Druid

In Celtic polytheism the word Druid denotes the priestly class in ancient Celtic societies, which existed through much of Western Europe north of the Alps and in the British Isles. Druidic practices were part of the culture of all the tribal peoples called "Keltoi" and "Galatai" by Greeks and "Celtae" and "Galli" by Romans, which evolved into modern English "Celtic" and "Gaulish". Modern attempts at reconstructing or reinventing Druidism are called Neo-druidism. Druid - Etymology. The word DruidIncluding:

Read more here: » Druid: Encyclopedia - Druid

Druid: New Age Spiritual Dictionary on Druid

Druid

Member of an order of Celtic priests, poets, healers, and judges in pre-Christian Britain, Ireland, and France

(See also: Druid, Body Mind and Soul)

For more dictionary entries, see » Druid Dictionary

Druid: Wiccan Pagan Dictionary on DRUID

DRUID - ‘oakwise’ member of an order of Celtic priests, poets, healers and judges in pre christian Britain, Ireland and France. (NAD)

(See also: DRUID, Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

For more dictionary entries, see » Druid Dictionary

Druid: Encyclopedia II - Druid - History

From what little we know of late Druidic practice, it appears deeply traditional and conservative, in the sense that Druids were conserving repositories of culture and lore. It is impossible now to judge whether this continuity had deep historical roots and originated in the social transformations of the late La Tene culture, or whether there had been a discontinuity and a Druidic religious innovation. Our historical knowledge of Druids is very limited. Druidic lore consisted of a large number of verses learned by heart and it has bee ...

Including:

Ancient Order of Druids - Source

Druid: Encyclopedia - Neo-druidism

Neo-druidism is an attempt to reconstruct the ancient religion of druidism. Neo-druidism - Neo-Druidry in Britain. In the eighteenth century secret societies in Britain included a number that had a particularly "Druidic" flavour, such as the Ancient Order of Druids and the Order of the Universal Bond, later known as the Ancient Druid Order. These organisations often drew upon Iolo Morganwg for their philosophy and symbolism, including the use of the Druid's Prayer. His teachings have since been shown to hav ...

Including:

Neo-druidism - Deities

Druid: Encyclopedia - Ár nDraíocht Féin

Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship, Inc. (otherwise known simply as ADF) is a non-profit religious organization dedicated to the study and further development of modern, Neo-pagan Druidic practice. Ár nDraíocht Féin - Synopsis. Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF), pronounced "arn ree-ocht fane", means "our own Druidism" in Modern Irish. ADF, also known as A Druid Fellowship, was founded in 1983 and incorporated in 1990 as a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit organization by Isaac Bonewits. ADF is a Neo-druidism ...

Including:

Druid: Encyclopedia - Bard

A bard is a poet or singer, in religious or feudal contexts. Bard - Etymology. The word is a loanword from Proto-Celtic *bardos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gwerh2: "to raise the voice; praise". The word entered the West Germanic languages twice. The first recorded example is in 1449 from the Scottish Gaelic language into the Scots Language, denoting an itinerant musician, usually with a contemptuous connotation. A Scots ordnance of ca. 1500 orders that Including:

Bard - Etymology

Bard - Uses

Read more here: » Bard: Encyclopedia - Bard

Druid: Encyclopedia - Celtic mythology

Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, the apparent religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure. Among Celtic peoples in close contact with Rome, such as the Gauls and Celtiberians, their mythology did not survive the Roman empire, their subsequent conversion to Christianity, and the loss of their Celtic languages. Ironically it is through contemporary Roman and Christian sources that what we do know of their belie ...

Including:

Celtic mythology - Historical sources

Celtic mythology - Julius Caesar’s comments on Celtic Religion and their significance

Celtic mythology - Significance of Prophecy in Druidic Ritual

Celtic mythology - Modern remnants

Celtic mythology - Druidism?

Druid: Encyclopedia - David Dom

David Dom (b. January 16, 1978, Belgium) is the founding member of the New Order of Druids, a Celtic and Druid organisation in Belgium, working on an international basis. David Dom began his Druidic studies by the end of 2001, and was taught by Jean-Claude Pretre, a Bard from France, until 2003. With the support of his teacher, he founded the New Order of Druids, formerly known as "Gate to Avalon", in ...

