Theosophical Society,
Quick Guide to the Druidic Tradition
Commentaries on many aspects of both Ancient and Contemporary Druidry with a brief glossary
WHAT IS A DRUID?
‘Often when the combatants are ranged face to face, and swords are
drawn and spears bristling, these men come between the armies and stay the battle,
just as wild beasts are sometimes held spellbound. Thus even among the most
savage barbarians anger yields to wisdom, and Mars is shamed before the Muses.’
Diodorus Siculus Histories c.8 BCE
In ancient times a Druid was a philosopher, teacher, counsellor and magician, the word probably meaning ‘A
Forest Sage’ or ‘Strong Seer’. In modern times, a Druid is someone who follows Druidry as their chosen spiritual path, or who has entered
the Druid level of training in a Druid Order.
The reason we tend to visualise the Druid
as an old man in our imagination is partly due, perhaps, to a realisation that by the time one has undertaken the
training of Bard and Ovate one is bound to be ancient! We cannot be sure of the
exact time it took, but Caesar mentions that some spent as long as twenty years
in their education at Druid colleges. But this is really little different to
the time young people now take to complete their education, and Caesar’s account
is reminiscent of the situation of monastic schools in Europe and as far afield as Tibet, where young people would go or be sent for
a complete education: free from the burden of taxation or military service and
“instigated by such advantages, many resort to their school even of their own
accord, whilst others are sent by their parents and relations.” Commentators point
out that ‘twenty years’ could have been a figure of speech to denote a long
duration of time, or that it might have actually been 19 years, since the
Druids almost certainly used the Metonic Cycle, a
method of reckoning based on the nineteen-year eclipse cycle.
If the Bard was the poet and musician, the preserver of lore, the
inspirer and entertainer, and the Ovate was the doctor, detective, diviner and
seer, what was the Druid? Their functions, simply stated, were to act as
advisor to rulers, as judge, as teacher, and as an authority in matters of
worship and ceremony. The picture this paints is of mature wisdom, of official position
and privilege, and of roles which involved decision-making, direction and the imparting
of knowledge and wise counsel.
We tend to think of the Druid as a sort of priest - but this is not
borne out by the evidence. The classical texts refer
to them more as philosophers than priests. At first this appears confusing
since we know they presided at ceremonies, but if we understand that Druidry was a natural, earth religion as opposed to a revealed
religion, such as Christianity or Islam, we can see that the Druids probably
acted not as mediators of Divinity, but as directors of ritual, guiding and
containing the rites.
In addition to this, we know that they fulfilled a number of other
functions, which we shall now examine. Separating these out is for the sake of convenience
only, for in reality the roles often merged and combined, as we realise when Caesar tells us “They have many discussions as
touching the stars and their movement, the size of the universe and of the
earth, the order of nature, the strength and the powers of the immortal gods,
and hand down their lore to the young men.” Here we see the Druids as
scientists - as astronomers and mathematicians, as philosophers discussing the
powers of the gods, and as teachers passing on their wisdom.
Druids
as Judges
‘The Druids are considered the most just of men, and on this
account they are entrusted with the decision, not only of the private disputes,
but of the public disputes as well; so that, in former times, they even
arbitrated cases of war and made the opponents stop when they were about to
line up for battle, and the murder cases in particular were turned over to them
for decision.’
Strabo Geographica
‘It is they who decide in almost all disputes, public and private;
and if any crime has been committed, or murder done, or there is any dispute
about succession or boundaries, they also decide it, determining rewards and penalties:
if any person or people does not abide by their decision, they ban such from sacrifice,
which is their heaviest penalty.’
Caesar De Bello Gallico
It is natural that those people perceived as the wise elders of the
community should be turned to for judgement and
arbitration in times of dispute or when a crime has been committed, and some of
the most interesting information about the ancient Druids can be found in the
old Irish laws, known as the Brehon laws. Irish texts
tell us that in 714 BCE the High King Ollamh Fódhla formalised the legal
system by founding the Festival of Tara, at which every three years the laws
already in existence were discussed and revised: and we know some of the names
of the more prominent Druid judges of old, including a female judge named Brigh, a male judge named Finnchaemh,
and Cennfaela, the Druid of King Cormac,
who in the third century CE was said to be the most learned judge in Ireland.
