REVIVAL, REBIRTH AND RENAISSANCE, YES!

RESURRECTION LIKE BEFORE, NO!

"It’s by following the walking one that we find the way.”

Comparison is a fundamental mental process: grouping some facts together under common categories but also noticing differences. Such connections and relationships are the basis of thought and science. Otherwise, there are only isolated facts without links between them. It is therefore on the basis of comparison that generalizations, interpretations and theories are formed. Comparison creates new ways of viewing and organizing the world.

Comparative religion is therefore old as the hills. Herodotus was already doing it. As far as ancient religions are concerned, this intellectual approach has produced many books stored in the "comparative mythology" shelves since Max Muller (1823-1900).

As far as religions are concerned, it is quite different.

Each religion was, of course, compared to those with which it was competing but first to denigrate or affirm its superiority.

The first elements of a more objective beginning of comparative religion are currently scattered under the label of "religious dialog" and generally come from religions that define themselves as monotheistic because of their worldwide extension. The whole for an apologetic or missionary purpose, of course. Hence problems.

We also find useful reflections in circles more or less coming under atheism but they are

-either detailed but focused on a particular religion.

-or being more general but rather basic.

And, moreover, they also are most often found in the history of religions, but all in a non-religious perspective.

Great names punctuate this story from William Robertson Smith (religion of the Semites) to Mircea Eliade through Emile Durkheim.

Other authors have opened many insights in this field.

Our idea is TO LENGTHEN A CERTAIN NUMBER OF THEM BY GOING FURTHER IN THIS COMPARATIVE RELIGION (widening of the field of anthropological research, deepening of the psychological foundations, end of the overvaluation, decolonization, antiracism, new hypotheses ....) AND BY RESUMING THE INTERRUPTED THREAD OF THEIR FASCINATING QUEST FOR THE GRAIL BECAUSE ancient druidism is a little like the famous story of the grail of Perceval and Gawain.

It is an unfinished story, which stops abruptly after the first 9000 lines of verse. Our project is to write the rest of it. A continuation it was said at the time.

These small notebooks intended for future high-knowers, want to be both an imitation (a pastiche) and a parody. An imitation because they were composed in the manner of theologians (Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, etc.) at least in what they had, all, of better (elements in fact often of pagan origin). One of the functions of the imitation was always, indeed, in the popular oral literature, to answer the expectation of audiences, frustrated by the break of the original creation [in this case the druidic philosophy]. To this expectation, in the Middle Ages, the cyclic narrative technique of the epics singing the heroic deeds, or of the Romances of the Round Table, has responded.

The way of the pastiche is the one which consists in enriching the original by supplementing it with successive touches, by developing just outlined details, or by interpreting its shadows. And this, the thought of our ancestors needed well!

But the reasoned compilation, due to the hand of Peter DeLaCrau, also is in a way a parody, because it was never a question, nevertheless, for the project supervisor of this collective work, of supporting such as it was and unconditionally, the whole of these doctrines.

He wished on the contrary, by all sorts of literary means (reversal of arguments, opposing views, etc.) to bring out their often negative, harmful, alienating or obscurantist, aspects; and if this text can sometimes seem, to pay indirect homage to the capacity of reflection of the various current theological Schools, Christian, Muslim, Jewish or other, it is involuntary; because his purpose is well, to do everything, in order to wrest from their hands, the monopoly of discourses on the divinity (see on this subject the remarks of Albert Bayet), even if it means finishing discredit them definitively in the public eyes.

Except as regards the best ideas they have borrowed from paganism, of course, and which are enormous; because in this last case, it is, let us remember it once again, from the prospect supervisor of this compilation, a readjustment to our world, of the thoughts of these theologians' apprentices ((the god of philosophers, the Ahura Mazda, the immortality of souls, the god-men, the sons of a god, the messiah Saoshyant, the Trinity, the tawaf, the sacrifices, the life after death, not to mention cherubim paradise, etc.).

In other words, not history, but historical fictions, according to the works of...see the bibliography at the end. In accordance with this, our "imitation” is only a return to our roots. In short a homage.

"Druidism" is an independent review (independent of any religious or political association) and which has only one purpose: theoretical or fundamental research about what is neo-paganism. For, as Carl Gustav Jung saw it very well, religion is only "the attentive observation of forces held to be 'powers': spirits, demons, gods, laws, ideas, and “the careful consideration and observation of certain dynamic factors, understood to be “powers,” spirits, demons, gods, laws, ideas, ideals or whatever name man has given to such factors as he has found in his world powerful, dangerous or helpful enough to be taken into careful consideration, or grand, beautiful and meaningful enough to be devoutly adored and loved” (Psychology and Religion 1937).

The double question, to which this review of theoretical studies tries to answer, could be summarized as follows:

"What could be or what should be a current neo-druidism, modern and contemporary?”

"Druidism" is a neo-pagan review, strictly neo-pagan, and heir to all genuine (that is to say non-Christian) movements which have succeeded one another for 2000 years, the indirect heir, but the heir, nevertheless!

Regarding our reference tradition or our intellectual connection, let us underline that if the "poets" of Domnall mac Muirchertach Ua Néill still had imbas forosnai, teimn laegda and dichetal do chennaib 1) in their repertory (cf. the conclusion of the tale of the plunder of the castle of Maelmilscothach, of Urard Mac Coise, a poet who died in the 11th century), they may have been Christians for several generations. It is true that these practices (imbas forosnai, teimn ...) were formally forbidden by the Church, but who knows, there may have been accommodations similar to those of astrologers or alchemists in the Middle Ages.

Anyway our "Druidism" is also a will; the will to get closer, at the maximum, to ancient druidism, such as it was (scientifically speaking). The will also to modernize this druidism, a total return to ancient druidism being excluded (it would be anyway impossible).

Examples of modernization of this pagan druidism.

— Giving up to lay associations of the cultural side (medicine, poetry, mathematics, etc.). Principle of separation of Church and State.

— Specialization on the contrary, in Celtic, or pagan in general, spirituality history of religion, philosophy and metapsychics (known today as parapsychology).

— Use in some cases of the current vocabulary (Church, religion, baptism, and so on).

A golden mean, of course, is to be found between a total return to ancient druidism (fundamentalism) and a too revolutionary radical modernization (no longer sagum).

The Celtic PAA (pantheistic agnostic atheist) having agreed to sign jointly this small library *, of which he is only the collector, Druid Hesunertus (Peter DeLaCrau), does not consider himself as the author of this collective work. But as the spokesperson for the team which composed it. For other sources of this essay on druidism, see the thanks in the bibliography.

* This little camminus is nevertheless important for young people ... from 7 to 77 years old! Mantalon siron esi.

1) Do ratath tra do Mael Milscothach iartain cech ni dobrethaigsid suide sin etir ecnaide 7 fileda 7 brithemna la taeb ogaisic a crech 7 is amlaidsin ro ordaigset do tabairt a cach ollamain ina einech 7 ina sa[ru]gad acht cotissad de imus forosnad [di]chetal do chollaib cend 7 tenm laida .i. comenclainn fri rig Temrach do acht co ti de intreide sin FINIT.

INTRODUCTION.

Friends who will read this little book intended for the young people 2) whoever you are,believers or unbelievers 3),

pagans or monolaters, know that its reading is demanding, difficult, even surprising. But it is sometimes necessary to know “to climb trees “to reach the top of the world tree, to the divinity. Every search for the Grail implies long and difficult research.

This small camminus, which smells good hazelnuts, but faithful to the essential contents of the most ancient druidic faith (somewhere in Central Europe in the second thousand years before our era), but updated as regards the method, could have another subtitle: the new peace between the men and the god-or-demons. If there is peace, it is there was war. The relation with the divinity is not always easy, it is even often source of conflicts.

Especially when man has an idea a little too precise of the god-or-demons. This attempt is therefore only a stage, or a starting point if you want. In every case the beginning of a long process, and not a result.

This is why, throughout this small camminus (summary of our ancestral knowledge), it will be a question of peace, peace to be made or to preserve with the god-or-demons. Such is the discussion thread which scours from an end to the other, and which you will never cease seeing.

We point it out, of course, this try of druidic catechism (camminus) is not a dogma, but a simple crossroads (cantamantalon) of ways leading to fuller reflections. In what follows, the words are to be put between quotation marks, the reading of a book without the author being there to explain its subtleties or the distinctions to be made, being always a difficult exercise. The words represent only a weak part of what they “cover “. Each one of them would at least be worthy of a book to express its “contents “.

What is written below is the synthetic result of decades of reading, meetings and experiments (generally more disappointing than overwhelming besides) of which the history would fill up at least two thousand pages. Hence its another subtitle in Celtic language : Mantalon siron esi.

If one wants well to take account of its shamanic origins, druidism is the oldest of the religions in the world, but the word (druidism) to designate the religion of Celts is of relatively recent origin. The Irish Middle Ages used the word druidecht, we could more or less convey by “druidry “. In reality there was not a specific term, and what we call druidism today, for example was indicated by periphrases, of which at least one is attested in the hand of Caesar. “They likewise discuss and impart to the youth many elements respecting the stars and their motion, respecting the extent of the world and of our earth, respecting the nature of things, respecting the power and the majesty of the immortal gods” (Caesar, B.G. Book VI, chapter XIV) .

The text which follows is only the formatting of a working document initially intended for the druidic Ollotouta in 1993, but since increased in fact to all those this proposal of philosophical rudiments, may interest.

Most of the proposed classifications of religion gives seriously rise to criticism, and especially, of course, the traditional division into animistic, polytheistic or monotheistic religions. Animism, polytheism, monotheism * , to tell the truth, are only moments of religious development, different stages of the same evolution, much more than distinct types of religion.

All religions consist essentially originally in the worship of vague and formidable Powers, whose number and attributions are not rigorously determined, but which are spread throughout the whole of nature. All of them converge towards the recognition of the unicity of a divinity, to be in no way confused with any monolatry, in which these multiple manifestations are absorbed and focused. All of them go through a more or less long period of polytheism organized in the Greek way, where the government of the universe belongs to an oligarchy of superhuman beings (the elohim in the Bible, sons of the great mother goddess Asherah / Ishtar / Astarte and to finish of the demoness Astaroth). Animism, by means of the preponderant and sometimes even exclusive worship of a higher force to which all are subordinated, is the first outline of pantheism, therefore of the philosophical and thought out monotheism.

In polytheism also of philosophical and thought out type, "henotheism", this kind of forgetting of all the other god-or-devils **, while people speak to only one of them in prayers or in hymns, or that people try through sacrifice to earn his benevolence or to compel him to cooperate under the ancient Aryan principle of the dadami se dehi me; the frequent equating of the various cosmic Powers with each

other, what sometimes or often come to seem to only represent the different names and functions of the same being; do better than prepare the way for monotheism. They are already a philosophical and thought out monotheism, not to be confused with the biblical or Quranic monolatry. Henceforth, only a small effort of philosophical reflection is necessary to become aware of the unicity of the divine one. Unicity which besides will take on more often the pantheistic form than the personal that is to say anthropomorphic *** form that advocates Jewish-Muslim-Christianity, and which is in fact a monolatry.

Traces of polytheism nevertheless remain in these religions, the worship of saints in Christianity, the adoration (isma) of Muhammad the pilgrimage in Mecca (tawaf etc.) as well as the fear of jinns in Islam. In the eyes of Islam, doesn’t the Christian dogma of the Trinity appear in reality as a tritheism or even as a triad of god-or-demons, therefore some shirk **** therefore some kufr ****, in other words, something taghut ****; and in Judaism itself, did not angels, the messengers of God or of the Demiurge and his ministers, kept something from their former divine characteristic of the time of the Sumerian or Canaanite religion? Not to mention the veneration with which the very person of Muhammad is surrounded in Islam (isma, but we have already said it) and the collection of comments he echoed if he did not invent them , which is called "Quran"; and which borders on idolatry) 1).

Many people think and even say that man was made in the image of God. But what we see first in history is that the God or the Demiurge of religions is most often made in the image of Man.

1) The development of the doctrines of isma. The general belief in the Muslim world of today is that all the prophets profited from isma, which is a kind of special protection against error or sin.

It is one of the many aberrations of Islam, because there exists, however, a host of contrary elements in Quran and hadiths. But, in accordance with the politician dialectic most usually used nowadays, the mentions in Quran and hadiths of the aforesaid sins of certain prophets were softened, and are presented only as “mistakes “. Euphemisms of the same kind, such as “actions due to a lack of memory “ are constantly used today by Muslim authors to explain these misdeeds ascribed to certain prophets, the writing and the traditions of Islam nevertheless recorded as incriminating elements against them.

The reason for the appearance in Islam of these doctrines is easy to understand.

The first Muslims quickly discovered the Bible taught that Jesus had been a man deprived of every sin. But such a superiority of the character Jesus compared with Muhammad could not be tolerated by these Muslims. And just as miracles were ascribed to the spokesperson of Islam in order to give him a status at least equal to that of the character Jesus, in the same way he was considered to have always lived without sin in the same intention. What is, of course, for characters having really lived in our world to us, the world of men, the Mediomagos! See for example the policy against the Jewish tribes of Medina or the surrounding area – Khaybar-by Muhammad become head of state after having been in the opposition (in his hometown).

The doctrine of the revelation in Islam also maintains the writings were dictated directly to the prophets by the means of the archangel Gabriel. But how could they be reliable as for their hand-over of the revelations in question, if they were not themselves preserved from any mistake, any fault, or from any sin, as well in their private as in their public life??

Muslim orthodoxy therefore drew the “logical “conclusion (the quotation marks are necessary) that all the prophets by nature were immunized against the grave or serious "errors.”

2) Aged 7-77.

3) “ Some say the Callaicans have no god, but the Celtiberians and their neighbors on the north offer sacrifices to a nameless god at the seasons of the full moon, by night, in front of the doors of their houses, and whole households dance in chorus and keep it up all night “(Strabo, Geography III, 4,16).

* The best of the definitions of monotheism is besides still that provided by our brothers of the Far East, in the central part of the great Indian epic poem called Mahabharata and probably dating back to

the 2nd century before our era. It is a dialog between the god Krishna/Vishnu and Prince Arjuna, the latter hesitating to start a great fratricidal battle.

Bhagavad Gita 9, 23-29. “Those who are devotees of other gods and who worship them with faith actually worship only me, O son of Kunti, but they do so in a wrong way because I am the only enjoyer and master of all sacrifices. If one offers me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I accept it. I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto me in devotion is a friend, is in me, and I am also a friend to him.”

Editor’s note. We have translated the Sanskrit word Kaunteya by “son of Kunti” but if somebody has better to suggest, let him tell it to us!

** We use here the term “demon” because it goes without saying the gods or angels of the ones are automatically compared to demons or jinns like Astaroth or Abaddon by the others and reciprocally mutatis-mutandis. In the case of the archaic Apollo / Abellio / Apellon, etc. ..his many epicleses suited wonderfully to that: pythios, lykeios, smintheus, hekebolos, hekaergos ... ..

*** what druidism always maintained SINCE IT WAS AT THE SAME TIME ANICONIC BUT ALSO ABLE TO REPRESENT THE GODS IN A HUMAN FORM LIKE THE GREEKS, OR THROUGH A SIMPLE OUTLINE EVEN A SYMBOL (Latin simulacrum), it is that the divinity is neither personal nor impersonal BUT THAT IT CAN BE PERSONALLY FELT.

**** Shirk. Polytheism. Kufr. Heathenry. Taghut. Abomination.

PRELIMINARY LINGUISTIC CONVENTIONS : VARIOUS LEVELS OF TRUTH.

The weak light of Reason is always eclipsed by the dark clouds of passions and covetousness. How to distinguish what is right from what is false in such stories, what is relevant from what is not ?

Gods or demons? We will talk here about god-or-demons with a hyphen because history has proven that the demons of the ones may be or have been, the gods of others. Lucifer or Iblis.

The Fate is the timeless law of worlds behind everything, ontologically speaking coming just after nothingness. A pro-creating nothingness. It is therefore by definition impersonal. But it has emanations, angels or agents (secondary causations), which are personal, have a human form and apply to us all individually.

Demiurge. A Little god or deity of lower rank responsible for this failed world. To be distinguished absolutely therefore from the supreme being or god of philosophers called Tocade (Fate) by ancient druidic druids.

Bitos or Cosmos. Strictly material and physical part of the big whole.

The basic irreducible elements forming the universe were only two according to Strabo interpreter of druidism, fire and water (Geography IV, 1,13). And as Strabo's remark comes after the mention of the immortality of the soul, we can deduce that for ancient druids the soul was like fire and the body like water.

Anaon. The "eternal" druid Allan Kardec nevertheless thought that the non-physical part of man was double, soul and mind (perispirit).

In short, there exist two large levels of divinity. The sovereign level and the immediately lower or intermediate levels. The divinity in all its infinite profundity, beyond the awareness and the human experience, and in addition, the deity as a finite experiment of the human experience. Man being a limited being, through his senses, he can therefore, of course, perceive the divine one only in a “human “way.

The supra-human entities are often personalized or internalized to the extent that they are in the mind of those who feel their presence, like Jung would have said.

The divinity, consequently, always took two opposite forms. An impersonal form and a personal form. The Fate and the gods. As a human being, we are more at ease with the personal form, but this one arouses insoluble problems for. For example, the eternal question of good and evil (if God wants the good and that he is almighty, how is it possible that He does not destroy evil to eliminate it forever)?

The god-or-demons of druidism, with some exceptions, are therefore, like the Demiurge (creator of this world) of the Judeo-Christians (Christ or Messiah ?) or the saguna brahman (in opposition to the nirguna brahman) of Hindus, some personal god-or-demons, having a proper personality, and speaking personally to each one of us. In other words, they are as anthropomorphic as the god-or-demon of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; who can get angry, forgive, even let himself mislead, who can love or show a preference, Abel, be against vegetarians, for those who eat flesh. Finally, if we understood this episode of the Bible well, and so on.

The divinity intervenes in several forms, and designates consequently several things, which are dependent but relatively different, and that we must not confuse. To go from the multiple towards the one, we may adopt a pantheist view and see the divinity there is in each thing. Then, with the polytheistic view, you may see the divinity in the image of Mankind in the form of personal god-or-demons. It is, of course, the most accessible way to comprehend the divinity one, because these humanized secondary causations or agents of Fate are in our image, with each characteristic related to concrete human problems. We can intercalate between polytheism and monism, a rather thin layer, that of bi-theism. Lastly, in the monist view, we can comprehend the divinity as a Big Whole (Celltic Pariollon).

To cognize = to be born with, in Latin language (co-gnosco) and science or knowledge as scholarship, it is a completely different thing, science is the logical and reproducible explanation of phenomena; its application, “success “ is material, outside the being. It is a frozen procedure, limited to the physical world. The acquaintance is the intimate and non-transferable (integration) conviction of what “IS “ its application is spiritual. It is a living process related to the action of being. Both can be concomitant, but it is not obligatory, there is “cognizant “ in the etymological meaning of the word even in the societies known as “primitive “ it seems that there is not many more in societies known as

“modern “… Science is a scholarship or know-how, acquaintance is comprehension or art to know how.... to be . The science, transferable, is validated by men, the cognizance (co-gnizance) , non-transferable, through dreams and visions resulting from divinity. Science is taught by Discourse and Logic, acquaintance through experiments. Within the framework of acquaintance, druidism does nothing but give indications, some exercises making pupils progress, it can only explain what must be grasped, lived, thoroughly. The student must do everything himself, if not, he cannot integrate the experience.

A simple example starting from a common chunk of bread.

Science will say to you exactly what proportions of lipids, carbohydrates, proteins, water, sugar, salt, the time of kneading, the time of rising of the pastry, etc. are. You will be unbeatable on the matter, but that will not learn to you nor how to make a brown bread, baked to perfection, even less to taste it!

By “cognizance co-gnizance “on the other hand; you will be the corn which matures under the sun of summer, the flour ground finely by the stone mill, mixed with water and leaven; you will feel the dexterity of the baker, you will warm up gently in the baker's oven, you will be able to taste the structure, to like the softness of the bread inside and the crispness of the crust. You will be yourself enjoying a delicious piece of life.

Only the knowledge co-gnizance has a salvation effect. This cognizance can be reached only by a concrete and carnal experiment lived through all the fibers of one’s body. The help or the assistance of a high-knower of the druidiaction is often necessary, but nonessential. Divine knowledge or acquaintance of God has here no connotation of intellectualism nor of elitism, it is not comparable with that we get through the study of the comings and goings (l'a di l'a fe, said my wife) of any demiurge, recorded in a book (why one besides and not twelve, or a whole library like at Ctesiphon or Alexandria?), but rather with that we get through assiduous visits. It is of the type “to know a childhood friend“ and not of the type “to know the theory of the prime numbers “. This ontological continuity between Man and God (God and not the Jewish Muslim Christian Demiurge) goes hand in hand with some pantheism in the way of John Toland. The Supreme Being is unknowable, apart from succeeding in becoming one with a chosen deity through all kinds of psychic experiments. The purpose of these is the loss of individual identity, of the characteristics of the individual, which has to be molten with the Bitos or Cosmos as divine unknowable being. Paradoxically, it is therefore necessary to unlearn to know oneself in one’s own individuality, to melt oneself in the cosmic Whole , physical and/or spiritual (Pariollon). State of the action of being generally designated by terms of the linguistic family auventia / auentieticos; Welsh awen / awenydd .

In other words, to offer to man an inner experiment which regenerates him somewhat, even defies him, in which he remembers again and is again aware of his Self, of his nature and of his, authentic, origin. In this experiment, he recognizes himself in God (but not in the Demiurge), he knows God (but not the Demiurge), he appears to himself as himself emanated from God (and not from the Demiurge). He is from time immemorial saved. Cf. Spinoza in his Ethics: “We feel and know that we are eternal “ . His salvation is therefore the result of a (re) cognizing of the “self “ as a spark of divinity, at the end of an inner exploration, a direct and immediate experiment of the divine and cosmic Awareness.

* An expression just as difficult to understand as some of our most obscure and twisted lays, even though they are now prose written.

THE THOUSAND AND ONE WAYS OF SEEING OR OF PERCEIVING DIVINITY.

The Divine Being is “One “ but it is “recognized “(differentiated) in our “mind “by its “attributes/forces “which are “multiple “. The higher Being is impersonal (unlike what Judeo-Islamic-Christians claim), but, of course, it is and inevitably, PERSONALLY SEEN AND FELT.

Seen in an anthropomorphic way (he is a father, good, fair, or lord of armies, Sabaoth in Hebrew, an avenger, etc.) and he is supposed to deal with each one among us personally as if we were alone in the world. At least it is what any believer thinks or hopes in all the splendor of the selfishness which helps him to live. Jews even went so far as to imagine that higher Being had eyes only for them, that they had in a way been chosen by him among all. What hubris whereas all as far as we are, we are only mist on crystal, water drops born of water drops, and intended to go back one day in the Ocean. Well, if to think of having been chosen by God can help them to live as a people…. But that should not be done to the detriment of the other peoples who also are children of God having the right to live without being......and in dignity (from where my few days spent in Beirut at the beginning of 1976).

But let us return rather to our sheep. In short, this is why, in the druidic shrines you will be able to see frescos showing Ogmius, statues representing Sucellus, Lug, Epona, Toran/Taran/Tuireann, etc. Man is a hubristic brute who thinks he is the center of the world and imagines the gods in his image (they are fathers, good, right, or chiefs of army avengers and so on….) and every people is therefore a chosen people in the eyes of his god when there is henotheism, or of his gods when there is polytheism, SINCE THEY ARE THE GODS HE GIVES HIMSELF AND WHO THEREFORE MATCH IT… What explained very well in his time when I lived in Paris my master Peter Lance. Each people gives himself gods who resemble it. The pitiless peoples give themselves pitiless gods, the gentle and peaceful peoples give themselves gentle and peaceful gods, and those whose are divided between all these various feelings which can live in the heart of a man ...... well now give themselves several of them .

It is useless to profess the universe is born from One principle, Man does not need less, more or less human figures, in order to personify health richness sexual fulfillment , something to drink and eat, to sleep or get dressed, even compassion and justice and all the rest after. That makes the world easier to understand than if it were governed by forces, completely indifferent to the destiny of men. To have god-or-demons, even cruel, is preferable to chaos. And personal god-or-demons like the Christ or the Messiah of the Jews make besides the world more endurable by enhancing the human situation. These not human or superhuman entities therefore are often seen as personal god-or-demons following the example of Christ or of the Messiah, endowed with a human form, capable of human emotions, or achieving actions resembling these of human beings; even if they are immortal and, of course, have infinitely more powers.

The Hesus called Hound of Culann in Ireland (Cuchulainn) is for example a little like Krishna in India, at the same time true god-or-demon, but also true man, endowed with a body like ours.

And it is therefore in the prayers sent to these accessible god-or-demons (Christ, Allah Buddha, or Jehovah and so on), that human beings can find the force to build their life. But only the heroes are able to benefit the best of this power. It is besides for that they are great heroes like Cuchulainn (in Ireland). And this is why the first saints of Celtic Christianity were also shown as true heroes.

As we could see it, the god-or-demons of druidism are often personal god-or-demons, they have a human shape; they stick to a place or a community. Besides this personal nature of the Celtic god-or-demons explains largely the survival of druidism.

The number of the druidic god-or-demons of this time is unlimited: great god-or-demons, specialized or not, small god-or-demons, subordinate god-or-demons, half-god-or-demons, foreign god-or-demons…

The text of Peter DeLaCrau stops here after some letters scribbled on paper, not easily understandable. His heirs have seen fit to place here some of the notices found by them in an old folder.

……………………All these god-or-demons are manifestations of Fate, some bubbling of the Par-God-par (Pariollon) which is a metamorphic melting of the soul and of the matter.

The god-or-demons live according to a hierarchical basis (the druids were unaware of the idea of totalitarian State, the sidhes or residences of the gods formed only for them a kind of federation, in a way the United Sidhes of Western Europe).

Within these United Sidhes of Europe, there exist great god-or-demons and small god-or-demons according to their level of proximity to the Fate (Tocad or Tocade for feminists) .

What particularly stands out from these texts indeed it is the omnipotence of Fate implemented by curses called geis/gessa in Gaelic language, or tynghed in Welsh according to John Rhys in the second volume of his book about the Celtic folklore, Welsh and Manx. Concerning the Welsh word “tynghed.”

“I would cite a passage from the opening of one of the most Celtic of Welsh stories that of Kulhwch and Olwen. Kulhwch's father, after being for some time a widower, marries again, and conceals from his second wife the fact that he has a son. She finds it out and lets her husband know it; so he sends for his son Kulhwch, and the following is the account of the son's interview with his stepmother.

His stepmother said unto him: "It were well for you to have a wife, and I have a daughter who is sought of every man of renown in the world."

" I am not of an age to wed," answered the youth. Then said she unto him : "I declare to you that it is your destiny not to be suited with a wife until you obtain Olwen, the daughter of Yspaddaden Penkawr."

And the youth blushed, and the love of the maiden diffused itself through all his frame, although he had never seen her. And his father inquired of him : "What has come over you, my son, and what ails you? "

" My stepmother has declared to me that I shall never have a wife until I obtain Olwen, the daughter of Yspaddaden Penkawr."

" That will be easy for you," answered his father. "Arthur is your cousin. Go, therefore, unto Arthur to cut your hair, and ask this of him as a boon.”

...The word in the Welsh text for destiny is tynghet (for an earlier tuncet), and the corresponding Irish word is attested as tocad. Both these words have a tendency, like 'fate,' to be used mostly in pejorem partem. Formerly, however, they might be freely used in an auspicious sense likewise, as for instance in the woman's name Tunccetace, on an early inscribed stone in Pembrokeshire. If her name had been rendered into Latin she would probably have been called Fortunata, as a namesake of good fortune. ... In the southern part of my native county of Cardigan, the phrase in question has been in use within the last thirty years, and the practice which it denotes is still so well known as to be the subject of local stories....The phrase tyngu tynghed , intelligible still in Wales, recalls another instance of the importance of the spoken word, to wit, the Latin fatum....

I would point out that the Romans had a plurality of fata; but ...it is not known that the ancient Welsh had more than one tynghed. In the case, however, of old Norse literature, we come across the Fate there as one bearing a name which is perhaps cognate with the Welsh tynghed.

I allude to a female figure, called Thokk, who appears in the touching myth of Balder's death. ..

In this ogress (Thokk) deaf to the appeals of the tenderest feelings, we seem to have the counterpart of our Celtic tocad and tynghed; and the latter's name as a part of the formula in the Welsh story, while giving us the key of the myth, shows how the early Aryan knew of nothing more binding than the magic force of an oath. On the one hand, this conception of destiny carries with it the marks of its humble origin, and one readily agrees with Cicero's words (De Divinatione II 7) when he says: “Anile sane et plenum superstitionis fati nomen ipsum.” On the other hand, it rises to the grim dignity of a name for the dark, inexorable power which the whole universe is conceived to obey, a power before which the great and resplendent Zeus of the Aryan race is a mere puppet.”

Ar ro fedatar is vadh bodesin nobíad a athcin

Ar rofetatár is úad fessin no bíad a athgein.

Curse besides is not completely the word of our language which suits best to convey this situation because it is neither revenge nor a punishment and the effects are not always immediate. The principal characteristic of these geis/gessa is indeed that they are generally conditional, and that they

are, moreover, besides generally negative. It is requested from somebody to make or more frequently not to make, such or such thing.

The drama is woven when the hero, caught between two contradictory gessa, is in the need for violating one of these prohibitions to respect the other. We will return on the subject.

THE THOUSAND AND ONE WAYS OF SEEING OR OF PERCEIVING DIVINITY (DEVELOPMENTS).

As we saw it, we may therefore arrange all these divine entities in three main categories, the god-or-demons who remained aerial or celestial, and who were exiled in olden days only below the surface of the earth (in some hills for example in Ireland), the god-or-demons inherent to purest human genius, most civilized, or lurking in the depths of the human soul in its darkest recesses (those resist every analysis) and lastly those who were relegated deeper underground, at least in the popular imagination.

Allow me here to introduce my reflection by reminding a short news item that happened in France in 2013 ((France is definitely a country of sorcerers doomed to short local news of the type, see Pont-Saint-Esprit in 1951 : 7 dead persons).

The facts happened in March 2013 in the hamlet of La Roche (village of Albaret-Sainte-Marie in Lozere): bulbs exploding, furniture falling, knives that are found on the floor, a cat and some birds dead. In fact, it was a powerful electric or electromagnetic field (600 ohms) caused by an earth current.

It goes without saying our ancestors could only ascribe such phenomena to superhuman entities, demons or gods angry for one reason or another (the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has for example struck a man carrying the ark of the Covenant, who would prevent it from falling, a man named Uzzah (II Samuel 6).

The Western Gnostic persons are never opposed to the “deification “ of some natural phenomena. They recognized on the contrary the deities, “who show their power “.

The former high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) distinguished consequently the elementals of…

Water (springs rivers). Some nymphs or fairies were responsible for wells and springs. Their powers were related to fruitfulness, seduction, erotism and passion (see the very poetic legend of the Boinne or Damona Vinda in Ireland).

Air (winds like the Cers, or the Galerne in France…).…). It is well known indeed that certain winds have a great influence on human psychism, for example the Santa Ana winds in California.

Earth (mountains, what could be more majestic than a mountain, plains, marshes and so on).

Vegetation. Elementals in this case have as a role to take care of the growth and the flowering of the vegetable kingdom.

To do so that a desired action is carried out, the human beings must please one or more of these deposed deiwi, and must satisfy them with rigorously codified rites. N.B. It goes without saying in this case that the rituals to ward off them have effect only on the mindset of the threatened person, what is already not too bad.

..But only those who attend the fields of imagination and creativity (poets and mystics of the mundus imaginalis) are likely to see them.

In the Middle Ages these elementals too were little by little viewed as being rather female, and became what we call some fairies. This lineage of the fairies such as we have just stated it shows they are originally symbols or personifications of the Mother-Earth concept. The places of their epiphanies show, however, clearly their origin. They indeed generally appear on mountains, close to cracks and torrents, on the innumerable hills of fairies, or in deepest of forests, at the edge of a cave or close to a babbling river, or on the bank of a spring, even of a well. They are associated with ternary rhythms but, by looking more closely, they also fall under quaternary rhythms. What represents indeed and the lunar rhythm and that of the seasons. The moon is visible during three phases out of four; with its fourth phase, it becomes as invisible, man would say that it died. In the same way, the life represented by the vegetation, appears on the earth in spring, opens out in summer, decreases in autumn, and disappears during winter, a silence or death time.

As the poets would say, these fairies relate to the supernatural, because their life is continuous, and not discontinuous like ours, and that of every alive thing in this world. It is therefore normal that in death season, we cannot see them, therefore that they do not appear. Nevertheless, they always exist, but in another shape, relating like them, in its essence, to continuous life, eternal life.

This is the explanation that is traditionally given for fairies but it pertains especially poetic field.

It is quite different for the will-o'-the-wisps. It is methane and / or phosphorus products resulting from the decay of plants or corpses, ignited by spontaneous combustion and set in motion by the slightest draft.

But it is not a real flame, it is rather a kind of phosphorescence. The phenomenon has even been reported in the United States in the Bridgewater Triangle and in Louisiana.

To return to our fairies, the lunar aspect mentioned previously would be the reason for what Melusine, each Saturday, leaves her human husband and requires of him not to try to see her. It is necessary for her, indeed, in this fourth phase, to leave human appearance in order to take that of a snake, animal symbol , as each one knows, of an everlasting life. Melusine is alternatively a woman and a serpent, in the same way that the snake changes its skin to renew itself indefinitely. It is the time which, for human beings, matches death. So fairies are shown only in an intermittent way, like by eclipses, although they remain themselves in a permanent way.

The first notice of Peter DeLacrau : we could say the same thing of the expressions of unconscious.

The second notice of Peter DeLaCrau, in connection with the fairy Melusine and inserted into this place by his heirs.

Origin of the word wyvern. The term wyvern is resulting from a semantic crossing.

The Celtic vobero or vabero, produced on the Continent, in addition to vaivre, the forms vavre and especially voivre, which designated a more or less hidden small brook, the place where water seeps out from the ground. This is why we find it in localities designating a spring, a brook, but also a wood, a meadow or a wet soil (example: Meadow of Vaivre, wood of Vaivre, spring of Vaivre, Large Vaivre, etc.). But the word wyvern is also resulting from Latin vipera: the viper, the snake.

In accordance with this etymology, the wyver is therefore initially basically a snake. Its size is variable: from a few centimeters length to several meters length.

The men and the women, the god-or-demons and the goddess-or-demonesses, with a snake's tail, are extremely numerous in all civilizations, in all traditions, all over the globe. Cambodian legends and iconography show us many human-shaped Nagas or serpents, or certain royal lines born from a man and a nagini. The subterranean roots of sovereignty and even of certain deities cannot be better said. We find also intertwined couples, man and woman with a snake's tail. In Brennilis (French department of Finistere), the statue of the Virgin Mary, “Our Lady of Breac Ellis “ has under his feet, Mary Morgan the she-snake. While moving the statue to remake gilding, people realized the tail of the she-snake joined the plait of the virgin in her back, without man is able to make the distinction. And by attentively examining the representation of the biblical Jesse tree which is in the church of Saint-Thegonnec (still Finistere), we can see that Jesse dreams, asleep, in the folds of the body of Melusine!

The wyvern likes the places little inhabited like marshes, caves. She spends most of her time under ground. Her den can be a hole on the bare ground, a cave in the side of a cliff, or the underground of a castle fallen into ruins. But she also attends aquatic environments: quiet river gleaming beneath foliage, peaceful pond in the middle of a wood, spring running under moss, or being spread out in a stone basin, sometimes even a fountain in full heart of a village. It is there that she goes to drink or to bathe.

Third set of notices found on writing paper and inserted into this place by his heirs.

…. That in druidic mythology it is possible to classify the god-or-demons in two groups or families, like Aesir or Wanes in the Germanic world or the Olympian god-or-demons and the Titans in the Greek world. Air god-or-demons known as children of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Danu (bia) in Ireland, and underground god-or-demons, some gigantic anguiped wyverns (called Andernas on the Continent, Irish Fomore). Their leader is a deity named Balaros.

The gigantic wyverns or anguipedics called andernas or andedioi on the Continent, therefore have at least a function which makes them intervene in the life of men: they guarantee the richness of the land.They are narrowly localized but very numerous.

…Their worship dates back to the time when the people had enough materialistic concerns, rather centered on the harmony between men and nature. The worship of the gigantic anguiped wyverns such Crom Cruach, Lero/Lir, Cicolluis/Cichol Gri-Cenchos, Litavis/Nerthus 1), and so on, was therefore to enter a strongly tinged with shamanism framework.

The main function of these underground god-or-demons, andedioi, god-or-demons of anderodubno, is therefore fruitfulness. We see it well with the part played by Bregsos/Bres the usurper king who will be overcome at the end of the great battle of Mag Tuired : it was obviously a god of agriculture.

They are god-or-demons of the ground, or underground god-or-demons, who were undoubtedly the primordial god-or-demons of religion former to Indo-European invasions.

The Panth-eon or Celtic pleroma 2) is mainly marked by this split between “celestial “god-or-demons and goddess-or-demonesses, the tribe of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if you want, Danu (bia); and more underground god-or-demons linked with fertility, fruitfulness, harvests, material well-being, nature even sexuality or erotism (called Andernas on the Continent, Fomore in Ireland).

On the Continent, they are often represented in the shape of gigantic anguiped wyverns as we have already expounded it. In Ireland, these gigantic anguiped wyverns were demonized through the double effect of Christianization and of Gaelization. We may wonder besides whether this demonization of the chthonic forces had not begun BEFORE EVEN CHRISTIANIZATION (IT WOULD BE THEN ONE OF THE FIRST DEVIATIONS OF IRISH DRUIDRY COMPARED TO THE BROAD OUTLINES OF REFERENCE DRUIDISM).

For these entities there are several ways of coming into contact.

One of them is the combat. In the fight between dioi and andedioi, the dioi, the god-or-demons of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Danu (bia) in Ireland, always end up winning ,particularly in certain cases thanks to the assistance of Taran/Toran/Tuirean. Roman statuary: the gigantic wyverns or anguipedics are floored by Taranis/Jupiter.

The second type of contact is the marital union, the hierogamy, the sacred marriage.

The god-or-demons of the tribe of Danu (bia) generally have “spiritual “functions more than the underground god-or-demons symbolized by gigantic anguiped wyverns on the Continent.

Besides I note that one of the variants of our mythology, that which is particularly developed in Ireland, make them come not exactly from another planet, neither from the space, nor from the airs, but of remote islands located north of the World 2).

Some authors distinguish even carefully these deities from the air or celestial gods in a stricter sense of the term, as the various winds we know (Circius/Cers, Santa Ana….) to deduce from their initial housing, these mysterious islands 3) north of the world, north of the world and not in the north of the world, that they are there, in reality, typically human gods or more exactly quite representative of the virtues that most civilized human genius honor (research of truth or of justice, etc.) or of its darker passions ( desire jealousy hatred war, psychopathy is for example a powerful god or demon…….)

These two or three? groups of god-or-demons will clash for a long time; before merging more or less in the mind of our ancestors after Christianization, as the human activities and their grip on nature develop, and thus disappearing symbolically from the earth surface to take refuge in its depths.

Moreover there was always a kind of comings and goings between these two or three? main categories of god-or-demons, and some went from one category to the other (case of Bregsos/Bres the agriculture god in the Irish myths for example); or have communal ancestors, considering the many alliances having succeeded at times in making the peace kept between these two (or three ?) rival categories of god-or-demons.

In practice, the god-or-demons of the goddess-or-demoness, or of the fairy Danu (bia), were rather prayed by aristocrats. The place or underground god-or-demons like Bregsos or Crom Cruach in Ireland, Arduinna in Belgium, Vosegos in France, Tudi Gong in China, representative of fruitfulness and fertility among others , were honored by farming community.

1) Earth plays in the eyes of men a double part. By her fertility, she feeds them. She receives them in her bosom when they died. The archetypal chthonic (mother earth), Goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, called Litavis/Nerthus, is a goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if this word is preferred; who will be arranged under a name in male gender in the family of the god-or-demons Wanes , by the Germanic ones. It was an important deity having a mysterious forest on an island of Cimbri or Teutons, in Denmark; where we found the famous Gundestrup cauldron (the island of Funen or the island of Zealand), or on the German island of Rügen.

“Next come [a long list of peoples living in the part of North Germany bordering on the Baltic Sea, follows]…who are fenced in by rivers or forests. None of these tribes have any noteworthy feature, except their common worship of Nerthus, that is to say Mother-Earth, and their belief that she interposes in human affairs, and visits the nations in her car. In an island of the ocean there is a sacred grove, and within it a consecrated chariot, covered over with a garment. Only one priest is permitted to touch it. He can perceive the presence of the goddess in this sacred recess, and walks by her side with the utmost reverence as she is drawn along by heifers. It is a season of rejoicing, and festivity reigns wherever she deigns to go and be received. They do not go to battle or wear arms; every weapon is under lock; peace and quiet are known and welcomed only at these times; till the goddess, weary of human intercourse, is at length restored by the same priest to her temple. Afterwards the car, the vestments, and, if you like to believe it, the deity herself, are purified by a complete lustration in a secret lake. Slaves perform the rite, who are instantly swallowed up by its waters. Hence arises a mysterious terror and a pious unknowing concerning the nature of that which is seen only by men doomed to die“ (Tacitus. Germania XL 2, 3 and 4).

We cannot but think of the myth of the Lady of the Lake in Arthurian literature.

According to some authors, this written form (Nerthus) would match the Germanic god-or-demon Niördr or Njord. A god-or-demon, not a goddess-or-demoness, nor a fairy, whereas the text of Tacitus is, however, extremely clear. Nerthus id est Terra Mater. Strange image that this religion therefore gives, where we never know with certainty if we have to deal with a “god“ or a “goddess“.

2) We use the word pleroma which means “full” in Greek in order to show well here that we are not satisfied with the only celestial superhuman entities but we also include in what we intend to say…. Unconscious underground chthonic superhuman entities.

3) An island, it is a land, but in the mind of the high-knowers called druids, such islands belonged much more to the celestial world that to the purely terrestrial world. These remote islands were in any event gates or points of contact with another part of the universe. Such god-or-demons may come on earth. We can strike a deal with them.

THE PARABLE OF OGMIUS.

Once upon a time there was an old man as old can be. The few hairs he has left (he is quite bald in front) are dead white, and his skin is wrinkled and tanned as black as any old salt's.

And the second century Greek historian, Lucian of Samosata, adds (Introductory lecture , Heracles 1-7):

“ Our Heracles is known among the Celts of the Continent under the local name of Ogmius; and the appearance he presents in their pictures is truly grotesque.

You would take him for some infernal deity, for Charon or Iapetus,—anyone rather than Heracles. Such as he is, however, he has all the proper attributes of that god: the lion's-skin hangs over his shoulders, his right hand grasps the club, his left the strung bow, and a quiver is slung at his side; nothing is wanting to the Heraclean equipment.

Now I thought at first that this was just a cut at the Greek gods; that in taking these liberties with the personal appearance of Heracles, the Celts were merely exacting pictorial vengeance for his invasion of their territory; for in his search after the herds of Geryones he had overrun and plundered most of the peoples of the West. However, I have yet to mention the most remarkable feature in the portrait. This ancient Heracles drags after him a vast crowd of men, all of whom are fastened by the ears with thin chains composed of gold and amber, looking more like beautiful necklaces than anything else. From this flimsy bondage they make no attempt to escape, though escape must be easy.

There is not the slightest show of resistance: instead of planting their heels in the ground and dragging back, they follow with joyful alacrity, singing their captor's praises the while; and from the eagerness with which they hurry after him to prevent the chains from tightening, one would say that release is the last thing they desire. Nor will I conceal from you what struck me as the most curious circumstance of all. Heracles's right hand is occupied with the club, and his left with the bow, how is he to hold the ends of the chains? The painter solves the difficulty by boring a hole in the tip of the god's tongue, and making that the means of attachment; his head is turned round, and he regards his followers with a smiling countenance.

For a long time I stood staring at this in amazement, I did not know what to make of it, and was beginning to feel somewhat nettled, when I was addressed in admirable Greek by a Celt who stood at my side, and who besides possessing a scholarly acquaintance with their national science, proved to be not unfamiliar with our own. He told me, Noble stranger; I see this fresco puzzles you: let me solve the riddle. We Celts connect eloquence not with Hermes, as you do, but with the mightier Heracles.

Nor need it surprise you to see him represented as an old man. It is the prerogative of eloquence that it reaches perfection in old age; at least if we may believe your poets, who tell us that…

Youth has a wandering wit

Whereas old age has wiser words to say than youth.

Thus we find that from Nestor's lips honey is distilled; and that the words of the Trojan counselors are compared to the lily, which, if I have not forgotten my Greek, is the name of a flower. Hence, if you will consider the relation that exists between tongue and ear, you will find nothing more natural than the way in which our Heracles, who is eloquence personified, draws men along with their ears tied to his tongue. Nor is any slight intended by the hole bored through that member because I recollect verses in one of your comic poets in which we are told that…

There is a hole in every glib tongue's tip.

Indeed, we refer the achievements of the original Heracles, from first to last, to his wisdom and persuasive eloquence. His shafts, as I take it, are no other than his words: swift, keen-pointed, true-aimed to do deadly execution on the soul. And, in conclusion, he reminded me of our own phrase: 'winged words.'

To designate his interlocutor Lucian textually writes philosophos. Philosophos is used in the sentence only as an adjective; but as a substantive it is the word used by the Greek to generally indicate the high-knowers or West Gnostic people.

We cannot be sure the Greek has well understood and repeated everything, but the old witness statements are too rare so that we can neglect one of them. It is also possible this high-knower moderated his interpretation in order to calm down the irritation of his interlocutor. But the form of the explanation, which shows a large keenness of intelligence, was at the very least to come from a good expert in theology.

