Kaylara
February 10th, 2001, 12:16 AM
-- Posted by mol on 7:00 pm on Dec. 31, 1969
Hope I am not stepping on Twigs toes...heh...but I was looking into some info on Druidism and found a great site with a lot of information. Of course, I am no Druid...so I cant claim that it is factual. That would be the moderators job (*nods* to Twig.) Here is something:
WHO WERE THE DRUIDS?
Druidism must be understood in the context of the culture that created it. Only the Celtic people called their religious professionals Druids; other cultures had other names for their clergy, and expected different duties from them. Druids were not an ethnic or cultural group in themselves, but part of a larger society in which they participated. In the pre-christian era of Celtic culture, the Druids were members of a professional class in their culture, the Celtic Nations of Western Europe and the British Isles. Druids filled the roles of judge, doctor, diviner, mage, mystic, and clerical scholar; in other words, they were the religious intelligensia of their culture. To become a Druid, students assembled in large groups for instruction and training, for a period of up to twenty years. The mythologies describe Druids who were capable of many magical powers such as divination & prophesy, control of the weather, healing, levitation, and shapechanging themselves into the forms of animals. Their education was so rigourous that at the end of it they were virtually walking encycopaedias. A good word for them would seem to be "priests", yet I am reluctant to use it for two reasons: The Romans never used it, and because Druids didn't minister to congregations as priests do.
Rather, they had a clientele, like a lawyer, a consultant, a mystic, or a shaman would have. Caesar and his historians never referred to them as priests, but perhaps they could not recognise them as priests since the Roman priesthood, officiating over an essentially political religion, were primarily teachers and judges, with less emphasis on being seers or diviners, whereas the Druids appeared to have both legal and magical powers and responsabilities.
Credit to Brendan Myers....his site:
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~bmyers/druid.html
-- Posted by Twig on 7:00 pm on Dec. 31, 1969
Good Intro mol. As far as an indepth intro as to the history and modern druidism,I refer people to the following website
http://www.druidry.com/
This is the website for The Order of Bards,Ovates and Druids. The site is chocked full of factual info that should answer any new seekers questions as to the druid path in gerneral.
Peace,
Twig
Hope I am not stepping on Twigs toes...heh...but I was looking into some info on Druidism and found a great site with a lot of information. Of course, I am no Druid...so I cant claim that it is factual. That would be the moderators job (*nods* to Twig.) Here is something:
WHO WERE THE DRUIDS?
Druidism must be understood in the context of the culture that created it. Only the Celtic people called their religious professionals Druids; other cultures had other names for their clergy, and expected different duties from them. Druids were not an ethnic or cultural group in themselves, but part of a larger society in which they participated. In the pre-christian era of Celtic culture, the Druids were members of a professional class in their culture, the Celtic Nations of Western Europe and the British Isles. Druids filled the roles of judge, doctor, diviner, mage, mystic, and clerical scholar; in other words, they were the religious intelligensia of their culture. To become a Druid, students assembled in large groups for instruction and training, for a period of up to twenty years. The mythologies describe Druids who were capable of many magical powers such as divination & prophesy, control of the weather, healing, levitation, and shapechanging themselves into the forms of animals. Their education was so rigourous that at the end of it they were virtually walking encycopaedias. A good word for them would seem to be "priests", yet I am reluctant to use it for two reasons: The Romans never used it, and because Druids didn't minister to congregations as priests do.
Rather, they had a clientele, like a lawyer, a consultant, a mystic, or a shaman would have. Caesar and his historians never referred to them as priests, but perhaps they could not recognise them as priests since the Roman priesthood, officiating over an essentially political religion, were primarily teachers and judges, with less emphasis on being seers or diviners, whereas the Druids appeared to have both legal and magical powers and responsabilities.
Credit to Brendan Myers....his site:
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~bmyers/druid.html
-- Posted by Twig on 7:00 pm on Dec. 31, 1969
Good Intro mol. As far as an indepth intro as to the history and modern druidism,I refer people to the following website
http://www.druidry.com/
This is the website for The Order of Bards,Ovates and Druids. The site is chocked full of factual info that should answer any new seekers questions as to the druid path in gerneral.
Peace,
Twig