User:Cathbhadh III/Sandbox

&mdash; Cathbhadh III    (TALK)

&mdash;Tim Hawkins (talk)

Ériu, Fotla and Banba, the goddesses of Irish sovereignty, are three sisters.

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=American Reformed Irish Druids=

The American Reformed* Irish Druids (AR*ID) are an animistic, reconstructionist, pagan sect in California. Ecclesitically they celebrate oral rendition of Irish myths; their goal is to practice paganry as it was in pre-Christian Ireland, as reformed*; and they are humor, social, and culture oriented. Their Reformation* was on Beltaine, 4 May, 1985. The asterisk is part of their name and refers to their 1 reform.*

* NO human sacrifices!

Beliefs
The AR*ID sect is inexclusive, that is members may concurrently follow other religious or spiritual traditions. They accept non-literal belief in myths and mythic characters.

Fairies
Irish mythology does not have a creation myth. It begins instead with a series of invasions, described in The Book of Invasions. The last invasion being the Milesians, the sons of Míl, Irish human mortals, who agreed to share their world with the "Good Neighbors", the People of Fairy, made up of the Irish pagan deities and mythic characters, and also every natural thing named, from individual rocks and trees, to geographic features such as wells, lakes and rivers, to mountains, plains and provinces, and even Ireland herself, plus a seemingly endless parade of other Fairy Folk that includes leprechauns, banshees, mermaids, pookas, and so on and on. Add to this the ancient Irish tradition of ancestor worship that adds the spirits of the dead to the landscape. Lady Gregory wrote "I believe that if Christianity could be blotted out and forgotten tomorrow, our people would not be moved at all from a belief in a spiritual world ..."

Nature
Nature is a central element of Celtic paganry. Several of the mythic characters were shape shifters, as familiar in animal form as human, such as the Morrígan as a crow. A number of animals are important thematic elements in different mythic tales, such as the boar, swans, salmon and, centrally, the stag and cattle. Images of the antlered figured referred to as Cernunnos show him surrounded by animals.

The belief in places as Fairy Folk can be seen in the Dinnshenchas, the Irish onomastic mythology of place names. Water — wells, springs, bogs, lakes, rivers, and so on — are of special importance in Irish pagan myth and practice, in part because water is believed to be a link to the Otherworld. For example, the River Shannon (an tSionna in Old Irish Gaelic) and the goddess Sionna are believed to be one person.

Trees
Strabo on "oak sanctuary".

Sacred Grove.

Oak.

History
Druidry's pre-historic origins are lost in the mists of time; the AR*ID sect's reformation was in AD 1985. They have been inspired by the early Quaker's aim to re-instate primitive Christianity, and set as their goal to recreate, as much as possible, the druidism of Ireland before Saint Patrick.

Pre-History
According to Irish mythology the Tuatha Dé Danann (the Tribe of Danu) invaded Ireland on a Bealtaine (about May 1st), in an unknowable year, and eventually defeated the previous invaders, the Fir Bolg people and the Fomorians, to dominate the island. {citation needed} They and their families became the principal members of the  aes sídhe (the fairy folk). The AR*ID sect considers the accurate retelling of myths and sagas as important, and not their relationship, if any, to actual history. They use a ceremonial date for the first invasion of Ireland – the beginning of Irish Mythology – of October 23rd, 4004 BC, following Bishop Ussher, the 17th century AD Anglican Archbishop of Ireland, who determined that was the date the earth was created.

The ancient myths of Ireland were not written down until about the 7th century AD, by Christian monks, but Kenneth H. Jackson suggested that the tradition of oral sagas reflects that heroic culture that existed before the coming of Saint Patrick. The Greek historian and polymath Posidonius wrote of the Celts in the 1st century BC. He is said to have written 52 volumes of history, but only fragments survive in the quotations of others. Julius Caesar, in the 2nd century BC, wrote "Druids ... are concerned with divine worship, the due performance of sacrifices, public and private, and the interpretation of ritual questions... In fact, it is they who decide in most all disputes, public and private; and if any crime has been committed, or murder done, or there has been any dispute about succession or boundaries, they also decide it… The Druids usually hold aloof from war, and do not pay war taxes with the rest; they are excused from military services and exempt from all liabilities." (The Quakers, also, "usually hold aloof from war.")

