Druids, Druidecht, Filidh and Early Christianity in Ireland

Some have questioned the importance of Druids in early Irish society while others even question if there were Druids in that culture existing along with the more generally accepted Filidh as a class.. A look at some of the early tales and traditions from literate Ireland should suffice to provide clear evidence to those of open minds. Skeptics will not be convinced no matter what evidence is provided so this article will not belabor the point, nor will it attempt to be exhaustive with its references. References will be provided however There are many, many sources mentioning Druids and Druidecht in the earliest of times in Ireland. Druidect was such a strong part of society that even the gods studied among Druids to become Druids themselves.

In the closest thing there is to an Irish creation story, Cath Maige Tuired, the Tuatha Dé Danan are said to have spent time in the “north of the world” in the cities of Findias, Gorias, Murias and Falias, studying the mystical arts and Druidecht. From this beginning, one can infer that Druidecht was the main religion of the pre-Christian and early Irish people. Their gods were students of Druids. The gods are Druids. In the recorded, written texts that survive from the 7^th and 8^th centuries, Druids are alternately praised for their wisdom and skill or denigrated for being purveyors of idolatry and demonism. It is the Druids who are said to be in charge of Pagan religion in Ireland by the Christian priests, monks and scribes who strove to replace them. If there was no truth in this high status for Druids in early Ireland, then why did the early Christian priesthood at times attack them?

Not all early Christian priests attacked the concepts of Druidecht or Druids. Many were themselves formerly Druids or the students of Druids. Others were of the Filidh or Brehons. When Christianity was embraced as the main religion of the Irish, one of its most revered saints, Columcille, characterized Christ as being “My Druid, the Son of God.” This seems to be a carry-over from the pre-Christian idea that the gods were Druids and the students of original Druids. The most revered saint of Ireland, Padraig, was himself a former slave to a Druid. He learned the ways so well that he was able to move through Irish society in the proper manner with suitable sureties and support. Without this skill, acquired in his earlier captivity, Padraig’s mission would most likely have been doomed to a similar failure to that of his predecessors. Rounded out the top three saints of Ireland is Brighid, who was either the slave of a Druid, the daughter of a Druid or the daughter of the God of Druids, An Dagda, depending on the tradition that one embraces.

Early Christianity could not completely change the beliefs, practices and traditions of the Irish, so many of these were adapted or incorporated directly into the new Christian ways. Deities were renamed as saints or became kings, ancestors and heroes in the tales. The Pagan Irish gods were demoted and synchronized in the tales to become invading people and tribes. The Tuatha Dé Danann became  a tribe that worshipped certain generic deities called the Three Gods of Danann and fought against the earlier, primal deities, the Fomorii, who were themselves demoted in the newly rewritten literature to be an older people of Ireland,

The Leabor Gabála Érinn was written to form a bridge between the earlier gods and spirits of Ireland (now merely people and tribes) and the people of the Christian Bible, even to the detail of constructing an artificial genealogy all the way back to Noah and Adam, the first man.  Later deities were converted into the “Sons of Mil” and the Irish who claimed them as primal ancestors were now related to a people who were said to have stood aside at the Exodus of the Hebrews out of Egypt, under Moses, across the Reed Sea. For this, the Milesians were said to have been caste out of Egypt by Pharaoh and to have begun an overland journey to Spain from which they would eventually voyage to Ireland.

Meanwhile, in the Ireland of this fictitous history, the gods (now merely humans) were battling among themselves (the Fomorii and the Firbolg, until the Tuatha Dé gained the upper hand). The synchronization of Biblical history, Greek history and Irish history was made complete by the introduction of ancestors from the Greeks under Nemed and Partholan, as well as from the Hebrews under the daughter of Noah, Cesair, who each made separate short term voyages and attempted settlements. Unsurprisingly, few of these connecting people and tribes survived to clutter up or complicate Irish history and ancestry. Yet, even here, there are shown to be Druids among these people. The Three Druids of Partholan are Fios, Eolas and Fochmart (themselves named for Knowledge, Experience and Inquiry). Caicher is named as a Druid and a chieftain of the Milesians.  Here are the highest skills of the Sons of Mil (as stated in the Book of Fermoy version of the Leabor Gabála):

“Mil son of Bile tarried eight years in Egypt, and twelve men of his followers learnt the principal arts:  Segda, Sobairce, and Suirge learnt craftmanship, Mantan, Caicher and Fulman learnt druidry;  another three, Gosten, Amorgen, and Donn, were arbitratiors and judges.  The other three, Mil, Oici and Uici, were warriors.  They nurtured their multiplicity of actions and of accomplishments  in Egypt. “

Every people or ancestral tribe of the Irish had their own Druids whether they were deities, demons, heroes or even Christians. The laws even specified them to be a part of every king’s retinue such as this privilege for the kings of Caishel found in Crith Gablach:

“The king of Fir Maige receives twenty cumals and the Fir Maige supplv a druid to Caisel, and their best man is in the confidence of the king of Caisel.”

