Druids & Druidry

[blessmycottonsocks]

Excellent article on BBC website today, explaining much about druidic customs and pageantry:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cymrufyw/66290319

 

[eburacum]

What is an “ovate”?
“Like a Celtic shaman.” ...

Apparently they are seers, prophets, diviners of the future. Oh, and herbalists and midwives.
https://druidry.org/druid-way/what-druidry/what-is-an-ovate

In ancient times an Ovate was a prophet, seer, healer and diviner. In modern times, an Ovate is one who studies or practices herbalism, healing and divination within a Druidic context, or who has entered the Ovate level of training within a Druid Order.

The Ovates, then, were seers and diviners, travellers in Time, and it seems likely that they were also healers, herbalists and midwives. The English word ‘Ovate’ comes from the various terms used by the classical writers: Vates, Uatis, Euhages, which may derive from the Indo-European root uat, ‘to be inspired or possessed’. The classical author Strabo described the Ovate as ‘an interpreter of nature’. It was the Ovates who were skilled in reading omens and divining auguries – whether from the flight of birds, the shape of clouds, or the behaviour of animals or the weather – and it was the Ovates whose task it probably was to heal, using their knowledge of herbs and spells to cure disease in humans and livestock. The Ovate seems, in many ways, to conform to the type of person most people would describe as a Witch, and it is certainly possible that when Druidry went underground with the coming of Christianity, the Ovate stream may have become a source that fed later generations of healers and followers of the Old Ways, until they came to be known as the Cunning Folk– healers who could still be found in villages in Britain up until the 1930s. And it is quite possible that these Cunning people were in fact the Witches of modern popular perception.

 

[eburacum]

Here's Ronald Hutton on the Lost Gods of Wales, and the birth of modern Druidism.

Transcript (part)

The modern problem of attribution of medieval texts centres above all on a single remarkable individual, Edward Williams, who took the bardic name of Iolo Morganwg, which just means Glamorgan Teddy. He was indeed from Glamorgan, and was a stonemason, active between the 1780s and the 1820s. He was also a devoted nationalist, part of the great Welsh cultural revival of that period which eventually produced a national literary canon (the Mabinogion), national heroes (like the trickster Twm Sion Catti), a national costume (the steeple hat, dress and cloak worn by Welsh women to this day), a national instrument (the harp), a national symbol (the daffodil) and a national cultural institution (the Eisteddfod). He was a fierce radical in religion and politics, campaigning for the abolition of slavery and of cruelty to animals, and votes for all men. He admitted women as equals to his societies. He was beyond doubt an accomplished poet and visionary, with real courage and imagination, and a great scholar.

He was also a forger, a drug addict, a gaol bird and a charlatan. Some modern Welsh cultural nationalists have equated him in modern Welsh history with the place of Hitler in modern German history. His sincere aim was to aid the contemporary Welsh cultural revival by recovering the ancient wisdom of his people. This he expected to have been embodied in the Druidic system of philosophy which he likewise expected to be a rational and enlightened creed that could be restored for a new age of reason. He further expected that system to have been preserved in the medieval Welsh manuscripts on which he was one of the main experts. On carrying out the necessary research, he realised that it wasn’t there. Rather than give up his dream, he then invented documents himself to fill the gap, containing a system of democracy, humanitarian ethics and reincarnation, with a single benevolent God.

Iolo’s work was taken seriously until the early twentieth century, and all of his forgeries were not exposed until the 1950s. As described, the reaction against him has been vehement. However, his cultural impact on modern Wales has been profound, not least because the ‘Druidic’ ceremonies and organisation that he invented – the Gorsedd of Bards – still open the National Eisteddfod.

 

[escargot]

When I was an archaeologist in Canterbury - many decades ago - the rule for human remains was:

1) When discovered, they remain in situ for a representative from the coroners court to examine, to confirm it's approximate age and location (in short, to make sure it wasn't a modern stiff).
2) When confirmed as "old", i.e. pre-history, the remains were collected by the coroners office which would consult the museums in case they were of scientific interest.
3) If of no interest, "they'd be given a Christian Burial".

Now, the third process was only told to us diggers. No added information of where they were buried, the morality and so on. It did, however, stick in my craw at the time that any old remains were assumed to want "Christian Burial", regardless of Roman, Saxon etc. I was informed - by the Director - that it was from Victorian legislation. They considered Egyptian mummies etc. as "artifacts" but home-grown ancient things as a default Christian.

Specifically, as Church of England. Every person living in England resides in a C of E parish. As a parishioner they are legally entitled to a funeral in the parish church whatever their beliefs when alive.

 

[Stormkhan]

How does that entitlement apply to those places where there is no more space?

 

[escargot]

Since when has a religion that was entirely invented around 200 years ago got any sort of tribal ancestors? Contemporary Druids have no connection with the ancient Druids except in their imagination....

Can remember enjoying Gerald Hawkins' description, in his book Stonehenge Decoded, of the Druids at Stonehenge performing their pathetic, made-up rituals.

 

[escargot]

How does that entitlement apply to those places where there is no more space?

It applies to the funeral in the parish church, not the disposal of the body.

 

[Stormkhan]

Can remember enjoying Gerald Hawkins' description, in his book Stonehenge Decoded, of the Druids at Stonehenge performing their pathetic, made-up rituals.

Modern druids largely base their 'ceremonies' on a Victorian construct. This doesn't detract from any benefits individual worshippers gain from it, but it does detract from any claim of being an 'ancient religion'.
It's the same situation for those who are into wicca or witchcraft, since these are largely based on Gerald Gardner and Margaret Murray. Sure, these 'names' did the research and extrapolated practices that may be of use.
But druidism, like many other practices, is private and unwritten, so you can only research by reading other researchers. You can't really rely on second or third-hand accounts, since many of 'the old faiths' didn't proselytize or practice 'misson' work.

 

[eburacum]

A curious thing is that several of the Roman authors who wrote about Druidism mention their belief in reincarnation, an aspect of religion that is quite rare in Western European belief generally. Iolo Morganwg seems to have incorporated this belief into his version of latter-day Druidism, which was a plausible extrapolation of the limited information available.

But Morganwg was himself a Christian, so he also incorporated a monotheistic God into the faith, which seems less feasible. Iron Age druids were probably polytheistic or pantheistic rather than monotheists.