What a Druid Is and Is Not
Gaine daughter of pure Gumor, nurse of mead loving Mide, surpassed all women though she was silent, she was learned and a seer and a chief Druid. From The Metrical Dindsenchas
How familiar are you with Druidry? You may never even have heard the word Druid spoken out loud. Maybe you only read about Druids in a novel or in a comic book. For most people the word Druid conjures up a mysterious old man with a beard, working magic in the woods while living as a wise and solitary hermit. Who Were the Druids? In reality Druids were both male and female members of the Nemed, or sacred, class. Being part of a caste meant most Druids were likely trained by their parents, although some went to a Druid College if they were not the children of Druids. Despite Victorian fantasies, they would not have led solitary lives as forest hermits because to be a Druid was to provide an essential tribal office. The Druids served the tribe and the ruling class as lawyers, judges, ambassadors, doctors, herbalists, ritualists, historians, genealogists, poets, and a host of other skilled functions. Druids were the learned class of the ancient Celts, analogous to the Brahmins of India. Druids presided at divinations and sacrifices and praised the Goddesses and Gods. But the primary task of all grades of Druids was to follow an intellectual path. Among Druids, there were specialists; it seems unlikely that every Druid presided over every type of function. And Druids did not commit their knowledge to writing; important facts were memorized and passed down orally. (The fact that important things were not written down is a great loss to us moderns. But it did help the Druids to preserve the franchise and prevent others from altering the teachings!) Both Hindu and Celtic culture are derived from the same proto-Indo-European roots. The caste system of the Hindus (until the Muslim invasions of the ninth century) and the caste system of the ancient Celts were essentially the same—both were fluid; that is, one could move up or down the social ladder depending on skill and learning and depending on one’s behavior. Miscreants might find themselves demoted to the pig stye or set out to sea in a coracle without oars, banished from the tribe. The ancient Celtic societal structure was very similar to what we still see in India today. The Druids were analogous to the Brahmins, the warriors to the Kshatriya. There was the producer class of farmers and craftsmen, and the slaves who were somewhat analogous to the Hindu Sudra, the untouchables. Celtic women enjoyed rights that modern women would not see again for almost two thousand years— a woman could inherit land, exercise rights of divorce, and claim the same parental status to a child as its father. If a female slave bore the child of the chieftain, that child had the same status as any other children of the chieftain. A Druid could be a Sencha, or historian, for the tribe. They could be a Brehon, in which case they would have memorized volumes of law, making them eligible to be a lawyer, a judge, or an ambassador. A Druid could also be a Scelaige, or keeper of sacred myths and epics. These myths were recited at important occasions like weddings and births and at the onset of a major journey or a battle. The Cainte was a master of magical chants, invocations, and curses. They could banish or bless with a song. The Cruitire was a harpist who knew the magical uses of music; she was mistress of the three kinds of music: laughing music (the sound of young men at play), crying music (the sound of a woman in the travails of childbirth), and sleeping music (the sound of which would put a person to sleep). The Druid might be a Liaig, a doctor who used surgery, herbs, and magic to heal, or a Deoghbaire, a cupbearer who knew the properties of intoxicating and hallucinogenic substances. Further specialties included the Faith , or Diviner, the Bard, who was a poet, storyteller, and singer, and the Fili, a sacred poet and diviner whose utterances were prophetic. As Sorcerers, Druids performed feats of magic in the service of the king or queen and in the service of the tribe. One magical specialty was healing. Another was battle magic, as demonstrated in Forbhais Droma Damhghaire (The Siege of Knocklong). The following is from the Sean O’Duinn translation: Then Mogh Roith said to Ceann Mor: “Bring me my poison-stone, my hand-stone, my hundred-fighter, my destruction of my enemies.” This was brought to him, and he began to praise it, and he proceeded to put a venomous spell on it . . . Druids were the teachers of the sons and daughters of the nobility. It was their task to hand down from generation to generation the knowledge of sacred animals, trees, plants, stones, and all the details of the landscape, its history, and how each feature got its name, as well as the tribal laws and precedents. In contrast to village Cunning Men and Wise Women (Witches), who were counselors, midwives, magicians, herbalists, and veterinarians for the commoners, Druids advised and worked closely with the nobility. The king or queen was a person from the warrior class who had spent their entire life learning the arts of defense and war and was then elevated to the sacred Nemed class by means of an elaborate ritual.* Druids were hereditary members of the Nemed class who had spent their lives learning the laws and rituals. A king or queen had to have a Druid advisor by their side at all times so that they could rule according to precedent, and the stories of Arthur and Merlin are a folk memory of this relationship. The fate of the ruler hung on the ability of his or her Druid. There were dire consequences if the ruler failed to judge wisely, and they depended on their Druid advisors to recite the correct laws and precedents. The king’s justice was so important that it would determine whether strong and good-looking children would be born to the people, and if the weather, crops, and animals would prosper. There is evidence that the Druids supervised at human sacrifices or possibly even offered themselves up as a sacrifice for the good of the tribe. However, there is no evidence of the type of wholesale immolation in wicker cages reported by Julius Caesar. It is well to remember that Caesar was attempting to paint the Druids in a lurid light in order to get funding from Rome to continue his military campaigns and to further his personal political ambitions. It seems likely that prisoners of war and criminals were dispatched in much the same way as they are today, after judgment and sentencing. Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, states: It’s not lawful to offer any sacrifice without a philosopher [Druid] present; for they hold that by these, as men acquainted with the nature of the deity, and familiar with the gods, they ought to present their offerings, and by these ambassadors to desire such things as are good for them. These druids and bards are observed and obeyed, not only in times of peace but war also, both by friends and enemies. Druids were persecuted by the Romans and killed off in many Celtic areas because the Romans understood that Druids had freedom of movement and would carry intelligence from tribe to tribe. They also saw that Druids performed essential administrative and professional roles within the tribes and if they could eliminate the Druids, the tribes would collapse. However, the Romans never got to the extreme north of Caledonia (Scotland) nor did they invade Ireland. As a result, the Druids and their teachings persisted for many centuries. The Bards were long able to continue to disseminate Druid teachings via story and song. *We have at least part of that ritual preserved in the Audacht Morainn (Testament of Morann) where a Druid gives advice to a young king. The Fergus Kelly translation is available online in English. About the Author: Ellen Evert Hopman is a Master Herbalist and lay homeopath, who has been a Druidic initiate since 1984. She is a founding member and former co-Chief of the Order of the White Oak, the Archdruidess Emerita and founder of Tribe of the Oak, and a member of the Grey Council of Mages and Sages. She is the author of several books, including The Sacred Herbs of Samhain and Once Around the Sun. She lives in Massachusetts. https://elleneverthopman.com |
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