Teresa Cross - Secrets of the Druids

In Memory of Emmon Bodfish and Taranucnos Esugenos

For all of the Celts of the world and the great Touta of all people; for those who stuck by me through it all; and for my parents, who brought me up in the stories and to appreciate history.

Abbreviations, Spellings, and Signs

This book contains many terms in the Celtic languages of Old Irish, Gaulish, and Welsh. A systematic guide to the pronunciation of these languages is found in appendix F.

For consistency in the spelling of names and places from ancient mythological texts, James MacKillops Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (Oxford University Press, 1998) has been used as a guide. Old Irish terms are generally cited from the headword forms in the Dictionary of the Irish Language, the standard reference for medieval Irish originally published by the Irish Royal Academy, now updated and maintained online at www.dil.ie. Proto-Indo-European roots generally follow the simplified forms given in Calvert Watkinss American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

The sign > indicates that one word historically developed into another; for example, Lat. caster > Welsh caer means that the Latin word caster took on the form caer in Welsh. Conversely, the derivation of a word can also be indicated with the opposite sign, thus: Welsh caer < Lat. caster.

The asterisk sign (*) in front of a word indicates that it is a reconstructed form that is not found in actual writings or inscriptions.

FOREWORD

Remembering the Druids

Stephen E. Flowers, Ph.D.

The secrets of the ancient Celtic druidslike the Holy Grailhave often been sought, though few have found them. Druids and their magic, lore, and rituals have fascinated everyone who has come across themfrom the ancient Greeks and Romans, who thought of the druids as powerful sorcerers and wise philosophers, to modern revivalists, who see in the druids a natural, green solution to the problems of the world.

Druidism has been the subject of many attempts at revival. These first started more than two hundred years ago in Britain and have continued to the present day in America and elsewhere. This undying appeal is easy to understand once you immerse yourself in the legends and lore of the ancient Celts. After all, the lore of the druids is really the esoteric understanding of that very mythology. The ancients seem to have understood many things better than we do today. They seem to have lived more fully and harmoniously not only with nature but also with their own spiritual heritage.

The Celts of old had many things we still admire todayand will continue to admire more in the future. They were not only fine craftsmen but also great lovers of poetry and the power of the spoken word. To them the family, the clan, and the tribe were all-important. It is, of course, well known that among the ancient Celts women enjoyed a greater status and authority than they do today in modern Celtic countries. This stems not so much perhaps from an ideologically based matriarchy as it does from a natural and vigorous culture in which the best in all its forms, no matter where it comes from, is encouraged.

If you feel yourself being drawn to the lore and mystery of the Celts, yet do not want to be lost in a twilight world of mere imagination and speculation, Secrets of the Druids has the drink for which you have been thirsting. Teresa Cross spent many years doing the kind of painstaking research necessary to write this book. She has delved into some truly occult literature in the fields of Celtic philology and linguistics. There she has found many a gleaming treasure and carefully brought them back to share with you. She has dug at the obscure end of the rainbow. By doing so she has made information and ideas available to the reader that would probably have gone undiscovered if she had not had the insight to search them out in the only places they could be found. When you read Secrets of the Druids you will be receiving accurate historical information about what the ancient druids believed and taught, applied in a living system of modern druidism working in the world today. That is why this is not merely a book about druidismit is a book written from within druidism.

Some people are concerned when they read about such attempts to revive the pagan past of various national groups. Many will try to bring up the apparent attempts in this direction undertaken by the Germans in the years leading up to World War II. But just because experiments have gone wrong in the past does not mean that the idea is not a noble one full of healing promise. It is true that the human species is headed every day toward a more global village. Mass communications, interlocked economies, and the possibilities of worldwide destruction lead us more and more to an understanding of this. Yet at the same time we see true nations rising up to establish their identities and authenticitythe Lithuanians and dozens of others achieved their independence, while many Germans seek to become more whole again.