Introduction

Even in ancient times, every society had a spiritual leader, in many cases having a greater influence and importance than the main leader. The work that we now begin to explore concerns this type of leaders, spiritual ones, who organize the society as they please. These persons with great spiritual powers that we are going to discuss about are the druids and the shamans. They are part of different societies, but, although they are separated by several significant differences they are connected through many similarities too. You will discover, while reading this paper, which are those differences and similarities. Druids are the spiritual rulers or priests of the Celtic tribes while shamans are the healers and sometimes priests of the populations in the northern parts of the Globe. Their doctrines are based on spirituality and moral sense, thinking at their peoples welfare and on the second place, maybe, at their own welfare.

Chapter1: Etymology, definitions, areas of spreading, records of their activities, way of organizing

1.1 Etymology: DRUID and SHAMAN Image 1 One of the oldest mentions of the term druid comes from the Greek literature, at the end of the 3rd century, BC. This term, as well as the druidic activities and existence, were very well-known to the Greeks because Druids appeared in a literary treaty called Magikos or About the Art of the Magi. Philosophical Greek literature gives us the piece of information that the Druids were considered philosophers. (Brunaux, p.121, my translation). From the moment they established their group or society, they called themselves Druids. Pliny the Elder tells us that the holm is already, by what it represents, the tree they choose for the sacred forests and they do not accomplish any religious ceremony without its foliage, therefore the etymology of their name could be Greek. (Brunaux, p.127, my translation) In Greek, the name of the holm or of the oak is drus, made up of dru- or drou- and vid or wid, the last particle meaning scholar, hence, what Druid means is scholar through the agency of the holm.

Another specialist in Celtic civilization, called Whitley Stokes, claims that the term druid may come from the Welsh dryw, its correspondent being wren, a bird, used in divination by the druids, whose twittering are an important part in this process or ritual. On the other hand, the term shaman, used internationally, has its origin in manch- tangu and has reached the etymologic vocabulary through Russian. The word originated from saman (xaman) , derived from the verb scha- , that means to know therefore shaman means someone who knows, is wise, a sage. (Poveda) Image 2 We already discovered that shaman, literally, means someone who knows. There also had been a misunderstanding between the term shamanism, coming from the Siberian Tungus, and the term shramanism, coming from Sanskrite or between the Siberian shaman and the Sanskrit shramana, Pali and Prakrit samana. The fact that clarifies this confusion is the meaning of the word samanas, attributed to people who were ascetics, totally different from shamans. Both shaman and druid are terms denoting persons who are wise, who know and this is the first common characteristic that the two categories of spiritual leaders have. 1.2 General aspects and definitions Druidism originates from Great Britain. In the world of the Celts they constituted an international institution, made up of ethnic or territorial groups from Ireland, Britain, and Gaul. They also formed an order that constituted a brotherhood called, in Latin, sodaliciis adstricti

consortiis. Their organization exercised its power upon tribes or states. (Hubert, p.424, my translation) Shamanism has its origin in Siberia and Central Asia but it has spread in most of the northern parts of the Earth. Shamans of many north-American tribes are the ones who could influence the religious life or represent at least its most important side, but they do not monopolize anywhere the entire religious life (Eliade, p.277, my translation) because there are also other servants, such as priests or wizards, that fulfill religious acts. Specialists interested in druids or shamans conceived several definitions to describe them and we will mention some of them too. Beginning with druids, they are defined as follows: The priests of religion among the ancient Gauls, Britons and Germans. (Buck, p.158) A priest or philosopher among the Celts. (Armstrong, p.210) The name given to the priests of the Celts. (Maier, p.98) A member of the ancient Gaulish and British order of priests, teachers of religion, magicians or sorcerers. (Brewer, p.366) The picture that emerges of a druid is one of a thoughtful philosopher and magician, schooled in the lore of the traditions, and in charge of the education of the chieftains as well as those who sought esoteric knowledge. A Druid is a knower of truth, able to manipulate that truth as well as inform others about it. (Travers) These definitions, in my opinion, are saying the same thing, that is to say druids are the priests of the Celts. Turning to shamans, they have several definitions, this being because they detain more functions than the druids, and these definitions are:

Indigenous healer who deliberately alters his consciousness in order to obtain knowledge and power from the world of the spirits in order to help and cure the members of his tribe. (S. Krippner, 1990, qtd. In Poveda) He who knows the archaic techniques of ecstasy. ( Eliade, 1972, qtd. in Poveda) Person of any sex who has a special contact with the spirits (understood as forces not easily put into evidence) and capable of using their ability in order to act upon those affected by the same spirits. (Harner, 1989, qtd. in Poveda) Great wizard and priest of certain primitive peoples, especially from North Asia. The shamans of Siberia are among the most famous. (Diccionario de las CO; El manual moderno, 1985, qtd. in Poveda) Because we already defined druids and shamans we should give one or several definitions for druidism and shamanism as well, that reflect perceptions certain persons have on them. Therefore, Christina Pratt defines shamanism as a group of common activities and experiences that link shamans and their unique experience of the world. (vol I, p. xi) From social perspectives, shamanism was defined as an institution which serves to construct a meaningful semantic universe by the process of symbolic mediation. (Nicholson, p.93) One more definition refers to shamanism as a range of traditional beliefs and practices that involve the ability to diagnose, cure, and sometimes cause human suffering by traversing the axis mundi and forming a special relationship with, or gaining control over spirits. (Crystal) On the other hand, druidism was defined as the religious and philosophical system of the Celts, especially in Gaul and Britain.

(Bunson, p.186) Others simply define it as Britains oldest religion. (Knight, p.22) I think that the definitions given to shamanism are more practical and centered on the human being while those given to druidism are more formal and do not refer to human beings but especially on authority. All of these functions of the shamans, discovered in the previous definitions, and more others, will be discussed in a later chapter, together with the functions that druids can have. 1.3 Areas of spreading Most specialists interested in the world of the Celts tell us that druids could be found only in Gaul and Britain. Other sources bring us the information that Druids could be found, besides Gaul and Britain, also in Ireland. The information above does not restrict the idea that the druids could also be spread in other parts of the world. Indeed some writers have assumed that Druid were coterminous with the Celts of the La Tne period (after 450 BC) and that the caste spread with the migration of Celtic communities into the Po valley, the Carpathian Basin, Transylvania, and along the Danube into the Balkans, and eventually, in the 3rd century, into Anatolia. (Cunliffe, p.3-4) As we could see, druids were spread in Gaul, Britain, Ireland and maybe other parts of the world, but now we must determine which was the place and time of the apparition of the druids and of the druidism. Julius Caesar is the one who wants to assure us that druidism was a doctrine that first appeared in Britain and then brought in Gaul from there. Britain is also the best place for those who wanted to study in detail the doctrine.

In the case of shamans and shamanism, anthropology has shown the presence of shamanism all over the world. Due to its age and importance in early human communities, shamanism spread with the roving tribes to cover Asia, the Americas, and even the remote outposts of Oceania. (McGraw, p.36) In the 20th century, the term shaman and the responsibilities of a shaman were also absorbed by the First Nations people in North America, from the shamans of Siberia, in order to call, by this term, their medicine-men. Even if the term shaman comes from Siberia or Central-Asia, shamanism is specific and can also be found in the religions of the North regions of the Globe such as Greenland, Canada, North America. It is amazing that shamans could be found even in Britain. Of course there had to be medicine-men also in the Celtic society but, knowing how much influence druids had over Celts, the shamans presence there could be unexpected for the readers. Moreover, the Shamans of Britain were called wise women or witches, and cunning men or magicians. They were the healers, the astrologers; people said that they could fly. They knew about herbs and plants (). This use of local herbs for their psychoactive properties is a link between witchcraft with the shamanism of other continents, especially the Americas, where the shamans use a vast variety of different plants for their healing and psychoactive properties. (Dougal, p.14) 1.4 Records of their activities Many of the things related to the world of the druids could have been forgotten or not even recorded by someone. Fortunately, most of what we know about druids comes from the Romans, especially from Julius Caesar. It is known that, for many years, Caesar wanted to submit

the Celtic population to their own laws and beliefs, but he didnt manage to do this. When he noticed that the druids were the most influential persons for almost all the Celtic tribes, he tried to befriend with these persons that sustained spirituality. The end of the druids, a matter that will be discussed later in this paper, had, as a major cause, Caesars order to destroy and vanish Druids from all over the place. This is because when druids would not exist anymore, the tribes will lose their faith and, not knowing whom to trust, the Romans will appear as very protective and appropriate for helping them. It is possible that, because of all these problems mentioned before, the information about druids could have been twisted. We find many good things said by Caesar about the druids, but there could also be negative things to find about them and never know to what degree we should believe in the information or not. One thing that appears cruel to readers is human sacrifice practiced by druids, which will be discussed later, and it is believed that this was an important reason for the Romans to present hostility against druidism. To conclude, the most important notes that we can take into consideration about druids are the historical records made by Caesar, in his work called De bello Gallico, and readers may consider him whether as a reliable narrator of the facts or not. In the case of shamans, I think that recordings concerning their activities could have been made especially by colonizers. These were the ones who went to America to find new territories and to colonize the populations found on them. When they arrived there, they had the unexpectedness to meet there already established societies, living in tribes, and having shamans as spiritual chiefs or leaders.

