Boarg of The Lake (An Unreliable Account of a Druid and a Witch in Ancient Ireland)

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In Tribal territories, the ground and waters which received the dead were imbued with sanctity, sanctuaries were sacred spaces separated from the ordinary world, often in natural locations such as springs, sacred groves or lakes. Many topographical features were honored as the abodes of spirits or deities. Offerings of jewelry, weapons or foodstuffs were placed in offering pits and these offerings linked the donor to the place and spirits in a concrete way.

The spirits of places were honoured as givers of life. There is abundant evidence for the veneration of water by the Celts, in the Pre-Roman Iron Age, lakes, rivers, springs and bogs received special offerings of metalwork, wooden objects, animals and, occasionally, of human beings. By the Roman period, the names of some water-deities were recorded on inscriptions or were included in contemporary texts.

Meteorological patterns and phenomena, especially wind, rain and thunder, were acknowledged as inspirited and propitiated, inscribed dedications and iconography in the Roman period show that these spirits were personifications of natural forces. Irish mythology — The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity. However, much of it was preserved in medieval Irish literature and this literature represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branches of Celtic mythology.

There are also a number of extant mythological texts that do not fit any of the cycles. Additionally, there are a number of recorded folk tales that, while not strictly mythological. Despite the dates of these sources, most of the material they contain predates their composition, the earliest of the prose can be dated on linguistic grounds to the 8th century, and some of the verse may be as old as the 6th century.

The other three are in the Royal Academy, when using these sources, it is, as always, important to question the impact of the circumstances in which they were produced. There was also a tendency to rework Irish genealogies to fit into the known schema of Greek or Biblical genealogy and it was once unquestioned that medieval Irish literature preserved truly ancient traditions in a form virtually unchanged through centuries of oral tradition back to the ancient Celts of Europe. A consensus has emerged which encourages the critical reading of the material, the Mythological Cycle, comprising stories of the former gods and origins of the Irish, is the least well preserved of the four cycles.

The Metrical Dindshenchas is the great work of early Ireland. Scottish mythology — It was the belief that Beira, the Queen of Winter, had a firm hold on the country by raising storms during January and February thus preventing greenery to emerge. She was considered a tough and brutal old woman who stirred the deadly spiraling action of Corryvreckan, ushering snow, even the creation of lochs and mountains were attributed to her.

Scottish mythology is not like the Greek and Roman myths as it deals with aspects of nature. In this context the most powerful and feared goddess representing winter is Beira who rules winter for its entire duration, immediately, the following season she readily concedes to Dual Lord and Lady who then enjoy equal power during the ensuing season. This myth is akin to the myth of the Mayans and deals with female power in the creation.

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However, Donald Mackenzie in his book Scottish Wonder Tales from Myth and Legend states that the goddesses of the Scottish myths are not glorified, Scottish mythology is dominated by goddesses, and according to Donald Mackenzie they are greater and stronger than the gods. The Celtic goddesses were authoritative and were associated with female fertility as related to female divinity, in olden times the Celtics land and national societies were both linked with the body of the goddess and her representative on earth was the queen.

Another ambivalent character in Scottish myths was the hag, the Goddess, the Gaelic Cailleach, and the Giantess, the hag is also considered a healer and helpful during childbirth and is divine and said to have long ancestry and incredible longevity. She is also known as at once creator and destroyer, gentle and fierce, several origin legends for the Scots arose during the historical period, serving various purposes.

One Scottish origin legend, or pseudo-historical account of the foundation of the Scottish people, as they roamed through Ireland, from Clonmacnoise, Armagh and Kildare to Cork, and finally, to Bangor, they were continually engaged at war with the Pictanei. In the eighteenth century the Picts were co-opted as a Germanic race, in the Celtic domains of Scotland, also known as Gaelteached, there were ancient pre-Christian structures.

Other important Ulster Cycle tales include The Tragic Death of Aifes only Son, Fled Bricrenn Bricrius Feast and this cycle is, in some respects, close to the mythological cycle of the rest of the Gaelic speaking world. Some characters from the latter reappear, and the sort of shape-shifting magic is much in evidence, side by side with a grim.

Scottish Gaelic adaptations of Ulster Cycle tales appear in the Glenmasan manuscript, the stories of Finn mac Cumhaill and his band of soldiers the Fianna, appear to be set around the 3rd century in Gaelic Ireland and Scotland. Fomorians — The Fomorians are a supernatural race in Irish mythology. They are often portrayed as hostile and monstrous beings who come from the sea or underground, later, they were portrayed as giants and sea raiders.

The etymology of the name is debated, the first part is now generally agreed to be the Old Irish fo, meaning under, below, lower, beneath, nether, etc. The meaning of the part is unclear. One suggestion is that it comes from the Old Irish mur, and this was the interpretation offered by some medieval Irish writers. Building on this, Marie-Louise Sjoestedt interprets the name as meaning inferior or latent demons, saying the Fomorians are like the powers of chaos, ever latent, donald Schlegel suggested that the Fomorians were Carthaginians who established a trading post on Irelands west coast.

He suggests the name Fomoraige comes from the name of the Carthaginian god Pumay combined with the Old Irish suffix -raige, the Genealogies from Rawlinson B lists the full genealogy of the Fomorians going right back to the Biblical Noah, who was 10th from Adam and Eve. Rawlinson B, Section 26, page , says, Bres himself carries the epithet the Beautiful. Geoffrey Keating in his History of Ireland appearing in the s claimed that the Fomorians had been a people descended from Noahs other son. Then came Nemed and his followers, Ireland is said to have been empty for thirty years following the death of Partholons people, but Nemed and his followers encountered the Fomorians when they arrived.

Hebridean mythology and folklore — The Inner and Outer Hebrides off the western coast of Scotland are made up of a great number of large and small islands. These isolated and mostly uninhabited islands are the source of a number of Hebridean myths, kelpies were said to occupy several lochs, including one at Leurbost.

The Blue men of the Minch, who occupy the stretch of water between Lewis and mainland Scotland, looking for sailors to drown and stricken boats to sink, seonaidh - a water-spirit who had to be offered ale. It has been claimed there is a mermaids grave in Benbecula. The mermaid was killed in the nineteenth century after having been seen for a couple of days, before a teenage boy threw a rock at it.

Accounts stated that the part of the creature was the size of an infant. Searrach Uisge - a monster who was said to occupy Loch Suainbhal, resembling a capsized boat, this creature has been reported swimming around for one and a half centuries. Locals say lambs were once offered annually to the creature, other such creatures have been reported in several other lochs, including Loch Urubhal. At Loch Duvat in Eriskay, while out looking for a horse that escaped his farm in the mist, as he approached, he realised he was looking at a strange creature which gave an unearthly yell, sending the farmer running home.

Various sea monsters have been reported off the shores of Lewis over the years, the ship,15 kilometres off the coast, reported a sea serpent around 40 metres in length, with several bumps protruding from the water, along its back. Sea serpents have also reported at the southern side of the island. A family of werewolves were said to occupy an island on Loch Langavat, although long deceased, they promised to rise if their graves were disturbed. Wills-o-the-wisp have been reported in the area of Sandwick, the lights that float around the area normally announce approaching death for a local.

Some say the light belongs to an Irish merchant who was robbed and murdered on the island, at Luskentyre in Harris, a hound has been known to leave oversized paw prints on the damp sand which vanish suddenly half way across the beach. It is alleged that this is a fairy hound, then in South Uist, a woman walking with two friends in the pitch dark watched as a self-illuminating dog, the size of a collie but with a small head and no eyes, ran towards her.

One of the heirlooms of the chiefs of Clan Macleod is the Fairy Flag, numerous traditions state that the flag originated as a gift from the fairies. Mythological Cycle — It is one of the four major cycles of early Irish literary tradition, the others being the Ulster Cycle, the Fenian Cycle and the Cycles of the Kings. The term Mythological Cycle seems to have gained currency with Arbois de Jubainville, —, usage predating this applies the term generically, e. In the opinion of Mackillop, use of the term is somewhat awkward today, the characters appearing in the cycle are essentially gods from the pre-Christian pagan past in Ireland.

The disguises are thinly veiled nonetheless, and these writings contain discernible vestiges of early Irish polytheistic cosmology, examples of works from the cycle include numerous prose tales, verse texts, as well as pseudo-historical chronicles found in medieval vellum manuscripts or later copies. Some of the romances are of later composition and found only in manuscripts dating to near-modern times. The god-folk of the invasions are euhemerised, i. Collected lore literature, while they do not belong to the cycle in entirety, in the list that follows, citations are generally only given if the wiki page for that work is not developed.

Otherwise, citations are deferred to the article in question. Besides independent verses, a number of poems are embedded in prose tales, a number of them are also preserved in the pseudohistorical LGE, Keating, etc. Irish onomastica, the Dindshenchas, also include stories about such as Boann. After the Battle of Knock, Cumhal is killed by the Morna, cumhals wife, Muirne, runs away and has a son, Demna, who is cared for by two warrior women, Liath and the druidess Bodhmall.

