The Truth Against The World

By Rígh-Bhean ©2001 

Since the beginning of human civilization, there have been those who sought knowledge of the universe beyond the limits of physical perception and the consensual worldview of reality. Disciplines have been and are still constantly being developed to alter the normal state of human consciousness and thus enable us to see different dimensions of the ultimate actuality. This search for Truth is the hardest path one can follow, the search for the entheogenic principle. 

The term entheogenic (in Greek, entheos means, literally, 'god within' and -gen, denotes the action of 'becoming') defines the altering of consciousness in order to experience religious ecstasy or vision. Techniques for accessing this state range from sensory deprivation to the use of drugs, from study and meditation to prayer and the invocation of higher powers. The Druids utilize many of these techniques to access the Otherworlds and bring back the information and the sense of purpose that enables them to experience that underlying reality. The Truth Against The World is a rallying cry to those who see that the teaching of society, while not untrue, ignores or misinterprets that Path the Druids follow. It is the Logos of those who are the protectors of the earth, the keepers of knowledge and the guardians of truth. 

Here then is such knowledge. The information contained in the following pages is not widely known nor accepted and represents the opinions of the author. Accept or reject what is contained within as you wish. The Choice is yours. 


Part I The Origin of the Druids 

"Some say that the study of philosophy was of barbarian origin. For the Persians had their Magi, the Babylonians or the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, the Indians their Gymnosophists, while the Kelts and the Galatae had seers called Druids and Semnotheoi." 
Diogenes Laertius Lives of the Philosophers c.250AD 

Caesar tells us that the Druids "have many discussions as touching the stars and their movement, the size of the universe and of the earth, the order of nature, the strength and the powers of the immortal gods, and hand down their lore to the young men." Scientists, philosophers, teachers - the Druids, by their efforts, preserved the common culture, religion, history, laws, scholarship, and science among the Celtic people of the British Isles. 

They taught the traditional doctrine of the soul's immortality. They possessed a knowledge of the workings of reincarnation so detailed that they allowed debts incurred in one lifetime to be repaid in the next. They held paramount authority over every tribal chief. By the sanctity of their office, they moved where they wanted, settling disputes and stopping battles by compelling the rival parties to arbitration. 

They managed the higher legal system and the courts of appeal, and their colleges in Britain were famous throughout the Continent. Up to twenty years of oral instruction and memorizing was required of a pupil before being admitted into their order. Their knowledge and authority was so great that they have become legendary, the very epitome of wizardry and magic, mysterious figures whose powers are hidden from us in the shadowy beginnings of our current era. 

Who were they? Celts, certainly, but Celts of a very special kind, residing only in the British Isles. Gaul knew them only through the teachings from the great schools of those Isles. The Celts of Spain did not have them, nor the Celts of Italy, nor of Germany or Switzerland. As far as we know, Celtic religion in these areas consisted of innumerable cults based around local or tribal deities, with no tradition of the great knowledge and wisdom that made the schools of Britain famous. Those centers seem to have sprung into existence suddenly, about 2000 years ago, their knowledge and power fully developed, their authority full grown. 

Obviously, they had to come from somewhere. Some Celtic tradition of scholarship and scientific lore must have existed to produce these Masters of wisdom. A search of the areas known to be Celtic must give us some clue as to that origin. And it does. That area was known as Galatia. 

A part of the Roman Empire, Galatia was settled by peoples of Celtic origin, the Gaels. Gaels differed from the other Celtic tribes somewhat, belonging to the dialectic group called q-Celtic as opposed to the p-Celtic Gauls and the Brythonic tribes that include the Welsh, Cornish and Breton Celts. In the days of the Roman Empire, the city of Edessa, now called Sanliurfa, in Turkey, was known as the Sacred City, famous for its schools of learning. It was from there that the Magi came, following their star into Judea. And it was from there that the Druids also came, following their own prophesy, west, to the Isles of Britain. 


