A History of the Celtic Druids

Being of Irish descent myself, I love learning more about my heritage 🇮🇪 I take great pride in my culture, in knowing that I come from a people that were highly advanced, moral, and, the fact that our history lives on today -- resilient! ✊️

Now, having read a history of the Druids, I am even more self-assured in my identity. And with St. Patrick's Day approaching, what better way to celebrate the country of Ireland than with a deep dive into one of their most renowned figures: the Druids! 😊

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In the simplest terms, the Druids represented a prominent class in the Irish caste system. They first emerged in 4,000 BC, during the hunter-gatherer era, when their vast knowledge was utilized to derive resources from their treasured oak trees. In fact, the word "druid" comes from the Celtic words "oak knowledge."

(A picture of two Druids: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Druid)

"To have a knowledge of the trees endowed one with survival techniques and therefore wisdom."

Now we are starting to see a pattern: the Druids were considered the intellectuals -- the teachers -- of the Irish.

This point is amplified further when we come to realize that up until the introduction to Christianity, which was not until sixth century AD, the Celts did not commit ANY of their teachings in writings. Rather, nearly everything was MEMORIZED 😱 It was forbidden for the Celts to write down knowledge because they "did not want their doctrine to become public property."

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So, what kind of knowledge did these Druids teach? Well, pretty much everything under the sun -- including the sun! 😂

The Druids taught everything they knew "concerning the world, the human soul, and the gods." There were studies and schools for all types of careers: poets, historians, judges, doctors, teachers, musicians, physicians, astronomers, priests...

The Irish were considered so advanced in their knowledge, particularly of astronomy and mathematics, that even the erection of Stonehenge has been attributed to them!

(It has been theorized that Stonehenge was used as an astronomical "computer": https://www.britannica.com/topic/Stonehenge)

"... one of the greatest pieces of astronomical engineering ... the three great tumuli. ... a date of around 3,200 BC. ... on the winter solstice, the first rays of the rising sun ... pass through a deliberately contrived slit in the roof and illuminate the tomb chamber for 17 minutes."

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The Druids were also responsible for the knowledge of rituals and religion. Prior to the introduction of Christianity, the Irish obviously had their own beliefs of how the world worked, the same as every other culture. Oddly enough, the Celt's beliefs already aligned so well with the Christian ones that very few minds needed coercion in order to accept them.

Before Christianity, the Celts believed in an array of gods and goddesses. However, they "did not look upon their gods as their creators, but as their ancestors." After Christianity, their gods downgraded to heroes, with human qualities and sins.

The Irish already believed in good vs. evil, represented as the goddesses Danu and Domnu.

(An example of a Celtic goddess, Danu: https://mythus.fandom.com/wiki/Danu_(Irish_goddess) )

They already believed in an afterlife -- the Otherworld -- and there were different variations of it: "... from the dark, brooding purgatory ... to the sunny, pleasant lands..."

The Celts believed that the soul was immortal, and that it reposed in the head upon death (thus, removal of the head from the body was a common practice).

Most important of all, the Irish believed in TRUTH! 🙏 "... the Druids were concerned, above all things, with Truth ... Truth as the highest principle and sustaining power of creation."

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The Druids were considered the ultimate distributors of justice, entrusted with all legal decisions. In most cases, "the legal authority of a Druid was above that of a king..."

The Irish were one of the few cultures to practice compensation for victims as opposed to purely focusing on the punishment of the perpetrators.

The Druids were considered natural arbitors, and what is perhaps the most incredible part, is that women were not exempt from participating in society the same as men! Celtic women had rights, they could own land, work the same professions as men, and were even figures of supreme authority! Many women were warriors, war lords, ambassadors, and queens 👸

(A famous female war leader, Boudicca: https://www.livescience.com/37061-boudicca.html)

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I found the medical science to be the most interesting part. Being in tune with nature, the Irish had prolific amounts of knowledge in regards to medicine, with the oldest surviving book dating 1352 AD (and this was just a COPY of an original! 😱).

The Irish used medicinal baths, partook in sweat lodges, could cure certain poisons, and even practiced surgery -- successfully, at that!

"... although the ancient surgeons had cut into this person's skull on two separate occasions, the healing of the bone ... indicated that the patient lived but eventually died of sepsis some weeks after the second operation. [This] indicates an advanced degree of medical knowledge..."

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I even learned that human sacrifice -- a practice that was prominent in nearly every other culture -- did NOT take place in Ireland.

"... any tradition of human sacrifice among the Celts had ended long before the time Pomponius was writing, that is 46 AD."

"'There is little direct archeological evidence relevant to Celtic sacrifice..."

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That's about it for today's post! 😃🙏 Thank you so much for taking the time to check it out. There was a lot of information in this book that I was pleased to learn about, and I hope there were a few things that you found interesting as well 🙇‍♀️ Please, have a great weekend, and happy reading 📚