You might be...

You might be a Celt if you consider *Classical Civilization* inferior to *Celtic Culture*.

Today's lecture [lol] is about druidism because I get tired of the neo lot running round in white sheets making druidism look like...hm; first thought is actually unprintable, like...like...like a bunch of people running round in white sheets. I understand strange enthusiasms. I understand reaching back in time for religious roots but even a cursory investigation of the facts should acquaint you with a simple elucidating fact: druids were NOT priests.

Yes, I know that's what everyone calls them. It's misleading. The Romans, who provide the only eyewitness accounts of druids, actually don't call them priests, which to the modern mind has Christian overtones of religious practise. They were in fact the intelligentsia of the Celtic world: philosophers, historians, lawyers, musicians, poets & doctors. It amongst that lot you also get the occasional shamanistic figure practising *strange arts*. The Celts themselves generally distinguish a druid's role as file [poet], brehon [lawyer], scelaige [keeper of myths & epics], liaige [doctor], sencha, [historian].

A little reading will tell you we know almost nothing about druids & druidism & that is certainly true up to a point. There are no unbiased descriptions by outsiders. The druids themselves left no written records. However, despite remaining texts becoming corrupted by Christianity quite a lot of their beliefs & practises can be culled from sources such as the Mabigionin, the remaining Irish sagas, the law lists of Ireland & Wales & Roman commentators such as Diodorus who lists druids as educators, astronomers/astrologers, doctors, historians, bards & doctors.

They wielded quite a lot of power. In the end the bards were a right royal pain in the tush asking for things like a king's crown & as it was churlish to refuse what was asked you can imagine they became actively disliked. Among the things that are generally accepted are that there were certain places, like Mona, where the druids were particularly active or had a school, or congregated around a sacred site. They were certainly responsible for feast days & keeping track of the calendar which combined lunar & solar cycles ~ their math being considerably better than mine!

One of the things that amuses me is that the men often grew beards in an effort to look older & wiser! lol. Some vanities are common throughout the ages. They also had a special tonsure from ear to ear; I'm assuming to make the forehead look higher & more noble & intelligent. The remaining hair was caught back in a que. When I look at the panel on the Gundestrup Cauldron with a man dunking initiates in a pot by their heels I can't help wondering if it's not the remains of some druidic rite whose significance has long since been lost. Of course it could simply be a depiction of the rebirth of the soul, something that made Celtic warriors fearless in battle & happy to accept payment of a debt in the next life. Yes, well.....

And because I like obscure & meaningless information I like the etymology of the word druid. It's one of those funny words that got borrowed by the Romans from the proto~Celtic stem druwid & fed back into English via the Latin druides, a word usually translated *oak* & the druids were certainly known for having a thing for oak groves but the wider meaning may be *to see true*.

I think it would be correct to say they were a political entity, maybe like the IRA or Sein Feinn because the druids were the only semi~religious body the Romans set out to utterly destroy. After Boudicca's uprising they once again set out for Mona & completed annihilated the community on Mona before cutting down the sacred oak groves & burning them. It effectively broke British morale.

One of the things in all things that has frustrated historians is a lack of archaeological evidence. Then they opened a grave at Staneway near Colchester & have enough material evidence to quibble over for some time. Have a look, The medical instruments look almost modern ~ or alternatively medicine hasn't progressed all that much down the centuries.

Given enough time I'd dig up the whole of England after Celtic artifacts. It's all downhill after that!