Ancient Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Isle of Man
Religion/Druid Priests
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Celtic Religion:
The ancient Celts believed in an Otherworld. The Otherworld was the home of many gods and goddess. It was a place of joy, where feasts were always happening. The Otherworld was NOT a heaven. It was NOT a reward for doing something good on earth. The Celts believed that everyone entered the Otherworld when they died.
Celtic Tombs: Like the ancient Egyptians, the ancient Celts wanted their dead to have nice things with them. They wanted them to have food for the trip. They buried their dead in tombs. Their tombs were not huge things like the Egyptian pyramids. But they were the size of a large room. The walls were decorated with drawings of earth gods, sun gods, various spirits, and scenes of battle and daily life. They never placed living people or animals inside a tomb. Instead, they tucked little figures of people cooking and hunting. Occasionally, they placed life-sized things into a tomb. One tomb was found with a full size four-wheel wagon in it, and a full size bronze kettle for cooking.
Waterfalls were one of the many doorways to the Otherworld: Natural waterfalls, especially small ones, were believed to have healing power. To the ancient Celts, they were entrances to the Otherworld. Gifts were left by waterfalls for the gods. Some gifts were even tossed down wells or into springs. If you were injured, you might place something in a stream to help you heal. If your leg was injured, you could carve a wooden leg and place it in a stream. It did not always work, but the Celts remained great believers anyway in the power of the little spirits and gods whom they believed lived in steams and ponds and waterfalls.
The ancient Celts believed in many gods and goddesses. Every tree, every bush, every flower, everything had a little deity living in it. Some of their gods and goddesses were extremely powerful. But most were little deities. The ancient Celts did not worship their gods. They did not go to church. Instead, they left little offerings all over the place. Each fine had their own special little deities. Each clan had theirs. Unlike the ancient Greeks, the gods of the ancient Celts did not trouble themselves with the affairs of men, unless they were asked to do so.
Sacred animals: The Celts believed in omens. Birds, especially, were believed to be able to carry messages between the living world and the Otherworld. Many animals were given special powers that could only be understood by a Celtic priest - the druids. Some animals were hunted for food. Hunting wild boar was considered a great sport.
Druids:
The Celts believed that demons and spirits were everywhere. They believed that omens and portents were everywhere. They counted on their priests, the druids, to keep them safe from trouble. The druids were responsible for all religious rituals, because the only person who could talk to a god was a druid.
The druids were the soothsayers, the seers, the teachers, the doctors, the philosophers, and the lawyers in Celtic society. To become a druid, you had to study with the druids for at least twenty years. The druids had their own universities. There was a lot to learn. The Celtic people went to the druids for everything. If a child was sick, you went to your druid, who might cure the child with medicine they made from a plant. If two fines were having a fight over a boundary, a druid would decide who was right and who was mistaken. If a raven flew over a homestead, the fine might want to know what it meant. To find out, you asked the druids.
Druids were members of a clan like everyone else, highly respected, and powerful. Druids decided who could get married, who inherited, and established the honor price for each individual in their clan.
Honor Price: Your honor price was your worth. If you accidentally injured or killed someone, your fine had to pay the honor price of the person you hurt. If more than one person was involved, the bill was split equally between all the guilty parties. Monies went to the injured person's fine.
Stonehenge: Stonehenge is a collection of huge and oddly shaped rocks. Today, Stonehenge is a tourist attraction in Britain. For a long time, people believed the Druids built Stonehenge. But scientists today, using modern methods of dating, know that Stonehenge was built around 2800 BCE, long before the Druids, the Celtic priests, arrived in Britain. Nobody knows who built Stonehenge or why it was built.
However, since the Stone Age Celts believed that demons and spirits were everywhere, most historians agree that the Druids probably used Stonehenge for religious ceremonies, although they did not build it. The Stone Age Celts were a creative and imaginative people. It was the Celts who invented fairies and elves. How could such a people resist assigning importance to this awesome collection of huge towering rocks? They might have believed it was a special entrance to the Otherworld, or a place of special healing. Nobody knows for sure.
For many reasons, Stonehenge remains an unsolved mystery.
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