Muirne marries the king of Kerry, Demna got the name Fionn because of his fair hair, and as soon as he came of age he set off for revenge. He kills Liath Luachra, and retrieves the bag, which he then gives to the survivors of the Battle of Knock. While studying with the poet Finn Eces, Fionn accidentally eats the Salmon of Knowledge, after he was admitted, Fionn became the leader of Clan Bascna.

As a reward, Fionn was made the leader of the Fianna, replacing Goll, the spell had been broken by the Dun of Allen, Fionns base, where, as long as she remained within she was protected by the spell. Some while later, Fionn went out to repulse some invaders, fer Doirich impersonated Fionn, tempting Sadbh out of the Dun, whereupon she immediately became a fawn again. One of the most famous stories of the cycle, the lovers are aided by Diarmuids foster-father, the god Aengus. Eventually Fionn makes his peace with the couple, years later, however, Fionn invites Diarmuid on a boar hunt, and Diarmuid is badly gored by their quarry.

Water drunk from Fionns hands has the power of healing, and his grandson Oscar threatens him if does not bring water for Diarmuid, but when Fionn finally returns it is too late, Diarmuid has died. Between the birth of Oisin and the Battle of Gabhra is the rest of the cycle, Goll sides with the king against Clan Bascna at the battle. Welsh mythology — Welsh mythology consists of both folk traditions developed in Wales, and traditions developed by the Celtic Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium.

Like most predominately oral societies found in the prehistoric Britain, Welsh mythology and this oral record has been lost or altered as result of outside contact and invasion over the years. The only character to appear in every branch is Pryderi fab Pwyll, the king of Dyfed, who is born in the first Branch, is killed in the fourth, and is probably a reflex of the Celtic god Maponos.

The only other recurring characters are Pryderis mother Rhiannon, associated with the peaceful British prince Manawydan and he manages to win her hand at the expense of Gwawl, to whom she is betrothed, and she bears him a son, but the child disappears soon after his birth. Rhiannon is accused of killing him and forced to carry guests on her back as punishment.

The child has been taken by a monster, and is rescued by Teyrnon and his wife and they return him to his real parents, Rhiannon is released from her punishment, and the boy is renamed Pryderi. The Irish offer to make peace, and build a big enough to entertain Bran, but inside they hang a hundred bags, telling Efnysien they contain flour. Efnysien kills the warriors by squeezing the bags, later, at the feast, Efnysien throws Gwern on the fire and fighting breaks out.

Seeing that the Irish are using the cauldron to revive their dead, Efnysien hides among the corpses and destroys the cauldron, only seven men, all Britons, survive the battle, including Pryderi, Manawyddan and Bran, who is mortally wounded by a poisoned spear. However, a mist descends on the land, leaving it empty, eventually they return to Dyfed and become hunters again.

While hunting, a white boar leads them to a mysterious castle, Pryderi, against Manawydans advice, goes inside, but does not return. Rhiannon goes to investigate and finds him clinging to a bowl, the same fate befalls her, and the castle disappears. Manawydan and Cigfa return to England as shoemakers, but once again the locals drive them out and they sow three fields of wheat, but the first field is destroyed before it can be harvested.

The next night the field is destroyed. Breton mythology — Breton mythology is the mythology or corpus of explanatory and heroic tales originating in Brittany. The Bretons are the descendants of insular Britons who settled in Brittany from at least the third century, while the Britons were already Christianised in this era, the migrant population maintained an ancient Celtic mythos, similar to those of Wales and Cornwall.

Breton mythology has many gods and mythical creatures specifically associated with nature cults, in this tradition of gods and creatures rooted in nature, there exist traces of certain Breton Catholic saints. This mythological background was accepted by Romans who were soon Christianized, resulting in the loss of grand epics. Cornish mythology — Cornish mythology is the folk tradition and mythology of the Cornish people. Some of this contains remnants of the mythology of pre-Christian Britain, the fairy tale Jack the Giant Killer takes place in Cornwall.

Cornwall shares its ancient cultural heritage with its Brythonic cousins Brittany and Wales, as well as Ireland, part of Cornish mythology is derived from tales of seafaring pirates and smugglers who thrived in and around Cornwall from the early modern period through to the 19th century. Cornish pirates exploited both their knowledge of the Cornish coast as well as its sheltered creeks and hidden anchorages, for many fishing villages, loot and contraband provided by pirates supported a strong and secretive underground economy in Cornwall.

Legendary creatures that appear in Cornish folklore include buccas, knockers, Giants, the knocker or bucca is the Welsh and Cornish equivalent of Irish leprechauns and English and Scottish brownies. About two feet tall and grizzled, but not misshapen, they live beneath the ground, Old Michaelmas Day falls on 11 October. According to an old legend, blackberries should not be picked after this date and this is because, so British folklore goes, Satan was banished from Heaven on this day, fell into a blackberry bush and cursed the brambles as he fell into them.

When he see a sign for Roach, turnaround, nellie Sloggett of Padstow devoted much of her attention to Cornish folklore and legend. She collected and recorded stories about the Piskey folk, fairies of Cornish myth. She published most of her works in this category under her better-known pen-name of Enys Tregarthen, another legend relating to the pool concerns Jan Tregeagle.

The Beast of Bodmin has been reported many times but never identified with certainty, Doom Bar According to legend, the Mermaid of Padstow created the Doom Bar as a dying curse, after being shot by a sailor. However, there are different versions of the story and the precise details are unclear. She then met a man, and one fell in love with the other, One version explains that she was love sick, and tried to lure him beneath the waves, however he escaped by shooting her.

Another version suggested the man, Tristram Bird, fell in love with her and asked her to marry him, another suggestion is that a fisherman, Tom Yeo, shot her because he thought she was a seal. The ending of the legend is generally similar, with her dying breath, she levelled a curse at Padstow, or at the harbour itself, stating that the harbour will be desolate or unsafe. With that, a storm came, wrecking many boats. Within the bounds of Gulval parish lies the disused Ding Dong mine, popular local legend claims that Joseph of Arimathea, a tin trader, visited the mine and brought a young Jesus to address the miners, although there is no evidence to support this.

The Iron Age is not a horizon of common artefacts. The British Iron Age lasted in theory from the first significant use of iron for tools, the Romanised culture is termed Roman Britain and is considered to supplant the British Iron Age. The Irish Iron Age was ended by the rise of Christianity, at a minimum, Celtic is a linguistic term without an implication of a lasting cultural unity connecting Gaul with the British Isles throughout the Iron Age. However it cannot be assumed that particular cultural features found in one Celtic-speaking culture can be extrapolated to the others. At present over large-scale excavations of Iron Age sites have taken place, dating from the 8th century BC to the 1st century AD, hundreds of radiocarbon dates have been acquired and have been calibrated on four different curves, the most precise being based on tree ring sequences.

Pliny and Strabo are a bit older, but Ptolemy gives the most detail, during the later Bronze Age there are indications of new ideas influencing land use and settlement. Extensive field systems, now called Celtic fields, were being set out and settlements were becoming more permanent, long ditches, some many miles in length, were dug with enclosures placed at their ends. These are thought to indicate territorial borders and a desire to control over wide areas.

By the 8th century BC, there is increasing evidence of Great Britain becoming closely tied to continental Europe, especially in Britains South and East. New weapon types appeared with clear parallels to those on the continent such as the Carps tongue sword, phoenician traders probably began visiting Great Britain in search of minerals around this time, bringing with them goods from the Mediterranean. At the same time, Northern European artefact types reached Eastern Great Britain in large quantities from across the North Sea, defensive structures dating from this time are often impressive, for example the brochs of Northern Scotland and the hill forts that dotted the rest of the islands.

The earliest were of a simple form, and often connected with earlier enclosures attached to the long ditch systems. Few hill forts have been excavated in the modern era, Danebury being a notable exception. However, it appears that forts were also used for domestic purposes, with examples of food storage, industry. Many hill forts are not in fact forts at all, the development of hill forts may have occurred due to greater tensions that arose between the better structured and more populous social groups.

Mabinogion — The Mabinogion are the earliest prose literature of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th—13th centuries from oral traditions. The two main source manuscripts were created c, —, as well as some earlier fragments. The title covers a collection of prose stories of widely different types. The highly sophisticated complexity of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi defy categorisation, the list is so diverse a leading scholar has challenged them as a true collection at all. Early scholars from the 18th century to the s predominantly viewed the tales as fragmentary pre-Christian Celtic mythology and they are now seen as a sophisticated narrative tradition, both oral and written, with ancestral construction from oral storytelling, and overlay from Anglo-French influences.

The first modern publications were English translations of several tales by William Owen Pughe in journals ,,, however it was Lady Charlotte Guest —45 who first published the full collection, and bilingually in both Welsh and English. She is often assumed to be responsible for the name Mabinogion, indeed, as early as the lexicographer John Davies quotes a sentence from Math fab Mathonwy with the notation Mabin.

