Nature, Spirituality and the Celts

Nature and Celtic Society -Specialties: Within ancient Druidism, there were three specialties. “A general categorisation of the three different grades accords the arts to the bards, the skills of prophecy and divination to the Ovates and philosophical, teaching, counseling and judicial tasks to the Druid.” -The Bards were “the keepers of tradition, of the memory of the tribe – they were the custodians of the sacredness of the Word.” In Ireland, they trained for 12 years learning grammar, hundreds of stories, poems, philosophy, the Ogham tree-alphabet. -The Ovates worked with the processes of death and regeneration. They were the native healers of the Celts. They specialized in divination, conversing with the ancestors, and prophesizing the future. -The Druids and Druidesses formed the professional class in Celtic society. They performed the functions of modern day priests, teachers, ambassadors, astronomers, genealogists, philosophers, musicians, theologians, scientists, poets and judges. They underwent lengthy training: some sources say 20 years. Druids led all public rituals, which were normally held within fenced groves of sacred trees. In their role as priests, “they acted not as mediators between God and man, but as directors of ritual, as shamans guiding and containing the rites.” Most leaders mentioned in the surviving records were male. It is not known whether female Druids were considered equal to their male counterparts, or whether they were restricted to …
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An indepth dialogue on the teachings of early Christianity and the spirituality of eastern Orthodoxy, still little known in the West. A rare source of mystical wisdom.