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13 Death

site by 132am

Spirituality: The Druids

The word 'druid' is thought to derive from the Greek drus (oak) and the Indo-European wid (wisdom), "which produces the apparent absurdity of 'oak-knower'. In any case, druids are typically associated with oak trees. Some say they held  assemblies in sacred groves, that they prized the mistletoe growing on the oaks, or that they worshipped the trees themselves.

Long before the Romans spread their culture by invasions, the Celts lived in communal, tribal groups, their lives entwined with the elemental forces, with nature, and Mother Earth herself. The Druids had a very special relationship with nature. They saw that human life was only a small fragment of a much larger pattern.

Within the Celts was a group of elders (known as the Druids, Ovates, and Bard) whose job it was to memorize all of the knowledge and history of their tribe and pass the wisdom on through oral tradition. The keeping of this hidden knowledge was the traditional responsibility of certain clans or families, and in this way, the family and societal histories were kept alive within the oral tradition.

The Druids were the religious guides of the people, the chief guardians and interpreters of the law. They taught the immortality and transmigration of the soul. They attained their greatest influence in Britain shortly before the Roman invasion, during the last century before Christ. They were believed to have incited the patriotic revolt of the Britons against Roman rule, and Agricola, when Governor of Britain, cut down their sacred groves and destroyed their temples; when the Druids who escaped fled to the Island of Iona. Upon conversion of the Britons to Christianity, Druidism became only a venerable memory and tradition.

Greek was originally known and used by the Ancient Druids until the arrival of Christianity when Latin was adopted as the new religious and scientific language. However, the Druids also used a secretive hieratic alphabet as a special means of communicating with each other. It was known as the Ogham, or Beth-Luis-Nuin alphabet. It was limited to mnemonic learning by question and answer, and embodied special symbolic uses that are lost to us.

The Druids used a complex system of time-keeping based on their awareness of solar and lunar cycles. According to the Coligny Calendar, they measured the passage of time by observing the lunar orbit around the Earth (a lunar month.) A Druid Cycle of five years was known as a 'Lustre'. At the end of six Lustres, or one month of years (30), a Druidic Cycle was complete. A period of 21 months of years corresponded to a Druidic Era.

The Celtic month started at the full-moon, rather than the new-moon, probably because the full-moon is easier to observe and record. Each month alternately contained 29 or 30 days, making a Celtic year 354 days in length.

The calendar took into account the differing time periods taken by the moon and the sun to circle the earth (prevalent geocentric terminology used), and reconciled the differences by inserting an extra month on a regular cycle. This method of intercalation meant that most years contained twelve months, and approximately every third year contained thirteen months. This extra month was called Mid Samonios, and was intercalated between Cutios and Giamonios in the calendar.

The month was divided into two parts, a 'light' half, and a 'dark' half, each approximately of two week's duration; the division marked by the word Atenoux 'returning night' on the Coligny fragments. This confirms that the new-moon also played a part in the Celtic calendar, and very likely had some religious significance. This also bears-out the impression we get from the traditional Celtic folk-stories which maintain that the normal period of Celtic timekeeping was the fortnight.

By extrapolation, the calendar also confirms that the Gallic druids maintained a thirty-year cycle of timekeeping, comprising five cycles of 62 lunations and one cycle of 61 lunations, during which period, eleven intercalary months would be added.

The Celtic Months

DRUID FESTIVALS

There are eight particular times during the yearly cycle which are significant and which are marked by special observances: four are solar and four are lunar, creating a balanced scheme of interlocking masculine and feminine observances. The solar observances are the ones that most people associate with modern-day Druids, particularly the Summer Solstice ceremonies at Stonehenge.

At the Solstices, the Sun is at the point of its apparent death at midwinter (shortest day), and of its maximum power at the noon of the year in June (longest day). At the Equinoxes, day and night are balanced. At the Spring Equinox, the power of the sun is on the increase, and we celebrate the time of sowing and of preparation for the gifts of Summer. At the Autumnal Equinox, although day and night are of equal duration, the power of the sun is on the wane, and we give thanks for the gifts of the harvest and prepare for the darkness of Winter...and the Winter Solsticse. And so the cylce begins again.

Along with these solar observances, were also four lunar festivals. These were more associated with the livestock cycle, rather than the farming cycle.

At Samhuinn (Samhain), between October 31st and November 2nd, livestock for whom there was insufficient fodder were slaughtered and their meat salted and stored. At Imbolc, on February 2nd, the lambs were born. At Beltane, on May 1st, it was the time of mating and of the passing of the livestock through the two Beltane fires for purification. Lughnasadh, on August 1st, was the time which marked the link between the agricultural and the livestock cycle - the harvest began and both human food and animal fodder were reaped and stored.

The two sets of festivals represent far more than just times which our ancestors chose to honor the plant and animal life-cycles though. They demonstrate our thorough interconnectedness with both the animal and plant realms. It is only modern-day people who can separate the life-cycles in an analytical way.

Looking at the complete cycle, we shall begin at Samhuinn - a time which marked traditionally the ending and the beginning of the Celtic Year.