The later Guest translation of in one volume, has been widely influential, the most recent translation is a compact version by Sioned Davies. John Bollard has published a series of volumes between with his own translation, with photography of the sites in the stories. The tales continue to inspire new fiction, dramatic retellings, visual artwork, the name first appears in in William Owen Pughes translation in the journal Cambrian Register, The Mabinogion, or Juvenile Amusements, being Ancient Welsh Romances.

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The name appears to have been current among Welsh scholars of the London-Welsh Societies and it was inherited as the title by the first publisher of the complete collection, Lady Charlotte Guest. The form mabynnogyon occurs once at the end of the first of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi in one manuscript and it is now generally agreed that this one instance was a mediaeval scribal error which assumed mabinogion was the plural of mabinogi.

But mabinogi is already a Welsh plural, which occurs correctly at the end of the three branches. The word mabinogi itself is something of a puzzle, although derived from the Welsh mab. Hamp of the school traditions in mythology, found a suggestive connection with Maponos the Divine Son. Mabinogi properly applies only to the Four Branches, which is a tightly organised quartet very likely by one author, each of these four tales ends with the colophon thus ends this branch of the Mabinogi, hence the name. Geis — In Irish, a geas is an idiosyncratic taboo, whether of obligation or prohibition, similar to being under a vow.

The plural is used to mean specifically a spell prohibiting some action, common in Irish folklore. It is this meaning of the plural which the article discusses. The equivalent Scottish Gaelic word, also used in English, is geas, a geasa can be compared with a curse or, paradoxically, a gift. If someone under a geasa violates the associated taboo, the infractor will suffer dishonor or even death, on the other hand, the observing of ones geasa is believed to bring power. Often it is women who place geasa upon men, in some cases the woman turns out to be a goddess or other sovereignty figure.

When a hag offers him dog meat, he has no way to emerge from the situation unscathed, there is a considerable similarity between the Goidelic geasa and the Brythonic tynged. This is not surprising given the origins of many of the variants of Celtic mythology. Prohibitions and taboos similar to geasa are also found in more recent English literature, for example, in William Shakespeares play Macbeth, the title character believes he is safe because no man of woman born shall harm Macbeth. However, his nemesis Macduff was from his mothers womb untimely rippd, Irish mythology in popular culture, Geis Tynged.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Druid disambiguation. Celts and human sacrifice , Threefold death , and Ritual of oak and mistletoe. A pair of 1st-century BC? It is speculated that they were used for divination. Eleven such pairs are known. Miranda Green believes a liquid was put in the spoon with a hole, and allowed to drip into the other below, and the drip pattern interpreted. Christianization of Ireland , Christianization of Wales , and Taliesin. Celtic revival and Neo-Druidism. Montfaucon claims that he is reproducing a bas-relief found at Autun , Burgundy.

Archived from the original on Fourth Edition, Indo-European Roots: Treasures of the National Museum of Ireland: Hambledon Continuum, pp. Mackenzie, Buddhism in pre-Christian Britain Retrieved December 24, Retrieved 11 February Retrieved July 22, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Rolleston, Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race , , pp. The Religion of the Ancient Celts.

A History of English Poetry , by W. Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx. Thales, translated by C. Bettina Arnold and D. Cambridge University Press; endorsed by Maier, Bernhard Jane Webster, in "At the End of the World: Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. Kendrick , The Druids: A Study in Keltic Prehistory London: Bibliography—other sources Aldhouse-Green, Miranda Exploring the World of the Druids. University of Wales Press. Iron Age Communities in Britain: London and New York: Their Nature and Legacy. The History of the Druids in Britain. The Druids and their Heritage. Bullaun Imbas Wicker man Druid ritual of oak and mistletoe.

Calendar Law Warfare Gaelic warfare Coinage. Celts portal Category WikiProject. Retrieved from " https: Druidry Esoteric schools of thought Religion in classical antiquity. Articles containing Welsh-language text Articles containing Old Irish-language text Articles containing Scottish Gaelic-language text Articles containing Ancient Greek-language text All articles with failed verification Articles with failed verification from February All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from July Articles with unsourced statements from February Articles with unsourced statements from December Montfaucon laid the foundation for the study of Greek manuscripts, scrivener stated, that his work still maintains a high authority, even after more recent discoveries, especially of papyri in Egypt 2.

Whatever its ultimate origins, the material has been put to good use in the service of literary masterpieces that address the cultural concerns of Wales in the early 3. It is sometimes possible to identify regional, tribal, or sub-tribal divinities, specific to the Remi of northwest Gaul is a distinctive group of stone carvings depicting a triple-faced god with shared facial features and luxuriant beards 6. Meteorological patterns and phenomena, especially wind, rain and thunder, were acknowledged as inspirited and propitiated, inscribed dedications and iconography in the Roman period show that these spirits were personifications of natural forces 7.

Scottish Gaelic adaptations of Ulster Cycle tales appear in the Glenmasan manuscript, the stories of Finn mac Cumhaill and his band of soldiers the Fianna, appear to be set around the 3rd century in Gaelic Ireland and Scotland 9. Then came Nemed and his followers, Ireland is said to have been empty for thirty years following the death of Partholons people, but Nemed and his followers encountered the Fomorians when they arrived The next night the field is destroyed This mythological background was accepted by Romans who were soon Christianized, resulting in the loss of grand epics Within the bounds of Gulval parish lies the disused Ding Dong mine, popular local legend claims that Joseph of Arimathea, a tin trader, visited the mine and brought a young Jesus to address the miners, although there is no evidence to support this Many hill forts are not in fact forts at all, the development of hill forts may have occurred due to greater tensions that arose between the better structured and more populous social groups Celtic mythology [videos] Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, the religion of the Iron Age Celts.

The Celtic god Sucellus. Votive Celtic wheels thought to correspond to the cult of Taranis. National Archaeological Museum, France. Cuchulainn carries Ferdiad across the river. Lugh's Magic Spear; illustration by H. Three Celtic goddesses, as depicted at Coventina's well. Image of a "horned" actually antlered figure on the Gundestrup cauldron , interpreted by many archaeologists as being cognate to the god Cernunnos.

A reconstructed Celtic burial mound near Eberdingen , Germany. Such burials were reserved for the influential and wealthy in Celtic society. An 18th century illustration of a wicker man , a form of human sacrifice that Caesar alleged the Druids, or Celtic priesthood, performed, though no archaeological evidence has been uncovered to support this.

One of many locations named for the Cailleach. Loch Ness, the lake in Scotland in which the monster was reported to have been sighted. Efnysien's self-sacrifice image by T. Cornish mythology is the folk tradition and mythology of the Cornish people. The Merry Maidens at St Buryan. Celebrating St Piran's Day in Penzance. The lantern Parade on Tom Bawcock's Eve. Loge feigns fear as Alberich turns into a giant snake. Samonios on the Coligny calendar. The hero Fionn fighting Aillen , who is said to have burned Tara each Samhain. Oweynagat 'cave of the cats' , one of the many 'gateways to the Otherworld' whence beings and spirits were said to have emerged on Samhain.

Bonfire s were a big part of the festival in many areas pictured is a Beltane bonfire in Scotland. Saint Brigid in a stained-glass window. Snowdrops in the snow. A modern Lughnasadh corn dolly representing the god Lugh. Pilgrims climbing Croagh Patrick on "Reek Sunday". It is believed that climbing hills and mountains was a big part of the festival since ancient times, and the "Reek Sunday" pilgrimage is likely a continuation of this. The Puck Fair circa , showing the wild goat King Puck atop his 'throne'. Anne Lorne Gillies speaking publicly in the Scottish Gaelic language.

Bilingual signs in English and Gaelic are now part of the architecture in the Scottish Parliament building completed in Celtic stele from Galicia , 2nd century: Principal sites in Roman Britain , with indication of tribal territories. The Roman republic and its neighbours in 58 BC.

Gaius Julius Caesar Latin: The Tusculum portrait , perhaps the only surviving sculpture of Caesar made during his lifetime. Archaeological Museum, Turin , Italy. Gaius Marius , Caesar's uncle. Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla stripped Caesar of the priesthood. Marcus Tullius Cicero Classical Latin: Cicero Denounces Catiline, fresco by Cesare Maccari , — Cicero's death France, 15th century. Bust of the Emperor Tiberius. Claudius issued this denarius type to emphasize his clemency after Caligula's assassination. The depiction of the goddess Pax-Nemesis , representing subdued vengeance, would be used on the coins of many later emperors.

Trevisani 's depiction of the baptism of Jesus , with the Holy Spirit descending from Heaven as a dove. Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus. The " Magician " card from a 15th-century tarot deck. Concepts of modern magic are often heavily influenced by the ideas of Aleister Crowley.

