DRUIDISM TODAY

The path of Druidism, then and now
Undoing the history of disinformation on Druidism

The Romans and the Greeks
There is a lot of outrageous rubbish written about Druidism. In ancient times Druidism did not have Priests and no Classical writer (Greek or Roman) ever applied the term Priest to any Druid but they did use the term philosopher while also making a clear distinction between ‘Druid’ and ‘Priest’. No Classical writer ever refered to Druidism as a religion. The majority of Classical references consist of anti-Druid propaganda by the spin-doctors of the Roman Empire. Caesar had to ‘spin’ the truth to get the funding and support to fight his battles against the Celtic nations. Hitler and Bush used the same technique to force their demands and got away with it even though many knew that these powerful men were twisting the reality to suit their own agendas.

The Romans gave us the image of the Druids as bizarre, barbaric murderers who continuously sacrificed innocents to tell the future from looking at the entrails of their victims. The opposite is the truth. Even the Roman Pope Dionyisus (ad259–268) attended the bloodthirsty spectacles called “the games” held in the ‘circuses’ and he is also recorded as owning gladiators. Greek literature is full of references to human sacrifice since 500bc and Roman literature is full of references to human sacrifice until 500ad. We have to wait until the fifth century ad when Rome was invaded by ‘barbarians’ for those ‘barbarians’ to put an end to the bloodthirsty Roman orgy of violence. It is obvious that the Romans have lied extensively but even with only a little research it is glaringly obvious that these lies are still being told.

Those that the Romans called ‘Druids’ did not use the word Druid to describe themselves at all. Most linguists see ‘Druid’ as cognate with a Greek word meaning ‘an oak’. Some Celtic linguists have derived its root as an intensive particle with a second part meaning ‘to know’, this together says – those whose knowledge is very great. Another translation is ‘those familiar with the oak’. Here we have the Romans using a Greek word to describe the native magicians and philosophers of Gaul (France) in an unflattering manner for political reasons.

As the Romans expanded their empire the Celtic culture and the free expression of Druidism retreated west to the edge of the European mainland and then to England. In 55bc Caesar landed on the southern shores of England and defeated the Celtic Cantii. This was followed a year later with a second campaign gaining formal submission from several important southern English Chieftains. Rome never completely conquered England. The remnants of Celtic culture survived by moving west once again. In 82ad plans were drawn up to invade Ireland, but these plans were shelved because of the Irish in what we now call Scotland could not be pacified. The destruction of the Celtic culture by the Roman war machine was stopped by the Irish Sea and by the Celtic armies in the north of England. Only in Wales, Cornwall, Scotland and Ireland did the Celtic culture (and the Druids) survive the onslaught of the Roman armies.

The universal church
The next and most serious threat to the Celtic culture and the path of spiritual Druidism was the creation of the universal (Catholic) Church. In 325ad at the Council of Nicea Constantine the Great fixed the date of Easter and in so doing he fused the political and military might of the Roman Empire with the Christian Church creating an even more potent state religion. Constantine found the tenets and organisational structure of the Christian Church as very suitable to merge into the existing imperial structure of the Roman way. His mother was a Christian and lobbied hard for her god to be accepted. It was his money that she used to build the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, both of which still stand today. He was only baptised on his deathbed. However, he transformed a church that had no central authority for 300 years into a single cohesive religion.

In 410ad, a Visigoth army sacked Rome and destroyed the concept of Roman Imperial might forever. But the Church survived. This Church was designed by Constantine as a vehicle to enhance the political might of Rome but as the empire crumbled the Church ended up superseding it. This happened because the invaders of Rome dropped their gods and embraced the Catholic Church. This was vitally important because the Church claimed jurisdiction not just over lands and armies but also over souls. This created a new social order in Europe – Pagans had adopted the Catholic Church and its jurisdiction as theirs.