There is in the explanation provided to Lucian, more courtesy than sincerity. We don’t know, really, what it is more advisable to admire, either the sincere effort of comprehension of the Greek rhetor, or the talents of a diplomat of our Celtic commentator. If all the high-knowers or Western Gnostic people thus explained things to their interlocutors, telling never but what they wanted well to say, let us be not surprised by the embarrassments of the interpretatio graeca or romana. It should have been only a “camouflage “. The interpretatio graeca in question had to be made by Celts themselves. In the case of Ogmius, everything happens as if a Celtic deity, with a double or triple face, had been endowed with an extremely subtle interpretatio graeca, created for information by the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht).

What is necessary to retain from this account of Lucian of Samosata? Several things.

First of all, like this great traveler, it is necessary to make intelligent religious tourism, you must look beyond the appearances or simplistic explanations like the Jewish-Islamic-Christians or the today French journalists , but always seek further.

Second point: the mythology of Celts is quite as complex as that of the Greeks; it is only our ignorance of the nine tenths of its nature which makes us find it summary and illogical.

Moreover, in each witness statement it is necessary to take into account the interests or psychology of its narrator. Greeks and Romans visited the country, but Lucian and Caesar did not seek same information; one took time to question, to get information, the other was interested only in the military potential and in political alliances.

That does not mean for as much, that Caesar was badly informed; but mythology was the least of his concerns , moreover, he had pleasure to emphasize in front of his future readers, the cruelty or the lack of education of the Celts facing the moving progress: the heavy and rhythmical pace of the Roman legions.

Lucian, as a guest, profited from the instinctive sympathy of all the Celtic intellectuals towards a Greek who, in addition, was a curious and open mind.

It is important to notice the existence in this country, presented to us as barbarian, and uncultivated, of personalities able to discuss on an equal footing and in his language, with Lucian of Samosata.

Nothing says that this scholar able at the same time to quote Greek lines of verse and to carry out a brilliant comparative mythology between Ogmius and Heracles was a high-knower or a Gnostic person of the West but the presumption is rather strong.

Lastly, it should be noted that if the Celt outclasses the Greek, it does not benefit from that to try to convert him, and it is perhaps here the most important lesson of this text. The Celtic god-or-demons and the Greek god-or-demons are not opposed, such Christ and Muhammad, but live each one their own mythology in their natural background; one being able to borrow the look or the characteristics of the other without to be superimposable with him. What a lesson of tolerance!

In addition to the fact that Lucian of Samosata was a Greek, and that he thought according to his culture or his lifestyle, what still conclude from this account and from the commentaries?

Our goal is to make what is really the druidism, comprehensible. There are two requirements for that.

The first, it is to pervade oneself well with its history. Many sincere Celticists, resulting from the false Welsh initiatory derivation started Iolo Morganwg (the College of the druids and ovates in Gauls, for France, as the Breton druidic college, etc.) in short 90% of the current neo-druidism; unconsciously marked by twenty centuries of Christian philosophy, or quite simply by the dominant philosophy of our time, conveyed by journalists, even if it is more or less confusedly; prefer to deny the facts which are reproached ancient high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht), rather than to admit them.

But the solution just as the truth is elsewhere.

It is not a question to deny the duly established facts, but to seek to understand them. It is, of course, more difficult than to reject them as a whole, that requires much more, obscure and anonymous, work, much more boldness and courage also, far from easily gleaned laurels. That pays less, but how many authentic treasures spout out then under the hand of the stubborn pioneers or adventurers, devoting themselves to this work!

It is, of course, always druidism less fashionable than the ideal druidism that we have just evoked but it has over the latter an undeniable advantage that to have at least really existed. We cannot always say as much about the brilliant , supposing this adjective is suitable, intellectual reconstructions of the current neo-druidism, resulting from the genial forger who was Iolo Morganwg.

The druidism which comes from these books is too good to be true! History is a science, human, but which has its rules, escaping morals by no means. This is why it is important to initially meditate druidism history, and not the works of fiction which were written, alas, in too large numbers, about it. Whatever the sincerity, sometimes obvious, of their authors!

It is necessary to meditate day and night history books written about it, to dream of it almost until becoming druid oneself through internalization. Druidism should not be felt (unconsciously) by us, as something foreign; but as the expression even of our deepest self.

The second requirement is that it is necessary to succeed in finding the words to translate that in our language of men of the 20th century. It is particularly necessary to succeed in understanding from inside the facts as well as the ideas that report to us, without always understanding them well, the historians (the true ones).

Let us cease taking (even unconsciously) the gnostic people of the West, for primitive savages and ignoramuses, let us give them for once the benefit of the doubt and it will be seen at once that these actions can be explained in a completely different way.

Our second requirement is therefore it is necessary to succeed in finding the words to convey everything in our language of human beings of the 21st century. It is almost a translation work. For the Greeks it is necessary to speak Greek!

And as in every translation word-for-word is not enough. It is necessary sometimes to know to deviate from the model in order to restore the poetry and the strength of the original, without betraying it. It is necessary to know to put oneself in the shoes of a Western Gnostic person of two thousand five hundred years ago, of course, but it is necessary also to know to put oneself in the shoes of a man of the 21st century.

Thus we designate sometimes today by the word Grail, term of medieval origin established by a known literature, the divine mystery (or the divinity in its mystery) so little accessible to human understanding.

It is necessary to find the fitting terms and by dint of “mistakes “in the details, to succeed in making our contemporaries able to understand the thorough truth of this religious philosophy. It is not a question to restore in its past entirety what ancient druidism was, this, it is the work of a historian, and that would leave almost everyone indifferent, apart from a handful of specialists…

It is a question of making born again the great founding principles of ancient druidism, and, beyond the questions of form or details, to do them literally embodied again in our time. In other words, to keep the history but to make its spirit current again according to our time.

Our goal is not History for History; but the making current again of the druidic principles which can still today, and more than ever, help us to live.

“Nor do they regard it lawful to commit these to writing, though in almost all other matters, in their public and private transactions, they use Greek characters. That practice they seem to me to have adopted for two reasons; because ..... nor those who learn among them, to devote themselves the less to the efforts of memory, relying on writing; since it generally occurs to most men, that, in their dependence on writing, they relax their diligence in learning thoroughly, and their employment of memory “.

Many things were written about druidism, and particularly a lot of stupid things, all more dismaying the ones than the others. It is important today to rectify these upsetting mistakes, so that our heart fellow countrymen, the Celtic-minded persons everywhere on this planet, finally knows what this great religion, this forever disappeared Atlantis, was really.

It is necessary to think again former druidism according to modern culture, i.e., to reinterpret the requests of our modern world in order to show how they can be fully satisfied in a pagan, or more exactly druidic, way. To rebuild a synthetic model of druidism in the cultural categories of our time. We need an offensive , open, daring, druidiaction, which did not withdraw in pseudo-traditions hardly four or five centuries old; as in the case of the Welsh heresy (through heresy we want to say: forgeries completely made with any old things by Iolo Morganwg); but tackles the new questions frankly. And which does not fear making self-criticism of druidism.

For that, it is necessary to take into account modern scientific knowledge, which is fundamental as a truth criterion. Druidic knowledge must be, not the total knowledge of oneself and of the world (nobody can know everything), but the best key of any comprehension of oneself and of the world (at all levels).

IT IS NECESSARY TO SPEAK AS A DRUID OF DRUIDISM AND IT IS NECESSARY TO SPEAK IN GREEK TO THE GREEKS.

.1. It is initially necessary to learn how to know druidism from the inner side (to put oneself in the shoes of a high-knower or Gnostic people of the druidiaction of 2000 years ago) to be able to speak well of it, to be able to explain it well. Therefore to read and read again… the good works on this subject. “Magic “initiation is not enough. No one was admitted into the Fenians until he had learned up THIRTY-THREE books, in other words, the bookshelf “druidism“ of the small religious library. Could we say because in the Middle Ages in Ireland it was not 33 books but only 12. See Céitinn / Keating on this subject.

2. For explaining druidism well, it is necessary to speak to men and to women of this century in their language. To speak about druidism to the men of the 21st century with the words of the 21st century, and so on… and especially with current examples (natural, psychological, moral) easy to transpose.

Therefore look at this philosophical and thought faith in the eyes of this philosophos about whom Lucian speaks, and then try to understand it from the inner side instead of condemning it stupidly.

Lastly, be able to speak the language of our contemporaries to explain it or make it understood.

To the Greeks speak Greek to tell it, to the Romans Latin, to the Jews Hebrew, to the Chinese, Chinese.

As Solinus says it, quoted by Henry Lizeray in his Secret Doctrines of Druidism.: “Pagan theology must be interpreted with openness of mind. “

As the great Arab thinker St. John of Damascus (John Damascene), the father of the old principle thus stating in Latin: philosophia ancilla theologiae, even specifies it, we must resort to the speeches of the philosophers “ For every craftsman has need,also, of certain things for the prosecution of his work and it is also fitting for the queen to be waited upon by certain handmaidens. So let us receive such sayings as serve the truth, while we reject the impiety which exercised an evil tyranny over them “ (The fount - or source - of knowledge - or of wisdom-. Chapter I).

In order to clarify from the inner side the mystical and religious philosophy of druidism, we will enlist in this essay two of the great Indo-European or Aryan headlights still currently well known of our contemporaries, for various reasons.

- Ancient Persian or Aryan mysticism .

- Greek philosophy (Pythagoras, but also Plato, etc.)

Particularly by the means of the famous School of philosophy located at Carrhes (Carrhae/Harran practically on the border between Turkey and Syria) which was the Eastern center of the Platonician-Pythagorean thought and which by means of translations in Arabic finally played a large part in the European Renaissance.

The Sabians of Carrhes Carrhae or Harran had indeed a considerable influence over their time (the holy Quran besides makes them almost the equals of Muslims), and this around the year 1,000, an influence which exceeded by far the framework of this modest area in Mesopotamia. Their paganism of Greek and Iranian type is also behind all medieval Muslim philosophy. We say well Muslim-Arab philosophy (falasifa), and not Islamic religion, because this Muslim philosophy, through its Greco-Persian and other, pagan origins, was always, indeed, extremely far away from Quran (it was

generally besides regarded as heretic i.e., a part of the zandaqa ** by pious Muslims: cf the dialectics or kalam of the Qadari (qadariyya), Mutazilis and other non-believers of all kinds in the Dar al Islam or Islamic lands).

Christian parabolani (parabolani, not talibani) having closed in 529 the school of Athens, the famous Simplicius and his followers took refuge then in Carrhae (Harran), a city then located on the borders of the Empire, in the Persian territory. Their school thrived at least to the 10th century. We know particularly by various sources (Muslim-Arab ), that a temple still functioned there around the year 1,000. It is consequently the last stronghold, in the area, of a conscious and asserted paganism. Alas, undoubtedly as degenerate as the last druids of the kingdom of Domnall mac Muirchertach Ua Néill at the same time! The Sabians of Carrhes Carrhae or Harran made their spiritual origin dating back to Hermes, guide of the soul/minds in the hereafter, messenger able to cross the three areas of the Universe, therefore Mercury (in other words Lug in interpretatio druidica). These crossbred of Pythagoreanism late Neo-Platonists, accepted the name of “pagan “ and practiced the rites of always (prayers to the god-or-demons, fasts, ritual washings, sacrifices, etc.).

Their more famous master, Thabit Ibn Qurra ***, died in 901 in Baghdad, wrote in Syriac language a book entitled “Of the Laws of Hermes “ a book his son translated into Arabic (Kitab nawamis Harmas). In 933 the muhtasib of Baghdad required their genocide. The known last one, Hukaym Ibn Isa Ibn Mwan, died in 944 but their School could apparently survive until 1081, date of the destruction of their last temple by the Seljuks.

It is therefore via this School of thought that philosophy, before coming back into Europe by the means of the Arabs, survived in the area. The theosophy of Suhrawardi for example, is resulting at the same time from the late Neoplatonism of this School in Harran, and from the Mazdean spirituality of old Persia, based on the notion of enligthened, by light, beings (roshaniya in Persian language)…*****

* The only journeys which have some value besides are inner trips. It is not useful to go to the other end of the world if it is to find there the same thing as in our house and everywhere else, and to take on men and things (inanimate objects have you a soul ? ) a look as superficial as the analyzes of our modern journalists about the war in Syria (the nice and smart and courageous and all the rest, people, against the bad and silly people who are coward in addition, of course. What f the French journalists forget it is that the evil practically everyone is against (apart from a negligible minority of psychopaths or sociopaths) but, the drama it is that men don’t agree between them on what is the evil). As Pascal said once : “Man is neither angel nor beast, and unhappily whoever wants to act the angel, acts the beast.” Our contemporaries traversed, of course, the world, but they do not have seen anything because, let us repeat it once again, there is not a true journey but only an inner journey.

** Heretics are called zindiqs in Dar Al Islam or lands of Islam. It is a word of Persian origin (zendik) meaning something like “a free thinker.”

*** His complete name, Al-Sabi Thabit ibn Qurra Al-Ḥarrani, and his writings about Hermes Trismegistus, prove that he was indeed a Sabian from Harran and, of course, not a Muslim. Too bad for the anti-racists/racists **** of Islam who want to make him a good Muslim at all costs.

**** They are the same ones! As for me here my definition of a racist: “The racists they are the others !”

***** Warning to readers. In what is following nothing and zero will be carefully distinguished.

Nothingness is an absence but zero is not nothingness. Of course it refers to an absence but it is also used as a landmark in geometry and it is also a number.

The ancient Greeks considered that what exists is "one," but did not have the faculty of abstraction necessary to be able to write what is not, what is non-existent (for example Parmenides).

For Aristotle, besides, emptiness and infinity did not exist.

The Greeks, therefore, had no writing system that included zero in their numeration, since nothingness struck their intellectual conditioning.

This is why there is no zero year in our calendar, the first Christians were unable to perceive the nothingness. There is no zero year of the Christian era, we start directly with the year 1. We start directly with the year 1.

Hence also the success of the notion of ether as a fifth element.

Only intellectuals like the druids of the Far East called Brahmins or Maya priests thought enough about nothingness (in their philosophies) to succeed little by little, by successive trial and error, in developing the concept of sunya or zero. The very name of Brahmagupta in any event seems to indicate that he was Hindu but Buddhism was still very present in India at the time. Anyway, what certain is, it is that zero already appears in an Indian manuscript, the Bakhshali, dating back to the 3rd or 4th century before our era. It was also known by the Babylonians at the same time.

In short, nothing and zero it is not the same thing, zero can also be the contrary of nothing.

As for nothingness, it could simply be the state of what is previous, of what is prior to existence. The body of a human being a year before its birth, for example. It exists in no way.

THE HEIGHT OF ANCIENT DRUIDISM (MYTHO- or META-HISTORY).

Ambigatus or Ambicatus joined together under his domination, around the end of the fifth century before our era, most of current Germany and Austria, France minus the Rhone Basin, and nearly two thirds of the Iberian Peninsula. The political unit was then supplemented by a religious kind of amphictyony, and the various Celtic nations had the same higher Panth-eon or pleroma. When the empire of Ambicatus was dismembered or when the bond which united the Celtic tribes was slackened; the local god-or-demons, whose prestige had some time to yield to the authority of the Pan-Celtic Panth-eon or Pleroma, were again, of course, the addressees of bratou decantem, of ex-voto, and of dedications. The religious sensitivity which had been the bond or the binder of all these peoples, nevertheless remained.

“ THEY LIKEWISE DISCUSS AND IMPART TO THE YOUTH MANY ELEMENTS RESPECTING THE STARS AND THEIR MOTION, RESPECTING THE EXTENT OF THE WORLD AND OF OUR EARTH, RESPECTING THE NATURE OF THINGS, RESPECTING THE POWER AND THE MAJESTY OF THE IMMORTAL GODS“ (B.G. VI, 14).

What if there was a creation without a creator? Not an absolute beginning and an absolute end, but relative beginnings and ends, according to the great principle of conservation of mass/energy attributed to Lavoisier: "nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed"?

Didn't the Celts think that Mankind was born from an existing being called Dis pater by Romans and didn't the Druids say contrary to the Bible that day comes from night?

I say contrary to the Bible because if I believe its creation myth before the light is there was the night BUT NOTHING!THE NOTHINGNESS!

This notion of an absolute creation of our universe by an all-powerful God raises two problems which are so many aporias that Jewish Christian and Muslim theologies drags like a ball and a chain. The first is "Why did God create the world?"

The Sumerians answered (in the plural) that it was to be worshipped in prayer and to be offered sacrifices.

Christians more hypocritically answer "for love".

And the second aporia is, since these monolatrous mass religions have such an eschatology, why will God end this world one day?

in short: "why bring the world out of nothingness and then almost immediately send it back to nothingness (immediately because compared to eternity the life span of our universe according to their first generations... was to be relatively short)"?

Let us leave anthropomorphism to our biological or spiritual ancestors! The being of the beings is indifferent to all that, IT IS, period!

And such was perhaps the substance or the quintessence of the philosophy of Diviciacos of Bibracte, summarized by Strabo (who obviously did not understand anything): "souls and the universe are indestructible, but one day fire and water will prevail over them".

The idea of God that the monolatrous mass religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) have, is in any case the greatest common divisor of Mankind, so let's avoid involving him in our human affairs; God is indeed an unknown that makes any equation impossible to solve

The key words of the old druid in the Marseilles forest were perhaps but before they were invented of course, panentheism pantheism atheism agnosticism! (the old druid of the forest near Marseilles quoth, according to Lucan of the Pharsalia....or Lucian....of Samosata) because it is necessary to

know how to speak to the Greeks in Greek. But what is the Truth? Sincerity is perhaps more within our grasp.

The basis of the genuine druidic process is the reflection and the interrogation: what is this world in reality? What is its true nature? What is the meaning of the individual existence?

Druidic legends, whatever the interpretation to be given, to so many difficult or despaired passages, show, undoubtedly, a certain idea of life. Our German friends say Weltanschauung.

This oral literature of Celts gives us access to their wisdom: through its study, it is therefore a true inner transformation which is offered to researchers in spirituality left in the search for the grail.

The study of the various Celtic literatures, Irish, Welsh, or French-speaking (the romances of the Round Table), provides elements of reflection, and forms one of the bases of the true druidism of today. This very rich literature delivers at the same time a vision of life (weltanschauung) inspiring and freeing, as well as a practical wisdom.

The personal thought, based on the study of Celtic myths, makes it possible to develop the distinction between reality and unreality, permanency and illusion, and a certain detachment, some inner qualities essential to progress.

The contemplation of the wonders of the World becomes natural then to whom undertook this work of inner purification of his mind, because in an ultimate way, it is always through meditation we reach the knowledge, and the rediscovery of our genuine nature.

It should not be forgotten the Neanderthal man our placed end to end 30 % ancestor had a brain more ...... [the continuation of the text is missing].

THE FIVE ACORNS FROM WHICH THE MIGHTY OAK GROWS.

As soon as the field of druidism is approached, we are inevitably confronted with the problem of references. We know indeed one historical druid, attested by Caesar around 58 before our era, Diviciacus, and his attitude besides was very disputable (he collaborated in fact with the party of foreigners, namely Rome ).

Five types of sources nevertheless deliver general information to us. First of all, contemporaries of the high-knowers or Gnostic people in the West, during Antiquity.

All the writers of Antiquity indeed agree to recognize the extreme religiosity of Celts. To the well-known account of Caesar, who reports Celts are a people very devoted to religious practices (admodum dedita religionibus), it is necessary to add these by Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

Book V, 46,3: either the Celts were stupefied at his extraordinary boldness, or else they were restrained by more or less religious feelings, for as a nation they are by no means inattentive to the claims of religion (Livy).

Roman antiquities . Book VII, 70, 3 to 4: no lapse of time has thus far induced either the Egyptians, the Libyans, the Celts, the Scythians, the Indians, or any other barbarian nation whatever to forget or transgress anything relating to the rites of their gods (Dionysius of Halicarnassus).

In other words, we have therefore initially to begin, various texts of Classical Antiquity coming from foreigners, reporting us what Greco-Roman geographers and historians thought to understand of the philosophical-religious ideas of Celts.

The existence of the high-knowers of the druidiaction or Western Gnostic people is witnessed during the Antiquity by Greek or Latin accounts and authors ranging from the first century before to the first century after, our era. Best known and most important are: Diodorus of Sicily (the Library of History), Strabo (Geography), Pomponius Mela (De Chorographia), Lucan (Civil war), Pliny the Elder (Natural history), and especially Julius Caesar and his famous Commentaris De Bello Gallico. It is possible to add a few tens of author names to this too short list, including some Fathers of the (Catholic) Church. And some decisions of the first councils containing, among innumerable prohibitions they express, allusions to certain rites still practiced at their time by “pagan “ populationS. These accounts often give a negative image of Celtic peoples, but we can nevertheless extract from them many very interesting elements.

The second information source is formed by a lot of Romano-British (altars, steles, lararia, etc.) monuments which are generally unfortunately dumb, the very name of the deity represented there seldom appearing on it.

The third information source is supplied with the Celtic coins on which are frequently reproduced “druidic “ symbols, but they were only little studied from the point of view of tradition. See nevertheless the series of coins “with a wolf devouring the moon “or “with a wolf devouring the sun “.

The fourth source is supplied by the discoveries made in the North of France during the last decades of the 20th century, of the remains of a whole series of shrines. These archeological excavations revolutionized the problems of druidic religion, by well highlighting the existence, in the Celtic world, of sanctuaries completely comparable with these of the Greek world. With the only difference that they were not made of stones, but out of perishable or renewable material (wood, etc.).

The fifth source is much later, since it is the writing down by monks during the Middle Ages, of oral traditions in Ireland. This literature, the drafting of which ranges from the 8th century to the 17th century, comes to confirm or supplement the results of the studies of ancient sources.

It transcribes the myths and the sagas orally handed down from generation to generation. The transcribers collectors of these accounts got up all these myths in a Christian veneer, but by leaving it aside , it is possible to discover in them the original Celtic substrate.

All the work of the druidicist is, in this case consists in releasing the primitive subject of Celtic mythology, by placing oneself in the Indo-European context.

These various texts of medieval Irish literature can be gathered in six main categories.

– The great battles of meta-history or mythical history. Cath Maighe Tuireadh Battle of Mag Tuired.” Cath Maighe Tuireadh Cunga “The Battle of Mag Tuired at Cunga.” Oidhe Chloinne Tuireann “Fate of the children of Tuireann.”

- The mythological cycle. Who also includes the legends about the peopling of the island (legends on Etanna - Tochmarc Etaine, Lebor Gabala Erenn, and so on…).

- The Bible of druidism or heroic cycle (also known as the cycle of the Red Branch or of Ulster) of which the main hero is the invincible Hesus CuChulainn. It is in this cycle that it is necessary to classify the famous story telling the rustling of the cows of Cooley as well as the moving legend of Deirdre…

- The cycle of Fenians (also known as Ossianic or of Leinster cycle) of which the main hero is Finn Mac Cumaill (Vindos/Camulos) as his son Ossian and his grandson Oscar.

- The historical cycle (or cycle of the kings).

- The adventures voyages or various visions. Conle, Bran son of Febal, Cormac, St. Brendan, Tondale, the Purgatory of St Patrick, the vision of Adamnan, the others imrama or echtrai etc., etc.

No one today may honestly say himself druid (we speak here about intellectual honesty) if he does not have studied so much is little these main Irish......mythological texts (we say well Irish and not Welsh); the famous triads of the bards of the Isle of Britain by Iolo Morganwg (Edward William 1747-1826, founder of the gorsedd beirdd ynis Prydain) having no relation (or almost) with true druidism, as we will see.

This sixth and last source is indeed to avoid like the plague. They are a complete fabrication, this is a forgery. Like several of his contemporaries, Edouard Williams was sincerely persuaded that the Welsh bards, and particularly those in Glamorgan, had been able to inherit the traditions from the Western Gnostic people of the ancient world. The only problem is that he produced a huge corpus of counterfeits to justify this claim.

Normally, this subject does not form part of our field of study. It remains nevertheless paramount in our eyes, to help the true lovers-amateurs, embarked on their search for the Grail , to distinguish the ancient druidism; which disappears definitively from the only place where there still remained right in the middle of the Middle Ages, i.e., Ireland, at the time of the Christianization of the island; with the last druid of the Court of the prince Domnall mac Muirchertach Ua Néill (O' Neill) king of Ailech from 943 to 980 and Ard Ri Érenn from 956 to 980; from a certain neo-druidism which appears in the 18th century.

A good knowledge of the first, the ancient druidism, is enough to make null and void the parodies of ceremonies and “philosophy “of the second one as an initiatory movement of ancient derivation.

There exist three principal branches in neo-druidism, all three based on freemasonry, and founded in London.

- On September 22, 1717, in the Apple Tree Tavern, by the Irishman John Toland.

- On November 28, 1781, in King's Arm Tavern, by a carpenter, Henry Hurle (Ancient Order of Druids).

- On June 21, 1792, on Primrose Hill, by the mason of whom we have just spoken, Iolo Morganwg (Edward Williams for the registry office).

Best known neo-druidism, alas, is based on the part of the Iolo Manuscripts appeared in 1848, and on the Barddas by the minister William Ab Ithel published in 1862. These texts match in nothing pre-Christian Irish, nor even Indo-European standards. The theological content is obviously of Christian essence and the language is modern Welsh. According to William Ab Ithel, the sources would be a mysterious collection of manuscripts dating back to 1560 and belonging to a bard called Llewelyn Sion. These “sources “are no longer available as by chance, but if they were, of course, they would not show us another thing than only a series of texts of Christian inspiration, containing at best a negligible

piece of the ancient druidic tradition. This kind of document therefore justifies in nothing a derivation with the high-knowers or Western Gnostic people of Antiquity.

History besides excludes any possibility of survival, even clandestine, of druidism, beyond the centuries, and until our days. Romanization, Christianization, and Germanic invasions, formed a triple break-up. The “poets” in the kingdom of Domnall mac Muirchertach Ua Néill having still imbas forosnai, teimn laegda as well as dichetal do chennaib, in their repertory, were perhaps already Christian. It is true that these practices were strictly prohibited by the Church, but who knows, there were perhaps compromises similar to these around the astrologers or alchemists during the Middle Ages.

It is therefore fitting to emphasize the impossibility of restoring the “natural “ Celtic tradition. The latter is accessible to us only through insular and classical texts, and through archeology. What will never enable us to find again the rituals (almost completely concealed by Irish monks). Nor the sacred language (the iarnberle comparable with the Vedic Sanskrit) which was the traditional language, being used for the handing down of this knowledge and for the achievement of matching rituals.

The true Celtic tradition can be found again only by the means of scientific research, either in the field of archeology, philology, or in the field of religious comparatism. This work can be carried out only by qualified people, having followed a high-level schooling and in no case by semi-well-read people (Jean Markale, Paco Rabanne, Mercurios, Paul Bouchet, Marc Questin, etc). This bogus neo-druidism is interesting only within the framework of a study of the idea that people had about the pagan Celts in the 18th century, or even about the various branches of freemasonry.

Editor’s note. To lump the French Jean Markale together the semi-well-read people like the so-called Mercurios is exaggerated. But for Mercurios, that we have known well, and of whom we already forgot the name for registry office, it is perfectly justified.

* At least it is what we can deduce from the existence still at the time, in the repertory of the great Irish “poets,” of the imbas forosnai of the teinm loida and of the dichetal do chennaib, however prohibited by St Patrick (cf. the conclusion of the tale of the plunder of the castle of Maelmilscothach of Urard Mac Coise, a poet having died in the 11th century).

ELEMENTS OF DRUIDIC COSMOGONY.

THE MONOGENOS OR ZERO (before the first one) EON (CELTIC AIU = LIFE FORCE).

Reminder given the importan ce of the thing.

Didn't the Celts think that Mankind was born from an existing being called Dis pater by Romans and didn't the Druids say contrary to the Bible that day comes from night?

I say contrary to the Bible because if I believe its creation myth before the light is there was the night BUT NOTHING!THE NOTHINGNESS!

The Sumerians answered (in the plural) that it was to be worshipped in prayer and to be offered sacrifices.

Christians more hypocritically answer "for love".

And the second aporia is, since these monolatrous mass religions have such an eschatology, why will God end this world one day?

Let us leave anthropomorphism to our biological or spiritual ancestors! The being of the beings is indifferent to all that, IT IS, period!

As we have had the opportunity to see elsewhere, AIU is the Celtic name for what comes immediately after the pro-creating nothingness and the cloudy magma (oxymorons) that comes from it, namely the interaction between the soul or the spirit and the matter, therefore , existence, continuous change, also understood as eternity among druids according to Strabo (Geography IV, 1, 13).

It is indeed necessary to distinguish, as Scottus Eriugena does elsewhere, the "unfathomable Deity" and the "Providential God or Demiurge.” Unfathomable Deity is the "Uncreating Uncreated Nature.” It is "The Principle which is beyond All Principle.”

Medieval druids have also equated this monogenes or primordial eon with a kind of law of the worlds, acting on two levels, the cosmic or general level (Fate), the individual level (destiny).

….

Such is therefore the first druidic trinity of all times. The absolute immanent Being generates the One, the One generates the Tokade or Destiny (ison son bissiet) which generates in its turn the Big Whole (symbolized by the Pariollon), but all three form a single God or Demiurge.

Consequently, we understand better than the true principle of things is always, for the high-knowers, the Indefinite one, the Undifferentiated one which does not suffer from the founding limits of the individual. This is why the Gnostic people in the West called immortal, imperishable, the indefinite One; it is the Original One from where all individuals come who are exiled from it, but to which they end up in coming back at the time of their ultimate blossoming (Buddhists would say, final dissolution). We could not find a notion closer to the original philosophy of the high-knowers called druids who, to explain God or the Demiurge and the world, were based on the need for an intermediary between the absolute immanent and what is moving.

In other words, and we return to it a diagram of the type ......

1 ° A higher hypostasis which possesses infinite perfection without being infested by action or multiplicity (the point in which all oppositions balance, the ogham point in the space-time symbolized by the eabhadh letter of medieval druidism or the immobile sphere driving force of all the circles revolving around it of Neoplatonism in the broadest sense of the term) .

2 ° A hypostasis lower to the first, Fate, Law of the worlds, voice, word or creating thought of a kind of, having never existed, or having died for a long time, grand architect of the universe.

3 ° A hypostasis capable of producing the spiritual and material world, but moving and subordinate to the preceding one, the Big Whole that the image of the cosmic cauldron symbolizes perfectly.

From the symbolism of the cauldron, many things result and particularly most obvious, most immediate, namely that God or the Demiurge is impersonal.

The symbolism of the cauldron therefore also makes druids… idolatrous people! And it is true that certain Druidic Schools never used the word or the notion of “God “to designate the infinite Being from which the whole universe is resulting.

The “Par “ God was for them so impersonal that they represented it not like a human being, bearded, male, since a father, etc. as Judeo-Christians do it, but with … a thing, an object. And then?

Did not Fichte himself write : “Das System, in welchem von einem ubermachtigen Wesen Gluckseligkeit erwartet wird, ist das System der Abgotterei und of Gotzendienstes, welches so alt ist als das menschliche Verderben und mit dem Fortgange der Zeit bloss the Seine aussere Gestalt verandert hat.”

What means approximately (my four years of German are distant) :

“The system in which bliss is expected from a very powerful being, it is the system of idolatry precisely, it is as old as human corruption and time has changed only its external form" (Fichte. Appeal to the public against the charge of atheism).

Impersonality of God or of the Demiurge consequently, who can be identified with everything without never being distinguished from his (pro) creation.

Strabo, Geography IV, 4: “They, but others as well, say that men's souls, and also the universe, are indestructible, although both fire and water will at some time or other prevail over them “.

At the beginning therefore the cosmic cauldron (the Chaos of the Greeks) was, an incommensurable whole in which the elements forming the current world were mixed. The divinity, it is the absolute intimate union and in unthinkable forms of soul and of matter.

The divine one finally is only the state of the action of being resulting from the metamorphic melting of soul and of matter.

Clearest proof of it is that water appears to be the primeval element of druidic creation. The Sun, and with much more importance Haedus, at the same time earthly fire, celestial fire and sun fire, are the great figures of druidic cosmogony, but one and the other are considered to be generated by water. This strange filiation perhaps comes from the fact that lightening appears to spring up from the carrying rains clouds, from where the become Mother of Fire, water. What takes us besides back to the Vedic myths relating to Agni and Apam-napat.

Q: What is the primeval cauldron?

A: Fire and Water.

Q: What do you want to say through Fire?

A. It is produced by a radiant exaltation of the soul which succeeds in overcoming its attraction forces. And it finds its expansion only in the second principle, water.

Q: What do you want to say through Water?

A: It is quiet and does not have true life, because whereas it radiates, it absorbs through the same occasion. But it is in a sense the absolute and immanent manifestation of life.

Water and Fire from the beginning of time coexist together and remain distinct, even when they are contained one in the other.

The majority of the mythical and magic cauldrons of Celtic traditions (their part is similar in other Indo-European mythologies) was found in the bottom of a lake or ocean. The magic force lies in water; the ollae (from the Latin aulla), the cauldrons, the pots, the chalices, the barrels, are containers of this magic force, often symbolized by a divine liquor, ambrosia or running water. They give immortality or eternal youth, change the one who has them (or who dived in them) into a hero, even in a god-or-demon. The cauldron can be regarded rightly as the ancestor and the prototype of the Holy Grail.

Celtic literature evokes the Pariollon under three different names.

The first name is Murios (from muir, sea) the cauldron of the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt, the great druid-god-or-demon. It is a cauldron of plenty nobody leaves it without being satisfied. This cauldron contains not only the material food of all the men on earth , but also all the knowledge in the world.

The second is the resurrection cauldron in which, according to the iconography of the Gundestrup cauldron itself, and the Welsh story of the Mabinogi of Branwen, dead are thrown so that they come back to life the following day.

To also note that Kerridwen, the Welsh, medieval, goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if you prefer this word , of poets, blacksmiths and doctors; had a cauldron which was a source of inspiration and magic powers.

The Pariollon (= Parinirvana among Buddhists) is what is eternal, not conditioned, the higher reality, impossible to delimit through word or thought. The word means cosmic Chaudron.

The ultimate perceptible reality is this cosmic cauldron evoked by the Grail during the Middle Ages. This Universal Including contains at the same time a not-changing, eternal, aspect of the Being, and the change power of the Becoming. This cosmic cauldron is neither female nor male, it is non-dual.

The cosmic cauldron is also at the same time static and dynamic. It is what makes it elusive for the intellect.

This God or providential Demiurge has a “ creating uncreated nature“. It is the universal Cause of an unbounded fruitfulness.

As we could see it, this cosmic cauldron or par-god of the Gnostic people in the West called druids, can appear only by a self-limitation; since it cannot have any contact with a matter or a soul which do not exist yet. Its powers or attributes, which are hidden before in the unfathomable abyss, move out of it and become principles of every later development of the life; they took place through waves of successive emanations until they are completely far away from the divine purity, and reach the field of matter.

The Par-God has no personality, and remains completely unknowable. It is the Abyss we have said. Nevertheless, its perfection and its plenitude can only be handed down to other spiritual or material spheres, through an emanation.

The Big Whole of the Pariollon is a little like the Parinirvana of Buddhists, beyond the spirit or of the soul, and of the matter, beyond fire and water. A force without attributes, universal, impersonal, infinite, imperceptible, which is all and transcends everything.

In Arthurian literature, this cauldron became the Grail and it was, of course, attached by various more or less well-inspired forgers, with Christian mythology.

God or the Demiurge is unknowable, except if you succeed in identifying with divinity through all kinds of psychic experiments. The purpose of these is to put an end to the personal identity, to the feeling of the individual characteristics, which has to merge with the Bitos or the Cosmos as a divine unknowable being. Paradoxically, man therefore has to unlearn knowing oneself in his own individuality, to melt himself in the cosmic Whole.

Those who reach Pariollon are called anatiomaroi (Greek semnothei). To arrive there, it is necessary to complete the purification of one’s anamone (one’s soul) from all the scoria coming from its interaction with the body.

This being completed, it occurs what we can regard as a blossoming of the soul (called moksha in Hinduism). And this blossoming of the soul led to the Pariollon (Parinirvana of the Buddhists) we can enter directly starting from here below (extremely rare exceptions) or from the other world (most frequent case).

The return into the Big Whole (individual erdathe or universal erdathe), by diving or immersion in the large cosmic cauldron, is therefore the highest point of the druidic doctrines.

Facing this world or above this world controlled by the law of cause and effect there is precisely the kingdom over which causality does not reign (as it was the case of the universe besides ,before the Big Bang supposed by Georges Lemaitre in 1927: the primeval egg) . But the Big Whole is not a heaven. The other world parallel with ours called heaven is the result of a merit, even negligible, the Big Whole is indifferent to merit or demerit. Moreover, it does not have there a necessary link between the death and this Big Whole. The Big Whole is reached as soon as the human soul loses any self-awareness.

If the attempt succeeds a man is first “ terrified “ “petrified “ “annihilated “ by the simple evocation of the divine power “infinite “; (we say, “infinite “ but the infinity exists only taking into consideration our limitation, because the physical and material cosmos, has “limits “ although these are incomprehensible for us); and the depth which separates us from it is incommensurable.

The anatiomaros or great enlightened person ( Greek semnothei) is the one who is freed from any species of unhealthy desire except from that to be fully, from any species of sorrow; freed from everything by the meditation and the ecstasy, he too he conquered the great science which enlightens (imbas forosnai). He knows everything and is able of everything, he has already a foot in the other world of the god-or-demons (Sedodumnon). He can continue to move among men, but he belongs no longer to the world of illusion or of relativity, he has already a foot in Immutability. When he will be died he will directly enter the Big Whole which is beyond the stay of the god-or-demons, or, if you prefer, the stay of the god-or-demons achieved (the sedodumno to power 10).

My Welsh pen-friends tell me that they call such great enlightened persons “awenyddion”. There is a little of that indeed but the whole question is to know if these awenyddion are still in an ecstasy state or returned to their former state, what seems to be the case in Wales. Let's say that the difference between both is that in the case of the auentieticos / awenyddion the phenomenon is very short and that in the case of anatiomaroi it is longer, more lasting.

The blessed person living in the parallel world of paradisiac nature according to the high-knowers of the druidiaction (Mag Mell, Vindomagos…) reaches too this Big Whole after his death to this heaven, the purification of his soul having been completed. It is about the last form or phase of blossoming of soul called moksha or enlightenment by the druids, a little deviant, of the Far East, who are Indo-Buddhist masters.

* According to the electronic dictionary of the Irish language, erdathe or airddach or airtach means action of refreshing or restoring. In the mind of the Irishmen of the time, the thing did not have negative or terrifying connotations like among the Christians or Muslims, considering its secondary meaning : a celebration a festival a ceremony.

It should be remembered here in any case what Strabo remarked about it: “They, but others as well, say that men's souls, and also the universe, are indestructible, although both fire and water will at some time or other prevail over them “ (Strabo, Geography IV, 4).

THE UNIVERSAL PSYCHIC OR “SOULISH” STOCK.

This universal reservoir, of course, does not occupy a particular place in space, because it is not a place but a quintessence, base of all matter and formed from the primordial element. A bit like the 5th mysterious element of the mages of the Emerald Tablet. This ocean of soul soaks all that can be so in the immensity of physical space. This large universal soul occupies, more or less, the universe, a little like the water of the ocean can soak the sand of a still wet beach. Let's say it is a universal psychic ocean carrying islands and continents.

“ There are certain persons in Cambria, whom you will find nowhere else, called Awenddyon, or people inspired; when consulted upon any doubtful event, they roar out violently, are rendered beside themselves, and become, as it were, possessed by a spirit. They do not deliver the answer to what is required in a connected manner; but the person who skillfully observes them will find, after many preambles, and many nugatory and incoherent, though ornamented speeches, the desired explanation : they are then roused from their ecstasy, as from a deep sleep, and, as it were, by violence compelled to return to their proper senses. After having answered the questions, they do not recover till violently shaken by other people; nor can they remember the replies they have given. If consulted a second or third time upon the same point, they will make use of expressions totally different; perhaps they speak by means of fanatic and ignorant spirits. These gifts are usually conferred upon them in dreams…but during their prophecies they invoke the true and living God, and the Holy Trinity…. “ (Gerald of Wales).

One of the very first eons or eternal powers born through an emanation from the higher Being, is therefore this Awenyddio or generator of universal soul. The reason, indeed, can only perceive the idea of a universal, infinite, soul, which moves all things, and which organizes them according to some operating processes. But it should not be forgotten in so far as above this being which acts and which moves, there is another thing, as we saw it. The awenyddio or universal psychic tank is the mediation between the Pariollon from which it proceeds (the Parinirvana of Buddhists) and the tangible world which is emanated from it.

The first characteristic of the druidic philosophical thought is its belief in a soul universal, not created, but emanated, unbounded, and immortal. This universal, at the same time transcendent and immanent, soul, represents the subtle essence which is at the source of the visible and invisible universe, and which forms at the same time the subsoil of the self, or soul (anamone), of each one.

It is the most important soulish concentration being able to exist in the universe. How to describe this immortality? No word could describe this absolute immanent awareness. The soul is as lost in its majesty.

Whereas the universal spirit itself is intended to evolve, the soul of the world, itself, is pure immutability, pure spirituality, non-qualifiable and therefore not qualified. It does not act, neither does not think through itself, has neither will, nor perception, it is therefore not God or the Demiurge. But if it is unique in its essence, it is innumerable in its manifestations: there are as many individual souls than bodies and it is the universal soul which sets in motion the evolution of the individual souls (anamones).

This influence nevertheless is not to be regarded as a mechanical impact. Its proximity compared to them acts on the anamones as a magnet and causes their evolution.

This awenyddio is a kind of movement, but a logical, rational, organizing movement. It creates a world and is subdivided in individual souls (those of men, animals and plants). The human soul is therefore a piece of this awenydia. Suffice it to say that each soul is a piece of God or of the Demiurge, that God or the Demiurge is present therefore, in each one of us.

Nevertheless, to bring “matter “and “soul “ into opposition, to make them two worlds, an inert and blind world, the other endowed with life and awareness, leads to the dilemmas which poison us for centuries, quite simply because the question is badly posed! Wrongly divide the same process into two, forget that you did it, then ask you then during centuries how the two parts could meet. Such is the permanent challenge of Judeo-Islamic-Christianity.

From time immemorial the Gnostic people in the West called druids or high-knowers, put forward objections against the dualism “soul/matter “: if the soul is a substance different from the matter (and body), how to explain the correlation between them? They therefore reject the bases of the opposition materialism/spiritualism. According to them, reality consists of a subjacent substance, including soul and matter in a Whole.

This Tradition separates as much from the traditional atheistic materialism as from the creationism of the religions of one Book. There is no separated individual soul, therefore no “Judgment “ post-mortem, and God or Devil is an immanent one, inherent to the world. But druids also reject the immediate destruction of the couple soul/mind (called anaon) after death or in death. After the death of the body and at the end of a more or less long process (purification in another world of heavenly type, etc.) the individual soul returns to the Big Whole from which it was resulting. That’s all!

Facing the difficulties of traditional reductionism, some physicists are close, with the slight differences which are necessary, to such a design. “Matter “and “Soul “are verbal categories, legacy of an out-of-date Jewish-Greek tradition. These words do not cover Reality. We pertain to an infinite field of energy, which is also awareness, and takes multiple forms, but does not have to be cut out in opposed aspects. Each grain or atom of matter is also a grain or atom of soul: everything is filled up of soul . Any matter is more or less pervaded with soul at various levels, and contains more or less soul. No matter atoms could be completely free from soul, and conversely. Every soul in the world is more or less pervaded with matter at various levels, and more or less comprises some matter, no soul vibration could be completely free from matter.

We find in some accounts the elements of a monist thought of a kind which is different from that of Parmenides, the spiritual Monism or Soul monism. Everything is Soul. The Soul is in anything and more deeply in all historical processes: it is in the making in the middle of all that is.

The world is not more made of matter than the trees of wood. There is neither soul nor matter, these two words designate the same process. At the beginning there was only the Big Whole of the Pariollon and nothing else. The world was not created through the Pariollon, but this gigantic cosmic cauldron (called Parinirvana by Buddhists) produced the diversity of forms, by self-spreading (personified by the image of Cosmic Mother Great Goddess-or-demoness). There is nothing in the world, neither animal, neither plant, nor stone, which does not keep this relation to its origin and which, therefore, has no share in the unique absolute immanent being which is Pariollon; but look out, this action out of time which puts the being in the imperative…[ gap, the heirs to Peter DeLaCrau have not found the rest]

Previously and before the matter exists there was therefore the soul, but this soul so to speak partially condensed into matter. As if we saw water contained in a bottle freezing in small ice blocks under the effect of a gradual cooling. Just as we see solidifying what was liquid before, we can hypostatize from it (backwards) the formation of objects, phenomena, and material beings, through condensation of what before was only pure soul.

As Teilhard de Chardin understood it very well, History is nothing else only this materialization of the soul which seeks itself throughout the world, and tries to better understand itself. Men thrown in the middle of the historical process, act by pursuing their interests, according to their passions, but they work in fact for the universal soul and spirit (noosphere), and the fulfillment of its ultimate end [finally it is the thesis by Hegel, no ? Or the invisible hand of John Smith ?]. In other words, the self-deification of the universe (in this precise case the notion of hand said invisible keeps all its meaning).

The history of men is therefore depending on the development of the universal Soul in the world, what inevitably leads to a design of the end of History in which the whole of the Soul fulfills itself.

The stake of the debate is nothing less than the claim for a perfect knowledge (omniscience) and control (omnipotence) of the matter by the soul, which would be not only immanent to it, but also Co-natural.

