the world through their mind’s eye. Scrying Is used by taking a bowl of water and placing several drops of ink into the bowel and letting it swirl about and blend into the water. Images should come to the caster and answer the questions on their mind. It can also be used as a way of receiving images distant from the caster. Sickle The original symbol of the druid, a sickle crossed on the shield. The concept comes from the time of harvest, where crops would be dead and still offer life. Druids generally see no difference in the concept of life and death but both part of the wheel of the universe. Often sickles are used as staves in rituals. Staff A device used by Druids for spiritual use as well as common use. On one of the first trips into the groves a Druid would find their staff for life. This staff was used to store any energy that might be needed at a later time. Usually about six feet in length they would start as just a dead branch from a tree and eventually progress into a work of art detailing the Druid’s life. Talisman A talisman is basically any charm with a specific power. Usually inscribed with markings that give it this special ability. Originally used by the clan Tuatha Dé Danann as a method of creating charms based on the stone, the cauldron, the spea, and the sword. Trance The trance is the ultimate height of meditation. Rarely achieved by users it when the mind and the body become two separate entities. It’s often the state of consciousness used for astral projection. It’s also the state used for divination and clarity before rituals. Triad Druids generally believe in a triad (this is not threefold law). This means that the world works in powers of three. The Sacred Triad is three realms, the land, the sea, and the sky. The fire is not included in the triad but assumed to be the universal entity that binds the three together. The Land Most commonly recognized of the three worlds. People generally live their entire lives on the land. The land was our first teacher, teaching us the ways of life. Trees are the dominant teacher on the land and thus highly worshipped. The Sea The Sea is the wasteland outside of The Land. It holds the deceased ancestors from where spirits come. The Otherworld Isles also reside here, housing the sidhe and other mystical creatures. The Sky The Sky is the source of all light and shadows and the home of the goddesses and gods. It also determines the three lights, the sun, the moon, and the stars in their waning and waxing times. Unwinding Is the practice at the end of a ritual in which you recognize the goddess or god that you’re thankful for their presence. This can be done with a minor prayer or thanks. Another use for the unwinding is to let any excess energy that was called during the ritual is released back into the earth. Wand Wands are personal items that are found in the woods. Usually a branch with a spiral of sap or vine about it. The type of wand is designated by the type of tree it came from. If it is an ash tree, it’s an ash dragon, if from an oak, an oak dragon. |