Druids Bringing in the Mistletoe by E. Modern copper jar, using a Celtic motif in restrained fashion. A Slavic Rodnover ritual in modern Russia, c. A Heathen shrine to the god Freyr , Sweden, The Parthenon , an ancient pre-Christian temple in Athens dedicated to the goddess Athena. Strmiska believed that modern Pagans in part reappropriate the term "pagan" to honor the cultural achievements of Europe's pre-Christian societies.

A painting of John the Baptist by Titian. Irish law was by no means democratic, and was, for that reason, ever preferred to English law by the Norman and English chieftains going to Ireland. The old contests between the Irish and the Crown lay between those gentlemen-rulers and their nominal sovereign. So, in ancient times, the Druids supported that Law which favoured the rich at the expense of the poor. They were not Socialists. They were, however, what we should call Spiritualists, though that term may now embrace people of varied types.

They could do no less wonderful things than those claimed to have been done by Mahatmas or modern Mediums. They could see ghosts, if not raise them. They could listen to them, and talk with them ; though unable to take photos of spirits, or utilize them for commercial intelligence. It would be interesting to know if these seers of Ireland regarded the ghosts with an imaginative or a scientific eye. Could they have investigated the phenomena, with a view to gain a solution of the mysteries around them?

It is as easy to call a Druid a deceiver, as a politician a traitor, a scientist a charlatan, a saint a hypocrite. As the early days of Irish Christianity were by no means either cultured or philosophical, and almost all our knowledge of Druids comes from men who accepted what 24 Irish D rinds. Our sources of knowledge concerning the Druids are from tradition and records. The first is dim, unreliable, and capable of varied interpretation. Of the last, Froude rightly remarks—" Confused and marvellous stories come down to us from the early periods of what is called History, but we look for the explanation of them in the mind or imagination of ignorant persons.

There is yet another source of information— the pre- servation of ancient symbols, by the Church and by Free- masons. The scholar is well assured that both these parties, thus retaining the insignia of the past, are utterly ignorant of the original meaning, or attach a significance of their own invention. Judging from Irish literature— most of which may date from the twelfth century, though assuming to be the eighth, or even fifth— the Druids were, like the Tuatha, nothing better than spiritualistic conjurers, dealers with bad spirits, and always opposing the Gospel.

We need be careful of such reports, originating, as they did, in the most superstitious era of Europe, and reflecting the ideas of the period. It was easy to credit Druids and Tuaths with miraculous powers, when the Lives of Irish Saints abounded with narratives of the most childish wonders, and the most needless and senseless display of the miraculous.

The destruction of Druids through the invocation of Heaven by the Saints, though nominally in judgment for a league Irish Druidism. Such tales fittingly represented a period, when demoniacal possession accounted for diseases or vagaries of human action, and when faith in our Heavenly Father was weighed down by the cruel oppression of witchcraft. Still, in the many credulous and inventive stories of the Middle Ages, may there not be read, between the lines, something which throws light upon the Druids?

Traditional lore was in that way perpetuated. Popular notions were expressed in the haze of words. Lingering superstitions were preserved under the shield of another faith. Then, again, admitting the common practice of rival controversialists destroying each other's manuscripts, would not some be copied, with such glosses as would show the absurdities of the former creeds, or as warnings to converts against the revival of error? Moreover, — as the philosophers, in early Christian days of the East, managed to import into the plain and simple teaching of Jesus a mass of their own symbolism, and the esoteric learning of heathenism, — was it unlikely that a body of Druids, having secrets of their own, should, upon their real or assumed reception of Christianity, import some of their own opinions and practices, adapted to the promul- gation of the newer faith?

No one can doubt that the Druids, to retain their influence in the tribe, would be among the first and most influential of converts ; and history confirms that fact. As the more intelligent, and reverenced from habit, with skill in divination and heraldic lore, they would command the respect of chiefs, while their training as orators or reciters would be easily utilized by the stranger priests in the service of the Church. But if, as is likely, the transition from Druidism to Christianity was gradual, possibly through the medium of 26 Irish Druids.

Culdeeism, the intrusion of pagan ideas in the early religious literature can be more readily comprehended. As so much of old paganism was mixed up in the Patristic works of Oriental Christendom, it cannot surprise one that a similar exhibition of the ancient heathenism should be observed in the West. Their very names in Irish are identically the same as those by which they were distinguished by that earlier race.

They were certainly more pronounced in Ireland, and the part of Scotland contiguous to Ireland, than in either England or Wales. Ireland differs from its neighbours in the number of allusions to Druids in national stories. Tradition is much stronger in Ireland than in Wales, and often relates to Druids. On the other hand, it differs from that of its neigh- bours in the absence of allusions to King Arthur, the hero of England, Scotland, Wales, and Brittany. Rome, too, was strongly represented in Britain, north and south, but not in Ireland.

It is not a little remarkable that Irish Druids should seem ignorant alike of Round Towers and Stone Circles, while so much should have been written and believed con- cerning Druidism as associated with circles and cromlechs in Britain and Brittany. Modern Druidism, whether of Christian or heathen colour, claims connection with Stone- henge, Abury, and the stones of Brittany.

Why should not the same claim be made for Irish Druids, earlier and better known than those of W T ales? As megalithic remains, in the shape of graves and circles, St. Patrick and the Druids. Why, also, in Ossian, are the Stones of Power referred to the Norsemen only? That the Druids exer- cised the healing art is certain. Jubamville refers to a MS. Gall, dating from the end of the fourteenth century, which has on the back of it some incantations written by Irish seers of the eighth or ninth century. In one of them are these words — " I admire the remedy which Dian-Cecht left.

The love for a romantic Past is not, however, confined to Ireland, and a lively imagination will often close the ear to reason in a cultured and philosophical age. Let us see what the biographers of St. Patrick have to relate about the Druids. A work published at St. Omer,in , by John Ilcigham, has this story: Patricke, even in the same kind that Simon Magus resisted the apostle S.

Peter ; the miser- able wretch being elevated in the ayre by the ministery of Devils, the King and the people looked after him as if he were to scale the heavens, but the glorious Saint, with the force of his fervent prayers, cast him downe unto the ground, where dashing his head against a hard flint, he redred up his wicked soule as a pray to the infernnall Fiendes. Patrick blessed the ground, and it swallowed up the Druids. Patrick contended with the Druids before Kine St. Peter had obtained the death of Simon Magus.

In an instant Lochra was raised up in the air, and died, falling on a stone. O'Donovan, upon the Four Master s, observes: They who read theology between the lines of old Irish history may be induced to doubt whether such a person ever existed, or if he were but a Druid himself, such being the obscurity of old literature.

Bridget's early career was associated with the Druids. A miracle she wrought in the production of butter caused her Druidical master to become a Christian. Colgan contended that St. Patrick, by "continually warring with Druids, exposed his body to a thousand kinds of deaths. Patric, which declares " Patric made this hymn," we are in- formed that it was " against incantations of false prophets, against black laws of hereticians, against surroundings of idolism, against spells of women, and of smiths, and of Druids.

Patrick- was a youthful slave to Milcho, a Druidical priest. Grad- well's Succat, therefore, says, "He must often have practised heathenish rites in the presence of his household, and thus excited the horror of his Christian slave. Columba, the Culdee, was much the same as St. Patrick in his mission work, and his contests with Druids. He changed water into wine, stilled a storm, purified wells, brought down rain, changed winds, drove the devil out of a milk-pail, and raised the dead to life.

All that tradition acknowledged as miraculous in the Druids was attributed equally to Columba as to Patrick. Adamnan of Iona tells some strange stories of his master. One tale concerns Brochan the Druid. But the Saint put off, and " the vessel ran against the wind with extraordinary speed, to the wonder of the large crowd. But, says Adamnan, " an angel sent from heaven, striking him severely, has broken in pieces the glass cup which he held in his hand, and from which he was in the act of drinking, and he himself is left half dead.

Leflocq wrote his Atudes de Mythologie Celtique in , observing, " Some represented the Druids as the successors of the Hebrew patriarchs, the masters of Greek philosophy, the forerunners of Christian teaching. They have credited them with the honours of a religious system founded upon primitive monotheism, and crowned by a spiritualism more elevated than that of Plato and St.

Leflocq is justified in adding, " One will be at first confounded by the extreme disproportion which exists between the rare documents left by the past, and the large developments presented by modern historians. Who, then, were the Druids of Greeks and Romans? Why did Caesar recognize such as living in Gaul? Why did Jamblichus make Pythagoras a disciple of Gaulish priests?