Including:

David Dom - Links

Druid: Encyclopedia - Quickening

Quickening is: Quickening, a character from The Druid of Shannara by Terry Brooks. Quickening, the earliest perception of fetal movement by a mother during the second trimester of pregnancy. Other related archivesQuickening, Terry Brooks, The Druid of Shannara, pregnancy

Druid: Encyclopedia - Celtic polytheism

Celtic polytheism (also called Druidic polytheism) is the term for the religious beliefs and practices of the ancient Celts. Celtic polytheism - Extent of Celtic polytheism. As the religion of the ancient Celts, the shifts in the fortunes of Celtic Polytheism coincided with those of its people. The Celts, like other ancient Indo-European peoples, practised a form of polytheism, which reached the apogee of its influence and territorial expansion during the 4th century BC, extending across the length o ...

Including:

Celtic polytheism - Festivals

Celtic polytheism - Cults within Celtic polytheism

Druid: New Age Spirituality Dictionary on Druid

Druid

(Celtic, "true seer") A member of the priestly and intellectual elite of the Celts.

Druids were the religious and legal authorities in Gaul before its conquest by the Romans (51 BC) and were celebrated for their esoteric knowledge. The druid survived as a stock figure in medieval Irish literature. A priestly caste of the ancient Celtic people of France and the British Isles. They were the keepers of oral history and law, and officiates of religious practices.

Modern Druids are various new religious traditions that attempt to incorporate the insights of ancient Druidism, Celtic history and lore, and romanticized notions of the ancient Druids formed in the eighteenth century. In England today, there are the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, and the Ancient Order of Druids, among others.

While there is no scholarly connection between the Druids and Stonehenge, the Ancient Order of Druids used Stonehenge for their rituals until instances of vandalism by the curious closed the ancient site.

In the United States, the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA) began in 1963 as a satirical protest against required attendance at chapel at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. The RDNA developed rituals and lore from Celtic history, poetry, and anthropology, and the movement continued and became more serious, even after the chapel attendance requirement was dropped. The RDNA considered Druidism a philosophy of life, not a religion.

In 1966 the New Reformed Druids of North America (NRDNA) reformed Druidism as a Neo- Pagan religion. A few chapters of both groups still exist. Other current American Druidic groups include Ar nDraiocht Fein ("Our Own Druidism"), founded by Isaac Bonewits in 1983. Currently the largest American revivalist Druid organization, it sees itself as a Neo-Pagan religion based on the beliefs and practices of the ancient Indo-Europeans but adapted to modern needs and sensibilities, such as the preservation of the earth and excellence in arts and scholarship.

For more dictionary entries, see » Druid Dictionary

Druid: Encyclopedia II - Shannara Druids - The Order of the Druids

Shannara Druids - The Druids' Mission. Shannara Druids - Druid teachings. Shannara Druids - Druid magic. Druid fire is the most common offensive form of Druid magic, used in battle against opposing magics. The fire can be any one of several colors; for example, Allanon's is blue while Walker Boh's is white. Druid fire has multiple other uses ...

Druid: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Druids

Druids Members of a priestly hierarchy among the ancient Celts of Britain, Gaul, and Ireland, composed of the three Orders of Druids, Bards, and Ovates. According to the Gaulish reports mentioned by Julius Caesar, Druidism was founded in Britain, which remained in his time its headquarters, candidates for the priesthood being sent to that island from Gaul for their training.

The Welsh tradition confirms this, stating the The Wisdom had always existed; that in remote times it was known simply as Gwyddoniaeth (science) and its teachers as the Gwyddoniaid (sing., Gwyddon); that knowledge of it had declined until at some unknown period a wiseman named Tydain Tad Awen arose and taught it to his three disciples, Plenydd, Gwron, and Alawn, who in their turn taught it to the race of the Cymry. From that time forth it was known as Derwyddoniaeth or Druidism, "the wisdom taught in oak groves."

Classical references to the Druids are many, coming from about 200 B.C. until about 200 A.D. Those written before Caesar made his attack on Gaul speak of the Druids as possessors of a high wisdom; the very first reference says that it was held in Greece that philosophy came to the Greeks from the barbaroi or foreigners: the Brahmins of India, the Magi of Persia, the Egyptian priesthood, and the Druids.

