Author: Rose Ariadne
The Druids are believed to be an intellectual class of philosophers, educators, seers, astronomers and astrologers who lived in the 2nd century BC. The term "Druid" means "an oak tree of knowledge". "Drus" is the Greek word for an oak and "vida" which is the Sanskrit term for knowledge. Some insist that the term "id" means the One. Hence Druid became the name given to learned men and women of that era. Women and Men had the same status as knowledgeable people of in that time period.
The Roman writer Pliny the Elder in his book "Naturalis Historia" mentions that the druids performed religious rites with oak leaves and mistletoe. Some people believe that the Druids were pre-Celtic inhabitants of Britain and it was their ancestors who were instrumental in creating the ancient stone circles similar to Stonehenge.
Celtic society is assumed to have appeared in Britain around the second millennium BC. They celebrated lunar and solar cycles and built shrines to unify the people. The Druids were the priests whose paramount authority preserved culture and laws as well as scholarship and science among the Celtic tribes.
The prominent writers of that time including the Indian Brahmins, The Pythagoreans and Chaldean Astronomers of Babylon probably contributed to the vast knowledge that the Druids were known to have. They spread the doctrine of the soul's immortality, reincarnation and karma as well as the movement of the stars and the size of the earth.
They were considered polytheists who worshipped nature, the sun, the moon and the stars. Fire was regarded as a divine symbol. Their calendar year was marked by the lunar, solar, agriculture and herding cycles. The four holidays were Imbolc to celebrate Spring, Beltain to denote life after spring, Lughnasadh to enjoy the ripening of fruits and Samhain to mark the end of harvest. Presently, Imbolc is called Groundhog day, Beltane has transformed into Easter and Samhain has become Halloween.
The Druids encouraged a healthy awareness of nature, its spirits and deities. They believed in the magick of communicating and communing with deities and spirits to help us manifest our intentions. This magick included Immram which is a journey into the realms of Gods, Imbas, the poetic and often altered states of consciousness, Echtra - adventures or journeys that occur at a sacred site, Firinne - truth or justice.
The positions attained in Druidic society were common to that of the structure of a tree. "The leaf" (Guiteraes) is the apprentice who learns as much knowledge as possible. At this time, they learn to meditate and control their minds. They move on to the next level only when they have proven that they can recite what they have learned so far.
The next position is that of "the branch" (Maghivellwyn) where they learn plant and animal lore and how to commune with animate and inanimate objects. Here, they are also taught basic healing crafts and divining magick. These branches are tested by the other Druids in their master of using both magick and natural skills.
The students then step into the Trunk stage (Llwellyn) where they are on their own. At this point, they can study whatever fascinates them. They may experiment with new magickal methods and also devote some time to the progress of their community.
The Next step is that of the Root level (Themaoddis) and then they are called Head Druids. Now they become more like teachers helping the other druids while leading the community by creating laws and maintaining peace.
The Druids who surpass all the above levels are called The Tree (Aretha) and they are called to solve complex problems or imbalances of nature.
Article Source: http://roseariadne.articlesbase.com/religion-articles/the-secrets-of-casting-druid-spells-272627.html ---- About the Author: >Rose Ariadne has been practicing ancient forms of Witchcraft for over 25 years. Get more info about Wiccan jewelry here: http://www.askroseariadne.com/editorials/druid-spells.html
Druids
Druids were Celtic priests in ancient Britain, Ireland and Gaul. The earliest Druidic records date from the 3rd century BC, but the Druids probably existed far earlier.
Publish Date: 09/26/2011 6:23
http://wizzley.com/druids/
Meet the Druids « nicolealexanderauthor
In reality, the Druids were a far more diverse group, young and old, including men (who were called Druids) and women (who were called priestesses). They made up the most powerful class of Celtic society. And unlike in ...
Publish Date: 09/22/2011 17:11
http://nicolealexanderauthor.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/meet-the-druids/
Book Review: War, Women, and Druids by Philip Freeman ...
Author Philip Freeman takes a comprehensive look at Celtic Europe.