This new church spread throughout what was the Roman Empire with ease. Even England became mostly catholic and slowly but surely the church entered Ireland, which had been the last outpost of pure Celtic culture and Druidism. A strange thing happened in Ireland because the existing spiritual system absorbed the ‘new’ church and became what we today call the early Celtic Church. The Druids disappeared into this new Celtic Church and continued the ‘old ways’. There is so much written during this period by the monk chroniclers that is deliberate disinformation and it is only in recent years that the truth has become known.

But the natural spiritual awareness of the Druids of Ireland connected easily with the early church and ran alongside and inside the system. This can be seen by the Druidic tonsure, which although outlawed survived in use well into the middle ages. The church leaders repeatedly banned the half shaved head of the Druids but it was still in evidence in the second millennium ad. Druid schools disappeared and became centred on individual teachers of families and they began to specialise in medicine, Brehon law and so on. The Druid awareness was re-branded or re-packaged and successfully argued / presented at the highest level.

It was during the middle ages, a time of great darkness when the church of fear was killing (or sacrificing) millions to their false dogma that the Druids saved the Light. This they did by being invisible and by presenting their truth as an advanced awareness of the true Christian way that they had adopted from before the time of St. Patrick onwards. These Druids dressed as Monks went to Europe and held the highest teaching models of the time. Irish Universities (read as invisible Druid schools) were established all over Europe.

The cannons of Cromwell
Back in Ireland, the mostly invisible Druids were now primarily attached to the ruling dynasties and their supports systems in the castles of the great Irish families. Cromwell destroyed almost all of the castles of the Irish families with the advantage of his huge cannons. Nowhere was safe from these cannons and the support system of the local king’s advisors (invisible Druids) was completely destroyed. This was followed by a prolonged and protracted genocide of the native Irish that some say is still in evidence in the north of the island. Colours and styles of dress were banned and the bearing of arms outlawed, singing and story telling were made illegal. Druidism, like Irish race consciousness, was almost eradicated by the English Empire and the Roman Church.

Irish Tradition of Druidism
Somehow, through the poor farmers and travelling labourers the ancient spiritual traditions of our magical ancestors (i.e. from more than 2,000 years ago) had survived in poem, song and story. These ‘sean nósanna’ or ancient traditions or just simply – the old ways, were eventually recorded by German, Scandinavian and occasionally Irish researchers. In these poems and songs that were the remnants of the ancient Druidic oral tradition we can find some of the keys to undoing the disinformation of the monk chroniclers.

Ancient town land names have survived such as Knockavinidee, which may be a 1830 translation of an Irish place name into English. Translating it back we get cnoc an fionn dé and in a direct transfer to English – hill of the fair gods. Knockavinidee is on Tallaght Hill in South Dublin at 1,000ft and is the Summer Solstice Sunrise equivalent to Newgrange. Just west is a ridge overlooking the great plains of middle Ireland that carries ancient town land names that translate to – hill of the druids, witches town, hill of the Eagle, Priest hill. The hill of the Eagles is not on top of a difficult cliff face or pinnacle because it was a place of excarnation and the (existing but seriously damaged stone) temple is easy to walk to. Here we have the tradition of an attended temple housing carrion birds as funeral facilitators - but that tradition is unlikely to get re-established for a while yet…

Modern analyses of lore and artefact have begun to return the true concepts of our native Druidism to us once again. Modern language analysis has shown us that the systems and knowledge of the Druids is hidden inside the Old and Middle Irish language despite the attempts of the church and the imperial overlord to eradicate it. A modern example is – in English we would say “I am tired” but in Irish we say ‘tá tuirse orm’ which means “tiredness is upon me”. There is a big difference between actually being “tiredness” and just having some tiredness upon you when you think of it in terms of subliminal identity disorder programming. Our native language is a cultural marker that is one of our strongest surviving Celtic Traditions. Today, Irish is spoken by the Druids and Apprentices of the Dark Moon Grove at all Ritual Ceremonies to honour the Eightfolds of the Solar Year and at the Full Moon “Ritual of Protection” on Tara and privately on the Dark ‘new’ Moon at the Oak Grove.

