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—Cathbhadh III (TALK)

—Tim Hawkins (talk)


Ériu, Fotla and Banba, the goddesses of Irish sovereignty, are three sisters. [1]




American Reformed Irish Druids

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American Reformed Irish Druids
Founded
October 23rd, 4004 BC
Reformed
May 4th, AD 1985
Location
California and Baja California Norte y Sur
Patron Tree
California Live Oak
Tribes
5
Scriptures
Leabhar de Chineál (The Book of Nature)
Website
AmDruids.org

The American Reformed* Irish Druids (AR*ID) are an animistic, reconstructionist, pagan sect in California. Ecclesitically they celebrate oral rendition of Irish myths; their goal is to practice paganry as it was in pre-Christian Ireland, as reformed*; and they are humor[2], social, and culture oriented. Their Reformation* was on Beltaine, 4 May, 1985. The asterisk is part of their name and refers to their 1 reform.*

* NO human sacrifices!

Beliefs

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The AR*ID sect is inexclusive, that is members may concurrently follow other religious or spiritual traditions. They accept non-literal belief in myths and mythic characters. [3]

Fairies

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Irish mythology does not have a creation myth. It begins instead with a series of invasions, described in The Book of Invasions. The last invasion being the Milesians[4], the sons of Míl, Irish human mortals, who agreed to share their world with the "Good Neighbors", the People of Fairy, made up of the Irish pagan deities and mythic characters, and also every natural thing named, from individual rocks and trees, to geographic features such as wells, lakes and rivers, to mountains, plains and provinces, and even Ireland herself, plus a seemingly endless parade of other Fairy Folk that includes leprechauns, banshees, mermaids, pookas, and so on and on. Add to this the ancient Irish tradition of ancestor worship that adds the spirits of the dead to the landscape. Lady Gregory wrote "I believe that if Christianity could be blotted out and forgotten tomorrow, our people would not be moved at all from a belief in a spiritual world ..."[5]

Nature

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The "Cernunnos" type antlered figure on the Gundestrup Cauldron and surrounded by animals.

Nature is a central element of Celtic paganry.[6] Several of the mythic characters were shape shifters, as familiar in animal form as human, such as the Morrígan as a crow. A number of animals are important thematic elements in different mythic tales, such as the boar, swans, salmon and, centrally, the stag and cattle.[7] Images of the antlered figured referred to as Cernunnos show him surrounded by animals.

The belief in places as Fairy Folk can be seen in the Dinnshenchas, the Irish onomastic mythology of place names.[8] Water — wells, springs, bogs, lakes, rivers, and so on — are of special importance in Irish pagan myth and practice, in part because water is believed to be a link to the Otherworld.[9] For example, the River Shannon (an tSionna in Old Irish Gaelic) and the goddess Sionna are believed to be one person.

Trees

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Strabo on "oak sanctuary".[10]

Sacred Grove.[11]

Oak.[12]


History

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Druidry's pre-historic origins are lost in the mists of time; the AR*ID sect's reformation was in AD 1985. They have been inspired by the early Quaker's aim to re-instate primitive Christianity[13], and set as their goal to recreate, as much as possible, the druidism of Ireland before Saint Patrick.

Pre-History

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According to Irish mythology the Tuatha Dé Danann (the Tribe of Danu) invaded Ireland on a Bealtaine (about May 1st), in an unknowable year, and eventually defeated the previous invaders, the Fir Bolg people and the Fomorians, to dominate the island. {citation needed} They and their families became the principal members of the aes sídhe (the fairy folk). The AR*ID sect considers the accurate retelling of myths and sagas as important, and not their relationship, if any, to actual history. They use a ceremonial date for the first invasion of Ireland – the beginning of Irish Mythology – of October 23rd, 4004 BC, following Bishop Ussher, the 17th century AD Anglican Archbishop of Ireland, who determined that was the date the earth was created.[14]