Part II The Druidic Quest 
To know, to dare, to be silent 

The ancestors of the Celts were an Indo-European culture who lived near the Black Sea around the beginning of the Neolithic era. We now know that the fertile lands in this area were inundated by the Mediterranean about 5500 BCE, creating the Black Sea and displacing the people who lived there. Some migrated in a southwesterly direction to create the cultures of Thrace and Greece; others moved Northwest to form the Baltic, Celtic, Germanic and Slavic cultures. 

A proto-Celtic Urnfield culture has been found in what is now Slovakia, circa 1000 BCE. This evolved into a group of loosely linked tribes that formed the Celtic culture circa 800 BCE. By 450 BCE they had expanded into Spain; by 400 BCE they were in Northern Italy, and by 270 BCE, they had migrated into Galatia in central Turkey. By 200 BCE, they occupied the British Isles, Brittany, much of modern France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, Northwest Spain, and the isolated Galatia settlement in Turkey. 

According to Pythagoras, the Druids and the Magi developed their philosophy long before the Greeks. Hippolytus, in the third century CE, said the Druids used Pythagorean methods in the reckoning of their prophecies. He did not mean that the Druids learned Pythagorean methods but that they used methods later taught by Pythagorus. Iamblichus, in his Life of Pythagorus, states that Pythagorus was acquainted with the Celtic mysteries. Valerus Maximus said, "...what those trousered barbarians believed is the very faith of Pythagorus himself." 

In Gaelic, draoi, or druidh, means a magician or druid. The stem drao means magus, 'One who knows'. The root dru can be interpreted as high, strong or oak. 'One who knows the Oak' has usually been accepted because of the Druids' reverence for the Oak Tree; however, the word may have originally derived from an Indo-European word, `dreo-vid,' meaning `one who knows the truth.' Sotion referred to them as the "Holy Ones" and the Greeks used the word semnotheoi for the them; literally meaning, "revered gods".

What truth did the Druids know? What was the quest that brought them from Galatia in the uttermost East of the civilized world to the mythic Isles of the Western Sea? The code of Druidry is To know, to dare, to be silent. Without breaking that code, we can only relate certain legends and facts. 

As you consider the information that follows, please remember that there have been four major Celtic invasions of Ireland. The first three - the Picts, the Firbolgs and the Tuatha de Danann - were p-Celtic speaking tribes, represented today by the Brythonic languages of the Welsh, Breton and Cornish. Strangely enough, the Q-Celtic, or Gaelic, spoken in Ireland, the Isle of Man, and western Scotland - the language of the Milesians - is the older of the two. 

Cruithin (8th-5th century BCE) ~Picts~ 
Erainn (5th-3rd century BCE) ~Firbolgs~ 
Laigin (3rd-2nd century BCE) ~Tuatha de Danann~ 
Gael (1st century BCE-1st century CE) ~Milesians~ 


The Four Treasures of the Tuatha De Dannan 

The Tuatha De Dannan came to Ireland from four cities of the Otherworld, Murias, Falias, Gorias and Finias, bringing with them four treasures. Mannanan, the Holy Bárd, brought from Murias in the West the Cauldron of Renewal, which has the Power to regenerate life. Those who drink from it do not die, but may pass beyond the Portals to gain the wisdom of the Otherworld and return. Dread Morrighan, the Rìgh-Bhean, brought from Falias, in the north the Stone of Destiny. 

This is the stone of Divine Right on which kings are crowned. Wherever it may be, the Scepter is to be with it. In that resides the wisdom and the spirit of the Mighty Ones, Its guardian has the Power to cross beyond the Portals of Time and Space. Great Lugh of the Long Arm, Warlord of the Dannan, carried from Finias in the South the Spear of Victory. This is the Shining Spear, against which no enemy shall prevail. The guardian of this spear shall be always victorious, for its Power is such that no battle can ever be sustained against it. Ogma of the Sunface, the Lady's Champion, carried from Glorias in the East the Sword of Light. No enemy ever escapes once it is drawn from its sheath. 

