The Druids got a bad press in
the later middle ages. The Catholic Church invented many tales of evil Druids being
overcome by miraculous actions of Christian saints. The Druids were portrayed as
performing human sacrifices and being sunk in heathen barbarism, superstition and
ignorance.
But is this really a true picture? Modern evidence suggests that Druidism was one of the
foundations of the Celtic Church which flourished in Western Britain and Ireland during
the first few centuries after Christ. It could well be that the Roman anti-Druid
propaganda was part of the Roman establishment's attempt to discredit Celtic Christianity
and its liberal thinkers such as Pelagius
and John Scotus
Eruigena.
Consider the following:
- Saint Columba is reported to have referred to Christ as his Druid [1] , which would have been
sacrilege if the Druids really were a bunch of murderous baby-blood-drinking
demon-worshippers. Nearer to our own day, the present Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan
Williams, sees no conflict with being both a Christian and a Druid. (Despite some
mutterings from evangelicals
who don't seem to understand the primarily cultural and philosophical functions
of Druidry)
- Julius Caesar [2]
states 'As a class the Druids take no active part in war … In their schools they are
said to learn by heart an extraordinary number of lines, and in consequence sometimes to
remain under instruction for as many as twenty years. Although for most other purposes, in
both their public and private accounts, they have adopted the Greek alphabet, yet they
still retain a superstitious objection to committing the secrets of their doctrine to
writing…. With regard to their actual course of studies, the main object of all
education is, in their opinion, to imbue their scholars with a firm belief in the
indestructibility of the human soul, which according to their belief, merely passes at
death from one tenement to another; for by such a doctrine alone, they say, which robs
death of all its terrors, can the highest form of human courage be developed. Subsidiary
to the teaching of this main principle, they hold various lectures and discussions on
astronomy, on the extent and geographical distribution of the globe, on the different
branches of natural philosophy, and on many problems connected with religion'
- 'Druidism is not a sect or a single religion but a philosophy arising
at a relatively late period, and suppressed in its prime by Roman imperialism, out of the
diverse Celtic and pre-Celtic religions. This philosophy, which embraced all aspects of
universal awareness, physical and metaphysical, was developed and presented by
specifically trained orders, within a caste of what we might today call priests and
priestesses. Such definitions are used with caution and reserve, as Druids merged several
functions that are nowadays quite separate' [3].
-'The currently unimaginable completeness to which all things are ultimately destined is
called Gwynwyd.
There is no anger which will not at last be pacified
There is nothing beloved lost which will not at last be returned
There is no soul born which will not at last attain the perfection of Gwynwyd [4]
- 'The ancient Britons, whose high code of chivalry, as revealed in the Celtic manuscript
tales, was as foreign to both the Romans and the Greeks as were their lofty religious
ideas regarding the destiny of the human soul' [5]
- ' On many occasions the Druids made peace between armies - apparently Celtic tribal
armies - drawn up for battle. Diodorus Siculus states in this connexion that often when
two armies met, and swords were drawn and lances levelled to attack, representatives of
the Druidical class - he mentions particularly the bards in this connexion - would throw
themselves between the opponents and pacify them.' [6]
The Truth about the 'Evil Druids'
So the evidence from modern sources suggests that the Druids taught a code
of ethics which was compatible with early Christianity, they believed in reincarnation or
rebirth, they were pacifists and peacemakers, and were philosophers who preferred debate
to dogma. They also believed all sentient beings would eventually be brought to salvation,
and all anger pacified.
It's obvious why the Romans vilified them so much - the Druids did not believe in eternal
damnation and the Angry
Samsaric God who rejoiced in torturing the sinful/ unbaptised/ heretics /infidels. The
thought-control apparatus of the Roman Empire and Roman Catholic church could not operate
in the Celtic lands of Western Britain and Ireland as long as Druidical vestiges such as Pelagianism remained.
It's also apparent from the preceding analyses that the only religion existing to the
present day which resembles Druidism is Buddhism.
So were the Druids actually Buddhists?