1.5 Way of organizing Druids were organized in casts, being ruled by the Arch Druid, who was known as a superior human being, with greater intelligence and knowledge than the others. Actually, they were constituted in an international institution under whose authority most of the tribes in Gaul and Britain had been. Other observers or specialists in the Celtic society sustain the fact that druids were organized in colleges, equivalent to nowadays teachers, professors, all of them forming a group of teachers that have the responsibility to transmit their knowledge. As a certain number of teachers in different domains are members of an educational centre, so were the druids members of colleges. The way the shamans were organized is different from that of the druids, because almost all of them liked to work by their own. In isolated cases, when a community needed several such powerful persons as shamans were, they were establishing associations in order to work together, for solving a difficult case.

Chapter 2: Major roles, functions, responsibilities, types, privileges

2.1 Major functions, roles, responsibilities Besides being the spiritual leaders of the communities they lived in, druids and shamans had similar but also different responsibilities. Starting with the druids, they had several functions, all having almost the same importance. First of all, they were the priests of the Celts, could be the advisers of the king, foretellers, historians, judges, poets, medicine men, altogether they represented wisdom on earth. Even if they had a different power over the society they lived in, that is the spiritual one, they helped and advised the supreme leaders to take the right decision in difficult situations. Due to their wisdom, they had the right to speak first. In ceremonies especially, the Great Druid or the Arch-Druid was always speaking firstly, not only because he was so important but also because he was blessing the crowds and all the other things related to the ceremony before starting it. The roles druids could have will be presented in more details in the following lines. Judges Druids had the power to mediate between gods and mortals as well as between groups of people that were having conflicts. Their responsibility of mediating between people that were having conflicts and also the fact that they were considered the most honest persons gave them the role of judges, having an official right to decide who is wrong and who is right in a conflict between tribes or between people of the same tribe.

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They determine respecting 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 anyone, either in a private or public capacity, has not submitted to their decision they interdict him from the sacrifice. This among them is the most heavy punishmentnor is justice administered to them when seeking it. (Julius Caesar, qtd in Spence, p. 58) As their main role was that of being priests, therefore responsible for peace, druids were obviously those who had something important to say, as it was stated before, when disputes between tribes were taking place. Diodorus Siculus tells us that often when the combatants are ranged face to face, and swords are drawn and spears bristling, these men come between the armies and stay the battle, just as wild beasts are sometimes spellbound (Kendrick, p.83). This very nice comparison between beasts, that are held by spellbound, and warriors, who are held back by druids, proves that the latter had magical powers. Teachers They were also given the responsibility to be teachers for the young learners, and each of them detained a very large amount of knowledge in domains such as astronomy, philosophy, religion, education, etc. Regarding their wisdom, all they knew was found and remained in their minds and was transmitted orally to the next possible druids. Memorizing great amounts of information was possible only by versification of that information, which was easier to memorize that way. Also related to their learning are some maxims they frequently used in order to mould the society as they wanted. Because they had not

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written anything with their own hands, only their observers can reveal us some of those maxims. One of them is Cleobulos from Lindos, who says that druids were telling the people to Respect piety.(Brunaux, p.142, my translation) Chilon the Macedonian has another one: If you were offended, revenge! (Brunaux, p.142, my translation) Do nothing evil! (Brunaux, p.142, my translation) is a maxim that encourages people to make the distinction between good and evil. Scholars Druids were scholars as well, having a great knowledge of science. Such a science is astronomy, its understanding helping them to elaborate great calendars, to observe the movement of the stars, to estimate the size of the Universe or of the Earth. All this knowledge was transmitted, in turn, to the young learners. It is very well-known that the druids kept everything they knew in their minds therefore, especially religious knowledge, was not transposed into pieces of writing. On the other hand, for everything else such as public or private affairs, they used the Greek alphabet. (Julius Caesar, qtd in Brunaux, p.324, my translation) In fact, it was also speculated the idea that druids had such a great power over their society that they prohibited writing. Writing was not prohibited only for druids but also for other people who wanted to write. These Celtic priests were capable of convincing the population that they were superior to ordinary mortals but inferior to the gods, somewhere between mortals and gods. Peoples belief in gods helped druids to establish laws for them and determine people to submit to them. We mentioned earlier the fact that druids were also teachers, who offered their knowledge to the learners in exchange of their promise to

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keep secret all the information received. After twenty years of hard working in order to acquire the knowledge necessary for a druid, they finally received the title of druids. Not all the learners who participated to this long period of learning finally got to the end of it, because only those who passed all the steps required by the teachers deserved to receive the title. What future druids had to know was, first of all, philosophy, concerning human life, the universe and the gods. Further on, they had to learn things from such domains as astrology, medicine, mathematics, history and literature, these being the domains that were helping learners to use their mind in order to memorize and acknowledge different things. Another role of the druids was to assist or to fulfill human or animal sacrifices because they were the ones who asked for them. The goals for which these sacrifices were taking place were various, and some of them are: the prosperity of the society, the improvement of the relation between mortals and gods, the removal of all evil from the society. Some roles specific to both druids and shamans are prediction, because both of them could be prophets or visionaries, and also medicine, a domain acknowledged and practiced by both a druid and a shaman, using different herbs for certain diseases. Moving to the world of shamans exclusively, we find out that its structure was made up of three levels: the sky, the earth and the underground, connected one to the other through a central axis. What the shaman knew and practiced were the means of moving from one level to another. They are in fact the ancestors of the nowadays psychologists and doctors.

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Shamans, in contrast with the druids, had a harder life and situation because, during their initiation and the moment when they became shamans, they had to pass and survive such obstacles as pain, disease or even death, in order to reach different states of consciousness. The map of the world the Shaman operates in can be understood from what is psychologically called modified states of consciousness. These states, which usually are accessed through a period of transition, are sometimes identified as trance or journey. (Poveda) These states of consciousness can be either transitions from the usual state, modified state or even transitions back to the usual state. While being in a trance, shamans may either restore a certain type of energy from the world of the spirits to the patient or the reverse, which is to restore to the world of the spirits a certain type of energy from the patient. They were, unlike the druids, different from the priests of the societies they lived in, and they have ritual functions of wizards. One of the main roles that a shaman had was healing, to which are added other roles in magic or religious rites such as the collective hunting. Performing this rite implied several hunters and a shaman, who went in the wild, where the shaman indicated the best moment and the best place for hunting. Shamans, as well as druids, had the power to mediate between mortals and gods, not being actually priests but having the possibility to replace them, and also the ability to establish connections between the world of humans and the world of animals in order to create a balance between the two of them. Also similar to druids were the roles to defend the tribe from evil spirits, master natural phenomena, to relieve the pain when women gave birth, to foresee future events.

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They carried out many aggressive activities against enemies, this being one of the most important roles of a shaman before the period of colonization came. Through the practices of moving from the world of the mortals to the world of immortals, shamans proved they were and had to be the only ones who could fulfill that kind of dangerous rituals. Shamans, as well as druids, were whether participants or only supervisors of different rituals. They had the role to supervise the great annual ritual and were the ones who mediated between the supernatural powers, or the gods in the case of the druids, and the participants to this ritual. They also had the responsibility to organize rituals of communication with the spirits. The shaman is not a wise person or a psychologist, better than other members of the society in which he lives, but he is the only one who can see what it is called free soul, while the other visionaries get in touch with body souls, apparitions. (Filoramo, p.148, my translation) Shamans as Psychopomps This shamanic function has to do with death and also with rituals related to death. In this case, the shaman, when called to the house of a person who had died, he had to perform such rituals so as to lead the spirit of the dead person to the place where it will rest forever. They had to help human souls of the dead reach the world of the spirits in order not to cause any trouble to the living persons. The shaman makes the crossing not only in the interests of the deceased, but also of his survivors, for it not safely delivered to his future home, he will continue to haunt his earthly ones. (Rutherford, p.56) Another important thing related to death that should be mentioned here is the way persons die. If they have a violent death, as if they were fighting with something, this means their soul will reach the Upper

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World. Persons that die by being burnt also reach the Upper World because it is believed that their souls rise together with the smoke. What we may also have here is the basis of sacrifice by burning as, for example, practiced by the Druids at Beltaine (meaning The Fires of Belenos) on the 1st of May, as well as the cremation of the dead found in so many places. (Rutherford, p.57) On the other hand, those who die because of an illness are likely to reach the Underworld. This may happen because shamanism sustains the idea that illness is provoked by spirits that live in the Underworld. Masters of Animals Shamans, having the ability to master animals, help hunters and fishers find the best places for hunting or fishing, by making predictions. Fishers and hunters asked the shaman to go with them because they knew the shaman also had the special power to communicate with animals, and therefore attract them into their trap. Not only has he powers to communicate with animals but he also has the ability to take the shape of any animal he wants. Thus, the Lapp noiaidi could turn himself into a wolf, a bear, a reindeer or a fish, Eskimo and Chukchu shamans into wolves, those of Semang, Sakai and Kelantan into tigers , while the Druids, too, were credited with shape-shifting. (Rutherford, p.58) Prophets As a prophet, the shaman had to help the community in which he was living to take the best decisions, for example to tell them which was the best moment for moving their herds from the winter pastures to the summer pastures. Another responsibility deriving from the role of being a prophet was for the shaman to predict extreme phenomena such as tempest, drought, and earthquake. If he doesnt predict these

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phenomena and they occur, the shaman has to invoke the spirits to find out the causes of the phenomena. As well as predicting future, he can also reveal the past or determine the weather. Rain-making is a skill still associated with the shaman, particularly, not exclusively those of the Americas. (Rutherford, p.59) Sacrificial Priests This refers to the situation in which the shaman decides the number of animals that were to be killed, this being a way of giving thanks to the spirits when a person recovers her health. For other peoples or tribes, any disaster requires animal sacrifice. The shaman as a priest had only the role of performing purification rituals before the sacrifice was made by someone else. Only in exceptional cases did the shaman perform the sacrifice too. Human sacrifice, as we will see later, was performed both by druids and shamans. Among the Batak people of Sumatra, for instance, the preparation for the shamans staff or wand could call for the offering of a child whose soul was to be incorporated into it. The Druids usually buried a child in the foundations of a new building, a custom probably acquired from earlier inhabitants of the lands they occupied. (Rutherford, p.59) Lawyers Although shamanism did not have a moral code, the situation had to be held under control. This is where the shaman intervened, by putting some rules, so as the community did not transform into chaos. For example, when a person died, the shaman was called, as a lawyer, to distribute the dead persons goods, giving equal parts to all the members of his family.