The ancient myths of Ireland were not written down until about the 7th century AD, by Christian monks, but Kenneth H. Jackson suggested that the tradition of oral sagas reflects that heroic culture that existed before the coming of Saint Patrick. The Greek historian and polymath Posidonius wrote of the Celts in the 1st century BC. He is said to have written 52 volumes of history, but only fragments survive in the quotations of others.[15] Julius Caesar, in the 2nd century BC, wrote "Druids ... are concerned with divine worship, the due performance of sacrifices, public and private, and the interpretation of ritual questions... In fact, it is they who decide in most all disputes, public and private; and if any crime has been committed, or murder done, or there has been any dispute about succession or boundaries, they also decide it… The Druids usually hold aloof from war, and do not pay war taxes with the rest; they are excused from military services and exempt from all liabilities."[16] (The Quakers, also, "usually hold aloof from war.")[17]

The Irish archeologist Michael J. O'Kelly tells us that Irish society was divided into nobles, a learned class, and freemen. The learned class preserved, in oral form, from one generation to the next, a considerable body of material, including the tales, poems, genealogies, and eulogies. The law, too, was enshrined in oral form. The Irish learned class was the aes dána, and in Gaul the druides. The word druid came to have a more restricted meaning than the one it enjoyed in Celtic Gaul where it embraced a wide variety of functions apart from its religious one. In Ireland the name druid was more or less interchangeable with fili, meaning wise man or seer."[18]

Christianization

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Saint Patrick is remembered for bringing Christianity to Ireland in about the 5th century AD. The 'snakes' he so famously drove out of Ireland are supposed to have been a pejorative reference to the druids, because of the serpentine jewel of office, called a 'Druid's Foot,' that they wore.[19] There never were any snakes native to Ireland.[20] In the 12th century manuscript Acallam na Senórach (The Colloquy of the Ancients) Saint Patrick meets with Caílte mac Rónáin and Oisín, heroes from the already ancient Fenian Cycle of myths, and with the Tuatha Dé Danann. The Saint learns much of Ireland and her legendary past, and the mythic fairy pantheon mostly concedes its dominion of Éire (Ireland) to the coming Christian faith. [21] The story is retold in William Butler Yeats poem The Wanderings of Oisín.



Quotes

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Example 1.[22]

Example 2 [23]

Archtypes [24]


Amigos de Bosa Chica [25]

Strabo on druids.[26]

Druids do this.[27]

Druids do no military service and train for 20 years.[28]

Druids do human sacrifices.[29]

Druids worship Lugh.[30]