Many temple alignments still stand showing us the Eightfold Solar Alignment that was honoured over 6,000 years ago. This landscape temple complex can be seen / activated again. The land can hold memory and when we are in balance - then two-way communication is possible. The temples are holding more life force than other areas and we can charge ourselves up at the “switched on” temples very quickly. Today we are seeing a return to the temples worldwide that is a clear expression of spirit rising.

The poems, songs and stories, the understandings of Old and Middle Irish, the Brehon Laws, the temple alignments, the sacred geometry and the subtle energies, the great rocks of the circles and dolmens and alignments and cairns are our links to the tradition of the most magical ancestors of this beautiful land of Eiru. We can actually be at the correct temple on the correct day looking at the horizon knowing exactly where the sun will rise and call on the ancient gods of the temple in our Celtic language. We can still honour the cycles and the mysteries (as was done for thousands of years) at the temples of our ancestors. The Druids and Apprentices of the Dark Moon Grove actually do this creating a powerful link through time and space connecting to the guardians and re-activating the temples, as we are able.

Romantic English Druidry
Outside of sole practitioners, it is reckoned that Druidry in England had disappeared or become extinct by 750 CE. In the seventeenth century, William Stukeley began to recover what he presented as the ‘Druid Wisdom’ of the past and in 1694 he re-founded the Mount Haemus Grove at Oxford. John Toland (1670-1722) founded a Druid organisation in London. These gatherings had no-thing to do with ancient Celtic culture and their ‘mystic’ incantations are chanted in the English language. Despite this false premise, the romantic attraction of ‘Celtic Culture’ has inspired many to believe that this modern English Magic is true Druidism, when it is pure fantasy. It was around this time that the term ‘priest’ began to be applied to the new Druids as if to validate the new “tradition” as an acceptable religion.

Nineteenth century Druidry was influenced by the works of Iolo Morganwg (1747-1826) and evolved into a mature system with the occult revival launched by Eliphas Levi (1801-1875). Eliphas Levi is the man that Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) claimed to be a re-incarnation of. There are many today claiming to be ‘Druids’ who have no practical personal research done except on the romantic modern version of Druidry. Druidry from the 1900s to the 1960s re-evolved in England as an occult (hidden) society of philosophers and alchemists, magicians, painters, poets etc, shapers of society who were for the most part quiet and private about their Druidical magical practice. WB Yeats, AE Russell and Bram Stoker are some of the famous Irish names from the Golden Dawn period of Druidry.

Modern Druidism
Representing the modern path of Druidism

Romantic Revivalism
In the 1960s, modern paganism began to increase its active membership and this brought difficulties for the core beliefs of Traditional British Druids. This was because most modern Druids practice according to traditions of knowledge evolved since the ‘Druid Revival’ of the seventeenth century but most modern pagans wanted an earth based religion instead. There has accordingly been an evolution or expansion of what is meant by the term ‘Druid’ for many and this has expanded the Druid practices of traditions based on the 17th century re-invention. Whether this is appropriate will be shown by the passage of time.

Much modern Druid expression is romantic and appeals to the dreamer in us, but this diverts us from the full and true expression of Druidism. Druidism is not a religion - so it cannot have a priest hood. Religion is a Latin word meaning “to be tied with ligament” – this means to be have something fixed to you or to be held to a set of laws. Priests interpret these laws and in doing so they put themselves above and between you and the source. This denies your right to full and direct connection to source except through those who claim to be your betters. This system has served its purpose and now belongs in the past.

The potential of Druidism today
Druidism is the ancient spiritual tradition of Ireland, it roots lie in the oldest temples in this island where many modern Druids still honour the Solar and Lunar cycles. Druidism is a spiritual path to gaining and holding inner Light and expressing your higher self. This path does not lead anywhere but as a Druid you have to walk it all the time. Walking this path is only possible by being balanced and in your centre. To be in your centre is to achieve a ‘balance’ between thinking and intuiting. It is only in your centre that you can discover and express your magical higher self. Being in this balance means being in the godlike awareness we call the 'Witness'. This is where the modern Druid of today holds his/her awareness – i.e. ‘turned on’ and in balance.