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Smiths It is believed that shamans also had the abilities of being smiths, especially because their costume, actually parts of their costume were made of iron, such as the horns. This topic will be discussed in details later in the paper. The shaman is connected with metal working in another way. In many places one of his titles is Master of the Fire. He can handle hot coals without getting burnt, emit flames from his body and raise or lower his temperature. (Rutherford, p.63) Masters of the Paranormal The nowadays term paranormal is frequently associated with shamanism. This is because shamans were considered to have had special powers such as the ability of hearing voices, establishing connections with the world of the spirits, changing their shapes. Furthermore, a shaman can render himself invisible. He can fly. He can bilocate or be in two places at the same time. He is also a clairvoyant, using his skill, among other things, to find lost objects or strayed animals. (Rutherford, p.63) Physicians The responsibilities that a shaman had as a physician was to identify the illness a certain patient was suffering from. Shamans believed that in all cases of illness, the patient was either having evil spirits inside his body that made him suffer, or his soul was wandering away from the body. In either of these cases, the shaman tried to find out, together with his assistant, what was the best solution for that problem. The problem was solved when the shaman managed either to get the evil spirits out from the patients body or when he helped the soul to get back to him. Together with his abilities of restoring health to his

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patients, by the help of his powers, the shaman had to be a very good connoisseur of herbs, because they had a major importance in the healing process. A shaman could also be an epic singer or a mythologist. This is equivalent to the function of Celtic bards, who were the epic singers of the societies spiritually ruled by Druids. Another role ascribed to the Druids, that of instructors of the young, also has parallels in the shamanism of many societies. (Rutherford, p.62) What I want to present here, still part of this chapter, are some parallels through which shamans could be characterized. Other roles that shamans had in the community where they were living could be discriminated by the help of these parallel analyses. Shamans and Priests Shamans lived in a preagricultural society while priests were likely to live in the agriculturally-dominated town or city-market. (Poveda, 1997) Even if there were differences between shamans and priests, there were situations in which a shaman could take the function of a priest or could fulfill both functions at the same time, depending on the circumstances. Shamans and Mediums Taking into discussion mediums and shamans, they both had a close relationship with the world of the spirits. The main difference between them is the fact that shamans were capable of talking to the spirits, while mediums are inferior in using this capacity. The place the medium liked most was the urban society, where he performed his ability, while the shaman preferred rural places, using elements from the nature in most of his rituals.

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Shamans and Healers Healers, as well as shamans, had the ability to treat diseases, but they seem not to have such a close relationship with the patient, being more distant to him. Healers deal only with the treatment of diseases while for shamans, the healing process is only another function from many others they have. Shamans and Wizards Wizards and shamans had in common the fact that they worked with the supernatural, break with life routines and intervene over space and time. (Poveda) What the wizard doesnt detain is the ability to heal, one of the basic functions of a shaman. Shamans and Mystics The last but not the least parallel can be made between mystics and shamans. The former were seen as nowadays psychologists because they experimented on themselves different things in order to observe what changes occured in their minds. They use singing, music, meditation and other systems in order to travel to particular regions of their mind. (Poveda) Shamans were able as well, by using different plants that provoke hallucination, to travel to certain regions of their mind, but his purpose was not to stick only to exploring his mind but especially to communicate with the spirits of the other worlds. As we could notice from the discussion above, one of the most important roles of the shaman is to heal, to cure diseases of human beings. At the beginning of his rituals, meant to heal the diseased person, the shaman had to determine his purposes, these being: To restore health to the diseased person. To clear the soul or the body of the patient. To purify especially the soul and mind of the patient.

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To improve the relationship of the individual with his group and his surroundings. (Poveda) To give a meaning to what is happening, explaining it or setting it a meaningful way. (Poveda) 2.2 Types of shamans What I think is also suited to discuss in this chapter is the fact that there can be distinguished certain types of shamans while druids have no such divisions. There are several types of shamans that Bogdan Tudor presents to us in his book called Iniiere n amanism. Visionary shamans The first type of shamans he identifies is the visionary shamans. They had the ability to foretell some important events which will probably happen to an individual in the future, that could negatively or positively influence him. Visionaries do not detain the ability to heal certain diseases of individuals. Healer shamans Are the ones who had the ability to heal diseased persons but, in contrast to visionary shamans, they were not capable of foretelling the future. Educating shamans These shamans neither had the ability to foretell future events nor the ability to cure diseased persons. Their specialty was to be mentors for those who want to become shamans and encourage them to become professionals in what they will do.

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Surgeon shamans Helped persons treat certain diseases caused by negative energies that hindered the good functioning of the body. What they did not have were the abilities of visionary shamans. Seeker shamans They liked very much to travel to different levels and parts of their mind and to make experiments on themselves. However, they do not like to share with the others the results of their experiments and searching. Full shamans This last type of shamans presented by Tudor, of the full shamans, reunites all the abilities of the shamans presented above. Therefore, they could foretell the future, heal diseased persons, educate future shamans and travel to different parts of their mind. 2.3 Privileges of druids and shamans The most well-known privileges the druids had, I am saying they are well-known because in many books that deal with the world of the druids are mentioned these privileges were to acquit them from paying taxes or from joining the army. Those who really wanted to join the army had to do this voluntarily, not forced by anyone else and, even in the army, they could have the privilege to occupy important functions of commanders. A moral privilege, I could say, is the fact that druids were respected and listened to very carefully by all the members of the tribes in Gaul. Every person born on the land of the Britons had the right of receiving five acres of land, which he could use however he wanted, but druids, in addition to those five acres of land, were receiving other five

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acres, for the right by profession does not abrogate that by nature, nor the natural right the professional. (James, p.80) Shamans and the society they lived in seemed to be not as strict as druids were. This is because, even if they had great supernatural powers and used them for healing diseased persons, they would not be seen as persons to whom the other members of the community had to obey. They were certainly receiving a lot of respect from the others due to the good things they were doing for the people. It was not such a strict community the one in which shamans lived maybe because they did not have a supreme leader, as druids had their Arch Druid. Although, as druids had many privileges, that were not permitted to the other members of the Celtic society, so had shamans. They were likely to be permitted to do things that the others were certainly not allowed to, first of all because they had supernatural powers and, therefore, a certain superior status in the society they lived. From a social point of view, we find out that shamans had their own social class, therefore they had the right not to be ascribed either the status of males or females. Sexually, he may be sexless, or ascetic, or have inclinations of homosexualistic character, but he may also be quite normal. A woman-shaman was considered superior to the other women, according to the social status, therefore she is not restricted to taboos specifically female. (Czaplicka, p.111) Speaking about other privileges shamans had, I discovered that in the Yakut tribe of Siberia, Siberia being one of the places from which shamanism arose, shamans occupy a position of exceptional importance. () At the festivals of the Yakut, shamans have the highest place. Even a prince kneels before a shaman and receives from his hand a cup of kumiss. (Webster, p.285) It was only the period of the festival

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when shamans had such privileges because in the rest of the time, they were placed at the same level with the other members of the community.

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Chapter 3: Recruitment, training, initiation, new spiritual leaders

3.1 Initiation The initiation of a druid is a lifelong process. There is a list of several things that are a must for a druid to do during his life. First of all, he had to establish a very close connection with nature, because it represented the major source for his knowledge and powers. Druids past and present have expressed their commitment to a life in harmony with nature in many ways. Some abandon a modern lifestyle entirely and live in rural areas, growing much of their own food, drawing water and gathering wood, and supporting themselves through some craft or profession in harmony with the living Earth. Others live in more ordinary settings, but find ways to make their way of life as Earthfriendly as possible. Still others find a position somewhere in between, living much of the time in ordinary society in an ecologically sound way, but creating a place in some rural area as a sanctuary for wild nature and a space for personal retreats and spiritual work. (Greer, p.150) Considering the above ideas, we can see that druids had in common the relationship with nature but each of them could choose how close this relationship should have been. Another responsibility that a druid had during his life, also related to nature, was to plant trees. Druids not only venerated trees but also planted them because they knew how important they were, not only for their rituals but also for every humans health. A mature tree produces as much oxygen as ten people need to breathe, while soaking up carbon dioxide (), can pump hundreds of gallons of water out of the ground

