Posted on 12/21/2019 7:55:36 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
[Deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest, a community of Druids is reviving Celtic rites. They might seem hokey or outlandish, but maybe, just maybe, they’re the ones who have it all figured out.]
The priest raises his arms, palms upturned. “Lord Taranis, hear our prayer!” he bellows, voice bouncing off the stone pillars and into the darkening fields beyond. The fire’s crackle fills the stone circle. We stare through the flames, past the boundary of our sacred space, to the patina of white looming over the white sky – Mount Adams, close and huge.
It is high summer, and we are at White Mountain Druid Sanctuary in southern Washington State. Under the immensity of the mountain, a couple of ramshackle barns stick up from the hayfields. Our priest, a straight-backed, snow-haired man, is delivering a homily on the attributes of the thunder god. Taranis, a powerful thunderbolt-tossing deity, is being honored at today’s solstice celebration because of his association with light, weather and sky.
Arms raised, the priest pauses. We lean forward, breathless. The fire cracks again. The teenage girls on the edge of the circle, who might be high on mushrooms, giggle quietly to themselves. Finally the priest grins and lowers his arms.
“Well, I forgot that part, darn it.” With a shrug, he reaches into his white robes and pulls out a small piece of paper. His voice is wry, sing-songy, full of mirth. “I should have practiced more!”
Everyone laughs as the priest consults his paper. “Sorry, I’ve got it now,” he says, resuming the formal diction – few contractions, quick and clear consonant sounds – that he uses for his rituals. Throwing his arms into the air, he intones, “Lord Taranis…” and completes the rest of the homily uninterrupted.
To get to the Sanctuary in the foothills of Mount Adams, I rattled down a gravel road and parked beneath some prayer flags tacked to a barn. A sign on the building read “DRUIDS HERE.” There is a large wooden lodge with bed-and-breakfast facilities, meditation huts, and a stone circle straight out of Stonehenge, where, upon my arrival, about fifty people were pouring whiskey into deep wells and speaking Gaelic. They were blowing horns and beating drums and generally having a hell of a good time.
As this is my first Druid ritual, I have no idea how much of this to take seriously. It’s hard to tell how much the participants themselves take seriously; there’s a lot of laughter and self-deprecation. But when Kirk Thomas, the Arch-Druid of Ár nDraíocht Féin, asks the gates of the spirit world to open, creating a thin, traversable bridge across the red-gold evening breeze, we all grow tense.
I don’t know who Taranis is, let alone believe that he’s going to visit our circle, but I strain, listening for signs. Birds wheel in the sky. Somewhere on the other side of the property, a bell trickles into the wind.
“The gates are open,” Thomas says finally, and we begin.
*SNIP*
No one actually knows what the Druidic rites actually entailed! Except perhaps human sacrifice which might today be frowned upon. What little information we have comes from hostile (Greek & Roman) secondary & tertiary sources.
+. lol....
“Except perhaps human sacrifice which might today be frowned upon.”
I have read that the human sacrifice part is way overdone.
How did I know about what these people look like sans checking the pics? I checked. Removed all superficial doubt.
I like that!
May I use it!
LOL! I love that response, too! From the movie, ‘Billy Madison’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQCU36pkH7c
What little we DO know about the Druids is apparently they practiced human sacrifice.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/3/druids-sacrifice-cannibalism/
I get the romanticism about Druids.
I also am a realist and the fact is these people existed in a time when superstitions abounded.
These modern day Druids would not even be recognized by ancient Druids and if you brought back the ancient Druids and taught them a thing or two I wonder if they themselves would not give up their superstitions and move forward with reality.
The ‘modern Druids’ are really not Druids at all.
In before the Spinal Tap.
Amen!
There are 2000 collective ‘mythologies’, of which your’s, though differently titled than mine, are part of. Marie Laveau, for all that she has been historic, was a staunch Catholic!
The image of the horrified Blutarsky when the keg & booze were dumped is now in my mind!
Attention All Druids: There will be a bingo game following the Wednesday night Oak Worship Service.
“May I use it!’’. Sure, go right ahead.
There may be many mythologies but there is only one God.
When I was out “Left” and visited Sequoia Nat’l Park, I got another of them “Nature feelings” and had an inkling of the spirituality of Native Americans.
Nothing wrong with appreciating what God has wrought, but I only worship the most ancient of the Gods - the one that existed before time...and when I’m out adoring Nature, I thank Him for His many gifts.
Nobody has ever said in writing anywhere, at any time in written history, either Occidental or Oriental, that “the other gods” have retired and gone to live in a retirement home with weather of their choosing!
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