Technically speaking, this is not about killing the ego, it is not about killing the intuition, it is not about killing our base brain (medulla oblongata) – it is about working with all three and not being controlled by any of them. We need our left brain (thinking) and our right brain (intuiting) synchronised to transcend the reptilian brain (fight or flight) to activate the connecting bridge (corpus collosum) to hold our awareness in the higher mind. This I suggest is best done by focused magical training on a spiritual path of self-realisation in unity with Nature.

A suggestion for teaching a modern path
There are three recognizable stages to becoming a modern Druid today in the teachings of www.druidschool.com and the following description is but a brief outline (of stages that overlap) as an indicator and should not be confused with three distinct separate steps -

1. On a Druid path
This is where as a beginner you can begin to build foundation knowledge of the subtle energy of the invisible realms. This is where you may discover that the whispers of Spirit (that are often called conversation with the holy guardian angel) are actually coming from you. If you are lucky and have a balanced teacher – you may have the chance to create a framework on which to hang your expanded awareness so that this ‘new’ type of knowledge can begin to make some sort of sense. This may be seen as paddling in the surf with your trousers rolled up.

2. Apprenticed Druid
As an apprentice Druid, you seek focused training so you can stay on the path. As you progress on this path you gain proficiency with magical tools and skills. You are now consciously influencing your own reality and the invisible realms. You are very much aware that this apprenticeship is to the path and not to a teacher. Your teacher may prod you or guide you but you have to make the progress yourself. You do not expect results by just paying money or collecting certificates but by holding your awareness focus with the high intention of self-transformation. You begin to learn by seeing (but not judging) others as they struggle through life and by acknowledging your successes as you gain some mastery over your own life. Your point of perception (or assemblage point) shifts and you see the world through different eyes. This may be seen as swimming in your depth while staying close to the shore.

3. Being a Druid
As a Druid, you are a healer, teacher, counsellor and ceremonial leader. You seek to attend Solar and Lunar Ritual Ceremonies at sacred sites. You realise that because you have transformed yourself that the world you live in is also transformed – you know you cannot go back to the ‘old you’ even if you wanted to. You begin to see that the many different stages of your life have all always been leading to where you are now. You are at peace with yourself. Books seem to open on the most appropriate page, messages from spirit are clearer, the things you need (as opposed to the things your ego wants) appear with increasing ease, new teachers appear just as you need them, you feel the invisible realm with your entire reality, you have abandoned judgement of self and others as you purge dead emotions and you hold your light quietly to yourself. This may be seen as swimming in the deep oceans and flying in the sky and burrowing in the earth and dancing in the flames = pure being.

Modern Druidism, a suggestion…
A Druid is one who has the keys for you to become a Druid. A Druid may help you recall that that you are already a Druid and therefore happy and at One with the Source or God / Goddess. This is the deepest of truth and it is probably the only true role of a Druid. Modern Druidism is a path to knowing yourself, to know where you came from, to connect with and activate your incarnational potential, to discover the secrets of the universe, to understand Love, to be happily at One with the Source.

With the inner stillness and peace of the Druid path you can once again connect with God as you dissolve any illusions of separation. We all know the truth of Oneness, it is just that we have forgotten it. The Druid path is a way to remember our purpose, why we must practice meditation and why we must find the Light and dispel the Darkness. As a Druid you have direct access to the spiritual realm, no intermediary is ever needed to pray, meditate or to gain wisdom. Everything, every place and everyone is sacred because all is filled with the spirit of creation. To be a conscious Druid; you may find help from using the following code –

Love Life
Honour the Gods
Do no Evil
Practice Bravery
Seek Wisdom