  1. ^ Ériu[1],Jones' Celtic Encyclopedia,14 April 2011
  2. ^ Stick an Acorn in Your Ear. 2011. p. 5. It was with this in mind that the American Reformed* Irish Druid sect (AR*ID) came together in AD 1985 as a Constitutionally protected religion that could not only laugh at itself, but go out of its way to make sure it was funny.
  3. ^ "FAQs". American Reformed* Irish Druids. Retrieved 1 January 2011. The reality of Aes Sídhe and the truth of their tales lies in the unity of cultural values they bring to folks across the generations. For example, the story of the boy hero Cú Chulainn lashing himself to a pillar that he might die facing the enemy is not about another teenage life wasted in war, but about heroic constancy to duty. A non-literal belief in our myths and mythic characters is fine. The mythologist Joseph Campbell compared those who insist on reading myths as literal history, instead of cultural, to someone who goes into a restaurant and eats the menu, mistaking the printed description for the entrée.
  4. ^ Mac Cana, Proinsias (1973) [1970]. Celtic Mythology. London: Hamlyn. p. 57. ISBN 0 600 00647 6. The Celts have left no native myth of the world's creation, though it would be strange it they lacked one.… This re-writing of tradition was progressively elaborated during the following centuries until finally, in the twelfth, it culminated in the pseudo-history entitled Leabhar Gabhála Éireann, 'The Book of the Conquest of Ireland', commonly known as the Book of Invasions. The 'conquest' of the title refers no doubt to the arrival of the Gaels …
  5. ^ Gregory, Lady Augusta (2007) [1920]. Visions and Belief in the West of Ireland. Forgotten Books. p. 4. ISBN 978 1 60506 144 3. Retrieved 1 January 2011.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Raftery, Barry (1994). Pagan Celtic Ireland: The Enigma of the Irish Iron Age. London: Thames and Hudson. p. 179. ISBN 0 500 27983 7. The nature-based character of Celtic religion is at all times evident. This is emphasized not merely by the recurring importance of natural places, but also by the prominent role played by birds and animals in ritual activities and by the frequency with which these figures in iconographical representations. Creatures of the water and forest predominate. Most notable among the birds are ducks, geese and swans but the raven too is a recurring motif. Among the animals, the boar and the stag stand out.
  7. ^ Mac Cana, Proinsias (1973) [1970]. Celtic Mythology. London: Hamlyn. pp. 50–5. ISBN 0 600 00647 6.
  8. ^ Mac Cana, Proinsias (1973) [1970]. Celtic Mythology. London: Hamlyn. p. 17. ISBN 0 600 00647 6. The Dinnshenchas, which also belongs to the twelfth century in its definitive form, is a massive collection of onomastic lore 'explaining' the names of well-known places throughout Ireland. Marie-Louise Sjoestedt has characterised the two rather neatly: Leabhar Gabhála is the mythological pre-history of the country and the Dimnshenchas is the mythologial geography.
  9. ^ Raftery, Barry (1994). Pagan Celtic Ireland: The Enigma of the Irish Iron Age. London: Thames and Hudson. pp. 182–3. ISBN 0 500 27983 7. Rivers figure prominently in Celtic mythology for the waters of rivers were inextricably bound up with the fertility of the soil. Each river had it tutelary goddess and many of today's river names – for example, the Shannon and the Boyne – derive directly from the names of such divinities. Springs and wells, too, had important supernatural properties, especially curative properties, and the many holy wells which are today dispersed across the Irish countryside are doubtless the Christianized descendants of places of pagan pilgrimage.
  10. ^ Strabo. Geography (Γεωγραφία). Book XII, Ch.5, ¶1
  11. ^ The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. "The Sacred Grove". Retrieved 1 January 2011. In ancient times, Sacred Groves were places of sanctuary and worship for the Druids. Like a temple or chapel set within the natural world, they were places of spiritual refuge: places to calm the mind, refresh the spirit, and give comfort in times of distress.
  12. ^ The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. "Oak - Duir". Retrieved 1 January 2011. We first learn about the oak as sacred to the Druids in the well-known passage from the writings of Pliny, who lived in Gaul during the 1st century CE. He writes that the Druids performed all their religious rites in oak-groves, where they gathered mistletoe from the trees with a golden sickle.
  13. ^ Fox, George (1976) [1696]. Rufus M. Jones (ed.). The Journal of George Fox (1908 ed.). Richmond, IN: Friends United Press. p. 105. ISBN 9780913408247.
  14. ^ Ussher, J., The Annals of the World iv (1658)
  15. ^ Harbison, Peter (1998) [1988]. Pre-Christian Ireland (paperback ed.). London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. p. 166. ISBN 0500278091.
  16. ^ Julius Caesar. "The Gallic Wars". Retrieved November 13, 2010.
  17. ^ Fox, George (1976) [1696]. Rufus M. Jones (ed.). The Journal of George Fox (1908 ed.). Richmond, IN: Friends United Press. pp. 128, 130. ISBN 9780913408247.
  18. ^ O'Kelly, Michael J. Claire O'Kelly (ed.). Early Ireland: An Introduction to Irish Prehistory. Cambridge University Press. p. 253. ISBN 0521336872.