Peter Beresford Ellis, in his book The Druids, says:
“the Irish system is the oldest surviving complete codified legal
system in Europe with its roots in ancient Indo-European custom and not in
Roman law, and is therefore the oldest surviving Celtic system of
jurisprudence, and one in which the Druids are still mentioned.” Fortunately
for us these laws have been recorded - set down in writing as early as the
fifth century, according to some sources. Even as late as the seventeenth
century some aspects of the Brehon code survived in
Reading the Brehon laws today offers us
an opportunity to enter into the minds of the early Druids – and to many
peoples’ surprise, rather than discovering the beliefs of a primitive and savage
people, we find a highly considered system that is mostly based upon
‘Restorative Justice’ – a concept that is found, for example, on the other side
of the world amongst the Maoris of New Zealand .
Restorative justice is concerned with compensation rather than revenge - the
offender rather than simply being incarcerated is made to make good the damage
or loss they have caused the victim. This picture was marred somewhat in
As we would expect from Druid lawmakers, severe penalties resulted
from the unlawful cutting down of trees, with important trees such as oak and
yew being designated ‘Chieftain trees’ and carrying
greater demands for compensation than ‘Peasant trees’. And when it came to
marriage and divorce the Brehon laws were more humane
than the later Christian laws. In the times of the ancient Druids, a woman
could divorce a man for a number of reasons: if he was so obese he was unable
to make love, for example, or if he preferred to sleep with men, if he beat her
leaving visible marks, or if he spread malicious stories about her . Under the Christian post-Druidic law in
The Brehon laws offer us the most
complete view of the kind of society that the ancient Druids helped to guide
and lead. We have information from Wales too, but the old Welsh laws known as the
‘Laws of Hywel Da’ were
recorded much later than the Brehon laws and offer us
less insight into the world of the Ancients.
Druids
as Teachers
‘A great number of young men gather about them for the sake of
instruction and hold them in great honour....... Report says that in the schools
of the Druids they learn by heart a great number of verses, and … they do not
think it proper to commit these utterances to writing, although in almost all
other matters, and in their public and private accounts, they make use of Greek
letters.’
Caesar De Bello Gallico
It is clear from both the classical and the Irish sources that one
of the main functions of the Druid was as a teacher. This involved teaching at
both an esoteric and an exoteric level. Caitlin Matthews offers the image of
the Jewish rabbi to help us picture how a Druid might have lived and worked.
She or he was: ‘a man or woman of wisdom whose advice was sought on all matters
of daily life, one who perhaps also fulfilled a craft, one who was married and had
a family, one who brought the people together for common celebrations and whose
word was law. Like the Hasidic rabbis who practised qabbala and were known as seers and wonder-workers, so too,
the druid was a person of unusual skills. .... From the various Celtic accounts,
we find that a druid usually had one or more students attached to his retinue
or household. Again, to return to our Jewish parallel, a rabbi would often run
a Talmudic school for anything from a handful to a number of students.
Similarly, druidic students learned from their masters and mistresses.’
While some Druids may have simply had one or two students living
with him, helping, presumably, with the household routine in return for training,
others gathered around them sufficient numbers of disciples to form a veritable
What would they have learned? Just as the monastic orders later
became the centres of learning, the Druid colleges, large and small, were in
charge of the whole spectrum of education from the teaching of general
education to that of philosophy, from the teaching of law to the teaching of
magic, from the teaching of healing skills to the teaching of the correct order
of ceremonial.
We also know that Druids acted as tutors to the children of kings,
queens and nobles, and that students would be sent from one Druid teacher to another
to learn different skills. Caesar tells us that Druidry
originated in
It is intriguing to think that the earliest recorded systems of
education and law in Britain and Ireland are Druidic. When this is properly recognised, perhaps we will see the statue of a Druid
outside the law courts in
Druids
as Kings and Advisors to Kings & Queens
There is evidence that some kings were also Druids. The Druid Ailill Aulomon was King of Munster
in the first century CE and it is recorded that three Druid-kings ruled in “the
Isle of Thule” .
To return to
Druids
as Scientists and Inventors
We know that the Druids concerned themselves
with what we term today the sciences. To what degree their
mathematics was numerology, their chemistry alchemy, their astronomy astrology,
we will never know. But we do know that the building of the stone circles
required sophisticated measuring, calculating and engineering skills, and that
this same building depended upon a knowledge of the movement of the heavens to
such a degree that the very earliest
of proto-Druids were clearly skilled astronomers.