Some kings were Druids as the Testament of Cathair to his ten sons demonstrates in his own words (found in some versions of Lebor na Cert):

“I am Cathaír the triumphant.

I am thy druid and thy father.

It is plain from my pronouncements —

it is not in drunkeness that I boast of thee —

that thou shalt be a noble rock.'

He gave then his chess and his skill at chess to Ailill Céthech.”

The idea that Druids held a high status persisted in Ireland even after the efforts of some early Christian clerics to denigrate them and their followers. The term seems to have evolved back toward a mark of respect by the 11th century CE when wise people or poets are once again considered to be a kind of Druid. Here is an instance of a person being called bot a Fie and a Druid from the Annals of the Four Masters for the year 1097:

“The Druid Ua Carthaigh, chief poet of Connaught, was killed by the Connaughtmen themselves.”

The equating of Poets and Druids above is an example of how the terms evolved in their usage to mean the same type of person when perhaps they were originally separate functions. This evolution of Druid to mean Poets or Filidh is evidenced by one of the terms used to define “Druid” in the Dictionary of the Irish Language:

““(c) In mod. lit. esp. poetry usually poet, learned man: primh-drūith ┐ primh-ollamh Connacht, FM 1067 . Néidhe draoi, KEAT. POEMS 116 . grianán dáimhe is draoithe, 1483 ; cf. 757 . ÉRIU IV 56.62 , CONTENT. XXV 6 , E. O'RAHILLY XX 5 , HACKETT XIX 26 “

Druids also crop up in the list of the Filidh compiled by Kuno Meyer in his _Irish Metrics_. Some of these dual professionals are said to be both a File and a Druid:

Unknown Date    -    Bec mac Dé (druad) 1551(Tig.)

Unknown Date    -    Brigit ban'fili 7bandrui ingen Echdach Ollathir (O'Mulc. 159LL. p.187° ; Corm. s.v. Brigit)

Unknown Date    -    Labhán draoi, file Albanach (Keat. Hist, iii, p.58)

1st Century    -    Cathbad drúi

1067    -    Murchadh ua Carthaig prímdrúith 7 prímollam Connacht

In his _Dictionary of Celtic Mythology_ entry for Druids, James MacKillop gives a list of thirty people who were said to be Druids in the old texts and say s that the actual list would be too extensive for his dictionary. The two most prominently mentioned are Cathbadh and Mug Ruith. MacKillop also lists Morann as a Druid though his Audacht Morann seems to be more the work of a File or a Brehon. In a similar fashion Ferchertne and Nede mac Adne are said by Christian Guyonovich’ to be Druids acting as Filidh in their famous colloquay, Immacallam in Dá Thuradh

There are many other references to Draoithe being Filidh

I offer up a sampling from an afternoon’s browsing for references where Druids and Poets are called both in the traditional literature preserved in Ireland. It is clear that the idea that the two are almost identical has been one that is firmly held in Ireland for thousands of years. It’s not much of a stretch from there to conclude that when the fortunes of the Druid class diminished that the Filidh took up many of the non-priestly duties of the Druids. In this task, I believe history reports that they were much more successful than the Christian priest were in taking on the wisdom, skilled knowledge and crerative abilities of the Druids for the people.

 

From Keating’s History of Ireland, p. 59:

“It was while Diarmaid, son of Cearbhall, was king of Ireland that a poet of Alba, called Labhan Draoi, came to Ireland; and having heard tidings of the generosity of Eochaid Aontsula, ancestor of siol Suilleabhain, he came to visit him and ask him for a gift, and he would not accept any gift from him but one of his eyes; and Eochaidh gave him one of his eyes lest the druid might satirise him.”

On pp. 91-93

“Six fifties of our company
Of the great army of Spain,
That number of our host fell,
With the loss of the two worthy druids:

Uar and Eithiar of the steeds,
Beloved were the two genuine poets;
A stone in bareness above their graves,
In their Fenian tombs we leave them.” 

On pp. 343-345

“It was ordained in Cormac's time that every high king of Ireland should keep ten officers in constant attendance on him, who did not separate from him as a rule, namely, a prince, a brehon, a druid, a physician, a bard, a seancha, a musician, and three stewards: the prince to be a bodyattendant on the king; the brehon to explain the customs and laws of the country in the king's presence; a druid to offer sacrifices, and to forebode good or evil to the country by means of his skill and magic; a physician to heal the king and his queen and the rest of the household; a filé to compose satire or panegyric for each one according to his good or evil deeds; a seancha to preserve the genealogies, the history, and transactions of the nobles from age to age; a musician to play music, and to chant poems and songs in the presence of the king; and three stewards with their company of attendants and cupbearers to wait on the king, and attend to his wants. This custom was kept from the time of Cormac to the death of Brian son of Cinneide without change, except that, since the kings of Ireland received the Faith of Christ, an ecclesiastical chaplain took the place of the druid, to declare and explain the precepts and the laws of God to the king, and to his household. Thus does the seancha set forth the matter just stated:

There are ten round the king,
Without rivalry, without anxiety—
I can name them all,
Both prince and official.