It should be noted here that these four symbols of magical elements are reflected in the Sword, the Spear, the Cup and the Pentacle of the Tarot. According to all modern research, the exact origin of the Tarot is not known, but it is believed that it originated somewhere around India and was brought to Europe with the Gypsies. The earliest known Tarot decks appeared around the fourteenth century. 

The Legend of Innisfail, the Island of Destiny 

"Gaedhuil, grandson of the King of Scythia was bitten by a poisonous serpent. His father, Nuil, a younger son of the king, carried the boy to the Israelites, where he asked for the aid of their leader, Moses. The man of God prayed over the child and touched him with his rod. The boy rose up, healed." 

"Moses told the boy that his descendants would go to a land in which no poisonous serpents would live. It would be an island which would be found in the track of the setting sun." 

Ireland has long been regarded as a sacred and special place with an aura of myth and legend. The ancient Greek scholar Plutarch called it "Ogygia" meaning Most Ancient. The Roman, Rufus Festus Avienus, called it "Insula Sacra" meaning Sacred Island and, in the Milesian myth quoted above, it was referred to as "Innisfail", the Isle of Destiny. 

Modern advocates of the Anglo-Israeli connection claim that the Sons of Mil brought with them the Stone of Destiny, the Lia Fail, which they also call Jacob's Pillow. This, they claim, was the stone upon which Jacob laid his head as he dreamed the dream of the ladder that the angels used to descend and rise again to Heaven, the stone Jacob anointed and brought with him from the place he called the Gate of Heaven. 

The Legend of The Magi 

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, Behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him." 

Lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh. 

And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. 

In the teaching of the ancient Druids, there is a Deity known variously as Yesu, Esus and Hesus. This Deity was understood as the personification of God as Savior. It was believed and taught that Yesu would descend to earth sometime in the future as the Savior of mankind. The Hebrew Joshua, when spoken in Aramaic, becomes Yeshu or Yeshua. The Druidic Yesu was considered to be a personage of a Trinity: Beli was the Creator; Taran, the controlling providence of the present; and Yesu was the coming Savior. The Druidic Trinity was depicted as three golden rays of light and this sign became the emblem of the Druids. It is singular thus that the Druid of Britain never changed the name of the God he and his forefathers worshipped, nor has he ever worshipped but one God. The Druids believed, as great Taliesin said, that 'Yesu, the Word from the beginning, was from the beginning our Teacher, and we never lost his teaching'. 

Clearly, the Christianity of the British Isles in the first centuries of the current era was vastly different from the Christianity of today. Differing even from the Church of that day, the Celts embraced the Johannine theology as "taught to them by their Egyptian and Syrian teachers." The writings of St. John focused on the theme of relationship and community rather than on outward acts of righteousness and hierarchies of ecclesiastical authority. 

There was a clear influence of the Jewish Qumran community upon Johannine thought, or St. John on the community, in the relationship of theology and their view of life history. Man and Nature were seen as being in a relationship of balance rather than viewed as hierarchies of power. For this reason, St. John's teaching was accepted by the Druids and whole communities embraced this form of Christianity. This predisposition is evident in how the Celtic communities, such as the one at Iona, were structured around paternal Abbots and in their uncommon view of religious celibacy. 

This last legend concerns the Bishop - or Archdruid - of Iona. 

The Legend of the Book of Glass 

An angel sent to Columba from heaven held in his hand a Book of Glass, regarding the appointment of kings. 

Having received the Book from the hand of the angel, the venerable man, at his command, began to read it; and when he was reluctant to appoint Aidan king of Dalriada, as the book directed, the angel, suddenly stretching forth his hand, struck the saint with a scourge, the livid marks of which remained in his side all the days of his life. 

And he added these words: 
Ò Know for certain," said he, "that I am sent to thee by God with the Book of Glass, that in accordance with the words thou hast read therein, thou mayest inaugurate Aidan into the kingdom of Dalriada." 