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on a hot day, releasing it from its leaves as water vapor (). Tree roots bind the soil together, fighting soil erosion (), provide food, shelter and other resources to animals and birds. (Greer, p.160) 3.2 Becoming new spiritual leaders Druids, as we said earlier in the paper, were constituted in a sacred cast and over all of them, a great leader was ruling, called the Arch Druid, who was being elected for life. That person who wanted to be initiated and to become member of this spiritual cast had to be instructed and taught for almost twenty years. During this long period, he had to memorize entire books, written in verse, on domains such as history, geography, astronomy, cosmology, theology, moral values, philosophy and many others. In addition to these, he also had to learn long treaties concerning the nature of things and the immortality of the soul. The Arch Druid was the supreme member of the druidic cast and all the other members had to obey, listen and respect him. When he died, the one who followed him had to prove that he deserves to be the new Arch Druid, by passing some tests. In other cases, if there were two candidates that deserved the title, he was elected according to the votes all the other members of the cast gave him, or even by fighting with weapons. While druids were seen as superior to the other persons living in the same society, shamans did not consider themselves, and either considered by the others, as superior. The only difference between the shamans and the other members of their society, they claim, was the fact that they had special or supernatural powers. Shamans were like any other persons because they could, as well as ordinary people, lose their

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temper and get angry or have the natural reactions any person has, in different situations. In other parts of the world where shamans were the spiritual leaders, it is not known the idea that shamans did not a greater leader, over all of them. This is because all those who proved they deserve this status became shamans and they found themselves under no ruling person or system. Shamans or, more precisely, candidates who wanted to become shamans had to deal with some obstacles they obligatory had to pass, in order to get to the end of their initiation. It was stated the fact that there are three different ways of achieving the shamanic powers and these are: hereditary transmission of power, spontaneous ability, in other words the call or election made by the spirits, and voluntary ability. (Filoramo, p.147, my translation) Heredity is one of the ways through which a new shaman in a certain community could have been chosen, because it is believed that the spirit of the dead shaman will be inherited by one of the members of his family. Another way of recognizing possible future shamans is by analyzing their physical aspect. Some of them may have an extra finger, a harelip or a birthmark. By the same token, the stigmata may take the form of mental or nervous dysfunction. A child, who, at puberty, has fainting fits, will often be regarded as a prospective shaman. So, too, will the victim of epilepsy, hysteria or the so-called Arctic sickness, a loss of prolonged exposure to sub-zero temperatures and boundless snows capes. (Rutherford, p. 34-35) There are other two types of candidates to shamanism: those who have vocation of becoming shamans and those who search for it. The

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vocation or talent of a shaman has to be, in my opinion, something innate, part of him, and when a person has this vocation of becoming a shaman, he can prove his abilities in the society he lives in. Others, who dont actually have the vocation of becoming shamans, look for teachers to teach them everything that a shaman has to know. Shamans learned from their teachers how to use different plants, hallucinogenic or medicine plants but they also learned how to control their breathing. This is one of the modalities through which shamans were induced to trances, by controlling very well their breathing. Some shamans were noticed, when entering a trance, as being out of air, like athletes are when they finish a race, while others were seen breathing quickly. These two types of candidates those who have vocation on one hand, and those who search for it, on the other hand, are quite different because the talented ones find almost everything easy to perform or to solve, while the not-so-talented ones have to train a lot till they can actually handle the powers needed in rituals. The achievement of these powers may have different causes like an accidental meeting with an unusual being, such as a deity, or with the soul of an ancestor, with an animal or even with natural phenomena such as thunder strike or, more generally, life in danger. All these meetings that may lead to receiving shamanic powers take place during the candidates sleep or even during some initiating diseases. The fact that a person claimed he or she had some visions during his or her sleep is a proof that sustains the candidates transition to another status, different from that of an ordinary human being. A good example for this type of initiation to shamanism comes from the North-American shamans, who place the candidates in a hollow

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filled with a cure and they are actually killed with a poisoned cure. As a result, those who are initiated in this way are able to keep in their bare hands stones that have previously been redden in the fire, without harming them at all. During the initiation, the candidate has to learn the secret language that he will use during the process, a language meant to help him communicate with human or animal spirits. It is quite obvious that the candidate has to learn this secret language from someone who already knows it, this being a master or, in other cases, the spirits are the ones who help him understand the language. In other parts of the North-American region, shamans ask the candidates to leave the tribes in which they were leaving and stay for a while in the caves of the mountains or in other isolated places. In these places they begin to focus on an intense concentration in order to see visions, which are, somehow, the basics of the career of a future shaman. In the case of candidates who want to become shamans, they acquire protective spirits either spontaneously or deliberately. As to North-Americans, they are always deliberately searching for the shamanic powers. In the societies where shamans have a great spiritual influence , for each ceremony that implies change, initiation, such as passing from a group of age to another, there are always needed special rites to be fulfilled. A more general idea of what it was stated before is in fact the death and the revival of the candidate, whose life will change. Eliade uses, in one of his books about shamanism, Schurtzs ideas related to the steps that a candidate must follow in order to pass from a certain status to another one, and we can enumerate them:

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a) A period of solitude in the forest or in a thicket, and larval existence, like of the dead b) Their face and bodies grimed with cinders or with limestone substances to obtain the effect of wanness; funeral masks c) Symbolic burial of the candidate in the temple or in the house of the idols d) Symbolic descent to hell e) Hypnotic sleep due to a drink that leaves the candidate unconscious f) Difficult test: the candidate is beaten with a club, asked to walk with bare feet on embers, hanged in the air, his fingers are cut and he is submitted to other cruelties. (Altersklassen und Mnnerbunch, qtd. in Eliade, p.74, my translation) As we already said, every future shaman had to pass difficult tests, and these tests took place in the wilderness, where the contestant was on his own. The future shaman was complied with such difficult trials because, specialists say, suffering opens their mind and therefore he will be able to understand things that others cannot understand. In some regions the process of initiation is reduced just to an initiatory ritual, while, in other parts, shamans have to deal with ordeals of an extremely painful nature, either self-inflicted or inflicted by initiators. These sufferings imply beatings, burning with fire, slashing with knives, suspension often upside down from a tree, for hours or even days, ascending a ladder of upturned sword blades. (Rutherford, p.38)

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Chapter 4: Costume, equipment

We will begin this chapter by presenting a similarity between druids and shamans, concerning their appearance. Some researchers shaped, in words, through the help of description, the image of a druid very similar to that of a shaman from the traditional Indian civilizations of the North-American region or, as well, from the Siberian populations. This idea was conceived by specialists because druids, in their times, could have been seen disguising in different types of animals, for entering and better communicating with the world of the spirits. 4.1Costumes For shamans, the costumes and accessories were far more important than those of druids because it was, in fact, a very important part of their religious and moral doctrine. Specialists elaborated the idea that if they made a more thorough analysis of the shamanic costume, they could understand better the shamanic system. Turning again to the North-American shamans, their ceremonial costume had a symbolic significance and was made up of eagle feathers or taken from other birds, a tambourine, little bags containing rock crystals, little stones and other magical objects. One of the birds they took feathers from was the Aquila, which was therefore considered sacred and also allowed to live in freedom in the wild. As we said before, that the shamanic costume is far more important than the druidic one is sustained also by the fact that the shaman doesnt go anywhere without his little bag, containing the necessary accessories for different situations. Even during the night, this

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bag is next to him, being placed whether under his pillow or under his bed. Everything related to the shamans costume is also related to a ritual. That is why some examples of such rituals can be given here. Speaking about Siberia, where shamanism comes from, a Tuvan shaman is not allowed to try on the costume while it is being made. Items of Tofa costume must be made in the order prescribed by the spirits. Nganasan shaman costumes must be stitched together using only thread made from the hair of a wild deer. (Stone, p.67) The shamanic costume is not simply a costume. It is also considered a powerful magical tool because it can protect the shaman, it can help him take different shapes, can be a weapon that helps the shaman defend himself, as well in his world as in the other worlds he reaches. The costume may also be a means of transport for the shaman to reach other worlds but the most important role that the shamanic costume may have is to show him the right way to explore the world of the spirits, just like a map. Moving to the American continent, the shamanic costume is mainly related to the purpose for which the shaman wears it. In any ritual they are performing, they need to disguise or to wear costumes similar to the appearance of powerful animals, such as the one of a bear. This is why the skin of the bear is often worn as the shamans costume. These shamans dance to call on the spirit of the bear and, as they enter trance and merge with the Bear spirit, they become bears in the performance of their rituals. (Pratt, vol I, p.56) Another piece of clothing used by shamans is the tunic, similar to the robe of the druids, but not white, Image 3

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which can be embroidered with a design representing the sacred World Tree. That way, as soon as he puts it on, the shaman is in the sacred center. (Place, p.49-50) Other tunics may also be embroidered with beads The image of a shaman that has a headdress Image 4 ornamented with antlers was a common way of dressing for shamans in Siberia and America also. The antlers may connect the shaman with the deer as a power animal, but they also symbolize the World Tree. (Place, p.50) As well as antlers, the feathers that shamans use for their headdress are also a symbol of the World Tree, because they give the shaman the birds Image 5 power from which the feathers were taken, and help the shaman to reach the world of the spirits. Ward Rutherford, in his book called Shamanism, mentioned several times in this paper, tells us that shamans have equipment, which is usually consisted of a caftan, or simply, a robe, the headgear, footwear, a mask, and the most important of all is his drum. He also says that all of these components of the shamanic equipment are not necessarily obligatory because there were seen shamans functioning naked or, in other cases, they use only some of these components, which vary according to the area they live in or to the rituals they accomplish. It is believed that the whole equipment could weigh approximately one hundred kilograms, that means the shaman must have an excellent physical condition and to be powerful. As we have already mentioned some of the components of the shamanic equipment, we should now take them in turn, to present them in more detail.

