The First Signposts

Who were the Celts?

In order to explore the practices of the druid shaman, we mustfirst briefly clarify our definition of some familiar terms. Thepeople from whom we get the term 'Celt', the 'Keltoi' were firstmentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus, as a group ofpeople living in the region of the river Danube around 550BC.These people were distinctive in their incredible art, highlysophisticated culture, and material wealth. They were especiallyrich in gold. By this time it is believed that these people were apoint of interchange with the Greeks, while also being part of awider culture sharing common languages, customs and beliefs.These 'Celts' were an ethno-linguistic group of tribal Iron Agesocieties that spanned a large part of northern and westernEurope as far as Britain and Ireland. They shared common valuesand traditions, with variations over time and from region toregion. Contrary to popular belief, they were not a distinctgenetic race, although some 'Celtic' customs and linguisticsimilarities survive today in most Celtic areas.

Britain, Cornwall, Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man andIreland are all considered to remain Celtic heartlands to this day,together with Brittany, and are often described with the term'Insular Celts', as opposed to the 'Continental Celts'. These'Insular Celts' diverged into the Gaelic Celts, of Ireland, Scotlandand the Isle of Man, and the Brythonic Celts of Brittany, Cornwalland Wales. Scholars in the 19th and 20th centuries often arguedthat the Celts arrived in Britain via an invasion or succession ofinvasions around the 6th century BC from Continental Europe,but this has now been largely overturned due to a lack of archaeologicalevidence, and the work of archaeologists such as BarryCunliffe. The British Celts were for the most part probably theindigenous Britons, arriving in the early Bronze Age (2500BC) oreven earlier, adopting and adapting Celtic culture due to theirextensive relations and trading connections along the Atlanticseaboard and beyond.

These people are notoriously hard to pin down, although theircultural effects have been profound on later generations, creatinga 'Celtic consciousness' and traditions that have spannedmillennia, so that today much of Wales, Scotland and Irelandwould still call themselves proudly 'Celtic' and often maintainedpractices which are distinctly Celtic in nature well into themodern era, such as those recorded by Alexander Carmichael inhis Carmina Gadelica in the latter part of the 19th century.

For the purposes of this book, the term Celtic is used in itswidest and most common usage sense; primarily to refer to theseBritish and Irish 'Celts' of the Iron Age as well as later Celts andCeltic practices spanning from them through Celtic Christianityto this day, with minor references to Iron Age Celtic Europe. Thisexploration of shamanic druidry, therefore, relates primarily tothe traces of shamanic traditions as found in the British Isles andIreland, translating their practice into forms applicable to today.

What is druidry? Who were and are the druids?

Druidry to some is a nature-based religion, to others it is aphilosophy, a gentle way of life, focusing upon our relationshipwith nature. One thing that unites a lot of druids is a distrust oflabels and categories; for some it is about researching, and reconstructingour Celtic past, for others it is about finding ways now,in the modern era, to reinvigorate our connection to the spirit innature ... and there are infinite variations. The druids of antiquitywere Celtic priests, healers, seers and lore keepers, whoworshipped the Celtic gods, and performed a wide variety ofroles within the community. Today, not all druids worship godsof any kind, or do so outside of the Celtic tradition. However, awide consensus would consider druidry today to find its roots,and certainly its spiritual aspirations, in the Celtic religiousleaders of the Iron Age.

Most of what we know about the Celtic druids comes fromClassical writers, although much can sensibly be gleaned fromarchaeological evidence as well. Caesar tells us that the home ofthe druid religion was in Britain although traces of druidicpractice are found across Celtic Europe, particularly in theirsacred enclosures known as nemetons or groves. While someargue that druidry came to Britain via Europe, it is equallyarguable that the spiritual beliefs of the indigenous tribes ofBritain evolved and developed over time into the druidry of theIron Age which expanded into the lands of the Continental Celts.Certainly great importance was placed upon the sacred spirit ofthe British landscape, which was honoured long before thearrival of Celtic culture.

The druids were divided into three groups, the bards of Walesand the fili of Ireland performing as oral historians and storytellersof great magical significance, as well as the ovates, and thedruid class themselves. Some of the greatest bardic works areattributed to the Welsh bard Taliesin, a deeply shamaniccharacter, whose works reveal an ability to access the supernaturaland knowledge of the spirit world. Both the bards andthe Irish fili often appeared to perform tasks that werecommonly held to be in the realm of the ovates, or soothsayers;uttering prophecy, giving advice or healings after going intotrance states or forms of spiritual ecstasy, while the druid classthemselves – who were judges, philosophers and astronomers,also appear to at times perform what may be understood todayas shamanic practices ... Their relationship with spirit, whetherthe gods, the ancestors or the spirits of the landscape, beingcentral to their beliefs and activities, and the source of theirknowledge and ability.

The word druid comes from the Indo-European root of theword for oak, 'dru' with that of the word for knowledge orwisdom 'wid', thus meaning 'those with the knowledge of the oaktree'. It is also argued to come from 'deru-weid' meaning someonewith strong and steadfast wisdom and insight. It is possible thatboth these meanings are in fact closely entwined, having thesteadfast strength of the oak, and the knowledge of 'seeing' orseership – a shamanic source of knowledge from spirit. The wordsurvived into the Old Irish period giving us druidecht meaning'magic' and in the Welsh as dryw meaning seer, which was a termused well into the 13th century.

What is a shaman?

A shaman is someone who reaches altered states of consciousnessin order to encounter and interact with the spirit world. The termoriginates from the Tungusic and Samoyedic speaking peoples ofNorth Asia, used to describe their magico-religious practitioners;but the term has spread today to describe those from cultures allaround the world who act as intermediaries between the mortalworld and the infinite, or the realm of spirit. Scholars now believethat most world religions have a basis in shamanic...