Part III The Ward of the Druids 

Phoenix Cycle: The Spiral Circle 

Four waves of Celts swept across Europe, meeting with a clash of arms on the green shores of Ireland, the Promised Land of their prophecies. That there was a prophecy, we can be sure. The legends of the Laigin and the Gael are clear on that point. Ireland was the Innisfail, the Island of Destiny. Exactly what that destiny was to be, however, was never revealed. 

Some indication of it may be gleaned from the study of Pythagorean philosophy, since that philosophy was derived, according to Hippolytus and others, from the Druids. This philosophy was based on number. The mystery schools of Edessa believed that, at its deepest level, reality is mathematical in nature. The mystical significance of certain symbols and numbers can be found in many forms, but the greatest is reserved for the stars, which foretell the fate of nations and of kings. 

The Phoenix Cycle, derived from Egyptian legends of the Bennu bird that rose from its own ashes every 500 years, figured in many of their prophesies. With each Phoenix culmination, a new spiral in the great circle of the Earth's history begins, influenced by the life of that incarnated being whose death it marks. 

Through the studies of Tacitus and Plinius, we know that the Phoenix was not immortal but lived the equivalent of a Platonic year. This is the time that the Sun and the planets need to return to their original positions. Translated to our calendar, this represents a period of 12,920 years, giving each Phoenix Cycle a span of about 508 years. 

Interestingly enough, Climatologists have identified a drought cycle which occurs every 510 years and has had a direct effect on the history of Europe, Asia Minor and North Africa. In the past, these droughts were accompanied by cold weather, civil wars and invasions. They can be tied directly to the collapse of various civilizations. Awareness of this correlation would make the identification of the Phoenix of paramount importance; the difficulty of doing so was staggering. 

Toward the end of the 1st Century BCE, the Magi of the various schools began searching for the Phoenix whose death would mark the end of the current Cycle, a death which would fall somewhere around 29 CE in our current reckoning. At about this same time, the Gael, under the guidance of the Druids, invaded Ireland. 

That these 'Milesians' were said to be the fourth wave of the Celts to invade the Innisfail was no accident. Four was the number that held the potential for perfection. The mystery schools considered ten the perfect number, for all men count as far as ten, the Decad, and when they get as far as this they return to the Monad, the first principle. The perfection of the power of ten is potentially present in the number four, the Tetrad. The reason for this being that, if one adds one and two and then adds to them three and four, he will fill out the number ten. This is called the Tetractys, the Sacred Symbol. 

The legends of the Innisfail and of the Magi are indications that the Druids believed the next Phoenix Cycle would be influenced by the Jewish people. It was the Cycle after that which they believed would be their destiny, the Cycle of the Celts. 

For those who are interested in the Phoenix Cycles: 
0479BCE - Death of Confucius. In the last chapter of the works of Mencius, that philosopher says that 'from Yaou and Shun to T'ang,--a period including all the dynasty of Hea--were 500 years and more; from T'ang to king Wan the period of the Shang dynasty--were 500 years and more; and from king Wan to Confucius were 500 years and more.' 

THE PHILOSOPHICAL CYCLE 
0029 CE - Death of Jesus of Nazarene 

THE NAZARENE CYCLE 
0537 CE - Death of Artur at the Battle of Camlann. The Battle of Camlann was fought in 0537, according to Annales Cambriae. Death or 'unspecified other demise' of Artur, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth. Death of the historical Artur actually occurred in 0540. 

THE CELTIC CYCLE 
1045 CE - Death of Rognvald, Earl of Orkney. Some sources say 1046, others that he died in December, 1045. Rognvald was the ancestor of Robert the Bruce. His death led to the family's removal to Normandy. 

THE NORMAN CYCLE 
1553 CE - Death of Edward VI of England. Edward VI was brother to Mary and Elizabeth. His death eventually led to Elizabeth's ascent to the throne of England. 