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4.2. Equipment The Caftan and Cloak While druids were wearing robes, especially white when they were performing rituals, shamans were wearing cloaks or a caftan. This piece of garment is made of goat or reindeer skin, while the druids robe was made of cotton mainly. The skin of animals was preferred by shamans because, they said, they could establish special connections with the spirits of the animals that helped them especially in the healing rituals. The so well-known feathers taken from different birds sustain the same idea of co-existence between shamans and animals. The feathers could have been part of their headdress or could have been sewed on their cloaks. The Pectoral It is in fact an armor which protects the shaman from the evil spirits. This is because they wear it on their chest and, when they encounter evil spirits, the pectoral works as a mirror. The spirits get frightened when seeing their hideous faces in those mirrors. Intended for a similar purpose and obviously linked to the crystal-gazers ball are the pieces of quartz crystal used principally by the shamans of Malaysia and the Americas. (Rutherford, p.47) The Mask This is as well a part of the shamans equipment which can be missing because, in some regions, shamans only put suet on their faces as a way of disguise. In those places where masks are used, they are made from the head of animal or bird (Rutherford, p.47), which is another proof for the close relation existing between shamans and animals. The role of the mask is to help the shaman who is wearing that

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mask to be recognized by those he is searching, for helping him in his rituals. Headgear The feather motif found in the cloak is often repeated in the headgear, those from the swan, eagle or owl being the most popular and usually incorporated complete with wings. (Rutherford, p.48) A bears head used as a headgear was also met with in the world of shamans but their tradition of wearing horns of different animals, such as the span or reindeer, was more common. Shamans even found a way to imitate real horns, by transforming pieces of iron into horns. Footwear Usually, shamans were performing different rituals without wearing something in their feet. Those who kept the tradition of having special footwear were wearing the hooves of a deer, a birds claws or the paws of a bear. (Rutherford, p.49) The Drum It is the most important element of the shamanic costume. Its main role is to summon and hold the spirits during divination and healing, though, in some cases, shamans of South or Central America can use instead a rattle for both of these rituals. Another important role that the drum has for the shaman is that of being a means of transport, which could take him to the Other worlds. In this case, the drum is his horse, while, if he has to cross the waters, his boat. In one case, the drumstick will be his lash; in the other, his paddle. (Rutherford, p.49) The drum usually has one side and an oval shape, Image 6

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being held by the shaman in his hands. Moving to the world of the druids, we should talk about their appearance and their costumes. They were wearing long beards, and their way of dressing was different from that of the persons from other social classes. During ceremonies, they were wearing white tunics, because white was believed to symbolize purity. It appears that the priests were clad in the usual Image 7 close-fitting under-dress, or breeches, reaching in one piece from the waist to the soles of the feet. (Smiddy, p.130) In the following lines it will be presented the full costume of a druid, which he was wearing when he participated to a festival or to a ritual. Beginning from his head, he had a crown made of oak leaves. He was holding a pure gold crescent in his right hand, to announce the beginning of the festival. Around his neck a string of white glass beads called Glain. (James, p.75) As we could see, beads are specific both to shamans and druids, as accessories for their costumes. As piece of garment, the druid was wearing, as we already know, a white tunic or robe, made of linen, which was covering his body from shoulders to the ankles. Druids were wearing white robes when they had to perform certain rituals, such as the cut of the mistletoe, which will presented in more details later in the paper. They were allowed to wear up to six colors, and only kings and Ollamhs (professors?) were allowed seven. (Travers) On the other hand, occurring in contrast with the white robes are the dark ones, which were being worn by druids in other rituals,

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especially in curses. Neither the white robe nor the dark one was needed in certain rituals, because the druids were also seen to have performed nude. When they had to accomplish the role of a judge, the druid was wearing a stole virgin white, over a closer robe of the same that was fastened by a girdle on which Image 8 appeared the crystal stone, which was worn as an emblem of the transparency of every case that was brought before him as Judge, and of the clear or impartial judgment which he should give accordingly. (James, p.77) The crown made of oak leaves was not missing either, and, in addition to this, the druid as a judge was wearing a ring on the middle finger on the left hand () and a chain ring on the next to it. (James, p.77) Druids had a certain way of dressing also when they were performing sacrifices. The crown made of oak leaves was on his head, not any kind of leaves but those taken from his favorite oak. He was then generally clad in a white tunic; an egg, or mysterious badge was suspended by a string from his neck, and he made use of certain mystical or appropriate gestures accompanied by prayers, incantations, and spells. (Smiddy, p.74-75) In order to sustain druids preference in wearing white tunics or robes, there are a few lines about the order of the clothes people were wearing in the Celtic society according to the colours that Eugene

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OCurry uses, in the book called Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish and these are: Mottled to simpletons; blue to women; Crimson to the kings of every host; Green and Black to noble laymen; White to clerics of proper devotion.

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Chapter 5: Sacred places, sacred plants, sacred animals

5.1 Sacred places All cultures had sacred spaces that were pregnant with meaning for the people. In Greece there were the ancient temples of Delphi and Delos. There were many springs and purification sites. In Europe and Asia there were temples and monasteries, mounds and ancient churches. All are places of pilgrimage for healing. The site itself helped balance body, mind and spirit. Many sacred sites were medicine wheelsStonehenge, Avebury, Big Horn. Many involve water. The ancient Roman baths in Bath, England; springs in Tinos, Greece; the waters at Lourdes in France-all used pure, crystal-clear, flowing water for healing. When you visit an ancient sacred site you feel its power. There is an expectation of spiritual presence at a sacred site. (Samuels and Lane, p.5) One of the most important places that druids are associated with is Stonehenge. It was and it still is a monumental place that was used by druids especially as a location either for their meetings or for performing different rituals. Even if druids and druidism are related to Stonehenge, specialists in archaeology and druidry claim that Stonehenge was built before any sign of druidism appeared, and was used by leaders of different tribes Image 9

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as a commemorative place or as a calendar. The proof for Stonehenge once being a commemorative place is Geoffrey of Monmouths legend that Merlin erected Stonehenge to commemorate the Saxon massacre of 460 Celtic chiefs met in truce. This event demolished the idea that Stonehenge symbolized justice for druids, because this massacre was an act of total injustice removed from the jurisdiction of Druids. (Liu, p. 197) Even if druids did or did not build Stonehenge, the fact that it was a druidic temple is quite obvious: Every midsummer solstice hundreds of druids flock to Stonehenge in the middle of Salisbury Plain to celebrate the midsummer sunrise. For them, and indeed for the many others who visit just to enjoy the occasion, it is a moment to feel the timelessness of being-it gives the reassurance of stability in a frightening, ever-changing world and the sense of being part of a community whose roots go deep into prehistory. It is a place to contemplate the profound rhythms of time. Perhaps it has always been thus. (Cunliffe, p.1) Opinions were divided on what concerns the rise of Stonehenge. Writers, such as Jingo Jones, believed the structure was very sophisticated, and this is why he ascribed its construction to the Romans. On the other hand, John Aubrey sustained the idea that Stonehenge was in fact a temple of the druids, therefore built by them. We should not omit the fact that Stonehenge was also used as a calendar and the stone circles have also been claimed to have been laid out in relation to significant celestial events. The alignment of those stones was deliberately set to respect the midsummer sunrise and the midwinter sunset. (Cunliffe, p.23) Only druids were the ones who could

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observe the astronomical events because they had the ability to establish connections between ordinary people and the gods. Stonehenge had various names. The old Welsh called it Choir Gaur, choir having the meaning that it has today, a group of people that is singing, especially in churches, and Gaur is a term of Hebrew origin that means a congregation or collection of people. The Monks often called it Chorea Gigantum- the Dance of the Giants. (Higgins, p.231) Another sacred place that druids had is the Temple at Avebury, consisting of the grand circle, comprehending within its area two smaller concentric circles. (Higgins, p.XXIX) The construction of this temple was attributed to the druids and it was the place where druids were performing their sacred rites. Druids had another sacred place, where they were meeting every year, on a fix date. This was the land of the Carnutes, where Druids were gathering from all over Britain and Gaul in order to discuss different problems or situations they met with in their societies. This place was as sacred for them as is the Church for Christians today. These meetings seemed to have more mysticism in them, because they were being hold in open-areas, especially in oak forests, on hills or by rivers. In this place there were not coming only druids but also ordinary people from all over Gaul and Britain, who needed justice to be made by these spiritual leaders. At a fix date of the year, Druids gather in a well-known place from the land of the Carnutes, which is considered to be the centre of the entire Gaul. In that place, people coming from all regions, all those who have disputes, gather there and listen to the decisions and judgment made by the druids. (Julius Caesar, qtd. in Brunaux, p.350, my translation)

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As Stonehenge is one of the sacred places that druids had, shamans also had their own sacred places but they did not use them only for their meetings but also for teaching future shamans what they had to know. Shamans used sacred places also for the initiation of future shamans, where the latter were subdued to certain physical as well as psychical tests. Shamanic powers were obtained either by the end of a whole process of initiation or in dreams. A prospective shaman might involuntarily dream of power (in the form of spirit helpers), or seek out guardian spirits through dreams at sacred places (e.g. caves). (Walter and Fridman, p.292) For the majority of shamans all over the world, a sacred place implied praying. Prayers gave sacredness to any place in which shamans were performing different rituals. One of these kinds of prayers will be presented in the following, in order to familiarize it to the readers. It was recorded by Michael Samuels, by interviewing some shamans, and transposed it in his book called Shaman Wisdom As we start on our shamanic work, let us pray to those who help us on the way. Let us call for them to come to us, and be with us in this sacred work we are about to do. (Creator, God, Jesus, Buddha, Our Teachers, She Who Gardens Us from Above, Great Spirit, come to us and help us with this work). We thank you for the earth, for our families, and for us as the shaman that we are. We thank you for our spirits and our ability to make this prayer. We thank you for our ability to see visions, and to speak to spirit animals and ancient ones. We thank you for our eyes, our ears, our hands, our bodies, and our lives.

