The deepest roots of Druidism are to be found in animism. In the belief every(!) being is expressing the beauty and will of the one creator. And therefore to be a part of the creator him/her/itself.
(Hey all you self-declared heathens, don’t freak out now but read on: If all known gods and beings return to and realize the source of their being they, without losing their identity or consciousness become part of the one. For this they just need to accept their own godliness.
If anyone wants to know more: Study the transformation from Wotan the angry to Odin the wise, or Brahma´s self-realization – All the same.
All right: Now it’s the evangelist zealots being grumpy again…
Where was I?
Ah yes: Before the big barbarian migration which brought the Celts to middle Europe, there existed different precursory traditions which, astoundingly enough can be reduced to a few characteristics.
Those elements reemerge in Celtic druidry, first in proto-Hellenic Greece, then from Gaul, Spain up to Ireland and England:
Oracles:
Even the foremost druids and many contemporary shamans, even the “Muotathaler Wether-Frogs” can predict the future from certain signs. The secret behind it is a very accurate knowledge behind the relations of and in nature, the seasons and the eternal laws of this world. Today every child knows: As soon as the day are beginning to shorten, soon it’s going go be winter. Basically it’s all about attaching natural phenomena like behavior of plants and animals, clouds etc. to the subsequently following events. Especially with birds (migratory) flights and songs, this prerequisites a certain knowledge.
Healing:
At the barbarian migration, there were no antibiotics and no hospitals. Therefore the knowledge about the healing properties of plants, warmth, cold and the eviction of certain mental states, based on which an illness could manifest itself, was very important. The first shamans developed powerful Rituals and had a very detailed knowledge about the energies circulating in humans, animals and plants. The Austrian glacier-mummy “Ötzi” for an example had lots of little pints tattooed on his body – Exactly at the places where a modern acupuncturist would set his needles, to cure the chronic conditions which Ötzi obviously had developed.
Mediation to and from higher powers
A real shaman should be able to fall in trance the one or other way, get sought after information from there and get back in one piece. This art has been abused ever since by any kind of impostors in every culture. The Shamans from which emerged the druids preferred the methods of inner and external contemplation, comparable to Indian yogis or ascets. Today this way has more or less survived, even if changed in the method of inner Tai-Chi, Qi-Gong or the healing Dao.
Nowadays there is a lot of would be shamans using all kinds of drugs. The serious shamans never ever do this without a damn good reason (evasion of the daily load is NOT one of those) – because they exactly know the long-term consequences. All other are going to pay the full price of their stupidity!!! This includes Tobacco, Alcohol and Coffee. (period!)
The care of the ancient holy places, rites and offerings was often a domain of the shamans. A real offering by the way at the first ages was mostly of a purely symbolistic character. The only thing a human being can really sacrifice, is its egoism (compare the first paragraph). All other things already belong to the one god/ess. To put things straight: Every sacrifice evoking even the slightest suffering are backfiring since ever on the responsible.