There are appointed to attend on gracious kings,
A brehon, a filé, and a prince;
The king who has not the three named,
His honour-price is not sanctioned by Fenian law.

A chaplain to expound the gospels,
A seancha who sets right every mishap,
A musician skilled in harp-strings also:
For these fine and honour-price are appointed.

The fourth person is a physician,
To look to each one's disease;
Three stewards to serve famous companies,
I shall record for the hosts of Erin.

The king who shall not have all these
Has no right to be in the Reim Rioghruidhe;
In the house of Tara shall not pass his time
A king not having the ten.” 

The Death-Tales of the Ulster Heroes (Author: unknown):

Tale 4, Version C, p. 15

“[1] The men of Ulster were holding a great gathering in the plain of Murthemne. Then towards the gathering came Bochrach, a poet and druid of the men of Leinster, having come out of Leinster after learning poetry. Of him Conchobar asked tidings of Alba and Leth Moga.” 

The Metrical Dindshenchas (Author: [unknown])

poem 15

Faffand

[Broccaid]

5 … the swift druid, the skilled poet,
to blemish the famous king of Berre,
Meilge, son of kindly Cobthach.

The Metrical Dindshenchas (Author: [unknown])

poem 6, p63

Ceilbe

 “Thither to seek her goes
the seer who was famous in his day,
(in sooth he was noted for no lowly fortune);
Dallán was the poet's name.

Ceilbe comes to greet and welcome
Dallán son of Machadán:
she comes having a branch laden with berries
concealed under her cloak.

When they met in her fair domain
she said to the grandson of Echtigern,
"Let it be declared by you, without offence thereat,
what is under my bosom, if thou canst."

Without need and without compulsion
she spoke only to test the son of Machadan;
the druid declares to the great indolent lady
what was under her bosom straightway.

---

p.63

"Thou hast, O fair-haired maiden,"
said the druid not carelessly,
("a hard feat to lean upon spikes,)
a branch of blackthorn covered with dark sloes."

"Thou shalt rue it, keen maiden,"
said the ill-boding poet:
"I in my turn will mar the colour of thy face;
this shall be thy reward for vexing me."

Then said comely Ceilbe,
"I am under thy protection, O poet!
Blemish me not for my sport
because I did not show the fruit.

 "Thou shalt have of me, to check thy black displeasure,
as sufficient satisfaction for my offence,
in compensation for my demand of you,
the sod-built liss where you got your asking."

"All my domain without detriment
 shall be thine, son of Machadán,
without my heir being mentioned in my place;
only Ceilbe shall be its name, after me."

Though she gave her domain to the seer,
the daughter of white-skinned Cearball gained
115] the unfading name of that keep:
was it not an obligation to bestow it on her? “ 

Ailill Aulom, Mac Con, and Find ua Báiscne (Author: [unknown])

“Ailill Moshaulum son of Mug Nuadat was king over one half of Ireland and was a druid.” 

The genealogy of Corca Laidhe (Author: Unknown)

---

p.67

Appendix A

LUGHAIDH MAL.

After this the youth asked her,
'O fair damsel, whence camest thou?
Tell and inform us here,
Speak to me; do not conceal it from me.'

'I say unto thee, O mild youth,
With me the arch-kings cohabit,
I am the majestic, slender damsel,
The sovereignty of Alba and Eire.

To thee I have revealed myself to-night;
That is all; but thou shalt not cohabit with me,
Thou shalt have a son, honored in him,
He is the man with whom I shall cohabit.

The name of thy son, the mode is good,
Shall be Lughaidh Mor; he shall be a royal son,
For we have been longing more for him,
He shall be a druid, a prophet, a poet.'

Skills Comparison

I've included a short summary of similar skills that were exercised by the Druids and the Filidh. In the interest of brevity, I have not included citations and references to these in the tales and literature. Anyone that requires further expansion on these can easily find them in the online reference and archive sites for Irish literature from the earlier times. The Metrical Dindshenchas contains a wealth of such references as does Geoffrey Keating's _History of Ireland_ (as can be seen in my references above). These are available online at UCC CELT (as well as its great search engine).

