Would you like to celebrate Imbolc, the end of winter, with Brigit and a druid?

In the last centuries BC, the Celtic peoples were ruled by a priestly class: the Druids.

The Druids are first mentioned in the writings of Julius Caesar, who around 50 BC wrote that Druidism originated in Britain. But some say it originated elsewhere and much earlier, in Egypt or India (sources OBOD, druidy.fr). There are even references to rituals involving human sacrifice.

The name "druid" probably means "the very learned". They were the intellectual elite of the Celts. Druids knew how to read and write in Greek and Latin, but paradoxically left behind no texts. Even today, they remain a source of mystical and intellectual inspiration.

An unclear history

Discoveries about the Druids are fairly recent.

• Druids preside over numerous ceremonies, are the holders of age-old secret knowledge, and occupy a high social rank. Their place is influential in Celtic society.
• The expansion of Celtic society into Central Europe dates back to the first millennium BC. Their territory stretched from the Danube basin to the British Isles.
• Celtic society settled in Ireland in 500 BC, where it prospered until the Middle Ages.
• Ireland is the country with the most active druids and druidesses today.

Cathy, a 31-year-old Irish woman, is being trained as a druid by OBOD, the "Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids". This is an English-based community that communicates with future druids from all over the world.

• Bards were sacred poets
  

"sacred poets, storytellers, keepers of the mysteries, and much of the knowledge we have about the ancient Druids comes from the old Bardic tales."

• The ovates were the "Druidic seers".
• Druids represented the "wise men" and could take on different functions depending on their strengths.

The three levels (bard, ovate and druid) could be represented as storyteller, shaman and sage.

The word "druid" could refer to both men and women, although the word "druidess" is a later development. The rather masculine image of the druid has entered the collective unconscious.

Traces

Celtic culture left no written records, but monumental sculpted constructions.

• The Nautes pillar
  
  This is a reconstruction of the Nautes pillar, a monumental Gallo-Roman column erected in the 1st century and donated by the Nautes, the boatmen of the Seine.
  
  The column was a gift from the Nautes to Emperor Tiberius, who ruled Gaul (a Roman province) at the time.
  The original location of the pillar is unknown, as it was found in fragments beneath the choir of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
  It features deities and members of the boatmen's guild.
  
  The ancient divinities, acculturated to Roman religions, make for a complex interpretation. This reconstruction is currently on display at the Musée de Cluny in Paris.
  
  Before the period that can be described as "classical Druidism", when Druidism functioned as an "organized religion", there was a period of "proto-Druidism" that was even less well known. This period of "proto-Druidism" is identified as the period during which megalithic structures were built across Britain, Ireland and parts of Celtic Europe.
  
  You may be familiar with the Stonehenge site in Britain, or other more modest sites such as the Bois d'Hamel dolmen or the Oisy le Verger menhir in France.
  
  
• The Gavrinis CAIRN is located at the southern end of the island of Gavrinis, in the central part of the Gulf of Morbihan. At the time the cairn was built (between 4250 and 4000 BC2), the island was still attached to the mainland.
  
  The first known excavations date back to 1835, when the access corridor was clogged to the ceiling with rubble. Prosper Mérimée, who visited the site while the excavation was in progress, described it as follows:
  
  "What distinguishes the Gavrinis monument from all the dolmens I have seen is that almost all the stones making up its walls are sculpted and covered with bizarre designs. Curves, straight lines, broken lines, drawn and combined in a hundred different ways... Among a multitude of lines... a small number can be distinguished which, by their regularity and singular arrangement, could resemble writing characters... There are also chevrons, zigzags and many other features impossible to describe".
  - Prosper Mérimée, Notes de voyage dans l'ouest de la France, 1836
  
  In principle, the dolmens were tombs. The mystery of how to transport such blocks of stone remains unresolved, even if it was solved by the authors of the comic strip "Asterix and Obelix" with the magic potion of Getafix the Druid.
  
  
• Long before this period of monumental stones, "shell heaps" or shell hills were identified.
  
  Shell mounds date from a period of transition between the hunter-gatherer societies of the Mesolithic and the Neolithic. They are found on coastlines in various parts of the world (Senegal, Japan, South Carolina). In northern Europe, standing stones appear after shell mounds between 3800 and 2800 BC.
  The expression "shell heap" comes from a Danish word and refers to a hill of shells. Thought to be naturally formed, they are in fact man-made.
  
  
• After about the Middle Ages, with the domination of the religions of the book, Druidism survived in hiding, before enjoying a revival at the end of the 18th century.
  
  

Today, Druidism is still practiced and passed on, notably by the OBOD association mentioned above. This gives you the chance to have tea with a druid and celebrate the return of spring with the "Imbolc" festival.

Imbolc is the end of winter, for the Celts around February 1, the time of renewal, the great cleansing. The festival is associated with the goddess Brigit, depicted as a triple goddess: maiden, mother and old woman. Brigit is a powerful and resilient goddess. She is the goddess of fire and sacred flame, change, poetry, inspiration, transformation, wisdom, metalwork and fire in the forge, healing, creativity, water, prophecy, education and learning. It protects births and homes.

Brigit's cross is used to implore her protection.

This festival is found in many cultures (ancient Roman, Amerindian, East Asian, Indian, Japanese... to celebrate the arrival of spring).

Imbolc means lustration, i.e. purification, which takes place at the end of winter.

Sources:

OBOD: https: //druidry.org/

Wikipedia " Imbolc" https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imbolc

Altar of Mists (January 7, 2025) "Imbolc 2025: history, meaning and celebration of the Sabbath."
https://auteldesbrumes.com/blog/blog-article/imbolc-histoire-signification-et-celebration-du-sabbat?srsltid=AfmBOoohkHWSyVB2enpmd1r5Wi5nTF4sNhG8YVCvJVk0Vy9TA21UdkhJ

Pascal LAMOUR (2019) Les carnets secrets du druide. The wisdom of men, the power of spirits. Rennes: Editions ouest-France https://amzn.to/4agEUGr

ARTE "les druides. prêtres des peuples celtes" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP6Y16sTvVw

Arte regard, Ireland's new druids https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/110247-004-A/arte-regards/

Wikipedia, StoneHenge https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge

Wikipedia, Gavrinis Cairn https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairn_de_Gavrinis

Wikipedia, Shell clusters https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amas_coquillier