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 wiccacraeft or  Witchcraft, which seems to mean  the craft of them. Most of these  scholars were not very romantic in their treat-
bending or  the twisting skill (standard terms used for magical ment of the Druids, on the contrary, writers seemed to vie with one
workers, but seldom for religious authorities). another in  revealing the foolishness, barbarity and vanity of Druid
Druid places of worship seem to have been mainly oak groves. worship. This was of course the proper party-line to take for a scholar
They practiced animal (and perhaps human) sacrifices and may have wishing to survive with either his reputation or his head in
performed divination from the remains. They were touchingly fond Christendom. It did not, however, improve the image of Prechristian
of mistletoe, especially if it grew oak trees. They appear to have been religions in Europe.
polytheists (probably  conditional polytheists ) rather than mono- It is said by some that in 1245 c.e. a gathering was held of under-
theists or duotheists. They believed in an afterlife very much like the ground Druids and Bards from several of the British Isles, and that
fleshly one (not, it would appear , in reincarnation or transmigra- a theological unity was agreed upon and a special group or Grove
tion, except for Heroes, Wizards and Gods) and made it a special founded, called the Mount Haemus Grove, which is said to still be in
point to bury tools, weapons, animals and food with the warriors existence, with an  unbroken line leading back. Such claims need
and kings for use in the Celtic equivalent of the  Happy Hunting to be treated most carefully. There does seem to be a group by that
Grounds believed in by some Native Americans. A favorite day for name, recognized by some of the modern Druids in England, but
rituals (as well as for cutting mistletoe) seems to have been the sixth this hardly constitutes proof of such an extraordinary claim. It may
day after the night in which the new moon was first visible. They did indeed go back a few centuries (probably to the id 1700) but that
not appreciate either the Roman Paleopagans nor the Roman does not make it an unbroken heritage from 1245.
Paleochristians that much. In 1659 c.e., the scholar John Aubrey, having done some archeo-
logical fieldwork at Stonehenge, made the suggestion that Stonehenge
That just about sums up what we really know for sure about the might have been a temple of the Druids. He developed this sugges-
Paleopagan Druids. There are no real indications that they used stone tion cautiously over the next few decades in his correspondence with
altars (at Stonehenge or anywhere else); that they were better philoso- his fellow scholars and in the notes for his never fully-published
phers than the Greeks or Egyptians; that they had anything to do at work, Templa Druidum. In 1694, a fiery young Deist named John
all with the mythical continents of Atlantis or Mu; that they wore Toland discussed the theory with him and became very enthusiastic
gold Masonic regalia or used Rosicrucian passwords; that they were over it. In 1659, excerps from Aubrey s book were published, in-
the architects of (a) Stonehenge, (b) the megalithic circles and lines of cluding his theory about Druids at Stonehenge, which then saw light
Northwestern Europe, (c) the Pyramids of Egypt, (d) the Pyramids of for the first time.
the Americas, (e) the statues of Easter Island, of (f) anything other In 1717, a young antiquary named William Stuckeley obtained a
than wooden barns and stone houses. Neither is there any proof transcript of Aubrey s complete manuscript of Templa Druidum, in-
that the Ancient Druids were  Prechristian Christians; that they cluding the portions never published. Stuckeley though the theory
understood or invented either Pythagorean or Gnostic or Cabalistic about Stonehenge being a Druid Temple was a terrific idea and be-
mysticism; or that they all had long white beards and golden sickles. gan to develop it far beyond Aubrey s original concepts. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]