How Druids Created the World
Searles

Sat Sep  5 15:05:13 1998
On a news group of which I am a member, a discussion has developed concerning  the survival of Druids in certain lands.  This topic touches on the deeper topic of how one becomes a Druid in the first place.  For Draíocht to survive, there must be Druids to support and practice it.  This making and sustaining of Druids and Draíocht points us to the mysteries of creationand being IMO.*p*Here is a part of such a discussion (talking about the survival of Draíocht in Ireland within the Catholic Church):*p*As I remember it, Druids have always been a part of Celtic culture.  In the past 1300 years of that culture, Drai/ocht (Druidism, Druidry) has had a variety of roles within the Celtic culture from myth and magic, to fable and sorcery.  Prior to that Druids were also held to be philosophers, judges, teachers, priests, historians, and natural scientists among the Celts.  After the arrival of Christian ways among the Celts, Druids called themselves by other names in public.  Druids have been among the Celts for at least 3000 years now.  They are among Celts even today.*p*There was an overlapping period of about 300 years after Padraig that Druids and Christian priests vied for power in Ireland. There is a lot of evidence that many Druids converted to Christianity as priests.  The students of Druids went on to become saints (ST. Columba comes to mind). There is also ample evidence that healers continued to be healers and that judges continued to be judges.  Many of the Druids chose to be called Filidh or even Ollamh.  They were still there preserving their knowledge, but they just were not called Druids.  Even today, in the Catholic Church in Ireland, there are priests that are known to also serve the old ways. These priests are known to the people as "Crane Clerics."  Druids and Drai/ocht as an official organized branch of the society ceased to be around the 8th century CE in Ireland, but even then the knowledge lived on in the various hereditary families.  In my opinion, the greatest devastation to the ancient Druidic knowledge came from "The Flight of the Earls," the oppressions of Cromwell, and "An Gort."*p*Modern Neo-Druidry first reared its head at about the same time that the Irish*br*Diaspora was ending (a truly amazing coincidence). Too bad there were not more*br*Irish speakers among the Revival's founders.*p*Here's a quote that applies to this discussion from an online book The*br*Celts in Europe, (an abridged version) by Aedeen Cremin:*p*"Learning could survive in Ireland because there was already a learned*br*class of poets, lawyers and former druids, now Christian monks and clerics.*br*Unlike all other Celts the Irish desired to write their own language They*br*had already learnt to write Latin, probably in the Irish colonies in Wales*br*and had ingeniously devised a phonetic alphabet to be carved onto*br*gravestones and territorial markers, a practice which was confined to the*br*southwest of the country. By the seventh century, however, they had managed*br*the difficult feat of writing Old Irish in Latin script and from then on*br*they systematically collected and compiled information. As a result we have*br*literally thousands of pages of manuscripts containing poetry, law texts,*br*glossaries, grammars, stories, saints' lives and chronicles of significant*br*historical events."*p*Sound familiar?*p*I agree that many of the Druidic Revival Druid groups were born out of a*br*desire for spirit and religion that was not (at first) connected to the*br*ancient teachings, beliefs and ways of Druids.  Many interpersonal*br*relationships and marriages today form (and flourish) from a similar*br*diversity and synchronicity of spirit.  This does not mean that such*br*relationships and practices are static and unchanging.  Many of them*br*eventually find a truth and a happiness that is universal and intimately*br*tied to the nature of the human spirit and love (or some other noble*br*concept; container of spirit that they are).  Because a Druidic group was*br*founded with anomalies within its charter does not mean that such a group*br*cannot eventually grow to be an actual Druidic group.  There are no*br*mountains that the human spirit cannot overcome.  The Catholic Church is*br*perhaps a mountain to be climbed by such a spirit.*p*There are many things that occur (and have occurred) within the Catholic*br*Church that are not officially sanctioned.  Some of these things eventually*br*come out in the headlines in bad ways and some of these underground *br*practices never get reported. Some of the bad things are pedophilia,*br*murder, sexual harassment, money laundering, etc.  Some of the not so bad*br*things are condoning contraception, divorce, alternative spiritual*br*practices, etc..  When I speak of "Crane Clerics" in the Irish Catholic*br*Church, I am relaying information given to me by people that I trust who*br*have encountered and have been served by such priests.  To see an example*br*of the ways in which Irish Catholic spiritual beliefs differ markedly from*br*what is considered the norm by Rome, read _Anamchara_ by John O'Donohue*br*(which is a moderate example IMO).  *p*Being a Druid is not so much a matter of names or organizations as it is a*br*matter of spirit.  One either receives the gift of imbas or not after*br*study, discipline and seeking.  What is Rome's is given to Rome but that*br*which belongs to Spirit and to the Land must return to Them as well.  In*br*the early days of Christianity in Ireland, it was tolerated by the Pagan*br*religions and people, as another deity among many.  Christianity was the*br*religion that had zero tolerance for other gods.  In such an environment,*br*alternative religion goes underground.  A similar analogy can be said to*br*have happened in Russia during Communist regimes.  Religions and*br*capitalistic practices went underground and into a black market.  Even*br*today, in the United States there are underground religions and practices*br*that are intolerable to many Christian groups, yet they survive. *p*Obviously such religions would thrive and flourish to a much greater degree*br*if they were more available to the population and able to communicate and*br*teach their beliefs more openly.  This is what happened with Drai/ocht in*br*Ireland (in fact, it is also what happened with the Irish language and*br*traditions for about 200 years under English rule).  Without the coherence*br*and renewal of open meeting and assembly for information sharing and*br*standardization, practices tend to diverge and to change into widely*br*varying forms.  This is what has happened to the teachings of Druids in*br*terms of traditions and the matters of the mundane world.  A cucumber can*br*be a cucumber for only so long in a pickle vat :-) *p*What has not changed in the years that have passed is the nature of spirit*br*and the ecstatic experience of imbas.  The techniques for obtaining imbas*br*have perhaps diversified along with the traditions, but the clear knowledge that*br*comes of spirit and wisdom remains a wellspring from which all may drink. *br*Drinking from that well is one of the things that takes a person on the*br*Druid path today. Connecting with Druids who have not died through journeys of the spirit *br*(passing from one world to the next), is a way of recovering the ancient knowledge. *br*Meeting theses teachers in the place of creation is the best way to understand the*br*truth in their wisdom saying, which says that they created the world.  *p*Without a threefold practice: a study of surviving tradition, the*br*development of the powers of observation and science, the seeking and*br*finding of imbas, there can be no Druids in any world; in any time; in any*br*place or person.  Those who would be Druids would IMO be best served by*br*"walking the talk," and pursuing these threefold goals for as many years as*br*it takes for them to completely integrate the three forms of knowledge*br*previously referenced: tradition, experience and imbas.  It is when this*br*second birth of the self occurs that a person can be a Druid.  I have had a*br*taste of the three, and now I am seeking the unity that transforms.  That*br*is the Druid Way.  My faith in the growth that it promotes is what keeps me*br*going in this world and is what I trust will sustain me in many lifetimes*br*and many worlds to come.*p*Sla/n is beannacht,*p*Searles