N.B.Atheistic materialists, on the other hand, think that soul is produced by the matter “as the bile is secreted by the liver “. These atheistic materialists consider that inert matter is deprived of life and thought, but they are then confronted with difficult to solve problems. For example, that of “the emergence “of life (or of intelligence) starting from particles which are absolutely devoid of it… Not

forgetting the appearance of the awareness. Atheistic materialism attributes the latter to the “complexification “of the cerebral system, but how to explain why the accumulation of bodies not having a certain property can precisely “create “this property?

Through these various ways, we get to the question formerly expressed by Leibniz: at which time some sand grains become a heap of sand? For this philosopher, there is no line of demarcation: “nature makes no jump “ all is continuous, and the soul already exists in an unclear way in each even elementary entity. What would mean that a sub-particle “is already in a way endowed with a soul “!

We will reconsider this question of Leibniz, which is often dodged by a complex speech on the “emergent properties of systems “. From where does matter-energy come then? Is it created or eternal? Is there a finality for this universe? Or is this a simple “cosmic dance “ in the way of Shiva which involves us in endless cycles of spreading and return ? And which is precisely the relation between universe and me? Am I a cell of the Large cosmic animal, or have I a piece of autonomy and responsibility?

Thought about the behavior of the particles showed us the difficulty of the problem: it is not easy to trace the border between a “mental “phenomenon and a “physical “phenomenon! The quantum “objects“ feed strangest speculations, their fascinating complexity becomes a mirror of soul then. The obviousness of an “intelligence “ animating matter on its deepest levels!

The universal cosmic Soul (awenyddia) is bliss, joy, felicity, in the meaning it is an achievement of all wishes, since it is nothing this power does not have in oneself.

The divine emanation will explode then in a host of individual or collective souls, all having a more or less large gray area. The individual thinking souls will be each one a spark or a tear of fire of the soul of the world (awentia or awenyddia).

Note found by the heirs to Peter DeLaCrau. Soul (anamon): for the high-knowers in the West called druids, the soul was simply the divine spark or the piece of the divinity of each being inhabiting earth. Every living being is endowed with a soul, whether it pertains to mineral kingdom (a mountain, a river, a plain, a place, cultivated or not, an ocean) plant kingdom (a forest a tree a flower) animal, or human kingdom. There exists even collective soul/minds. Considering the power of these divine flames (they are no longer simple sparks), the ancient high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) , even tended to consider them like the other god-or-demons. These individual anamone or more exactly anaon in Breton language do not migrate indefinitely from the body of an individual to another after its death, but will feed the Big Whole of Pariollon (Parinirvana among Buddhists). After being gone more or less a long time through an intermediate stage of the action of being, that which is called Vindobitos, and which also houses the kingdom of the god-or-demons, more precisely called Mag Meld, Tir Na mBan, Tir Na mBeo, etc. (Pleroma in the writings of St. Irenaeus.)

THE COSMIC MOTHER GREAT GODDESS-OR-DEMONESS: THE MATTER (The CMGG).

Etymology. Matter comes from Latin MATER, “mother “: in this language, there is therefore a link between the mother, the matrix, what produces, and the matter, which is produced.

The Celtic name of Matrona playing on the two roots of the old Proto-Celtic core: mater = matter and mater = mother, expressed this notion of a generation-concretization. (It would not be a question of “creation “in druidism indeed: to see the monist principle of the constant quantity of the big whole “matter + energy “; “nothing is lost, nothing is created “…).

“Matter “and “meter “derive both from the Sanskrit matr- (to measure); the expression “material world “ designates nothing else than the world seen as being measured or measurable, thanks to abstract images, such as these of centimeters, grams, or decibels.

Judeo-Islamic-Christians claim that God or the Demiurge created the world from nothing (ex nihilo). But this coming to the action of being, of the initial raw material chaos, should not be perceived as a sudden appearance from nothingness, rather as a monist phenomenon: the self-spreading of the higher Being.

Q: What’s matter?

A: It is everything which is not the primordial cosmic soul, but it is also in a way the external manifestation of this universal soul.

Just as the being can only be resulting from nothingness, matter can only be resulting from soul. From the Soul of the world therefore, matter emanates, the lowest level of the being or of the perfection. Because Matter has a spiritual origin, it is a state of being, a “solidified external expression “ of the immanent being. It is the divine Power which makes it possible that spiritual reality appears.

The action of the matter in the universe, its gravitational force in a way, its gravity, is comparable with the cosmic mother great goddess-or-demoness, called Matrona Rigantona in former druidism. She has no existence independent of universal soul and consequently can be regarded neither as absolutely existing*, nor as non-existing. She can have a host of forms. True objectivity beside pure subjectivity which is the soul, this matrona is a female eon.

* That did not prevent bards, lower level of druidism, of course, from embroidering about her a multitude of myths intended to captivate their public.

The material world is the ultimate point of the divinity spread. Druidic cosmogony therefore admits a kind of dualism or a relative duality (water/fire, soul/matter, men/god-or-demons, night/day, death/life) from where its agonistics. But there is no brutal dualism between Good/Evil, God/Devil, the Matrona under her aspect fata Morgana being able at times to be creating (even if it is especially of illusions).

Matter exists: it is present in the entirety of the universe, even in the interstellar vacuum, in the form of particles. Let us remark that the main part (approximately 90%) of the mass of the universe is made of unknown matter or energy, called dark, because our detectors cannot highlight it. Just as the absolute zero (0 K = - 273,15°C) is inaccessible, the total vacuum is a speculation which, in itself, is false. It is a model approaching a theoretical ideal, with margins of error so minuscule that they are negligible.

The vacuum is the absence of matter, it is the existence of a field where the matter is in very small quantity, almost non-existent. The vacuum is, it is therefore not the nothingness.

The reflection about the behavior of the particles showed us the difficulty of the problem: it is not easy to trace the border between a “mental “phenomenon and a “physical “phenomenon! The quantum “objects" “feed the strangest speculations, their fascinating complexity therefore becomes a mirror of the soul: obviousness of an “intelligence “ animating the matter on its deepest levels! As we have already said it (but repetere = ars docendi).

Pre-druidic shamans never considered the birth of the world as a creation ex nihilo (what Judeo-Islamic-Christian theologists did), but as the arrangement of the chaos of an initial matter symbolized by a gigantic cauldron. A separation of the earth and of the sky, which is based on the tops of the great trees like Irminsul or the biblical asherahs, etc.

The question which therefore arose to them was the following one: this initial chaos of matter or biblical tohu wa bohu , to arrange, from where does it come?

Did it have a beginning and will have it an end?

Or is it without beginning and endless, its raw material being eternal?

The druidic answer on this subject was extremely clear.

The being is not eternal because it comes paradoxically from nothingness, but in return it is now immortal. And the matter is not eternal, because it had a beginning, it is this spontaneous emanation from the soul which precisely made it possible the birth of the first of the worlds.

On the other hand, the matter will never have an end, because it is immortal, imperishable; and the only thing which can happen to it, is to change, even in a radical way it is true, its god-or-demons also ( the druidic equivalent of the Germanic Götterdärnmerung Voluspa and Muspilli) is nevertheless always missing. There remains traces of it only on certain coins of the Unelli (a gigantic wolf devouring the sun, etc.)

“The druids say that men's souls , and also the universe, are indestructible, although both fire and water will at some time or other prevail over them “ (Strabo, book IV, IV,4).

This is the process which makes it possible each time the birth of new worlds and new god-or-demons, but not each night according to Egyptian mythology: each end of a cycle.

Our present world, like all the others, has a cyclic or more exactly spiraling temporal dimension called “Long life “by the Gnostic persons in the West (Setlocenia). i.e., it lives, in an endless or almost, repetition, but which makes it nevertheless little by little going up towards the self-deification by reinstatement within the Big Whole (Pariollon for druids, Parinirvana in Far East). Then a new generation of the world will come, according to an order restored by the Tocad, if we believe, about that, the coin of Unelli (the gigantic wolf rejects a plant). And this long life will probably be repeated innumerable times. As it already recurred on innumerable occasions before our time to us.

Well, if the Tocade envisaged it well, because the future belongs only to it. But let us return to this spontaneous generation of the initial raw material, a concept, of course, taghut in the eyes of the Judeo-Islamic-Christian creationists. According to Zoroaster, there was initially a primeval principle, everlasting and infinite. From this first eternal and infinite principle, came out two others. This first emanation was pure, active, perfect, and…

… Here a blank in the text of Peter DeLaCrau which is therefore unfinished.

THE HIGHER PART OF THE HYPER WORLD CALLED ALBIOBITOS

(or totality of powers located above the god-or-demons. Pleroma in the writings of St. Irenaeus but wrongly).

The Albiobitos (or Pleroma in the Greek world but unduly we have said) is consisted of the Pariollon (Parinirvana for the Buddhists), of the Law of the worlds or Fate called Tokad, and of the eons even god-or-demons who emanated from it first. This Albiobitos which is light opposes Anderodubno which is the spiritual Vacuum.

Above the god-or-demons in the usual meaning of the word, standing apart, large abstract forces keep the world going indeed. The albio-bitos or hyper world is a closed universe containing the divinity by definition and other spiritual beings, moreover.

The universal life comes from an immortal and indestructible essence, which is also like an unfathomable abyss (Bythos therefore for Irenaeus of Lyons). It appeared initially by couples (syzygies still under the hand of Irenaeus of Lyons), which were supplemented by a kind of cascade generation.

Albiobitos is, initially, the meeting of ten of these deities, hierarchically ranked or complementary, of which the action gives an account of all elementary forces acting in our universe.

They form an uninterrupted chain between God or the Demiurge and our world to us, that of men. They constitute the woof of our world, and the Law which directs them and binds them, is the law of the worlds, called Fate or Tokad.

As we could see it, at the beginning there is the absolute immanent Unity of God or of the Demiurge, the principle of existence, the light of lights. This creating Unit, inaccessible to human understanding, produces through emanations the spread of being or of life which, proceeding from center to circumference, goes by losing little by little its radiance and its purity, as it moves away from its sources; to the borders of darkness in which it ends up merging. So that its divergent rays, becoming less and less spiritual, and besides repelled by darkness, condense by mixing with them, and taking a material shape, form all the species of beings the World can contain. There is therefore between the higher Being and Man, an immeasurable chain of intermediate powers, of which perfections decrease according to their distance from the procreating Principle. These emanations are projected in decreasing order.

It is there a notion a little more in-depth than the notion of creation ex nihilo, supported by Jews, Christians, and Muslims, who afflict God with the deliberations of a mind and with the actions of a will similar that of Man [it is true that Genesis text speaks more precisely about elohim, which is a plural, and not of God in the singular]. This Emanatio ex Deo confirms on the contrary the absolute and immanent transcendence of the Par-God, making cosmic spreading a coincidence of its existence. These emanations affect it in no way , not more than they decrease it. It is not divided into a host of lower beings, nor is parceled out. A little as the sun of which the light emanates without it is decreased by it for as much, or with a reflection, which decreases in nothing the reflected object.

The aeons or eons (Celtic aiu “vital force, life “ from where “lifespan “ then “duration or eternity “ finally eternal substance emanated from the divine Being and through which its action is brought to the world) are deities. They are not some personal creating god-or-demons in the strictest sense of the word. They are rather massive forms of life, some energy currents. Some forces which form the higher core of the universe in which we live, i.e., the pleroma in the Greek meaning of the word or albiobitos. There live deities in reality almost pure soul/minds or genuine energies, more or less indifferent to the destiny of our Mankind, because too much concerned with the cosmic dialectic of their mutual interaction. These deities have a lifespan extremely long (longer still than that of the other god-or-demons), but limited nevertheless to that of their world, ours.

The “god-or-demons “or the “super-god-or-demons “which form this world are manifestations of the divine One which is metamorphic melting of soul and matter; the close and almost absolute union, in unthinkable forms in any case, of the universal soul and of the matter.

This albiobitos is inhabited by beings with an ethereal body, entirely made of light and of purity. They are safe from any stain and have neither father nor mother in the strictest sense of the term, because they match a level of the action of being a little less primitive than that which we are able to imagine.

We call hypostasis (vyuha in Hinduism) the personification of one of these components. The notion of hypostasis or vyuha does not forget and does not ignore, the unity of the higher being which is behind it. What characterizes the first of the higher levels resulting from this emanation, it is its very high proximity of the divine Big Whole. It is simply the non-ephemeral personification of one of the attributes of the divinity (father, son, and even spirit, are for example hypostases of the God or of the Demiurge of Christian people).

Hypostasis or vyhua, in Hinduism, is one of the components, of an insoluble higher unity.

More than an attribute, but less than a substance. From the higher level, divine forces emanate which are its hypostases. They are in a way higher or primordial god-or-demons. From the Greek hypostasis, the fact of being placed just in the lower part of something, in other words, base, foundation.

The prefix “hypo “ suggests the idea that hypostases occupy a lower level compared to the higher unit, which deserves thus well better its Greek name of Hypertheos, in which we find the prefix “hyper “which means above. In this way, we therefore distinguish Hypertheos more easily, which is the boiling Pariollon, therefore a Super-God, from hypostases which seem thus as under-gods. But the higher level always transcends the hypostases.

There exist philosophical systems with 2 hypostases, 3 hypostases, 4, 5, 6, 7 (the heptad of the Sabians in Carrhes Carrhae Harran or Zoroaster, etc.). For the record hypostases of the Christian triad are the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit, some persons equal in nature and being defined only by their relations. The One action of Being God or the Demiurge indeed includes multiplicity and forms its base. These divine hypostases or vyuha in Hinduism are as many Powers of the Divine which is One, just like in a company, its president delegates certain of his powers to effective collaborators. These spiritual entities, god-or-demons, angels or eons, jinns ?? are organized in a hierarchy beginning with most spiritual (closer to the higher God or Demiurge, to the least spiritual, the god-or-demons which dominate and organize matter. These hypostases are some shirk in the eyes of Muslims.

They are nevertheless some constants or dimensions which make sense for the phenomena which are based on them, thus taking part in all realities of the ordinary experience.

We will not enlarge again on the first eons which are not god-or-demons in the strictest sense of the term, but rather some concepts, or cosmic laws , first known dismemberment of the great life law of the universe.

Let us give again nevertheless here, as an indication and briefly, the list of these first powers which already had been clearly identified by our ancestors. These eons of Albiobitos are indeed treated on a hierarchical basis. There exist great eons and small eons, according to their level of proximity to the origin of everything (but each one is a hypostasis of the life of the divine Abyss, a level going down or going up to it).

The first of eons emerged through parthenogenesis from this primordial or monogenos emanation, had to be what the Greeks called ……

His heirs thought it worthwhile to point out here what their father had scribbled on an unfinished notebook dating from the time when he was not yet handicapped by Parkinson's disease.

IN SHORT.

There are three fundamental forces working in the universe.

-The plans of the grand architect of the Universe, or let us say, to be more objective, the springs the great watchmaker had at his disposal.

What the Gnostics of the West called Fate or Tocade / Tokad. And its signs (Labaron / Labarum) can also be creating in this world since they can be used to determine the actions of men. Any action, the quivering of a branch, the fall of a leaf, the movement of clouds indeed can be a message from Fate or Tokad. Studying and then interpreting these messages (labarum) was already the great business of the former druids.

These thoughts of God or of the Demiurge therefore shape Universe.

At first sight, life, in a general way, seems made up of an infinity of variations each one more harebrained than the last. The diversity of the land and watery flora and fauna leaves us amazed in front of the experienced artist that is mother Nature. Millions species, billions colors, hundreds of survival and reproduction tactics each one more inventive than the last. But this apparent diversity is in reality only an illusion. They are only variations on a very restricted number of patterns. Among the visible forms, nature has its preferred ones, of which spirals, meanders, ramifications and 120 degrees connections. These structures are repeated unceasingly.

The thought of God or of the Demiurge, his Tokade or Fate (the labarum is his messenger), is an acting power, an intermediary between the higher being and the world. God or the Demiurge therefore appears through this first-born. The monogenos or zero eon is an immortal power emanating from the higher being of beings, and making possible his action in the world. From this primitive unity of the monogenos therefore a first syzygy, from the Greek syzygia, meeting, conjunction or opposition of the Moon with the Sun (new or full moon) emanates.

- The universal soul, the universal psychic large stock, called awenyddio (to take over a Welsh term). Primarily seen as a paramount flame or a cosmic fire. Its origin, or its principle, was the intellectual fire. A perfect and absolutely pure fire. Source of all, immaterial and material, beings.

The immaterial beings form a world. The material ones form another one.

The one kept the pure light of its origin ; the second one lost it. It is in darkness, and this darkness increases as the distance from the first principle becomes larger.

- Matter. Matrona. Primarily seen as a primeval water.Fire and light are always weakening. Where heat and light cease, matter, darkness and evil begin, of which Zoroaster makes the world of an entity that he calls Ahriman.

The world of light and good being ascribed by him to an entity called Ahura Mazda.

[Druidism does not go so far and leaves this dualism to Judeo-Islamic-Christians].

Matter is in perpetual motion and unceasingly tends to be spiritualized, to become luminous and active.

Become more spiritual, active and luminous, it returns to its root, the genuine fire, to Mithra, where its imperfection disappears and where it enjoys a higher bliss.

In this system, man as all the other beings in the visible world, are designated under the common noun of matter.

This idea was general; it was that of many former philosophers; and what is very remarkable, it is that it was adopted by Christian theosophists. The followers of Basilides, those of Valentine and all the other Christian Gnostic persons, drew from it their emanations system, which enjoyed a large celebrity in the school of Alexandria.

THE PRIMOGENOS OR FIRST OF THE EONS OF THE ORIGINAL PIMPETIA: SAITLO (time).

Of course, time is by definition Primogenos or first-born, time is obviously the first of all phenomena being part of the duration.

The Aiu (Eternity supports time). The Big Whole not limited by time and space, gives itself to itself, through its own will, on the strength of its all-might, the limited forms of time and space.

The duration or time is this, throughout what, the ex-istence gone out of the being, expiates . For Plotinus, the time is produced by the Soul, and for Proclus, the Time is a hypostasis higher than the Soul.

The emanation took place indeed according to the spiraling rhythms of the Time, from cosmic revolution in cosmic revolution. The ultimate Principle of which all things are born, remains transcendent or immanent as for this manifestation, located in the immortality. According to this point of view, it is possible to say that every existence is in the Time, but that Time itself is the fluctuation of a Reality which does not change and in which every existence remains located. Such is quickly outlined, the mythical representation of the relations of time and aiu (of eternity) in druidic thought.

As we have had the opportunity to say it, legends compel themselves to delimit little by little highest reality, within a framework of equivalences or identification between microcosm and macrocosm. “Divinis humana licet componere “. “ We may compare human things with divine “ Ausonius (in his small poem on the use of the word libra).

Druidic legends therefore approached the topic of the time, even tried to depict it, to represent it, through various allegories. Here are some examples.

Immram Brain Maic Febail ocus a echtra andso sis (the voyage of Bran, son of Febal and his adventures).

Bran is the son of Febal, his name means “raven “. Whereas he rests outside his castle, he hears a strange song; of which the voice praises to him the delights of Emain Ablach, the land of Apple trees (symbol of aiu i.e., of eternity), an island in the middle of the ocean. Although he is surrounded by many people, it is the only one to hear the call of the messenger of the other World. Not being able to resist the invitation, he gets a boat and leaves with “three times nine “ travel companions. On the sea, he is welcomed by Belinos Barinthus Manannan Mac Lir, the sovereign god-or-demon of Sidh. The first island they approach is occupied by people who do nothing but laugh, and do not pay any attention to them. One of the sailors disembarks, he is caught up at once in a frantic laughter, and refuses to board again. Lastly, they approach the Island of Women (Tir na mBân), the queen casts a thread to Bran in order to draw the boat, and all disembark. The women are all young persons and splendid, each companion chooses one of them, the queen keeps Bran. They live there several “months “ in total bliss.

But nostalgia of their native land begins to hit men and Nechtan, son of Collbran, decides Bran to go home. The queen sends to them a severe warning statement : they override it. But once arrived safe and sound, nobody will recognize them, and themselves recognize no longer anybody. Nechtan lands, but is changed at once into a heap of ashes. Bran who understood will therefore go to sea again for an endless voyage.

The account of this voyage is typical of a voyage into Sidh: at the beginning there is the invitation of the fairy, then the marvelous stay on the Island of Women, who are not other than goddess-or-demonesses, or fairies if you prefer. On the island, time does not exist, or at least, the island is out of time for those who remain on it. If Bran and his companions are not recognized on their return, and if Nechtan turns to dust while landing (it was the warning statement of the queen); it is that their stay lasted for several centuries, and that they died for a long time. The return into the world of men is accompanied by the influence of the time to which they had temporarily escaped.

It is not certain only the clerics who transcribed this tradition, orally handed down during centuries, really understood what it was. The druidic myth is a figuration in which Nature forces took place, in their spreading from the Origin of the procreation of the world. The druidic myth tells the expression of aiu (of eternity) in time. Of course, the problem this mythology arouses for us, it is that it is placed especially on the level of the images and that its language is specific to a given culture. A philosopher as for him would want to hear the language of the reason more than that of the myth. But may the

intelligence, only through speculation, try to understand the relation of the aiu (of eternity) with the time?

It is perhaps in this direction it is necessary to try to understand the words of Spinoza in his book entitled “Ethics “: “ we feel and know that we are eternal “. Some specialists acknowledged themselves their perplexity in front of such an assertion! However, the text is rather clear, on the condition of finding again, in it , the pantheist feeling which is inherent in it. Spinoza presents the ultimate Reality under the name of Substance from which he makes the attributes extension (matter matrona) and thought, coming out. From attributes some specific modes result and Man takes part in them through his body and his mind , in a necessary way.

If the Substance which is God or the Demiurge, or the Nature, wraps the totality of what is, it envelops at the same time the duration, while remaining itself on this side of time. Through his body, Man is seized in the duration. Through his yought Man rises up to the order of the essences, which lie in the thought of God or of the Demiurge, what means that Man, in the meeting of the truth of what is, knows the eternal order of things. It is in the very nature of the reason to know from the perspective of aiu (of eternity), because to know, it is to know what is, such as it is from time immemorial. Our mind, by knowing in the eternal order of things, tests, in its elevation above time, its participation in the aiu (in the eternity). We "feel and know that we are eternal “ each time that, giving up to itself the passing of time, we rise to the eternal truth of things. We feel then we take part in this eternity which is opened for us, because we are not only a perishable body, but also an essence in the infinite understanding of the divine Substance.

Such an eon, or hypostasis, or vyuha (in Hinduism), was to exist in druidic theology, since Plutarch on several occasions mentions it under its Greek name of Kronos.

“ An island, Ogygia, lies far out at sea! A run of five days off from [Great] Britain as you sail westward there is also an island. And three other islands equally distant from it and from one another lie out from it in the direction of the summer sunset. In one of these, according to the tale told by the barbarians of the country, Cronos [ or more exactly the Celtic eon called in this way by the Greeks] has been confined by Zeus [?], but that he, having a son [Briareus in Graeca interpretation ?] for jailer, is left sovereign lord of those islands and of the sea, which they call the Gulf of Cronos. They add that the great mainland, by which the great ocean is encircled, while not so far from the other islands, is about five thousand stadia from Ogygia, the voyage being made by oar, for the sea is slow to traverse and muddy as a result of the multitude of streams..... Now when at intervals of thirty years the star of Cronos, which we call Phaenon but they, our author said, call Nycturus, enters the sign of the Bull, they; having spent a long time in preparation for the sacrifice and the expedition, choose by lot and send forth a sufficient number of envoys in a correspondingly sufficient number of ships, putting aboard a large retinue and the provisions necessary for men who are going to cross so much sea by oar, and live such a long time in a foreign land. Now, when they have put to sea, the several voyagers meet with various fortunes as one might expect; but those who survive the voyage first put in at the outlying islands, which are inhabited by Greeks, the sun passes out of sight for less than an hour, over a period of thirty days, this is the night, but it has a darkness that is slight, as a twilight glimmering from the west. There they spend ninety days regarded with honor and friendliness as holy men and so addressed, then winds carry them across to their island. Nor do any others inhabit it but themselves and those who have been dispatched before them. Those who have served the god together for the stint of thirty years are allowed to sail off home, but most of them usually choose to settle in the spot, some out of habit, others because without toil or trouble they have all things in abundance while they constantly employ their time in sacrifices and celebrations or with various discourse and philosophy; for the nature of the island is marvelous as is the softness of the circumambient air. Some when they intend to sail away are even hindered by the deity which presents itself to them as to intimates and friends and not in dreams only or by means of omens, but many also come upon the visions and the voices of spirits [ or daemons in Greek] manifest. For Cronos himself sleeps confined in a deep cave of rock that shines like gold — the sleep that Zeus has contrived like a bond for him —, and birds flying in over the summit of the rock bring ambrosia to him, all the island is suffused with fragrance scattered from the rock as from a fountain; and those spirits [or daemons in Greek] mentioned before tend and serve Cronos, having been his comrades [hetaerous in Greek] what time he ruled as king over gods and men. Many things they do foretell of themselves, for they are oracular; but the prophecies that are greatest and of the greatest matters, they come down and report as dreams of Cronos, for all that Zeus premeditates, Cronos sees in his dreams. The titanic affections and motions of his soul make

him rigidly tense, until sleep restores his repose once more and the royal and divine element is all by itself, pure and unalloyed “ (Plutarch. De facie in sphere lunae, 26).

“Among the islands lying near [Great] Britain were many isolated, having few or no inhabitants. Some of which bore the names of deities or heroes. He himself, by the emperor's order, had made a voyage for inquiry and observation to the nearest of these islands which had only a few inhabitants, holy men who were all held inviolate by the [Great] British. Shortly after his arrival there occurred a great tumult in the air, and many portents; violent winds suddenly swept down and lightning flashes darted to earth. When these abated, the people of the island said that the passing of someone of the mightier soul/minds [in Greek megalai psychai] had befallen. "For," said they, "as a lamp when it is being lighted has no terrors, but when it goes out is distressing to many, so the great souls/minds [Greek megalai psychai] have a kindling into life that is gentle and inoffensive, but their passing and dissolution often, as at the present moment, fosters tempests and storms, and often infects the air with pestilential properties." Moreover, they said that in this part of the world there is one island where Cronus [or more exactly the Celtic god-or-demon called in this way by the Greeks] is confined, guarded while he sleeps by Briareus; for his sleep has been devised as bondage for him, and round about him are many daemons as attendants and servants… “ (Plutarch. On the failure, ceasing, or obsolescence, of oracles).

From the rather obscure quotations of Plutarch, we can nevertheless deduce the following diagram.

There exists far in the west of the world one or more marvelous and paradisiac islands.

The first king of this field, Kronos in Greek interpretation, was dethroned by the new ruler of this archipelago, a Celtic god-or-demon compared to Zeus/Jupiter by Plutarch. The case being clear in what relates to him, it has to be therefore the Celtic god-or-demon Taran/Toran/Tuireann. Who is the Celtic-druidic entity compared with the Greek giant Briareus, that, on the other hand, remains more conjectural.

THE SECOND OF THE EONS OF THIS TETRAD: THE AGO (old Irish ag, genitive aig) or NETO/NEITH/NEIT/NET?

Linguistic preliminaries.

We will not use here the word agon, in the Greek meaning of OK sporting or poetic competition, but rather in its Thracian or Galatian sense; see the proper nouns Orgiagon / Ortiagon (the ambiguous husband of the famous Chiomara), Aigosages (a tribe in the kingdom of Tylis), etc.

A meaning quite close to the polemos of Heraclitus who had to keep the original Indo-European tone.

For Heraclitus indeed polemos is "panton pater" what means "father of all things.” The exact Greek sentence is "Polemos panton men pater esti, panton de basileus, kai tous men theous edeixe tous de anthropous, tous men doulous epoiese tous de eleutherous.”

But for Heraclitus it means especially that things are never finished, that they are continually created by the forces which express themselves in the life of men and of nature, that everything is an assemblage of contrary forces. Such is at least our interpretation of Heraclitus and our agonistic to us will be to be understood in this meaning and not in the sense of courteous sports competition.

Eon considered or seen as a simple war god-or-demon, ancestor of the children of Goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Danu (bia), and of the gigantic anguipedic wyverns called Fomorians in the Irish deviation.

Irish mythology ascribes to him very many offspring indeed, but rather curiously we know very few things about him. Irish heresy (we want to say through that it is a deviation a little strong compared to the ancient continental druidism); attributes to him as a consort or shakti (Catu) Bodua (Bodb), Nemetona (Nemain in Ireland), and Fea, even the triple Morrigan herself (in other words the Fata Morgana). It is, of course, a mistake due to the degeneration of local druidism. Or then that would mean that this eon was able to form pairs with divine emanations of lower rank as among Gnostic people … in the East.

It was also known by Celtiberians since a city of Spanish Lusitania (in the area of Cadiz) was dedicated to him (Netobriga).

“The Accitani, a people of Spain, worship with the greatest respect a simulacrum of Mars which is adorned with rays, calling it Neton" (Macrobius. Sat. I, 19).

But can we trust Roman interpretation of facts of Celtic civilization?

Let us conclude that it is , either an eon, or a primordial deity at the origin at the same time of the air god-or-demons and of the underground god-or-demons of the Celtic world (Tribe of Danu-bia and Fomoire in Ireland).

Konrad Lorenz, a peaceful man if there was one of them, thought about the contribution of aggressiveness throughout the slow evolution which led to current species, especially about the case of Man. He thinks that aggressiveness was a fundamental factor of survival and development of our species through evolution.

Through sexual selection: strongest, most aggressive (and intelligent, among hominoids), is the most likely to procreate. It is to be noticed that, in certain species, this behavior extends to the females, between them; for example, among wolves, the dominant she-wolf, crueler than the male, kills the young rival who seeks the favors of her mate.

For the defense of the group, especially of whelps, against the predatory ones.

For the conquest of the food of the group facing the competition of other species in the same biotope; carnivores in the case of man.

Recent studies, under the microscope, of fossil teeth, showed that the base of the food of Man was, on average, increasingly meat-based until the Neolithic era. What therefore is a radical difference with the great primates, although chimpanzees can be carnivorous, on the occasion. This, with a predominance marked for the male hunter-provider human being, compared to the woman who, more forced to a sedentary lifestyle by her maternal burdens, more often found a supplement through gathering of plants.

Thousand-year-old consequence, or better adaptability of women, the restrictions of the last conflict (1939-1945) showed that she makes the best of an especially vegetable food more easily than man.

But the bodily capacities of our hominid ancestors - teeth, muscle structure, nails, speed in race, etc. - were quite poor to guarantee permanence of a species at the same time predator and prey; living in a zone, the savanna, where, if the game is abundant, the large carnivores are not less so,and refuges rare. Very early it was necessary to compensate for physical deficiencies by artificial means, hunting weapons, and through intelligence. In addition, we like that or not, we, descendants of those who could hand down life to us only because they were among strongest, craftiest , most aggressive especially, we wear their biological heritage. By nature human being is aggressive. Civilization, individual conscience, can and must channel this instinct, even to make it sublime. For certain philosophers, the instinct of curiosity or of research, which gave us nuclear energy, data processing as well as the laser, and led us on the Moon, would be a substitute for aggressiveness; in the same way, naturally, as the majority of the sports in which the thing is more obvious. To move away the limits of knowledge would be a kind of “action-reaction “ to the challenge from our ignorance.

But to deny or to ignore this legacy is a dangerous nonsense even if the latter prevails in a crushing way among the journalists, intellectuals, or media people, in our time. Of course since they do not give to the minds more realistic than them the opportunity to express themselves. It is enough to look at the televised debates in France *. Ah, of course, all the speakers express very well, but what a mediocrity in thinking, what a superficiality from people theoretically destined to clarify public opinion. All that is, of course, brilliant, but hardly profound. How much cowardice! Too much conformism and not enough intellectual independence perhaps. We are between good , nice and smart, persons, and who have only one flaw (they are poor since they give everything to poorer than them). As the old proverb says, “In our country we put in jail those who sound alarm and we praise pyromaniacs.”

Little before his death, the polemologist Gaston Bouthoul (Monastir, Tunes 1896-Paris 1980) remarked, with sadness, but without surprise, that having often had to speak about racism in front of audiences claiming most integral antiracism, he had always felt there the heinous reactions of a combative ideology (intelligence vanishes indeed in front of passion reactions as soon as you tackle the question).

Pacifists think they are peaceful, but their subconscious is not so. The current everyday language exchanges often, and wrongly, the words peaceful and pacifist, which have nevertheless very different meanings.

* The lack of empathy of these poor self-proclaimed elites (they are incontestably natiopaths), which is undoubtedly explained by hubris inversely proportional to their PROFOUND intelligence of situations, is enough frightening.

Let us specify that among people known as primitive, women, if they do not take part in actions of aggression, contribute, however, vigorously, to the group defense. In the 20th century for example, in the Hmong tribes of the high plateaus (before their extermination by chemical weapons at the end of the years 1970), facing their democratic enemy (Viet-Minh, then Viet Cong) attack – some ambushes primarily - was the business of men. But for the defense of the village attacked by Bo doi of the very popular Vietnamese democracy, adult women fought with same eagerness as men, even with ferocity for those who had children. This statement may surprise but it is there, however, a very common reflex in the higher animal species: a mother defends her young with an inflexible tenacity; and whether we want it or not, the evolution of mammals to mankind represents only a very little part of the lifespan on Earth. (K. Lorenz. Das sogenannte Böse. Zur Naturgeschichte der Aggression. Chapter III).

The first useful opposition (oxymoron or Gwenn ha du) to express the feeling of humanity was undoubtedly friendly/enemy; but it is necessary in druidic theology to make well the distinction between war without hatred (ago, old Irish ag, genitive aig) and the attraction or the attachment without love from human nature (oxymoron). There never was among the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) brute dualism between Soul/Matter, Good/Evil , God/Devil, the matter (matrona) being able to be also at times procreating matrix (even if it is especially of illusions).

The spirit of the typically Celtic prayer called “lorica “is entirely based on this taste druids had to complete or to close a listing. Indeed, if the black is evoked, why not evoke the white, does not motion also go with stop, north and south with east and west? All that suggests the idea of totality, that nothing was forgotten nor can be forgotten, that all is taken into account.

The Celtic system of naming is also largely organized in pairs of antonyms. This binary structuring often makes it possible to better determine the meaning of the elements of the compound proper nouns. We gathered some examples below, according to Xavier Delamarre (linguistic approach of continental old Celtic).

Good/Bad.

Su-carus “Beloved. “ Du-carus “Badly-loved. “

Su-ratus “Good-Grace. “ Du-ratus “Bad-Grace. “

Daco-uir (os) “Good-Man. “ Doiros (*Du-uiros) “Bad-Man. “

Su-leuia “Good-she-driver.“ Du-louius “Bad-Guide? “

Su-melo “Good-Sweetness. “ Du-melus “Bad-Sweetness “(“Hypocritical “?)

Daco-toutus “Good-Left? “ Du-teutos “Bad-Left. “

Su-caelus “Good-sign. “ Dus-celinatia “ill omen. “

Susus. Dusius?

Black/white/(Clear/Dark).

Uindo-ridio- “White-Knight “(“rider “). Dobno-redo “Black-Knight. “

Uindio-rix, Albio-rix "Celestial king.” Dubno-rix “King-of-Darkness “.

Argio-talus, “Luminous-Forehead. “ Dubno-talus “Dark-Forehead.“

Uindiacos. Dumnacos.

Uindedo. Dumnedo.

High/Low.

Uxo-unna “Water-From-Above. “ Ando-unna “Water-From-the-Bottom. “

Uxsa-canus “High-Reed.“ Ande-canus “Low-Reed. “

From here/from elsewhere.

Nitio-broges “Fellow countrymen. “ Allo-broges “Foreigners. “

Eni-genos, Enignus “Indigenous. “ Egenus, eskenino- (celtib.) “Non-native, foreign. “

Wandering, Nomad/Settled.

Alauni “Wandering, Nomadic. “ Anauni “Who remain, Settled people.“

Old/young.

Iouinco-rix “Young-King.“ Seno-rix “Old King. “

Humanly speaking and from a strictly human point of view (it is possible to have some other??) a thing can exist only with its opposite. The One not yet differentiated splits, to give rise to both opposite but complementary forces.

Opposite but complementary forces, which express the APPARENT fundamental dichotomy of the world, and its balance (at least from a strictly human point of view). Fire and water, day and night, shade and light, male and female, heat and cold, positive negative.

In spite of its apparent complexity, the world which surrounds us is in reality livened up only by two forces, or rather by a single force, but having a double polarity, like electricity.

Everything, in the universe, is moved by this fundamental force, this energy, which makes electrons run in atoms, cells multiplying, and plants as living beings grow ; which stirs movements of wind and stars. We cannot see it or touch it; just like for electricity, one can only perceive its effects. In the human being, this force supports as well the functions of the body as these of the mind.

These universal laws are immanent, absolute and intangible, they do not let themselves be disguised according to the will of our impulses, whatever motivations are. Every rose has its thorn, like it or not.

Balance is never static, but still moving, between these two opposed forces, complementary and interdependent, represented by the symbol of the “s “(esses in Celtic art). One of the spirals represents the forces of a passive type: shade, cold, depth, moisture, and so on; whereas the other represents these of an active type: light, heat, surface, dryness… Everything needs these two forces. They are always in dynamic relation: when one grows, the other decrease (principle of communicating vessels or mutual interconnection).

It is the eternal battle between negentropy and entropy, “nothing is destroyed, nothing is created, everything is transformed “.

What is put in order cannot exist without disorder, every “structure “(negentropy) requires a huge wasting of energy (entropy). So the sun is the source (it makes life possible without being the origin of it) of the earth life.

Expansion, structuration, transformation, everything is vibrations in the Bitos or cosmos, “nothing exists in itself “ everything depends on everything…

For ages, man fights to know if our universe is expanding indefinitely or if it will contract at the end of its “expansion “. In a case it empties its “substance “ through evaporation, in the other it becomes again an “ogham “point (eabadh) in space-time.

Specialists speak in the study dealing with dynamic systems of disentropy. In such a system, a partial negentropy leads to a higher state of self-organization through a phenomenon of percolation.

Entropy is regarded in the second principle of thermodynamics as being spontaneously increasing in closed system. Under this condition, the notion of negentropy therefore is necessarily limited in time or space or can apply only to an open system.

In all natural cycles, each force succeeds the other as the day succeeds the night, the action to the rest, the breathing in, to the breathing out. Balance is never static, but dynamic.

Nothing is therefore rather this than that, but everything becomes it. Things are never completed, but are continuously caused by forces which run out in the phenomena. The becoming is used as a bond between the phenomena.

Various cosmogonies mention the genesis of the world as resulting from a long and difficult division between two entities, or two antagonistic forces, which attract each other and which repel back each other. It is thanks to the presence of these two forces, of these two impulses, that t life is called to the being. Two opposite but complementary and fundamental forces, which clash permanently, and generate the balance of the universe thus. A balance, of course, precarious, but without which there would be neither life, neither death, neither action, nor passivity. There would be nothing. The universe would be motionless, not to say cataleptic.

Myths show how every world depends on the interaction of varied forces and polarities, of which balance or union keeps life. These forces or “polarities “are described in various ways - fire and water, shade and light, female and male, force (repulsion) and sensation (attraction) - and, combined, they form the Whole.

Case for example of the cosmogony of our Germanic first cousins with their concept of Ginnungagap, and by the feelings of heat and cold which are distributed around this vacuum. In the west is Niflheim, world of cold, ice, darkness and fogs, and in the east is Muspellheim, world of heat, light and flames. These two worlds are separated by the gigantic crack formed by the Ginnungagap. The ice world and the molten lava world act one on the other and everything melts to produce the world.

We find the same idea among Greek philosophers. Fragments from Heraclitus, preserved by Hippolytus of Rome, Refutation of all heresies, Book IX.

For men to have whatever they wish would not be well. Sickness makes health pleasant and good; hunger, satiety; weariness, rest. To God all things are beautiful and good and right, though men suppose that some are right and others wrong. For it is wholly destined . This world, the same for all, neither any of the gods nor any man has made, but it always was, and is, and shall be, an ever-living fire. War is the father and king of all, it has produced some as gods and some as men, and has made some slaves and some free. The harmony of the world is a harmony of oppositions, as in the case of the bow and of the lyre. The unlike are joined together, and from differences results the most beautiful harmony, all things take place by strife. All things are one. If there were no sun, it would be night. Day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, plenty and want, are one. Unite whole and part, agreement and disagreement, accordant and discordant; from all comes one, and from one all.The straight and crooked way of the wool carders are one and the same. The way upwards and downwards are one and the same. The beginning and end are common. Good and evil are the same. Into the same river, we both step and do not step. Cold becomes warm, and warm, cold; wet becomes dry, and dry, wet. Living and dead, awake and asleep, young and old, are the same. For these several states are transmutations of each other. Immortals are mortal, mortals immortal, living in their death and dying in their life. A mixture separates when not kept in motion. In change is rest.

The originality of Heraclitus, compared to the other physicists, lies in the fact that he seeks, behind the changes of natural appearances, to grasp the cosmic unity resulting from their contradiction. The famous fragment : “You could not step twice into the same river “ witnesses it particularly. Another fragment is also significant: “ The unlike are joined together, and from differences results the most beautiful harmony (or all things take place by strife)“. Heraclitus affirms the aspects or qualities of the things which evolve between their opposites; because the law of replacement of opposites is the condition of the becoming of things. Between opposites, there is a fight leading to creation.

To say that everything goes thus continuously from an opposite to the other, it is to say that the ago or war (old Irish ag, genitive aig) is in a way the father and the sovereign of the universe; it is the logic of things. What separates is united: everywhere there are opposed tensions, as in the bow and the lyre.

Questioning and empirical observations of the former high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) about the world itself; made them able to propose, as the base of this world, the opposition of opposites, the universal motion and the constant renewal of things, according to a cycle. If everything is opposed, love and hatred, war and peace, silence and words… opposites, in their opposition even, are nevertheless embraced by unity: on a chessboard, whites and blacks play the same game.

What is contrary has also its utility, the sea is at the same time the most soiled and purest water; drinkable and salutary for fish, it is undrinkable and disastrous for the men. Good and Evil are the same.

Although they are too often presented as apologists of “universal war “ the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) favor on the contrary the unity resulting from opposites, to the detriment of their strife. God or the Demiurge is day and night, spring and autumn, plenty and starvation : he takes varied forms, even contrary. What is in us is always the same thing : life and death, wakefulness and sleep, youth and old age; because the change of the one produces the other, and reciprocally.

THE THIRD OF THE EONS OF THIS PIMPETIA: THE OXYMORON OR GWENN HA DU.

In the Manichean meaning of the word. It is not black or white ut white AND black.

The initial division at the origin of all things appears in the couples of opposites: positive-negative, life-death, heat-cold, female-male, etc. That is also found in the phenomena of alternations: day and night, motion and rest, ebb and ebb tide.

But the opposites also meet in the unity, since they come all from the same being , which by separating from itself, is united with itself. From all these oppositions, the harmony of the world results, which is obvious in our eyes. There exists a state of awareness in which life and death, real and imaginary one, future and past, communicable and incommunicable one, top and bottom, cease being perceived contradictorily. Hence besides the lunisolar calendar of the high-knowers found in Coligny, which is typical of their thought.

Here indeed what we may understand from the lunisolar calendar of Coligny. Here what it is necessary to understand from all the descents of fire in water that druidic mythology evokes. It is necessary to grasp the harmonious melting of the two principles attracted by a “love “; which is not yet “erotic “ in the lower levels of our world, since it is not there yet question of men and women; but “attractive “ like the force which invites atoms to combine between them.

From where in Celtic mythology, and in accordance with the lunisolar computus which is the calendar of Coligny therefore, the fact that the god-or-demons in what relates to it, have almost all a consort, a partner or a wife; and therefore are in couples, like Jehovah and his Asherah in the biblical Torah, for example. The Universe was built on the opposition of forces which balanced reciprocally: soul and matter, fire and water, female and male , sun and moon…

The things are assemblies of contrary forces, and the world is a mixture which must unceasingly be stirred up so that they appear there. Is this due to the fact that Celts were formidable rhetoricians cultivating more than whoever good speech art? The fact remains that one of their thinking ways was the oxymoron, i.e., not the opposition but the possibility of binding or of coupling opposites. Example the Gwenn ha Du (Breton flag), chiaroscuro (Italian chiaro oscuro) or the bitter-sweet, etc.

In linguistics, the oxymoron is a stylistic device where two words designating contradictory, or strongly contrasted, realities, are nevertheless combined by syntax. By expressing what is inconceivable, poets thus create a new reality which produces an element of surprise.

If certain oxymorons were imagined to draw the attention of readers or of listeners, others were worked out by druids to create a verbal category describing a reality difficult to understand.

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This adiantu (Celtic word meaning desire) is a fundamental force from the cauldron or primitive chaos; who dominates the world before even the appearance of the god-or-demons and of men; and which, by guaranteeing the union and the complementarity of the dissimilar parts, makes it possible the universe to take form.

Its cohesion power extends to everything that can exist: god-or-demons, human beings, animals, plants, rocks, etc. In that, it is rather close to the physical forces which govern the cosmos, and does not have an anthropomorphic representation.

THE PATH OF NAMNETES.

(Oldest of natural laws.)

The even divine essence is a thing, its concrete and daily activity is another one. Personalization of an abstract concept very often includes giving out of a gender. Male female or neutral. We may thus speak about two complementary states, sexually opposite, but both necessary to the appearance of the motion or energy. But, to give a sexed nature to the Principle of bringing the matter to life, through soul, it is already to anthropomorphize, therefore to give an earthly nature making worship possible.