Pre-Christian Druids                         Post-Christian Poets

Prophecy                                                     Prophecy

Divination                                                    Divination

Dream Interpretation                             Dream Interpretation

Poetry                                                           Poetry

Chanting                                                       Chanting

Rituals                                                           Rituals
(Sacrifices and Gatherings)                  (Marriages and Gatherings)

Judging                                                          Judging

Magic                                                             Magic

(Geasa, Charms, Curses)                        (Praise, Satires, Curses)

 Histories                                                      Histories

Tales                                                               Tales

Ogham                                                           Ogham

King’s Retinue                                            King’s Retinue

 

I recommend that anyone seeking further background or information on how the Filidh carried on the roles and work of the Druids in Irish society that they read John Minahane's, _The Christian Druids_: http://www.howthfreepress.com/books/the-christian-druids-on-the-filid-or-philosopher-poets-of-ireland.html

 

Searles O'Dubhain

 

Druids and Stonehenge

Just what did the Druids have to do with the building and use of Stonehenge?

The Druids did not build Stonehenge but the people of the land where Druidism flourished most certainly did build it. The effects of the stones and the other structures from the Stone ages of the past left their mark on the Druidic lore just as they left their marks on the Celtic cultures in which the Druids flourished. Celtic culture can be placed backward in time to when Stonehenge was still in use. Whether Celts and Druids used it is a hypothesis that has not been fully developed by research or in the academic literature. What can be said is that Stonehenge marked Celtic culture in much the same way that it affects modern culture. It is food for the psyche and the mysterious.

FWIW the time of the last use and alteration of Stonehenge was placed at 1240 BCE by Wainwright and Renfrew in The Henge Monuments. This dating leaves little gap between it and Celtic culture arriving in Britain. Of course, the Druids are sometimes considered to predate Celtic culture. One of the definitions of Druidism is the Way of the Men of the Oak. Worship and veneration of the Oak as a representative of deity goes back many thousands of years. In fact, it goes back over 20,000 years in Europe. According to Stuart Piggott as quoted originally by Anne Ross in her book, Druids:

"We are in fact ignorant of what may well have been many varieties of religious experience among the European and Neolithic communities from the sixth to the third millennium BC and their contribution to later Celtic religion is a wholly unknown factor. ... By the time of the historically documented Druids the background of possible religious tradition would then be roughly as follows. Taking as a starting point the forms of Celtic religion as inferred from archaeology, epigraphy and the classical and vernacular texts there are three main antecedent phases. The first would be the traditions, predominantly Indo-European, going back to the second millennium, and perhaps to its beginnings. Behind this again would be the wholly obscure religions of the Neolithic agriculturists with, in Gaul, and especially Britain, eastern and western components mixed from the end of the fourth millennium BC. Finally, underlying all, there would be the beliefs and rites of the hunting peoples of pre-agricultural Europe which might well have contained elements surviving in shamanism. It is a pedigree which could be a good twenty thousand years in length. Druidism, when we first encounter it, is an integral part of the social structure of Celtic Gaul; it is an Indo-European institution with, whatever criticisms may be leveled against the over-elaborate schemes of Dumézil and his school, analogues in the Brahmin class of Sanskrit India or archaic priesthoods of early Rome. But there are distinctive elements which may owe their existence to those earlier sources of European religious tradition we have just sketched out."

Druidism has it roots twenty thousand years in the past of Britain and Europe and its more recent branches go back four to five thousand years ago in Europe and Britain. Druids existed among the Celts at the earliest recorded historical reports of them and they were an established priesthood at that time. The conservatism of Indo-European priesthoods is well documented and an accepted *given* when considering their origins and long term effects on their cultures. Druids and Druidism are not exceptions to this rule. Druids most probably were present and used Stonehenge in the late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. The only question is whether they were known by that name at that time. There was certainly a priesthood and there were most certainly oaks used in the henges and other sacred enclosures before during and after that
time.

I also think that a cult of the oak and a cult of the Sun existed in ancient Europe long before recorded history and is supported by archaeological findings and anthropological interpretations of the data. The name Druid is thought to be composed of two Indo-European roots which mean "Oak" and "Knowledge." Priests of Oak Knowledge seem to have existed back to the times when oaks were used to structure sacred enclosures and ritual sites.

There was little possibility of calling these priests Druids until Indo-European language and culture arrived on the scene. The earliest that could have occurred is concurrent with the building and rebuilding of the three major phases of Stonehenge however.

Stonehenge is a physical representation of the center of the universe as a site for spiritually enacting rituals that tie the people to the place and the power within it. That characteristic of it has been acknowledged by many people and cultures who've come in contact with it over the years. In fact, such monumental structures as Stonehenge certainly epitomizes are built as symbols of power, are used as ritual centers and continue their existence across cultures due to their symbolic nature. New people borrow and adapt it to their own power structures and prestige as a symbol and a center of their own power. To a lesser extent, that is what is happening to and at Stonehenge even today.

