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*
When it doesn’t work, it looks like cheap theater. But when it does, something inside turns like a combination lock until it clicks, and then slides open. After all, there is nothing like watching the world respond to you. If it is a performance of the modern self to dress up in robes and ask your ancestors for blessings as bats snip and chatter in the summer dusk, then it is also deeply satisfying. Pouring good rye down the dark throat of a well, watching it drop fathoms deep: that act has its own, deeply human magic.
I am a total Nature Girl, but even I see this as self-indulgent bunk.
Change my mind. ;)
Do they speak the old language?
Not even Old Irish?
How do the Spirits know what they are saying, Google Translate?
“Outlander” had a groovy ritual with beautiful women, flowing robes, torches and stonehenge like boulders.
The Pacific Northwest is full of lots of stuff.
So is Grandpa’s colon.
As long as they are not infringing on anyone else’s right then I say to each their own.
Sacrilege, I say!
Summoning this way demons is the height of foolhardiness.
If I remember my history, the original druids were wiped out by the Roman Armies 2000 years ago. Only a few mentions in Roman histories of their rites are left, no actual rites.
So today’s “Druids” are wannabes who make up their beliefs as they go along.
Much like a person who wants to restart the worship of Attis, Adonis and Osiris but does not know where to start except their modern “priests” will no longer be required to castrate themselves.
I imagine God is not amused by the antics of these overgrown children.
and very dangerous. Those who dabble in the occult are likely to get more than they bargain for. Satan and his minions are very real and very powerful.
I was expecting to see pictures of greasy fat kids with really bad acne and dyed black hair.
Maybe Merlin will come back and take down the N.I.C.E.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That_Hideous_Strength
Druids worshiping Lord Taranis as Savior are barking up the wrong tree.
Lost souls who have yet to find a Christian Church that teaches the bible in its only form.
Take heart. The Far Side is back from beyond.
Reminds me of the spiders who built their web across the bottom of the slide:
"If we pull this off we'll eat like kings!"
Merry Christmas! :)
Totally fake as no one knows what the Druids did or did not do. Modern wanna be hippies turned tree loving feel good fakes.
Shamanistic cultures only exist in a very limited number of populations scattered around the world. All descended from the original ones practiced 40000-70000 years ago
Though hopefully not the "stonehenge like boulders".
That’s some strange sh!t there Di.
Your post reminds me of something I once heard.
.......what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it.
19because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
20For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
21For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
Romans 1:18-23 NASB
Druids are hippies who’ve lost their looks.
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