The dagolitoi or believers of this kind of worship therefore design deity as polarized in two aspects, male and female. Bitos or Cosmos is perceived there as the spreading of the male energy of soul (the spirit) in the matter and the worship consists in using this power. This type of druidiaction (this druidic path) aims to the unification of the polarities on all levels and in all fields. It is thus a question, in rites, to produce, test or feel, abstract, metaphysics and cosmological, truths: the actor makes these concepts intervene in order to realize them in the physical level. It is necessary to join together the two poles, soul and matter which remain indissolubly united in the Universal Including Everything. And if it is legitimate to favor one of these two poles, we must never go until ignoring the other, which always has its place in the Big Whole. In its highest design, this type of druidism, also transcends surface oppositions between contemplation and action, rest and movement, asceticism and pleasure.

There exist rites and practices which aim at concretely realizing this unification through codified achievement of a sex act (because, of course, in Celtic paganism or as regards druidry no connotation of sin weighs on sexuality).

Strabo, Geography, Book IV, Chapter IV. 6. “In the ocean there is a small island, not very far out to sea, situated off the outlet of the Liger River; and the island is inhabited by women of the Namnetes (in Greek Samnitôn], they are possessed by Dionysus and make this god propitious by appeasing him with mystic initiations as well as other sacred performances; no man sets foot on the island, although the women themselves, sailing from it, have intercourse with the men and then return. “

Paraphrase by Dionysius Periegetes.

“ Nearby there is another trail of small islands, here the women of the Amnites noblemen who dwell opposite possessed by enthusiasm celebrate festivals in honor of Bacchus crowned by bunches of ivy with black sheets and the noise of their tumult rises distinctly in the night.

On the banks of the Absinthian River in Thracia Bistonides call upon the resounding Iraphiotes, with their children along Ganges with dark swirls the Indians carry out their merry processions in the honor of noisy Dionysus:

But it is with much more heat than the women in this place shout, “Evohe!”

The sexual union, which transcends physical bodies to evoke the primordial soul/ mind in the matter, is symbolized by the lightning of Taran/Toran/Tuireann. See also on this subject the episode, more anecdotal it is true, of the adultery of the wife of Partholon.

This aspect of or druidry, although rare, strongly marked Greeks and Latins, particularly Strabo. It led to multiple speculations, due to the fertile imagination of the men as soon as it is a question of mystery and secret.

THE FOURTH OF THE EONS OF THE ORIGINAL PIMPETIA: BIUITONA (life).

Here normally today scientists would speak first of the space since both, space and time, are related according to the theory of special relativity. But this little camminus is not a textbook of astrophysics or astronomy, its goal is to help you to live by making you understand from the inside what a high-knower of 4000 years ago could deduce from the observation of nature surrounding him. And what was obvious in the eyes of a high-knower of the time it was the life that animated himself or which surrounded. Life, swarming and under innumerable forms, evolving over the years, either by an eternal return according to the cycle of seasons, or by apparent disappearance in the death of each individuality, at least as regards material form. Life in all its forms, which is born, which develops, and which dies, such was undoubtedly the topic of the thinking of the old sages in the tribe come to the evening of their life. Space was too intuitive or too self-evident to attract attention. Who, by the way, really understand the Einsteinian theory of space-time and curved straight lines? In 1905 except Einstein not many people! And the same thing for Hermann Minkowski's space-time in 1908. Poincarre?

In any case, it does not matter, if we understand all these works well, time and space are not some absolutes, time and space are linked, they are only two sides of the same reality, and to speak of time is already to talk about space? No ?

And what especially drew the attention of first philosophers, after time, is the movement, equated by them to life.

The Greeks knew two schools, the Eleatians (Parmenides, Zeno ....), Heraclitus and his successors (Aristotle, etc.)

If for the first Greeks movement was par excellence the flow, the indefinite one, the unlimited one, rebellious to conceptual thought, an unfathomable chaos, the "Lethe,” that it was necessary to flee in the world of Ideas, Aristotle reverses the standpoint by stating that the being is in becoming only regarding to the being in the act, to its end (the child is a child only with respect to the adult, the cold only with respect to the hot) that they can be. With the giving up of any evocation of a universal flow that would take away everything, of any speculation on "non-being,” the limited movement of each thing fits in a precise way between an initial state and a final state. It thus liberates philosophy from a plentiful pre-Socratic imagination from an infinite container as the ever- splashing source of things.

With Aristotle, nature and movement are so closely linked that he defines nature as the principle of movement and rest. Rest is not considered as a restriction of movement, it is a moment of movement that carries all moving beings caught in a discontinuous movement towards an end even provisional. However, in this physics, movement and rest are diametrically opposed in that the first is a process and the second one a state. Mobility is as energeia, for all natural beings that become old or degrade, both movement and rest. In this meaning, the rest or the end will always be provisional, affected by instability, waiting for the next movement at each stage. From an ontological point of view, natural being is characterized by the always open possibility of movement, of a fundamental instability inherent to its principle of "natural being.”

AS REGARDS US, WE UNS, HIGH-KNOWERS OF THE WEST, WE WILL DEVOTE OURSELVES TO THE STUDY OF LIFE IN ALL ITS FORMS AND WILL GIVE UP MECHANICS OR KINEMATICS TO SCIENTISTS. THE MOVEMENT OF ATOMS DOES NOT INTEREST US.

All that we really know about life, it is that it exists and appears as an energy. We know that energy can be neither created, nor destroyed, only transformed. Science did not reveal sufficiently its mysteries to be able to say to us what it is. Scientists cannot even agree to know if entities like viruses, which multiply and mutate, are alive or not.

All that we really know about life, it is that it began one day and that it continues. The life of the Earth, the life on Earth, began there is billion years. All that we observe which is living is the continuation of the life which multiplies and divides permanently in new expressions. For example, when a living spermatozoon is united with a living ovule, they cease both existing as independent entities. They become a zygote; a new expression of the continuation of life. It is not a new life, it is a melting and a continuation of the life, which existed in the spermatozoon and the ovule; which existed in the organisms which produced these gametes; and so on, for billion years.

The Earth is living. We, the beings who are born from Her and walk on Her, are a share of Her and of Her life. Our bodies are composed of the same minerals which form Her body. In the same way, our mind and our soul are a share of Her mind and of Her soul. Earth is a total living being, and we are a share of Her total living being, just as the cells of our bodies are living parts of our living being. Her body is living in the same way that our bodies are so. Even the stones are living in the same way that the bones of our bodies are living.

When our bodies cease to function then begin to break up, then it is that we are dead. Rotting is the means used to reabsorb minerals of our bodies, so that they can be re-used by other forms of life: as food for bacteria, worms, insects, animals, plants, and so on. The vital energy of the body is thus “again embodied “ or changed into the vital energy of other beings.

N.B. Druids of Central Europe seem to have personified this mother-earth under the name of Nerthus but also to have duplicated this Nerthus in various hypostases all of female nature (the image was obvious): Rose-Martha the farmed land (Tailtiu in Ireland), but also some triads, fairies in woods and forests, rivers, etc.

THE FIFTH OF THE EONS OF THIS PIMPETIA: THE BRIO OR BRIGO OF THE GODS (BRICHT IN GAELIC).

“They likewise discuss ……many elements respecting…… the power and the majesty of the immortal gods” (Caesar, B.G. Book VI, chapter XIV) .

In other words, superpowers, superhuman, supernatural, unnatural, or even preternatural powers. Usually symbolized by one or more goddesses.

Another essential concept of druidism. Brilliance or brigo (Irish bricht) matches to potential or virtual energy Hinduists call shakti and Greek philosophers essence. The brilliance or brigo is the “female “counterpart of a god (his consort), in fact, his power of transformation/creation, without which he cannot act.

Behind each man who succeeds, it is said, there is a woman. It is possible today to interpret in various ways this joke. Most current interpretation is that which consists in seeing an evocation there of the fact that, traditionally, in a couple, it is the woman, and initially the housewife, who sacrifices herself most; at least who makes the more sacrifices, by being devoted to her husband and her children. Others see in this formula an allusion to the female portion which can exist in every man.

The Irish word bricht, briocht, is the formation of a verbal noun on the root brig- “to show, to express, “ which is attached to the stem *bherek- or *bh (e) regh- “to shine, or to light. “

The Italian musicology term “brio “(from Provence language briu), and designating the shining and the determined nature of a musical composition, or execution, is undoubtedly also a distant echo of this linguistic notion. If a man has brio, then seek the woman who is behind him and who is occupied with him, who takes care of his supply problems, who advises him or who urges him. Well, perhaps.

At all events, the druids, apparently, had made their this proverb since one of the characteristics of the religion of Celts is the worship of deities seeming to live in a couple. It is there a singularly developed form of the humanization of divinity…

There are genuinely Celtic couples: Sucellus and Nantosuelta, Bormo or Albius and Damona, Bormanus and Bormana, Ucuetis and Bergusia, Cicolluis and Litavis, Telo and Stanna, Luxovius and Bricta…

How is it necessary to explain these couples? It is absolutely not sure that they are always spouses. Like in the case of Jehovah and of his Asherah in the Biblical Torah, for example. It is more probable than the two deities are of the same nature, therefore pertain to the same field.

At all events, this parity men/women was undoubtedly only the application to the world of the god-or-demons, of a much more general druidic philosophical principle , that of the attraction or coincidence of opposites.

The coming together of opposites (water/fire, empty/full, etc.), was, according to the former high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht), necessary for the life or the motion. And this, without any Manicheism, since, in their design of this relative dualism, it was by no means a question that one of the opposites ends up overriding the other.

The piece of evidence, their end of the world to them, Gnostic people in the West called druids did not see it as resulting from the action of one element, but as a result of the combined action of two traditionally contrary elements, fire and water. “ They say that men's souls, and also the universe, are indestructible, although both fire and water will at some time or other prevail over them“ (Strabo Geography IV, 4).

Nature has its laws, and these laws are therefore its destiny (its dharma Buddhists would say). Heraclitus was besides of the same opinion.

The differentiation in poles opposed, but complementary, contributing to a communal work, in short to life (fire and water, soul and matter, male and female, etc.) of the original atomic One (from the oghamic point eabadh Henry Lizeray would say); therefore seems to be the oldest discovery of druidism. But on the moral level, once again, let us repeat it, that led, in no way, to an absolute dualism (Manicheism). That resulted in a relative and moderate dualism, compatible with purest monism on the philosophical level (of the coincidence of the opposites).

Awenyddio is a single entity, an eon or a hypostasis of the first generation, let us say emanation more justly, causing every existence and giving a soul to every living being. This universal soul is of the same nature as the individual anamone of each human being. Awenyddio, it is the power of the soul lying at the same time in the infinity of the Universe, and in the finiteness of Mankind; while remaining unattainable, it forms an integral part of daily life: an active force, manifested awareness of the Big Whole, it is present in anything and in each one of us, it is the link between the macrocosm and

microcosm. “Divinis humana licet componere “. “ We may compare human things with divine “ . Ausonius (eclogue on the use of the word libra). And it is there, of course, a thought system considered as completely taghut by creationist monolatrous people. A very feminist view of things: man can do nothing without the woman who is more than his well-earned rest, who is his force or his daily support, without which he would be nothing, or at least nothing much and not a long time. What some authors of Antiquity had well sensed in their way when speaking about women among Celts.Ammianus Marcellinus (Roman History. Book XV, chapter XII, 1): “A whole troop of foreigners would not be able to withstand a single of these men if he called his wife to his assistance, who is usually very strong when she is in a mad rage; especially when, swelling her neck, gnashing her teeth, and brandishing her sallow arms of enormous size, she begins to strike blows mingled with kicks, as if they were so many missiles sent from the string of a catapult“.

Existence is empirical and does not make us able to know beings: it is the field of the accidental and of the dependent one, of the multiple and of the resolute otherness. Appearance seems the opposite of reality.

Nevertheless , if such an explanation answers the questions that metaphysics can ask to itself, it does not satisfy the religious awareness which is filled with wonder in front of the harmony and of the beauty of universal order. Man therefore needs a personalized figure to whom send his praises, his amazement and his gratitude.

In order to answer this demand , druidic cosmology calls upon two fundamental ideas: the essence (brigo) and the manifested Existence (male god-or-demons). Of a being, we may say what it is (the soul), or what it has (its body its material goods). What refers us to the two correlatives, the essence or the deep being, the brigo, and the existence or the having, the male pole.

Brigo is the druidic concept which designates the persistent reality of a being through the changes of its accidents represented by the god-or-demon of the male type. The druidic synthesis consequently endowed each god-or-demon with a female figure which symbolizes the essence or the virtual power of this god-or-demon.

This female aspect, this creative energy, it is the Brigo, the (conceptual) form which makes it possible for the being, to appear, to materialize.

Even if it is generally the male aspect which is in the center of the myths relating to druidic cosmogony, it exists some of them which seems “to forget “the role of the father who engenders, in favor only of the mother. Brigo is in a way the great goddess-or-demoness of the ubiquitous energy, which gives life and movement. Brigo is in a way the Divine Mother who gives birth to the world; and all the goddess-or-demonesses, or fairies, are daughters of this Brigo.

Brigo, cosmic energy, creative energy, lies at the same time in the infinity of the universe and in the finiteness of Mankind ; while remaining unattainable, it forms an integral part of daily life: active force, manifested awareness, Primordial Nature, it is present in everything and in each one of us, it is the link between macrocosm and microcosm. We already said it but it is important to repeat it (repetere = ars docendi).

The wives of the god-or-demons of the druidic Panth-eon or pleroma are some personifications of this primeval Energy represented in its various powers.

The difference between a God or Demiurge and his brigo are the same one as between a fire and its ability to burn, a word and its faculty to make sense. The union of the male god-or-demons (implementation, externalization) and of this universal and multiform Brigo (essence, potential or virtual energy) is the base of the life of our universe. In ancient druidism, the characteristic of the partnership Brigo and male god-or-demons are to be a duality molding to form one entity, the being aware of itself. This entity has two complementary modalities.

What characterizes Brigo, it is indeed, on the one hand, the movement of internalization, in order to reach most intimate, most sensitive, knowledge, of beings, the taking into account of the whole potential contained in the shadow. On the other hand, a movement of externalization to mark his presence and to put forward his person, to shine and illuminate himself, to express his nature in the light, in the self-knowledge as an object. It is the male deity who takes on the responsibility of this role.

When the partnership Brigo/god, falls into introversion, it is to express what it is (the verb to be) i.e.,

a result of the action of being endowed with modalities. When it falls into extroversion, it is to express all that it has (the verb to have), i.e., a result of the action of being endowed with power, the God or the Demiurge. The reflection of these two tendencies (to Be and to Have, the brigo and the god-or-demon) is found in the Celtic divine couples we know.

For better understanding what it is, let us reconsider the way in which druidism imagines the life of the world.

The universe such as we perceive it fits at the same time into space and time. But, in the druidic design of the world, time is not viewed in a linear way as in the Judeo-Islamic-Christian thought, but in a cyclic way. We can thus distinguish two phases which follow one another alternatively: a time of coming to the fact of being and a time of destruction. When the coming to the fact of being, materializes, the universe is spread in its whole grandeur starting from a mass of matter and energy (Brigo) which is not other than the rest of a previous universe. At the end of times, when the wheel of the supreme Fate made a full rotation, the universe is little by little resorbed; while concentrating all its elements in a new rest, which in turn will be used as a germ (or an egg) for the procreation of another universe; and so on. In this cyclic two-step movement,the universe, although it changes form, continues. There is neither true beginning nor absolute end; the creation, just like the destruction, is relative, and from a higher point of view, there is neither creation nor destruction. We reach here Heraclitus.

The worship of the Divine Mother.

Brigo plays a completely central part in the myths of creation of the universe. Sometimes primarily, sometimes secondary, her role is essential: it makes possible the passage of the essence to the result of the action being, from the being to the result of the fact of having, from the concept to the materialization.

In certain myths indeed, the original power is rather called Brigo than Pariollon; thus using a female and non-neutral vocabulary, and consequently, making possible the equating of this power with a goddess-or-demoness, or a fairy if this word is preferred, and not with a god-or-demon. This worship echoes with the motherhood of matter/energy, the universal Mother of which all material beings and all phenomena are the children. This view of Brigo refers to the founding myths in which Brigo is seen as the truly essential and indispensable, primordial, part, the only entity really worthy of worship, because it is it her who engenders the world.

If Brigo embodies maternal, gentle, protective and loving, energy, of the divine Mother, it also embodies her opposite aspect of her. Because Brigo is a totality, a fulness having herself for this reason, some polarities which, if they seem to be opposed, are in reality completely complementary. She therefore has a dark face mysterious and terrifying that it is necessary for us to recognize and accept, to even love as well as her luminous aspects: the Morrigani under her aspect Catubodua or Sheela na gig.

Indeed, since all that is born has to die, and that Brigo symbolizes the creating matter/energy, the impulse which makes it possible the life to appear; it is logical that her role is also linked,in a near or distant way, with the termination of this manifestation, with the death.

Brigo then takes the form of a cruel, bloody and without mercy, goddess-or-demoness: the Morrigani, or the Catubodua (of whom the animal is the crow… or the raven). Although frightening , we could note this aspect remains very present in Irish legends. These aspects of female energy, which can seem monstrous for not informed people, for the high-knowers called druids are an inexhaustible source of saving symbols, deprived of any personal aggressiveness. We cannot indeed separate the maternal, gentle and luminous aspects, of the Brigo, from her more frightening aspects. Creating matter/ energy is both life and death, and Man must learn how to honor it or love it in both cases.

All the great Celtic mystics insist on the fact that we can finally know Brigo only by experiencing her… But, if Brigo has many ways of appearing in this world, it is the only mistress of them: her characteristic is to overflow the individual who was locked up in mental reference marks, to surprise him where he does not expect her. Brigo’s time cannot be reduced to more or less extraordinary events like visions, ecstasies. It leads to much more: the emergence of a new state of awareness, as if you see the world for the very first time. It is very difficult to speak about the state of melting of individual souls with the Brigo, because it is an experiment which is well beyond the words and the descriptive concepts that a man can provide. To speak about Brigo in these circumstances, without to have experienced her, is like to speak about an electric shock to people… who do not know electricity… In this state, the objective observer may only notice the things, without being able nor wanting to describe them.

Brigo is venerated in peaceful forms just like in more destroying or frightening views… Because the aspects of the Brigo are complementary: she includes all realities and all abstractions. At the same time power and awareness, force and direction which directs this force, it is a mediator, a relay

between body and soul, man and divinity. Soul can govern body only with the assistance of the Brigo who lives it.

In this mediation between Man and what transcends him, it is possible to distinguish three ways of being through which Brigo appears according to levels.

- Universal: the cosmic brigo, who fills with life and who directs forces and processes of the phenomenal world. In her external aspect, she appears then in the Nature of everything. The primeval Brigo who stands above the worlds and is used as a hyphen between the man and the non-manifested mystery of the higher being. On the cosmic level Brigo it is the energy, which makes things move in nature.

- Individual: in Gnosticism, this essence is attached to the sou/mind, that psychic and pneumatic persons have.

- Transcendent or immanent: in this world of ignorance and of brutes, the world of the life and of the body, Brigo supports us and leads us through the darkness towards our goal. Subjectively, at the microcosmic level, Brigo it is the energy in us, under his double aspect: activity but also sufferings.

IN SHORT.

The gather of this tetrad and of this pimpetia or group of five, expressing through successive degrees and downward, the higher Being, constitutes the highest part of Albiobitos, known as Ennead. The more rational and less simplistic equivalent of the Judeo-Christian celestial hierarchy theorized by the pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite or the kaballah (archangels angels seraphim principalities etc.)

Only this hyperworld (in this case of Celtic paganism) was organized by enough independent entities to be free (what is not the case of our world to us).

Druidism represents in a symbolic way each great causal and immanent or transcendent energy working in our universe. All these energies (designed consequently such some god-or-demons) are also various aspects of a universal substance.Specialists call Ennead the association of these nine divine entities representing the forces necessary to the formation of the organized world which spouted out from the floods of the primordial cauldron previous the existence of this first world.

For Zoroaster the eons appointed to this universe were a heptad representing Ahura Mazda, the “Lord Wisdom “.

Each one of his seven eons had a function well defined in the divine mechanics. Under this heptad of eons a whole hierarchy of god-or-demons, even of angels, with positive or negative missions distributed well, spread. Same thing at the Sabians of Carrhes (Carrhae today Harran). But why a heptad of god-or-demons and not nine as in the small catechism below. It is up to our readers to see.

In short, we have therefore with the birth of this first higher world the hypostases (vyuha in Hinduism) or the eons, following, a great ennead formed by…

1 Pariollon or cosmic cauldron (Parinirvana in Buddhism).

2 Tokad (the plans of the grand architect or great watchmaker of the universe, WHO IS DEAD while giving birth to the world).

3 Awenyddio or universal soulish stock.

4 Matrona or matter (represented by the great goddess-or-demoness cosmic mother).GGCM.

This first “tetrad “forms the precondition to every life.

5 Saitlo (time and space).

6 Biuitona (motion and life).

7 Ago or Neto ( war of opposites).

8 Adiantu (union of opposites, oxymoron).

9 Brio or Brigo (divine or invisible energy).

Ennead is the unit formed by these eons which spouted out from the frozen floods of the primeval ocean previous to the existence of the world such as we know it. These nine "deities" of the Albiobitos are not preexistent, but they are not created either. The higher Being animates them or gives them life through the verb or the word (labarum* to make men act). Included initially in this formless and bodiless, non-world, these eons or "deities" of the Albiobitos are the personification of the elements of the cauldron or cosmic chaos previous to the organization of our world. These nine eons or hypostases (which are on the top of our spiritual hierarchy: vyuha in Hinduism) may be the subject of a worship of latria (i.e., they may be adored); the divine entities located under having to be only the subjects of hyperdulia (to be honored).

N.B. Dulia is only a simple veneration as in the Christian worship of the saints, Muhammad (isma) or Muslim marabouts.

Saitlo,Biuitona, Ago ou Neto, Adiantu, Brio or Brigo…

The magi of Persians, who saw in these eons more or less perfect genies, gave them names relating to their perfection, and uses these very names to evoke them. From there the magic of the Persians came that the Jews having received by cultural influence, during their captivity in Babylon, called Cabbalah.

Plato who considered, a few centuries after, these same beings, as ideas, tried to fathom their nature, to subject them, by the dialectic and the force of thought. Synesius, who joined together the doctrines of Pythagoras with that of Plato, called God sometimes the Number of the numbers, and sometimes

the Idea of the ideas. But not content with comparing the beings of the celestial hierarchy with ideas, numbers or principles of will, there were philosophers who preferred to designate them by the name of Words [labarum among druids, but as triggering of actions in mankind].

Plutarch writes for example somewhere that the words, the ideas, as well as the divine emanations, are found in the sky and the stars. Philo in more than one place gives names words the angels; and Clement of Alexandria reports the Valentinians often called thus their eons.

But let us return to the high-knowers in the West.

IN ORDER TO NOT LOSE SIGHT OF THE MAIN THING AND NOT TO GET LOST.

The higher Being has no personality, and always remains completely unknowable. It is an unfathomable abyss. It is not a father nor a son nor an avenger nor a lord of hosts (Sabaoth) nor a judge…..

Its perfection and its fulness can nevertheless only be handed down to the other results of the action of being, through emanation phenomena. These entities, these hypostases or these eons (that Judeo-Islamic-Christians call angels or jinns and Hindus vyuha) are arranged in a hierarchical order ranging from most spiritual (closest to the higher god-or-demon) to the most attenuated; the universal spirit precisely. Even still less.

As we could see it, come at this stage of the (pro) creation of the world there was only the chaos, or the large cauldron of the universal cosmic soup (Bible says tohu wa bohu) .

The powers or attributes of the Being of beings which were before concealed in the unfathomable abyss, evolve out of him and become the principles of every later development of existence; they took place through waves of successive emanations until they are completely far away from the initial divine purity, and more or less pervaded with matter.

We comprehend them experimentally especially through our knowledge of ourselves: the Albiobitos (pleroma but wrongly under the hand of St. Irenaeus) therefore describes itself to ourselves through ourselves.

In other words, a little like in quantum mechanics, eons depend on the beings who name them, such as these beings discover them and feel them in and by their own mode of being. It is why these divine attributes or epithets form the various levels or degrees of the being.

Strangely enough (it is difficult to describe oneself objectively), they are Muslims who best described this main characteristic of our ancestral druidism: they call it Shirk (Al mushrikîn). In other words, the emanation of the eons of the god-or-demons or of the divine hypostases (vyuha in Hinduism) from the original ONE through the prerequisite of the Big Whole or Pariollon.

* Any action, the quivering of a branch, the fall of a leaf, the movement of clouds indeed can be a message from Fate or Tokad. Studying and then interpreting these messages (labarum) was already the great business of the former druids.The labarum is therefore in a way a messenger of the Fate and a secondary causation in the mind of men. Not simple all that!

OTHER EONS OF THE ALBIOBITOS.

Compared to Lug, Neto, Neith, Neit is a little what is, in Greece, Uranus for Zeus. He does not appear apart from the lists or genealogical mentions (Irish myths about origins crystallized around the name of the god-or-demons of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if you prefer, Danu -bia). But his precedence, which is that of the original cauldron-chaos, explains why this luminous by definition, god-or-demon, is also warlike.

It is not the same thing for the other eons mentioned in the snippets of druidic theology which remain for us.

The without value or very muddled genealogies (somewhat similar to these of Jesus in Matthew and Luke), provided by Seathrún Céitinn (Geoffrey Keating), the Book of the taking of Ireland (Lebor

Gabala Erenn) and some notations extracted from the manuscript of the battle in the mounds plain (Cath Maige Tuireadh) say to us in connection with this war god-or-demon, he was the son of Andedeiwos, son of Ollodeiwos, son of Tatos. In other words, son of Indui son of Alldui son of Tat: mac Indui/maic Alldui/maic Thait.

- Indui. The first term, in, is an intensive prefix meaning something like great or higher. Dui is a term resulting from Brythonic (Ivernic according to O'Rahilly) deiwos = god-or-demon. In Gaelic there would have been dia. See old Celtic andedeiwos.

- Alldui. The first term, all, oll, expresses the notion of totality. Alldui is therefore the deity in one’s totality. Dui is also a term resulting from Brythonic (Ivernic according to O'Rahilly) deiwos = god-or-demon.

- Tat. Tat (in Gaelic we would have had atir. It is a Brythonic term , Ivernic according to O'Rahilly) which means “dad.“ See old Celtic tatos. Tat is therefore a primordial deity similar to the Pro-father of Eastern Gnostics. It has to be consequently a synonym of primordial eon.

Man and world don’t emerge in an absurd way and without explanation from nothing, ex nihilo the Christians say (in order to return to it one day?), because they are meaningful. The divine genealogies, muddled enough it is true, as we could see it, of the Irish Book of the taking, are the distortion of a detailed explanation, by the primordial high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht), of the cosmic process having led to the appearance of life such as we know it today.

Let us take the case of the Irish genealogical sequence Ogma son of Elatha son of Delbaeth son of Neth.

Elatha and Delbaeth of our manuscripts arouse problems. Delbaeth (old Celtic Deluato) is a qualifying term often associated with Taran/Toran/Tuireann. But it is, either different characters having the same name, or different traditions concerning the same characters.

As for Neth, as we saw it above, it is an entity considered as a simple war god-or-demon; an ancestor of the children of the Goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Dana or Danu (bia) and of the gigantic anguipedic wyverns called Fomore in the Irish heresy (deviation compared to basic druidism).

This fragment of genealogy means perhaps simply in the beginning: War and Magic (Ogmius) result from the scientific and technical power (Elatio), born from the undifferentiated shape (Deluato), itself resulting from the explosion of the opposites. Or, in reverse direction: Neth (of whom the name means confrontation of opposites) gives birth to Deluato (the undifferentiated form); who gives birth to Elatio the know-how (very exactly the art, the capacity, the knowledge or the technique); who gives birth then to Ogmius the god-or-demon of war and of magic, and so on.

This explanation is as good as another one! (Most disconcerting in the case, it is that delbaeth or deluato is an epithet often associated with Taran/Toran/Tuireann.)

This reasoning of the genealogical type (anthropomorphic, of course, but in a definitely less advanced way than in Christianity) was indeed usual among the high-knowers called druids.

Nothing proves it better than this answer of the young Nede to his elder Ferchertne, in the dialog of the two sages.

Poetry son of Scrutiny,

Scrutiny son of Meditation,

Meditation son of Lore,

Lore son of Enquiry,

Enquiry son of Investigation,

Investigation son of Great-Knowledge,

Great-Knowledge son of Great-Sense,

Great-Sense son of Understanding,

Understanding son of Wisdom,

Wisdom, son of the three gods of Dana.

It would be as childish [what, however, the Irishmen become Christian did. Editor’s note] to take everything literally, as to ignore the profound thought which is expressed in these fancies.

Any man a little bit cultivated (like the famous philosopher met by Lucian of Samosata in the surroundings of Massilia for example) knows what happened to Uranus and Kronos (emasculation and then exile).

What it is necessary to think of the Irish god-or-demons like Ceno/Cian (the distant one. See the relegation of Kronos by Zeus) Neth, Delbaeth, and so on, IS NOW MORE RADICAL.

These god-or-demons are not true god-or-demons, they are only moments or stages of the procreation process of the current world.

As opposed to what become Christian Irishmen ended up writing, the true god-or-demons, in a stricter sense of the term, begin on the lower levels.

In any event, the complex and often contradictory genealogies of these god-or-demons, are only a means of explaining them, so that the fact of their birth is conceivable by human intelligence. We refer, for comparison, with the explanation often proposed of the Vedic Aditya. With, moreover, the pointing out of the paradoxical situation of the Virgin Mary, mother of the one who made her, in Christianity.

After Christianization, these images or these comparisons, worked out to report in a very philosophical, way, the cosmic development process having given birth to the current world, were victims of two very different, but all the two formidable, phenomena.

1.They were taken literally, and the coarse anthropomorphism inherent in Christian underculture

euhemerized left and right these high-level cosmogonic allegories (Irishmen of Middle Ages made them some god-or-demons or men).

2) They lost their original coherence by dint being copied and recopied, and were located on wrong ontological levels.

It is therefore vain to want to reconstruct them in detail! What remains for us about them in manuscripts is much too incoherent! What is previous (the genealogical sequence: Ogmius son of Elatio son of Deluato = Taranis, son of Neto), is for example only a working hypothesis, and in no way a certainty.

All that we can do therefore, it is at least to try to find again its spirit, in order to restore it for men of today.

1.The entire universe oscillates between two opposite poles. The beings and the phenomena which are reproduced in the universe are multiple and complex aggregates of these contrary manifestations.

2.The beings and the phenomena are various dynamic balances; nothing is stable neither finite in the universe, all is ceaseless motion, because polarization, the source of beings, is without beginning nor end.

3. Opposite poles attract each other.

4.Nothing is completely of a pole, all is AN aggregate of both in variable proportions.

5.Nothing is neutral. Polarization is ceaseless and universal.

6.The gravitational force between two beings depends on the difference between their charge in opposite actions (oxymoron, love for Christians).

7.The repulsion between two beings of the same charge is all the more important as they are closer (Neto).

8.The opposites generate their opposites. Life comes from the death, day comes from the night.

“All the Celts assert that they are descended from Dis Pater, and say that this tradition has been handed down by the druids. For that reason they establish the divisions of every season, not by the number of days, but of nights and they compute birthdays and the beginnings of months and years in such an order that the day follows the night” (Caesar. Book VI, XVIII).

To note lastly! Gnostic people in the East knew at this level only couples, or syzygy in the gnosis of Iranian origin (each god-or-demon has his consort); and these couples of primordial god-or-demons and of goddess-or-demonesses, or fairies, form Albio-bitos (wrongly pleroma in St. Irenaeus).

THE ELEMENTARY DYAD WATER/FIRE.

Strabo, Geography IV, 4: “They, but others as well, say that men's souls, and also the universe, are indestructible, although both fire and water will at some time or other prevail over them “.

For the Gnostic people in the West called druids there exists a “To Be One “ higher, completely transcendent-immanent, ineffable, beyond parlance. The Being, or the existence, is an attribute, and the One is beyond these attributes, since it is at their source. The One is not “any existing “ nor the sum of these, but is previous to all what exists.

The rest of the universe as a sequence of lower beings emanated from the One. If certain Druidic Schools could view starting from there, hundreds of intermediary beings as emanations located between the One and Mankind, the doctrines of the other Schools, as for it, is much simpler at the beginning.

All that we call improperly Creation, Macrocosm as Microcosm, “the Large Universe “and “the Small Universe “ results from the action of the Elements called eons. Any Element or Eon conceals two polarities, one of active nature and the other of passive nature. The positive polarity is always constructive, creating and productive; the negative polarity is, on the contrary, deconstructing and destroying. It is therefore necessary to take perpetually into account these two fundamental properties. Some religions apparently besides ascribed to positive polarity the good or the soul and to negative polarity the evil or the matter. In truth, the good and the evil, as the humans imagine them, do not exist. In the Universe, there are no good nor bad things, because all was procreated according to immutable Laws, these of the Tocade or Fate . The Universe is similar to the gearwheel of a clock in which parts are interdependent. In these Divine word or voice (Labaron = sign of Fate) is reflected and it is only therefore by knowing them that we can approach God or the Demiurge. But even the notion of “Divinity “ the latter being designed as being a sublime Being, involves a fragmented view of what it is in reality.

Just like Buddhism and Brahmanism, some ancient high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht), indeed maintained the eternity or the indestructibility of the elementary matters, fire and water (symbols perhaps of the soul and of the matter); without the intervention of the will and of the power of a personal creator god-or-demon at the same time love justice and so on… Among all the possible pairs of opposites, the syzygy fire and water seems particularly to have kept the attention of the Westerner Gnostic persons. The former high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) indeed appear to have distinguished this dyad (Fire/Water) from the other eons or hypostases (vyuha in Hinduism) evoked above.

Perhaps because, for them, these two hypostases of the Being of beings made already part of the world below, the Mediomagos or world of men. The quotation of Strabo on this subject in any event is ambiguous. “Men's souls, and also the universe, are indestructible, although both fire and water will at some time or other prevail over them “ (Geography IV, 4. An archetypally taghut idea for our Muslim brothers of course!)

For certain druids therefore, the understandable or perceptible world was formed only by the two following hypostases or substances.

Fire (Aedos). Among the Celts indeed, druids believed that each particular fire (i.e., having a single form conditioned by its support) was only the manifestation of a primeval fire. Of which the famous remark of Strabo speaks:

“Men's souls, and also the universe, are indestructible, although both fire and water will at some time or other prevail over them “ (Geography IV, 4). When a given fire dies out, for example that of the trinouxtion Samoni (os), it is therefore not destroyed, but returns to a not manifested state. Fire does not appear only on our material level, but in all that was caused. The fundamental properties of Fire are Heat and Expansion. Fire is, of course, behind the Light. This is why, at the beginning of the world, Fire and Light were among the first to come to existence. Fire is active and latent in all that was (pro) created.

Fire, following the example of water, lies in the whole Universe, as well in the smallest grain of sand that in the visible but infinitely distant vastness; and the one could not remain without the other, its opposite. Both Elements, Fire and Water, are the creating fundamental Energies of everything.

Consequently, in all the cases which appear to us, we always have to consider these two Elements and their respective manifestation, as their internal and opposite polarities.

Water. The primeval element combined with matter is generally water. For this reason it was formerly claimed that dry land floated on water. The design of the Westerner Gnostic people called druids: a land floating, like a disc, on water; and a spherical universe (cruinne *) filled with original matter, i.e., considered as a liquid mass, is in harmony with the notion of primeval water, divided into two separate masses: higher water from which rains come, and lower water on which the dry land floats, as a gigantic island. Or more exactly in Ireland as a gigantic shield.

The high-knowers of former druidism were led to share this idea, because they had observed that the wet one is the foodstuff of all the living beings, and that heat itself comes from the wet one, or lives on it ( microbiological activity releases heat when it occurs in an isolated place, as in a compost heap). However, what from which things come is their principle. It is therefore from there that Westerner Gnostic persons drew these doctrines, and also from the fact that germs of plants or of vegetables, are by nature wet. Such was besides also the idea of Egyptians (Nun) and of Babylonians.

N.B. The reason for this preference for water comes consequently from the importance of this one in the growth and the nutrition of living things.

*Cruinne. Cruind. Crudnios. The word evokes the concept of roundness or sphere, but it is difficult to say if it should be really translated by “globe.” The meaning of “globe” ascribed to this word (plural cruinnean) in the expression “all the musicians of the cruinne”, is perhaps only an interpretation of the 10th century; date of the manuscript having the word. We should not ask a perfect logic from Celtic cosmogony, nor undoubtedly from any cosmogony.

A much more likely cosmogony is indeed provided to us by what the medieval Irish bards told in connection with the three waves of Ochain and shields. To answer the question that father Edmund Hogan in 1892 aroused,

on this subject, let us indicate that in our opinion this is a distant recollection of the ancient druidic design according to which earth was similar to a convex shield floating on a primeval ocean: the three or nine waves (from where the image of the ram-headed horned gigantic snake encircling the earth with its rings).

What affects the waves (the ram-headed snake) affects the earth (the convex shield). Then through a shift in meaning “affects all the Ultonian shields.” An image undoubtedly used to suggest an extraordinary cataclysm.

It will be perhaps also objected that what certain is, it is that for Dicuil in any case earth was round as the title itself of the book by Dicuil devoted to this subject about 825 shows it: De mensura orbis terrae.

Perhaps! But wouldn't this be a little too good to be true? It is true that the discovery of Antikythera mechanism in 1900 shows well that some pagan circles of Antiquity had come to an amazing level of knowledge before the darkness of medieval Christianity descends upon the West.

THE TRIADS.

Without being unaware of the thing, the Gnostic persons in the West, or druids too, who were better astronomers, also knew the syzygy with three elements or triad. Because in astronomy, a syzygy (Greek suzugia, yoked together, then low Latin syzygia) is a situation where three bodies are lined up. This word is generally used for Sun, Earth and Moon or a planet. For example, the sun or moon eclipses are syzygies; but specialists also speak about syzygy in order to designate new and full moons, when the Sun and the Moon are in conjunction and opposition, although they are not aligned perfectly with Earth.

As we can see it, Nature’s observation played a large part in the development of the first druidic theological concepts. Another of the characteristics of druidic thought is indeed its tendency, not to duplicate, but to straightforwardly triple things. On the Continent, this way of viewing is illustrated by the stunning number of three headed bodies found here and there. The characters of these triads are not fixed as regards the details, and the composition varies constantly; the three-headed god-or-demon himself which appears in a certain aspect on a monument is illustrated in a different way in another locality.

The monuments with three faces present sometimes three complete faces around the same block, sometimes a central face to which two halves of faces are juxtaposed, each of the two central eyes

making pair with another eye located on the side. What is the case of the monument found in Rheims, for example.

The monuments with three heads are subdivided in two series. The first one represents a deity with three faces leaving the same neck and the second one a deity whose central head is illustrated with two smaller heads stuck as high as the ears, on equal or different levels.

It does not seem that there is a difference between the representations in their mythical design, at most an approach different in the execution of the monument.

It is impossible to say if the three-headed figure represents the same deity or if several different god-or-demons are hiding under the same representation, because the figure is sometimes beardless, sometimes bearded.

These elements which we have just skimmed through, make it possible to believe; whether it is through the illustrated representations or the Irish texts; in the existence, among the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht), of a design whereby the same divine being could unite in its own person three different entities. Case for example of the three sons of Tuireann (Brian, Iuchar and Iucharba) also known as the three god-or-demons of Dana.

Anecdotally , let us point out that the three-headed god-or-demon is also found in Vedic India, as in the Christian art. The collegiate church of Our-Lady-in-Vaux , in Chalons-sur-Marne, has one of the most beautiful three headed figures, on the internal wall of the northern chapel, close to the choir. To see it is necessary, after having walked along ambulatory, to take a small passage deprived of light and, before arriving in the chapel, to look up towards the right. The triple face is there, four eyes, three noses, three mouths. The cathedral of Bayeux, in Normandy, has also a very beautiful three-headed representation visible by everybody, provided that you look up towards the triforium.

The three-headed god-or-demon himself seems a reduced representation of the triad. But what to say when we see on the illustrated monuments the three-headed one flanked with two other god-or-demons? We may no longer here speak about triad, because tripleness is no longer respected . In short, it is some shirk, an overall shirk…

What we have just expounded of the philosophy of druids still leaves much darkness in it. How to appreciate heir metaphors what they are worth? How to interpret their symbols? How to follow the thread of their abstractions? How to elate our imagination to the point of reaching their?

Therefore let us be satisfied with that we know, and let us judge correctly what we have, in order not to regret what is missing to us.

ANGELOLOGY AND DEMONOLOGY.

INTERMEDIARY BEINGS IN MASS RELIGIONS (Christianity Islam Merkabah Kaballah).

The physical world, in which we live, the universe which we can objectively observe around us, is only a little part of a system of worlds, so vast that the human mind could not design it: we have already said : the Bitos.

We know the characteristics and the laws well which prevail on the material beings; on the other hand, we are unaware of the reality of spiritual creatures, since they are beyond our empirical approach.

We therefore find in all the religions extremely various beliefs concerning the existence of invisible beings other than God or the Demiurge. Believers of these religions generally accept, as obviousness, the existence of these spirits. It is therefore known that these beings exist, that there are various types of them, and that it is necessary to make them friends, or to avoid causing their anger. Today druids say besides rather, “it is necessary to succeed in controlling these negative forces who are inside ourselves or outside.”

It also happens that man thinks more on these entities he calls spirits, angels, demons, even jinns. At this point in time, they are classified in categories of variable status, different functions, various subtlety.

Zoroaster proceeded in his time to a major reform of Indo-European polytheism which flourished in Iran around the seventh century before our era. At the conclusion of this reform, a wise Lord (Ahura Mazda) was promoted to the rank of a higher deity, with at his sides six abstract entities or eons which are Good Mind, Truth, Power, Devotion, Perfection and Immortality.Behind these abstractions or eons are hiding the great previous deities who have, willy-nilly, resisted changes his religion imposed on them. Man calls “archangels “sometimes this series of entities which thus appeared in its wake, although they are by no means messengers of the higher God or Demiurge. This group of deities was rather called thus by analogy with the angels who will develop later in the Middle East.

In old India existed families of nonhuman entities, the ones favorable, the others of ill omen. Between the human beings gathered in trades and some great god-or-demons like Shiva or Vishnu, Hinduism multiplied the troops of intermediate beings, often directed by a chief. Aditya, Vasu, Rudra (some deities), Brahmarshi (some sages), Prajapati (fathers or genitors), Gandharva (some heavenly musicians), Apsara (nymphs or naiads), Yaksha and Yakshi (some genies), Vidyadhara (invocation holders); even still other more ambiguous forces as the Asura , Danava, Daitya, Pishaca, Rakshasa, Naga (some snakes), Bhuta (some elements)… They exist besides more in the mythical stories than in the worship ceremonies. It is said that they clash in epic fights and that they ended up being subjected to a sovereign God-or-demon. Hindus venerate in their villages many deities of every rank ; some of these minor deities are soul/minds wandering or former heroes even, some heroines, who deserved to be worshipped. But the only enumeration of all these categories of supernatural beings shows that the god-or-demons, and the goddess-or-demonesses, or fairies if it is preferred, of whom we know the names, represent only a negligible part of an infinitely more complex world.

There is a long time, Mohan Wijayaratna remarks, that Singhalese Buddhists took the practice to live surrounded by god-or-demons, while remaining Buddhist. These god-or-demons, they honor them when they need help to solve problems of everyday life. On the other hand, to release oneself from the world of rebirths, only the teaching of Buddha is effective. Sri Lanka Buddhism for whatever purpose it may serve preserves the deities who were active in the religion or in the religions over which it triumphed. It is said that these deities broke with prevailing Hinduism: they would have formerly agreed to follow the Buddha, or still would practice their powers in accordance with the permission this one granted them during his life. There exists a similar reasoning for jinns in Islam.

This mechanism of “permission “ Wijayaratna still comments on, places all the god-or-demons, the demigod-or-demons, as well as the evil soul/minds, under the authority of Buddha. These various stratagems make it possible all kinds of entities continuing to exist inside Buddhism, and to receive

worship from populations. We are in a world which permits the existence of all the beings, but refuses to level their powers which remain duly treated on a hierarchical basis.

Angels seem a particular case of intermediate beings, typical of the mass monolatries (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). The angels are, in Jewish traditions; beings who are between God and the human beings; they carry the prayers of those to God. People usually designate them by the name of malak (envoy); in Daniel it is spoken about the prince of Persia (angels), and about the prince of Greece (some angels). N.B. Some anti-Persian and anti-Greek racism ? Some teutates or egregores ?

Some other names of famous angels: Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Michael, Metatron…

Any person who achieves a “mitzvah “ prays or directs his mind towards the divinity, consequently creates a “malak “ which forms as a portion of the man which would extend to the higher worlds.

True difference between a man and a “malak “does not lie in the fact that man has a body. What distinguishes the human soul from the “malak “ it is that the soul includes a vast and complex world of existential elements of all kinds.

The “malak “ as for him, has only a single essence: it is, in a way, a one-dimensional being. From the point of view of his essence , the “malak “is eternally the same: it is static. It is an unchangeable being, captive of the limits which were fixed to him during his “creation“. Only the length of his existence varies.

There are several kinds of “malakhim “in the various worlds. For example, those who exist since the origin of time: they are an unchanging part of the eternal Being and of the order of the universe.

These “malakhim “ in a way, form the abundance channels through which divine grace goes up and down in the worlds.

The best-known case in Ireland is that of the female angels (banshees) who appear particularly to certain visionaries like Cuchulainn or the eldest son of Conn of the hundred battles (Echtra Conle).

The “malak “ in other words, this force which is sent to us since the higher world, therefore appears and, up to a certain level, acts in the material world, while being subjected to its laws. Entirely. The “malakhim “(angels) may appear to human beings through the channel of a special vision. When a human being experienced in a way the reality of a “malak “ his perception, limited by his senses, remains nevertheless subjected to material structures, and the description this visionary will make of him will necessarily tend to anthropomorphism.