As to a differentiation of sacred and secular in cultures, societies and among people in the near, old, ancient and prehistoric past, let me recommend that you read Symbols of Power at the Time of Stonehenge by D.V., Clarke, T.G. Gowie and A. Foxon. It contains pictures and detailed discussions of the possibilities regarding this issue:

"The dominant monuments in the British landscape at the beginning of this period were the large communal burying places -- conspicuous landmarks whose size and silting suggest that they played a major role in defining social groups and maintaining their cohesion, Gradually regional groupings began to acquire greater importance, exercising control over the design and construction of large monuments -- henges, stone circles -- which were created for use by the living, involving considerable resources. Leaders of these groups acquired prestige good as symbols of their power."

This was only 5000 to 6000 years ago. Going further back into the past, one finds that social groups were more dispersed and that their ritual or social structures were less organized on a grand scale. However, this didn't prevent them from having sacred objects or locations. Many of these have survived from then to now and have been uncovered by archaeologists and explorers. Caves and cave paintings, streams, wells and springs, mountains and forests were the ritual centers in the past, formed as surely as the "things" in Norse tradition and discovered by the spiritual specialists of the people and their tribes.

One can look to the artifacts that have survived in Europe from the last Ice Age going back 30,000 to 40,000 years to see items that can be considered to be ritual item, whether portable or fixed. Some of these artifacts might be a blending of science and ritual attitudes (such as the bone plaque from the Aurignacian levels at the Blanchard rock shelter of S.W. France - Cunliff, p. 71 of Prehistoric Europe, 1997). This place is a series of holes and patterns on bone that could be interpreted as indicating the phases of the Moon. In the Mesolithic we find evidence of social change in burials, symbols and art that suggest shamanism was important to the tribal functions of the people. Into the Neolithic times these social and religious functions became even more organized as the hunter gatherer societies yield to farming which led to settlements and a greater accumulation of wealth and power in those locations. This is when the great henge monuments, passage graves and other sacred centers begin to appear as a result of this human, social; organization and greater prosperity.

The archaeological record in Europe seems to show that humans have always seen the sacred as being a part of the everyday, but it also has been accompanied by an esoteric and magical outlook that points to the sacred and the spiritual as being beyond this interaction. As societies have developed, this attitude has caused many sacred areas, sites and monuments to be constructed as focal points for ritual practice and spiritual expression. In this desire to communicate beyond the ordinary, art has been a close associate of religion and the two are often found together. This associated spans the entirety of human existence since at least the last Ice Age in the archaeological record and the human psyche.

In my study of Druids, henges and the past of the British Isles I've read a lot of books by archaeologists, astronomers, mathematicians and mystics about Stonehenge, Newgrange and other Neolithic and Bronze Age structures. Here are two such works and some of the central points and issues they attempt to make in direct quotes from the authors/books themselves:

John North, Stonehenge, a New Interpretation of Prehistoric Man and the Cosmos, The Free Press, 1996:

"It will not of course be suggested that the monument on Salisbury Plain was an astronomical observatory, at least in the current meaning of that word. The stones were not erected as a means to investigating the heavens in a detached and abstract way. The aim was not to discover the patterns of behavior of the Sun, Moon or stars but to embody those patterns, already known in broad outline, in religious architecture. There are signs that such ritualized architecture had been practiced in the Wessex neighborhood and elsewhere for over a thousand years before the first phases of the building of Stonehenge. While that monument in stone surpassed all before it, in architectural subtlety as well as in grandeur, to appreciate even this point one must know something of the earthen and timber structures that went before it and consequently about half of this book is concerned with that earlier material."

He goes on to strongly suggest that the positioning of the timber posts in these structures offers a more reliable and precise testimony as to how the Sun. Moon and stars could have been observed in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. Additionally he shows how the landscape and the heavens were coupled to these structures through human activities, tools and constructions. He suggests that the most precise alignments were on stars and that these are the alignments most often found in almost all of these structures.

Geoffrey Wainwright and Colin Renfrew in The Henge Monuments, Ceremony and Society in prehistoric Britain, pp. 164-165, Thames and Hudson, 1990:

"The building of communal monuments -- the great henges and timber buildings was a deliberate strategy by those holding power to maintain the social order and to increase their control over it, They were symbols of group identity which not only assisted in the cohesion of the group but would also have contributed to increased status and power for the individual who could manipulate the feelings of power and permanence which they must have inspired in the population. John Cherry has considered the role of such monuments in early societies and has pointed out that their construction consistently occurs at two points in the cyclical development of such groups. The first period of monument building takes place while societies are at a formative stage and assists in binding them into a coherent organization by providing a common focus for their activities and aspirations. There may then be a reduction in the intensity of public works until a second phase of monument building takes place as the fabric of that society decays. At this stage their construction can act as a way of focusing the communal will and efforts as an act of integration. Viewed in retrospect across 5,000 years of human settlement in these islands, public monuments coincide with periods of change. In Wessex, the henge monuments and timber buildings involved far greater investment of manpower than earlier monuments and they belong to a formative stage when a phase of economic expansion was taking place."