Publish Date: 08/01/2010 17:33
http://sheilalamb.suite101.com/book-review-war-women-and-druids-by-philip-freeman-a268809
The Druid Path
Philip Carr-Gomm, chosen Chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids gives an insight into the Druid vision.
With All Due Modesty (NSFW) | Pantheon
My friend Cara Schulz dresses very differently from many Pagans I know. She looks like your typical stylish modern woman. Nothing in her wardrobe remotely suggests she is a Pagan. Yet due to shower conditions at Pagan ...
Publish Date: 09/14/2011 9:04
http://www.patheos.com/community/paganportal/2011/09/14/with-all-due-modesty-nsfw/
Cherokee dress - Wicca Official Worldwide Community of Pagans ...
This is me dressed for a drum-circle dance at a Native American pow-wow.
Publish Date: 07/03/2011 16:04
http://www.wiccaneopagan.com/photo/cherokee-dress
A Pagan's Life (For Me): Here's @Evy_Lynch in a lovely white dress ...
A Pagan\. A Pagan's Life (For Me) - A blog and site for the modern, fashion conscious, pop culture crazed Witch. Yes, I said it, Witch. Witch, Which, Witch. .... Here's @Evy_Lynch in a lovely white dress at the L... Emma Watson ...
Publish Date: 07/07/2011 10:16
http://apaganslifeforme.blogspot.com/2011/07/heres-evylynch-in-lovely-white-dress-at.html
Goth Subculture and Paganism
From Sir4sissors, "I'm currently reading "Advanced Wiccan Spirituality" by Kevin Saunders, and, on page who-knows-what (I can't find it right now for some odd reason, and I don't feel like re-reading a whole chapter) he says something to the effect o...
Author: Heather Ash Amara
A breakthrough in our understanding of self comes when we learn to perceive as shamans do: not only with the mind, but also from an energetic standpoint. through working directly with the life force, and with the four basic energies of air, fire, water, and earth, we reclaim the keys to healing and open ourselves to deep connection with all life.
These four interwoven elements manifest and sustain all creation. They are the core manifestations of our own life force. They offer a new framework to guide our travels back to our true, vital center. We can call on the four elements of air, fire, water, and earth not only as a means to perceive and make changes energetically, but as four aspects of the complete self: the mind, spirit, emotions and physical body.
Air symbolizes the mind. Our thoughts, words, visions, and mental creations are all aspects of the air energy within us.
Fire is our passion and desire, our will. Our sexuality, our sense of play and our action in the world are aspects of the fire energy.
Water represents the fluid, changing nature of our emotions. Our emotional body, sometimes like the gentlest of rain, other times like a wild storm, is one aspect of our water energy.
Earth is our physical self, the bones of flesh of our being. Our material structure and its intimate connection to the cycles of life and death is an aspect of the earth energy.
Embracing these four aspects of self allows us to reclaim our natural energy, and rebalance all parts of ourselves into a greater, complete whole. These elements are natural gateways to our own essence of truth. When we encompass all aspects of our self, we align ourselves once again to the pure joy of being alive. Using these four elemental cornerstones as a new foundation, we can reclaim our own essential being.
Reweaving the Self
To begin our journey of realignment, we need to first understand energetically how we went out of balance. From an energetic viewpoint, how did we lose our original vitality and centeredness?
I see humans as weavings of energy. When we are young, our energy is open and unstructured. As we grow, this free flowing energy begins to solidify with agreements and expectations of how we should be in the world. The people who are responsible for our safety and guidance educate us based on their own life experiences. We naturally learn the customs, beliefs, limitations, and expectations of the human society we were born into.
This structure is important for children. The difficulty comes if we become habituated to looking outside ourselves for answers and approval. As we learn to look outside, we often lose touch with our own center and our instinctual connection with Spirit. Over time, the opinions, agreements, love, and fears of those around us become threads in our weaving of self. We pull on these external threads and weave them into our own conscious and unconscious. Slowly we forget our own seed of truth and began to live from the beliefs and fears of others. We learn to seek approval, respect, recognition, love, and happiness outside of ourselves. We weave the fabric of our life believing that love comes to us from the outside. Where we once knew our own center of joy, we stretch the threads of our original fabric to reach out, attaching to others from a place of fear and a need to be filled.
