Sublime

The Druids were pagans. They formed the elite Celtic priest(ess)hood, the centre of religion

The Druids had to learn many verses and, although they apparently used Greek to write down more mundane accounts, it was unlawful to write down any of the Druidic lore; this meant that the fundamentals of their religion could only be learned by an initiate, directly from another Druid. The Druids believed in the persistence of the human soul after

My old Druid teacher, Ross Nichols, believed the Druids may well have originated at an even earlier time – amongst a group of pre Indo-European peoples in India known as the Dravidians.

The earliest extant record that we have of the Druids is that by Julius Caesar in the sixth book of his Gallic War, written about 52 BC. We then find a number of classical authors, including Cicero, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Lucan, Pliny and Tacitus, discussing the Druids up until about AD 385, when Ausonius wrote a collection of odes to the

whose service was to the Gods and to their people. The perception is that they held considerable sway in the sociological foundations of Celtic life, being the law-makers and king-makers.

Two of the most significant of these accounts, written by Julius Caesar and Diodorus Siculus, painted a picture of the Druids as scholars and religious leaders who functioned in a similar way to the priestly caste of the Hindu Brahmins: officiating at sacrifices, teaching philosophy and star lore, and conveying an oral tradition that required

and cultural influence. The Druids and Druidesses were administrators, officiators, judges, lawgivers, priests and priestesses, healers, herbalists, astronomers, bards, and oracles for the Celtic peoples. Exempt

The Druids are commonly believed to the priestly caste of the Celts,

The hare is an important totem animal, familiar in Celtic folklore and mythology, which serves as the badge for first degree initiates in Welsh Druid Tradition.