While the Romans were fighting the Celts, writers, beginning with Caesar, repeat more or less what has been said before about the wisdom of the Druids but, following Caesar, have much to say about their atrocities. When the Romans were no longer at war with the Druidic Celts, however, the references to the Druids are similar to the early ones, with no mention of atrocities.

Blavatsky stated that Druidism was the one branch of the sacred Mysteries of antiquity in the Western world which had not degenerated; and that during the campaigns of Caesar and his forces in Gaul, three million Gauls were killed and Druidism virtually wiped out there. It is Caesar who is responsible for the current notion that the Gauls and Britons were crude savages and the Druids barbarous and cruel. He stated first that the Druids of Gaul, who were judges as well as priests, inflicted excommunication as their severest sentence, passed even on the worst criminals. Excommunication was their capital punishment. Later on in his book he describes the famous wicker cages filled with criminals (with just men added when there were not criminals enough) who were then burnt. The two statements are contradictory. The later statement is entirely unsupported; the former is not only compatible with the Druids' reputation for profound wisdom and great humanity, but is supported indirectly by practically every classical reference which mentions the Druids at all.

In Gaul in Caesar's time Druidism was very highly organized and controlled the whole civilization, a fact Caesar is known to have deliberately understated, for in many respects Gaulish civilization was more advanced than Roman. We know nothing of Druidism in Britain from the classical writers, except that Britain was its headquarters and place of origin, and that the Druids were massacred in Mona (Anglesea), an island in northwest Wales which seems to have been the Druids headquarters in Britain.

Of Druidism in Ireland we know even less: the Irish Sagas do not indicate that the Druids there were either priests or jurists, or indeed very important people; they appear rather as necromancers at the royal courts, astrologers, magicians, etc. Had Druidism been an organized system, as in Gaul and presumably in Britain, Patrick, the Christian missionary, could hardly have converted the whole island with the little trouble he had. In Britain, however, as soon as the Romans with their proscription of Druidism had departed in 410, there is every reason to think that Druidism flamed up again: Welsh literature, from the 6th to the end of the 15th century, is full of interesting references.

Greek and Roman authors all make much of the Druidic belief in reincarnation. One of them relates that you could always borrow money to be repaid in such and such a future life on earth -- showing that it was reincarnation, the coming back as a human being, and not transmigration, the coming back as an animal, that was taught. The likeness between Druidism and Pythagoreanism is often mentioned, which perhaps suggested the legend that Pythagoras studied not only under Eastern but also under Western or Druidic teachers; and that other belief, that philosophy came to Greece not only from the East, but also from the Druids.

For more dictionary entries, see » Druid Dictionary

Druid: Spiritual Theosophical Dictionary on Druids

Druids. A sacerdotal caste which flourished in Britain and Gaul. They were Initiates who admitted females into their sacred order, and initiated them into the mysteries of their religion.

They never entrusted their sacred verses and scriptures to writing, but, like the Brahmans of old, committed them to memory; a feat which, according to the statement of Cesar took twenty years to accomplish. Like the Parsis they had no images or statues of their gods.

The Celtic religion considered it blasphemy to represent any god, even of a minor character, under a human figure. It would have been well if the Greek and Roman Christians had learnt this lesson from the "pagan" Druids. The three chief commandments of their religion were: - "Obedience to divine laws; concern for the welfare of mankind; suffering with fortitude all the evils of life".

For more dictionary entries, see » Druid Dictionary

Druid: Encyclopedia II - Doctor Druid - Revival as Doctor Druid

Doctor Druid remained on the sidelines for years, but eventually joined the ranks of The Avengers. His membership in that team was tainted when he was mind controlled by the supervillainess called the Terminatrix (at the time impersonating the space pirate Nebula) into manipulating the team on her behalf. Her control on the team was weakened during a time travel adventure, and when "Nebula" was cast into Limbo, Druid followed, as he was still under her thrall. He eventually regained co ...

Dream Sharing Forum

Druid

A Wisdom Archive on Druid

ARTICLES RELATED TO Druid

See also:

Including:

Including:

Including:

Including:

Including:

Including:

See also:

See also:

See also:

See also:

Rate this archive!