Right now it is easy to see what your own internal structure is woven of. Imagine looking over the last week, the last month, or the last year. Were your thoughts and actions based out of trust in yourself and your own sense of connection to a greater source, or were they based out of fear? Do you compare yourself to others, believe you are not enough, or fear revealing your true self? Do you worry or doubt yourself? What percentage of the fabric of your being is woven in love, and what percentage is based in fear and scarcity?
Any belief or action based in fear pulls us out of our own center. When we are honest, we discover that the majority of our conscious and unconscious mind believes in scarcity and a need to get love or approval from the outside. We see that even the threads of connection that are based in love become contaminated by fear and grasping.
Making a commitment to seek your own center and innate power begins a journey of unraveling. When you take responsibility for your own weaving, you can take action to begin unweaving and reweaving the threads of our lives. You do not necessarily need to see the source of each thread in your fabric. By tracking your own behaviors, responses, and thoughts in the moment, you can see how the fabric is held together, and which threads need to be rewoven, removed or replaced.
Seeing ourselves as artists of this tapestry creates a perspective that is crucial for healing. Instead of looking at the fabric of our being as a horrible injustice or a tragedy, we can learn to witness the incredible creativity that went into our own becoming. Each individual is a complex and wonderful work of art. We are each unique. We took the raw materials around us and used them to the best of our ability. No one forced us to choose a particular thread, though the choices we were offered may have been incredibly limited.
When we become artists of our own lives, we learn that there are no wrong colors of thread, only choices. We gain a place of witness that allows us to observe, with compassion and love, our choices. Without judgment or feeling victimized by our choices or circumstances, we can watch how our actions create the reality around us. Using our awareness in action, we can begin the journey of untangling our old creation, and reweave a new way of being, based in joy and a deep gratitude for the life force pouring through us.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/religion-articles/how-see-through-the-eyes-of-the-shaman-and-align-yourself-with-joy-355408.html ---- About the Author: >Heather Ash Amara weaves powerful practices of shamanic traditions to help people reach their potential. She apprenticed and taught extensively with Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreements. She wrote Four Elements of Change and Toltec Tarot. She co-authored Spiritual Integrity and runs Spiritual Integrity Coaching with Raven Smith. Get more shamanic tools form Heather Ash.
São Paulo as seen through shaman eyes « Shamanic Drumming
São Paulo as seen through shaman eyes. June 17, 2011 by Simon. I have recently gone through quite a big change in my life, moving from a tiny village in Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland, to São Paulo, one of the world's biggest ...
Publish Date: 06/17/2011 5:16
http://shamanicdrumming.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/sao-paulo-as-seen-through-shaman-eyes/
Tomorrow there is a shaman at my place | avantourists
A common characteristic of Siberian shamans is that they all wear an eye cover when in session. This is for the reason that nobody could see the shaman's eyes in trance. A shaman in trance can travel in other universes ...
Publish Date: 08/19/2011 17:06
http://avantourists.com/2011/08/20/homme-on-minu-juures-samaan/
Totem Talk: Tier 12 through an enhancement shaman's eyes
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement, and restoration shaman. On Saturdays, Josh Myers tackles the hard questions about enhancement. Can we tank? Can we DPS with a two-hander ...
Publish Date: 05/07/2011 16:00
http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/05/07/totem-talk-tier-12-through-an-enhancement-shamans-eyes/
Urban Shaman ? Scrying using a mirror to Reflect On Magick ...
Urban Shaman ? Scrying using a mirror to Reflect On Magick. By Michelle ... Let your mind drift with the music, focus on the blackness of your closed eyes, let your mind form any images it wants or needs to. Most of scrying ...