THE CYCLE

Samhuinn, from October 31st to November 2nd, was a different time. Celtic society was highly structured and organized, and everyone knew their place. But to allow that order to be psychologically comfortable, the Celts knew that there had to be a time when order and structure were abolished - when chaos could reign. And Samhuinn was such a time. Time was abolished for the three days of this festival, and people did crazy things - men dressed as women and women as men. Farmers' gates were unhinged and left in ditches, peoples' horses were moved to different fields, and children would knock on neighbours' doors for food and treats in a way that we still find today, in a watered-down way, in the custom of trick-or-treating on Hallowe'en.

There was, however, a deeper meaning to all this. The Druids knew that these three days had a special quality as the veil between this world and the World of the Ancestors was drawn aside on these nights, and for those who were prepared, journeys could be made in safety to the 'other side'. The Druid rites, therefore, were concerned with making contact with the spirits of the departed, who were seen as sources of guidance and inspiration. The dark moon was the lunar phase which ruled this time, because it represents a time in which our mortal sight needs to be obscured in order for us to see into the other worlds.

With the coming of Christianity, this festival was turned into Hallowe'en ( All Hallows) and All Saints Day.Like any smart conquering force, Christianity built on the pagan foundations it found rooted in these isles.

The Winter Solstice (when the Sun reaches 0 degrees Capricorn) follows, called in the Druid Tradition Alban Arthan (the Light of Arthur). This is the time of death and rebirth. The sun appears to be abandoning us completely as the longest night comes to us. Linking our own inner journey to the yearly cycle, the words of the Druid ceremony ask "Cast away, O wo/man whatever impedes the appearance of light." In darkness we throw on to the ground the scraps of material we have been carrying that signify those things which have been holding us back, and one lamp is lit from a flint and raised up on the Druid's crook in the East. The year is reborn and a new cycle begins, which will reach its peak at the time of the Midsummer Solstice, before returning again to the place of death-and-birth.

Although the Bible indicates that Jesus was born in the Spring, it is no accident that the early Church chose to move his official birthday to the time of the Midwinter Solstice (and the Roman Saturnalia), for again, it chose to replace an existing festival time.

The next Festival, Imbolc, occurs on February 2nd, or the eve of February 1st. Although we would think of Imbolc as being in the midst of Winter, it represents in fact the first of a trio of Spring celebrations, since it is the time of the first appearance of the snowdrop, and of the melting of the snows and the clearing of the debris of Winter. It is a time when we sense the first glimmer of Spring, and when the lambs are born. In the Druid tradition it is a gentle, beautiful festival in which the Mother Goddess is honoured with eight candles rising out of the water at the centre of the ceremonial circle.

The Goddess that ruled Samhuinn was the Cailleach, the Grey Hag, the Mountain Mother, the Dark Woman of Knowledge. But by Imbolc the Goddess has become Brighid, the Goddess of poets, healers and midwives.

Imbolc was a time dedicated to poetry and song praising the Goddess in her many forms. The Christian development of this festival is Candlemas - the time of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. For years successive Popes had tried to stop parades of lit candles in the streets of Rome at this time, until seeing that it was impossible to put a stop to this pagan custom, they suggested that everyone enter the churches so that the priests could bless the candles.

Next comes the Spring Equinox (the Sun reaches 0 degrees Aries) when night and day are of equal length. Spring is more recognizable now, when the flowers first appear and when the sowing begins in earnest.

By Beltane on May 1st, Spring is in full bloom, and twin fires would be lit at this time, through which would be passed the cattle after their long winter confinement, or over which those hoping for a child or good fortune would jump. We still see traces of the Beltane celebrations on May Day, when dancing round the maypole celebrates the fertility of the land and creates an echo of the ritual circle dances that must have been enacted in stone circles throughout the country.

The Summer Solstice occurs on June 21 or 22 (when the Sun reaches 0 degrees Cancer). Light is at its maximum, and this is the time of the longest daylight hours. It is at this time that the Druids hold their most complex ceremony. Starting at midnight on the eve of the Solstice, a vigil is held through the night, seated around the Solstice fire. The night is over in a matter of hours, and as light breaks, the Dawn Ceremony marks the time of the sun's rising on this his most powerful day. At noon a further ceremony is held.

Six weeks later we come to the time of Lughnasadh on August 1st, which marks the beginning of harvest time. The hay would have been gathered in, and the time for reaping the wheat and barley was due. It was a time of gathering together, of contests and games and of marriages. The marriages contracted at this time could be annulled at the same time the following year, offering the couple a sensible 'trial period'. The Christian version of this festival is Lammas, which has recently been revived in some churches. The word Lammas comes from hlafmasse - 'loaf-mass' - since bread is offered from the newly harvested grain.

The Autumnal Equinox, on September 21 (or when the Sun reaches 0 degrees Libra), is called Alban Elfed or Light of the Water in the Druid tradition. It represents the second of the harvest festivals, this time marking the end of harvest-time, just as Lughnasadh marked its beginning. Again day and night are equally balanced as they were at the time of the Spring Equinox, but soon the nights will grow longer than the days and Winter will be with us. In the ceremony we give thanks for the fruits of the earth and for the goodness of the Mother Goddess.

And so the circle completes itself as we come again to the time of Samhain - the time of death and of rebirth.

from Elements of the Druid Tradition by Philip Carr-Gomm