Druid

Sources and etymology

As for all that relates to the Celtic Civilization, we do not have any text of internal origin. The druids themselves are at the origin of this gap: considering that the written word died, they privileged the Oralité and the memory for the transmission of the Knowledge. Nevertheless, the Celts knew the writing and used it in a marginal way. Moreover, they invented the ogam or oghamic writing whose 300 inscriptions with funerary vocation reached us engraved in the stone.

Two types of sources enable us to apprehend the subject: ancient testimonys and consignment by clerks, oral traditions with the Middle Ages in Ireland. For the first category, it is necessary in particular to quote Diodore of Sicily ( Histoires ), Strabon ( Géographie ), Pomponius Mela ( De Chorographia ), Lucain ( Pharsale ), Pline Old the ( Natural history ), and especially César which, with its Commentaires on the War of Gaules , to us bring the many ones and important information on the Gallic company like on the religion and those which have control of it. A second source comes to corroborate the first and to enrich it of a different origin, it acts of a whole of Irish texts, essentially, written 8th century at the 15th century. They retranscribe the myths and epopees of Celtic Ireland which was transmitted orally from generation to generation. The collectors transcribers affublés them of a Christian varnish, under which the study discovers the original. Of this literature, one can quote: the Cath Maighe Tuireadh (Battle of Mag Tured) , the Tochmarc Etaine (Courts Tin) , the Táin Bó Cúailnge (Raid of the Cows of Cooley) , the Lebor Gabála Érenn (Book of the Conquests) and the Mabinogion Welsh.
One thought a long time (since Pline) that the word druid was associated with the oak, because of the rites associated with this tree. The linguists and philologists now established that this specifically Celtic term, present as well in the text of Jules César as those of the Moyen-âge, came from “thickly-wid-are” which means “very erudite”.

The sacerdotal class

Structure of the Celtic company

César, reporting its military operations, had noted that the Gaulois (plebs) were directed by two classes of men, the druids and the knights (equities). One finds this hierarchy in the structure of the divine company of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the gods of Ireland, which reproduces the diagram of the tripartite ideology of the Indo-European S, such as it was exposed by Georges Dumézil.

the sacerdotal class which has the Knowledge and makes the Law; it manages crowned and the monk
the warlike class which manages the military businesses under the command of the king
the class of the producers (craftsmen, farmers, stockbreeders, etc) which must provide for the needs for the whole of the company and in priority those of the two other classes

Hierarchy and structure of the sacerdotal class

The sacerdotal class itself is treated on a hierarchical basis, and its members have “specialities”.

the word druid is a generic term which applies to all the members of the sacerdotal class, whose fields of attribution are the religion, the sacrifice, justice, teaching, poetry, the divination, etc But it defines also those which one calls “theologists” the druids.
the bards is specialized in oral and sung poetry, its role is to make the praise, the satire or the blame.
the Vate is a soothsayer, he deals more particularly of the worship, the divination and medicine. The women take part in this function of prophecy (the such Gallisenae of the island of Center).

In the Irish tradition the file (pl. filid) is a soothsayer, he replaced the bard of which he had also attributions. According to their specialities, the filid are sencha (historian, professor), brithem (judge and lawyer), scelaige (storyteller), cainte (satirist), liaig (doctor), dorsaide (gatekeeper), cruitire (harpist), deogbaire (wine waiter). The soothsayer is the faith , the prophetess is banfaith or banfile . Ollamh is the highest title (the direction of the word is doctor, erudite) in front of the anruth (shining), the oblaire being the student one (see Hiérarchie of the filid in the article Barde).

The role of the druid in the company

As a Minister for the religion, the druid proceeds to all the rites cultuels, and in particular with the sacrifices. If the human sacrifices of prisoners of war are attested, it seems however that they were reserved for exceptional circumstances, the animal sacrifices (horses, bulls) or symbolic systems were more current.

Teaching, i.e. the oral transmission of the knowledge, forms also part of its responsibilities. It is still César which teaches us “that a great number of young people come to be informed on their premises” and that the studies can last 20 years; one quotes the figure of 150 pupils for the mythical druid Cathbad, in the Irish tradition.

In the Celtic context, the legal field belongs to theology and thus raises of the religion. It is thus quite naturally that the druids are at the same time lawyers and judges. The non-observance of a contract is sanctioned by sorrows which are codified according to the nature of the fault and the row of the parts in the social hierarchy. If it is the king who imposes the sanction, it is the druid who advises.

Taking into account the primacy of its statute, prestige attached to its function, and also of its quality of lawyer, it has also the load of the diplomatic relations to prevent the war or to regulate the compensations after the aggression. Let us note in the passing that a druid can take part in the war, it does not have there an interdict nor of obligation. The druid-warrior is a character enough running. Thus, as example, the Cathbad druid, whose name means “Killer with the combat”.

As Savant and a guarantor of the knowledge, it is logical that the fields of the history, the genealogy, toponymy are of its spring, given that what we call mythology had a reality at that time. For reasons of legitimacy and sovereignty, these disciplines were to be most precise possible.

The Tuatha Dé Danann (People of the goddess Dana - gods of Ireland) have a god-doctor, Diancecht which is an expert in the magic and medicine, it look after and restore the casualties, it ressuscite deaths by immersing them in the Fontaine of Health , it manufactures a prosthesis with the king Nuada who had the torn off arm. The epopees are full with these cures, where the magic plants, incantations and beverages are used.