The work of John Michell, Sir Norman Lockyer, and Professors Hawkins and Thom amongst others shows
us that these men were scientists indeed - creating giant astronomical
computers in stone.
Some writers have even suggested that the Druids might have
invented the telescope, basing this idea on the statement of Diodorus Siculus, who said that
in an island west of Celtae the Druids brought the
sun and moon near to them, and on the statement of Hecataeus
who tells us that the Druids taught of the existence of lunar mountains.
Others have suggested that they discovered gunpowder, but like the
Chinese, used it for special effects rather than warfare. John Smith in his
Gallic Antiquities of 1780 wrote:
“Among the arcana of nature which our
Druids were acquainted with, there are many presumptive, if not positive,
proofs for placing the art of gunpowder, or artificial thunder and lightning;
though like all other mysteries, they kept the invention of it a secret.” We
have no hard historical evidence for this suggestion, but it is delightful to
think that the Druid would amaze and entertain his entourage with fireworks, as
does the Druidic figure of Gandalf in Tolkien’s Lord
of the Rings.
Druids
as Alchemists and Metal-workers
While they may or may not have experimented with fireworks, they
certainly worked with fire and with metals. And this work was undoubtedly alchemical.
Since fire, like water, was and is considered sacred by all those with a
spiritual understanding of the natural world, we can be sure that the Druids
were masters and mistresses of fire. Their esoteric work with fire is a matter
of inner knowledge - for it deals with their ability to relate to and work with
the sacred fire within the body as well as within the grove. The fact that the
Goddess Brighid is goddess of healing and poetry and
both fire and water, provides us with the key to understanding the connection
between the inspiration sought by the Bards, the healing developed by the Ovates and the alchemical work of inner healing and inspiration
performed by the Druids. Contemplating
this one idea reveals the depth of the Druid Mysteries, the nature of its
teaching and its relevance for us today.
Metalworking in early societies was also considered a sacred art -
for upon it depended the tribe’s ability to defend
itself and to gain food from the earth or from animals. The Welsh tradition
states that a branch of Druids, known as the Pheryllt,
worked as metallurgists and alchemists in the magical city of
The Druid as metalworker would have forged the swords for the
warriors and nobles, which would have been imbued during their casting and annealing
with magical spells designed to protect the bearer and ensure them victory.
The sword figures largely in the Druid mythos:
It emerges out of the two fixed elements of water and earth in the
Arthurian legend: being pulled out of stone by Arthur, and being raised mysteriously
out of the
We can surmise too that the Druids as metalworkers would have cast
the sacred cauldrons. Just as the sword represents the ‘male’ directive
qualities of mind and spirit, so does the cauldron represent the ‘female’ inclusive
qualities of heart and soul. And
just as the sword figures largely in Druid ceremonial and mythology, so too
does the cauldron - representing, at its roots, the origin of the grail symbol.
Druids
as Peace Makers
Druids and the Druid philosophy have long been associated with the
idea of Peace. Classical writers, such as Julius Caesar and Diodorus
Siculus, spoke of the way in ancient times Druids
were exempt from military service, and did not bear arms, and how they often
pacified warring tribes, passing between the massed ranks of opposing forces
urging peace:
‘For they generally settle all their disputes, both public and
private… The Druids usually abstain from war, nor do they pay taxes together with
the others; they have exemption from warfare.’(Caesar)
Today, every Druid ceremony begins with a call to Peace towards
each of the Four Directions. The Druid
performing this function faces North, South, West then East calling out “May
there be Peace in The N/S/W/E” As they do this they feel peace emanating from
the Druid circle out into each direction of the world. Finally all participants
say “May there be Peace throughout the whole world.”
Druids in ancient times worked in Sacred Groves, and today they
still do - whether these are physical ones, or whether these have been created
in the Inner World through meditation. These
groves are seen as places of peace and tranquility that radiate these qualities
out to the world. Druids often sign their letters or messages
‘Yours in the Peace of the Grove’, and the Order has begun a programme of
planting Peace Groves throughout the world, with the first ones planted in
In the Order we often say this Peace Prayer in our ceremonies:
Deep within the still centre of my being May I find peace. Silently within the quiet
of the Grove May I share peace. Gently
(or powerfully) within the greater circle of humankind May I radiate peace.