Nevertheless, it happens that a “malak “ to appear, assumes a completely ordinary shape; he seems a perfectly natural phenomenon then.

For example, a flight of birds or a thunderclap in the blue sky among Celts, who are for these peoples as many signs of Fate.

In the Bible, in Genesis 18,1-15, Abraham sees “malakhim “having the appearance of human beings, but he senses nevertheless that they are not real men he sees, and that he is rather witness of a supernatural phenomenon. He understands that these beings he received were neither men, nor prophets, but some beings of another dimension.

In Genesis 19,1, on the other hand, they are only two and arrive at Sodom at sunset.

In the Bible, they are designated under three different names. When Adam and Eve had sinned, it was a cherub who drove out them from Paradise. Isaiah, in his sixth chapter, calls angels seraphs. There also exists a category of angels called “the thrones “. By taking the reflection up to its limits, that will give, in Christianity, the thought of the Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite on the nine angel choruses (sixth century) or the treatise of Thomas Aquinas (13th century).

But even in Catholic Christianity, this belief is not monolithic, and the given interpretations varied much. Angels popularity grew during last centuries, before disappearing almost completely after the Second Vatican Council. Their current come back is a phenomenon it is necessary to locate in the context of a spiritual crisis in the West. Peoples in the West have no longer living spirituality to oppose new Barbarians; and their civilization, the civilization of clunkers, of the panty liner, of the ball, or of Michael Jackson, with oversized egos, will not hold on when the moment of truth is come, that of the great Confrontation (of civilizations or cultures).

It is enough to see the incredible thick stupidity, of the reactions of pure selfishness carefully cultivated by the fashion journalists and politicians as soon as it is a question to better distribute the wealth produced by the society or the nation. Let us point out in this respect that nobody can work more than twenty-four hours in one day when, that those who work more they are the overexploited battered or slave children, and that as regards responsibilities, when it is a question of accepting them, eh well, generally there is no longer somebody. And let us not speak about risks, those who take some of them really it is those who pay with their life, not with their wallet and they are no longer there to speak about that.

France, this people which has been formerly a great nation (I live there for a rather long time to speak about it), would be unable to reiterate the glorious sacrifice that she and her children of then agreed, in 1914/1918, since there exists no longer a French nation in the spiritual meaning of the word. She committed suicide in the second half of the 20th century according to Eric Zemmour.

The case of gnostic Christianity is a little more complex. Eon was the name given by some Gnostic Schools, mainly that of Valentinus, to various powers emanating from God, and being used to explain the appearance of the visible world. The eons thus formed a chain of intermediate beings between God and Man. And more exactly between the higher God and the little God Yahveh of Jews (of whom Gnostics made a secondary deity), between the Father and the Son, and between the latter lastly and men. In total, these purely spiritual, beings were not other things than only personified abstractions : Wisdom, Faith, Prudence… Their number varied according to Churches. Basilides counted 365 of them, as much as days; Valentinus admitted only 30 of them, Kaballah 10 (10 sephirot). Having said that ; and in spite of the snap assertions we can read now; we can affirm without hesitation that within these populations of spiritual beings, there did not exist strictly speaking angels or envoys of God; in the meaning this term is used in Judaism, Christianity or Islam. Eons are different from them.

We find a little the same process in Islam which, in addition to the angels, based on the same pattern as Christianity (Azrael, Israfel, Gabriel), also admits the existence of jinns. Jinns (term sometimes spelled djinns) are creatures of Semitic folklore. They are generally invisible, and can take various forms (vegetable, animal, or anthropomorphic); they have a power of spiritual or mental influence on mankind (psychic control: possession), but do not use it necessarily.

According to Islam, they have the power to possess those who are in a state of sin (i.e., those who did not perform their ritual ablution) or who eat prohibited food (drug, alcohol, blood, illicit meat).

For Arabs, jinns represent another race living on the earth , they are spirits who live in the deserted places, the water points, the cemeteries and the forests. To appear, they take various shapes, of which these of men or of animals, often snakes. The word jinn or ifrit (plural: afarit) besides designates at the same time these spirits as well as certain varieties of snakes. Their names, words or behaviors, which remain strange, made it possible to distinguish them from human beings, when they take their form. Like men, they are organized in kingdoms, States, tribes, peoples: they have laws and religions.

For Islam, jinns are creatures endowed with supernatural powers. They were created from light “ from a subtle flame, from a fire without smoke “ (as the human being was from clay), but they too are called for believing, and will face the last judgment, like human beings.

For Muslims, Devil never was an angel, but a jinn, and this, since always; jinns (like men) can disobey God or the Demiurge and make sins.

It should be remarked that nowhere in Muslim sacred texts (Quran and Hadiths), it is mentioned that angels do not have their free will. Quite to the contrary, the dialogs between God and angels, reported by these sources, show a certain free will of the aforesaid angels, well.

It is this faculty to have the choice which made it possible Satan (but also Adam as Eve) to disobey God or the Demiurge according to the Quran, and to be punished for that.

They are often described as being believing or atheistic creatures (like Man). Chapter 51 (Ad-Dhariyat) 56: “I created jinns and humankind only that they might worship me “.

Here is what at least deserves to be less hypocritical than Christianity which wants to make us believe that God created men only out of love.

Like man therefore, they reproduce and live everywhere on earth (even in the desert or in the seas) or in the middle of men. But contrary to the man who was created with an annoying tendency to forget; the jinn himself remembers all that he could live, see, or hear, and this, since from his birth until his death. Moreover, his strength is usually considered as superhuman.

Muslims believe that nobody can predict future except God or the Demiurge, but they think that a person making a pact with a jinn could nevertheless know a multitude of things…

N.B. We will reconsider later the question of these other intermediate beings in the Arab world of the beginnings of Islam who were the three fairies or goddesses daughters of God: Al-Lat, Al-Uzza and Manat.

You will have understood it, the world of intermediary beings is extremely complex and variegated. Sometimes it leads to a hierarchy of powers which agreed to be submitted to a stronger God or Demiurge, or to recognize the superior experience of a great sage. Sometimes it forms a succession of abstract entities with powers decreasing but endowed with precise functions. Some philosophies consider these intermediary beings as a series of real entities who become increasingly subtle as they approach the higher Being. Others succeed in thinking these entities only as projections of our mind, some illusions of our mind, or as religious symbols. If some traditions present these intermediary beings without a rigorous order, others insist on saying that they form a perfectly ordered hierarchy. These various entities often seem to have always pertained to the same religious tradition. The peaceful census of invisible forces does nothing but to convey quarrels over precedence between rival god-or-demons. But theology of intermediary beings can also be a terrible machine for subjecting or reducing competing supernatural powers.

The historical analysis of theological speeches relating to what the scientific study of religions ended up calling intermediary beings, reveals in fact, when it is possible, the difficult coexistence of a great God or Demiurge with more diffuse invisible forces. It shows the power relations of an almighty God or Demiurge with weaker neighbors. Higher worlds are places able to house the foreign forces that a triumphing tradition submitted to its God or Demiurge. On the pretext of highest speculations, these theologies neutralize in fact the power of other god-or-demons like Asherah, Baal, Apollyo/Abaddon, Chemosh, Elohim, reduce them in intermediary authorities, and thus rebuild a new cosmic order which… The text stops here.

FROM THE LIGHT OF ALBIOBITOS (pleroma under the hand of St. Irenaeus) TO THE DARKNESS OF NON-WORLD (andumnon).

ILLUSTRATION.A cone with its apex at the top (ogham or eabadh point), vertical, or very oblique, with a wavy line in the middle, the mediomagos. Part above the wavy line white, part under, in a darker and darker gray.

REMINDER.

In a space of which we cannot say if it is finite or infinite, goes out the being, the manifested world, on which spreads out the First emanation, then various hypostases are propagated gradually through the multiplication of aforesaid emanations; and more they go down, more they weaken, from where various encased or staged worlds.

The same idea was taken over besides by the great Muslim thinker it is true somewhat heretic, Suhrawardi. Suhrawardi interprets Mazdean dualism in terms of being and of non-being, positivity or negativity. He knows Mazdean cosmology perfectly, distributing the world of the action of being in menok, or subtle state, and getik, or material state, manifested. He knows nominally Zoroastrian eons, and it is in terms of Zoroastrian angelology that he gives his interpretation of Platonic Ideas. For Suhrawardi therefore, there were ten hypostases, one more compared with the great druidic ennead. The tenth, lowest in the hierarchy, not forming a particular sphere, but a whole, the human souls according to Suhrawardi.

The Albiobitos or higher part of the pleroma under the hand of St. Irenaeus is at the top of this manifestation and the beings, all the beings, forming this Manifestation, are intrinsically bound, from the Principle of the principles or more exactly from the higher Being to inanimate matter.

This notion of degree or level of the manifestation of the higher Being (descent of its light) leads obviously to a whole prioritization of beings. The keystone of the system if we can say, remaining the Principle of the Principles, unknowable, inexpressible, ineffable (see higher).

The first of the beings proceeding from this primeval principle ( the first powers) are its emanations. Evil does not exist in them, by definition. What exists are zones continuing to escape this explosion of light, some zones remained opaque. Evil, it is this (very provisional besides) force of resistance or occultation of light. It is interesting to point out here that, in Zurvanite theosophy of old Iran, Darkness (Ahriman) results from doubt come in the thought of Zurvan, the higher divinity. But although the material world is just on the rock-bottom of this “emanation “ the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) do not accept the scorn professed by Judeo-Islamic-Christians or Gnostic people for the matter. They point out that it is also of divine nature, since emanating from the Soul of the world (Awenyddio)

AND NOW AS COMPARISON THE BIRTH OF THE WORLD FOR VARIOUS CREATIONISTS.

The first cosmogony that we will evoke will be that of the Maya Indians called Quiche,inventors of zero (Popol Vuh).

All was in suspense, all absolutely calm, in silence; all motionless, and empty was the expanse of the sky.

There was neither man, nor animal, birds, fishes, crabs, trees, stones, caves, ravines, grasses, nor forests; there was only the sky. The surface of the earth had not appeared. There was only the calm sea and the great expanse of the sky.

There was nothing brought together, nothing which could make a noise, nor anything which might move, or tremble, or could make noise in the sky.

There was nothing standing; only the calm water, the placid sea, alone and tranquil. Nothing existed.

There was only immobility and silence in the darkness, in the night. Only the Creator, the Demiurge, Tepeu, Gucumatz, the Forefathers, were in the water surrounded with light. They were hidden under

green and blue feathers, and were therefore called Gucumatz. By nature they were great sages and great thinkers.

Editor's Note. One cannot help but think of the elohim in the section Genesis 1: 2, of the Bible: "The earth was formless and empty, and the spirit of elohim was hovering over the waters" but it is in no way the sign of a perennial tradition, it simply comes from our common human nature. Faced with the same problems, the human being often arrives at identical solutions without consulting each other.

In this manner the sky existed and also the heart of Heaven, which is the name of God and thus He is called.

Then came the word. Tepeu and Gucumatz came together in the darkness, in the night, and Tepeu and Gucumatz talked together.

They talked then, discussing and deliberating; they agreed, they united their words and their thoughts.

Then while they meditated, it became clear to them that when dawn would break, man must appear.

Then they planned the creation, and the growth of the trees and the thickets and the birth of life and the creation of man. Thus it was arranged in the darkness and in the night by the Heart of Heaven who is called Huracán (Hurricane).

The first sign of Huracán is called Caculhá Huracán, the thunder of Huracán. The second sign is ChipiCaculhá, the flash. The third is Raxa-Caculhá, the lightning. And these three are the Heart of Heaven.

Then Tepeu and Gucumatz came together; then they conferred about life and light, what they would do so that there would be light and dawn, who it would be who would provide food and sustenance.

Thus let it be done! (they said) Let the emptiness be filled! Let the water recede and make a void, let the earth appear and become solid; let it be done. Let there be light, let there be dawn in the sky and on the earth! But there shall be neither glory nor grandeur in our creation and formation until the human being is made, man is formed. So they spoke.

Then the earth was created by them. So it was, in truth, that they created the earth. Earth! they said, and instantly it was made. Like the mist, like a cloud, and like a cloud of dust was the creation, when the mountains appeared from the water; but instantly the mountains grew….

Then they made the small wild animals, the guardians of the woods, the spirits of the mountains, the deer, the birds, pumas, jaguars, serpents, snakes, vipers, guardians of the thickets.

Then they also assigned homes to the birds big and small [by telling them] : "You shall live in the trees.There you shall make your nests; there you shall multiply; there you shall increase in the branches of the trees." Thus the birds and the deer were told; they did their duty at once, and all sought their homes and their nests.

And the creation of all the four-footed animals and the birds being finished, they were told by the Creator and the Demiurge and the Forefathers: "And now speak, cry, warble, call, speak each one according to your variety, each, according to your kind." So was it said to the deer, the birds, pumas, jaguars, and serpents.

"Speak, then, our names, praise us, your mother, your father. Invoke then, Huracán, Chipi-Caculhá, Raxa-Caculhá, the Heart of Heaven, the Heart of Earth, the Creator, the Demiurge, the Forefathers; speak, invoke us, adore us," they were told.

But they could not make them speak like men; they only hissed and screamed and cackled; they were unable to make words, and each screamed in a different way.

When the Creator and the Demiurge saw that it was impossible for them to talk to each other, they said: "It is impossible for them to say our names, the names of us, their Creators and Demiurges. This is not well," said the Forefathers to each other.

For this reason another attempt had to be made to create and make men by the Creator, the Demiurge, and the Forefathers.

"Let us try again! Already dawn draws near: Let us make him who shall nourish and sustain us! What shall we do to be invoked, in order to be remembered on earth? We have already tried with our first creations, our first creatures but we could not make them praise and venerate us. So, then, let us try to make obedient, respectful beings who will nourish and sustain us." Thus they spoke.

Then was the creation and the formation of Mankind. Of earth, of mud, they made [man's] flesh….

The resemblance to Bible stops there, because for Popol Vuh this first attempt will appear completely unfruitful.

A second attempt will be carried out starting from wood, but these wood men appeared frivolous, vain and lazy. The God-or-demons therefore made them all perish through a first flood.

In the end, an ultimate attempt enabled them to work men starting from corn, mankind finding there its definitive substance. But they feared, while seeing the powers they had given these new creatures, that human beings seek to oust them. This is why they decided to restrict their senses, and to limit their sight and their intelligence.

These first eight men will be at the origin of the whole mankind, which then will divide then to lose the capacity of speaking a single language, in an episode similar to that of the Tower of Babel.

It is obvious, considering the conditions having presided over the writing down of this work that comparisons were made with the creation of the world according to the Bible.

“ In the beginning God/Elohim 1) or the Demiurge created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep. The Spirit of God/Elohim 1) or of the Demiurge was hovering on the face of the waters. And God/Elohim 1) or the Demiurge said, Let there be light, etc. “

Such a design of the birth of our world, dangerous, in spite of its great poetic force ( Spirit of God = alien spaceship) led to a frightening dualism between soul and matter.

The God, or Demiurge, or Devil, of Jews, Christians, and Muslims, is that of the Old Testament living on a mountain (Sinai). He is the maker (demiurge) of the whole universe and of all the creatures. It is a jealous god-or-demon, avenger and bloodthirsty , as Gnostic persons in the East saw it very well. Said differently, it is not a good and almighty, all-knowing, God, who would be only love, but a demiurge having played at being God.

And as regards Celts now, what is found in their records?

- Nothing, or then a very damaged folklore (Gurgunt = Gargantua, Melusine, etc.) on the Continent (Romanization done its work!)

- Only traces in Ireland (Christianization done its work!)

General idea remains well, here also, to ascribe many of place names or of local geographical characteristics to entities obviously nonhuman, or superhuman, at the very least fabulous, in very distant times; generally besides by resorting for this to many plays on words , taken at face value , therefore having no scientific value as regards etymology.

There exists therefore many legends ascribing such or such lake, such or such (farmed) plain to the action of legendary superhuman entities disappeared for a long time. But these explanations, and it is there a basic difference with previous cosmogonies, are not gathered in one or more texts. They are spread on an infinity of actors, furthermore, divided into several successive waves of settling the lands, of whom all are not gods or demons besides, even if their fabulous or legendary nature is not less obvious.

In fact, everything occurs like if the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht), as for them, had chosen in favor of another cosmogonic design, more subtle.

Druidism of the Earliest Time offers to us the single example of a higher god-or-demon, the Pariollon or Big Whole (Parinirvana for Buddhists), become substance of the universe; in which other god-or-demons, just like the souls of men, have to be absorbed one day.

As we could see it, the Big Whole known as Pariollon by the high-knowers of the druidiaction, Parinirvana by the Buddhists, is the object of all the thoughts and also of all the aspirations of the Gnostic people in the West called druids.

“ They likewise discuss and impart to the youth many elements respecting the stars and their motion, respecting the extent of the world and of our earth, respecting the nature of things, respecting the power and the majesty of the immortal gods “ (Caesar. B.G. Book VI. Chapter XIV).

“ The druids, but others as well, say that men's souls (psychas in Greek], and also the universe, are indestructible, although both fire and water will at some time or other prevail over them “ (Strabo.Book IV. Chapter IV).

The higher Being the druids of the time conceive is at the same time single and triple, it is unity, but also soul, matter, and even mind. Soul and matter are not two god-or-demons in the usual senses of the term; it is not either simple attributes, but two hypostases (vyuha in Hinduism) of a same higher Being. This dyad matches partially the three fundamental aspects which are in Hinduism the procreation of the(material) universe through the soul, its maintenance, and its dissolution (the matter being double and also having a destroying aspect: the Catubodua or Sheela na gig).

For certain Druidic Schools, all the manifested Universe proceeds from interactions between universal Soul and Matter. God or the Demiurge does not have his place in this relative dualistic approach, but the universal soulish stock called Awenyddio and the Primeval Matter, former to the procreation of this world. The awentia or awenyddia plays a completely central part in this system of thought. Sometimes primary, sometimes secondary, its role is essential: it makes the passage from the concept to the materialization, from the Creator to his Creation, possible.

The universal soul is perceived there as the concrete cosmic energy of every day, only effective guarantee of the universal conservation and harmony. It is this energy which livens up and presides over the arrangement of the universe.

It contains all that is latent, but not yet expressed. It is the base of the Manifestation there. Soul and Matter are therefore two irreducible entities and this Druidic School does not wonder about the reason for this duality. This School of thought views the birth of the World starting from the interaction between both, under the action of differentiation agents, comparable with eons and which are perceived only through their qualities. The spreading of the Manifestation continues then through various stages that this School describes, but their enumeration would leave the framework of this very short outline about druidism.

This system differs completely from that which is called Samkhya in Indies. Because evolution, for India, is not a passage from the Whole to a part, but the passage from something of relatively less differentiated, to something more differentiated, i.e., coarser. From purusha to prakriti through gunas.

Samkhya is an evolutionist doctrine. Its goal is to show how we went from what is undifferentiated to what differentiated is, from what was incoherent is to what coherent is, from the cosmic cauldron-chaos to the cosmos, from what fine is to what coarse is, from the subtle one to the material one. Its theory, as we saw it, is based on two fundamental concepts: Purusha and Prakriti. Purusha is the spirit (passive, it observes and enjoys the world). Prakriti is the nature, the material world (active, in perpetual motion and change, it acts a priori for Purusha).

This system also differs completely from that which is called Jainism in the Indies. Jainism teaches that reality is made up of two eternal principles, jiva and ajiva. Jiva consists of an infinite number of spiritual entities or souls; ajiva (i.e., “non-jiva “or pudgala) designates the matter in all its forms: kala (time), akasa (space), dharma (the principle of motion) and adharma (the principle of rest).

In other words, in old Celtic language Saitlo (time and space) Biuitona (life) and ?

It is there, of course, a system of thought considered as completely taghut by monolatrous creationist people.

1) The -im termination of Elohim, which in Hebrew generally applies to a plural name, was prone to many interpretations. Judeo-Christian theologists consider, in “traditional “theology (to use this euphemism), it is a majestic plural (pluralis majestatis) or a plural of excellence (pluralis excellentiæ),

rather than of a numerical plural. But this concept is unknown from Hebraic as well Biblical as modern, grammar.

As neither Greek nor Latin use the plural of majesty for names alone, the translations of the Septuagint then of the Vulgate convey with a singular the original text in the plural.

Genesis, 1,1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth “.

But this plurality is found in several places :

Genesis, 1,26: “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness… “

Genesis, 3,22: “Behold: the man is become as one of us… “

Many theories were put forward to explain this plural. “The traditional Judeo-Christian “theology, still to use this euphemism, maintains that it cannot grammatically come from El (singular form of the word translated by “God “) or from Eloah (form used in composition, with female grammatical morphology). It maintains that this form, Elohim, would be therefore the plural of a name which does not exist in the singular (in spite of the attested use of these singular in the Bible itself).

And when they are the pagan gods who are designated, Elohim refers well to a numerical plural: “gods “(example Exodus 20,3 : You shall have no elohim acherim before me).

Some authors and new religious movements see in the plural of the word Elohim the sign of the plurality of the divinity or at least of the plurality of its forms and conclude from that there exist beings bearing in them a portion of this divinity, often named “beings of light “.

Elohim is the name given to the Aliens that Claude Vorilhon (known as Rael) claims to have met in 1973 or 1975, and who are behind the precepts of the Movement he created. According to him, Elohim could be translated by “those who came from the sky “and would designate, in the Bible, the Aliens with whom the Hebrews would have come into contact as of Antiquity ((see for example the case of the visions of Isaiah, Daniel and especially Ezekiel according to the Merkabah Kaballah).

According to this belief, it is thanks to an ultra-developed technology that these Elohim would have designed Mankind in a laboratory.

All these polemics, to tell the truth, interest rather little the druids we are, and we leave them very readily to the people of one book. To be a member of the Fenians fellowship it is necessary to have read at least twelve books and not one.

THE SEDODUMNON OR WORLD OF GODS (lower part of Albio-bitos).

Let us remind for the record the sidhs are a little like the cells of the gigantic hive which is the other world of the gods, constantly busy in taking part in the human businesses and not a world necessarily always physically located below the world of men or Mediomagos. It is Christianization which, in Ireland, has made multiple entry points into the Republic of the Sidhes a geologically subterranean, evil, and dark, empire, and the gods some fallen angels. These gods too could in reality, originally, go back to the surface of the mediomagos to act in the world of men with as much efficiency and legitimacy as celestial entities descended from the sky. Ancient druidism was a-moral, there was in it no Manichean duality in the other world, no sentence to the ice of hell according to one’s behavior on earth. With very very rare exceptions like…… suppressed ………Nebuchadnezzar ....suppressed.....Hitler Stalin and some others like ... .suppressed ... ..sentenced by the weight of their misdemeanors to be again embodied on earth as a bacuceos; everybody went to paradise.

These divine entities responsible for the springs the growth of cultures, etc., have therefore become physically or geologically Chthonian by the force of circumstances in the imagination of peoples, but they have not become necessarily so, on metaphysical level; the Irish druidic tradition is besides categorical on this subject, some of the members of Fomorian people (Elatio / Elatha, Bregsos / Bres etc.) can also have a youthful glow, can also be like Greek gods, their deformity or their ugliness is reversible.

Must we translate Elohim by God….. or the gods? Like in Genesis 1,1 or like in Exodus 20,3 ? Is possible there is more than one God or Demiurge?

Answer no, since Original Being (the eabadh of the ogham alphabet) is one and infinite by definition, like the Zero of Sumerian people, but there are in it several hypostases or persons or vyuha (for Hinduism), this is why some people say God or the Demiurge is a poly-unity.

Is each one of these persons or hypostases himself a God or Demiurge?

Each person is a determination of the divine being, a role, a divine individual so that while each one is God or the Demiurge, these persons form only one God or Demiurge.

In which area of the universe, this divine or spiritual world was formed?

In the ogham point of space-time. This Eabadh caused a large number of beings.

Hox are called these beings which have reached different stages of development?

They are called eons.

Are there many eons?

Their number is immeasurable and they form within the universe a vast, luminous realm of which hyper world takes up the apex or the center, in top view.

Are all these beings at the same level of development at the same time?

No, according to the case and their seniority some are more advanced than others in will, thought and feeling.

Do these god-or-demons have a kind of body?

Yes, the god-or-demons have a very subtle ethereal body, which is also called spiritual or pneumatic.

Can the god-or-demons appear to us?

Yes, the god-or-demons can appear to each one of us individually taken by materializing their subtle body.

Is the form in which the god-or-demons appear to us always their true form?

No, this form is usually a borrowed form, a human form, the form of such or such person; their true form is unknown to us.

In what area of universe our current visible world was formed?

Under or around or at the end of the luminous pleroma, in the form of huge clouds called original nebulae.

Of what original nebulae were made?

They were especially made of incandescent gases, of different natures, what formed vast furnaces.

With what else original nebulae were made of?

Of all the atoms souls or spirits driven out of heaven by this gigantic explosion.

Such are the questions and the answers given by some of the today spiritualities. At least if we have well understood them and their images or concepts because the contemporary school of thought which best thought of the nature of the god-or-demons is still the spiritualist movement launched by the sisters Leah (1814-1890), Margaret or Maggie (1836-1893) and Kate (1838-1892) Fox, in the 19th century; in spite of the ambiguities of its beginning.

This is why it seemed to us interesting to take over here the main points of the analysis of the subject made by the neo-druid Allan Kardec, but with the word “god “instead of the word spirit.

This author; in his work entitled “ THE SPIRITS' BOOK CONTAINING THE PRINCIPLES OF SPIRITIST DOCTRINE ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL “; explains indeed very clearly that what he calls, himself, spirit, was called god or deity, several centuries ago; and particularly in Antiquity. We therefore have in his book replaced the notion of individual spirit by that of god in the pagan meaning of the term, and the result is very surprising (but interesting and to be meditated) in spite of the obviousness of the Judeo-Christian influence on his remarks.

Editor’s note. It goes without saying nevertheless this opinion remains that of the movement influenced by Allan Kardec and does not represent that of the Druidic Ollotouta necessarily. To understand the true origin of spiritism it is necessary to point out the cultural background of the time: in 1848 the two younger sisters, Margaret and Kate Fox, and their “spirit rapper “. The family lived before in the area of Belleville (Canada), but had taken up residence in Hydesville in December 1847. An older sister, Leah (Fish, Brown, then Underhill, because she got married three times), who also had medium talents, lived in Rochester. An older sister of Margaret and Kate, Elizabeth Ousterhout, remained in Canada (close to Belleville), spread the movement out of the United States. Kate met the Canadian woman of letters Susanna Moodie, who was highly impressed by her clairvoyance gifts. The propagation of spiritism in the United States during the years 1850 was phenomenal. It was introduced in Great Britain in 1852.

THE DISSIDENT POINT OF VIEW OF THE NEO-DRUID ALLAN KARDEC.

245. Is god-or-démons sight circumscribed, as is the sight of corporeal beings?

"No; it resides in them."

246. Do god-or-demons require light in order to see?

"They see of themselves, and have no need of any exterior light. There is, for them, no other darkness than that in which they may be made to find themselves by way of exception."

247. Do god-or-demons need to travel in order to see two different points? Can they, for instance, see the two hemispheres of the globe at the same time?

"As god-or-demon transports himself from point to point with the rapidity of thought, he may be said to see everywhere at the tame time. A god-or-demon's thought may radiate at the same moment on many different points but this faculty depends on his purity. The more impure the god-or-demon, the narrower is his range of sight. It is only the higher god-or-demons who can take in a whole at a single glance."

The faculty of vision, among god-or-demons, is a property inherent in their nature, and which resides in their whole being, as light resides in every part of a luminous body. It is a sort of universal lucidity, which extends to everything, which embraces at once, time, space, and things, and in relation to which, darkness or material obstacles have no existence. And a moment's reflection shows us that this must necessarily be the case. In the human being, sight being produced by the play of an organ acted upon by light, it follows that, without light, man finds himself in darkness; but the faculty of vision being an attribute of the god-or-demon himself, independently of any exterior agent, god-or-demon sight is independent of light.

248. Do god-or-demons see things as distinctly as we do?

"More distinctly, for their sight penetrates what yours cannot penetrate: nothing obscures it."

249. Do god-or-demons perceive sounds?

"Yes; they perceive sounds that your obtuse senses cannot perceive."

- Does the faculty of hearing reside in the whole of a god-or-demon's being, like the faculty of sight?

"All the perceptive faculties of a god-or-demon are attributes of his nature, and form part of his being. When he is clothed with a material body, his perceptions reach him only through the channel of his bodily organs; but the perceptions of a god-or-demon, when restored to the state of freedom, are no longer localized."

250. The perceptive faculties being attributes of a god-or-demon's nature, is it possible for him to withdraw himself from their action?

"A god-or-demon only sees and hears what he chooses to see and hear. This statement, however, is to be taken in a general sense, and mainly as regards gods-or-demons of the higher orders; for imperfect god-or-demons are compelled to see and hear, and often against their will, whatever may be useful for their amelioration."

251. Are gods-or-demons affected by music?

"Do you mean the music of your earth? What is it in comparison with the music of the celestial spheres, of that harmony of which nothing in your earth can give you any idea? The one is to the other as is the howl of the savage to the most lovely melody. God-or-demons of low degree, however, may take pleasure in hearing your music, because they are not yet able to appreciate anything more sublime. Music has inexhaustible charms for god-or-demons, owing to the great development of their sensitive qualities; I mean, celestial music, than which the spiritual imagination can conceive of nothing more exquisitely sweet and beautiful."

Editor’s note. On this point, the neo-druid Allan Kardec remained faithful to Celtic mythology. Regarding the marvelous music of the Sidh, to see the birds (generally some swans) and the magic harp.

131. Are there any demons in the usual acceptation of that term?

"It is only in its modern acceptation that the word demon implies the idea of evil god, for the Greek word daimôn from which it is derived, means genius, intelligence, and is applied indiscriminately to all incorporeal beings, whether good or bad. Men have done in regard to devils what they have done in regard to angels. Just as they have imagined that there are beings who were created perfect from all eternity, so they have imagined that god-or-demons of the lower degrees were beings essentially and eternally bad. The word demon ought, therefore, to be

understood as indicating impure gods who are often no better that the imaginary beings designated by those names, but with this difference. viz., that their state is only transitory. They are the imperfect

god-or-demons who rebel against the discipline of the trial to which they are subjected, and who, therefore, have to undergo that discipline for a longer period, but who will, nevertheless, reach the goal in time, when they have made up their minds to do so. The word demon might accordingly be employed in this sense but as they have come to be understood exclusively as conveying the meaning now shown to be false, its use might lead into error by seeming to recognize the existence of beings specially created for evil.

As regards the term "Satan," it is evidently a personification of the principle of evil under an allegorical form for it is impossible to admit the existence of a being who fights against God as an independent and rival power, and whose sole business in life is to contravene His designs. As images and figures are necessary in order to strike the human imagination, men have pictured to themselves the beings of the incorporeal world under a material form, with attributes indicative of their good or bad qualities. It is thus that the ancients, wishing to personify the idea of time, represented it under the figure of an old man with a scythe and an hourglass. To have personified it under the figure of a youth would have been contrary to common sense. The same may be said of the allegories of Fortune, Truth… The moderns have represented the angels or pure spirits under the form of radiant beings with white Wings-emblem of purity Satan, with horns, claws, and the attributes of bestiality emblems of the lowest Passions; and the vulgar, prone to understand such representations literally, have taken these allegorical embodiments of abstract ideas for real personalities, as they formerly did with Saturn in regard to the allegorical personifications of the old mythology.

252. Are god-or-demons sensible of the beauties of nature?

"The beauties of nature are so different in the different globes that spirits are far from knowing them all. They are sensible of them in proportion to their aptitude for appreciating and comprehending them; but, for god-or-demons of a high degree of advancement, there are beauties of general harmony in which beauties of detail are, so to say, lost sight of."

254. Do god-or-demons experience fatigue and the need of rest?

"They cannot feel fatigue as you understand it. The sort of fatigue which may be felt by spirits is proportionate to their inferiority; for, the higher their degree of elevation, the less is their need of rest."

517. Are there god-or-demons who attach themselves to all the members of a family in order to watch over and aid them?

"Some god-or-demons attach themselves to the members of a family who live together, and who are united by affection; but do not believe for as much in god-or-demons guardians of race hubris ."

518. God-or-demons being attracted to individuals by their sympathies, are they similarly attracted to companies of persons united in view of special ends?

"God-or-demons go by preference to the places where they meet their kinds; they are more at ease among such, and more sure of being listened to. Everyone attracts god-or-demons to himself according to his tendencies, whether as an individual or as an element of a collective whole, such as a society, a city, or a nation. Societies, towns, and nations are therefore assisted by god-or-demons of more or less elevated degree, according to the character and passions which predominate in them.

It is thus for example which the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob is a god jealous even a god of the armies (Hebrew Sabaoth).

Imperfect god-or-demons withdraw from those who repel them; from which it follows that the moral excellence of collective wholes, like that of individuals, tends to keep away bad gods and to attract good ones, who rouse and keep alive the sense of rectitude in the masses, as others may sow among them the worst passions."

519. Have agglomerations of individuals such as societies, cities, nations-their special god-or-demon guardians?

"Yes, for those assemblages constitute collective individualities, who are pursuing a common end, and who have need of a higher direction."

520. Are the god-or-demons guardians of masses of men of a higher degree of advancement than those who are attached to individuals?

"Their advancement is always in proportion with the degree of advancement of masses as of individuals."

521. Can certain god-or-demons advance the progress of the arts by protecting those who cultivate them?

"There are special god-or-demons protectors who assist those by whom they are invoked when they judge them to be worthy of their help but what could they do with those who fancy themselves to be what they are not ? They cannot make the blind see, nor the deaf hear."…

Each man having his sympathetic god-or-demons, it follows that, in every collective whole, the generality of sympathetic god-or-demons corresponds to the generality of individuals that stranger god-or-demons are attracted to it by the identity of thoughts : in a word, that these assemblages, as

well as individuals, are more or less favorably surrounded, influenced, assisted, according to the predominant character of the thoughts of those who compose them.

Among nations, the conditions which exercise an attractive action upon god-or-demons are the habits, manners, dominant characteristics, of their people, and, above all, their legislation, because the character of a nation is reflected in its laws. Those who uphold the reign of righteousness, among themselves combat the influence of evil god-or-demons. Wherever the laws consecrate injustice, inhumanity, good god-or-demons are in the minority and the mass of bad ones who flock in, keeps the people in their false ideas, and paralyzes the good influences which, being only partial, are lost in the crowd, like a solitary wheat ear in the midst of brambles. It is therefore easy, by studying the characteristics of nations, or of any assemblage of men, to form to oneself an idea of the invisible population which is mixed up with them in their thoughts and in their actions.

522. Is a presentiment always a warning from the god-or-demon guardian?

"A presentiment is a counsel privately addressed to you by a god-or-demon who wishes you well. The same may be said of the intuition which decides the choice we made; the voice of instinct is of the same nature.

524. Are the warnings of our god-or-demons guardians given solely for our moral guidance, are they also given for our guidance in regard to our personal affairs?

"They are given in reference to everything that concerns you. Your god-or demon guardians endeavor to lead you to take, in regard to everything that you have to do; the best possible course; but you often close your ears to their friendly counsels, and thus get yourselves into trouble thorough your own fault."

Our protecting god-or-demons aid us by their counsels, and by awakening the voice of our conscience but as we do not always attach sufficient importance to these hints, they give us more direct warnings through the persons about us. Let a man reflect upon the various circumstances of his life, fortunate or unfortunate,and he will see that, on many occasions, he received advice which, had he followed it, would have spared him a good deal of annoyance.

Influence of Spirits in the Events of Human Life

525. Do god-or-demons exercise an influence over the events of our lives?

"Assuredly they do; since they give you advice."

- Do they exercise this influence in any other way than by means of the thoughts they suggest to us; that is to say, have they any direct action in the course of earthly events?

"Yes but their action never oversteps the laws of nature." We erroneously imagine that the action of god-or-demons can only be manifested by extraordinary phenomena we would have god-or-demons come to our aid by means of miracles, and we imagine them always to be armed 'with a sort of magic wand. Such is not the case; all that is done through their help being accomplished by natural means, their intervention usually takes place without our being aware of it. Thus, for instance, they bring about the meeting of two persons who seem to have been brought together by chance they suggest to the mind of someone the idea of going in a particular direction. They call your attention to

some special point, if the action on your part thus led up to by their suggestion, unperceived by you, will bring about the result they seek to obtain. In this way, each man supposes himself to be obeying only his own impulse, and thus always preserves the freedom of his will.

526. As god-or-demons possess the power of acting upon matter, can they bring about the incidents that will ensure the accomplishment of a given event? For example, a man is destined to perish in a certain way, at a certain time. He mounts a ladder; the ladder breaks and he is killed. Have god-or-demons caused the ladder to break, in order to accomplish the destiny previously accepted by or imposed upon this man?

"It is very certain that god-or-demons have the power of acting upon matter, but for the carrying out of the laws of nature, and not for derogating from them by causing the production at a given moment of some unforeseen event, in opposition to these laws. In such a case as the one you have just supposed, the ladder breaks because it is rotten, or is not strong enough to bear the man’s weight. But, as it was the destiny of this man to be killed in this way, the god-or-demons about him will have put into his mind the idea of getting upon a ladder that will break down under his weight, and his death will thus have taken place naturally, and without any miracle having been required, to bring it 'about."

530. Cannot frivolous and mocking god-or-demons give rise to the various little difficulties that defeat our projects and upset our calculations? In a word, are they not the authors of what may be termed the petty troubles of human life?

"Such god-or-demons take pleasure in causing vexations which serve as trials for the exercise of your patience; but they tire of this game when they see that they do not succeed in ruffling you. But it would neither be just nor correct to charge them with all your disappointments, the greater number of

which are caused by your own heedlessness. When your crockery is broken, the breakage is much more likely to have been caused by your own awkwardness than by god-or-demon action."

- Do the god-or-demons who bring about petty vexations act from personal animosity, or do they direct their attacks against the first person who comes handy, without any fixed aim, and simply to gratify their malice?

"They act from both these motives."

532. Are god-or-demons able to avert misfortunes from some persons, and to bring them upon others?

"Only to a certain extent; for there are misfortunes that come upon you by the decrees of Providence. But god-or-demons can lessen your sufferings by helping you to bear them with patience and resignation.

"Know, also, that it often depends on yourselves to avert misfortunes, or, least, to attenuate them ; and it is especially by so doing that you enable friendly god-or-demons to aid you most effectually-viz., by suggesting useful ideas; for they only help those who help themselves: a truth implied in the words, 'Seek, and yet shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.'

Editor’s note. Such is also the meaning of these words by Arrian: “ No human undertaking has a prosperous issue without the interposition of the gods…" (Treatise on Hunting).

"Besides, you must remember that what appears to you to be a misfortune is not always such; for the good which it is destined to work out is often greater than the seeming evil. This fact is not always recognized by you, because you are too apt to think only of the present moment, and of your own immediate satisfaction."

533. Can god-or-demons obtain for us the gifts of fortune, if we entreat them to do so?

"They may sometimes accede to such a request as a trial for you; but they often refuse such demands, as you refuse the inconsiderate demands of a child."

-When such favors are granted, is it by good god-or-demons or by bad ones?

"By both; for the quality both, of the request and of the grant depends on the intention by

which they are prompted ."

534. When obstacles seem to be placed, by a sort of fatality, in the way of our projects, is it always through the influence of god-or-demons?

"Such obstacles are sometimes thrown in your, way by god-or-demons but they are more often attributable to your own bad management. Position and character have much to do with your successes or failures. If you persist in following a path which is not your right one, you become your own evil genius, and have no need to attribute to god-or- demon action the disappointments that result from your own obstinacy or mistake."

537. The mythology of the ancients is entirely based on spiritist ideas with this difference that they regarded spirits as deities. They represented those god-or-demons or spirits with special attributes; thus, some of them had charge of the winds, others of the lightning; others, again, presided over vegetation, etc. Is this belief entirely devoid of foundation?

"It is so far from being devoid of foundation that it is far below the truth."

- May there, in the same way, be god-or-demons inhabiting the interior of the earth and presiding over the development of geological phenomena?

"Those god-or-demons do not positively inhabit the earth, but they preside over and direct its developments according to their various attributions. You will some day have the explanation of all these phenomena, and you will then understand them better."

538. Do the god-or-demons who preside over the phenomena of nature form a special category in the spirit world ? Do those god-or-demons belong to the higher or lower degrees of the spirit hierarchy?

"That is according as their post is more or less material or intelligent; some command, others execute; those who discharge material functions are always of an inferior order, among god-or-demons as among men."

541. When a battle is being fought, are there god-or-demons who assist and support each party?

"Yes, and who stimulate their courage."

542. In every war, the right is only on one side. How can god-or-demons take the part of the one which is in the wrong?

"You know very well that there are god-or-demons who seek only discord and destruction; for them war is war; they care little whether it be just or unjust."

543 Can god-or-demons influence a general in the planning of a campaign?

"Without any doubt !"

544. Could hostile god-or-demons suggest to him unwise combinations in order to ruin him?

"Yes; but has he not his freewill? If his judgment does not enable him to distinguish between a good idea and a bad one, he will have to bear the consequences of his blindness, and would do better to obey than to command."

545. May a general sometimes be guided by a sort of second sight, an intuitive perception that shows him, beforehand, the result of his combinations?

"It is often thus with a man of genius; this kind of intuition is what is called 'inspiration,' and causes him to act with a sort of certainty. It comes to him from the god-or-demons who direct him, and who act upon him through the faculties with which he is endowed."

552. What is to be thought of the belief in the power of certain persons to throw a spell over others?

"Certain persons possess a very strong magnetic power, of which they may make a bad use if their own god-or-demon is bad, and, in that case, they may be seconded by other bad god-or-demons; but do not attach belief to any pretended magical power, which exists only in the imagination of superstitious people, ignorant of the true laws of nature. The facts adduced to prove the existence of this pretended power are facts which are really due to the action of natural causes that have been imperfectly observed, and above all, imperfectly understood."

553. What is the effect of the formulas and practices by the aid of which certain persons profess to be able to control the wills of god-or-demons?

"Their only effect is to render such persons ridiculous if they really put faith in them; and, if they do not, they are rogues who deserve to be punished. All such formulas are mere jugglery; there is no 'sacramental word,' no cabalistic sign, no talisman, that has any power over god-or-demons; for god-or-demons are attracted by thought and not by anything material."

-Have not cabalistic formulas sometimes been dictated by god-or-demons?

"Yes; there are god-or-demons who give you strange signs and words, and prescribe certain acts, with the aid of which you perform what you call 'conjurations'; but you may be very sure that such god-or-demons are making game of you, and amusing themselves with your credulity."

554. Is it not possible that he who, rightly or wrongly, has confidence in what he calls the virtue of a talisman, may attract god-or-demon to him by that very confidence; for in that case, it would be his thought that acts, the talisman being only a sign that helps to concentrate and direct his thought?

"Such an action is quite possible; but the nature of the god-or-demon thus attracted would depend on the purity of intention and the elevation of sentiment of the party attracting him and it rarely happens that one who is simple enough to believe in the virtue of a talisman is not actuated by motives of a material rather than of a moral character. At all events, such practices imply a pettiness and weakness of mind that would naturally give access to imperfect and mocking god-or-demons."

555. What meaning should we attach to the qualification of sorcerer?

"Those whom you call sorcerers are persons gifted, when they are honest, with certain exceptional faculties, like the mesmeric power or second sight; and as such persons do things that you do not comprehend, you suppose them to be endowed with supernatural power. Have not many of your learned men passed for sorcerers in the eyes of the ignorant?"

556. Do some persons really possess the gift of healing by merely touching the sick?

"The mesmeric power may act to that extent when it is seconded by purity of intention and ardent desire to do good, for, in such a case, good god-or-demons come to the aid of the Mesmeriser. But you must be on your guard against the way in which facts are exaggerated when recounted by persons who, being too credulous or too enthusiastic, are disposed to discover something marvelous in the simplest and most natural occurrences. You must also be on your guard against the interested recitals of persons who work on credulity with a view to their own benefit."

557. Do benedictions and curses draw down good and evil on those who are the object of them?

"Neither blessing nor cursing can ever turn aside the justice of Providence, which only strikes the one who is cursed if he is wicked, and only favors the one who is blessed if he merits its protection."

Occupations and missions of god-or-demons ?

558. Have spirits anything else to do but to work out their own personal amelioration?

"God-or-demons co-operate in the production of the harmony of the universe by executing the volitions of the God or Demiurge, whose ministers they are. Spirit life is a continual occupation, but one that has nothing in common with the painful labor of the earthly life, because there is in it neither bodily fatigue, nor the anguish of bodily wants."

559. Do inferior and imperfect god-or-demons also subserve any useful end in the universe?

"All have duties to fulfill. Does not the lowest mason concur in the building of an edifice as really as the architect?" (540).

561. Are the functions discharged by god-or-demons, in the economy of things, permanent on the part

of each god-or-demon, or do they constitute the exclusive attributes of certain classes?

"All god-or-demons have to ascend all the steps of the ladder in order to attain to perfection. Thus among men, no one arrives at the highest degree of skill in any art, without having acquired the necessary knowledge through the practice of that art in all its degrees, from the lowest upwards.

562. God-or-demons of the highest order having nothing more to acquire, are they in a state of absolute repose, or have they, too, occupations?

"Can you suppose that they remain idle through eternity ? Eternal idleness would be eternal torture."

563. Are god-or-demons incessantly occupied?

"Incessantly? Yes, if it be understood that their thought is always active, for they live by thought. But you must not suppose that the occupations of god-or-demons are similar to the material occupations of men; their activity is itself a delight, through the consciousness they have of being useful."