Probably not in any orthodox sense. Ashoka's
missions never converted ancient Britain and Ireland in the way that they did with Sri
Lanka, Burma etc [7].
What may have happened is that the Buddhists
influenced the Druids, who were philosophers rather than rigid dogmatists, and the
Buddhist teachings gradually became prevalent in the Celtic lands by integrating with
Celtic Culture [8].
Alternatively, the Druids may have had a
pre-existing mystical Celtic philosophy which acknowledged the intertwined nature of all
phenomena. Such a process
philosophy would have been non-essentialist and
consequently compatible with Buddhism, which would explain Saint Origen's statement that
Buddhists and Druids co-existed in pre-Christian Britain [9]
The metaphysical bases of Buddhism and
Druidism are very similar. Buddhist teachings on Dependent Relationship state that
phenomena exist in three fundamental ways. Firstly, phenomena exist by dependence upon
causes and conditions. Secondly, phenomena depend upon the relationship of the whole to
its parts and attributes. Thirdly, and most profoundly, phenomena depend upon mental
imputation, attribution, or designation. According to John Michael Greer, Druid philosophy
has a similar division into three 'elements' which are known in old Welsh as Gwyar
(change, causality), Calas (structure) and Nwyfre (consciousness).
The Druids' main teaching centre was on the
island of Anglesey off the coast of Wales, and it is likely that this served as an academy
for the exchange of philosophical and theological ideas. The Anglesey college attracted
teachers and students of Druidry from Britain, Ireland and the Continent of Europe.
Buddhism is a broad church and tolerant of other belief systems. Christianity was brought
to Celtic Britain and Ireland very early in a pure and authentic form close to its Buddhist roots, and
uncontaminated by Roman power politics. As Saint Origen [9] states, Christianity was helped
in its spread by the teachings of the Druids and Buddhists already present in Britain.
Related links
Symbolism,
Visualization and Ritual in Buddhism, Paganism and Christianity
Ashoka's missions to the West | Buddhist philosophy |
Buddhist Druid interactions in Ancient Ireland
Do not go for refuge to Samsaric Gods
Buddhism
returns to Ireland | Celtic Buddhism
Notes and References
[1] Toulson, Shirley (1992) The Celtic Alternative - A Reminder of the
Christianity We Lost, publ Rider, London ISBN 0-7126-1478-8 p.26
[2] Caesar, Julius (1911) De Bello Gallico tr. Long, F.P., publ
Oxford pp 175-176
[3] Stewart, R. J. and Williamson, R. (1996) Celtic Bards, Celtic
Druids , ISBN 0-7137-2563-X, publ . Blandford, London, pp. 19 - 20.
[4] ibid. p 32
[5] Mackenzie, Donald A. (1928), Buddhism in pre-Christian Britain,
pub Blackie and Son Ltd, Glasgow, Preface p. xx
[6] ibid p. 22
[7] 'The evidence of Buddhist activities in Western Europe here provided
must make certain Buddhist scholars revise their views regarding the pillar and rock
inscription of the famous Asoka (sic = Ashoka), the Emperor-monk of India who flourished
in the third century BC. Asoka sent out Buddhist missionaries to distant lands east and
west. They not only preached the Buddhist faith, but established hospices for travellers,
cultivated medicinal herbs and dug wells. No one doubts the accuracy of Asoka's claim with
regard to the activities and influence of his missionaries to Ceylon and eastward across
the ocean to the Malay Peninsula, Burmah (sic), and Java. It is otherwise, however, with
his claim that he achieved conquest " not by the sword but by religion" in the
West'
- ibid p. xv
[8] 'The loose confederacy of Celtic states and states tributary to the
Celts, extending from Asia Minor to Ireland, may not have constituted an empire in the
Roman sense of the term, but they appear to have constituted an avenue along which for
centuries 'flowed' or 'drifted' those alien cultural influences which can be traced in
Celtic religious complexes and Celtic sociology'
- ibid p vii.
[9] ibid p. 42
Christian
versus Buddhist worldviews
Buddhist Resources |