Publish Date: 08/26/2011 10:30
http://www.paganedge.com/2011/08/26/urban-shaman-scrying-using-a-mirror-to-reflect-on-magick/
Dream Dancing by Kore
Enjoy the flowing beauty of Kore Taylor channeling Goddess energies through expressive dance as an offering to all sentient beings, on behalf of The Prayer Basket at The Sanctuary of the Open Heart. Produced by Ariel Spilsbury, Visionayr of The Sanct...
Ruth asks…
Could someone just give me a list of all the pagan religions?
you can explain a bit too if you like but you dont have to.
just a list so I can look them all up. thanks xxx
The main ones are Wicca, Asatru, the Druids, Goddess worship, and Roman and Greek recons.
Toss in the Buddhists, Hindus, and Native American spirituality and you start to get the idea. It's a diverse community.
You'll have to do a search on them, it would be too complicated to try to explain here.
Paul asks…
I am interested in finding out more about pagan religions. Specifically Druidry (mostly Modern Druidism) and Celtic Reconstructionism. But all the different types of Pagan religions interest me and I would love to learn about any of them. Wicca is something that I wouldn't mind knowing more about, but. I am more specifically looking to learn more about Druidry: it's history, traditions, and what modern druids do and believe in. Please list some websites, preferably, or some books. Thank you.
For Druidry, your best best are adf.org, keltria.org, and druidry.org. There's a number of books out there on Druidry, some good, some bad. The stuff from the ADF guys (Isaac Bonewitz, Skip Ellison, etc.) are pretty good.
For CR, paganachd.com and imbas.org are your best bets. There's a book called The Apple Branch: A Path to Celtic Ritual that's one of the few CR books out there. Erynn Laurie has one out that I need to check, but I'm willing to recommend her work sight unseen.
Daniel asks…
so hey, I'm agnostic, and a friend sent me some "what religion are you quiz?" and I took it, and got like 95% pagan, I took another and it said the same thing. The only real pagan religion i know though, is Wicca, I know of a few others, astaru, and neodrudism, but I don't know much about them.
Can any one list some pagan religions, and tell me a bit about them?
First think of Paganism as a belief, not a religion.
Although Paganism covers a wide spectrum of ideas, these elements sum up the beliefs of the majority of them...
Nature The recognition of the divine in nature is at the heart of Pagan belief. Pagans are deeply aware of the natural world and see the power of the divine in the ongoing cycle of life and death. Most Pagans are eco-friendly, seeking to live in a way that minimizes harm to the natural environment.
Concepts of the divine Pagans worship the divine in many different forms, through feminine as well as masculine imagery and also as without gender. The most important and widely recognized of these are the God and Goddess (or pantheons of God and Goddesses) whose annual cycle of procreation, giving birth and dying defines the Pagan year. Paganism strongly emphasizes equality of the sexes. Women play a prominent role in the modern Pagan movement, and Goddess worship features in most Pagan ceremonies.
Pagan theology Paganism is not based on doctrine or liturgy. Many pagans believe 'if it harms none, do what you will'. Following this code, Pagan theology is based primarily on experience, with the aim of Pagan ritual being to make contact with the divine in the world that surrounds them.
Linda asks…
Please list all of the Pagan Religions and describe them a bit. Thanks a lot.
By the Great Old One, Herself (Mother Earth), there are way too many of them with many sub-versions, but I'll do some:
Wicca - a modern reinterpretation of witchcraft. Wicca uses the elements a god and goddess, uses spells.
Druidism - Druidism is the Reinterpretation of the ancient priestly class of the Celts.They tend give offerings in groves and use the Land, Air and Sea elemental system.
Hellenic polytheism - A religion that is focused on reviving the beliefs and practices of the ancient Hellenes (Greeks). Often giving offerings and prayer to the 12 Olympians gods.
Neo-shamanism - I don't know enough about it to say much, but it is a modern version of the ancient role of the shaman in spiritual practices.
Celtic Reconstructionism - Trying to bring an authentic polytheistic faith of the Celts to the modern world.
Kemetic Orthodoxy - Basically the same a CR, or Hellenize polytheism - just with the Kemetic gods
Google there is a ton of stuff out there.
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