Their great knowledge of astronomy will have enabled them to conceptualize the time, of which we have an idea thanks to the Calendrier of Coligny, which dates from the Gallo-Roman time.

The king does not speak before the druid, but they form kind of an essential and antagonistic binomial. If the king exerts sovereignty, it does it under the inspiration of the druid who owes him the council, there is dependence of the political power to the spiritual one.

Practices

Certain Irish texts give a report on the intervention of the druids at the time of the birth, to give a name to the child and to practice a lustration, which one compares to a form of baptism.
The attention paid to predict is general, because they are the expression of the divine wills and thus predict them and the divination can concern only the monk insofar as the druid is the intermediary and his crowned word. It is thus an unlimited field as of the moment that it is question of the future.
The Irish word geis (plural geasa ) indicates an interdict which can be negative (direction of prohibition) or positive (direction of obligation); the geis through law. She addresses herself mainly to the king and to the members of the warlike class and recovers the whole of the activities of the daily life.
The magic, of which medicine is a prolongation, fact call to ritual techniques. The medicinal plants are an important component, it is also necessary to note the elixir of lapse of memory which affects the memory, the music, the Fountain of Health which cures the casualties in the battles and ressuscite deaths, the apple, Celtic symbol par excellence of immortality and the knowledge, the gathering of the GUI accompanied by sacrifices bulls, and well of others.
The elements also take part in this religion: water by its capacity of lustration, the fire which is used with the sacrifices or the purification of the herds, the wind which has the capacity to mislay or destroy, the fog which makes it possible to move in an invisible way.
The incantations are also a very used practice. The Irish literature speaks in particular about the Glam dicinn which is a supreme curse which results in the death, of the Imbas forosnai which has the direction of illumination, and of the Dichetal C chennaib cnâime , whose significance is dubious: this “sung prophecy” would be an improvisation. The praise is responsibility for the bard, it is a form of poetry which consists in emphasizing qualities of a character. The blame is of comparable nature with the contrary objective, not to confuse with the satire which is a religious incantation and legal which generally results in death. The Geis is an incantation made up of obligations and interdicts that the members of the class of the warriors must respect, under penalty of death.

Festivals

The Celtic year comprises four great religious holidays with the obligatory character, the absence being punished of death.

Samain whose direction is “meeting” takes place Ier November. More than the new year, it is the passage from one year to another, its celebration lasts one week which is out of time, which supports the contacts with the Other World . It is characterized by feasts and ritual drinking bouts.
Imbolc which means “lustration” is on February 1st. It is the purification which marks the end of wintry time.
Beltaine “fires of Beautiful” at May 1st is a sacerdotal festival in report/ratio with Belenos and of its parèdre Belisama, which marks the passage of the dark season at the clear season with the change of activities that implies. The druids light large fires to protect the cattle, gasoline even of the richness.
Lugnasad is the “assembly of Lug” Ier August. This festival is devoted to the king in his role of redistributor of the richnesses and guard. It is the occasion to conclude from the contracts of all kinds (commercial, matrimonial, legal) and to measure themselves in competitions (literary tournaments, sports).

Druidism

According to the Lebor Gabala (Book of the Conquests) the druidism was invented by the Partholon iens, arrived to Ireland 312 years after the Déluge and which will occupy it during 5000 years. César as thinks as it is originating in the island of Brittany, then was spread as a Gaulle; moreover he affirms that many students will improve over there.
All that one can say on this subject can be only one emanation of what we know of his ministers. More than one religion, with the direction where include/understand we it today, the druidism is the base even of Celtic civilization, and the payment of the whole of the company. All the life of the Celts is under the control of the druids.

The Celts were convinced of the immortality of the heart, this is why the warriors did not test any fear of dead at the time of the battles. Confusions in the reading of the texts suggested the concept of reincarnation, but this one is non-existent.
The Sidh is the name Gaelic which indicates the Other World Celtic, it is located at the west, beyond the horizon of the sea, in splendid islands; under the sea, in the lakes and the rivers where sumptuous crystal palates are located at the mysterious entries; under the hills and the hillocks. It is the stay of the gods. The worship was practiced in called crowned surfaces Nemeton in Gallic language (and nemed in Gaelic) which one finds the trace, for example, in the toponym of the forest of Nevet close to Locronan (Finistere), of which Troménie, Christian procession, perpetuates the memory of a druidic ceremony. It is extremely probable that monuments megalithic, such Carnac or Stonehenge, were recovered by the druids. So in the beginning Nemeton was probably an opened place, it evolved/moved considerably to become an enclosure, of generally quadrangular form, including/understanding buildings out of wooden and a well with offrandes.

The Irish filid worked out a marking system, the ogam (system sometimes called oghamic writing ), which forever been used with the drafting as texts, but with funerary inscriptions (of which 300 reached us) or spell-bindings engraved in the stone or wood. Allotted by the tradition to Ogme, the god of the magic and the eloquence, this alphabet made up of notches and derived from the Latin alphabet in partnership with names from trees, remained confined in Ireland, the Scotland and the Wales.

The thesis of a chamanic origin prehistoric was advanced, but it did not resist the analysis, and was quickly abandoned. In addition, if the wild boar is the animal emblematic of the sacerdotal class, the concept of Totémisme is completely to exclude, not corresponding in its definition to the Celtic designs.

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