The Irish archeologist Michael J. O'Kelly tells us that Irish society was divided into nobles, a learned class, and freemen. The learned class preserved, in oral form, from one generation to the next, a considerable body of material, including the tales, poems, genealogies, and eulogies. The law, too, was enshrined in oral form. The Irish learned class was the aes dána, and in Gaul the druides. The word druid came to have a more restricted meaning than the one it enjoyed in Celtic Gaul where it embraced a wide variety of functions apart from its religious one. In Ireland the name druid was more or less interchangeable with fili, meaning wise man or seer."

Christianization
Saint Patrick is remembered for bringing Christianity to Ireland in about the 5th century AD. The 'snakes' he so famously drove out of Ireland are supposed to have been a pejorative reference to the druids, because of the  serpentine jewel of office, called a 'Druid's Foot,' that they wore. There never were any snakes native to Ireland. In the 12th century manuscript Acallam na Senórach (The Colloquy of the Ancients) Saint Patrick meets with Caílte mac Rónáin and Oisín, heroes from the already ancient Fenian Cycle of myths, and with the Tuatha Dé Danann. The Saint learns much of Ireland and her legendary past, and the mythic fairy pantheon mostly concedes its dominion of Éire (Ireland) to the coming Christian faith. The story is retold in William Butler Yeats poem The Wanderings of Oisín.

Quotes
Example 1.

Example 2

Archtypes

Amigos de Bosa Chica

Strabo on druids.

Druids do this. Julius Caesar.The Gallic Wars, Book 6,Chapter 13.(in English, Translated by W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn) (html) Retrived 30 November 2010. "Throughout all Gaul there are two orders of those men who are of any rank and dignity: for the commonality is held almost in the condition of slaves, and dares to undertake nothing of itself, and is admitted to no deliberation. The greater part, when they are pressed either by debt, or the large amount of their tributes, or the oppression of the more powerful, give themselves up in vassalage to the nobles, who possess over them the same rights without exception as masters over their slaves. But of these two orders, one is that of the Druids, the other that of the knights. The former are engaged in things sacred, conduct the public and the private sacrifices, and interpret all matters of religion. To these a large number of the young men resort for the purpose of instruction, and they [the Druids] are in great honor among them. For they determine respecting almost all controversies, public and private; and if any crime has been perpetrated, if murder has been committed, if there be any dispute about an inheritance, if any about boundaries, these same persons decide it; they decree rewards and punishments; if any one, either in a private or public capacity, has not submitted to their decision, they interdict him from the sacrifices. This among them is the most heavy punishment. Those who have been thus interdicted are esteemed in the number of the impious and the criminal: all shun them, and avoid their society and conversation, lest they receive some evil from their contact; nor is justice administered to them when seeking it, nor is any dignity bestowed on them. Over all these Druids one presides, who possesses supreme authority among them. Upon his death, if any individual among the rest is pre-eminent in dignity, he succeeds; but, if there are many equal, the election is made by the suffrages of the Druids; sometimes they even contend for the presidency with arms. These assemble at a fixed period of the year in a consecrated place in the territories of the Carnutes, which is reckoned the central region of the whole of Gaul. Hither all, who have disputes, assemble from every part, and submit to their decrees and determinations. This institution is supposed to have been devised in Britain, and to have been brought over from it into Gaul; and now those who desire to gain a more accurate knowledge of that system generally proceed thither for the purpose of studying it."

Druids do no military service and train for 20 years.

Druids do human sacrifices.

Druids worship Lugh.

Category:Druidry Category:Neopaganism in the United States Category:Neo-druidism Category:Pagan religious organizations Category:Religion in California Category:Religious organizations established in 1985