The Druid's Path

Inner Knowledge and Looking Beyond the Obvious

By Searles O’Dubbhain

It's maintained by many academics that not much has survived from the past about the practices and rituals of the ancient Druids. This point is both correct and completely wrong. It's true that there are no rituals and "how-to" manuals penned or inscribed by the Druids that have survived until today or that have been discovered through the ages. However, it is also true that much was written about the Druids by their contemporaries and also by those who survived from their era. These writers and recorders of information about the Druids include classical historians, philosophers, military leaders, Christian monks and scribes, inheriting Poets and Filidh, as well as Brehons, Seanchaí and physicians. They wrote and left us volumes and volumes of information about the ancient Druids, as well as myths, traditions and artifacts from their practices of the past. Universities in Celtic countries like Ireland, Scotland and Wales have amassed this literature and folklore into large collection that are a veritable treasure house of knowledge about the Druids and their practices. Many of these collections are now coming online in the form of such websites as Corpus of Electronic Texts (CELT),

Irish Script on Screen (ISOS), the Celtic Inscribed Stones Project (CISP) and the Center for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (CAWS). In addition to these volumes, there are currents, streams and threads in the Celtic folklore and folk practices that seem to be echoes of Druidic practices of the past. Even today we have festivals, holidays and celebrations that originated or were performed and practiced by the ancient Druids. This is what we know about the Druids from the ***outside*** through folklorists, scholars, observers and historians. There are many additional worlds and insights to be known and learned about the Druids from the ***inside*** of their practices, techniques, ideas and mind-sets.

The Druids were the wise ones of Celtic culture. In many things that they did, they used memory and memory techniques to enhance their abilities to judge, evaluate and advise, as well as to know or be able to predict the outcome of events and the actions/behavior of others that they encountered. Druidic memory could overlay phenomena in a process of pattern matching to instantly categorize, understand and evaluate the inner and outer characteristics of almost anything. Additionally, they used almost shamanic techniques in some of their rituals and practices (like the Bull Dream and in stories about shape shifting). There were hidden spirit ways that Druids flew upon as eagles and hawks. There were dark mysteries from the depths that they could experience as creatures of the waters. They were in tune with the cycles of the land and its life. They warded their people from strange phenomena of the sky and fires.

We can endeavor to develop or enhance these types of empathic and magical abilities in our selves while attempting to capture the elusive spiritual nature of Druidic actions. We can also benefit from reading the thoughts, practices and secret teachings of other Indo-European priesthoods and mage-hoods. Many of these and their writings have survived into the modern world much more in tact than those of Draíocht. This is primarily true because these survivals occurred within other religions that were not to become a part of Christianity. Hinduism, Yogic practices, Vedic traditions, Buddhism, Jainism and even Zoroastrianism contain insights into Indo-European ritual, magical and mystery tradition practices. In accomplishing some of these esoteric techniques we will be looking at the same psychic capabilities and metaphysical practices that were also attributed to the Druids.

If we understand the cultures that preserved these secrets in a cross cultural and comparative religious study, we can then extract the essential core of the practices. These can then be cloned or reintroduced into the appropriate Celtic or Druidic framework as seeds to grow a veritable forest of groves and trees. In doing this overlaying, titration, and analysis of the esoteric workings of others, a complete knowledge of the Celtic traditions and their value system will be indispensable to our success or failure in synchronizing them to Druid magic or Draíocht. The intention of such far ranging studies should never be to dilute what we know about the Druids of the past. Learning new ideas and procedures should be used as a way of testing partial knowledge about ancient Druidic practices to see what can be personally discovered by walking in these footsteps as a Druid most probably also walked while following the quest for wisdom and understanding. Advising about new knowledge and strange mysteries was the provenance of the Druids in the past, just as it should be our work of the present and one of our hopes for the future.

There are magical attainments and esper abilities that can come to a person out of Near Death Experiences (NDE's), meditations and yogic practices, that seem to also be characterized and similar to the reported capabilities and powers ofDruids. I've remarked on this phenomena and effect of the human psyche before in posting about the adventures of Nede mac Adne in his competition with Ferchertne of the Feathered Cloak.These abilities are recapped in the paragraphs below.