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Creator, help us tell the truth and help us understand these words. Help us to know who we are, to receive Her gifts, to act in Her behalf. Give us the power to live with right action. Help us receive the gifts from Her that we wish for, that will balance our lives and the earth. Help us receive the answers to our questions that will inform us on our path and make us true. Help us see, hear, and act with purity of vision and purity of action, to heal ourselves, others, and the earth. Let your healing power come through us to heal. Now pause a moment and be silent. Center yourself. Thank the powers that you believe in; look at who you are and are to do. Pray for you to become the shaman healer who you are. Pray for what you need, ask for your questions to be answered. Go in peace. Now we can begin our sacred work together. The ancient ones who trained the shaman say to you, Do this work with commitment, acceptance, and honor. We bless you in your sacred work. We do. This prayer is a means used by shamans in order to ask the spirits their help, but in the same a means for thanking the divinity for all the powers and gifts shamans received from them. Sacred places that shamans had were not found only in the outside but also inside their bodies. To obtain this sacred place inside of them, they first had to control their breathing, that had to be slow and, when breathing, they had to consider that light was going inside their bodies. This light was opening their bodies. Michael Samuels believes that, during this process, you open up the top of your head and allow an axis to form that connects you with the earth. The axis goes through you from

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the earth, up through your body, up out of your head to the sky. It connects Mother Earth to Father Sky through the sacred body. It allows the energy of the earth to go through your head; it allows a flow through you from the universal energy of creation and healing. (Samuels and Lane, p.6) In those moments of breathing slowly, shamans considered themselves as being in a sacred place and also in a sacred time, because time was also slowing down. Finding animal spirits also involves, in shamanism, reaching sacred places. Therefore, if a shaman calls for the spirit of the owl to help him especially in the healing rituals, the owl is capable of taking the shaman to a sacred place that can be found inside his heart. Only an owl can reach this part of a shamans inner world. By the help of the owls spirit, the shaman can see through its eyes, can hear what it hears. 5.2 Sacred plants Another domain in which druids excelled was botany. They knew not only for what were different plants useful but they even determined a great number of species. Gathering these plants involved special rites. For example, gathering mistletoe, a plant which was considered a cureall, needed special rites and the most sacred religious ceremonies. Pliny the Elder brings us great information about this ritual: The Druids-for so their magicians are called-held nothing more sacred than the mistletoe and the tree that bears it, always supposing that tree to be the oak; and when found, is gathered with due religious ceremony, if possible on the sixth day of the moon. () Clad in a white robe, the priest ascends the tree and cuts the mistletoe with a golden sickle, and it is received by others in white cloak. () They believe that the mistletoe, taken in

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drink, imparts fecundity to barren animals and that it is an antidote for all poisons. (Pliny the Elder, qtd. in Fries, p.119) Selago is another plant considered sacred by the druids. It is gathered without using iron and by passing the right hand through the left sleeve of the tunic, as though in the act of committing a theft. The clothing must be white, the feet washed and bare, and an offering of wine and bread be made before the gathering. (Pliny the Elder, qtd. in Fries, p. 120). This plant was considered to have magical powers, because it could keep at distance everything evil, as well as medical virtues, its smoke being very useful in treating eye diseases or problems. Druids were also using a plant called Samolus, which must be gathered with the left hand, when fasting and it is a charm against the diseases of cattle. But the gatherer must not look behind him, nor lay the plant anywhere except in the drinking- troughs. (Pliny the Elder, qtd. in Fries, p.120) The gatherer was not allowed even to watch it but to put it in the recipient in which it was going to be prepared and then given to animals. The Sage, as well as the mistletoe, was being gathered through a special ritual performed by a priest, a druid. The sage was being cut with a golden knife and then placed on a white cloth. All the priests were participating to this great ritual and they were wearing white flax clothes. In addition, white bulls were being sacrificed. Image 10 The Oak, although on the last position in the presentation of sacred plants, was one of the most important and sacred tree for druids. Their meetings and rituals always required the use of oak leaves. It was believed that

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druids were gathering mistletoe from oaks and eating their corns because they believed they would acquire divine powers by doing this. Even the term druid comes from the word dru-, which means oak. An amazing statement made by specialists was the fact that the Celtic druids were fulfilling rituals or ceremonies in which their condition was being influenced by the consumption of some hallucinogenic substances. The statement was sustained by the discovery of cannabis in the hallstattian tomb from Hochdorf. Shamans, as well as druids, knew the characteristics of different plants and for what disease or illness they were useful. The plants used by shamans in their rituals, such as tobacco, fly agaric, psychedelic mushrooms, Peyote, San Pedro, Ayahuasca Quechua, Sboga, were the ones that determined shamans to get in trance and fulfill those rituals, as well as druids used cannabis. Ayahuasca, one of the plants used by shamans, is a hallucinogenic plant, used especially in the healing rituals. It is, in fact, a wine that is fermented into a thick beverage, with incredible hallucinogenic capabilities. People of different social groups, in countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, use this drug to heal two types of illnesses: the one given by God and that provoked by evil, which was desired by others for certain persons to become ill. Shamans do not use only the plants themselves but also their spirits. Before knowing what different plants are useful for, in healing different diseases or illnesses, the shaman has to follow a plant diet. The diet consists of a specific period of time in which the shaman consumes only a certain plant in order to discover its medical properties on the human body, but he also consumes ayahuasca, to aid the shaman in attuning with the spirit of the plant. (Pratt, vol II, p.350) Each plant had

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to be treated in a unique way so that the shaman could find out everything necessary about that plant, in order to safely use it in the healing process. This depended on the period in which the shaman was analyzing that plant, for some plants being shorter, for others, such as ayahuasca, the period of the diet was longer or, in some cases the diets were repeated several times. Future shamans who wanted to learn different things about different were being thought, by experienced shamans, how, when and where to harvest the plant, what parts of the plant to use; and how different parts of the plant can be used to treat different problems. The shaman also learns how to prepare the plants, which sometimes involves numerous steps, and how different preparations can be used to treat different problems. (Pratt, vol.II, p.351) There are also hallucinogenic plants used by shamans, as we already said, that can be used either alone or in combination with other plants. The difference between a medicine, a hallucinogen, and a poison is often the dosage, and in many cases the preparation. Shamans clearly understand that a proper dosage and specific application or preparation of a plant medicine is medicinal, while a stronger dosage and preparation is narcotic, while an even stronger dosage can be deadly. (Pratt, vol.II, p.351) These hallucinogenic plants were used by shamans in order to make easier the connection with other states of consciousness they wanted to reach. Examples of such plants can be given here: the peyote, ayahuasca, which was mentioned several times. Both of them were very well-known in the central and the southern part of the American continent.

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Image 11 The World Tree was a very important symbol for the shamans, a tree that was never missing from their rituals, as it was the oak for the druids. Besides all of these plants mentioned before, shamans also used a lot of herbs, for different problems. Michael Place, in his book called Shamanism, places these herbs into three categories, and these are herbs for healing, symbolic herbs and herbs for changing consciousness. Herbs for healing are best used by shamans. It is believed that the herb called willow bark stands at the origin of the drug aspirin of our days. As we could see, in order to have great knowledge about different plants, shamans either followed a plant diet, in which they tested that plant on themselves, or looked into the nature, to animals. Shamans noticed that animals knew what plants to use when they felt sick and therefore, shamans tried them too. The amazing thing was that those herbs proved to be useful in treating different diseases of the body. Another modality of choosing the right herbs which shamans had to use was to ask for the spirits guidance, and, when receiving that, they had the ability to talk to the plants themselves to find what they need. (Place, p.53) Regarding the consumption of these herbs, they can either be used as special ingredients in preparing food or in preparing tea. As an external remedy, the herb can be placed on the wounded area or the area of the body which a certain disease had affected, or even smoked in a

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pipe, as is popular with Native American shamans, such as Black Elk. (Place, p.54) Symbolic herbs, the second category of herbs suggested by Place, were used especially because of their magical powers. One of the most common ways is to burn the herbs as incense. Incense is often burned because it smells good, like perfume, but to a shaman incense is used in rituals to help him or her enter a trance or to attract certain spirits. (Place, p.54) Even the spirits have different preferences on what concerns smells, and if the shaman uses the right one to attract the spirits, he or she will definitely receive its help. Native American shamans had one more use for herbs and that was also to burn those herbs, so that a purifying smoke should rose. It was a method very useful in healing but also in creating a detached atmosphere for the shaman to do an efficient work. For this they will burn a smudge stick, which is a bundle of sage, an aromatic grass, tied together with yarn. This seems to be derived from a practice of Native American tribes of the plains. (Place, p.56) The third category of herbs, those for changing consciousness, is the category of the hallucinogenic plants, that help shamans reach other states of consciousness by entering a trance. Some of these herbs used by Native American shamans from the southern part of Mexico are some mushrooms, called psilocybin mushrooms. Other shamans, such as the Peruvian ones, enter the trance by the help of the San Pedro cactus or the peyote cactus. Shamans didnt consider these herbs for changing consciousness as drugs, but they were sacred for them and never used them for other purposes than those related to their responsibilities. The most common herb that Native Americans use to alter their consciousness in both North and South America is tobacco, which helps

