CHAPTER
IX
THE
DRUIDS
We
heard, in 1928, of a " Druid " celebration at
Stonehenge.
Shortly afterwards we read of another,
an
initiation ceremony, at Penzance where "12 bards
of
Britain, including Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, the
author,
were initiated by the Archdruid of Wales into
a sect
revived after a lapse of 2000 years. " '
Some of
us might prefer the lapse to have continued
and as
the subject of the Druid Mysteries is here rele-
vant we
quote verbatim the chapter entitled " The
Druids
" from Mr. Charles William Heckethorn's inte-
resting
book Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries :
"
The secret doctrines of the Druids were much the
same as
those of the Gymnosophists and Brahmins of
India,
the Magi of Persia, the priests of Egypt, and of
all
other priests of antiquity. Like them, they had two
sets of
religious doctrines, exoteric and esoteric. Their
rites
were practised in Britain and Gaul, though they
were
brought to a much greater perfection in the for-
mer
country, where the Isle of Anglesey was considered
their
chief seat. The word Druid is generally supposed
1. The
Daily Telegraph, Sept. 24, 1928.
to be
derived from " an oak ", which tree was
particularly
sacred among them, though its etymology
may also
be found in the Gaelic word Druidh, ' a wise
man ' or
' magician. '
"
Their temples, wherein the sacred fire was pre-
served,
were generally situate on eminences and in
dense
groves of oaks, and assumed various forms.
"
The adytum or ark of the mysteries was called a
cromlech,
and was used as the sacred pastos , or place
of
regeneration. It consisted of three upright stones,
as
supporters of a broad, flat stone laid across them on
the top,
so as to form a small cell. Kit Cotey's House,
in Kent,
was such a pastos. Considerable space, however,
was
necessary for the machinery of initiation in its
largest
and most comprehensive scale. Therefore, the
Coer
Sidi, where the mysteries of Druidism were per-
formed,
consisted of a range of buildings, adjoining the
temple,
containing apartments of all sizes, cells, vaults,
baths,
and long and artfully-contrived passages, with
all the
apparatus of terror used on these occasions. Most
frequently
these places were subterranean.
"
The system of Druidism embraced every religious
and
philosophical pursuit then known in these islands.
The
rites bore an undoubted reference to astronomical
facts.
Their chief deities are reducible to two, — a male
and a
female, the great father and mother, Hu and
Ceridwen,
distinguished by the same characteristics
as
belonged to Osiris and Isis, Bacchus and Ceres, or
any
other supreme god and goddess representing the
two
principles of all being. The grand periods of initia-
tion
were quarterly, and determined by the course
of the
sun, and his arrival at the equinoctial and sol-
stitial
points. But the time of annual celebration was
2.
Pastos — The altar upon which the ritual desecration of
virginity
obligatory for initiation into the phallic cult took place.
May-eve,
when fires were kindled on all the cairns and
cromlechs
throughout the island, which burned all
night to
introduce the sports of May-day, whence all
the
national sports formerly or still practised, date
their
origin. Round these fires choral dances were per-
formed
in honour of the sun, who, at this season, was
figuratively
said to rise from his tomb. The festival
was
licentious, and continued till the luminary had
attained
his meridian height, when priests and atten-
dants
retired to the woods, where the most disgraceful
orgies
were perpetrated. But the solemn initiations were
performed
at midnight, and contained three degrees,
the
first or lowest being the Eubates, the second the
Bards,
and the third the Druids. The candidate was
first
placed in the pastos bed, or coffin, where his sym-
bolical
death represented the death of Hu, or the sun ;
and his
restoration in the third degree symbolized the
resurrection
of the sun. He had to undergo trials and
tests of
courage similar to those practised in the mys-
teries
of other countries, and which therefore need not
be
detailed here.
"
The Druids taught the doctrine of one supreme
being, a
future state of rewards and punishments, the
immortality
of the soul and a metempsychosis... Their
doctrines
were chiefly those of Pythagoras.
"
Their authority in many cases exceeded that of
the
monarch. They were, of course, the sole inter-
preters
of religion, and consequently superintended all
sacrifices;
for no private person was allowed to offer
a
sacrifice without their sanction. They possessed the
power of
excommunication, which was the most hor-
rible
punishment that could be inflicted next to that
of
death, and from the effects of which the highest
magistrate
was not exempt. The great council of the
realm
was not competent to declare war or conclude
peace
without their concurrence. They determined all
disputes
by a final and unalterable decision, and had
the
power of inflicting the punishment of death. And,
indeed,
their altars streamed with the blood of human
victims.
Holocausts of men, women, and children,
enclosed
in large towers of wicker-work, were some-
times
sacrificed as a burnt-offering to their super-
stitions,
which were, at the same time, intended to en-
hance
the consideration of the priests, who were an
ambitious
race delighting in blood. The Druids, it is
said,
preferred such as had been guilty of theft, robbery, or other crimes, as
most
acceptable to their
gods;
but when there was a scarcity of criminals, they
made no
scruple to supply their place with innocent
persons.
These dreadful sacrifices were offered by the
Druids,
for the public, on the eve of a dangerous war,
or in
the time of any national calamity ; and also for
particular
persons of high rank, when they were afflic-
ted with
any dangerous disease.
"
The priestesses, clothed in white, and wearing a
metal
girdle, foretold the future from the observation
of
natural phenomena, but more especially from human
sacrifices.
For them was reserved the frightful task
of
putting to death the prisoners taken in war, and
individuals
condemned by the Druids ; and their
auguries
were drawn from the manner in which the
blood
issued from the many wounds inflicted, and also
from the
smoking entrails. Many of these priestesses
maintained
a perpetual virginity, others gave them-
selves
up to the most luxurious excesses.
"
As the Romans gained ground in these islands the
power of
the Druids gradually declined ; and they were
finally
assailed by Suetonius Paulinus, governor of
Britain
under Nero, A. D. 61, in their stronghold, the
Isle of
Anglesey, and entirely defeated, the conqueror
consuming
many of them in the fires which they had
kindled
for burning the Roman prisoners they had
expected
to make — a very just retaliation upon these
sanguinary
priests. But though their dominion was thus
destroyed,
many of their religious practices continued
much
longer; and so late as the eleventh century, in
the
reign of Canute, it was necessary to forbid the people
to
worship the sun, moon, fires, etc. Certainly many
of the
practices of the Druids are still adhered to in
Freemasonry
; and some writers on this order endeavour
to show
that it was established soon after the edict
of
Canute, and that as thereby the Druidical worship
was
prohibited in toto, the strongest oaths were requi-
red to
bind the initiated to secrecy. "
There is
no mystery as to the existence in Berlin
of the
" Druidenorden " today. It is a branch of
Freemasonry
and its Sovereign Grand Master, until
late,
was Dr. Htibbe-Schleiden.
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