Wainwright and Renfrew go on to say:

"Questions about the use of the great enclosures has, up to now, polarized between views as to whether they were symbols of group identity manipulated by powerful individuals to enhance their own status, or whether they were the centres of learned orders, skilled in advanced astronomical and geometrical knowledge. The protagonist of the latter theory has been Euan MacKie who claimed the existence of a central authority with magical expertise and saw the timber buildings as the residences of this elite group. This theory was largely based on the work of Alexander Thom who espoused the view that some very advanced astronomical and geometrical knowledge had accumulated in Brittany and Britain well before 1800 BC. From this, McKie went on to postulate a learned and skilled professional order of wise men whose members were able to pursue their studies full-time while supported by the population, and could command the labour required to erect hundreds of henge monuments, stone circles and standing stones, some of which were their 'observatories'."

The two go on to suggest that recent work has cast doubt on some of Thom's theories and that the theory viewing these structures as centers of power and prestige for the ruling individuals is more in favor. Of course, the work of North above argues just the opposite viewpoint that these were ritual centers organized for use in spiritual matters as well as astronomical observation and acknowledgement. If one follows the lead of North and MacKie, then the profile of Druids as wise men, with knowledge of the stars and a high positioning within their society matches well with their theories and the factors that brought the henges into being in the first place. I wouldn't be surprised that Druids used such structures for star and ritual work. I'd be surprised if they didn't given what we know and what was reported about them in these two areas. The theory presented also would seem to strongly suggest that Druids (or priesthoods like them) actually did construct Stonehenge, Woodhenge and a vast number of other Neolithic and Bronze Age sacred enclosures.

I'd also like to suggest that one take a look at the work of Alexander Thom and later Clive Ruggles regarding Neolithic structures and astronomical uses:

Clive Ruggles, Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland, p. 159, Yale University Press, 1999.

"And there is certainly evidence (albeit almost entirely indirect) that the Druids, the principle mediators between the natural and the supernatural world of Celtic times, had considerable practical knowledge of astronomy and calendrics. Last of all, hitherto unsuspected patterns of continuity of material tradition from earlier times through to the Iron Age, as have been suggested recently in the case of timber circles, imply that one should not retain an entirely closed mind about the continuity from even older sacred or calendrical traditions."

Ruggles offers up an example of astronomical alignments in Ireland which have also been tied to Celtic sacred rituals and times through archaeological excavations. This connection takes that particular Celtic practice back to an earlier time of 2000 BC and continuing for 2000 years or more. His cites in support of the above quote and the point of my discussion are:

Cunliffe, Barry W. and Colin Renfrew, eds (1997), Science and Stonehenge (Proceedings of the British Academy, 92). Oxford University Publishing.

Piggott, Stuart, (1968) The Druids, London, Thames and Hudson.

Gibson, Alex (1995), 'The dating of timber circles: new thoughts in the light of recent Irish and British discoveries,' In John Waddell and Elizabeth Shee Twohig (eds.), Ireland in the Bronze age, Stationary Office, Dublin, 87-89.

Ruggles says something similar to what noted Celtic scholar John Carey has to say about continuity of traditions from the Neolithic through the Iron Age in Celtic and Druidic traditions, practices and ritual sites:

Carey, John, (Time, Memory, and the Boyne Necropolis, Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, 10/11, 1990 and 1991, edited by Harvard Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures Edited by William J. Mahon
Edited by Phillip Freeman

In his article, Carey emphasizes the point that the Celtic people had a continuity of traditions from the Neolithic through the Iron age. He discusses an Early Modern Irish retelling of the story about how 'Angus Won the Brugh.' This is contained in the tale, "Altram Tighe Dá Mheadar" (The Fosterage of the House of the Two Vessels) to illustrate that the sacred nature of Newgrange was recognized by the people who encountered it, lived near it and were influenced by it. Other such locations of continuity of tradition are Stonehenge, Crough Patrick and countless sites in Ireland, Scotland, Britain and the Continent. In Britain, the tales of Arthur and Merlin seem to echo this kind of continuity.

As John Carey says in his article on Newgrange:

"In the case of Newgrange, we must therefore suppose not only that there was some cultural link between its builders and the first speakers of Goidelic in Ireland, but that this link exercised a formative influence on the belief system of the latter. Again, the survival of some version of these ancient doctrines in the medieval literature indicates that the world-view of the Irish remained, at least in certain respects, astonishingly stable throughout the intervening centuries: the Boyne legends were still relevant, and important, in the Christian period."