- That is easily understood as regards good god-or-demons; but is it the same in regard to inferior god-or-demons?

"Inferior god-or-demons have occupations suitable to their nature. Would you entrust intellectual undertakings to an ignorant laborer?"

564. Are there, among god-or-demons, some who are idle, or who do not employ themselves in anything useful?

"Yes; but that idleness is only temporary, and depends on the development of their intelligence. Of course, there are among god-or-demons, as among men, some who live only for themselves; but their idleness weighs upon them, and, sooner or later, the desire to advance causes them to feel the need of activity, and they are glad to make themselves useful. We speak of god-or-demons arrived at the point at which they possess self-consciousness and free-will; for, at their origin, they are like newborn children, and act more from instinct than from a determinate will."

567. Do god-or-demons ever take part in our occupations and pleasures?

"Common god-or-demons, as you call them, do so; they are incessantly about you, and take, in all you do, a part which is sometimes a very active one, according to their nature; and it is necessary that they should do so, in order to push men in the different walks of life, and to excite or moderate their passions."

God-or-demons busy themselves with the things of this world in proportion to their elevation or their inferiority.

The higher god-or-demons have, undoubtedly, the power of looking into the minutest details of earthly things but

they only do so when it will be useful to progress.

568. When god-or-demons are charged with a mission, do they accomplish it in the state of wandering, or in the state of an incarnation?

"They may be charged with a mission in either state. There are wandering god-or-demons to whom such missions furnish much occupation."

569. What are the missions with which wandering god-or-demons may be charged?

"They are so varied that it would be impossible to describe them and there are some of them that you could not comprehend."

The missions of god-or-demons have always good for their object. Whether in the god-or-demon-state, or as men, they are charged to help forward the progress of Mankind, of peoples, or of individuals, within a range of ideas more or less extensive, more or less special, to pave the way for certain events, to superintend the accomplishment of certain things. The missions of some god-or-demons are of narrower scope, and may be said to be personal, or even

local as the helping of the sick, the dying, the afflicted to watch over those of whom they become the guides and protectors, and to guide them by their counsels or by the wholesome thoughts they suggest. It may be said that there are as many sorts of spirit missions as there are sorts of interests to watch over whether in the physical world or in the moral world. And each god-or-demon advances in proportion to the fidelity with which he accomplishes his task.

571. Is it only elevated god-or-demons 'who have missions to fulfill?

"The importance of a mission is always proportioned to the capacities and elevation of the god-or-demon who is charged with it; but the courier who conveys a dispatch fulfills a mission, though one which is not that of the general."

572. Is a god-or-demon's mission imposed upon him, or does it depend on his own will?

"He asks for it, and is rejoiced to obtain it."

573. In what does the mission of good god-or-demons consists?

"In instructing men, and aiding their advancement; and in ameliorating their institutions by direct, material means. These missions are more or less general and important; but he who tills the ground accomplishes a mission as really as he who governs or instructs. Everything in nature is linked together; and each god-or-demon, while purifying himself by his incarnation, concurs, under the human form, to the accomplishment of the Providential plans. Each of you has a mission, because each of you can be useful in some way or other."

578. May god-or-demon fail in his mission through his own fault?

"Yes; if he is not of a high degree of elevation."

- What, for him, are the consequences of such a failure?

"He is obliged to begin his task over again; this is his punishment. And, besides, he will have to undergo the consequences of the mischiefs caused by his failure."

655. Is it wrong to practice the external rites of a religion in which we do not heartily believe, when this is done out of respect for those with whom we are connected, and in order not to scandalize those who think differently from us?

"In such a case, as in many others, it is the intention that decides the quality of the act. He whose only aim, in so doing, is to show respect for the belief of others, does no wrong; he does better than the man who turns them into ridicule, for the latter sins against charity. But he who goes through with such practices simply from interested motives, or from ambition, is contemptible.

656. Is worship performed in common preferable to individual worship?

"When those who sympathize in thought and feeling are together, they have more power to attract good god-or-demons to them. But you must not therefore conclude that private worship is less acceptable."

657. Have men who give themselves up to a life of contemplation, doing nothing evil, and thinking only of God or the Demiurge, any special merit in His eyes?

"No, for if they do nothing evil, they do nothing good; and besides, not to do good is, in itself, evil. He who consumes his life in meditation and contemplation does nothing meritorious, because such a life is entirely personal and useless to mankind."

668. As phenomena attesting the action of god-or-demons have occurred in all ages of the world, and have thus been known from the earliest times, may they not have helped to induce a belief in the plurality of god-or-demons?

"Undoubtedly; for, as men applied the term god or the term demiurge to whatever surpassed humanity, Spirits were, for them, so many god-or-demons. For this reason, whenever a man distinguished himself among all others by his actions, his genius, or an occult power incomprehensible by the vulgar, he was made a god-or-demon of, and was worshipped as such after his death."

The word god, among the Ancients, had a wide range of meaning. It did not, as in our days, represent the Master of Nature, but was a generic term applied to all beings who appeared to stand outside of the pale of ordinary mankind and, as the manifestations that have since been known as "spiritist" had revealed to them the existence of incorporeal beings acting as one of the elementary powers of nature, they called them gods, just as we call them spirits. It is a mere question of words; with this difference, however, that, in their ignorance, purposely kept up by those whose interests it served, they built temples and raised altars to them, making them offerings which became highly lucrative for the persons who had charge of this mode of worship whereas, for us, they are merely creatures like ourselves, more or less advanced, and having cast off their earthly cover. If we carefully study the various attributes of the pagan deities, we shall easily recognize those of the spirits of our day, at every degree of the scale of spirit life, their physical state in worlds of higher advancement, the various properties of the perispirit and the part taken by them in the things of the earthly life.

669. The custom of offering human sacrifices dates from the remotest antiquity. How can mankind have been led to believe that such an enormity could be pleasing to God?

"The men of the primitive periods naturally considered that a living creature must be much more valuable in the sight of God or of the Demiurge than any merely material object; and this consideration led them to immolate, to their deities, first animals, and afterwards men, because, according to their false ideas, they thought that the value of a sacrifice was proportioned to the importance of the victim. In your earthly life, when you wish to offer a present to anyone, you select a gift, the costliness of which is proportioned to the amount of attachment or consideration that you desire to testify to the person to whom you offer it. It was natural that men who were ignorant of the nature of the Deity or of the Demiurge should do the same."

-- According to this explanation, the custom of sacrificing human beings did not originate in mere cruelty?

"No; but in a false idea as to what would be acceptable to God or to the Devil. Look, for instance, at the story of Abraham.

672. Was the offering of the fruits of the earth more acceptable in his sight than the sacrificing of animals?

"I have already answered your question in telling you that His judgment is directed to the intention, and that the outward fact is of little importance in His sight. A prayer, sent up from the depths of the heart, is a hundredfold more agreeable than all the offerings you could possibly make to Him. I repeat it, the intention is everything; the fact, nothing."

673. Might not these offerings be rendered more useful by consecrating them to the relief of those who lack the necessities of life, and, in that case, might not the sacrificing of animals, accomplished in view of a useful end, be as meritorious as it is the reverse when subserving no useful end, or profiting only to those who are in need of nothing? Would there not be something truly pious in consecrating to the poor the first-fruits of all that is granted to us upon the earth?

"To help the poor and afflicted is the best of all ways of honoring the good god-or-demons. I do not mean to say that god-or-demons disapprove the ceremonies you use in praying to them; but a good deal of the money thus spent might be more usefully employed. The man who attaches more importance to looks and appearances than to the heart is a narrow-minded spirit.

THE END OF THE TEXT ADAPTED FROM THE SPIRITS’ BOOK BY NEO-DRUID ALLAN KARDEC.

OUR SPIRITS’ BOOK TO US.

“They likewise discuss and impart to the youth many elements respecting the stars and their motion, respecting the extent of the world and of our earth, respecting the nature of things, respecting the power and the majesty of the immortal gods” (Caesar. B.G. VI, 14).

Q: What do you call god-or-demons?

A: God-or-demons are the creating powers from Primeval Essence. It is the forces in balances which emanate from the Procreator.

Q: How are god-or-demons produced?

A: God-or-demons are produced through the individualization of the faculties of the primordial couple (syzygy in St. Irenaeus). Around the points of balance between oppositions, they establish themselves through their own faculties in order to always receive the higher impulse.

Q: How god-or-demons did emanate from the primordial couple?

A: Through syzygies or couples. The gods at the level of the having and of the appearing and their consorts the goddesses at the level of the power and of the being deeply, acting behind the scenes.

Q: What are the characteristics of god-or-demons?

A: Perpetuity and Immortality within this cycle because their essence remains still identical.

God or the Demiurge has several hypostases (called vyuha by Hinduism). The higher Being is of one substance, and He is therefore One regarding substantiality, but He has hypostases. Through “hypostases “ it is necessary to understand his attributes as Existence, Life, Science, power, kindness, ubiquity, knowledge and so on, because every deity has a certain number of attributes, divine by definition. These hypostases or vyuha in Hinduism are in Him from time immemorial. Life is for example in him from time immemorial, Life was with this higher Being and this higher Being was the Life by definition. Same thing for the polarity. The principle of polarity was with this higher Being, and this higher Being was the principle of polarity. Everything was moved by it.

God or the Demiurge is not and cannot be, known in its essential Reality, and can be known only through its [divine] names or attributes, multiples and opposed, which manage the universe since its birth until its decline. The divine names or attributes are reflected in the world which emanates from it, but they are not incorporated in it.

The need for some polarity, of antithetic or complementary things, explains the existence of many (male or female, building or destroying, etc.) deities. The originality of this approach lies in the fact that for the high-knowers called druids, the formative act is not the result of a divine will. It is the world which self-changes.

God-or-demons [like that of Abraham Isaac or Jacob for example , even Allah] constitute the central figures of religious systems when it is not the case of higher eons, with the exception of Neto in Spain perhaps. The belief in these god-or-demons is widespread in all the civilizations since Antiquity, but with very great variations in its expression. These deities are immutable, and last as much as the world of which they are the pillars (they are consubstantial to it). They are not subjected to the common destiny of everyone, which is to die one day or the other.

Philosophical and thought out druidism designates the power manifestations of the upper ONE through attributes that mystical druidism hypostatizes, and to which it gives a personal existence, with a divine “shape “: what makes them individual beings. The only conceivable way for Man is indeed that of the multiplicity through which the non-dual vastness is manifested. Unless he wants to merge himself with the zero, i.e., with what can seem to him only as nothingness. Monotheism [or more exactly monolatry] draws man aside from the path of knowledge and from the metaphysical reality, by replacing effort to understand the multiple nature of the divinity by a simplistic and inaccurate postulate.

It seems that the principal god-or-demons as Yahweh or Allah, first of all, were embodiments of Nature forces, guards of the eternal universal order, Tocade or Fate ; who appear as well in nature as in customs and habits, as a power balancing cosmos. God-or-demons and goddess-or-demonesses, or fairies if this word is preferred, of our Panth-eon, are a (picturesque) extension of them , eons or hypostases or vyuha representing the apparent or manifested outside Force, goddess-or-demonesses the inner Force or Feeling (Shakti in Hinduism). But if the (generic) divine forces are very real, it is important to realize that they should not be viewed in a way as literal as myths which describe them for us. Among other things, they represent some aspects or principles of vital force, of life’s power, they

represent the highest shapes of this principle, the highest ideal. This “cosmic “model has, or can have, a physical mirror on earth and in our way of life.

Ausonius (poem on the use of the word libra) “Divinis humana licet componere “: “ We may compare human things with divine“. The notion of hypostasis (vyuha in Hinduism), does not forget and does not ignore, the unity of the higher being which is the origin of it. It is simply the non-ephemeral personification, of one of the attributes of divinity. In this sense, we can say that the god-or-demons of druidism are all more or less hypostases (vyuha in Hinduism) of a higher entity, which would include them all.

For Christians the three divine persons are CONSUBSTANTIAL. The GOD-ONE and the TRIUNE-GOD are a single GOD. God is at the same time INFINITE and PERSONAL. Such is the MYSTERY of the HOLY TRINITY. The absolute and immanent unity of the divine essence, in the distinction of the three persons, without prejudice to the unity or of the diversity.

But why one triad of gods or demons as among Christians or a heptad of seven deities only as among the Sabians in Carrhes (Carrhae or Harran) and not 4? 5? 6? 8? 9? Or around fifty?

Here besides the point of view of the Mazdeans about the notion of Holy Trinity or Holy poly-unity.

Extract of Shikand-gumanic Vichar or “ Treatise on the dispelling of doubts.”

They (Christians) state that the father and son and holy spirit are three entities which are not separate one from the other, nor is one foremost. But though a son, he is not less than the father, but in every knowledge equal to the father, why now is one to call him by a different name?

If it be possible for three to be one, that implies that it is, of course, possible for three to be nine and for nine to be three; and it is possible to speak of other numbers, in this sequence, unlimitedly.

Moreover if a son be not less than a father, that father is also not greater than the son ; under these conditions is it allowed to say that the Father comes from the son, or the son does not come from the father.

This is certain, that it is possible for everyone originating from anyone to be less than him from whom he is, who is the essential origin of himself; if he be so in point of time, and likewise if so in point of relationship.

If the son be not less than the father, that implies that the cause is not before the effect , nor yet is greater; both must be therefore original principles, and the creature is not less than the creator, nor the creator greater than the creature.

What is not to take into account the definition of these words. As in the case of elohim for God (or the gods ?)

OUR DISPELLING OF DOUBTS.

Principle No. 1. The Holy Poly-Unity.

The world of the gods or demons or sedodumnon is a higher state of the action of being, a Whole of which the power makes that it can be ONE in several. The hypostases or vyuha in Hinduism, called Taran/Toran/Tuirean, or Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, and even Lug… In short, a holy poly-unity before the word was invented !

The pagan notion of divine hypostases or persons in a holy poly-unity should be easy to understand by (Trinitarian) Christians, since it is identical to that of monogenes of gnostic Christians. When the pagans say of such or such a superhuman entity, of such or such a supernatural being, that it is the son of God or of the Demiurge; that implies by no means that it is the son of God or of the Devil in the way in which Jews or Muslims design their prophets or their Messiah. But that implies a basic identity, or a proximity between this superhuman entity and the higher Being.

God-or-demons or goddess-or-demonesses, fairies if you want, are the sons or the daughters of God or of the Demiurge, but some sons or daughters of God or of the Demiurge we should distinguish in nothing from their Father. Such was for example the reasoning of the pagans in Mecca in connection with their three goddess-or-demonesses, or Arab fairies, called Al Lat, Manat and Al Uzza, also known as daughters of Allah.

It is this non-Jewish design of hypostases or divine persons (vyuha in Hinduism), that the Christians of pagan origin expressed with remarks of the kind: “I and the Father, we are one “. “I am in the Father and the Father is in me “.“He who saw me saw the Father “. “It is necessary to worship the Son with the same worship than that of the Father “. This design is completely unknown in Judaism. We find some parallel to it only in paganism. In the beginning , it had to be unbearable not only to Jews

themselves, but even to Orthodox Judeo-Christians, i.e., to those who wanted to preserve the religion of the Old Testament. Those who saw in the Nazarene Jesus only the Messiah expected by Jews.

N.B.The omnipotence of this higher Being also makes than he can make himself flesh, hence certain exceptional beings in whom at the same time a human nature and a divine nature, coexist, the Hesus/Cuchulainn for example in Ireland.

Principle No. 2. Personification or Kenosis.

Kenosis is the technical term (drawn from Greek language) meaning the fact, for god-or-demons like Lug, the belisama Brigindo Brigantia Brigid, Abellio, Hesus, and the others; while remaining divine eons or spiritual beings, coming under the preternatural or supernatural; to have given up for their embodiment on Earth (avatara) or for their incarnation in the world immediately higher than Earth; all the attributes of divinity which would have prevented them, by definition, from living in a status closer to that of men. For the salvation of men, of their worshippers, the god-or-demons thus made them their brothers: those who believe in their existence consequently may, through them, fully communicate with their personal Fate (destiny), and to become finally too, like god-or-demons. Some god-or-demons having taken a human shape, they became consubstantial with men, though in an appreciably different way. The former high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht), admitted as a presupposition for the embodiment of god-or-demons, their self-restraint (kenosis). i.e., from these eons, the renouncement some properties of the divinity relating to the world, in other words, the dispossession of their divine awareness which becomes like human awareness, and the renouncement a portion of their eternal knowledge (of Oneself and of the World); which involves a kind of dead of God in the gods. God died and the god-or-demons are in a way the executors of his will.

Principle No. 3. Avatara-ism.

There can be two types of avatara-ism in Celtic mythology.

The first type of avatara-ism is an avatara-ism in the broadest sense: a complete avatar of the god in question. His hypostasis in a way.

Example the god particularly worshipped in the Isle of Man: Belin / Belen / Belenos perhaps. Hard to say in the case of Manannan.

Another example, but regarding principle, not regarding linguistic coherence (because it is a celtica interpretatio): Jupiter Taranucnus.

The second type of avatara-ism is avatara-ism in the restricted sense: a partial avatar of the god in question

Vindos / Finn or the Hesus / Cuchulainn / Setanta in Ireland. Taranucnus on the Continent, in Germany (Deo Taranucno) or Taranu? tius at Tours.

Druidism admits consequently the existence of several heavenly entities who are called deiwi, therefore indeed gods. Considering the change of the meaning of this word since the victory of Judeo-Christianity in the minds (translation by Greek theos of the designation of the higher being); it would be almost preferable to call them demigods; or then deities, heavenly soul/minds, even angels.

But that remains the ultimate manifestations of the Original Higher One in the design sphere of human mind. And to honor this higher Being, the personalities naturally disposed to mysticism always designed some anthropomorphic shapes of God or of the Demiurge in their mind, in order to worship Him. A concept designated by the name of avatar.

A great God or Demiurge (in original druidism there is no need that it is the higher god) can appear with another name or another shape in certain parts of the universe.

This important Aryan theological principle was very well defined besides by Bhagavad Gita. Krishna declares in it expressly: I appear in this world whenever and wherever a decline of righteousness and a predominance of unrighteousness prevails ; at that time I manifest myself personally in this world, O descendant of Bharata.

As regards druidism that cannot be a simple question of time, that also depends on the place. But the principle remains the same one, and it was well defined by Hinduism, in which the Rig-Veda states: “ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti “. “True God or Demiurge is One, sages call it by various names “.

There exist various kinds of avatars which appear all at determined times, in one or the other of the areas in the universe: the hesus Cuchulainn or the Camulos father of Finn in Ireland, for example.

The notion of an embodiment (avatara) differs from that of a hypostasis in the sense that in the case of an incarnation; and unlike a hypostasis; it is not only one of the components or one of the attributes of

the god-or-demon which appears; but himself, completely or partially; with a precise aim (to restore order or to correct a wrong). The notion of an embodiment ( avatara) makes him a particular, occasional, manifestation, matching a quite precise goal. From a certain point of view and on a certain level, the two series (hypostases and avatars) answer each other nevertheless. God-or-demons and goddess-or-demonesses, or fairies if you prefer, of love, of (defensive) war of health… are hypostases of the higher divine; the Hesus/Cuchulainn or the son of Camulos called Vindos (Finn in Ireland) are partial embodiments of other god-or-demons. The more or less transitory partial incarnations come under the category of deified heroes indeed.

Editor's note about the difference between hypostasis and avatar. The high Nazarene Rabbi Jesus is regarded as a hypostasis by Christians and as an avatar by Hindus. Not very simple all that!

Principle No. 4. Pantheism

The whole of the gods or demons of a religion is called the Pantheon or Pleroma (when it also includes the underground or chthonic gods).

Some religious systems contemplate the existence of other beings having functions and capacities similar to these of the gods: genies, jinns, or demons, angels, saints, heroes, bodhisattvas, aliens, etc.

Various terms appeared to designate some aspects of the relations of the god-or-demons between them, the believers and the universe.

The word polytheism designates a system which admits the existence of several god-or-demons. Monotheism that which recognizes one god-or-demiurge. Distinction between both not being always obvious, like in the case where the various god-or-demons are manifestations of a primordial single deity (Hinduism for example).

“De dhruadh, mu dhe tar gac nde “ the Irishman Mog Ruith exclaims at the time of the siege of Druim Damhghaire. Henotheism indicates a polytheistic system in which a deity has a place infinitely more important than the others (case of Allah in Mecca for example); monolatry the exclusive relation between a single god-or-demon and a particular group (ethnos group, trade). Case of the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, for example. In the dualistic systems, two god-or-demons of equal power, a “good one “and a “bad one “ are opposed. In the case of Christianity, it is spoken of a mitigated dualism.

Pantheism regards the universe itself as a deity. The atheistic "religious" systems, considering the existence of no deity, are very rare. The Raelian sect and the Scientology are two examples, as some Western interpretations of Buddhism, because original Eastern Buddhism, as its Asian forms, admit the existence of god-or-demons. But grant to them only a marginal influence in human affairs. A little like certain druids of today besides.

Panentheism is a variant of John Toland's pantheism. All is not divine but everything is immersed in the divinity without there is for as much identity between God and the World.

Principle No. 5. Liberty equality.

The society of Celtic god-or-demons was not as ranked on a hierarchical basis as that of the Greeks, Romans, or Hebrews (God and the elohim angels). Besides it was more a republic than a monarchy, the regia potestas among Celts being a power confined in the practice of an office with, if not restricted, at least limited in time, competence. As for the Roman consuls.

Most interesting allusion, while being vague, relates to Celtillus, the father of Vercingetorix. It shows the trace of a system of honorary and “federal“ highest kingship, similar to that which remained in Ireland until the Middle Ages.

“ There in like manner, Vercingetorix the son of Celtillus the Arvernian, a young man of the highest power (whose father had held the supremacy of entire Gaul, and had been put to death by his fellow citizens, for this reason, because he aimed at sovereign power), summoned together his dependents and… “

Another allusion, B.G. VI, 31, refers to the suicide of the king of Eburones, at the end of an adventure without hope.

“ Catuvolcus, king of one half of the Eburones, who had entered into the design together with Ambiorix, since, being now worn out by age, he was unable to endure the fatigue either of war or flight, having cursed Ambiorix with every imprecation, as the person who had been the contriver of that measure, destroyed himself with the juice of the yew tree… “.

Éburones thus had two kings. Did they divide the territory in the way of these Irish kinglets who ruled only over some counties? Or is there in Caesar a terminological inaccuracy, and these two kings had while ruling over the same territory, different attributions? Or even did they rule alternatively each one for a given period? Mythical Ireland provides us an example of each of the two systems.

- In the legend of the warlike Macha, three kings (and not two) rule in their turn each one for seven years over Ulster: Aed Ruad, Dithorba, and Cimbaeth. The good performance of the rotation is carried out by a treaty that seven druids guarantee, seven poets and seven chiefs.

- In the legend of Mongan, two kings rule at the same time over Ulster, and their names are at the same time similar and contrary: Fiacha Find “the White “and Fiacha Dub “the Black “.

We have, in the second case, a sneaking feeling that it was a functional specialization of each of the two kings. But Ireland obliterated the archaism of the system.

The people of Eduans , one of most powerful at the time of Caesar, had a somewhat different political organization, at least at first sight.

B.G.I, 16 “ Caesar called together their chiefs, of whom he had a great number in his camp, among them Divitiacus and Liscus who was invested with the chief magistracy (whom the Aedui style the Vergobretus, and who is elected annually and has power of life or death over his countrymen)“.

B.G. VII, 32 “ Noblemen of the Aedui came to him as ambassadors to entreat "that in an extreme emergency he should succor their state; that their affairs were in the utmost danger, because, whereas single magistrates had usually been appointed in ancient times and held the power of king for a single year, two persons now exercised this office, and each asserted that he was appointed according to their laws “.

But a king of god or demon even dethroned continues to live and to exert influence, he continues to rule the heart of his dagolitoi (believers) although democratically enough according to the paradox put forward by the Belgian King Ambiorix in an attempt to justify himself in the eyes of the Romans.

“ His power was of that nature, that the people had as much authority over him as he over the people“ (Caesar.B.G. Book V. Chapter XXVIII).

Transposed on the spiritual level that would imply the god-or-demons are like egregores, very dependent on the number and on the fervor of those who believe in them.

Principle No. 6. Infinity of the divine abodes.

Infinity of the sidhs, infinity of the divine worlds (Buddha ksetra or pure lands in Far East).

Here below a reminder for the record of some pure lands names, since our brethren in paganism of this area in the World call thus their parallel universes.

Land of Bliss (Sukhavati) of the Buddha Amitabha, the best known, described in the sutras of the Pure Land, it would be located in the west of our world.

Land of Joy (Abhirati) of the Buddha Akshobhya located east of our world.

Emerald Land of the Buddha Bhaisajyaguru; described in the Bhaisajyaguru Sutra, it would be located to the east of our world.

Land of the esoteric grandeur of the Buddha Vairocana, described in the Mitsugon sutra.

Pure land of the Vulture Peak, where the teaching of the Buddha Shakyamuni reigns.

The pure land of the Potakala Mount, of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.

Everyone knows the tomb of Newgrange called Brug Na Boinne in the Irish legends. But in addition to this Sidh, there also existed the Sidh of Bri Leith, the Sidh of Femen, the Sid Nennta, the sidh of Cleitech, etc., etc. each one of these Sidh being the estate of a god-or-demon. Medros/Midir in Bri Leith, for example. There existed many of them. And if we add these which are located out of Ireland

(for example the barrow of Hochmichele in Germany where a sanctuary of Viereckschanze type was straightforwardly found on the spot) we can speak about an infinity of sidhs in Celtic mythology. Each sidh or brug of one of these god-or-demons or related divine entities, corresponds to the land or kingdom of this god-or-demon (sidh) because it represents the sphere of influence of this supra-human entity. Of this suprahuman entity who is therefore responsible for the bodily or spiritual development of all the beings living in his sidh. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus for example in Brug Na Boinne.

Let us not take this too literally, let us say simply that they are poetic images to designate parallel universes or more precisely gateways into a parallel universe. But the first thing that we have to understand, that we have to take into account, we uns men of today, it is traditional druidism viewed space as being infinite. And it viewed this infinite space occupied by infinite worlds, systems of worlds. That is, of course, to be connected to the fact that druidism recognizes, not only an infinity of sidh, but also an infinity of god-or-demons. Or at least, if that seems much too outrageous, a plurality of god-or-demons and of sidhs or parallel worlds.

Principle No. 7.

The gift of ubiquity of the god-or-demons ........................................................................................................

Editor’s note. The end of this note is missing.

Principle Nº 8. Divine omnipresence.

Unlike Buddhism, in druidism there exists no yoke for god-or-demons. They can reside in real places or out of the world (sea, mountains, underground world, sky, building, objects, human body, another universe). They may remain continuously in the same place or change it, or be endowed with ubiquity. They practice their powers in all kinds of fields, from the natural phenomena to social functioning, and particularly in the purely conceptual fields like the hereafter. Some people attribute to them sometimes the role of a creator (of one thing or of the whole universe) or of a culture hero. They can have knowledge inaccessible to humans, like that of the future or of the thoughts of others, even to be omniscient.

They are seldom visible in any case, if not through the phenomena interpreted as being their manifestation.

Principle No. 9. Polymorphism.

The same god-or-demon, for example a kelpie, may have several appearances or representations. It is often ascribed to god-or-demons a human or animal appearance. Their representations are generally codified, sometimes reduced to a symbol, even prohibited.

Man generally ascribes to god-or-demons human thoughts as well as emotions, and the awareness of the existence of human beings with whom they deal from superior to inferior; through rites, even often through people specialized for this purpose (priests, soothsayers or prophets, mediums). Independently of the personification, there can be a radical and irreducible difference between the god (s) and the men, or on the contrary a possible passage, even a fundamental identity, between the human status and the divine status. Identification of the god-or-demon, to a concept (unity, transcendence, etc.) can be superimposed or substituted to the personification.Some god-or-demons are regarded as emanations or avataras of other god-or-demons, or of a single primordial deity (the hesus Cuchulainn, avatar of Lug, Camulos, Belin/Belen/Barinthus known as Manannan mac Lir, avatar of Toran/Taran/Tuireann. Or Belin/Belen/Belenos…)

Principle No 10. Involvement.

God-or-demons of ancient druidism such as our myths describe them are some "deus oriosus" they are active beings, intervening readily in human affairs. They are helpful; anextlomaros, contrebus, iovantucaros, etc.

There exist four main categories of god or demons.

Mono-functional, universal or pan-Celtic god-or-demons (health, chance, protection, etc.)

Strictly place or local god-or-demons (mountains, trees, river…)

Multipurpose and a little general help god-or-demons. Such is besides the etymological meaning of the Irish Dagda (dagodevos = Jack of all trades… good in everything).

Specialized god-or-demons, for example the god-or-demon of shoemakers, of soldiers, and so on.

There exist, of course, entities astride on all or several of these categories. A very local deity can also be multipurpose… to complicate a little more the things, god-or-demons may have several names (according to the aspect of their personality which is considered).

Principle No. 11. The multi-rooting.

Right from the start, major deities were a synthesis of different god-or-demons; common characteristics having made it possible to equate the ones to the others, several characters. Some air or underground elements can be thus melted in the personality of a single god-or-demon (Lug for example). In the psychological field, we find the same opposition, the uranian side representing pure logic, cold reason, and the chthonic side sensually emotive or more sentimental,reactions. But the whole of a god-or-demon is higher than the sum of his parts (celestial and chthonic) and for an average Celtic minded person, this god-or-demon remains coherent, and not made of pieces or parts (synergy).

The confluence of various traditions is explained easily by the aptitude that each deity has to take multiple forms, to which the variety of denominations corresponds. The same phenomenon appears in the Bible, where it is obvious that the small tribal even local god of Midianite paganism, Yahwe; arrogated the attributes of the Canaanite baals, while penetrating thereafter in Palestine.

Different god-or-demons and goddess-or-demonesses or fairies were gathered under the same name (tolerating nevertheless particular names), hence some versatility of many god-or-demons of druidism.

Some god-or-demons personifying forces of nature in the beginning, thus found themselves patron saint of various other activities. For example, Lug, become the god-or-demon of shoemakers, even the god-or-demon of business and of travels. The link between travel and trade in Antiquity seems obvious, but why the travels?? The reasons for that are no longer clearly perceived today. Because much cleverness is necessary to overcome the difficulties of a long trip?? On the other hand, the link between the word and the writing, therefore the magic, is more obvious in the case of Ogmius, who is at the beginning only the god-or-demon patron saint of the art of good speech.

One of the druidism tendencies was always the tendency to a true universalism, i.e., to the absorption of most various divine notions. Through high-knowers, the god-or-demons inherited from Aryanism met local shamanic deities. Rather than to repel those and to prohibit their worship, the Gnostic persons in the West adopted them by making them absorbed by their own god-or-demons; thus giving rise to characters bearing new characteristics, which sometimes radically drew them aside from these which were ascribed to the traditional god-or-demons of whom they continued to have the name. Unlike the Greco-Roman god-or-demons, the Celtic god-or-demons are not quite distinct persons, having each one their own individuality or their attributes: they are various aspects of the infinite transcendence-immanence.

So Trinity may be worshipped under different names: the main characteristic of Celtic god-or-demons is their ambiguity as well as their versatility. They all are some Dagda (dago-devos = “ god-or-demon jack of all trades “). Ogmius is the god-or-demon of eloquence, but also of writing, even of sorcery in the late times and there is not more a distinction to do in certain cases between Maponos and Toutiorix than between Baby Jesus and Christ the King. In the same way, all female deities are an aspect of the Mother-Goddess-or-demoness (Morrigan in Irish literature). Each god-or-demon, even goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if you prefer, of such or such natural force IN GENERAL (wind, ground, etc.) is, of course, always locally seen, designed, and honored, in a particular way. Example the mother earth. Goddess-or-demoness or fairy of the earth mother in general is Litavis-Nerthus, but locally you can find Talantio/Tailtiu, Carman, Rosemartha, and many others.

Each Celtic touta has its “Teutatis “ it calls by different names, just like today, some people worship concurrently Our Lady of Life, of Joy, of Good-Help, of Clearness, or one’s patron saint, among Roman Catholics… So more than 400 god-or-demons at least were listed, more of the three quarters appear only once.

Handwritten remarks found by the heirs to Peter DeLaCrau.

When a local god-or-demon of the Neolithic era, initially a god-or-demon of fruitfulness, a guardian of the tribe, “met “an Indo-European god-or-demon, more “universal “and supported by the new rulers of the land ; it could be equated with him, or conversely could assimilate some of his attributes.

A functional god-or-demon (god-or-demon of war, fruitfulness, love), is also necessarily local. In other words, a god-or-demon to whom a micro-community turns in the event of problems, or of any other

difficulty of this kind. A god-or-demon local, i.e., single in fact for a human micro-community, is also necessarily a functional god-or-demon; since he must answer all expectations of his dagolitoi, i.e., of his believers. Hence the fact that, in druidism, each god-or-demon is local, because functional, and functional because local. All the Celtic god-or-demons have the same nature, the same power (it is in that their divine essence lies), but they do not have the same aspect. People emphasize such characteristic rather than such other. Every god-or-demon is a potentially a “universal god-or-demon “ but also a particular “ “local “god-or-demon “ because of his manifestation. Each god-or-demon has a function, but is exclusive of no other he would deprive of his. Nevertheless, having one or even several functions, he would not be really able to have them all.

Let us insist, of course, on this point. A god-or-demon of fruitfulness, not more besides than a god-or-demon of war, or love, could not be functionally and basically only local, since fruitfulness, war, or love, concern every human being, whatever he is. A function, although performed in the beginning locally, is in itself universal.

On the other hand, a place, and strictly local, god-or-demon, must also be functional, and even also, could we say, multipurpose, in order to meet all the needs of his group. There does not exist, for example, a single god-or-demon of medicine, in druidism. There are several ones. Some demoness-or-goddesses of a river like the Boyne, the Thames, or the Seine, some god-or-demons or goddess-or-demonesses, some fairies if this word is preferred, of springs or wells, some god-or-demons linked with thermal springs (Bormanus, or Borvo??) ; some god-or-demons associated with the healing power of the sun (Grannos).

Every druidic god-or-demon is therefore at the same time local god-or-demon, in other words, bound to the inherent and various characteristics of the place, and functional god-or-demon. One of the characteristics of ancient druidism is the fact that beyond this apparent polytheism, high-knowers honored a main god-or-demon (henotheism) they venerated, through a series of secondary divinities, all symbolizing this “ single God or Demiurge “. “De dhruadh, mu dhe tar gac nde “ the Irishman Mog Ruith exclaims at the time of the siege of Druim Damhghaire.

Principle No. 12. Amorality regarding life in the hereafter, ethical code regarding this world.

Evil and sin are not absolute as in Judeo-Islamic-Christianity, but are an illusion, or for better saying a purely human feeling separating us from the divinity. The impersonal God or Demiurge is above that; he is the good and the evil at the same time. He is the being, he is everything, and it is our point of view of a human being which leads us to consider things positively or not. Druidic philosophy has well explained this paradox and it carefully avoids speaking about Good or Evil, by always expounding us complementary and necessary aspects of existence. But all that remains philosophical considerations, and the one is cornered in the misfortune of human miseries, needs more a figure of compassion, than a universal symbol, to cope. Just like in Christianity, a suffering Christ or an understanding Madonna, are balms more effective and necessary, than an almighty and impersonal God or Demiurge. The wounded soldiers in a trench waiting for the final assault are more in need of a chaplain the slightest bit talented than of a professor of philosophy.

The god-or-demons of druidism also differ from Buddhas of far Eastern spirituality, in that in druidism, an action is neither good nor bad in itself; but that it is favorable or unfavorable depending on the motivation and of the frame of mind which underlies it. Consequently, some deeds which are evil according to our modern criteria, can also sometimes prove very useful. This is why there exist god-or-demons of anger, war, wrathful, or on the contrary peaceful, intercessors, and so on. It is therefore essential in theology to well make the distinction between the evoked forces or their human version, between war and hatred, attraction and love or friendship… Some god-or-demons in druidism are indeed by nature ambivalent even dangerous when they escape any control (the gigantic anguipedic wyverns called Andernas on the Continent but Fomore in Ireland for example).

Principle No. 13. Anthropomorphism.

Humanly speaking, or from a strictly human point of view (but is it possible to have another one), Man needs personalized figures to imagine divine universe; because the divine essence is a thing, and its concrete and daily activity (its brigo, its brio) another one. The personalization of an abstract concept is done besides very often by the attribution of gender, male or female.

Principle No. 14. Fluidity.

“... Although heavenly beings are not in the habit of coming before men's eyes, because the unmixed and incorporeal substance of their subtle nature eludes our dull and darkened vision, yet at that time your helpers submitted to being seen and heard, and escaped contamination by mortal sight after they had attested your worth. But what is their appearance said to have been, the vigor of their bodies, the size of their limbs, the eagerness of their wills? Their flashing shields were aflame with something dreadful; their celestial weaponry was ablaze with a terrible glow; for they had come in such a form that they were believed to be yours. This was their discourse, this was the speech they composed in the midst of their hearers: "We seek Constantine, we go to help Constantine."

Surely even divine beings admit self-esteem because pride touches heavenly beings as well: and those armies come down from heaven, and those armies divinely sent were exultant, because they were fighting for you… “ (Nazarius of Bordeaux. Panegyric of Constantine 14).

A little like some Buddhas in the Far East, the body of the Celtic god-or-demons is in reality very different from that of simple humans, of which it has only appearance. The higher Being illuminates the body it takes on, as light illuminates a transparent body. It is printed in it like an engraving is printed in wax; it manifests in it like what spiritual is, manifests in what body is; it mixes with the body of a man like milk mixes with water. It is not restricted by its usual contingencies or limitations. It can, for example, go through walls or cross in a split second incredible distance.

Principle No. 15. The functional couples.

Or pairs of god-or-demons. There can exist nonsexual couples of god-or-demons, not made up of a god-or-demon and of a goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, but of two divine entities viewed traditionally as being of the same gender. Example Lug and Noadatus/Nuada/Nodons or Mercury and Mars in the interpretatio romana.

Principle No. 16. Heterosexuality or parity (man / woman) in divine elections.

Our ancestors did not as some contemporary minds and did not promote simultaneously and both parity in policy and gay marriage (which is rigorously contradictory). They did not admit in fact gay marriage but encouraged men/women parity in matter of divine representation. Said differently they did not move back in front of a radical otherness, they liked difference, they sought it (up to the points of view to have about the world); they were not happy with the same or the similar one (what implies gay marriage which by definition has its back to the other, to the otherness, to the difference). They were hetero-phile, at least at the level of the divine society. Men are not women and women are not men, mutatis mutandis, men and women are different, therefore do not have the same point of view on things, and are therefore complementary although equal in rights and dignity, of course.

The consort was a partner dressed with the same attributes and responsible for the same functions. Or a lower deity whose worship was combined with that of a more powerful deity. It's the same principle in the Bible with Asherah and Yahweh.

Second book of the Kings, chapter XXI.

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hephzibah.He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, after the abominations of the heathen, whom Yahweh, cast out.

For he built up again, the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.

He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Yahweh.

He made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he worked much wickedness in the sight of Yahweh, while provoking him to anger.

He set a graven image of Asherah that he had made in the house.

Romano-British statuary too tried to humanize metaphysics, or to establish a link between transcendence and human reality. This link, it is the consort of the god-or-demon himself, at the same time in his cosmic dimension and in his individual bodily dimension. His Shakti Hindus would say (i.e., a partner dressed up with the same attributes and responsible for the same functions we wrote above). His asherah first Jews would say while speaking about Yahweh.

Celtic divinities are often, in dedications, grouped two by two, a god-or-demon and a goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, if this word is preferred. Example Sucellus and Nantosuelta. We find, moreover, in the Romano-British or Gallo-Roman inscriptions , Lug combined with Rosemartha, a goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, whose name is, of course, Celtic; and Borvo, the god-or-demon of Bourbonne-les-Bains, Bourbon-Lancy and Aix-les-Bains, in France, associated with Damona; the Greek Apollo combined with Sirona, a nymph of water; Latin Mars associated with Nemetona, whose name reminds that of Nemon, the warlike fairy of the Irish epic, etc., etc.

The druidic synthesis (pre-Roman ancient or Romano-British-Gaulish) equipped each god-or-demon with one or more female figures, symbolizing the creating faculty of the god-or-demon (his brigo or his brio); his capacity of relation with the cosmos and the beings (his consort in the western world, his Shakti in India, his asherah in the Bible speaking about Yahweh).

The same god-or-demon may have several consorts. And these usual partners of a god-or-demon (at least in the Romano-British-Gaulish statuary) are not always his wives, it can be, in certain cases, his adoptive mother. Example Lug and Rosemartha. And when these goddess-or-demonesses, or fairies if you want, are some wives, they are not necessarily mothers like in the case of human women. To complicate a little more the things, some consorts have several names (according to the aspect of their personality, which is considered).

On the other hand, if practically each god or demon has an appointed wife, there exists autonomous female deities like our great Queen Epona Rigantona.

Principle No. 17. Triadism.

Why always seven gods or demons like the Sabians of Carrhes (Carrhae or Harran)? As all Indo-Europeans, Celts often view their deity as being three-headed or as a Trinity. Hesus-Teutates-Taranis, or Ogmios-Hornunnos-Belenos, or Sucellus-Nantosuelta-Maponos, and so on. Many goddess-or-demonesses, or fairies if this word is preferred, also goes by three.

Principle No. 18. Personalization and customization.

Druidism is monotheistic with regard to ontology, and polytheistic as regards liturgy. Abstractedly, philosophically, it seems that even on the level of popular thought, man cannot design God or the Demiurge differently than being One. But when it is a question of being connected with the divinity through rituals, this image breaks up into a plurality of hypostases (vyuha in Hinduism) which makes the projection of human desires and contact with what numinous is, easier.

Another factor must intervene here: a religious system is never perceived, or lived, in a uniform way, by everybody. At no latitude “man in the street “ designs things in the same way as a specialist, priest, theologist, comrunos, initiate, or sage. Facing every form of knowledge, it is therefore necessary to specify the level where those we question place themselves. There will be an image of the beliefs of a people, different, according to whether the popular religion is studied, or that of the think tanks which succeed in having a more precise vision of ultimate realities.

The case of the Irish deity called Manannan mac Lir is exemplary in this respect. He seems indeed to be only an aspect of the god-or-demon Taran/Toran/Tuireann (or Lug. Others say Belin/Belen/Belenos.

The vehicle of our salvation (ethics kission or reda) or the raft of the Medusa on which we are embarked must therefore be adapted to our case.

According to the high-knowers called druids, the five forms (pempedulia or five-leaf clover) in which every deity is, are consequently.

- The higher form, invisible, inaccessible to human eyes, the form taken by the personal Universal Including during its emanation from the Procreator or from the higher Pro-father.

- Lasting hypostases (vyuha in Hinduism and not avatar) of this higher form , given our basic incapacity to design divinity in its totality. Some variants of this form. Specialists call hypostasis the personification of one of these components (spirit, father, and son, are for example hypostases of the God or Demiurge of Christians). But for Hindus, Jesus is rather viewed as an avatar, what distinguishes the avatar of the hypostasis being that an avatar has a life in principle limited.

The notion of hypostasis does not forget and does not ignore the unity of the god-or-demon who is behind it. It is simply a permanent, non-transitory, personification, of one of the attributes of the divinity.

In that, we may therefore say that the god-or-demons of druidism are all more or less hypostases of a higher entity, which would include them all. Although the two ideas are clearly distinct, their

complementarity strikes as much as their opposition. This is why, by worshipping preferentially one of the two ones, a Celtic-hearted or minded person , does not reject the other. In the majority of cases, because of the universalism underlying in druidism, the major deity varies according to the groups, and the relation of the two deities remains interchangeable: one, Higher and Including Person, the other, a form very often favored, of the god-or-demon. Always concerned with universalism, the high druids connect these particular deities to the major figures of Panth-eon even of Pleroma. But for the peoples, this unification appears secondary, because piety remains entirely polarized by the local manifestation of the god. A phenomenon called istadevata in Hinduism. There are still the original characteristics of the chosen divine shape which attract the devotion of believers (dagolitoi), even if, theoretically, they regard it as a relative simple manifestation of the Personal Universal Including.

Considering the flexibility of druidism, the major deity can vary according to groups, but the relation of both deities as for it will remain interchangeable, we have said.

One is the higher Being, the other a less high but often favored shape, of the god-or-demon.

It will therefore be enough to subordinate one to the other to assign it, its right place in the system and to pay it the homages which are due to it. It is consequently enough to place this particular shape of the deity a notch right below the other to find for it an adequate place in the system and to grant it the veneration which is due for it. In short beside a certain deity (the higher God-or-Demon), man honors the others as partial forms of it.

- In the circles where more emotional tendencies (taghut in Arabiic) prevail, this role is reserved for occasional embodiments on earth, intended to restore the cosmic order when it is disturbed; one of most famous is the Hesus/Cuchulainn, hero of Irish legends. To him we may add Vindos / Finn and other Taranucnus (Manannan Mac Lir?) The druids on the banks of the Rhine, on the other hand, made the Roman Jupiter an avatar of Taran / Toran / Tuireann), a particular, occasional manifestation, meeting a very specific goal, and less lasting than a hypostasis. At least that was their Celtica interpretatio of Jupiter.

- The invisible presence of this deity in the mind or in the soul of a human being.

Every deity has a certain number of attributes, divine by definition (power, science, kindness, ubiquity, etc.)

- The shape, finally, in which we can pay homage to it, i.e., generally the simulacrum or the archana (Sanskrit term designating by a shift in meaning or metonymy similar to that which produced old Celtic cantalon, the statue which is used as support or focus for prayers, even for meditation;) into which a consecration inserted a kind of reflection of the divinity. This divine image (Greek eidolon, Latin simulacrum) is not a simple representation (icon). Ultimate Reality always overflows also over the form which evokes it. A little as in the consecrated hosts of Catholic Christians. The statue pertains to the deity. The care given to the main statue, in the cella of a fanum (temple) or in the central part of a shrine, proves it. An incumbent (or some incumbents), Latin aeditus, is often attached to it.