  19. ^ Robinson, William Erigena. New Haven Hibernian Provident Society. St. Patrick and the Irish: an oration, before the Hibernian Provident Society, of New Haven, March 17, 1842. pg 8. [2]
  20. ^ "Why Ireland Has No Snakes - National Zoo". Retrieved 25 August 2006. {{cite web}}: Text "FONZ" ignored (help)
  21. ^ "The Colloquy with the Ancients" (PDF file), Standish Hayes O'Grady translation, 1999. From http://www.yorku.ca. Retrieved November 12, 2010
  22. ^ Meskell, Lynn (1999). "Feminism, Paganism, Pluralism", p.87, in Gazin-Schwartz, Amy, and Holtorf, Cornelius (eds.) (1999). Archaeology and Folklore. Routledge. "It seems clear that the initial recording of Çatalhöyük [1961-1965] was largely influenced by decidedly Greek notions of ritual and magic, especially that of the Triple Goddess — maiden, mother, and crone. These ideas were common to many at that time, but probably originated with Jane Ellen Harrison, Classical archaeologist and member of the famous Cambridge Ritualists (Harrison 1903)." ISBN 0-415-20144-6, ISBN 978-0-415-20144-5.
    See also: Hutton, Ronald (2001). The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford University Press. pp.36-37: "In 1903... an influential Cambridge classicist, Jane Ellen Harrison, declared her belief in [a Great Earth Mother] but with a threefold division of aspect. ... [S]he pointed out that the pagan ancient world had sometimes believed in partnerships of three divine women, such as the Fates or the Graces. She argued that the original single one, representing the earth, had likewise been honoured in three roles. The most important of these were the Maiden, ruling the living, and Mother, ruling the underworld; she did not name the third. ... [S]he declared that all male deities had originally been subordinate to the goddess as her lovers and her sons." ISBN 0-19-285449-6, ISBN 978-0-19-285449-0.
  23. ^ "XX". The American Druid Monitor. Venice Beach, CA: AmDruid Publishing Co. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)
  24. ^ Jung, C. G. (1993) [1959]. "Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype". The Basic Writings of C. G. Jung. New York: The Modern Library. p. 419. ISBN 0-679-60071-X. ...nothing is gained by brushing them aside as ridiculous, for archetypes are among the inalienable assets of every psyche. They form the 'treasure in the realm of shadowy thoughts' of which Kant spoke, and of which we have ample evidence in the countless treasure motifs of mythology. An archetype as such is in no sense just an annoying prejudice; it becomes so only when it is in the wrong place. In themselves, archetypal images are among the highest values of the human psyche; they have peopled the heavens of all races from time immemorial. To discard them as valueless would be a distinct loss. Our task is not, therefore, to deny the archetype, but to dissolve the projections, in order to restore their contents to the individual who has involuntarily lost them by projecting them outside himself. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editorn-first= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |editorn-last= ignored (help)
  25. ^ "The History of Bosa Chica". Retrieved 25 November 2010.
  26. ^ Strabo (1923). Geography (Γεωγραφία) (Loeb Classical Library ed.). Book IV, Ch.4, ¶4. Retrieved 1 January 2011. Among all the Gallic peoples, generally speaking, there are three sets of men who are held in exceptional honour; the Bards, the Vates and the Druids. The Bards are singers and poets; the Vates, diviners and natural philosophers; while the Druids, in addition to natural philosophy, study also moral philosophy. The Druids are considered the most just of men, and on this account they are entrusted with the decision, not only of the private disputes, but of the public disputes as well; so that, in former times, they even arbitrated cases of war and made the opponents stop when they were about to line up for battle, and the murder cases, in particular, had been turned over to them for decision. Further, when there is a big yield from these cases, there is forthcoming a big yield from the land too, as they think. However, not only the Druids, but others as well, say that men's souls, and also the universe, are indestructible,127 although both fire and water will at some time or other prevail over them.
  27. ^ Julius Caesar.The Gallic Wars,[3] Book 6,Chapter 13.(in English, Translated by W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn) (html) Retrived 30 November 2010. "Throughout all Gaul there are two orders of those men who are of any rank and dignity: for the commonality is held almost in the condition of slaves, and dares to undertake nothing of itself, and is admitted to no deliberation. The greater part, when they are pressed either by debt, or the large amount of their tributes, or the oppression of the more powerful, give themselves up in vassalage to the nobles, who possess over them the same rights without exception as masters over their slaves. But of these two orders, one is that of the Druids, the other that of the knights. The former are engaged in things sacred, conduct the public and the private sacrifices, and interpret