In his statements and conclusions, Carey is referring to the use of Newgrange as a cosmological and astronomical timepiece and observatory, confirmed through archaeology and astronomy as well as preserved and conserved in the Irish legends associated with it. I believe that there probably is a similar situation occurring in the case of Stonehenge as its presence translates the original intention of its builders through layers of Celtic and Druidic traditions onward to the psyches and impressions of modern times.

A tale for you of a wonder hill, the Red One's home and the Young Son's arrival:

" 'Do you know, Oengus,' said Manannán, 'that this house is not suitable for Elcmar, and that he is not worthy of the stronghold, and that the Bruig, will not always be his? When we are seated in the drinking-hall, arise before Elcmar and command him to depart, for that will be a good omen and good luck for you, and destruction and misfortune for him. And the means of his expulsion will be the charm (sén) through which the angels came from the King of heaven and the Lord of the universe, the charm through which we took the sovereignty of Ireland from the Fir Bolg, the charm through which the sons of Míl in turn took the lordship of Ireland from us. Command him not to come (again) to the house from which he departs until "ogam" and "achu" are mingled together, until heaven and earth are mingled together, and until sun and moon are mingled together (nogu cumusgti ogham 7 achu re chéile, 7 nocu cumusgi neam 7 talamh ara céile, 7 nogu cumusgi grian 7 ésga ara chéile).' "

It's small wonder that the legends of Stonehenge have Merlin magically transporting them from Ireland to the Salisbury Plain over night through Druidical incantations.
--
Searles O'Dubhain
The Summerlands
http://www.summerlands.com

The Aicme of Events

The Aicme of Events – Written on My Mother’s Birhday

I was prompted to write this today by a posting that was made elsewhere. I offer it here as an echo of thoughts, words and deeds that have occurred all around us and within each of our hearts, minds and spirits. It is a jouney into cosmology through doorways of Ogham that reveal the principles and qualities of being.

Fear and love exist in the forest of all existence along with the other Ogham that compose the songs of being. Love follows wonder on the wheel while fear surrenders to its own death, yet becomes the spark of will in the next life. Rather than nothing or one thing, even two things, all of life is the many choices we've made, that are made and will be made by us, for us and in response to the actions of others.

Love banishes fear in the land of spirit, while resolve clears away confusion in the realm of the mind. It is in the world of form where objects do battle and structures are built to bring order to conflict. These three states of being each are a part of us to the point that we cannot expect one to rule completely over the others. We are the union of many qualities and possibilities. We are spirits inhabiting bodies through consciousness and choice.

Noble and fell deeds describe the results of the choices that are made. Parents have children and children grow to become parents. Some people have a choice in the matter while others are excluded. Some are heroes in these stories while others are villains. We who remain chant the stories that surround their decisions and actions. Every Ogham is a doorway while in groups they are described as plains and directions. In some forms they are a downward spiral that leads to the depths, forming the wellspring that flows upward to the surface again.

Others are spirals weaving around us, above us and beneath us, to stitch the fabric in which we are clothed in our many lives. In those lives, circles ripple outward and return to the center establishing the patterns we discern through interference and support. The boundaries of our centers shape the cauldrons. It is the well and the fire that is also the tree that builds the altar of existence. Let's use each and every fidh of the fedha to tell our tales and to score our songs as we chant the truth of creation. It is a ladder and a stream, a wheel and a window.

Not all of it is pretty and happy, nor is it only sadness and horror. It is everything and more. It is not just the moment or the eternity. It is not the gaps nor is it the pinnacles. It is beyond those horizons; wild horses running across the fields of the Sun; cattle moving like stars across the black void that are illuminated like the Moon. Being are made of earth, flowers, waters and trees even as they become animals and people chasing from one life to another. Let us revel in the wonders and the shape of wonder that deity brings to mortal and humans sings to the gods.

These are our songs and our stories. They are our dreams and our despair. They are the loves and the fears that move us. They are the truths and the falsehoods that define us. We are the memories of our memories and the minds of our minds, even as we are also the spirits of the river that is itself a spirit, a mind and even a great body of oceans. There are lands and skies within each island that comes over the horizon, in every door that opens and all instances wherein the spark brings a fire or a cauldron nourishes knowledge. It is all breath across the edge of a knife or the hand that carves the mountains.

It is the Aicme of Events.