Principle No. 19. Allegorization.

The personification is the fact of ascribing gestures, attitudes, behaviors, even parts of the human body… to something which is not human, an object, an animal, or a plant. To attribute to the universal including a beard and a son or some feelings such as anger or kindness, for example.

The word allegory has two meanings.

The allegory is, first of all, a particular variant of personification. It consists in ascribing gestures, attitudes, behaviors, even parts of the human body… To an invisible force as electricity (Electricity fairy) or to an abstraction. There is for example allegory when a character embodies a moral entity or an idea (Liberty leading the people, Justice pursuing crime…).

The allegory, it is also the visual or narrative support imagined by an artist, as that who painted the Celtic Hercules having so much astonished or shocked Lucian of Samosata, to stage an idea. The various elements of the representation (characters, decorations, situations, adventures) refer to the illustrated in this way topic and contain a hidden meaning which requires an interpretation.

Principle No. 20. Immortality of the gods.

It goes without saying a god-or-demon, like an angel, or a jinn, is essentially immortal (except for him if he disappears at the end of this world). Such is besides the name that man gave them formerly, to oppose them to mere mortals we are. The god-or-demons never die, at least in our world.

But many texts in Ireland evoke god-or-demons dead, killed or assassinated. It is, of course, a pure heresy. The inconsistency of the death and of the survival of a god-or-demon [in the Irish legends] is explained only by the human or euhemerized in a wrong way, aspect, of the storytelling. In itself, it is an incident of no importance: god or demons, or angels, as jinns, cannot die before the end of the world they rule.They can perish only with the world they control.

Principle No. 21. Timelessness of the gods.

Let us repeat it once again! None of the genealogies the Irish heresy (or deviation compared to reference druidism) provides us in connection with the god-or-demons… is relevant! There are several ones and certain are incompatible between them.

The very idea of genealogy of god-or-demons is besides undoubtedly due to the influence of the notion of royal or lordly genealogy ; and therefore comes to us probably from the lower druidism of Irish bards of the Iomarbhágh na bhFileadh type.

Druids of higher intellectual level (the druidic druids) never had to design the various phenomena gathered under the name of divine emanations (or hypostases)… in the way of human genealogies.

Considering innumerable contradictions of the Irish heresy or deviation or “originality “ as regards divine genealogy; and this, without any doubt because of the fertile imagination of the royal or lordly bards, eager to flatter their masters, or because of the awkwardnesses of the copyist Christian monks; it now became impossible to succeed in working out a single or unified filiation of these various entities.

There exist indeed three large families of possible genealogies.

The first large family of genealogies is that which ascribes a preeminent importance to the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if you prefer, Danu (bia), or Anu/Ana.

The second big family of possible genealogies is that which grants a preeminent importance to Ethniu and which makes the seven main Irish god-or-demons, Dagda, Nuada, Diancecht, Goibniu, Credne, Luchta, Lug: some children of this Ethniu.

The third great family of possible genealogies is therefore that which makes the children of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Danu (bia), and the Fomore (Andernas on the Continent) some cousins resulting from the same origin: an entity or an eon named Alldui.

As we already saw previously , the first term, all, oll, expresses the notion of totality. Alldui or Ollodeiwos is the deity in his totality, or the divinity of the whole. This ollodeiwos himself being known, as we have just seen, son of Tat, a word which means quite simply “father “. In Gaelic we would have had “atir “. It is to be consequently a Brythonic (Ivernian according to O'Rahilly) term. Tat (os) is a primordial deity similar to the pro-father of Eastern Gnostic people.

And this Tat (os) himself is regarded as being son of Tabarn, son of Enna, son of Iobath, son of Beothach, son of Iarbonel, son, lastly, of the Nemet Hornunnos.

What is perhaps here a connection a little forced.

The contradictions or inconsistencies of these complicated genealogies come primarily from the euhemerizationin in the wrong way practiced by Irish annalists; who wanted at all costs to make these god-or-demons some historical characters having really existed in their country. And who for that, more or less arbitrarily, attached them, with lines of historical kings.

The only problem is that Christian annalists having thus “euhemerized “ them, almost always neglected to do it according to sufficiently coherent filiations or chronologies of generations. In spite of easily discernible converging lines, there is always what to lose several times one’s common sense in the complex tangle of these filiations or of this kinship: these genealogies remain in a state of indecipherable imbroglio. We have nevertheless the feeling they are two different series. That which go from the Nemet Hornunnos to Tabarn being one of them, and that going from Tatos to Neto, etc. through Indui and Alldui, being another one (perhaps fir bolg).

But the god-or-demons of the texts which will follow, let us not forget it, are born, live and die, only insofar as they were arbitrarily subjected to a historical prospect.

Divine genealogies have no chronological value accessible to our understanding, but they have a meaning of principle.

In any event, the genealogies of these god-or-demons, complex and sometimes contradictory, are only a means of explaining them, so that the fact of their birth is imaginable for human intelligence. We refer, for comparison, to the explanation that some authors propose of the Virgin Mary, mother of the one who made her, in Christian theology.

Principle No. 22.

Romans have historicized the main topics of Indo-European mythology. Thus, the war against the Sabines. The latter is very similar to the typically Celtic conflict between the men of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if it is preferred, Danu (bia), and the Andernas or Fomoire in Ireland, god-or-demons of fruitfulness as well as of wealth. The Romans, lacking wives, abduct Sabine women. It is the war, then the two peoples reconcile themselves, and Sabines settle in Rome. This story reflects surely also the merging between the natives and the Indo-European conquerors. The oldest Roman triad (Jupiter, magic and legal sovereignty, Mars, warlike force, Quirinus, fruitfulness or prosperity on the economic level), expresses the tripartite ideology of Indo-European peoples. In Rome, this tripartition was dislocated rather early, but the divine representatives of the three functions were changed into “historical characters “ and precisely in the series of first kings.

The same applies in the Celtic world. Every researcher in druidism comes very quickly upon the fact that certain god-or-demons of druidic Panth-eon, in Ireland particularly, were changed into mere mortals, because of Christian interpretation of their myths. Simple mortals, but keeping nevertheless often some of the superhuman characteristics of their initial model.

Principle No. 23. The skillfulness of the Celtic gods.

The French Georges Dumezil clarified identical structures in mythology and religion of the various Indo-European peoples, just as in their social structure. He could show that we found, in Rome as in India, a separation in three precise functions, and particular relations between these functions.

AT THE SAME TIME MYSTERIOUS AND REGULAR MANAGEMENT OF THE WORLD.

GAME OF THE PHYSICAL STRENGTH, OF THE MAINLY BUT NOT ONLY WARLIKE FORCE.

FRUITFULNESS WHICH BRINGS PROSPERITY, HEALTH, PLEASURE, INCLUDING THE IDEA OF BEAUTY, NUMBER, WEALTH.

The traditional model of the Indo-European trifunctional organization is the Vedic Panth-eon. This structure is found in other, more or less well preserved, Indo-European peoples: Iranians, Germanic tribes, Greeks. A relevant classification would be therefore that by functions: sovereign god-or-demons, warlike god-or-demons, patron saints of the “economic “function (agriculture, breeding, craft industry), but this fits only a small portion of the facts. In reality, the attributions are multiple. And aided by the needs of metrics, particularly in the Irish heresy (ah these bards!) people equipped the deity who was celebrated, at one determined moment, with the totality or with a part only of the functions related to the other god-or-demons.

So that druidic mythology quickly became a rather complex thing (in Ireland particularly. Again: oh these bards !) The trifunctional organization therefore was very badly preserved by the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht). There does not exist, for example, one god-or-demon of medicine, but several. Goddess-or-demonesses, or fairies if it is preferred, of rivers, like Sequana, some god-or-demons even some goddess-or-demonesses or fairies, of the springs and of the wells, some god-or-demons linked with the thermal springs (Bormanus, Borvo), some god-or-demons associated with the healing power of the sun (Grannos), etc. But that, we have already said it.

Principle No. 24. Solidarity (communion Christians say) of the gods and of the men before Fate.

At the base of the double relevance of intercession, there is the idea of a general solidarity between men and god-or-demons. Intercessors par excellence, the calming or peaceful god-or-demons, exact

opposites of the wrathful gods in Buddhism, are at the same time the servants or agents of the higher Being which is Fate and the friends of men.

To intercede means to intervene in favor of somebody to a third party, in fact, the Fate (the Tocade) in the case of the druidic theology, from where some characteristics.

1) Intercession supposes the presence of three persons, the one to whom it is interceded, the one who intercedes and the one in favor of whom it is interceded. Certain Muslim theologists think for example that Muhammad will be able to intervene in the hereafter with Allah, in favor of certain Muslims. But this intercessor role of Muhammad, a little similar to that of the Virgin Mary in Catholicism is generally little known.

2) A relation of mediation founded by the intercessor with both parties.

3) A request or demand for something, not for oneself, but for someone else.

The intercession is an ascending mediation: the men pray the gods they come to support their requests; they pray the calming or peaceful god-or-demons and rely on their merits and their characteristics anextlomaros, contrebis, iovantucaros, or helpful, neighboring, friend of the young people, etc.

The intercession is also a downward mediation: one of the forces in the universe intercedes by making man able to speak to the higher Being through the calming or peaceful god-or-demons.

The calming god-or-demons therefore help men. To ask them first in order to request them to act in this way, it is to respect the hierarchical order of the world in which higher realities illuminate, but also elevates, lower realities. The worship of the god-or-demons is, of course, one of the characteristics of any self-respecting paganism. From time immemorial men ascribed to certain entities extraordinary qualities which earned them to sit at the celestial court [of the elohim in the Bible] and to play there a part of intercessor to the higher God-or-Demiurge, in fact, the Fate or Tocade. This role of intercessors, of the god-or-demons to their superior, contributed to seriously moderate the monotheist nature of druidism, if we compare the latter with Judaism or Islam. Under these conditions, it is not astonishing that the worship of the gods or demons was the object of many criticisms from other religions, following the example of the other druidic dogmas not easily comprehensible by their believers. Like the fact that hell does not exist. The worship of all these deities nevertheless was a broad success, because, a little like in the case of amidist Buddhism, it puts salvation in the range of everybody (aren't the god-or-demons contrebis, iovantucaros, anextlomaros,virotoutis, dunatis, etc.)?

Principle No. 25.

Below a draft of summary, through proposals logically consecutive .

1 ° God-or-demons, even apparently dead or disappeared, are in reality still living. In this respect we refute entirely what Ernest Renan suggests in his too nostalgic prayer on the Acropolis. Mabon/Maponos/Oengus for example, the love god patron saint of lovers, always plays his part in the heart of men and women, even if it is without their knowledge.

2 ° They are next higher Being and They are with the Higher Being and deserve the same glory, the same observance or the same fulfillment. And reciprocally, what we always forget.

3 ° We are in a way connected to them (it is particularly obvious the day of Samon-ios).

4 ° These god-or-demons are active and take part in the Fate (Tokad). They are auxiliaries of it or some secondary causations.

5 ° Well done prayers have results and particularly to start on the psychism or morale of the praying person.

The litanies devoted to the god-or-demons even to the deceased are as many intercession prayers which also characterize the festival of trinouxtion samon (ios) devoted to the commemoration of the deceased.

This intercession is developed around four types of relations which unit: the alive ones between them; the dead between them; the alive ones with the dead (prayer for the deceased); the dead with the living.

But there is also the veneration of the tombs of heroes or of the collections of their relics (head, etc.); the spreading of the images for the worship of such or such god-or-demon, his commemoration during his birthday, processions, pilgrimages, bratou decantem (ex-votos), organized recitations of prayers for a dead person; and so on.

Druidism therefore includes this form of typically pagan piety; it thinks on the meaning of the sacred objects, statues, plants, and others, and channels their veneration by drawing aside the superstitious

reactions of the isma type with regard to the very person of Muhammad, or of the idolatry type with regard to the books reproducing the text in the Quran. The help of the god-or-demons is a help and not a guarantee of salvation only sacrifices (of oneself, of one's illegitimate ambitions, etc.) and prayers, touch the god-or-demons, and not the physical contact with their statue or their symbol.

Principle N° 26. Congruity.

Divine Providence or concealed action o the gods are the threads through which the higher Being or Fate leavens up all the living beings until their ultimate end. This divine providence also works through the action of the living beings. God-or-demons form the whole of the secondary causations by the intermediary of which the higher Being rules the world, without never mingling with it directly. In other words, the Fate or the Tocade has reasons that reason does not know, cannot know.

But to do this, for its realization, he uses the help of some of his emanations. What polytheism teaches is a representation of the powers of Nature, which simultaneously maintains that there is also an underlying Including, a unity under diversity. It is the delegated cosmic powers that are called god-or-demons. For God or the Demiurge not only gives existence to these emanations or children, he also gives them the possibility to act themselves, to be causes and principles of each other; and to cooperate thus with his laws for Mankind, with which he is united. To the god-or-demons, the Higher Being grants participation in his sovereignty by giving them the responsibility to "rule over the Earth" and to manage it.

Transposed in terms of Judeo-Islamic-Christian theology this would give us this.

God or the Demiurge gives the god-or-demons the fact of being His intelligent and free causations in this world in order to complete his work. Cooperators often unaware of the will of their procreator, god-or-demons can also deliberately share the views of their genitor. By their actions, even by their sufferings in the case of demigods, they become "collaborators of God or the Demiurge" and of his work. Being of beings is in everything "action" of his emanations or of his children. He is the first causation which works in and by the secondary causations.

Emanated from the Big Whole through the power, the wisdom and the congruity of the laws of the Universe, the god-or-demons can do nothing if they are cut off from their origin, because an emanation without its procreator, vanishes; still less can reach its ultimate end without the help of the sovereignty of the higher God or Demiurge.

But if the god-or-demons, intelligent and free emanation , must journey themselves to their ultimate destiny freely, they can also fall [like Lugifer and Iblis]. The Higher Being authorizes them to do that and, in an incomprehensible (for us, men) way, knows how to draw a good from that. God or the Demiurge, the Fate or the Tocade, Celtic-minded pagans say, can draw a good from the consequences of an evil, even moral, caused by his children or his emanations. The Higher Being would not allow evil if He did not make good go out from evil itself, by ways that we will know fully only, in other worlds.

N.B. Some Druidic Schools have nevertheless always vigorously disputed this Weltanschauung or vision of the world, according to Strabo: “Some say the Callaicans have no god, but the Celtiberians and their neighbors on the north offer sacrifices to a nameless god at the seasons of the full moon, by night, in front of the doors of their houses, and whole households dance in chorus and keep it up all night ” (geography. Book III. Chapter IV).

REGARDING THE GENDER OF THE ANGELS (AND OF THE GODS).

For Judeo-Islamic-Christians, angels in the strictest sense of the term (malak) are always male “. Genesis 6,2-4: “ The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and they took them wives of all which they chose.

There were Nephilim (giants) in the earth in those days (and also after that), when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men who were of old, men of renown “.

For high-knowers, angels, messenger of the divine other world, are almost always of the female gender. They are called bansid in Gaelic language or banshee. See the Midsummer Night’s dream by Shakespeare, or even certain scenes of Mac Beth.

Ireland distinguishes two kinds of beings of the Next World. First is like the maiden of the sidh who comes to awake Cormac. “ Adracht Cormac iarsin 7 ro chuir a mertin de co n-acca da laim deis oca ingen lucair laimghead ba caeime do mhnaib betha 7 faiteran firaluinn uimpe 7 lene orsnaith fria cnes “. “Cormac rose up and its tiredness vanished as he saw at his right-hand side a radiant white-armed maiden. Of all the women in the world, she was the fairest. She wore a beautiful tunic and next to her skin a dress of golden thread “ (Forbuis Droma Damhghaire).

Let us examine some other typical examples of women of the Other World.

The first, Li Ban , is unquestionably most traditional of the three examples which follow. She appears with a companion , in the shape of two swans bound by a gold chain. They touch down on a lake and then take again their human form. Li Ban is the messenger of Bronia Vinda Wanda/Fand known as Brangaine in the Middle Ages, the wife of the god-or-demon called Belinos Barinthus Manannan, and she comes to ask Cuchulainn to go into the sidh. She causes in our hero a languor disease which lasts for one year, because he wounded her with his sling at the time of her arrival. She does not play any other part but that of a messenger in the company of one of her maidservants.

Both banshees appear under their most antiquated features in a story of which archaism is also obvious.

- They come under the aspect of swans bound by a gold chain, and touch down on a lake or an ornamental pond. They take for that, the opportunity or the pretext of a bird hunting, favorite pastime of Ulaid.

- They do not come for their own benefit to seek a lucky man, but they are sent as messengers by a higher deity, in fact, Bronia Vinda/Wanda/Fand, wife of the god-or-demon Belinos Barinthus Manannan.

- They are not anonymous: one of them at least made oneself known by her name, Li Ban. It seems that the other one is only a duplicate. In any case, her role is secondary, her presence being made necessary only by the rigidity of the pattern of the two swans bound by a gold chain.

It is a question for Li Ban of attracting the hesus Cuchulainn in the Other World. He is theoretically needed for helping the father of Bronia Vinda/Wanda/Fand, Aedh Abrad (“Fire of the Eye “ another name for the Sucellus Dagda Gurgunt?) to overcome some enemies or some rivals. But initially, the hesus Cuchulainn does not understand the birds he aims with his sling are not ordinary swans. He only succeeds in wounding one of them, and the punishment will be immediate: he is struck cruelly with a riding crop, faints, and gets seriously sick.

The Gaelic word serg means diminution, energy wasting away, shrinking, decay, and designates the depression caused by the appearance of a young and pretty woman of the Next World. A disease the medicine-druids can never cure and which, except intervention of a god-or-demon or of a banshee, leads to death theoretically. It is not a question here of a depression, because a warrior like Cuchulainn is unable of such a mental weakness, but there is, on the other hand, physical weakening and deprivation of the word, which is hardly better. This disease of Cuchulainn is the consequence of his contact with the women of the Other World, because he did not understand at the beginning what they came to do. As soon as he has understood it, his disease will cease as if by magic.

Everything gets better when, from a festival of Samon to the other, a mysterious character appears who is not other than the god-or-demon Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, son of Aedh Abrad. He recites some verses of a poem which urges the hesus Cuchulainn to come into the Next World. This one recovers the use of the word and can tell what happened to him. On the advice of King Conchobar, he comes back to the standing stone where he had seen the two young women the previous year. Li Ban then explains what she wants or, rather, what she proposes, on behalf of Bronia Vinda/Wanda/Fand. The hesus Cuchulainn can refuse only with difficulty, he will do it even less so given that what is offered to him is at the same time the love from a goddess-or-demoness, or from a fairy if you prefer, and a fight as easy as glorious. But our hero is wary nevertheless: he sends his charioteer Loeg as a scout. What earns to us a short description of the house of Bronia Vinda/Wanda/Fand, on an island we reach with a bronze boat. The continuation and the end of the story do not concern us since the two banshees appear there no longer. But man does not get himself without damage out of contact with the Other World, and Cuchulainn becomes mad. The intervention of the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) and the use of an elixir of oblivion will be necessary , so that the great hero of Ulster recovers the reason.

The second messenger of the Next world in our listing, anonymous this time, comes in a boat made of glass in order to get the son of a king. Having been blocked by the magic of a druid, she is forced to keep trying a second time. This time she triumphs over the druid, and the young man follows her of his own free will , after having fed himself during a whole month with the apple she had given him (the adventures of Connla the fair).

The actors of this scene, or rather of this elementary scenario, are four.

- The woman of the Other World, who remains anonymous although it is she who calls the tune and keeps up the mystery.

- Connla, the first son of the king and his heir. Unlike Cuchulainn of whom we have seen the mishap, Conlla is an ordinary man.

- Conn, the king, his father, a well-known character of the mythical history of Ireland.

- Corann, the druid of the king, who is not known elsewhere.

The action proceeds in two times. The temptress woman is initially repulsed by the incantation of the druid, but the latter is not strong enough to repel her magic definitively or to entreat the female temptation. The banshee goes away, but this departure is only provisional: she leaves for Conlla an apple, food of science and of aiu (of eternity), as a guarantee of her close come back. She returns indeed at the end of a month and, this time, Connla goes with her on the coracle made of crystal. He will be regarded as dead or, worse, as if he had never existed. There is no more means to know where he is, and it is no longer possible to communicate with him, considering the normal and inevitable separation of the living and of the dead.

It does not seem, however, that somebody noticed a very interesting detail. There is a contradiction, if it is not an inconsistency, between the localization of the royal see at Uisnech, in the theoretical center of Ireland; i.e., at a rather long distance from the Western coast of the island; and the departure of Connla in a boat made of glass. It is well here the sign, at the same time of the ubiquity of the Other World, and of the obligation of a water crossing in order to reach it.

The very short subparagraph specifying that “Conn the Hundred-Fighter, you should not cling to druidry“; an assertion in contradiction with the whole attitude and all the remarks ascribed to Conn in the story; and the allusion to “the righteous one “who “will annihilate the false laws of the druids “(St. Patrick? ? ?) ; is the only foreign interpolation in this account, which is, moreover, free from any Christianization. It is besides what makes its principal interest, in addition to an archaism which appears through the extreme simplicity of the storytelling.

The third woman of the Next World, Sin, chose as target a great king of Ireland, Muirchertach mac Erca. But she does not take him along in the Other World: she remains close to him and overstays in his residence from which she drives out the legitimate wife and children. She makes him consume,him and his troops, some wine and magic pigs, which make him fall weak. Then she causes, always by magic, battalions of warriors from stones and clods, and, little by little, leads the king fallen in her power, to madness then to a sacrificial triple death. She will be overcome, however, by the force of the

will of saint Caimech, who constrains her to repent and to beg pardon. The traditional banshee is overcome by Christianity.

It also happens that a god-or-demon sometimes takes the shape of a bird, in fact, a god called Nemglan, to come and love a queen and to generate a son to her. Here the text in Gaelic language *.

In tan didiu buí ann dadaig con-acca in n-én forsin forléss a d-dochum, & fácaib a énchendaich for lár in tigi & luid chuice & arda-gaib co n-epertsom fria: ‘Do-filter chucut ón ríg do choscrad do thige & dot brith chucai ar éigin, & bia torrach úaimsea & béra mac de & ní marba eónu in mac sin & bid Conaire a ainm (ar ba Mes Búachalla a h-ainmsi dano)’.

A try of translation (traduttore traditore).

“Now while she was there next she saw a bird on the skylight coming to her. He left his bird-skin on the floor of the house, and went to her and captured her, and said: ‘They are coming to you from the king to wreck your house and to bring you to him perforce. You will be pregnant by me, and bear a son, and that son must not kill birds. Conaire shall be his name…’’

Such is besides the reason why the high king who was Conaire had, among his personal geasa, the prohibition to kill birds.

Editor's note. St. Augustine evidently compared with demons called by him duses, these messengers or angels or creatures of the other world.

BOOK XV. Chapter XXIII. The Greek word aggelos, which in Latin appears as "angelus," means a messenger. But whether the Psalmist speaks of their bodies when he adds, "and His ministers a flaming fire," or means that God's ministers ought to blaze with love as with a spiritual fire, is doubtful. However, the same trustworthy Scripture testifies that angels have appeared to men in such bodies as could not only be seen, but also touched. There is, too, a very general rumor, which many have verified by their own experience, or which trustworthy persons who have heard the experience of others corroborate that sylvans and fauns, who are commonly called "incubi," had often made wicked assaults upon women, and satisfied their lust upon them; and that certain devils, called duses by the Celts, are constantly attempting and effecting this impurity, is so generally affirmed that it were impudent to deny it.

The series of the birds of the Next -World, visible by human beings in waking state, and not in a dream or in normal even caused sleep, could be closed by the tragic destiny of the children of Lero (cf. the Gaelic story entitled Oidhe Chloinne Lir. The death of the children of Lero). When Aoife found them in the lake, she struck them with a wand of druidic magic, and put them into the form of four very white beautiful swans. The remorse then seized Aoife who exclaimed: Since I cannot afford you any other relief, I will allow you to keep your own Gaelic speech * ; and you shall be able to sing sweet, plaintive, fairy music, which shall excel all the music of the world, which shall lull to sleep, all that listen to it. Moreover, you shall retain your human reason and you shall not be in grief on account of being in the shape of swans.

By changing them in this way into swans, the cruel step-mother makes the four children come back into their primordial and superior state which is that of the god-or-demons, when they go from their world into the human world. At the same time, she makes them, at the same time escaping the evolution, going out of childhood (the four swans are adult) and leaving human time during nine hundred years. But at the end of this period, Ireland became Christian: when they come back to live with their father, they find only ruins, and they take refuge, still in the shape of swans, on an island, at a disciple of St. Patrick : Mochaomhog.

The music coming from the Other World is obviously a primeval music not depending on a particular instrument, even if the harp is frequently quoted in the circumstance. It is a unique music , inimitable by human beings,who can only hear it - sometimes - without never being capable of reproducing it or of noting it, even of understanding it.

This music of the Next World does not come besides to men through ordinary ways. Either they are messengers of the god-or-demons [angels] who bring it, or, what amounts to the same thing, they are birds, always swans, which sing sweet and plaintive music, quite different from the real cry of these

birds. Thus the children of Lir, changed into swans by a cruel step-mother , will enchant the god-or-demons of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Danu (bia). Because their mother-in-law, Aoife, full of remorse, grants to them at the last moment the compensatory gift of singing the music of the Next World.

Conclusion.

These women of the Other World are not intended to have children or to become courtesans. They are only messengers of the world of the god-or-demons (some angels). But they don’t always arrive, at first sight, under a human appearance: they very often come under the aspect of various animals, as Pomponius Mela very well remarked it, in spite of his basic mistake on their subject. Morgan herself apparently can change into a bird, according to the text by Geoffrey of Monmouth. As for the famous Mary-Morgan of Breton folklore concerning the town of Ys, her other name, Dahud, is just as well meaningful. Therefore let us repeat here in connection with Dahud or the Mary-Morgan what we have already said. Namely that they are women of the Next World, in the direct continuation of the Irish women coming, in the shape of birds (some swans!) ; or as women emerged we do not know from where; to go and get the lucky man of their choice in order to lead him in Another World with eternal happiness.

But Dahud is not Melusine, it is not either apparently, a mermaid. However it is nevertheless a very “antiquated “woman. But she is not only that. In the Celtic version of the myth, she matches the guardian of the well, guilty not to have taken care correctly of the closing of the sluice gates.

The disadvantage is that the meaning of the myth appears no longer very clearly to us, as of the oldest Irish stage besides, because of Christianization. We do not know the reason for the fault, because Christian annexation distorts the interpretation of this character.

Dahud has, on her Irish counterpart, a serious advantage:she is deprived of every Christianization. Unfortunately, this exemption made her disappear from hagiography, she thus survives only in some bits of folklore. She is a messenger from the god-or-demons kingdom, perhaps an equivalent of the angel of death. Compared to the human world, she is without age and origin.

Let us benefit from the occasion for insisting well on a point. None of the genealogies the Irish heresy in connection with the god-or-demons, provides us… is relevant! There are indeed several ones and they are incompatible between them.

* We are rigorously against the linguistic colonialism of the English language in the world. Gaelic and Navajo are, of course, difficult languages but each time a language like the Gaelic or the Navajo dies, it is a little of the soul of mankind or at least one of its facets, which goes away. Each language is a way of viewing the world. The reckless idiots who have only the words “biodiversity” or “right to be different” in their mouth are, alas, the first to supply this linguistic and cultural road roller while claiming to do the opposite, because like always in mankind, “the right hand is unaware of what the other does.”

I am really ashamed of my country today in this respect and have only contempt for cowards or opportunistic courtiers, the upstarts, who disavow their native tongue obsequiously in order to make their social advancement easier, to get a promotion and to gain money, always more money! I will never understand how a man can accept such a humiliation, such a baseness! Which can be compared only with that of the Celtic collaborators of formerly who gave up their native language in aid of the Latin to go up in the new social pyramid installed by Roman imperialism (see the town of Colchester in the fifth century for example) because it is better to be poor and to keep one’s initial personality than to become rich by selling one soul. Eirinn go Brách! Sinn Fein (St. Colman)! To sing one’s land or to claim to illustrate it in a language other than its native tongue are as many insults with regard to one’s ancestors. Every well-worked language indeed (see in this respect the case of modern Hebrew since Eliezer Ben-Youhuda) is ready to translate most subtle or most technical of human thoughts. Without taking into account the fact that it should well be admitted that the English we can call “global” or “Globish” incontestably forms an impoverishment or an intellectual decline compared to first version original or native, English (its savor its subtleties as its idiomatic expressions even, disappear from it).

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THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE DRUIDIC MYTHOLOGICAL TRIPARTITION

(non varronian theology).

MYTHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS.

All the god-or-demons of the druidic Panth-eon have a family relationship with the entities which follow, a kind of gigantic anguipedic wyverns that Irishmen call Fomorians (Andernas on the Continent), what shows their implantation in the land well and that it is preferable, moreover, in this case to rather speak about pleroma than about a simple Pantheon following the example of Greek Olympos. In Ireland the anguipedic wyvern king called Bregsos/Bres will be even temporarily king of the tribe of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Danu (bia), just after the forfeiture of their previous sovereign Noadatus/Nodens/Nuada.

In the various legends the Irish heresy bequeathed us; (by heresy, we want to only speak about the variations, significant, compared to the reference druidism, which can be only the ANCIENT continental druidism);

these gigantic anguipedic wyverns known as Andernas on the Continent, that our texts call Fomóiri, Fomóraig, Fomori or Fomore, etc. are presented as a race of giants a little similar to the Greek Titans, having lived in the land before the arrival of the god-or-demons.

One of the current Druidic Schools, very near to the work of the great Swiss psychologist called Carl Gustav Jung, makes them forces working in the human psyche in an unconscious way.

The demonization following Christianization made them systematically evil beings, and Balor will therefore embody, consequently, the negative forces, of which the power is kept at bay by the strength of Lug, however, grandson of Balor. They are described as being extremely ugly, with one eye in the middle of their face, one arm, one leg, and the head of an animal (goat, horse, or bull). Inhuman and demonic, they are endowed with magic powers, and represent chaos or destruction.

N.B.The later Irish Folklore will compare them with Scandinavian invaders…..

Some of their princes were, however, famous for their seduction, for example Elatha, the father of Bregsos, and Bregsos himself, who was famous for his beauty; as we have just seen it.

There was therefore obviously exaggeration in this way from the Irishmen who, before even the arrival of Christianity, or afterwards, but because of Christianity, have demonized these andedion.

Keating reports to us an Irish tradition in accordance with which the andedios (the underground god-or-demon?) Cicolluis, would have come on the spot 200 years before Partholon. He and his people would have lived on fishing and breeding, or hunting, but Cicolluis would have been overcome by Partholon, at the time of the battle of Mag Itha. What would hardly have been useful to him, since Partholon and his people would have died (of the plague?) shortly after.

Then the turn of Nemetians would have come. They would have faced these gigantic anguipedic wyverns on several occasions, and would have killed Gann and Sengann, their chiefs.

But Gann and Sengann also are the names given to two human princes (Fir Bolg) by the Irish legends.

Two new gigantic anguipedic wyvern chiefs would then have succeeded them. Conan son of Febar, who lived in a tower located on Tory Island , and Morc son of Dela (however, the first generation of Fir Bolg will also be regarded as being that of Dela’s sons by later Irish documentation, so ? ? ? ?) After the death of the Nemet Hornunnos, Conan and Morc reduce to slavery his people and overburdens it with taxes.

Led by a chief called Fergus Nemedians rebel, and destroy the tower of Conan.

But their victory is short-lived, because they will undergo after that heavy losses, facing the troops of Morc, and will have to give up the island.

Strangely enough, according to Irish legends themselves, the following invasion, that of the Fir Bolg, will not have to fight Andernas known as Fomorians in green Erin.

Andernas/Fomoire and children of goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if you prefer, Danu (bia), remain nevertheless narrowly related. Oldest Irish texts mention various alliances or various marriages between these gigantic anguipedic wyverns, and the children of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Danu (bia). But the later Irish legends will give us in the place, much more detailed tales to explain the

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birth of Lug (Balor locks up his daughter Ethniu in a glass tower, Ceno or Cian succeeds in entering it…. On the other hand, thereafter a large and gigantic battle will take place between the Andernas- Fomorians and the men of the goddess-or-demoness, of the fairy if it is preferred, Danu (bia), the second battle of the plain of mounds ; exact equivalent of the fight of the Olympian god-or-demons and of the Titans in Greek tradition, or of the combat of Aesir and Vanir in Germanic tradition, including sagas from Indies about the same topic.

As the druid who informed Lucian of Samosata saw it very well, whatever the cultural differences, races, or religions, men have in reality the same god-or-demons.

Such was, in fact, already, in his time, the position of Herodotus regarding Egyptian gods (he brought closer to Greek gods). See, for example Book II.113.2, 122.3, 138.4, and 141.6.

What changes from one people to another, it is the number of identified god-or-demons, as well as the form their worship takes. But even if a god-or-demon or a divine entity is not clearly recognized and identified by such or such a human community, that does not mean for all that he does not exist. He exists, but without being recognized and worshipped. Most obvious case being that of the entities pertaining clearly to the supernatural or preternatural field and whose existence isn't denied, but who are simply demonized by the upholders of a worship wanting to be hostile (better?)… having succeeded it.

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ELEMENTALS AND TEUTATES.

Elementals.

Traditional druidry always admitted, in addition to the intermediary soul/minds of the ancestors so well understood by our brethren in Africa, other beings between men and God or the Demiurge, invisible but endowed with personality. When it is spoken about “elementals “ man designates by a rather inadequate term, for want of anything better, sometimes anthropomorphic beings (corroi or dwarves, cavaroi or giants…) who live in nature, or some concretizations of divine functions governing cosmic motions. Above these elementals are located the divinities, venerated for themselves, delegated by God or the Demiurge to men, interceding for men in the eyes of God or of the Demiurge, and making effective their sacrifices.

Former high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht), thought there existed also what we could call a mysterious energy being able to waft from certain places (as the immortal author of the inspired hill , Sion, said it, there exist indeed places where the spirit breathes) and that some elements could deeply influence us, we uns mere mortals. Light is for example a natural source of energy which influences our mood and acts on the biorhythm of our body. When we miss light, we often feel less energetic, we lose our optimism, and we can even have sleep or appetite disorders. It is scientifically proven that the number of depressive people increases considerably with the approach of winter. Did you never feel gloomier in winter than in summer?

A study of the University of Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) found an increase of 10% of suicides and accidents at the time of foehn events in Europe. Popular mythology also associates various illnesses ranging from headaches to psychosis, with winds of this type, of which Santa Ana or Santana winds in California. In Northern California the Los Angeles Santa Ana is also known as Diablo wind. In the Santa Barbara Area, this wind is known as Sundowner wind or wind which makes crazy. On the other hand, a walk in the forest can relax us and do considerable good to us (so much so there exists even a dendrotherapy or forest therapy called shinri-yoku in Japan).

In short, there exists what we call nowadays elementals (a word that my French-speaking pen-friends write invariably elementaux of course!)

Elementals are embryonic beings, in a latent state in nature which surrounds us. It would be consequently a mistake to regard them as endowed with an awareness similar to ours, or even to that of an animal. They are only centers of forces. In themselves they are without intelligence, conscience nor moral sense. Their life is not sufficiently differentiated so that they have such properties or tendencies. Elemental is only likely to be directed, in its movements, by human thoughts which can, knowingly or not, give it an arbitrary shape, and up to a certain point, some intelligence. We are immersed in an ocean of elementals. Their world and ours intermingle, and, consequently, the elemental world is eternally present in the human system.

This ceaseless upsurge into us of rudimentary beings, of which awareness is pulled by ours, has for us enormous consequences. Apart from the shapes in which they sometimes lie, elementals have, of course, a material envelope which is peculiar to them, because no entity could exist without being endowed with a body. There is not in the universe pure soul/minds, i.e., beings only made up of soul and awareness. Having said that in passing, it is true that the remark of Francisco Marco Simon also applies to Ireland. "Senchas na relec inso….Ar baí cretim in óenDé oc Cormac do réir rechta. Ar ro ráidseom na aidérad clocha ná crunnu acht no adérad intí dosroni & ropo chomsid ar cul na uli dúla .i. in t-óenDia nertchomsid ro crutaig na dúli is dó no chreitfed".

A try of translation (given without prejudice because it is undoubtedly already influenced by Christianity. Or then it is a (badly understood) philosophical and considered paganism.

“Cormac… said he would not adore stones or trees but that he would adore him who made them and had powers over all the elements. He who made the trees grow……is God alone“(Lebor Na hUidre, Book of the dun cow, folio 50 b, page 127).

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In other words.

- There is no other god but God, Judeo-Muslim-Christianity says. You carve a piece of wood, and you call it God. But it is always a piece of wood.

- Yes, Cormac answers, it is indeed always a piece of wood. But the tree of which it comes was created by God, in the same way in truth as all lower gods. But he created them to be his agents in the world, so that we can approach him through them.

Inanimate objects do you have a soul?? For the high-knowers, there is no absolute difference between the world of the beings having a soul and the world of the inanimate things. The world of the beings having a soul and the world of the inanimate things are united in the same reality which is Existence. What has a soul IS, but it is the case also of the inanimate one. In this view of the world (Weltanschauung) the being, whether it is human, vegetable, animal, metal, or stone, whether it lives or it dies, is always animated by a force. Each force has its place in a hierarchical order which ranges from the grain of sand to the higher Being, from the visible to the invisible, from the audible to the inaudible one.

In other words, a monist religion basically centered on nature: rain, wind, water, animals, plants. The enlightened person can communicate with the inanimate objects or vice versa, even the animals, especially if the bear is not only the king of the forest, but, for example, the totem of the Matugenus family.

All that made the world easier to understand than if it were governed by impersonal and capricious forces, completely indifferent to the destiny of men. To have even cruel god-or-demons is preferable to chaos. And some personal god-or-demons like the Christ the Messiah of Hebrews or Muhammad, make the world more bearable, by making human status more important.

Like the Christ or the Messiah of Judeo-Christians therefore, these forces of nature can take on a human appearance. The god-or-demons of former druidism, such as our myths describe them, are active beings, taking part readily in human affairs.

They are some protective, defending, providing, feeding, helpful and so on. See the long list of their epithets or of their attributes, bequeathed by the interpretatio romana. Iovantucarus, virotutis, anextiomarus, contrebis or contrebus (who dwells with us, who lives with us, a little like a neighbor, etc. Cf. Welsh cantref, a local community); but several of them are often rather ambivalent, even dangerous.

Nonhuman or superhuman entities named by the Westerner Gnostics matres, or matrone, are divided into four main categories of fairies.

Those who are appointed to a detail of nature, which can be a mountain or a forest, even some trees, but especially springs. The ending nehae indicates the watery nature of the fairies in question. We can thus regard as fairies of springs: the Matronae Cuchaeneae (C.I.L., XIII, 7923,24), Rumanehae (C.I.L., XIII, 7869-8027, 28), Vesuniahenae (C.I.L., XIII, 7850,54,7925), Albiahenae (C.I.L., XIII, 7933-36) in Rhenish lands; the Matres Gerudatiae (C.I.L., XII, 505), Almahae (C.I.L., XII, 330), Ubelnae (C.I.L., XII, 333) in Narbonese; the Matres Augustae Eburnicae, in Lugdunense (Epigraphic Review III, p. 49, no 1220).

Those who protect lived places, villages or towns. Their universality covers the entirety of the Celtic world, even Indo-European. For this reason they are regionalized: Matres Treverae: land of Treveri in Germany; Matres Vediantia: the county of Vediantes in Nice. They were Christianized as Our Lady.

Those who form the family genies,some fairies of the type matres mopates or matres nedsamae (Latin proxumae) who are in a way some Madonna and child, and of whom the relationship with fertility, fruitfulness, or family, is obvious ( homosexual marriage had not gained recognition yet). Other names, frequent in Narbonese, betray particular qualities or many emotional relationships between the Mothers (sic) and their worshippers.

Aren’t “the Very Close “(Nessamai in Celtic language) viewed by believers as some every moment guardians? Matres lubicae or matres nessamae are good fairies playing a little the part of guardian angel of individuals. At the lower levels, protection of the family and protection of the inhabited place (of the home), always met.

Alisanus is probably the god-or-demon of the “rock “ Ialonus that of the clearing or of "the farmed field “. They are guardian god-or-demons, implanted in the very place, peculiar to a restricted community, a village or even a hamlet.

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Lastly, those who govern certain facts of human life. Originally, besides, it was a personification, of destiny, neutral, in the form of a triad “past-present-future “ of which we find trace almost everywhere. But the plenitude even of the great cosmic law from which they result (the Tokad orTocade, Irish Toicthech), will prevent, thereafter, that people identify them with the personified Universal Including, of the popular worships; the fairies of matres type being a limitation compared to infinity.

The Egregores.

Egregore. From Latin gregs, gregis = the herd, crowd, with prefix ex = which leaves. An egregore is therefore the active result, or born from the action, of a crowd. It is a collective being.

The Greek Etymology meaning to stay awake/watcher has two meanings, it is, on the one hand, the name of an angel, and, on the other hand, the concept of which definition is that of “collective being “.

An egregore is therefore a powerful psychic force, caused then kept active by the desires and the emotions, from many individuals brought together for a common aim. Example a pack of wolves in hunting. This alive force, then has a certain form of autonomy and awareness.

We live in a world governed by energy forces. One of them particularly concerns us throughout our existence, that of egregores. As soon as an animal or human group is formed, then an egregore is created. It is the sum of the psychic energies produced by each individual of the group. The whole of these vibratory motions applies in return a powerful influence on its members.

An egregore is a psychic mass very near to matter in which an individual can draw force. But if the egregore is a “ball “of energy formed by a group of individuals, this energy, with which it is possible to interact, has a nature which is peculiar to it. It is a little like the accumulator of an energy having its particular characteristics. It is therefore easy to understand that there exist egregores of all kinds.

The French Gustave Le Bon defined in his fundamental work “Crowd psychology “ what he understands through human egregore.

Below some extracts of his book on the subject.

“In its ordinary sense the word crowd means a gathering of individuals of whatever nationality, profession, or sex, and whatever be the chances that have brought them together.

From the psychological point of view the expression crowd assumes quite a different signification. Under certain given circumstances, and only under those circumstances, an agglomeration of men presents new characteristics very different from those of the individuals composing it. The sentiments and ideas of all the persons in the gathering take one and the same direction, and their conscious personality vanishes. A collective soul/mind is formed, doubtless transitory, but presenting very clearly defined characteristics. The gathering has thus become what, in the absence of a better expression, I will call an organized crowd, or, if the term is considered preferable, a psychological crowd. It forms a single being, and is subjected to the law of the mental unity of crowds.

It is evident that it is not by the mere fact of a number of individuals finding themselves accidentally side by side that they acquire the character of an organized crowd. A thousand individuals accidentally gathered in a public place without any determined object in no way constitute a crowd from the psychological point of view. To acquire the special characteristics of such a crowd, the influence is necessary of certain predisposing causes of which we shall have to determine the nature.

The disappearance of conscious personality and the turning of feelings and thoughts in a definite direction, which are the primary characteristics of a crowd about to become organized, do not always involve the simultaneous presence of a number of individuals on one spot. Thousands of isolated individuals may acquire at certain moments, and under the influence of certain violent emotions—such, for example, as a great national event—the characteristics of a psychological crowd. It will be sufficient in that case that a mere chance should bring them together for their acts to at once assume the characteristics peculiar to the acts of a crowd. At certain moments half a dozen men might constitute a psychological crowd, which may not happen in the case of hundreds of men gathered together by accident. On the other hand, an entire nation, though there may be no visible agglomeration, may become a crowd under the action of certain influences.

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A psychological crowd once constituted, it acquires certain provisional but determinable general characteristics. To these general characteristics, there are adjoined particular characteristics which vary according to the elements of which the crowd is composed, and may modify its mental constitution.

Psychological crowds, then, are susceptible of classification; and when we come to occupy ourselves with this matter, we shall see that a heterogeneous crowd—that is, a crowd composed of dissimilar elements—presents certain characteristics in common with homogeneous crowds—that is, with crowds composed of elements more or less akin (sects, castes, and classes)—and side by side with these common characteristics particularities which permit of the two kinds of crowds being differentiated.

But before occupying ourselves with the different categories of crowds, we must, first of all, examine the characteristics common to them all. We shall set to work like the naturalist, who begins by describing the general characteristics common to all the members of a family before concerning himself with the particular characteristics which allow the differentiation of the genera and species that the family includes.

It is not easy to describe the mind of crowds with exactness, because its organization varies not only according to race and composition, but also according to the nature and intensity of the exciting causes to which crowds are subjected.

The most striking peculiarity presented by a psychological crowd is the following: Whoever be the individuals that compose it, however, like or unlike be their mode of life, their occupations, their character, or their intelligence, the fact that they have been transformed into a crowd puts them in possession of a sort of collective mind which makes them feel, think, and act in a manner quite different from that in which each individual of them would feel, think, and act were he in a state of isolation. There are certain ideas and feelings which do not come into being, or do not transform themselves into acts except in the case of individuals forming a crowd. The psychological crowd is a provisional being formed of heterogeneous elements, which for a moment are combined, exactly as the cells which constitute a living body form by their reunion a new being which displays characteristics very different from those possessed by each of the cells singly.

Contrary to an opinion which one is astonished to find coming from the pen of so acute a philosopher as Herbert Spencer, in the aggregate which constitutes a crowd there is in no sort a summing-up of or an average struck between its elements. What really takes place is a combination followed by the creation of new characteristics, just as in chemistry certain elements, when brought into contact—bases and acids, for example—combine to form a new body possessing properties quite different from those of the bodies that have served to form it.

