The Druids

1
The Druids

• A brief history of the ancient celtic priests
• By
• Max Pike

2
The Sources

• The primary sources for the druids were from both
  the greek and roman civilizations. Strabo,
  diodorus siculus, and above all Julius caesar
  were among the most informative. But it is
  important to take into consideration the biases
  they may have had about the druids.
• Julius caesar, who is the primary source for
  information on the druids, was at war with
  britain in the gallic wars and was defeated more
  than once. When we consider the facts that
  caesar gives us about the druids, we should
  remember that it probably contains elements of
  exaggeration, truth and fantasy.

3
Origins

• The word, druidae, is believed to be of Celtic
  origin. It is thought to be a cognate with the
  Greek word, drus, meaning oak. "wid" means "to
  know" or "to see" - as in the Sanskrit "vid.
  Thus, the term Druid or druwid means oak
  knowledge. They often met in the forest where
  they held secret ceremonies and worshipped the
  spirits of the land (see next slide).
• Pictured to the left is how Aylett Sammes
  depicted a druid, in his "Britannia Antiqua
  Illustrata" (1676). It shows a Druid barefoot
  dressed in a knee-length tunic and a hooded
  cloak. He holds a staff in one hand and in the
  other a book and a sprig of mistletoe.
  Mistletoe, the druids believed possessed magical
  properties. This belief carried over into our
  own culture, especially around Christmas time.
  Ironically, it was the christians who led to the
  demise of the druids.

4
Types of druids
Pictured left is a bard in the bard by thomas
jones, preparing to jump off the cliff (1774).

• The Druids were divided into different groups,
  similar to the caste system. They were divided
  into Druids, Bards, and Filidhs.
• Bards were primarily singers satirists and poets.
• Filidhs were also poets and satirists and poets
  as well. They also participated in prophecy,
  divination, and teaching. It took twelve years
  to become proficient as a filidh.
• The druids held the highest position. They had
  more political influence and were sought out by
  the politicians to be the intermediaries to the
  spiritual world and also for their advice. They
  could keep the kings in check because of their
  divine injunctions which allowed them to make
  certain prohibitions. It took twenty years of
  training to become a druid. An arch druid
  presided over all the druids. If he died, a new
  one was elected by the other druids.

5
Welsh Druid

• Druids appeared all throughout britain and their
  robes seem slightly different, but they retain
  the long white beard and it is suggested that
  most if not all of their practices were the same.
  

6
Druidess

• While there is no hard evidence about druidesses,
  many classical authors suggest that there were
  high ranking women who enjoyed power comparable
  if not greater than some druids. Thus the theory
  emerged that some of the druids may have been
  female. Pictured left Is a what what a druidess
  may have looked like. She holds mistletoe in one
  hand and a golden sickle that would have been
  used to collect it in the other.

7
Sacrifice

• Sacrifice was a part of druidic practices, but
  was a rare and special event. Sacrifice refers
  to the gift of something that was living and that
  will put a burden on you to the gods or spirits.
• To the left is a depiction of the ceremonies at
  byciskala cave. Horses and humans are among
  those sacrificed, and the living man has made a
  human skull into a drinking cup. It was an honor
  to be sacrificed. In fact, one of the worst
  punishments by the druids was disallowing someone
  to be considered for sacrifice.

8
Romanized Druids

• These druids are seen in Roman attire probably
  post gallic war. They struggled to assimilate
  just enough to not face opposition, but keep
  their traditions alive.

9
Julius Caesar

• Julius Caesar was fighting the Gallic wars, in
  the 50s bc with what are now the French, and
  decided to fight the Britons while he was in
  northwestern Europe.
• Here he encountered the druids and wrote about
  them in his accounts,titled the gallic war. This
  is where most of the information about druids
  comes from.

10
Opposition To the druids

• To the left is the St. Patrick. He brought the
  concept of christianity from england into ireland
  around 400 ad.
• The druids were demonized thereafter, considered
  pagans by most of the christians. It is well
  demonstrated by the next slide, where the druids
  are confronted in the forrest (look at the
  christians in the bottom left corner).

11
Christian Opposition
12
Druids Go Underground

• After the Gallic war when the Druids had been
  quarantined to the Island of Anglesey, those who
  were able fled to the Isle of Man where they
  continued to exist until the 400s when st.
  patrick brought christianity to ireland.
• Most of the Druids who stayed behind had no one
  to pass the traditions on to and succumbed to the
  pressures of Christianity or were killed.

Isle of Man
Island of Anglesey
13
Stonehenge

• Did the Druids build stonehenge?
• To answer this question it is important that we
  look carefully at what the term Druid means.

14
What does druid mean?

• Were the druids just the european form of shamans
  (pictured left)? Or were they a term to label the
  shamans that were adopted into celtic culture?
• The most current theory is that there were some
  kind of shamans living in britain, prior to the
  celts. when the celts arrived they accepted the
  druids into their culture.

15
Shaman

• Pictured left is a Native American shaman. The
  parallel was one of many between ancient european
  cultures and native american ones.
• It is unlikely that the druids built stonehenge,
  in fact it is illogical proven by carbon dating,
  but it is unknown if it was built by shamans
  living in europe prior to proto indo europeans
  that later became the druids.

16
Old Art

• This oil painting by George Henry and Edward
  Atkinson Hornell (1890) shows how the mistletoe
  was collected with a golden sickle.
• If you look just left of center at the druid with
  the staff, he almost looks native american. It
  appears as though the druids and shamans from
  other tribes are very similar.

17





Bibliography

• Green, Miranda J. The world of the
  druids Thames and hudson ltd, New york, new
  york 1997
• Nichols, ross. The book of druidry history,
  sites, wisdom thorsons publishing group,
  wellingborough, england 1990.
• http//www.crystalinks.com/druids.html
• http//www.britannia.com/wonder/michell2.html
• http//www.aboutstonehenge.info/modules.php
• http//skepdic.com/druids.html