Special abilities or "powers" are often associated with spiritual disciplines. In India these are called siddhis. They go by other names in other spiritual and esoteric traditions. They are the manifestation of spiritual advancement in the world of form. Sometimes these powers are called magic. Among Druids such magic is known as Draíocht. Some of these abilities come out of deep meditations that anyone can do. Other times they are gifts of otherworldly spirits and adventures in the Otherworld. You may have encountered these in your own journeys through life.

Most often, the spiritually enlightened do not exercise these powers even if they have gained them. The powers and magic are considered to be a distraction from the ultimate goal of a spiritual quest, to know and understand one's self and the universe. Magic as well as material wealth can become two stones that will hinder one's spiritual aspirations. They are sometimes necessary in spite of the hindrances they cause. This is because everything is placed within a web of cause, effect, will and consequence. To achieve a balance when imbalance occurs might require an imbalanced act or even one that is personally a detriment.

The lists that follow describe the powers of Yogis, Buddhas and even Nede mac Adne'sways that he traveled and became in his initiation as a Druid (see the _Making of a Druid_ by Christian J. Guyonvarc'h). Nede said that he was able to become:

1.Very small.
2.Very large.
3. Very hard.
4.Very brilliant.
5.The ardor of fire.
6.Fire of words.
7. Sound of knowledge.
8.Source of wealth.
9.Sword of singing.

This matches well with what other magical practitioners describe from their initiatory and enlightenment experiences. The Eight Great Magical Attainments (Tibetan version) also called "eight powers of the Lord" as associated with Siva:

1.To become as tiny as one wishes.
2.To become as light as one wishes.
3.To become as large as one wishes.
4.To become as heavy as one wishes.
5.To transport one anywhere.
6.To have one's wishes fulfilled.
7.To subjugate anything one wishes.
8.To dwell in the delight and power of the god.

The Eight Great Magical Attainments (Indian version according to Nagarjuna):

1.Invincibility with the sword.
2.Dominion over the treasure of the underworld.
3.Invisibility.
4.The elixir of youth.
5.The ability to shape oneself into a tiny ball.
6.The ability to walk in the sky.
7.Swiftness of foot.
8. Magical eye ointment.

One can see that becoming very small implies being able to exist in a very small universe, even nothingness, while becoming very large says that one can exist in the infinite and "all that is."These alternative states of being and existence fit well with the migration of spirit and life energy between dimensions and worlds, lives and existences. The Druids of old understood this and taughtpracticeswidely that even the classical historians remarked aboutmagical beliefs and teachingstheir writings about Celtic cultures.

If one wishes to touch, communicate or be with others in different forms of being, then one should open to the possibilities and become "very large or very small through spiritual and mental disciplines. Some of these disciplines require fearlessness in approaching leaving the body or "dying" that is much greater than the fear of release that many people experience in their more normal forms: love, sex and empathy. Each of these experiences is a "going beyond" from our so-called normal and seemingly "more secure" daily lives. Seeking knowledge through esoteric and consciousness expanding techniques will bring one face to face with a greater world and realms of being. Magical and heightened powers will come to a person as a result and as a part of the process. The quest for greater wisdom and understandingsometimes accompanied by a magicis called Siddhis in one tradition and Draíocht in others. These abilities are only a by product of the process of personal development and spiritual insight that is called the Druid way.

An awarenessthe Siddhisonly one of the ways that a study of comparative religions and spiritual practices can help us better approach the skills and accomplishments of Druids. There are meditative techniques, dream practices, and spiritual disciplines that can be found in many cultures just waiting for us to investigate them, and in many cases recognize them for similar practices that Druidsin the past. In our far ranging, deep and involved studies of the wise across many cultures we will more fully enliven and elevate the Druids to a living and breathing presence in the lives of our modern Celtic tribes and peoples. On can readily see in these brief examples that there are worlds full of information yet to be discovered all around us in the modern world that we can flesh out and use to empower our individual and group journeys along the Druid way. Our inner and outer journeys along the Druid way will at some point become a crossroads where magic is marked by a fusion of powers and an explosion of awareness.

Links to useful websites

Corpus of Electronic Texts (CELT)

Irish Script on Screen (ISOS)

The Celtic Inscribed Stones Project (CISP)

The Center for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (CAWS)