Minggu, 20 September 2015

Occult Theocracy Chapter IX

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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