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Rooted deep in times long past, Druidry was alive with the sacredness of the Natural World. The living waters of rivers, springs, and wells were venerated because they were believed to have both magical and curative powers. Holy Ground and Sacred Site Spaces suffused the "trifold land-sea-sky divinity" that was intrinsic to the Wholeness of the Celtic Druidic Natural World. For instance, the weathered limestone "Rollright Stones", located on a prehistoric trackway near the village of Chipping Norton about a mile from the town of Long Compton, were a repository for Earth Goddess knowledge and strength. A sense of mystical magic and of timeless transcendence enveloped this planetary Druid's wheel of alternating female and male charged stones, concentric circles with spokes of radiant light energy, and rainbow spirit path guidelines.
The divine radiance and
empowered grace of Sacred Groves, Healing Springs, Holy Lakes, and Hallowed
Hills further sanctified the Druidic Celtic landscape.
Some of these blessed countryside settings were further enhanced for ceremonial connectivity purposes by the addition of Megalithic Standing Stones, Passage Cairns, and Stone Circles. Located in remote hillside glades or ancient wooded landscapes, the numinous potency of Holy Wells inspired pilgrimages and journeying. Most of the Celtic artwork depicted the Druidic reverence and respect for Nature in the elaborate entwining plant (flowers, leaves, trees, vines) and animal (birds, deer, dolphins, griffins) motifs, as well as, in the dynamically intricate designs (chevrons, knotwork. labyrinthine patterns, spirals). The vibrant diversity of Celtic Druidry influenced artwork permeated all areas of daily life from the stylized animal heads on the open ends of a neck torc to the swirling vegetative carvings on a the handle of a bucket. Some of the most superbly crafted and enchantingly enduring of the Druidic Celtic tales were Shamanic in Nature. Storytelling about Taliesin and Fionn mac Cumhail, was richly textured with symbolism about alternate realities, animal totems, divination, drumming, ecstatic dance, journeying, healing, oracles, shamanic trance, shapeshifting, soul loss retrieval, spirit guides, transformation, and vision quests.
The primary purpose of the Celtic Druidry symbology
was to elicit spiritual growth and quickening, as well as, to enhance the
process of obtaining Natural and Otherworld Wisdom through oracular divination. Animal Totems
that recurred frequently in Druidic Storytelling were Bear, Boar, Cow, Horse, Hound,
Mare, Raven, Salmon, Otter, Owl, Pig, Seagull, Stag, and Swan... Continue on
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