So do I Krystal, and I wasn't trying to be contrary, just researching the
various points you brought up, Sandhaid. In fact I sent the author a
letter about the whole thing but in particular I have serious disagreement
with his last paragraph, which to me is totally ridiculous.
He said that the Druids "protected" Christianity. Well nothing could be
further from the truth. The Druids were squished by Christianity, and most
Druids became Christians for survival reasons, burying their traditions and
their history with them, since the Druids forbade written information about
their traditions. The main reason we have any understanding of the ancient
Druids now is because of the writings of Pliny and Tacitus (biased in the
very least) and the mythological and the scant archeological remains, as
well as a few things like the troubador tradition and that a very few
Druids tried to incorporate, somewhat successfully, some of their theology
into Christianity, like the concept of the tri-partite God. (The Father,
Son and Holy Ghost concept was introduced by a Druid into Christianity,
interestingly enough). Druidism, like Native American Spirituality was
persecuted by Christianity. When they talked about St. Patrick "Driving
out the snakes" they were talking about the Druids, not reptiles. Like
Celtic knotwork, much of the Druid mythology and lore is now interwoven in
and intricate tapestry into Irish Catholicism and it takes a dedicated
scholar to ferret out the original.
He claimed the story of Joseph Arimathaea as "fact" and it's not. There's
interesting lore about Jesus, the Holy Grail and Mary at Glastonbury, but
at this point it's not "fact" it's a legend that has not yet gained any
credibility except for those that swallow that theory and who swallow the
"Holy Blood, Holy Grail" idea. It may indeed be true, and there are a lot
of intriguing possibilities about it, but like a lot of aspects of Jesus'
life, like if he went to India and Tibet, there's no way to prove it. Or
no way yet.
When I first read the article I missed his last paragraph, and that was
remiss of me. I was busy and crazily weaving yesterday to the point of
making my arm sore and realizing that weaving CAN be calisthenic if you do
it with the right amount of intent to get things done before you have to
fly to the East Coast. My whole body aches today. And today I must pack,
finish something, spin off some fiber for my knitting and have a Xmas Eve
thingie before we go to bed to get up at 3:00 am Xmas morning. So I didn't
have real time to answer Sandhaid last night. I just noticed that she was
a bit touchy before I went to bed, and it rather concerned me.
The Druids were into puns though.I'll track down some specific examples if
necessary but even modern day Celts (and especially modern day Druids) love
to play with meanings of words, myself included. One can call it "shades
of meaning" if one likes, but I think the Celts and the Druids had more of
a playful attitude.
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