We also hold peace meditations on the day of each full moon, and a
section of the Order’s website is now devoted to the subject, since war and
conflict seem to have escalated so much at the dawn of the twenty-first century.
Druids
as Philosophers
‘Some say that the study of philosophy was of barbarian origin. For
the Persians had their Magi, the Babylonians or the Assyrians the Chaldeans, the Indians their Gymnosophists, while the Kelts
and the Galatae had seers called Druids….’
Diogenes Laertius Lives of the
Philosophers
c.250 CE
In examining the roles of the Druid as teacher and judge, king and
advisor to kings and queens, scientist and alchemist, we must remember that behind
each of these functions the Druid was at heart a philosopher. His or her concern
was with the meaning and purpose of life on earth, and it was for this reason
that Strabo wrote “...the Druids, in addition to
natural philosophy, study also moral philosophy”.
We know a little of early Druid philosophy. A study of the old
Irish and Welsh laws, developed by the Druids, can provide us with a glimpse into
the ethical foundations of early Druid philosophy. In addition we can turn to
the triads of
In the early years of the twentieth century it adopted many of the
ideas of the Western Mystery Tradition, which originated in Classical Greece,
Into the historic picture we are building, we must add the most
recent influences on the development of modern Druid philosophy. In the 1940’s
and 50’s Ross Nichols became interested in the depth psychologies of Freud and
Jung, and partly inspired by their insights, he saw in Druidry
a way of helping modern humanity reconnect with Nature and the Gods. The
problem of modern civilisation, as he saw it, was
that humanity had become alienated from the land and the seasonal and
agricultural cycles. In addition, an understanding of the value of mythology
had been lost. As a result we had become alienated from the deepest and the highest
sources of inspiration. This psychological perspective took into account our deepest
needs, and in recent years Druidry, certainly as
expressed within the teachings of the Order of Bards Ovates
& Druids, has been clearly informed by it.
In addition, in the last decade or so, Druidry
has been influenced by the ideas and philosophies of the holistic and
environmental movements, so that alongside its preoccupations with the search
for wisdom and union with Deity (who is seen as one with Nature) Druidry today is passionately concerned with protecting the
natural world, and developing attitudes and lifestyles which promote living in
harmony with Nature.
In contemporary Druidry, the tree which represents
the Druid Grade is the Oak - the regal tree of wisdom and tradition - the primordial
tree that has always been associated with both Druids and the Nemeton - the oak groves where they gathered and taught.
The East is the place of the Druid, for it is from the
East that the sun rises and from which
comes the illumination that all Druids seek. The times associated with the Druid Grade
are
The
Druid as our Inner Sage
The Bard in their training has opened to the artist, the creative
Self, that lives within them, the Ovate in their training has opened to the
shaman who lives within - the one who can travel in the inner realms to explore
the fluid nature of time, and the inner power of trees, herbs and animals. The
Druid, in their training, opens to their inner Wise Person, the inner Sage who
is Philosopher and Counsellor, who judges and
discriminates and who teaches perhaps too.
At present, the only Druid group that gives training at all three
levels is the Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids. It
is helpful, when we consider these three stages or groupings, if we do not
consider them as a hierarchy, a ladder we must climb in order to reach
enlightenment or full empowerment, but rather as levels of deepening. There is
a path, or journey, that can be taken from one grade
to the next, but having reached the Druid Grade the journey can begin again -
making it one that follows a spiral or circular path rather than a linear one.
At the Druid level the injunction is given: Generate and Regenerate! To do this
we must die, we must change. The Ovate experience is passed through - under the
sign of the Yew we follow the injunction ‘Die and be reborn!’ Finally we reach the
stage of the Bard and we are able to be creative, to be fully born in the
world, to express our inherent divinity in word, song, art and music.
The three realms of Art, Nature and Philosophy are encompassed
within the three divisions of the Druid Tradition. We are finally able to unite
our artistic concerns with our environmental and spiritual concerns. The Bard, Ovate
and Druid are one person standing on the earth - poet and shaman, healer and
philosopher - spiritual and earthy.
We ourselves may well not yet be this ‘Whole Person’, able to
encompass all these abilities and interests, but the Druid as a model is always
there to encourage and guide us, to shine a light for us on a path that is not
uniform and not pre-determined, but unique to us and built with our own
experience and our own creative genius.
