druid - The Skeptic's Dictionary

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class="logo"> <img src="_images/logo_01.png" alt="The Skeptic's Dictionary" width="270" height="60" border="0" />           <br /> by <a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/bio.html">Robert Todd Carroll</a> * est. 1994 </div> <div class="slogan"> <img src="_images/slogan_01.gif" alt="A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions" width="362" height="30" /> </div> </div> <div class="menu"> <ul> <li></li><li><a href="http://skepdic.com/">Home</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/news/">Newsletter</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/feedback.html">Feedback</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/faq.html">FAQ & Interviews</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/tour.html">Site Map</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="middle"> <div class="left"> <h2>Topical Indexes</h2> <ul class="nav_1"> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/tialtmed.html">Alternatives to Medicine</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/ticriticalthinking.html">Critical Thinking</a></li> 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href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#Y">y</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#Z">z</a></li> </ul> <webContent><h1>druid</h1> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">The druids were the "wise men" of the Celts. Although dozens of books have been written about them, almost nothing is known about the druids. Their beliefs were esoteric and passed on orally. Their practices, for the most part, were not public. With no written tradition and no major temples where art might provide a key to some of the druids' activities, we must rely upon the words and speculations of foreign observers.</font></p> <p style="text-align: left"> <font size="3"> <img border="0" src="graphics/drombeg1.jpg" alt=" Drombeg stone circle, Country Cork, Ireland. Though favored by modern druids, such circles antedate the Celts. Photo by Leslie A. Carroll" width="453" height="245"></font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">The druids are mentioned by the ancient Roman authors Strabo, Diodorus, Posidonius and Julius Caesar, who portray them as overseeing bloody religious rituals. Hence, the druids are often thought of as having primarily a religious function and are often called 'priests.' Diodorus calls them 'philosophers.' Strabo calls them bards and soothsayers with a reputation for mediation. Whatever they were, the druids enjoyed a position of high status in Celtic society very unlike the position of modern "druids" who find solace communing with grass or the wind while parading around stone circles.</font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">Modern "druids" treat <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/stonehenge/qanda/"> Stonehenge</a> and other megalithic monuments of the British Isles as places of worship. All of the stone circles, menhirs, dolmens, etc., of the British Isles were constructed by peoples who antedated the Celts by one to three thousand years. Stonehenge, for example, was built over a period of centuries, from 2800 BC to 1550 BC. The Celts did not arrive in the British Isles until long after the great megaliths had been erected.</font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">It seems likely that the Celtic druids were a class apart from the warriors in Celtic society. "They served the tribes and clans as judges, prophets, soothsayers, wise men and as keepers of the collective memory" (Herm, 61). They were the intellectuals in a warrior society and have been compared to the Brahmins of the Indian caste system.</font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">The word 'druid' is thought to derive from the Greek <em>drus </em>(oak) and the Indo-European <em>wid</em> (wisdom), "which produces the apparent absurdity of 'oak-knower' (Herm, 57). In any case, druids are typically associated with oak trees. Some say they held  assemblies in sacred groves, that they prized the mistletoe growing on the oaks, or that they worshipped the trees themselves. However, the modern druids' nature worship is a fanciful connection to the ancient Celts. Finally, there is no direct historical connection between the Celtic druids and modern <a href="wicca.html">Wicca</a>.</font></p> <hr align="left" width="25%" noshade> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><strong>further reading</strong></font><p style="text-align: left"> <strong><font face="Arial" size="3">books and articles</font></strong><p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6304814305/roberttoddcarrol">Delaney, Frank. <em>The Celts </em>(3 video tapes).</a></font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0802841589/roberttoddcarrolA/">Ellis, Peter Berresford. <em>The Druids</em> (Wm. B. Eeerdmans Publishing Co.;1998).</a></font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">Herm, Gerhard. <em>The Celts</em> (St. Martin's Press: New York 1977).</font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0313299552/roberttoddcarrolA/">Lonigan, Paul R. <em>The Druids : Priests of the Ancient Celts</em> (Contributions to the Study of Religion, No 45) (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996).</a> </font> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0851157475/roberttoddcarrolA/">'O. Hogain, Daithi. <i>The Sacred Isle: Pre-Christian Religions in Ireland</i>  (Boydell & Brewer, 1999).</a></font><p style="text-align: left"> <strong><font face="Arial" size="3">websites</font></strong><p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a href="http://www.crystalinks.com/druids.html">Druids</a></font><p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a href="http://metalab.unc.edu/gaelic/celts.html">Dalriada Celtic Heritage Society: Who Were the Celts?</a></font><p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a href="http://www.britannia.com/wonder/michell2.html">The Celtic Druids</a></font><p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"> <a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O70-druid.html">Druid - Encyclopedia.com</a></font><p style="text-align: left"><b> <font face="Arial" size="3">news</font></b><p style="text-align: left"> <font size="3"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11457795">Druidry to be classed as religion by Charity Commission</a> The Druid Network's charitable status entitles it to tax breaks, but the organisation says it does not earn enough to benefit from this.</font> <p></webContent>Last updated </p> 27-Oct-2015</div> </div> <div class="right"> <div class="right_it"> <div class="search"> <form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/custom" target="_top"> <input type="hidden" name="domains" value="skepdic.com" /> <input type="text" name="q" maxlength="255" value="" size="20" /> <input type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" /> <br /> <div class="search_2"> <input type="radio" name="sitesearch" value="" /> Web     <input type="radio" name="sitesearch" value="skepdic.com" checked="checked" /> Skepdic.com <br /> <img src="_images/logo_google.gif" alt="Google" width="48" height="19" /> </div> <input type="hidden" name="client" value="pub-3542920166946725" /> <input type="hidden" name="forid" value="1" /> <input type="hidden" name="ie" value="ISO-8859-1" /> <input type="hidden" name="oe" value="ISO-8859-1" /> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="GALT:#008000;GL:1;DIV:#336699;VLC:663399;AH:center;BGC:FFFFFF;LBGC:336699;ALC:0000FF;LC:0000FF;T:000000;GFNT:0000FF;GIMP:0000FF;FORID:1;" /> <input type="hidden" name="hl" value="en" /> </form> </div> <div class="center"> <p align="right"><a href="http://skepdic.com/authorpage.html"><strong>Books by R. 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