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Druidry Druid Druidic Treelore
Spiritual Beliefs of Druids
In Druidry, The forest was a sacred place filled with wooded sanctuaries and shrines. Woods were so sacred to the Druidic Celts and played such a significant role in their overall cultural existence that at one time the Celtic heartlands in Northern Europe and Southern Germany were almost entirely covered with trees.
Druids preferred to perform their rituals outside in the Natural World underneath the never-ending circle of sky in forest clearings. in open air shrines, and in sacred groves. All of the animals, forests, lakes, mountains, rivers, and trees were blessed and holy to the Celts and worthy of their utmost reverence. The Natural World inspired their imaginations and enlivened their art.
Fairy Mounds, the Wee Folk, Mineral Spirits, Hollow Hills, Leprechauns, Animal Spirits, Holy Wells, Sacred Lakes, Tree Spirits, the Sidhe. . . the Druidic Celtic world was alive with the vibrancy and the glittering glories of hosts of Fairies; of the elemental beings of fire, earth, air, and water; of the holy divinity of the land, the sea, and the sky.
All trees were sacred to the Celtic Druids because they were imbued with the holiness of Tree Spirits, one of the many spiritual kindred sharing the planet with humans. Their leafy tops moved with the currents of the sky winds and their roots burrowed deep into the moist nourishment of the earth. They had their heads in the clouds but their feet were planted firmly on the ground.
The Divine Forest,
typified by the Sacred Grove or Nemeton, was hallowed ground for the Druids who
worshipped their Gods and Goddesses in natural spaces. Sacred Groves were the
settings for ceremonies, meetings, and sanctuaries. For instance, the Galatian
Celts met at the Oak Sanctuary once a year to discuss crucial tribal concerns.
Depiction of Druidic Daghda of the Tuatha dé Danann Holding Up
A Wheel on Plate C of the Gaulish Gundestrup Cauldron
The World Tree or Tree of Life was a Druidic symbol ladened with many sacred meanings to the Druids and acted as a visual portal key opening doorways to hidden knowledge and ancient genetic memories. Each year most trees lived a condensed lifetime over cyclic seasons that fostered continued growth through periods of dormancy, renewal, growth, and decay from full blossom growth, to golden leaf days, to icy stillness, to budding rebirth once again.
Besides its deep respect and abiding reverence for the Natural World, another hallmark of Druidry was the thematic tradition of mythic storytelling about heroic quests, sacred kingships, and underworld journeys. During their rituals, the Celtic Druids often revered many Goddesses and Gods, as well as, their ancestors who lived in a paradise that lied somewhere beyond the encircling sea.
Like the intricate, intertwining, interlacing, eternally connected knotwork of their art, the spiritual continuity of the Druidic traditions shined through the Celtic cultural mythos. For instance, the Celtic Goddess Brighid (who was associated with the cow) was featured in many heroic myths about sacred kingship and underworld quests. The fire festival of Imbolc honored Goddess Brighid as it ushered in the Spring.
Some of the most superbly crafted and enchantingly enduring of the Druidry Celtic tales, like those about Taliesin and Fionn mac Cumhail, were 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.
Druidic Storytellers told tales of
goddesses and otherworld beings appearing at critical life passage moments in
groups of three. A significant symbolic pattern or design that recurred in
Celtic art, mythology, and religion was the theme of triplication or the power
of a group of three...
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Read Druidry Treelore Articles
Druids as Celtic Shamans,
Glossary Terminology,
Hallowed Symbols and Holy Ground,
Megaliths and Sacred Mounds,
Ogham Storytelling and Oral Traditions,
Reverence for Natural World Animals and Birds,
Spiritual Beliefs of Druids,
Sacred Wheel of Seasons,
Sun Talismans and Holy Wells,
Threefold Path of Bards Ovates Druids,
Treelore and Sacred Groves
Visit other Beliefs Faiths Religions Traditions
Aboriginal Dreamtime,
Alchemy Alchemist,
Cosmos Astronomy,
Buddhism Buddhist,
Christianity Biblical,
Daoist Confucian,
Druidry Treelore,
Heathenry Ásatrú,
Hinduism Vedas,
Islam Sunnah,
Judaism Talmud,
Native American,
Paganism Wiccan,
Shamanism Shaman,
Shintoism Kami
Druidry Druid Druidic Treelore Copyright © 2002-2008 Maureen Grace Burns, Blessings Cornucopia. All Rights Reserved.
Public Domain Image Depiction of Druidic Daghda of the Tuatha dé Danann Holding Up A Wheel on Plate C of the Gaulish Gundestrup Cauldron, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gundestrup_C.jpg]. Accessed December 27, 2006.
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