Clement say the Druids 32 Irish Di'iiids. Cyril, that thev held but one God? Why should Origen, like the foe of early Christianity, Celsus, believe that the Druids of Gaul had the same doctrines as the Jews? Himerius speaks of Abaris, the sage, from Scythia, but well acquainted with Greek, with this description: It would seem more probable— with respectful consider- ation of the learned Morien, who makes Wales the teacher of the world— that wisdom should emanate from a people cultured long before Abrahamic days, though subsequently regarded as rude shepherd Scythians, than proceed from a western land preserving no monuments of learning Then, the dress, the staff, the egg, and other things associated with Druids, had their counterpart in the East from, perhaps, five thousand years before our Christian era' As to so-called Druidical monuments, no argument can be drawn thence, as to the primary seat of this mysticism since they are to be seen nearly all over the world.

Toland makes out that Lucan spoke to one ; but Lucan said it not. The Edinburgh Review of may well come to the conclusion that " the place they really fill in history is indefinite and obscure. They were " the descendants of the last Atlanteans, and what is known of them is sufficient to allow the inference that they were Eastern priests akin to the Chaldaeans and Indians. She beheld their god in the Great Serpent, and their faith in a succession of worlds. Their likeness to the Persian creed is noticed thus: Worth, in , and Frickius of , were engaged on the same subject. It is curious to notice St.

Some derive Druid from Druthin, the old German for God. The word Draith is applied to a Druidess. While many treat the Druids as religious, O'Curry asserts, " There is no ground whatever for believing the Druids to have been the priests of any special positive worship. D 34 Irish Druids. To them was entrusted the charge of religion, jurisprudence, and medicine. They certainly well studied the book of Nature, were acquainted with the marvels of natural magic, the proportions of plants and herbs, and what of astronomy was then known ; they may even have been skilled in mesmerism and bioloo-v.

We know very far more about these varieties of faith in Ireland, before Christianity, than we do about any description of religion in Wales ; and yet the Druidism of one country is reported as so different from that in the other immedi- ately contiguous. Such are the difficulties meeting the student of History. The Irish Druidical religion, like that of Britain and Gaul, has given rise to much discussion, whether it began, as some say, when Suetonius drove Druids from Wales, or began in Ireland before known in either Britain or Gaul, direct from the East.

Sophie Bryant thinks that " to understand the Irish non- Christian tradition and worship, we should understand the corresponding tradition and worship, and their history, for all the peoples that issued from the same Aryan home. Richey depreciates the Druid, when writing of the early Irish missionaries: Druid- ism, like Freemasonry, was a philosophy, founded on natural law, and not religion in the ordinary sense of that term.

Maclean regarded Ossian's heroes " for the greater part cabalistic, and indicative of the solar worship. Philo says all nations of antiquity kept the seventh day holy. Porphyry mentions the same thing of the heathen. Professor Sayce finds it was a day of rest with ancient Assyrians, as Dr. Schmidt of temple pagan worship. Eusebius asserted that almost all philosophers acknowledged it. The Roman Pontiffs regulated the Sabbath, and Roman school-boys had then a holiday. The Persian word SJiabet is clearly of Assyrian origin.

The authoress of Mazzaroth says, " The Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Chinese, and the natives of India were ac- quainted with the seven days division of time, as were the Druids. On this, Walker's Historical Memoirs, , observes that " all the eminent schools, delectably situated, which were established by the Christian clergy in the fifth century, were erected on the ruins of those colleges. They were Ollamham Re-dan, or Filidhe, poets.

They acted as heralds, knowing the gene- 38 Irish Druids, alogy of their chiefs.

With white robe, harp in hand, they encouraged warriors in battle. Their power of satire was dreaded ; and their praise, desired. As heralds they were called Seanachies. As Bards they sang in a hundred dif- ferent kinds of verse. Long after, they were patriots of the tribes — " With uncouth harps, in many-colour'd vest, Their matted hair with boughs fantastic crown'd. Carolan, the old blind harper, called last of the Bards, died in Bards sang in the Hall of Shells: A lament for Dalian ran — " A fine host and brave was he, master of and Governor, Ulla!

We, thrice fifty Bards, we confessed him chief in song and war — Ulla! Fergus Finbheoil, fair lips, was a Fenian Bard. Ireland's Mirror, , speaks of Hencssey, a living seer, as the Orpheus of his country. Amergin, brother of Ilcber, was the earliest of Milesian poets. Sir Philip Sydney praised the Irish Bards three centuries ago.

One, in Munster, stopped by his power the corn's growth ; and the satire of another caused a shortness of life. Such rhymes were not to be patronized by the Anglo-Normans, in the Statute of One Bard directed his harp, a shell of wine, and his ancestor's shield to be buried with him. In rhapsody, some would see the images of coming events pass before them, and so declare them in song. He was surely useful who rhymed susceptible rats to death. The Irish war odes were called Rosg-catha, the Eye of Battle. Was it for such songs that Irish-Danes were cruel to Bards? O'Reilly had a chronological account of Irish writers.

As Froude truly remarks, "Each celebrated minstrel sang his stories in his own way, adding to them, shaping them, colouring them, as suited his peculiar genius. Ferguson, in his Lays of the Western Gael, says, " The exactions of the Bards were so intolerable that the early Irish more than once endeavoured to rid themselves of the Order. Higgins, in Celtic Druids, had no exalted opinion of them, saying, " The Irish histories have been most of them filled with lies and nonsense by their bards.

The harp, according to Bede, was common in the seventh century. Columba played upon the harp. Meagor says of the first James of Scotland, " On the harp he ex- celled the Irish or the Highland Scots, who are esteemed the best performers on that instrument. Irish harpers were the most celebrated up to the last century. Ledwich thought the harp came in from Saxons and Danes. The Britons, some say, had it from the Romans. The old German harp had eighteen strings; the old Irish, twenty-eight; the modern Irish, thirty-three.

Bernard gives Archbishop Malachy, , the credit of introducing music into the Church service of Ireland. The Irish emit was the Welsh envdd or envth. Hugh Rose relates, that " a certain string was selected as the most suitable for each song. They were hollow spheres, holding loose bits of metal for Irish Bards. The com was a metallic horn ; the drum, or tiompan, was a tabor ; the piob-mela, or bagpipes, were borrowed from the far East ; the bellows to the bag thereof were not seen till the sixteenth century.

The Irish used foghair, or whole tones, and fogliair- beg, or semi -tones. The cor, or harmony, was cJivuisich, treble, and cronan, base. The names of clefs were from the Latin. In most ancient languages the same word is used for Bard and Sage. Lonnrot found not a parish among the Karelians without several Bards. Ouatrefages speaks of Bardic contests thus: The song only stops with the learning of one of the two. Yet in Cathlnina we read, " The daughter of Moran seized the harp, and her voice of music praised the strangers. Their souls melted at the song, like the wreath of snow before the eye of the sun.

O'Donovan, to have ready seven times fifty chief stories, and twice fifty sub-stories, to repeat before the Irish King and his chiefs. Conor Mac Neasa, King of Ulster, had three thousand Bards, gathered from persecuting neighbouring chiefs. The chiefs gathered from all their hills, and heard the lovely sound. They praised the voice of Cona, the first among a thousand bards. It is pleasant as the gale of the spring, that sighs on the hunter's ear, when he wakens from dreams of joy, and has heard the music of the spirits of the hill.

The ghosts of departed Bards heard it. Their voice shall be heard in other ages, when the Kings of Temora have failed. Into the ranks of these Fine Elrlon Irish Bards. The Dinn Seaiichas has poems by the Irish Bard of the second century, Finin Mac Luchna ; and it asserts that " the people deemed each other's voices sweeter than the warblings of the melodious harp. The Bards were Strabo's hymn-makers. Bryant felt that " The Isle of Song was soon to become the Isle of Saints ;" and considered " Ireland of the Bards knew its Druids simply as men skilled in all magical arts, having no marked relation either to a system of theo- logy, or to a scheme of ceremonial practice.

Patrick has the credit of compiling this record. These Brehons had a high reputation for justice ; and yet it is confessed that when one was tempted to pass a false sentence, his chain of office would immediately tighten round his neck most uncomfortably as a warning. Of the Brehons, it is said by the editors— O'Mahony and Richey — " The learning of the Brehons became as useless to the public as the most fantastic discussions of the Schoolmen, and the whole system crystallized into a form which rendered social progress impossible.

In , English law existed in only four of the Irish counties ; and Brehons and Ollamh's teachers were known to the end of the seventeeth century. The found- ing of the book of Brehon Law is thus explained: It was then that all the professors of the sciences Druids in Erin were assembled, and each of them exhibited his art before Patrick, in the presence of every chief in Erin. The Isle of Man lies just between Ireland and Wales. Let us examine what can be shown about these matters therein.

Boetius, translated by Alfred the Great, had a particu- larly doubtful story to tell; too similar, alas I to the narratives of early Christian writers. The Archdruid was known as Kion-druaight, or Ard-dmaight. Plowden thought the Druids emigrated thither after the slaughter at Mona ; others declare Mona to have been an Irish Druidical settlement.

Sacheverell refers to Druidical cairns on the tops of hills, which were dedicated to the Sun, and speaks of hymns having what were called cairn tunes. Train says, " So highly were the Manx Druids distinguished for their knowledge of astronomy, astrology, and natural philosophy, that the Kings of Scotland sent their sons to be educated there.

