Blessings of the Nine...

"Celtic culture, its music and art, has been "re-discovered" by the media and the folk of Europe and North America once again. The popularity of all things Celtic can be seen by the success of dance shows like "Riverdance", films like "Braveheart", and in the multitude of Celtic music festivals that have sprouted all over this continent. A re-emergence of Celtic values and spirituality is happening as well."

This is for those who consider themselves (or wish to learn) solitary practicing Druid, Bard, Fianna, or Celtic Pagan.

Who were the Druids? The ancient poet-priest and priestesses who have inspired so much reverence and so much nonsense since they were replaced by Christianity in the fifth century C.E. have been credited with the building of Stonehenge, by using levitation, with being Atlanteans, and with being a lost tribe of Israel. Eighteenth century romantics have bequeathed to us the image of the white-garbed, bearded, male priest with a sickle.

History has generally chosen to ignore the ancients testimony to the existence of female Druids—whole islands full—and Tacitus’ description of the black-clad screaming Druidesses who attempted to fight the Romans at Anglesey in 61 C.E. It also chooses to ignore that Druids were the highest advisors to the ruling families of Scotland and still hold the most sacred wisdoms. The Druids contemporaries described them as wearing the skin of a white bull and a white-feathered headdress with fluttering wings, or a many colored cloak and ornaments of gold. Each garment has a meaning, a certain time to be worn. The color signifies the reason—the “accessories”, the tools.

The Tain Bo Cuailnge is an ancient Gaelic tale from the La Tene (Iron Age) pre-Roman civilization. It is the oldest vernacular epic in Western literature. According to the Tain, Druids can shape-shift into deer and prophesy the future. Other legends tell of them raising winds and frogs, drying up lakes and rivers, and lying hills flat. Formal buildings were not used for religious services. The sanctuaries were (and are) the Nemetons: cleared spaces in a forest, surrounded by earthworks, a wooden palisade, or trees. The teachings could take twenty years or longer to learn and were taught in forest, away from distractions of towns and people.

The word “Druid” may come from the prefix dru, meaning “hard, true, resistant, permanent.” Dru-uides were the “true-seers,” and a female was called ban-drui. They studied divination, magick, astrology, theology, law, medicine, natural sciences, music, and poetry. They were the scientists and philosophers as well as the lawgivers and doctors. For all their knowledge, wisdom and skills, they were awarded the highest places in society and stations within the “Royal” families.

The teachings are passed on orally so very little is written. By committing these teaching that are sacred to memory they were protected. But the down side to this is, many people then “dream up” their own ideas and interpretations which has lead to so much dis-information. And when the imagination takes over to try to understand something that they don’t understand, then you get the stories of terror born not of what is true, but of fear from those who do not know. The Ogham (tree alphabet) was used for secular matters.

Within the orders of Brehons, Vates, and Bards, each had separate functions. The Bards specialized in poetic composition and singing. The Vates practiced divination and seer-ship. The Brehons were the judges, arbiters of the ancient Brehon laws. The clergy was referred to as “Druids”. Both Bards and Druids could arbitrate wars and stop battles. The Brehons presided over criminal, civil, and property disputes. They had the power to impose the death penalty for serious offences. A judgment banning an individual from religious rites virtually stripped them of both secular and religious status. Divine retribution could be invoked upon an individual or tribe by ritual cursing.

Druids were the history-keepers, the repositories of lore and wisdom. They were “living books.” Law, medicine, the knowledge of nature and the gods and goddesses (there are nine), the Otherworld, and the timing of ritual and agricultural cycles were their special domain.