Druids – Stuff on Celts, Druids, Standing Stones and suchlike.

Celts, Silk and Druidic Knowledge

Even in the 6th century BCE there is evidence of silk being worn by the Celts in Europe. It has been found mongst the many rich grave goods discovered at Hallstatt in Germany. The silk cloth must have felt exquisite compared to the standard wool and linen usually worn. There were many other fine grave goods discovered often imported from sites across Europe including for example coral, amber and even black shale bracelets from Britain.

The interesting point though is how extensive the trading routes were, even in the 6th century BCE, and doubtless it was not only silk and other goods that made their way across many thousands of miles. Along with the exchange of good there would be the exchange of knowledge – tales of far distant places, the religions practised there, the latest fashions even – and no doubt the traders would have been accompanied by priests and others curious to explore the worlds around them.

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Authors, especially Peter Berresford Ellis in his book The Druids, have pointed out many similarities between what is known about the religion practiced by the Druids and that of Hinduism. And with the evidence of trade with China as well it all paints an interesting backdrop to the religion of the Druids. Sadly, fascinating as these connections are, we can never know the reality, but given the evidence of how far goods – and therefore knowledge – travelled who knows?

Massacre of the Druids – as told in place names.

obj135geo146pg21p2[1] In AD60 the Roman general Paullinus stood on the banks of the Menai with a Legion of the XIV Gemina. On the opposite bank were thousands of Celts including many Druids, for this was the island of Anglesey as it is now called. Mona as it was then known, was the home of the Druids, the centre of Druidic teaching.

The story of the battle that took place is told elsewhere, but suffice it to say that the Romans successfully crossed the Menai and defeated the opposition. Then the massacres began. The names of various places on the Island bear mute remembrance to the slaughter that took place, despite the passage of more than two thousand years.

Place names such as Bryn-y-Beddau, the Hill of Graves, Plas Goch, the Red Place, and most graphically, the two fields still known as the Field of the Long Battle and the Field of Bitter Lamentation. The power and teachings of the Druids were never to recover from the disaster that occurred on Mona, though Ireland, unconquered by the Romans, was to remain a haven for the Druids until the spread of Christianity.

I am an Astrologer and not an Astronomer

009_hubble-monkey-head-nebula-ngc-2174 I look to the heavens for meaning, not for science, although I find meaning in the science.
I feel the weight of all of humankind who have also gazed up on a starry night and wondered about the meaning of life, the Universe, and their own destiny.
Were their questions mine? I suspect so, and what answers did they find? What knowledge did the Wise Seers amass. The Druids, for example, spent 30 years learning their craft, and were renowned in antiquity for their knowledge of the heavens, and before them, came the builders of the Stone Circles which predicted the movement of the Cosmos.