McAlpine says that Druid in Manx is Magician. The Deroo of Brittany were more ancient, said Henri Martin, than those Druids known to Romans ; being " primitive Druids, a sacerdotal caste of old Celts. They were the builders, masons, or like Gobhan Saer, free smiths. Druid and his pupil, is still sung by villagers, as it may have been by their ancestors, the Venite of Caesar's story.

The seat of the Archdruid of Gaul was at Dreux. French writers have interested themselves in the Druidic question. The common impression is that Druids were only to be found in Brittany ; but other parts of France possessed those priests and bards. Certainly the north- west corner, the region of megalithic remains, continued later to be their haunt, being less disturbed there. It was in Brittany, also, that the before-mentioned Oriental mysticism found so safe a home, and was nurtured so assiduously. But Druids were equally known in the south, centre, and north-east of France.

Upon the tomb of the Archdruid Chyndonax was found an inscription in Greek, thus rendered by the Dijon author — " En ce tombeau, dans le sacre boccage Du Dieu Mithras, est contenu le corps De Chyndonax grand Prestre ; mechant hors, Les Dieux Sanneurs le gardent de dommage. Mithras was a form of Apollo, or the Sun. There are other evidences of the southern Gaulish Druids using Greek characters, beyond Caesar's assertions.

Guenebauld spoke of the prohibition of the Druidical religion by the Emperors Augustus, Tiberias, and Claudius ; adding that the Druids " furent chassez du mont Drvys or French Druidistn. Beaudeau, in , published Mcmoire a consultcr pour les anciens Druides Gaulois, intended as a vindication of them against the strictures of Bailly in his letters to Voltaire. He had a great belief in the astronomical skill of the Druids, from their use of the thirty years cycle, the revolution period of the planet Saturn.

And these divinities— what were they? Evidently those of the country from which the people had been forced to flee. According to others, the etymology should be, in the Gaelic language, druidheacht, divination, magic ; or, better, dern, oak, and zujrdd, mistletoe. The French authors had the following account of the Druids' great charm — " They carried suspended from their neck, as a mark of dignity, a serpent's egg— a sort of oval ball of crystal, that 4 8 Irish Druids. Druidism in France was condemned as late as , by the Council of Nantes ; and, later on, by the Capitularies of Charlemagne.

Renan supposed that Druidism remained a form exclusively national.

Justin's remark, that "the Greek colony of Marseilles civilized the Gauls," may help to explain how Gaulish Druids knew Greek, and how some French writers traced Druidism to the Phocians of Southern Gaul. They were like his own augurs, and their Archdruid was his pontifex maximus. D'Arbois de Jubainville, in his account of Irish My- thology, has, of course, references to the Druids.

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He lays emphasis on the difference between those of Gaul and those of our islands. The judicial authority was vested in the File. These need not, like the Druids proper, celebrate sacrifices. He traces the word file, a seer, from the same root as the Breton givelout, to see. The French author records that Polyhistor, Timagenus, Valerius Maximus, and others wrote of the north-western men holding Pythagorean doctrines; but he adds that while a second birth was regarded by the Pythagoreans as a punishment of evil, it was esteemed by the others as a privilege of heroes.

He, unlike men of the Welsh Druidic school, joins Dr. Ledwich, and some Irish authorities, in tracing Druidism to the German and Scandinavian races, saying, " The religion of our pagan ancestors was that of Odin or Woden. In the book Volu-Spa, or the Priestess, the first song of the poetic Edda, he discovers what Ossian and other British and Irish bards describe as Spirits of the air, of earth, of waters, of plains, and woods.

Baecker's northern Gauls had priests of various kinds. The sacrificers were called Blod? The Priestesses were the Yaulur, The horse, bull, boar, and sheep were sacrificed. E 5o Irish D7'uids. Constant application of Druidic arts upon the individual must have given a sadness and terror to life, continuing long after the Druid had been supplanted. It was a comfort to know that magician could be pitted against magician, and that though one might turn a person into a swan or horse, another could turn him back again.

Yet, the chewing of one's thumb was sometimes as effectual a disenchanter as the elevation or marking of the cross in subsequent centuries. Thus, when Fionn was once invited to take a seat beside a fair lady on her way to a palace, he, having some suspicion, put his thumb between his teeth, and she immediately changed into an ugly old hag- with evil in her heart. That was a simple mode of detection, but may have been efficacious only in the case of such a hero as Fionn.

Certainly, many a bad spirit would be expelled, in a rising quarrel, if one party were wise enough to put his thumb between his teeth. Charm-mongers, who could take off a spell, must have been popular characters, and as useful as wart-removers. It is a pity, however, that the sacred salmon which used to frequent the Boyne is missing now, when examinations are so necessary, as he or she who bit a piece forgot nothing ever after.

Balar, the Fomorian King, was a good-natured fellow, for, finding that a glance from his right eye caused death to a subject, he kept that eye constantly closed. The magic cauldron was not in such requirement as with the Welsh. But it was a Druidic trick to take an idol to bed, lay the hands to the face, and discover the secret of a riddle in dreams. Another trick reminds one of the skill of modern spiritualistic mediums, who could discover the history of a man by a piece of his coat ; for, Cormac read the whole life of a dog from the skull.

Healing powers were magical. Our forefathers fancied that a part of enjoyment in heaven was fighting by day and feasting at night, the head cut oft" in daylight conflict resuming its position when the evening table was spread. The rival forces of Fomorians and Danaans had Druids, whose special work was to heal the wounded at night, so as to be ready for the next morning's battle. It would be easier to do that in Ireland or Scotland than in Australia. The Story of Cu speaks of a King Brudin who "made a black fog of Druidism" by his draoid- heacht, or magic.

Druidic winds were blasting, as they came from the East. A wonderful story in an old MS. The Reataire chief Druids then consecrated some water, of which she drank, and conceived ; and the produce of her womb was a white lamb. Say the priests, 'You shall now bring forth a son, and he shall be King over Ireland. He caught birds by it. He left his wife to be with a lady in fairy-land. Caught by spells, he was brought back home. He drank the draught of forgetfulness that he might not remember fairy-land, and she drank to forget her jealousy. All this is in Leabhar na-h-Uidhre.

When the Danaans raised a storm to drive off the in- vading hosts of Milesians, this was the spell used by Mile- sius, as told in the Book of Invasions: It is curious to see how this magic was, by the early writers, associated with Simon Magus ; so much so, that, as Rhys observes, " The Goidelic Druids appear at times under the name of the School of Simon Druid.

Like a gallant, the hero dived down and cot it ; but all he had for his trouble was to be turned by her into a white-haired old man. On another occasion he was changed into a grey fawn. But Fionn endured the metamorphoses of twenty years as a hog, one hundred a stag, one hundred an eagle, and thirty a fish, besides living one hundred as a man.

The heroine Caer had to be alter- nate years a swan and a woman. The Kilkenny Transactions refer to one Liban, trans- formed for three hundred years as a fish, or, rather a mer- maid, with her lap-dog in the shape of an otter after her. Bevan, however, caught her in a net, had her baptized, and then she died. In the Fate of the Children of Lir, we read of Aoife, second wife of Lir, jealous of her husband's children by his first mate, turning them into four swans till her spell could be broken. This happened under the Tuath rule, and lasted nine hundred years.

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They are reported to have said, " Thou shalt fall in revenge for it, for thy power for our destruction is not greater than the Druidic power of our friends to avenge it upon thee. At last they heard the bell of St. This broke the spell. They sang to the High King of heaven, revealed their name, and cried out, "Come to baptize us, O cleric, for our death is near. It concerned a magical branch, bear- 54 Irish Druids.

They who shook the tree were lulled to sleep by music, forgetting want or sorrow. Through that, Cormac, grandson of Conn of the hundred fights, lost his wife Eithne, son Cairbre, and daughter Ailbhe. At the end of a year's search, and passing through a dark, magical mist, he came to a hut, where a youth gave him a pork supper.

The entertainer proved to be Mananan. The story runs, " After this Mananan came to him in his proper shape, and said thus: A chessboard often served the purpose of divination. The laying on of hands has been from remote antiquity an effectual mode for the transmission of a charm. But a Magic Wand ox Rod, in proper hands, has been the approved method of transformation, or any other miraculous interpo- sition. Here is one Wand story relative to the romance of Grainne and Diarmuid: When Fionn, the dis- appointed husband, in pursuit of the runaway, found the abductor dying, he was entreated by the beautiful solar hero to save him.

Sullivan has a translation of the Fair of Carman, concerning three magicians and their mother from Athens: They came to Erin to bring evil upon the Tuatha de Danann, by blighting the fertility of this isle. The Tuatha were angry at this ; and they sent against them Ai, the son of Allamh, on the part of their poets, and Credenbel on the part of their satirists, and Lug Laeban, i.