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one to temporally feel relaxed, calm, and yet alert. They use it as a sacred herb only during their ritual, where they may use a lot of it all at once. Besides smoking it as a huge cigar, a shaman may also chew the leaves, inhale it as powder, or drink it as juice. (Place, p.58) Coffee enters this category too, because, if the shaman had consumed it he would receive more energy and also a higher degree of alertness. Shamans were using a lot of tobacco or coffee in their rituals, but, for nowadays people, it would not be possible to feel well by consuming such a great quantity at once. Although adults knew what herbs to use for different diseases of the body, serious diseases were being diagnosed by shamans, who were also choosing the appropriate herbs for treating the disease. Shamans believed that, by using certain herbs, the spirits of the herbs would come, attack and, in the end, destroy those evil spirits that caused the disease. 5.3 Sacred animals In the world of druids, there were several animals which were related to sacrifice. Through sacrifice, their way to worship the gods, they considered they could establish a closer relationship with the divinity. The animals chosen and meant to be sacrificed were the cow, the sow, the bull, the horse, the sheep, the goat and the boar pig. Not all of them were offered to the same god but they were distributed to several gods. According to the ancient mythology, the white cow was sacrificed to the celestial deities; the black cow to the infernal deities; and the red or brown cow to the terrestrial deities. (Smiddy, p.71) It could not be conceived that those animals which were considered sacred by the druids to be eaten or sacrificed and these are: the hen, the goose and the hare. These they bred, however, and kept for

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ornament, and, perhaps, for some other use or object now unknown. (Smiddy, p.72) On the other hand, there were several animals that shamans called as being sacred because of the different types of energies they were sending out. One of these animals is the snake, which is the symbol of knowledge, healing and sexuality. It has a primary relationship with the feminine and this is why it symbolizes sexuality and fertility. While the snake is the symbol of healing, which is a gradual process, the jaguar is the symbol of abrupt transformation, life and death. The cat of the jungle is the shepherd of the forest and the guardian of the gate towards death. (Villoldo, p.137, my translation). It is said that, when the spirit of the jaguar participated to rituals or ceremonies, it would destroy all the evil energies of fear, anger or sadness. The eagle was another sacred animal for shamans. It symbolizes precision, clarity and prevision. This is because the eagle rises above everything and sees everything, in the past and in the future. It gives people wings to rise above their problems and helps them find answers to those problems. The aquila, similar in appearance with the eagle, was also a sacred animal for shamans, being the bird that helped and protected the shaman when traveling to all the levels of the mind he needed to. This bird was so useful to the shaman because it has such a bright look that nothing could escape from its sight.

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Chapter 6: Other rituals, practices, beliefs

6.1. Rituals, practices One delicate problem related to druids is the practice of human sacrifice. In the Celtic society, this practice was not seen as a rule but rather as one happening seldom. Human sacrifice was believed to have been fulfilled by the druids or it was a practice to which the druids were only participating. No matter which of the two roles they had, druids had to be present and to supervise the ritual. The type of sacrifice, whether human or animal, depended on the traditions each tribe had or on the gods to which the sacrifice was addressed. For example, the Gaules had three gods: Teutates (the God of the Tribes), to which the sacrifice was made by drowning the victims, Taranis (the carrier of thunder), who received, as a sacrifice, victims who were burned on the stake, and Esus (the Master), who received victims that were being hanged on a tree branch or victims killed by beheading. (Grigorescu, p.56, my translation) Those who became victims of this ritual were especially prisoners or people who harmed the society, and, implicitly, its people. The situation in which a certain number of criminals were killed for their horrible deeds was also a case of human sacrifice. It is amazing that even innocent people were sacrificed, only to please the gods. The druids were responsible for deciding how to punish wrongdoers, those who didnt obey to the law, and the cruelest punishment for these persons was to exclude them or to take them the right to assist to sacrifices. Sacrifice was considered to be a way of praying, and it was practiced probably in order to convince the gods to

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help those who are faithful to them, thank them for the mercy they show and for all the good things received from them. (Grigorescu, p.58, my translation) In other cultures, such as the Greek or the Roman one, human sacrifice was fulfilled only to please the gods or to thank them for something. Meanwhile, in the Celtic world, human sacrifice could take several shapes. Caesar, the most important observer of the Celtic world, tells us which were those shapes human sacrifice could take or the reasons for which it was fulfilled. One of them is the case of sick persons or those wounded in wars, who were promising other human lives in exchange for their lives. The second one is horrifying, I could say, because it implies human sacrifice to be fulfilled so that the druids could foresee future events that could be dangerous for the society. The ritual involves a human being who is hit with a sacred knife right in his chest and the movements his body does before he dies are being interpreted by the druids. In order to sustain the statement that in the Celtic society human sacrifice was performed, an actual proof has been brought about. We are talking about the discovery of a body of a man in a Lindow bog. It is considered to have been found in the first or second century C.E. and was so well preserved that scientists had even the possibility to subject the body to different examinations. One of the examinations was made upon the stomach, and the examiners could learn even the final lunch that man had. Lindow man was almost certainly a ritual sacrifice; he was strangled, hit on the head, and had his throat cut, in quick order, then surrendered to the bog. (Spangenberg) One more ritual specific to the shamans related to healing, that should be mentioned here, met with in North America, Asia or even the

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Arctic, was to bind the shaman before doing the trip to the world of the spirits so as the spirit of the shaman didnt get lost in the other world. The shamans healing ritual begins in silence with the shaman staring into the fire. He begins to summon his power by putting on his shamanic costume and smoking. A white mares hide is spread on the floor by the assistant. The shaman drinks cold water and offers it to the four directions. The assistant throws horsehairs on the fire and then covers the ashes with another hide, bringing the room into complete darkness. The shaman sits down on the mares hide and dreams into a light trance summoning the spirits. (Pratt, vol. II, p.551) Invoking the spirits in order to help the shaman heal different diseases was a very complex ritual because the shaman had to do many things till he reached the world of the spirits. When the spirits got close to the real world, they would make different noises, especially of birds and also other types of noises. That was the moment when the shaman started to sing a gentle song, combined with the beating of drums, made in a rising tone. The climax of the ritual took place when the spirits were being very close, while the song and the beating of the drums were very intense. The shaman then asked the spirit for its help through singing as well, and when the spirit accepted to give him help, no more drumming or singing could be heard. Now that the shaman had special powers from the spirits he began to dance and leap in order to communicate with the spirits. He wears a costume hung with thirty to fifty pounds of metal power objects (). Finally he goes to the patient and summons the spirit who is causing the illness and expels it from the body. (Pratt, vol. II, p.551552)

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6.2. Beliefs From very early times, the druids felt the need to spread all over the world the idea of metempsychosis. They considered that humans could be saved by the help of three obligations: to honor the gods and to respect them, to do well and to fight courageously. Their philosophy, in this case, was that there were no dead persons in this world but a whole process of transposition into another body, after death, process also called reincarnation. One of the perspectives from which druids regarded death was to consider it as an ending to human existence and nothing else after it. On the other hand, Julius Caesar says that, in particular they [the Druids] wish to inculcate this idea that the souls do not die, but pass after death from one body to another. (Julius Caesar, qtd in Goudey, p.102) Reincarnation didnt take place immediately after a person had died but actually after several years. During this period, the soul was believed to have an existence in the world of the spirits. Caesar noticed that the Celts made us of this belief even on the battlefield, in order to determine soldiers to show their bravery and courage even at the cost of their lives. They were not afraid because they knew their souls will pass to other bodies if they die. Druids really believed and sustained the immortality of the soul, therefore their funeral rites and mythology were very complex and of great importance. They believed death was only a moment of changing from the usual state to another and that life went on earth as it was, in the world of the dead this time. That was the moment when the destinies of the souls of the dead were balanced and, in exchange of them, humans alive were being sent on earth. The number of the dead persons or souls who entered the other world was the same with the number of humans

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alive or souls sent on earth. The fact that the number of human souls was not limited gave them the opportunity to move from a species to another. Druids were the ones who taught the Celtic population to believe in the existence of life after death. This belief was so convincing that it determined the Celts to borrow money when they were still alive in their world in order to be given back to them in the other life. Because their sacred tradition didnt allow them to write anything that was produced by their wisdom, such as pieces of advice, teachings moralizing things, druids were memorizing all those wise teaching and recited them, together with sacred formulas or prayers in verse. They considered that, in this way, they could communicate better with the world of the gods. Shamans, according to the fact that they could mediate between the world of humans and the world of spirits, believed they had the necessary powers and knowledge to move from one world to the other. This passing from the real world to the world of spirits was in fact a hole or opening, through which sacred beings or animals were descending. In his turn, the shaman could use this opened hole to travel in the sky or in the underworld. Due to their labile temper or due to some diseases, such as epilepsy, they could enter in a trance, and, after reaching another state of consciousness, could communicate with the world of the spirits. They maintained this connection between mortals and spirits because they considered it a good solution for the community to be offered welfare. As a whole, the religious beliefs of all the primitive tribes in America sustained this continuous interrelationship between humans and good or evil spirits.