According to your belief and experience you will understand the
image of the Druid as Inner Sage as a metaphor, as a cultural creation, as an archetype
in our collective consciousness, or as an actual being or one of a host of
beings who exist on the inner planes, and who are simply waiting for us to turn
to them for guidance.
Brief Glossary
Adbertos (Gaulish) - An offering or ritual in which something is
given to the Deuoi.
Andumnos (Gaulish) - The Underworld / Otherworld / Netherworld which
corresponds to the Greek Elysian Fields and Tartaros,
and to the Teutonic Valhall and Hel. There are many isles of the Celtic
Otherworld. Andumnos
was later called Annwn in Welsh, and Andomhain in Early Irish (Gaelic). Ategenos (ah-the-gen-awss) - Rebirth; an incarnation or manifestation of a
trait, talent, concept, spirit or divinity into human form. It is usually genetically passed down. Bardos, plural bardoi (Gaulish, Brittonic, Goidelic) - The old
Celtic term for a singer or minstrel who sang praises of great heroes and
chieftains, or satires (curses and insults).
Brehon (from Irish breithamhain)
- A medieval Irish judge or jurist; a specialist of the old Druidic class that
survived Christianization.
Celt
(pronounced Kelt) - The ethnic group ancestral to the Irish, Scottish, Welsh,
Cornish (of
Contacting
the Gods – Remote places, weird shaped rocks, springs, trees and bogs were all
places where gods could be contacted.
CúChullain (koo-khullin)
- The great epic hero of old
Deities –
The Druids were henotheistic, i.e. they worshipped a number of tribal gods and
other deities related to specific localities.
Druid -
The Druids were Celtic priests and were written about by a number of Graeco-Roman authors whose accounts may well be biased.
Caesar says that the Druids officiated in the worship of the gods, regulated
sacrifices and ruled on religious questions
Druidiactos
(also Druidiaxtos)The Celtic religious movement
returning to the traditional pre-Christian values, customs and faith of the
Celtic people.
Filí (fee-lyeh) - A poet-magician or seer who performed Celtic magic
and mystical rites. The fili was a solitary practitioner, something like a shaman
in other cultures. Finn Mac Cumhail (fin mok kool) - The great hero and incarnation of Uindos (or Cernunnos, in Greek),
son of Noudons in a group of great epic tales and
romances called the Fenian cycle. Geis or Geas (gayss), plural geassa (gassa) - A controlling
spell or enchantment in which a certain action or behavior will cause another
certain action or effect. Usually it
takes the form of a taboo or a destiny, as when CuChullain
overheard Cathbad say that any boy who accepts
weapons on that day would be destined to be a great hero, and he asked his king
for arms. Lebor
(l’yower) - Old Irish word for book. Noudons (now-dawns)
- The Celtic god who represented the old retired king, a wizard and mystical
grandfatherly figure. He was the blemished king, a wild-old-man god and a
law-giver. He was called Nuada Airgetlamh (noo-uh Arriget-louw) in Old
Irish, Hudd (Neethe) or Llud Laww Ereint
(hleethe hlouw air-eint) in Welsh. Ogam (oh-um) - The notches and lines carved on sticks and
stones by the Irish filidh and other learned
folk. P-Celtic - The Gaulish-Brittonic
language from which Cornish, Breton and Welsh descend.
Oral
Tradition – The Druids left no written record and relied on an oral tradition
to perpetuate their religion. Epics such as the Mabinogion
were written by later Christian scribes.
Places of
Worship – The Druids did not appear to have built temples but rather worshipped
in enclosed sacred areas
Q-Celtic -
The Goidelic or ancient Gaelic language from which
Old Irish evolved and developed into Middle Irish, and then ModernIrish,
Gaelic (Scots Gaelic) and Manx Gaelic.
Irish calls “four” and “five” ceathair and cuig (ka-her and koo-eeg), Scots
Gaelic calls them ceithair and coig
(keh-her and koyk). Sidhe (shee) - “Peace” in Old Irish. Aes Sidhe, “or people of peace,” is the name for the spirits
and ghosts of the Otherworld. Touta (toh-oo-tah) - A tribe or
kindred of people who come together regularly.
They form a local community. A
congregation of people who meet regularly on a monthly basis, or at least four
times a year to celebrate Celtic festivals.
UerDruis (also Verdruis)
- The leader of the Celtic religious movement.
Theosophical Society,