all matters of religion. To these a large number of the young men resort for the purpose of instruction, and they [the Druids] are in great honor among them. For they determine respecting almost all controversies, public and private; and if any crime has been perpetrated, if murder has been committed, if there be any dispute about an inheritance, if any about boundaries, these same persons decide it; they decree rewards and punishments; if any one, either in a private or public capacity, has not submitted to their decision, they interdict him from the sacrifices. This among them is the most heavy punishment. Those who have been thus interdicted are esteemed in the number of the impious and the criminal: all shun them, and avoid their society and conversation, lest they receive some evil from their contact; nor is justice administered to them when seeking it, nor is any dignity bestowed on them. Over all these Druids one presides, who possesses supreme authority among them. Upon his death, if any individual among the rest is pre-eminent in dignity, he succeeds; but, if there are many equal, the election is made by the suffrages of the Druids; sometimes they even contend for the presidency with arms. These assemble at a fixed period of the year in a consecrated place in the territories of the Carnutes, which is reckoned the central region of the whole of Gaul. Hither all, who have disputes, assemble from every part, and submit to their decrees and determinations. This institution is supposed to have been devised in Britain, and to have been brought over from it into Gaul; and now those who desire to gain a more accurate knowledge of that system generally proceed thither for the purpose of studying it."
  28. ^ Julius Caesar.The Gallic Wars,[4] Book 6,Chapter 14.(in English, Translated by W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn) (html) Retrived 30 November 2010. "The Druids do not go to war, nor pay tribute together with the rest; they have an exemption from military service and a dispensation in all matters. Induced by such great advantages, many embrace this profession of their own accord, and [many] are sent to it by their parents and relations. They are said there to learn by heart a great number of verses; accordingly some remain in the course of training twenty years. Nor do they regard it lawful to commit these to writing, though in almost all other matters, in their public and private transactions, they use Greek characters. That practice they seem to me to have adopted for two reasons; because they neither desire their doctrines to be divulged among the mass of the people, nor those who learn, to devote themselves the less to the efforts of memory, relying on writing; since it generally occurs to most men, that, in their dependence on writing, they relax their diligence in learning thoroughly, and their employment of the memory. They wish to inculcate this as one of their leading tenets, that souls do not become extinct, but pass after death from one body to another, and they think that men by this tenet are in a great degree excited to valor, the fear of death being disregarded. They likewise discuss and impart to the youth many things respecting the stars and their motion, respecting the extent of the world and of our earth, respecting the nature of things, respecting the power and the majesty of the immortal gods"
  29. ^ Julius Caesar.The Gallic Wars,[5] Book 6,Chapter 16.(in English, Translated by W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn) (html) Retrived 30 November 2010. "The nation of all the Gauls is extremely devoted to superstitious rites; and on that account they who are troubled with unusually severe diseases, and they who are engaged in battles and dangers, either sacrifice men as victims, or vow that they will sacrifice them, and employ the Druids as the performers of those sacrifices; because they think that unless the life of a man be offered for the life of a man, the mind of the immortal gods can not be rendered propitious, and they have sacrifices of that kind ordained for national purposes. Others have figures of vast size, the limbs of which formed of osiers they fill with living men, which being set on fire, the men perish enveloped in the flames. They consider that the oblation of such as have been taken in theft, or in robbery, or any other offense, is more acceptable to the immortal gods; but when a supply of that class is wanting, they have recourse to the oblation of even the innocent. "
  30. ^ Julius Caesar.The Gallic Wars,[6] Book 6,Chapter 17.(in English, Translated by W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn) (html) Retrived 30 November 2010. "They worship as their divinity, Mercury in particular, and have many images of him, and regard him as the inventor of all arts, they consider him the guide of their journeys and marches, and believe him to have great influence over the acquisition of gain and mercantile transactions."


Category:Druidry Category:Neopaganism in the United States Category:Neo-druidism Category:Pagan religious organizations Category:Religion in California Category:Religious organizations established in 1985

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