And these never parted from them until they forced the three men over the sea, and they left a pledge behind them, i. Carman, their mother, that they would never return to Erin. When the Druids sought to poison St. Patrick, the latter wrote over the liquor: It might be useful with Irish whisky ; only the translator adds that the words of the charm, like most of the charms of the Middle Ages, appear to have had no meaning.

Spiritualism, in all its forms, appears to have been prac- tised by the Irish and Scotch Druids. Armstrong's Gaelic Dictionary has an account of the Divination of the Toghairm, once a noted superstition among the Gaels, and evidently derived from Druid-serving ancestors. The so- called prophet " was wrapped in the warm, smoking robe of a newly slain ox or cow, and laid at full length in the wildest recess of some lonely waterfall. The question was then put to him, and the oracle was left in solitude to consider it.

One of the tales is of Sculloge, who spent his father's gold. While out hunting he saw an old man betting his left hand against his right. At once he played with him for sixpence, but won of the ancient Druid a hundred guineas. The next game won, the old fellow was made to rebuild the Irishman's mill. Another victory brought him as wife a princess from the far country. But Sabina, when married, besought him to have no more to do with old Lassa Buaicht of the Hen. Things went on well a good while, till the man wanted more gold, and he ventured upon a game.

Losing, he was directed to bring the old Druid the Szvord of Light. Sabina helped her husband to a Druidic horse, that carried him to her father's castle. There he learned it was held by another brother, also a Druid, in an enchanted place. With a black steed he leaped the wall, but was driven out by the magic sword.

At last, through Fiach the Druid, the sword was given to Lassa Buaicht. The cry came, " Take your Sword of Light, and off with his head. One of the Irish MSS. While stand- ing in the usual place this morning, Conn happened to tread on a stone, and immediately the stone shrieked under his feet so as to be heard all over Tara, and throughout all Bregia or East Meath. Conn then asked his Druids why the stone had shrieked, what its name was, and what it said. The Druids took fifty-three days to consider, and returned the following answer: It has shrieked under your royal feet, and the number of the shrieks, which the stone has given forth, is the number of Kings that will succeed you.

Nash, who showed much scepticism respecting Druids in Britain, wrote: Professor Lottncr saw 53 Irish Druids. The King succeeded in finding another Druid who brought forth an abundant supply. He did but cast his javelin, and a powerful spring burst forth at the spot where the weapon fell.

Dill, the Druidical grandfather of another King of Munster, had a magical black horse, which won at every race. Elsewhere is a chapter on the Tuatha de Danaans, concerning whom are so many stories of Druids. Attention is drawn by Rhys to " the tendency of higher races to ascribe magical powers to lower ones ; or, rather, to the conquered. A certain dwarf magician of Erregal, Co. Derry, had done a deal of mischief before he could be caught, killed, and buried.

It was not long before he rose from the dead, and resumed his cruelties. Once more slain, he managed to appear again at his work. A Druid advised Finn Mac Cumhail to bury the fellow the next time head downward, which effectually stopped his magic and his resurrection powers. Fintain was another hero of antiquity. When the Deluge occurred, he managed by Druidic arts to escape. Subsequently, through the ages, he manifested himself in various forms. This was, to O 'Flaherty, an evidence that Irish Druids believed in the doctrine of metempsychosis.

Fintain's grave is still to be recognized, though he has made no appearance on earth since the days of King Dermot. It is not safe to run counter to the Druids. By turning himself into a salmon, he succeeded in choking the sove- reign with one of his bones. A King was once plagued by a lot of birds wherever he went.

He inquired of his Druid Becnia as to the place they came from. The answer was, " From the East. Tree after tree failed to be of use. Only that from the wood of Frosmuine produced what was required for a charm. Upon the dichetal, or incantation, being uttered, the birds visited the King no more. In the Book of Lecan is the story of a man who under- went some remarkable transformations. He was for years a deer, for a wild boar, for a bird, and for the like age a salmon. In the latter state he was caught, and partly eaten by the Queen.

The effect of this repast was the birth of Tuan Mac Coireall, who told the story of the antediluvian colonization of Ireland. One Druid, Trosdane, had a bath of the milk of thirty white-faced cows, which rendered his body invulnerable to poisoned arrows in battle. A Druid once said to Dathi, " I have consulted the clouds of the man of Erin, and found that thou wilt soon return to Tara, and wilt invite all the provincial Kings and chiefs of Erin to the great feast of Tara, and there thou shalt decide with them upon making an expedition into Alba, Britain, and France, following the conquering foot- steps of thy great-uncle Niall.

A brother of his became a convert to St. Grainne, the heroine of an elopement with the beautiful hero Diarmuid, or Dermot, fell into her trouble through a Druid named Daire Duanach MacMorna. She was the daughter of King Cormac, whose grave is still shown at Tara, but she was betrothed to the aged, gigantic sovereign Fionn the Fenian.

At the banquet in honour of the alliance, the Druid told the lady the names and qualities of the chiefs assembled, particularly mentioning the graceful Diarmuid. She was smitten by his charms, particularly a love-mark on his shoulder, and readily agreed to break her promised vows in order to share his company. When she fled with him, Fionn and his son pursued the couple, who were aided in their flight by another Druid named Diorraing, styled a skilful man of science.

Keating has this version: Province Ulster on her account. Upon hearing this, the nobles proposed to put her to death forth- with. The Book of Leinster has the story of one that loved the Queen, who returned the compliment, but was watched too well to meet with him.

He, however, and his foster- brother, were turned, by a Druidic spell, into two beautiful birds, and so gained an entrance to the lady's bower, making their escape again by a bird transformation. The King had some suspicion, and asked his Druid to find out the secret. The next time the birds flew, the King had his Drtiidical Magic.

The Book of Leinster records several cases of Druids taking opposite sides in battle. It was Greek meeting Greek. The northern Druids plagued the southern men by drying up the wells ; but Mog Ruth, of the South, drove a silver tube into the ground, and a spring burst forth. Ciothrue made a fire, and said a charm with his mountain-ash stick, when a black cloud sent down a shower of blood. Nothing daunted, the other Druid, Mog Ruth, transformed three noisy northern Druids into stones.

Spiritualism, as appears by the Banquet of Dun na n-Gcdh, was used thus: The poet chews a piece of the flesh of a red pig, or of a dog or cat, and brings it afterwards on a flag behind the door, and chants an incantation upon it, and offers it to idol gods ; and his idol gods are brought to him, but he finds them not on the morrow. And he pronounces incantations on his two palms ; and his idol gods are also brought to him, in order that his sleep may not be interrupted.

And he lays his two palms on his two cheeks, and thus falls asleep. And he is watched in order that no one may disturb or interrupt him, until everything about which he is engaged is revealed to him, which may be a minute, or two, or three, or as long as the ceremony requires — one palm over the other across his cheeks.

Frazer, judi- ciously reminds us that "the superstitious beliefs and practices, which have been handed clown by word of mouth, are generally of a far more archaic type than the religions depicted in the most ancient literature of the Aryan race. Among ancient superstitions of the Irish there was some relation to the Sacred Cow, reminding one of India, or even of the Egyptian worship of Apis.

The Ossianic Transactions refer to this peculiarity. This serviceable animal supplied a large family and a host of servants. The Fomorians envied the possessor, and their leader stole her. The captive continued her beneficent gifts for many generations. Her ancient camps are still remembered by the peasantry. But Owen Connelan has a translation of the Proceedings of tJie Great Bardic Institute, which contains the narrative of a cow, which supplied at Tuaim-Daghualan the daily wants of nine score nuns ; these ladies must have been Druidesses, the word Caillach meaning equally nuns and Druidesses.

Hackett remarks, "The probability is that they were pagan Druidesses, and that the cows were living idols like Apis, or in some sense considered sacred animals. Etain, wife of Eochaid, was carried off by Mider through the roof, and two swans were seen in the air above Tara, joined together by a golden yoke.

However, the husband managed to recover his stolen property by the aid of the mighty spell of his Druid. Edward Davies, author of Mythology and Rites of British Druids, was one of those who, with Jolo Morganwg, regarded the Arkite theory as having its foundation in Genesis. But, Neo-Dru id ism. John Williams was, perhaps, the best exponent of Bardism, though all its advocates recognized in it the Church of England ideas of this century, and yet hardly of the High Church order. The Patriarchal Religion of Britain, by the Rev.

James, made many converts to the system. But the ceremonies associated with it have some- thing of the Masonic character. This is the Summary of the Bardo-Druidic creed: There were five elements— earth, water, fire, air, and heavens. The soul — refined, vital, and imperishable— is a lapsed intelligence, regaining happiness by transmigration. Creation improved as man improved, and animals gradually became men.

Man develops by experience in different states of being. Celestial beings aid man in development. Ultimately all will be happy, and evil finally extinguished. All these views were gathered from the said Triads, though regarded by many pious Welshmen as teaching opposed to Christianity.