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Because the main function of shamans was healing, Indian shamans from California believed that diseases were caused especially by some material objects that got into the human body, causing pain. In order to get rid of such a disease they considered, as a unique solution, the extraction of that pain from the sick body. Another modality through which diseases could disappear was by the help of the shamanic dance. The shamanic dance is, in fact, a way of relaxation and concentration in the dance and not in the disease. In this ritual it was being chosen a certain animal from which the shaman borrowed the movements, practice meant to cure some problems of the muscles, fatigue, etc. As every plant had a role in curing certain diseases so each animal and its movements was capable to help the diseased body to be cured. Its movements were very helpful for the relaxation of the muscles, and therefore improved all the mechanisms that help the body to function correctly. Another important belief of Indians from tribes all over North America was the belief in the existence of a close connection between shamanism and the supernatural powers of animals. For example, the bearshaman was spiritually protected by a bear. The grey bear especially gave supernatural powers to shamans. Therefore many of them were wearing, in great probability as a mask or disguise, the bear hide. Image 12 Shamans considered bears as having very powerful spirits when called to help to the healing process. The bears spirit was not invoked by the shaman for his strength in such a great extent but especially to

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help him in other ways in the healing ritual. Most of the tribes in North America associated bears with curing. The Cherokee performed a bear dance highlighting the winter ceremony to protect against the epidemic diseases brought by Europeans. (Pratt, vol I, p.57) Other tribes, in the Great Plains, or the Cheyenne tribe, believed that the spirit of the bear didnt heal only humans but they could also heal themselves or other bears, especially by the help of herbs.

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Chapter 7: Druidess versus Shaman woman

In both the druidic and the shamanic society, women could also take the role of spiritual leaders. The problem was that they were not as influential as men, because men symbolize superiority and strength. 7.1 Druidesses Female druids, or druidesses, occupied an important place along male druids, in the Celtic society. They could have the main role of a druid, that of being priests, in certain situations. Even if they could accomplish the role of a druid, the only term that makes reference to druidesses is that of sorceresses, who were gifted with great powers. Another thing related to druidesses is that of being participants as well as performers of human sacrifice. They were grey with age, and wore white tunics and over these, cloaks of finest linens and girdles of bronze. Their feet were bare. These women would enter the [army] camp, sword in hand and go up to the prisoners, crown them, and then lead them up to a bronze vessel. One woman would mount a step and, leaning over the cauldron, cut the throat of a prisoner [of war], who was held over the vessels rim. Others cut open the body and, after inspecting the entrails, would foretell victory for their countrymen. (Green, p.97) From Irish tradition we find out that female druids were called bandruids. Some of the observers of the Celtic society mention several names of such female druids. Eirge, Eang and Banbhuana are mentioned in the Siege of Knocklong, Dub and Gaine are mentioned in the Dinsenchas.

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In order to notice the importance of a female druid we have to go back to the status of a woman of the Celtic society. There were several types of marriage. One of them was to enter marriage with an equal part of wealth and status from both the man and the woman. Other two give the power and superiority to either the man or to the woman. The man had to give his wife a certain amount of money every year, taking into consideration the possibility of a divorce. If the divorce took place, the woman would be able, in this case, to be independent, managing the money she would receive every year from her husband. Plutarch, another observer of the Celtic society, saw Celtic women participating to assemblies, mediating quarrels and negotiating treaties. Celtic women could also participate to wars, alongside their husbands. Boudicea was one of the Druidesses of the Celtic society. She gathered a great army and almost managed to remove the Romans from Britain. Before battle, it is said that she released a hare, making prayers to the goddess of victory, to divine the results of battle. Because of her strong influence and her priestly rituals, Anne Ross has speculated that she must have been a druidess. (Travers) 7.2 Shaman women In Old Norse religion, shamanism was practiced especially by women because men were not considered to have such abilities like women. However, in Old Norse mythology, the supreme god Odin was also seen as the foremost shaman. (Crystal) A Chuckchee proverb says that woman is by nature a shaman. This idea can be sustained by the fact that Mircea Eliade believed that women shamans represented a degeneration of an originally masculine profession, yet was hard put to explain why so many male shamans

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customarily dressed in womens clothing and assumed other femalegendered behaviors. (Dash) Not only males could be shamans but women also could and, therefore, they accomplished roles such as invokers, priestesses, healers, oracles, shape shifters, justified through descriptions, images, traditions. In many cases, women shamans were seen as having greater powers than men shamans, therefore they were seen as being able even to bring back to life dead persons. Knowing shamans as having the ability to communicate with other worlds, another idea comes to life, that of every woman that gives birth, finding herself in that moment between two worlds: that of life and that of death, this being constituted in a shamanic experience, therefore any woman giving birth could control life and death, as shamans could. Geoffrey Ashe also sustains the fact that ancient shamanism was not an individual phenomenon but was something that was practiced by the female group. And the power of the female group is biologically rooted in menstruation and the blood mysteries of birth. (Freeman) It is not somebodys fault that people think first of men when they say or hear the word shaman but we must be aware of the fact that, in many cases, shaman women proved to be better in this area than male shamans. One reason for this could be their native abilities and great powers. Because women were seen as being weak, some shaman women, after receiving the shamanic powers, had the ability to shift into a man shaman body, in order to gain his capacities needed to accomplish different rituals. Under this shape, that of a man, women shaman acted as men shaman would act. A conclusive example of women having the role of shamans is that of the shaman women from the Bear society, part of the Seneca

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nation in North America. In this society, shaman women had the greatest and most important role in the healing process blowing the healing power of Bear into the head of the patient. (Pratt, vol II, p.425) 7.3 Druidess vs Shaman woman The major difference between druid women and shaman women is the fact that druid women were presented only as witches or as some very cruel women while shaman women had a greater influence and importance in the shamanic societies because they were seen as being more skillful when they had to deal with healing diseased persons.

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Chapter 8: The end of the druids and shamans. Neo-druidism and the New Age of shamanism
8.1 The end of the druids and shamans The status of being a druid had a very close relationship with the three aspects found at the foundation of the society: the religious, judicial and political system. Their existence throughout history was related to the interdependence between these three aspects and the good conduit between them. Their power resisted as long as these three aspects of their social life kept their solidarity. Another reason for which druidism fell from its right was also the apparition of Christianity. What druidism left to our days was the belief, of many populations in France, England and Ireland, in witches, wizards, elves and fairies as well as all sorts of unreal monsters. As a result, druids survived as long as they managed to rule the society how they wanted, till Romans and Christianity took the lead. Romans trying and managing to conquer Britain were also successful in destroying the druidic caste. There were several invasions in Gaul and Britain, but in the one led by Emperor Claudius the Druids were singled out and massacred on the beach of Anglesey. The Romans deliberately undermined Druid leadership and power among the conquered Celtic people. (Sutton and Mann, p.131) This means the Romans were very smart and knew who to attack in order to destroy the unity of the Celtic society. Druids were the ones who kept this unity but without them, the Celtic society, as it happens in any other society where the leader, whether spiritual or political is killed, lost any other hope for life, together with the disappearance of the druids. Romans easily

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managed to conquer a weak society that believed it had nothing else to lose. Romans were the ones who mostly contributed to the disappearance of the druids first of all because they brought with them, in Britain, Christianity, and therefore the Celts could adopt this religion in any moment. Language was the most important factor that contributed to the decline of the druidic society. This is because the Romans made Celts believe they were Roman citizens too, and, naturally, they were allowed to use the Romans legal system, which implied also the use of Latin instead of the Gallic languages. Rome did not attack the Druids on religious grounds, strictly speaking, but on political grounds, because the Druids had such power in politics and in the administration of justice, and opposed the majesty of Rome; on ground of humanity, because the Druids offered human sacrifices; and finally because of their magical superstitions. (Hastings, p.88) Specialists also mention that druids were not all gone, but some of them, who managed to escape the Romans anger, went to Ireland or Scotland, where Romans could not reach them. From other sources we find out that some druids were spared and continued to live in the Celtic society, but they had to accept the rules and the rule of the Romans. The reasons for their disappearance, cited above, were actually the fields in which the druids were no longer permitted to interfere, beginning with the Roman rule. They were permitted to continue their teachings as long as they were not thinking to practice human sacrifice or to involve in the political system. Shamans, unlike druids, could not actually be considered leaders of any kind. Therefore, their contribution to the society they lived in was

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especially to heal diseased person or to help people to solve different problems. The relationship between shamans and other people was seen rather as one based on friendship and not one based on superiority from the shamans side. The shamans were found in societies without formal classes and mostly in societies lacking an administrative political organization beyond the local community; none of the shamans were found in sedentary societies. () Increases in sedentary lifestyles and the development of more complex forms of political integration that followed the adoption of agriculture led to the disappearance of shamans and the transformation of their potentials and functions. (Winkelman, p.73) 8.2 Neo-druidism and the New Age of shamanism In modern times, druidism is seen as part of the new paganism, on the same list being, as well, such religions as Wicca, shamanism or odinism. Modern druidism is guided by a set of principles, of which we can remember the close connection of humans with nature, the sacred power of nature and the respect given to the gods and to all their creatures. On the other hand, the New Age Movement is concerned with a sort of revival of shamanism, by bringing back to life some of its characteristics. At the same time, there is an endeavor in occult and esoteric circles to reinvent shamanism in a modern form drawing from core shamanism a set of beliefs and practices synthesized by Michael Harner and often revolving around the use of ritual drumming and dance. (Crystal)

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