Contemplation on the Three Cauldrons

In my contemplation on the matter of the Three Cauldrons I have developed a relationship between them and the dúile of the self and the elements of being (since both sets of concepts seem to address relationships between qualities within ourselves and in the universe). As a guide in this development, I followed the lead of the ancient Vedic seers in seeing the actions and interactions of the Three Cauldrons upon one another. In the development of the three gunas (sattva, rajas and tamas, the qualities of life), the Vedic Seers discovered and expressed these relationships[i]  in the following manner:

The Three Gunas

Sattva (The Concentrating Tendency) Consciousness, Light, Interlinking and Cohesion

Rajas (The Revolving Tendency) Experience, Periodic Motion, Rhythmic Activity, Creative Thought

Tamas (The Dispersing Tendency) Existence, Disintegration, Darkness, Dissolution

The Stages of Existence[ii]

Consciousness of Consciousness	the Self or Atman
Existence of Consciousness	Divinity or Isvara
Experience of Consciousness	Human Nature or Jiva
Consciousness of Experience	the inner faculties or Antahkarana
Existence of Experience	life energies or Prána
Experience of Experience	the feelings and emotions or Rasa
Consciousness of Existence	the senses or Indriya
Existence of Existence	principals of the elements or Mahábhuta
Experience of Existence	the inanimate world

 The Three Cauldrons (from the Cauldron of Poesy materials attributed to Amergin) almost directly correspond to the Three Gunas from Ayurvedic teachings. The Stages of Existence seem to describe the same things as the Dúile in Druidic cosmology. I’m not surprised that such commonalities exist between the Vedic traditions and the Celtic practices, since both were very conservative, orally preserved traditions with a class/cast responsible for their integrity and preservation. Both groupings were derived from a common Indo-European traditional/cultural source and the vision seers, poets and holy teachers interpreted each.

The Stages of Existence of Vedic tradition and the Dúile from Celtic tradition could be considered to be related in the following ways:

Self -Soul (Head)

Divinity - Brain

Human Nature - Face

Inner Faculties - Intuition (Mind)

Life Energies - Breath

Feelings and Emotions - Blood

Senses - Skin (Nature)

Elements - Flesh

Inanimate - Bones

 The Three Gunas also seem to have correspondences to the Cauldrons of Poesy and their characteristics as:

Sattva (Consciousness) - Soís (Wisdom),

Rajas (Motion and Experience) - Érma (Motion and Vocation),

Tamas (Existence) - Goriath (Formation and Incubation)

I considered the effects that the Three Cauldrons have on one another, as well as their actions and interactions. The similarities that exist between them and the Gunas suggested the following tables of correspondences for the cauldrons and the dúile, as well as their states of being:

The Three Cauldrons

Coire Soís (Cauldron of Wisdom) Consciousness - Future Creation, Knowledge, Inspiration

Coire Érma (Cauldron of Vocation) Experience - Present Motion, Observation, Training

Coire Goríath  (Cauldron of Formation) Existence - Past Incubation, Formation, Tradition

The Nine Dúile

Consciousness of Consciousness Existence of Consciousness Experience of Consciousness	Head, Self, Sky  Brain, Spirit, Stars  Face, Image, Sun
Consciousness of Experience Existence of Experience Experience of Experience	Mind, Intuition, Moon  Breath, Creativity, Wind  Blood, Actions, Sea
Consciousness of Existence Experience of Existence Existence of Existence	Skin, Interaction, Nature  Flesh, Form, Earth  Bone, Structure, Stone

The following table details these relationships of the Cauldrons with the properties of the Three Gunas:[iii]

Properties of the Three Gunas

Quality	Soís - Sattva	Érma - Rajas	Goríath - Tamas
Cauldron	Wisdom	Vocation	Incubation
Color	White - purity, harmony	Red - action, passion	Black - darkness
Time	Day - clarity	Sunrise, Sunset - transition	Night - darkness
Energy	Neutral Balanced	Positive Sets things in motion	Negative Retards motion
World	Sky - Heaven or Space home of the gods region of peace	Sea - Atmosphere realm of the Fomorii region of storms	Land - Earth lands of the people realm of inertia
Cosmic Levels	Spiritual - Causal Or Ideal	Mental - Subtle Astral	Physical - Gross or Physical
Beings	Deities and Sages	Humans	Ancestors Minerals, Plants, Animals
States	Waking	Dreaming	Deep Sleep

The relationship between Tamas and Goríath appears to be inverted in some respects, since formation implies action. I think we should view this formation as more of a continuation of existence through family, tribe, and social structure.  Each of these forms tends to retard change and promotes that which already exists. Some of the differences between the two systems become similarities when the cauldron’s other meaning of “incubation” is considered. Incubation occurs within darkness. It is a continuity of formation produced by that which already is. Inertia or resistance to change is only another way of describing the effects of cultural traditions and standards on a society. Among the Druids, knowledge was learned through repetition, association, and incubation within the darkness of the student’s bed or room. Each day’s lessons of newly acquired knowledge were learned and saved as memories that were linked with existing knowledge in a Memory Grove of the mind. Among the Filidh, this darkened cell of learning was known as the “Bed of the Poets.”

 

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[i] Alain Daniélou ,The Myths and Gods of India, pp. 22-25.

[ii] Ibid, p.27.

[iii] Dr. David Frawley, Ayurveda and the Mind, the Healing of Consciousness.