Morien's reading of the Triads is something very dif- 64 Irish Driiids. Immortality was adjudged to be a Druidic creed. The Inverness Gaelic Society's Journal has this affirm- ation: As a Skye tale implies, there was a happier region in the Beyond, from which there was no return. The ghosts, that ap- peared, came, as they are said by Spiritualists of our day still to come, from a sort of pleasant Purgatory, where they enjoyed awhile a free and easy condition of existence. This idea of life had, however, a peculiar connection with pre-existence and transmigration.

Thus, George Eliot refers to their finding " new bodies, animating them in a quaint and ghastly way with antique souls. Caesar ascertained that Druids "arc anxious to have it believed that souls do not die, but after death pass from one to another. Lord Brougham asserted that the ancients "all believed in the soul's pre-existence. Mormons share the like faith. Morien refers to souls waiting in the Sea of Annwn, to be called up to inhabit new bodies.

Taliesin sang, " My original country is the land of Cherubim. Their many tales of transmigration, or life under varied con- ditions, are well known. Patrick and Oisin the Fenian, who had been three hundred years in the Land of Youth — observes, u It is doubtful if St. Patrick ever saw the real Oisin, but only some Druid or old Seanchaidhe who believed himself to be Oisin revived.

To this day butterflies are spoken of as souls of some deceased persons. C, when quoting from pre-Christian MSS. He was for a year beneath the waters of the Deluge, but in a fast sleep. A couple of verses of the poem will suffice. After that the Tuatha De arrived, Concealed in their dark clouds ; I ate my food with them, Although at such a remote period. Waddell, dealing with the Druids, points out — il Purification by fire for body and soul, and assimilation thereby to the purest essence of the universe, were the fundamental ideas of their creed — the infallible means of the highest and most acceptable apotheosis.

This is Irish trans- migration, called by the Greeks, transformation of one body into another, while the Gaulish is transmigration of a soul into the body of another human being. Most certainly D mi dual Belief. Bcsant, shows the persistency of the idea that so entranced the semi- civilized Irish long ago, and seemed so satisfactory a way to account for the existence of man after death. Transmigration being found in Ireland, has led some to assert their conviction that Buddhist missionaries conveyed it thither. He knows the Irish deity Budd or Budwas, and asks if that be not Buddha.

In the Hebrides, spirits are called Boduchs, and the same word is applied to all heads of families, as the Master. The Druids were, says one, only an order of Eastern priests, located in Britain, adoring Buddwas. Germain Museum has, in its Gaulish department, an altar, on which is represented a god with the legs crossed after the manner of the Indian Buddha.

That relic is the fourth of the kind found in France. Anderson Smith, in his Lewistana, writes reluctantly — " we must accept the possibility of a Buddhist race passing north from Ireland. It has been generally accepted that Druidism was Celtic in origin and practice, because Caesar found it in Gaul and Britain. But he records three races in Gaul itself— the Celtic, the German, and the Aquitani.

The Britons were, to him, Belgoe, or of German connection. He knew nothing of Ireland or Wales, in which two countries he would have seen the fellows of his Aquitani, a darker 68 Irish Druids. Rhys, one of the highest living authorities, was justified in thinking that Druidism was " probably to be traced to the race or races which preceded the Celts in their possession of the British Isles.

In Brittany, as in Wales, to this day, the Iberian and Celt may be seen side by side. A discussion has arisen in French scientific journals, as to the apparently different views of Druidism in writings attributed to Pythagoras and to Caesar. Hermand pointed out their contradiction.

Lamariouze remarked — " One says there were in all Celtic lands neither temples nor statues ; the other, on the contrary, would declare he had found the worship of Roman divinities, and consequently temples, statues, images. He saw in one of the constituents and principles of the Gaulish religion the proscription of temples and idols, recalling the well-known fact of the destruction of the temple of Delphi by the same people. He points out that Caesar spoke of a likeness to Roman idols, not the idols themselves, especially in the relation of so many of Mercury.

Of the Gaulish Druids, Lamariouze said — " Besides these purely spiritual beliefs, they permitted a material worship for the people. They permitted the adoration of God in that which the ancients named the Elements. The early Christian missionaries seemed to have adopted a like policy in allowing their converts considerable liberty, especially if safe-guarded by a change of names in their images. For instance, as Fosbroke's British Monarchism says, " British churches, from policy, were founded upon the site of Druidical temples.

They may have been Buddhist, or even ancient Egyptian — and may have symbolized different sentiments at different times, or in different lands. As Druids, like other close bodies, wrote nothing, we depend upon outside pagans, and Christian teachers, for what we know of their doctrines. Doubtless, as many Spanish Jews kept secretly their old faith after the enforced adoption of Christianity, so may some Irish monks have partly retained theirs, and even revealed it, under a guise, in their writings, since ecclesiastical authority shows that Druidism was not wholly extinct in the sixteenth century.

While some authorities imagined the Druids preceded the ordinary polytheistic religion, others taught that they introduced pantheism.

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Amedee Thierry, in Histoire ties Gaitlois, found it based on pantheism, material, metaphy - sical, mysterious, sacerdotal, offering the most striking likeness to the religions of the East. He discovered no historic light as to how the Cymry acquired this religion, nor why it resembled the pantheism of the East, unless through their early sojourn on the borders of Asia. All learned and mysterious religions tolerate an under- JO Irish Druids. It continued to be cultivated, if I may use the word, following the march of civilization and public intelligence, rose gradually from fetishism to re- ligious conceptions more and more purified.

Caesar, who saw nothing of the religion among these islands, was told that here was the high seat of Druidism. His observations on religion were not so keen as those on the art of war. Thierry regarded Druidism as an imported faith into Gaul, and partly by means of force. Strabo heard that Druids spoke Greek. Tacitus may say our rude ancestors worshipped Castor and Pollux ; but Agricola, who destroyed Druids in Mona, found no images in the woods.

Baecker remarked that " the Celtic history labours under such insuperable obscurity and incertitude, that we cannot premise anything above a small degree of verisimilitude. Though sunk in the grossest ignorance and barbarism, their ad- mirers have found them, in the dark recesses of forests, secluded from mankind, and almost from day, cultivating the abstrusest sciences, and penetrating the sublimest mysteries of nature — and all this without the aid of letters or of experiments.

O'Curry thought it probable " that the European Druid- ical system was but the offspring of the Eastern augury, somewhat less complete when transplanted to a new soil. However orthodox the Irish of the present day may be esteemed, there must have been a fair amount of mysticism in the past amongst so imaginative a race. Perhaps this quality brought them into some disrepute with the Church, down to the time when the Pope gave their country to the Norman King of England, in order to bring the people into more consistent faith.

Bernard, in his Life of Malachy, referred to the Irish as "Pagans, while calling themselves Christians. Gould's History of Freemasonry refers to the connection between the Druids and Freemasons. The Papal Bull of 1 against the latter might have been applied to the former: The Zohar of the Kabbala taught that the " narrative of the Doctrine was its cloak— the simple look only at the 72 Irish Druids. It is well to recollect, as Professor Rhys points out, that "what may seem to one generation of men a mere matter of mythology, is frequently found to have belonged to the serious theology of a previous one ; " and that " early man is not beneath contempt, especially when he proves to have had within him the makings of a great race, with its highest notions of duty and right.

This mystical learning, conveyed in a Christian guise, is asserted to be a re-statement, in refined symbolism, of those ancient creeds, and associated with ideas drawn from megalithic monuments, as cromlechs and circles. The Irish literature of the same period in the Middle Ages, though less tinctured than the Welsh with the Mediaeval mysticism, is not without a trace of it.

England, judging from the sudden admixture of religious symbols, previously unknown in the Churches of that same era, was likewise affected. French literature shares the same sus- picion, Brittany in particular, and especially in connection with the myths of Arthur, and the Quest of the Holy Grail.

Morien is right in placing this French development of Pagan mysticism alongside that of his Welsh. The Early Lives of St. Patrick, containing many foolish Dmidical Mysticism. Whence came this occultism into the Church? The introduction of it may be largely attributed to the Templars. They were accused of magic, and lost every- thing thereby. As students, not less than fighting monks, they learned much of Oriental mysticism, and may have been a prominent means of introducing ancient heresies into Britain and France.

Their destruction from the orthodox point of view was justified. No one can look at that symbol in the roof of London Temple Church, and on English Church banners elsewhere, without recognizing the heathenism so conspicuous in Welsh Druidism. But why this Eastern philosophy should find a special retreat in the Triads of mediaeval Wales is by no means clear. Did it reach Wales through Spain and France? There is little or no evidence of Gnosticism — so full of more ancient and pagan symbolism— pene- trating to the British Isles ; though the later development of the Middle Ages abounded in Gnostic ideas.

As this peculiarity would appear to have entered Wales in the early Norman period, during the Crusades, why was it not evidenced in Ireland?

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