- Pages: 288
- Book Size: 6 x 9
- ISBN-13: 9780892817030
- Imprint: Inner Traditions
- On Sale Date: February 1, 1999
- Format: Paperback Book
• Written by the world's leading authority on Celtic culture
Druidism was one of the greatest and most exalting adventures of the human spirit, attempting to reconcile the unreconcilable, the individual and the collective, creator and created, good and evil, day and night, past and future, and life and death. Because of the oral nature of Celtic civilization our understanding of its spiritual truths and rituals is necessarily incomplete. Yet evidence exists that can provide the modern reader with a better understanding of the doctrine that took druidic apprentices 20 years to learn in the remote forests of the British Isles and Gaul.
Using the descriptions of the druids and their beliefs provided by the historians and chroniclers of classic antiquity--as well as those recorded by the insular Celts themselves when compelled, under Christianity's influence, to utilize writing to preserve their ancestral traditions--Jean Markale painstakingly pieces together all that is known for certain about them. The druids were more than simply the priests of the Celtic people; their influence extended to all aspects of Celtic life. The Druids covers everything concerning the Celtic religious domain, intellectual speculations, cultural or magical practices, various beliefs, and the so-called profane sciences that have come down from the Celtic priesthood.
The Druids
Celtic Priests of Nature
Foreword
Part One: The Druids
1 The Druids' Name
2 The Druidic Hierarchy
3 The Druids and Society
Part Two: The Beginning Times
4 Where Did Druidism Come From?
5 Gods and Men
6 The God Above the Gods
7 The Physician and the Sun
8 The Warrior Deity
9 The Father of All
10 The Three-Faced Goddess
11 In the Depths of the Sanctuary
Part Three: Initiations and Rituals
12 The Druidic Sanctuary
13 Mistletoe and Plant Ritual
14 The Four Elements
15 The Sacrifices
16 Festivals and Holidays
17 The Power of the Word
18 Totemism and Shamanism
19 Neodruidism
Part Four: Druidic Thought
20 A False Polytheism
21 Druidic Monism
22 Mind and Matter
23 The Otherworld
24 The Quest
Conclusion
Notes
Index
André Brenton, author of Manifestoes of Surrealism
" . . a very fascinating and informative book (no fluff here), definitely not to be missed."
Belladonna's Book Shelf, Feb 2007
"Do yourself a favor and expand your view of Druids and Celtic culture. Buy this book and read it. Decide for yourself if you agree with the author's premise. Then take the time to think about it in depth and see if your opinions change."
Mike Gleason, Witchgrove, 2007