THE BRITISH CYCLE 
2061 CE - End of the current Phoenix Cycle 
The labels given the Cycles are strictly my own and used for the purpose of illustrating this article. 


Part IV The Druidic Right of Passage 
ceart tar críoch 

Ireland before the coming of the Laigin (Tuatha de Danann) was a country unified only by culture and language. It was divided into about 150 miniature kingdoms, each called a 'tuath'. A minor king ruled a 'tuath', subject to a more powerful king who ruled a group of 'tuath', who was in turn subject to one of the five provincial kings. This caused constant shifting in power among the most important contenders. 

The Ireland of the Erainn and the Cruithin had a simple agrarian economy. No coins were used, and the cow was the unit of exchange. There were no towns. Society was stratified into classes, and was based largely on the concepts of the 'tuath' as the political body, and the 'fine', or extended family as the social unit. 

The last of the Brythonic-speaking peoples, the Tuatha de Danann, arrived in northeast Ireland from northern Britain around the middle of the third century before the current era. The de Danann were part of the migratory wave that reached Britain from the continent, probably from the area of Armorica in northwestern France. These latter Celts, the Cimmerians or Cimry, brought with them the more sophisticated iron age culture of the continent. They advanced across the island of Britain slowly, clashing with the entrenched society of the older bronze-age culture for several hundred years before the splinter group we know as the Tuatha de Danann was compelled to flee across the Irish Sea. 

The history of the de Danann in Britain can only be inferred, for nothing but the legends have come down to us from that time. It is possible that the Four Cities of legend were located somewhere in northern Britain, although no trace of them has ever been found. More likely, this is a story, carried down through the millennia, possibly of the original homeland of the Celts, lost in the great flood that overtook that antediluvian land now covered by the waters of the Black Sea. That the de Danann were fleeing Britain, not bent on expanding an area of conquest, is implied by the burning of their boats when they reached the shores of Ireland. If so, the de Danann were more successful in their new land, for they overcame the Erainn and Cruithin and forced them into partial serfdom. 

Up until this time, the societal culture of all British Celtic peoples was much the same, with two principle classes, one being the free and landed nobles and priests and the other, the bound slaves and peasants. Under the de Danann, the priestly class was further divided into the judges and lawmakers who were called Brehons, and the Bards, storytellers and historians. The term Druid has also been applied to the priests of the de Danann, and may have been used by them, but, as we will see, the Druids of the de Danann were not the same as the Druids of the Milesians. 

As Isaac Bonewits has pointed out, the original religious beliefs of the Indo-Europeans and the indigenous peoples of the territories through which they passed, the acquired beliefs that evolved during the migrations, and the high religions of the separate Indo-European cultures all combined to create distinctly different belief systems. The Brythonic culture that produced the Tuatha de Danann was vastly different from the Gaelic culture that produced the Milesians. The power of the Brythonic priesthood was subordinate to the kings and nobles, and the resulting society less centralized. 

The Milesian Druids, on the other hand, were often accorded authority over the king. This, along with the Right of Passage without limit, which was the privilege of all Druidic classes, ensured a continuity of ritual and belief and an intertribal communication system and served not only to keep their religion more homogeneous but promoted the unification of larger areas. 

Two of the major Brehon laws also contributed to this unification; the law of Tanistry and the law of Gravelkind. Under the law of Tanistry, the successor of any royal line was selected by the Druids from within a group of extended families. This was usually the eldest of all the relations in the male line of descent for four or five generations - but with the provision that the Tanist, or heir thus chosen could be put aside if he was deemed incompetent to rule. 

The law of Gravelkind defined the rights of society in regard to the land. Under Gravelkind, land was held as the common property of society, subject to the preferential, but not permanent, rights of families who worked or lived on it. Although the king nominally owned the land, he did so only as the trustee of the people, for he could not dispose of it. Thus, with their scholarship insuring that the training of the noble class was under their control, the Milesian Druids could establish policies that would endure and stabilize society over long periods of time. 



Rígh-Bhean ©2001. All Rights Reserved

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