It is easy to prove how much the individual forming part of a crowd differs from the isolated individual, but it is less easy to discover the causes of this difference.

To obtain at any rate a glimpse of them it is necessary in the first place to call to mind the truth established by modern psychology, that unconscious phenomena play an altogether preponderating part not only in organic life, but also in the operations of the intelligence. The conscious life of the mind is of small importance in comparison with its unconscious life. The most subtle analyst, the most acute observer, is scarcely successful in discovering more than a very small number of the unconscious motives that determine his conduct. Our conscious acts are the outcome of an unconscious substratum created in the mind in the main by hereditary influences.

In the collective mind the intellectual aptitudes of the individuals, and in consequence their individuality, are weakened. The heterogeneous is swamped by the homogeneous, and the unconscious qualities obtain the upper hand.

This very fact that crowds possess in common ordinary qualities explains why they can never accomplish acts demanding a high degree of intelligence. The decisions affecting matters of general interest come to by an assembly of men of distinction, but specialists in different walks of life, are not sensibly superior to the decisions that would be adopted by a gathering of imbeciles. The truth is, they

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can only bring to bear in common on the work in hand those mediocre qualities which are the birthright of every average individual. In crowds it is stupidity and not mother wit that is accumulated.

Different causes determine the appearance of these characteristics peculiar to crowds, and not possessed by isolated individuals. The first is that the individual forming part of a crowd acquires, solely from numerical considerations, a sentiment of invincible power which allows him to yield to instincts which, had he been alone, he would perforce have kept under restraint. He will be the less disposed to check himself from the consideration that, a crowd being anonymous, and in consequence irresponsible, the sentiment of responsibility which always controls individuals disappears entirely.

The second cause, which is contagion, also intervenes to determine the manifestation in crowds of their special characteristics, and at the same time the trend they are to take. Contagion is a phenomenon of which it is easy to establish the presence, but that it is not easy to explain. It must be classed among those phenomena of a hypnotic order, which we shall shortly study. In a crowd every sentiment and act is contagious, and contagious to such a degree that an individual readily sacrifices his personal interest to the collective interest. This is an aptitude very contrary to his nature, and of which a man is scarcely capable, except when he makes part of a crowd.

A third cause, and by far the most important, determines in the individuals of a crowd special characteristics which are quite contrary at times to those presented by the isolated individual. I allude to that suggestibility of which, moreover, the contagion mentioned above is neither more nor less than an effect.

Moreover, by the mere fact that he forms part of an organized crowd, a man descends several rungs in the ladder of civilization. Isolated, he may be a cultivated individual; in a crowd, he is a barbarian—that is, a creature acting by instinct. He possesses the spontaneity, the violence, the ferocity, and also the enthusiasm and heroism of primitive beings, whom he further tends to resemble by the facility with which he allows himself to be impressed by words and images—which would be entirely without action on each of the isolated individuals composing the crowd—and to be induced to commit acts contrary to his most obvious interests and his best-known habits. An individual in a crowd is a grain of sand amid other grains of sand, which the wind stirs up at will.

It is for these reasons that juries are seen to deliver verdicts of which each individual juror would disapprove, that parliamentary assemblies adopt laws and measures of which each of their members would disapprove in his own person. Taken separately, the men of the Convention were enlightened citizens of peaceful habits. United in a crowd, they did not hesitate to give their adhesion to the most savage proposals, to guillotine individuals most clearly innocent, and, contrary to their interests, to renounce their inviolability and to decimate themselves.

The conclusion to be drawn from what precedes is that the crowd is always intellectually inferior to the isolated individual, but that, from the point of view of feelings and of the acts these feelings provoke, the crowd may, according to circumstances, he better or worse than the individual. All depends on the nature of the suggestion to which the crowd is exposed. This is the point that has been completely misunderstood by writers who have only studied crowds from the criminal point of view. Doubtless a crowd is often criminal, but also it is often heroic. It is crowds rather than isolated individuals that may be induced to run the risk of death to secure the triumph of a creed or an idea that may be fired with enthusiasm for glory and honor, that are led on—almost without bread and without arms, as in the age of the Crusades—to deliver the tomb of Christ from the infidel, or, as in '93, to defend the fatherland. Such heroism is without doubt somewhat unconscious, but it is of such heroism that history is made. Were peoples only to be credited with the great actions performed in cold blood, the annals of the world would register but few of them.

The violence of the feelings of crowds is also increased, especially in heterogeneous crowds, by the absence of all sense of responsibility. The certainty of impunity, a certainty the stronger as the crowd is more numerous, and the notion of a considerable momentary force due to the number, make possible in the case of crowds sentiments and acts impossible for the isolated individual. In crowds the foolish, ignorant, and envious persons are freed from the sense of their insignificance and powerlessness, and are possessed instead by the notion of brutal and temporary but immense strength.

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The few psychologists who have studied crowds have only considered them from the point of view of their criminal acts, and noticing how frequent these acts are, they have come to the conclusion that the moral standard of crowds is very low.

Doubtless this is often the case; but why? Simply because our savage, destructive instincts are the inheritance left dormant in all of us from the primitive ages. In the life of the isolated individual, it would be dangerous for him to gratify these instincts, while his absorption in an irresponsible crowd, in which in consequence he is assured of impunity, gives him entire liberty to follow them. Being unable, in the ordinary course of events, to exercise these destructive instincts on our fellow- men, we confine ourselves to exercising them on animals. The passion, so widespread, for the chase and the acts of ferocity of crowds proceed from one and the same source. A crowd which slowly slaughters a defenseless victim displays a very cowardly ferocity; but for the philosopher this ferocity is very closely related to that of the huntsmen who gather in dozens to attend the hallali.

A crowd may be guilty of murder, incendiarism, and every kind of crime, but it is also capable of very lofty acts of devotion, sacrifice, and disinterestedness, of acts much loftier indeed than those of which the isolated individual is capable. Appeals to sentiments of glory, honor, and patriotism are particularly likely to influence the individual forming part of a crowd, and often to the extent of obtaining from him the sacrifice of his life. History is rich in examples analogous to those furnished by the Crusaders and the volunteers of 1793. The collectivities alone are capable of great disinterestedness and great devotion. How numerous are the crowds that have heroically faced death for beliefs, ideas, and phrases that they scarcely understood! “

Editor’s note.Goodwin’s law. Some people, of course, criticized much this author by making him a precursor of Hitler Nazism ( national socialism of the party of German workers). It is, of course, true that he shared the prejudices of his time, and of many today still, including in the rows of antiracism, about the races.

It is true also that he was also apparently of the opinion of Churchill: democracy is the worst form of government.... except all the others. His remarks on the subject are very clear and his judgment of the political practices of our societies always topical.

"Whatever has been a ruling power in the world, whether it be ideas or men, has in the main enforced its authority by means of that irresistible force expressed by the word, "prestige." The term is one whose meaning is grasped by everybody, but the word is employed in ways too different for it to be easy to define it. Prestige may involve such sentiments as admiration or fear. Occasionally even these sentiments are its basis, but it can perfectly well exist without them. The greatest measure of prestige is possessed by the dead, by beings, that is, of whom we do not stand in fear—by Alexander, Caesar, Mahomet, and Buddha, for example. On the other hand, there are fictive beings whom we do not admire—the monstrous divinities of the subterranean temples of India, for instance—but who strike us nevertheless as endowed with a great prestige.

Prestige in reality is a sort of domination exercised on our mind by an individual, a work, or an idea. This domination entirely paralyzes our critical faculty, and fills our soul with astonishment and respect. The sentiment provoked is inexplicable, like all sentiments, but it would appear to be of the same kind as the fascination to which a magnetized person is subjected. Prestige is the mainspring of all authority. Neither gods, kings, nor women have ever reigned without it.

The various kinds of prestige may be grouped under two principal heads: acquired prestige and personal prestige.

Acquired prestige is that resulting from name, fortune, and reputation. It may be independent of personal prestige. Personal prestige, on the contrary, is something essentially peculiar to the individual; it may coexist with reputation, glory, and fortune, or be strengthened by them, but it is perfectly capable of existing in their absence.

Acquired or artificial prestige is much the most common. The mere fact that an individual occupies a certain position, possesses a certain fortune, or bears certain titles, endows him with prestige, however slight his own personal worth. A soldier in uniform, a judge in his robes, always enjoys prestige. Pascal has very properly noted the necessity for judges of robes and wigs. Without them they would be stripped of half their authority. The most unbending socialist is always somewhat impressed by the sight of a prince or a marquis; and the assumption of such titles makes the robbing of tradesmen an easy matter.

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It is of primary importance that the candidate should possess prestige. Personal prestige can only be replaced by that resulting from wealth. Talent and even genius are not elements of success of serious importance.

Of capital importance, on the other hand, is the necessity for the candidate of possessing prestige, of being able, that is, to force himself upon the electorate without discussion.

The possession of prestige does not suffice, however, to assure the success of a candidate. The elector stickles in particular for the flattery of his greed and vanity. He must be overwhelmed with the most extravagant blandishments, and there must be no hesitation in making him the most fantastic promises. If he is a working man, it is impossible to go too far in insulting and stigmatizing employers of labor. As for the rival candidate, an effort must be made to destroy his chance by establishing by dint of affirmation, repetition, and contagion that he is an arrant scoundrel, and that it is a matter of common knowledge that he has been guilty of several crimes. It is, of course, useless to trouble about any semblance of proof. Should the adversary be ill acquainted with the psychology of crowds he will try to justify himself by arguments instead of confining himself to replying to one set of affirmations by another and he will have no chance whatever of being successful.

The candidate's written program should not be too categorical, since later on his adversaries might bring it up against him; in his verbal program, however, there cannot be too much exaggeration. The most important reforms may be fearlessly promised. At the moment they are made these exaggerations produce a great effect, and they are not binding for the future, it being a matter of constant observation that the elector never troubles himself to know how far the candidate he has returned has followed out the electoral program he applauded, and by virtue of which the election was supposed to have been secured.

In what precedes, all the factors of persuasion which we have described are to be recognized. We shall come across them again in the action exerted by words and formulas, whose magical sway we have already insisted upon. An orator who knows how to make use of these means of persuasion can do what he will with a crowd. Expressions such as infamous capital, vile exploiters, the admirable working man, the socialization of wealth &c., always produce the same effect, although already somewhat worn by use. But the candidate who hits on a new formula as devoid as possible of precise meaning, and apt in consequence to flatter the most varied aspirations, infallibly obtains a success. The sanguinary Spanish revolution of 1873 was brought about by one of these magical phrases of complex meaning on which everybody can put his own interpretation. A contemporary writer has described the launching of this phrase in terms that deserve to be quoted:—

"The radicals have made the discovery that a centralized republic is a monarchy in disguise, and to humor them the Cortes had unanimously proclaimed a FEDERAL REPUBLIC, though none of the voters could have explained what it was he had just voted for. This formula, however, delighted everybody; the joy was intoxicating, delirious. The reign of virtue and happiness had just been inaugurated on earth. A republican whose opponent refused him the title federal considered himself to be mortally insulted. People addressed each other in the streets with the words: ` Salud y republica federal !' After which the praises were sung of the mystic virtue of the absence of discipline in the army, and of the autonomy of the soldiers. What was understood by the `federal republic?' There were those who took it to mean the emancipation of the provinces, institutions akin to those of the United States and administrative decentralization; others had in view the abolition of all authority and the speedy commencement of the great social liquidation. The socialists of Barcelona and Andalusia stood out for the absolute sovereignty of the municipalities; they proposed to endow Spain with ten thousand independent municipalities, to legislate on their own account, and their creation to be accompanied by the suppression of the police and the army. In the southern provinces, the insurrection was soon seen to spread from town to town and village to village. Directly a village had made its pronunciamento its first care was to destroy the telegraph wires and the railway lines so as to cut off all communication with its neighbors and Madrid. The sorriest hamlet was determined to stand on its own bottom. Federation had given place to cantonalism, marked by massacres, incendiarism, and every description of brutality, and bloody saturnalia were celebrated throughout the length and breadth of the land."

This excess of pessimism (or of clearness, but finally what is a pessimist if this is not quite an informed optimist?) therefore did not lead him to condemn for all that democracy, quite to the contrary

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(undoubtedly for lack of enlightened despotism, because to have a good king is still the best government, of course, but what is a good king, and how can we be sure to always have a good king?)

Below therefore his considerations on the subject.

“ Such is the psychology of electoral crowds. It is identical with that of other crowds: neither better nor worse.

In consequence I draw no conclusion against universal suffrage from what precedes. Had I to settle its fate, I should preserve it as it is for practical reasons, which are to be deduced in point of fact from our investigation of the psychology of crowds. On this account I shall proceed to set them forth.

No doubt the weak side of universal suffrage is too obvious to be overlooked. It cannot be gainsaid that civilization has been the work of a small minority endowed with a superior intelligence forming the culminating point of a pyramid, whose stages, widening in proportion to the decrease of mental power, represent the masses of a nation. The greatness of a civilization cannot assuredly depend upon the votes given by inferior elements boasting solely numerical strength. Doubtless, too, the votes recorded by crowds are often very dangerous. They have already cost us several invasions, and in view of the triumph of socialism, for which they are preparing the way, it is probable that the vagaries of popular sovereignty will cost us still more dearly.

Excellent, however, as these objections are in theory, in practice they lose all force, as will be admitted if the invincible strength be remembered of ideas transformed into dogmas. The dogma of the sovereignty of crowds is as little defensible, from the philosophical point of view, as the religious dogmas of the Middle Ages, but it enjoys at present the same absolute power they formerly enjoyed. It is as unattackable in consequence as in the past were our religious ideas. Imagine a modern freethinker miraculously transported into the midst of the Middle Ages. Do you suppose that, after having ascertained the sovereign power of the religious ideas that were then in force, he would have been tempted to attack them? Having fallen into the hands of a judge disposed to send him to the stake, under the imputation of having concluded a pact with the devil, or of having been present at the witches sabbath, would it have occurred to him to call in question the existence of the devil or of the sabbath? It were as wise to oppose cyclones with discussion as the beliefs of crowds. The dogma of universal suffrage possesses today the power the Christian dogmas formerly possessed. Orators and writers allude to it with a respect and adulation that never fell to the share of Louis XIV. In consequence the same position must be taken up with regard to it as with regard to all religious dogmas. Time alone can act upon them.

Must it be believed that with a restricted suffrage—a suffrage restricted to those intellectually capable if it be desired—an improvement would be effected in the votes of crowds? I cannot admit for a moment that this would be the case, and that for the reasons I have already given touching the mental inferiority of all collectivities, whatever their composition. In a crowd, men always tend to the same level, and, on general questions, a vote, recorded by forty academicians is no better than that of forty water carriers. I do not in the least believe that any of the votes for which universal suffrage is blamed—the re-establishment of the Empire, for instance— would have fallen out differently had the voters been exclusively recruited among learned and liberally educated men. It does not follow because an individual knows Greek or mathematics is an architect, a veterinary surgeon, a doctor, or a barrister, that he is endowed with a special intelligence of social questions. All our political economists are highly educated, being for the most part professors or academicians, yet is there a single general question—protection, bimetallism &c.—on which they have succeeded in agreeing? The explanation is that their science is only a very attenuated form of our universal ignorance. With regard to social problems, owing to the number of unknown quantities they offer, men are substantially, equally ignorant.

In consequence, were the electorate solely composed of persons stuffed with sciences their votes would be no better than those emitted at present. They would be guided in the main by their sentiments and by party spirit."

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THE GENII CUCULLATI (GENIUS CUCULLATUS, IN THE SINGULAR)

OR GUARDIAN ANGELS OF DRUIDISM.

Matres nessamae or matres lubicae are family guardian angels, matres suleviae ? or cucullati ? are indiividual guardian angels.

An egregore is a thought form caused by the desires, the aspirations, the dreams, the decisions, the engagements, the ideas, the will, of one or several human beings. By focusing on a goal and by acting to give it life, a person is able to create an egregore likely to develop during an unspecified time. According to the intensity of the idea in question and the number of people who will join it, this time can last from some days to several thousand years.

Example: an association created by a group of friends, during two months around the project to organize a concert in order to collect funds, will cause an egregore with limited lifespan.

Another example of egregore: a church. These men and these women who meet, who pray, who believe in their god-or-demiurge, develop a gigantic energy unconsciously. And the manifestations of this egregore can be very numerous… We can in the same way mention a State, a party, even the Christian communion of saints.

But it should be known that religion or politics are not the only ones to cause egregores! A little everywhere flourish within the hospitals “groups of prayers “ which pray for the cure of the patients who asked it to them. However people realized that patients affected by grave diseases, and for whom these groups prayed, recovered much more quickly, and had chances of cure much higher , than patients who did not profit from the prayers of these groups! Why? Quite simply because the “ prayer group “ by its devotion will channel placebo energy, we could perhaps call “cure energy “; and which will mix with the energy of the concerned patient, making him thus much stronger, to fight against the disease! Here is an excellent example of egregore!

For work, it is the same thing: you work in a company which requires of you to set up a group in order to carry out a project. If, in your group, each one is united, “on the same wavelength “ your project will be closed in a record time, and you will profit from the honors of your employers. On the other hand, if in the group there exist one or more “black sheep “ the energy developed by your group will be almost null, even negative, the ideas will be missing, your work will not progress, and the morale of your “troops “ will have reached rock-bottom!

You will suffer thus a painful failure in the eyes of the persons in charge of you. What will have occurred? The energy developed by this group with an “unhealthy “ basis will be non-existent, even counterproductive. Best solution would therefore have been you do the work by yourself , what would have been longer, but much less difficult; since you would not have undergone obstacles to its realization, contrary to what will have occurred in your negative group.

It was besides a little what my master Pierre Lance said who always thought that nothing

was as good as the work of a man alone, in certain circumstances. And it is true, when we look at a little what occurs, or occurred, in certain French neo-druidic groups; that we can only be convinced by the relevance of such a remark in spite of his hopelessly, “non-democratic “nature.

The ancient high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht), compared some of these egregores to god-or-demons called by them cucullati. What we can withdraw from this metaphorical interpretation by the high-knowers of Antiquity, it is that a egregore has its own life able to influence the human beings and the course of History when it is a crowd. It takes its force from the psychic energy of each member of the association which feeds it. Being autonomous, it persists as long as it is fed.

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The theory of egregores implies lastly that an emotion can create or destroy according to its impact. Example: one day, you remember a regrettable accident. However, you can experience it again as it occurred really at the moment. Automatically, you therefore have an external reaction: cold, shiver, fear, etc. Consequence? You create an image and you can give it a “power “. This power can destroy or rebuild. Lebon highlighted the ambivalence of the phenomenon,well.

The egregore is present everywhere, it floats above the heads, and in the hearts. It is enough to be connected to it through a simple state of intellectual openness: a thought, a meditation, a symbol, an emotion, a coincidence, an impetus of creativity… The egregore gets inner peace, help or a support, force and courage, union and solidarity.

The acts, the emotions, the thoughts and the ideals of each entity forming the group, merge to build a coherent unit, of which components are of energy nature, of metaphysical nature. The more it is fed and the more its radiation extends.

More the egregore radiates intensely and more the possibilities of the group will be increased through that. Egregore attracts to it people being able to answer its vibratory note.

If certain men (professional soothsayers or priests of such or such God or Demiurge even great statesmen are more clear-sighted than others, it is because they are in connection with the egregore in question, they form part of it. The handover of collective knowledge is enriched, memorized then conveyed by the egregore. Priests and genial politicians live with this egregore, they are not alone, energies focus on them.

Theoretically, an egregore persists, and is dissolved with much difficulty. Example: the big difficulty of living in everyday life in a place where several people driven by very bad intentions met regularly.

Ausonius (in connection with the use of the word libra). “ We may compare human things with divine “.

The same laws govern the material field and the psychic field. What applies to one, applies to the other. There is no difference. It is the same thing for all what relates to the spiritual world. Egregores are dependent on the quality of awareness of their members.

If the objectives and the personal orientations of the latter are of material nature, the egregores, their subtle double, express similar interests. If on the contrary, the goals and the orientations of the people forming a group on the physical level are inclusive, its egregore will thus be driven with the same intentions.

Every gathering of individuals therefore forms an egregore, we have said. Whether it is human or not human. But it is an entity very difficult to see. To see a egregore request a great ability to visualize… Visualization can be done in two different ways; either in a group, or alone. If it is done with several people, the group must be very united, all the people have to know themselves, and to rely perfectly on the other. There must be rather strong bonds of friendship between members. Harmony is very important in group visualization, it is really necessary to be on “the same wavelength “to be able to succeed in something.

Greeks have their founding warlike heroes , whose poetry sang the feats, whose art idealized characteristics. The genii cucullati of Celts have nothing of these anthropomorphic looks; they are generally anonymous soul/minds, who were only late and by the imitation of the Greco-Romans, the subjects of illustrated representation.

We insisted on several occasions about the place that druidic religion gives to deities who have presided over life and generation. We may say that it is not one among the great god-or-demons who do not have this field in his attributions. The genius cucullatus belongs to the group of family deities, he summarizes in him their particular influences, he replaced even them in a way at the drop of a hat , when a certain religious evolution made them scorned or fallen in disuse. Celts therefore also

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rely on their guardian angels to them (the genii cucullati or the good fairies called matres suleviae) to be in good health but also lucky in businesses.

As the Gdonios (the Man) has a triple nature: soul (anamone), mind (menman), body (kicos) ; the genius cucullatus too, in druidic religion, therefore has a triple form, because he is supposed being in a way, “the guardian angel “ of a human being, as well on the spiritual level as on the bodily level.

What contributed to popularizing the worship of the genius cucullatus in all parts of the Roman world, it is that he was a deity quickly found for communities of any kind. There is no meeting of men, not political formation, no professional association, no class nor community; which did not place itself under the protection of a special genius cucullatus, in the absence of a god-or-demon and even preferably to a god-or-demon. Because the genius cucullatus had the major advantage to adapt all the particular cases. Like the angels in Christianity, of whom it was said they are distributed on the nations and the cities: kata ta ethnê kai poleis, the genii cucullati or matres of the druidic polytheism are everywhere; we have some of them for the vici (villages), for the pagi (counties), all the more reason for the cities and the peoples.

It is necessary to mention here the genius cucullatus of the town of Lyon on the coins of Albinus, who is in reality the god-or-demon called Lug (this mistake is, of course, due to the Romans) or the one of the land of [ Great] Britain. On the other hand, the Louvre Museum in Paris has a vase of the first times of the Christian era, dedicated to the genius cucullatus of Tournaisians (genio Turnacensium) in Belgium.

In addition to these genii cucullati or matres of the cities and Tribe-States, it is necessary to quote those who were the guards, either of a social class as slaves and freed slaves, or of a business enterprise or of a trade. The collections of inscriptions are particularly rich in testimony of this kind; there are genii cucullati who are appointed for the guard of an attic, a port or a market; there are some of them for schools, theaters and baths; there are especially some of them for colleges and associations of any kind, being used to join together, by religious links, people of the same trade. There is no recess in a town, no place, no street, no gate, no public building nor even private house,

which is not placed under the guard of the genius cucullatus; where it is not called upon its divinity to dispense his favors on men; to draw aside from the places every stain and every deterioration. The poet Prudentius remarks it while mocking, without becoming aware apparently that the same thing exists in Christianity under the name of guardian angels. Well-known illustration of the old Christian principle we may summarize as follows: “double standard “. People ridicule some ideas at the others, whereas they have the same ones at home, but look out, now “in our case it is not similar! “.

A special mention is due to the religion of the genius cucullatus in the life of military camps; we meet there the genius cucullatus of the army as we have, in the civilian life, that of the people; the genius cucullatus of the camp matches that of the city, the sanctity even of the ensigns is embodied in a genius cucullatus.

Ultimately, the idea of genius cucullatus is solved in that of the numinous one, which signifies the guardian action of the deity over men and things.

N.B. Romans tended to get this guardian angel of the individual mixed up with other entities they called Manes Lares or Penates. For more details on these notions of Roman mythology to consult the works of our brethren in paganism particularly interested in this religion what is not our case.

IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND WELL WHAT A GENIUS IS, SEE WHAT THE DICTIONARY OF GREEK AND ROMAN ANTIQUITIES BY DAREMBERG AND SAGLIO SAYS US CONCERNING THE WORD GENIUS.

In the vague notion of survival of human personality after death, the “genius“ borders on soul/minds generally regarded as distinct from him, on Manes, Lares and Penates; who have on him the advantage of representing more precise personifications. Servius teaches us that these home deities are usually mistaken the ones for the others; that, for example, people attached to each human existence, as of birth, two Manes, one good and the other bad, who survived, even continued to inhabit the grave. Varro confused Manes with Lares and both classes with the Genii, comparing them in addition to the heroes of the Greeks. [A beautiful hodgepodge ! Celts were more logical !]

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The first pieces of evidences relating to the worship of the genius in the Roman religion do not go back beyond the Second Punic War and there is none of them in which we don’t feel the influence of the Greek ideas about the daemon and soon that of the stoical doctrines. It is not less certain than the “genius“ formed part, with Lares, Penates and Manes, of most former deities in Latium. Often confused with these soul/minds of Latin and Roman essence, he seems to designate a kind of which they are the species, the general notion of which they detail the various aspects. Etymologically, the ancients attached the name of genius to gens, geno or gigno sometimes, through an error of linguistics which is not without interest for the explanation of the role of the genius, to gero. It is the force which generates at the starting point and which preserves in their own individuality until their destruction, and man’s being and the reason beings that man forged in his own image…

The“ genius“ is above all the divine force which generates: genius nominatur qui me genuit; he is the author of the men's race, generis nostri parens. The first manifestation of his action dates from the gender union; the bridal bed is under his special protection, therefore it is called genialis. Every breach performed to the sanctity of the marriage is therefore a crime against the “ genius“ * …

By this identification of the “genius“ with any good and pleasant act, we explain the use of the word “genius“ in the comic authors, who associate the mention of it with that of a happy meeting; of a friend for example whom you find in an unforeseen way. There is there as a homage for the benefit of the influence which gets a good mood, at the moment even where it is felt; in these cases there, in fact, the notion of Genius is identical to that of Fortuna.

After being itself applied initially to the bridal bed, to the ideas as to the people of whom this bed suggests the idea; the adjective genialis applies to the god-or-demons which mean abundance, joy, prosperity; to Bacchus, to Ceres, Saturn, to the seasons when man tastes in peace the fruits of his work, to everything which is happy, fertile, in life. It is through this meaning that as of Antiquity, “genius“ just like the adjective genialis, and even, in certain cases, ingenium, came from there to mean the plenitude of intellectual faculties, the happy mind faculty to give birth to beautiful and original designs.

The “genius“ who has presided over the act of generation, appears especially on the day of the birth. It is him who determines the individual nature of the new being who comes into the world; who will be at the same time the guiding principle of his acts, the guard of his existence, and the ideal explanation of what is reserved for him of happiness or of unhappiness.

As such, the genius natalis reminds or is the spitting image of the daemon of Greeks. It is difficult to say, in the largest number of cases, if the authors who make him intervene , draw from the source of the purely Roman beliefs; or if they adapt, according to Greek ideas, a notion much vaguer of the old popular religion. It seems; through the use that comic authors , and more particularly Plautus, most Latin of them, for whom the “genius“ is simple and single, made of them; that the multiplication of the individual genii, varying from one man to another, and double in each one of them, is due to the influence of the Greek literature and philosophy.

Lucilius the first, therefore following in that the ideas of Euclid the Socratic, admitted for each man two genii, one good, the other bad; who explain, each one for his part, what is happy or unhappy one, virtuous or shameful in the existences.

All the more reason this is no longer the same “genius“ who gives out over all the men an equal influence; the “genius“ is done individual, and also varying in energy or moral quality; there are more powerful genii the ones than the others and, in the fight of rival ambitions, it is their respective force which explains the result; thus an Egyptian priest tells Antony that it is his “genius“ who yields in front of that of Octavius. The two genii appear to the emperor, Julian, the one expression of his good fortune, before his ascending the throne; the other, looking despaired, even with a terrifying aspect , after his raid against the Persians. Brutus and Cassius received both, before their fall, the visit of the evil genius in whom their disastrous destiny was embodied.

* In a way therefore a crime against the “spirit.” Homosexuality was by no means penalized by Roman paganism, but, on the other hand, what saint was for it, it was the union of a man and of a woman. The

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union of two men (or two women) was not so, in no way. Without, however, being prohibited or repressed. Homosexuality did not concern the criminal courts like in Muslim land (dar al Islam).

Below also some quotations also relating to the Germanic or other Scandinavian peoples (Finnish?? Baltic ?)

Let us begin, first of all, with some Christian authors.

Bardaisan. Book of the law of the countries.

“In the north, however, in the territory of the Germanic ones, and their neighbors, the boys who are handsome serve the men as wives, and a wedding feast, too, is held then. This is not considered shameful or a matter of contumely by them, because of the law obtaining among them.

Yet it is impossible that all those in Celtica who are guilty of this infamy should have Mercury in their nativity together with Venus in the house of Saturn, in the field of Mars in the Western signs of the Zodiac. For regarding the men who are born under this constellation , it is written that they shall be shamefully used, as if they were women.

Laws of the [Great] Britons.

Among the [Great] Britons, many men together take one wife.

Laws of the Parthians.

Among the Parthians…….

But our brothers who live in Celtica do not marry with men, and they who live in Parthia… “

These remarks by Bardaisan not very clear are perhaps drawn from Eusebius of Caesarea.

Preparation for Gospel. Book VI, chapter X.

“Among the Celtes the young men give themselves in marriage openly, not regarding this as a matter of reproach, because of the law among them. Yet it cannot possibly have been the lot of all in Celtica who thus impiously suffer outrage to have the morning star (Venus) with Mercury setting in the houses of Saturn and regions of Mars at their nativities.In [Great] Britain many men have the same wife: but in Parthia…. “

Let us repeat it once again : we question the religious nature of such unions strongly. On this point Celts and Romans were to have the same feelings: they were perhaps to be simple civil unions in any way placed under the glance of the gods. More former authors like Diodorus of Sicily don’t present these relations as entering the framework of a marriage but as a practice accepted in male groups like these formed by warriors.

Diodorus of Sicily. Book V, 32, 7.

“Although their wives are comely, they have very little to do with them, but rage with lust, in outlandish fashion, for the embraces of males. It is their practice to sleep upon the ground on the skins of wild beasts and to tumble with a catamite on each side. And the most astonishing thing of all is that they feel no concern for their proper dignity, but prostitute to others without a qualm the flower of their bodies; nor do they consider this a disgraceful thing to do, but rather when any one of them is thus approached and refuses the favor offered him, this they consider an act of dishonor“.

Strabo perhaps reproduces Diodorus on the subject (Book IV, 4, 6).

“And the following, too, is one of the things that are repeated over and over again, namely, that not only are all Celts fond of strife, but among them it is considered no disgrace for the young men to be prodigal of their youthful charms“.

As Athenaeus of Naucratis. The Deipnosophists. Book XIII. 79.

“And the Celts,too, although they have the most beautiful women of all the Barbarians, still make great favorites of boys so that some of them often go to rest with two lovers on their beds of hide“.

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Aristotle’s case is more doubtful because he had a little tendency as any self-respecting Greek, to regard as normal homosexual marriages, so his witness is unreliable.

Aristotle. Politics. Book II. Section 1269 B.

“So that the inevitable result is that in a state thus constituted wealth is held in honor, especially if it is the case that the people are under the sway of their women, as most of the military and warlike races are, except the Celts and such other races as have openly held in honor passionate friendship between males“.

Let us remark nevertheless that there again it is still not a question of homosexual marriage in a stricter sense of the term but only of homosexual loves. What is not the same thing ! The idea of the marriage among ancient Celts had undoubtedly nothing to do with the middle-class idea of love which prevails in our modern societies (although today only the homosexual persons and the priests want to marry) but was connected rather with an alliance between two families. The druids were content with wisely adding the condition of the free assent of the husbands, better even, that parents take into account their affinities in order to make a true marital love possible over time.

[FIRST CONTACT POINT WITH DRUIDIC RELIGION].

On the contrary, in the old Latin language, the same genius was used to explain all the accidents of life: man has him good or bad in turn: propitium, iratum, sinistrum habere. He was born with each man, he died with him, i.e., he returned within the universal soul of which he was an emanation. It is the doctrines Horace expresses in the lives of verse below:

Scit Genius, natale comes qui temperat astrum.

Naturae deus humanae, mortalis in unum

Quodque caput, voltu mutabilis, albus et ater.

[SECOND CONTACT POINT WITH DRUIDIC RELIGION].

The “genius“ is a soul/mind of male nature, he appears only in the existence of men, what proves once more that he was originally the divine principle of generation: tutela generandi. The role he fills with respect to man is performed with the woman by the individual Juno, who has to be considered for tutela pariendi; it is in short only an application to all the particular cases, of the idea of Juno Lucina, who presides over childbirth. For all the rest, Genii and Junones are similar. The juno was called natalis like the “genius“ and a woman explained the misfortunes of her existence by referring to her annoyed Juno (Junonem iratam habere).

This individual “genius“ was the subject of a very simple worship which left many traces, thanks to votive inscriptions set up in his honor. It was used to sacrifice to him, at the birthday; the offerings which were intended to him had a character of pious simplicity; since they did not comprise any bloodshed.

They consisted especially of wine, a symbol of cheerfulness joy and strength, of flowers, image of beauty which fades, of cakes; the sacrifice was followed by dances. Horace combines the worship of the “genius“ with the pastoral rejoicings by which the former plowmen of Latium celebrated the end of the works as well as the winter rest; while Tellus receives the sacrifice of a pig, and Silvanus that of the milk, “Genius“ who knows how much life is short, is honored with flowers. Elsewhere, however, it is a question of the sacrifice of a kid or of a pig, in his honor: it is obvious that these two victims point out his quality of god-or-demon of generation.

Specialists also signal the recourse to small wine amphoras, symbolizing blood, which were left thus, or from which the content was poured the in an adapted place , after having opened them, or to have broken ritually their neck. Perhaps with a gesture similar to that which consists in “cracking open“ a bottle of champagne, nowadays.

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In ordinary life, man swore by the “genius“ either by his own, or by that of a friend or of a mistress. The oath by one's “genius“ was done by touching one’s forehead, seat of the intelligent force which presides over life .................

The Juno of the wife is painted with the husband’s “Genius“ on the home altar of a house in Pompei. Specialists also signal tombstone inscriptions in which the idea of “Genius“ doubles that of Manes: Genio et Manibus. During the Parentalia, people honored the “genius“ with ancestors, just like Aeneas venerates that of his father Anchises; by offering them garlands of flowers, seeds infused in wine, salt and violets. Ovid, speaking about the Larentinalia, say these festivals are welcome for the genii: geniis accepta. On a sepulchral lamp, a character dedicates his “genius“ to the underground god-or-demons: Helenius suom geniom dis in feris mandat. In calendars of the end of the Empire, the Feralia are called Genialia, and the games celebrated in honor of the dead, genialici…

Within the Roman family, the lar remains more especially the divine soul/mind in which a line is embodied; the“ genius“ is the particular guard of the individuals who renew it. As for the Penates, it seems this word is only a simple epithet designating sometimes the Lares, sometimes the Genii, in their function of pantry providers. Inscriptions in honor of the Genius domus, domus suae are for Penates. It happens, however, that they are distinguished, like in the lines of verse in which Horace calls them to witness: Quod te per Genium dextramque deosque Penates obsecro et obtestor.

We have already said that the “genius“ of Latins has the whole variety of aspects of the daemon of Greeks; this similarity of nature undoubtedly contributed much to introduce into the literature, and through it in the practice of life, uses and beliefs which were not native to Italy. Rather singular thing! Cicero, to whom many opportunities to speak about “genius“ had been offered, does not even pronounce his name ; when he has to translate the Greek word daïmôn, he uses the word lar; but, after him, it is well “genius“ which is utilized for this use. Just as daïmôn is not only combined with tyche in the language, but that, often, it replaces it, thus Genius is sometimes identical with Fortuna: some people could say that the tyche of each man is his “genius“. In some inscriptions Genius plays near Fortuna the part of the male god-or-demon near the female deity, like the good Daemon beside Agathe Tyche.

A characteristic which distinguishes the “genius“ of the Latins from the daemon of the Greeks, it is that he is transposed by some people to the case of personal god-or-demons; he represents, through a kind of refinement, their ideal divinity, by opposition with their anthropomorphic expression. This form of the worship of the genies is even rather old in Italy, the inscription of the year 38 before our era of the Jupiter Liber temple, in Furfo, shows it; the Jupiter’s genius is distinguished in it from Jupiter himself. Arnobius quotes to us the passage of a former scholar, probably Caecina, friend of Cicero, in which the genius of Jupiter, Genius Jovialis, is mentioned among the four Penates of Etruria; it is there one of the documents according to which specialists believed relevant to ascribe to Etruscan civilization, the belief in the genii among Latin people; however the genius of the god-or-demons is day-to-day usual and is really popular among the latter. Inscriptions and texts mention the genii of Jupiter, Juno Sospita, Apollo, Mars, Aesculapius, Priapus,Sleep and even of moral personifications like Fama, Virtus and Virtutes.

This distinction of the genius of a god-or-demon and of his person was especially convenient for the Romans in a foreign country; it was used by them to prepare the identification of exotic divinities with those of their national religion, to reconcile, in practice, the Roman worship in honor of the genius, with the homage they were keen to pay to the god-or-demons of overcome people. Thus we have inscriptions in honor of the genius of Mercurius Alaunus, or of Jupiter Dolichenus, who are Celtic deities. A still new inscription, found very recently in the French Indre department, and that we must make dating back to the reign of Augustus, is in honor of the imperial divinity and of the genius of Atepomarus Apollo. NUM AU (g) ET GENIO APOLLINIS ATEPOMARI.

This inscription is interesting in two ways; in that the epithet given to the Roman god-or-demon is still new; and in what the homage paid at the same time to the divinity of Augustus and to the genius of Apollo, points out the legend of the emperor resulting from the mysterious snake which would have had relations with Atia.

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It appears well, through these various witnesses, that the genii of the great god-or-demons, are another thing than a weakened emanation of their divinity; another thing than some messengers or servants charged with carrying out among mere mortals the works where their majesty was not to be compromised by being associated with them; what the daimones propoloi of the Greeks are. This last opinion encounters this characteristic fact that, even if personified deities are taken in the plural, like the Forinae or the Virtutes, the genius is always in the singular. We could not admit more that the genius of the god-or-demons is simply their located numen, thanks to a kind of extension of the concept of genius loci. The genius of the god-or-demons was designed on the contrary, absolutely like that of men, to express, in a shape more linked with their anthropomorphic personality than a numen, their moral action; it is their ingenium. Such is the meaning of the genius of Priapus in Petronius, of that of Fama in Martial.

We could not deny nevertheless that the localization processes did not play a certain part, when piety, always in search of new food, thought out and work out then to separate the genius from the god-or-demon himself…

Before the very times of religious syncretism, the genius came in this way to be used as a hyphen between the world of the god-or-demons, and the nature of human beings. Aufustius, a contemporary archeologist of Cicero, called it deorum filius et parens hominum. But it is there a point of view in which religious speculation falls into pure philosophy.

The latter, besides, could not fail to exploit the idea of genius, just like the Greeks used daemon, to give a look of orthodoxy, and to subject to rationalist interpretation popular ideas about god-or-demons. Varro, after having placed the genius among dei selecti, between Saturn and Mercury, makes it the reasonable soul of man (the mind), as opposed to lower faculties and passions…

Above all these particular genii, often named with them, the genius of emperors, combined since Augustus with the worship of public Lares, hovers. When he again honored the festival of Compitalia, he made the image of his own genius be placed in each chapel of the district (there were 265 of them), between the two Lares and the Senate issued that in all the houses, at the beginning of each meal, people would make libations to the genius of the emperor, like the Greeks made some of them for the good daemon. Then the use to swear by the divinity (numen) or by the genius of the monarch, what the Greeks translated by his tyche, also began; it was vainly that Tiberius preferred to resist this form of apotheosis. The practice of this oath and the homage to imperial genius became obligatory; those who contravened this use were punished by a beating. J.A. Hild.

Here now what this same Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities by Daremberg and Saglio says to us about the cucullatus, or more exactly about his Greco-Roman equivalent, Telesphorus.

I MYTHOLOGY. A secondary deity in the entourage of Asklepios and Hygeia, appearing only at the end of the Hellenistic time. Literary, epigraphic, sources, and illustrated monuments of Telesphorus, date, taken together, back to the time of the Roman Empire. The rare ancient authors who speak about Telesphorus say us neither in which time, neither in which country, nor following what circumstances, the worship of Telesphorus was formed; nor for what reasons also it was so closely combined with that of Asklepios and Hygeia. Modern scientists do not seem to have succeeded in explaining in a satisfactory way the name of Telesphorus by the Greek etymology. For the ones, it is the genius of convalescence, an idea that several scientists still share. For others, it is a deity who gives the health or who preserves from the diseases which threaten it. Some specialists also regard him as a genius of magic medicine, a demon of healing dreams, or a god-or-demon of sleep, similar to Greco-Roman Hypnos [somnus]. Some critics, citing the opinion of Aristides the rhetorician, and of Pausanias, regard Telesphorus as a god-or-demon from Pergamon, or as the Akesis of Epidaurus; others, as originating in Asia Minor; others still believe him of Celtic origin. Salomon Reinach, being based on the misleading nature of the Greek etymology of Telesphoros, on the northern origin of his costume, and on a clever interpretation of a text by Pausanias; which indicates, according to him, the adoption of an unfamiliar to Pergamon, worship, by order of an oracle; feels Telesphorus is a deity of Barbarian origin who, perhaps come from Thrace or from Illyria, was introduced at a recent time into the Greco-Roman Panth-eon. At all events, it is in Pergamon that the worship of this deity took, in the third century of our era, a considerable importance. It is also from this city that the oldest text which mentions him, comes. The rhetorician Aelius Aristides, in his sacred tales, regards Telesphorus as the colleague of Asklepios. He appears in dreams to the patients, with the medicine god-or-demon. The attendant of Aristides, Neritos, saw twice, he says, Asklepios, with Telesphorus, appearing to him in a

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dream. He received a balm with some instructions about the way of using it. Telesphorus is not restricted nevertheless to play this part of colleague of Asklepios; he too develops in dream a personal influence on the patients. At the time of another vision, he appears only to Aristides himself, by projecting in front of him a gleam comparable with the light of the sun. The philosopher Proclus has a similar vision. These various apparitions show the main characteristics of incubatio visions. The deities appear to the patients in a beautiful and youthful appearance, surrounded by a mystical gleam, and disappear in a sudden way…

III ILLUSTRATED REPRESENTATIONS. The oldest representation of Telesphorus would be that which appears in the reverse of a coin of the Segusiavi (from 58 to 27 before our era) where some people think to recognize him with Hercules, if it were certain that it is his image there. It is a man wearing a long tunic, but without hood and barefoot.

The reverse of a coin of Nicaea (Bithynia), minted when Antoninus Pius was emperor, shows us Telesphorus under the aspect of a small standing character, dressed in a loose coat with a hood on his head. Only his face remains visible, his arms are hidden under the coat. The reverse of a small bronze of Aegae in Cilicia, dating back to the reign of Philip the Arab of Otacilia and his son, shows to us Telesphorus between Asklepios and Hygeia, grouped on the frontage of a hexastyle temple. Specialists proposed several assumptions to determine the origin of the hooded coat of Telesphorus. The ones believe it from Asia Minor, others from Celtic or Thracian countries [cucullus]. It is also considered as the clothing of convalescents, or a symbol of the magic mysteries of medicine, even as nightwear.

On an ivory diptych of the British Museum, we can notice on the left of Asklepios a Telesphorus reading a developed roll. The Telesphorus of the group of the former Strangford collection, in the British Museum, wears around his neck a kind of box which can contain a good-luck charm or an amulet. On a copper coin of Pergamon, Telesphorus holds the branch of a tree. The beautiful marble statue of Telesphorus of the former Foucault collection, as that of red marble of the Torlonia museum (Rome) show him wrapped in his knee-length coat; the hood leaves only his face uncovered. Mr. D. Vaglieri very recently discovered, in Ostia, a terra-cotta statuette of Telesphorus sitting on a base. On each side we can notice a kind of altar; on one is a pig; specialists think to distinguish on the other corn ears, undoubtedly symbols of Demeter’s worship, of which we can note the close relationships with the worships of Asklepios and Telesphorus. We designate perhaps wrongly under the name of Telesphorus Gallo-Roman bronze statuettes found in various French localities. GASTON DARIER.

Below what Dyfed Lloyd Evans points out for us about the Genius Cucullatus or Genii Cucullati (hooded genii).

The Cucullati are a range of cult images known throughout the Celtic provinces of the Roman period. The name comes from a Romano-Celtic shrine at Wabelsdorf, Austria , and excavated by Rudolf Egger.Two large altars were erected that depicted a figure wearing a hooded cloak and which bore epigraphic dedications having the Latin names 'genio cucullato' [to the hooded spirit ]. The name is actually derived from the garment that the figure wears ( cucullus). Similar hooded figures have been found across Brythonic realms and the term genius cucullatus has been applied to all such figures.

They appear singularly as giants (cavaroi) or dwarves (corroi) and occasionally have their cloak open showing thus their phallus. In [Great] Britain, the cucullati are invariably small and appear in triads. They are wrapped in the same cloak even if its length varies. Most of the British depictions also have overtly sexual symbols such as eggs and moneybags. Though such symbols are not unknown in a continental context, for a wooden image found in Geneva, Switzerland carries eggs and an image found at the shrine of the Xsulsigiae at Trier, Germany holds moneybags.

In both continental and British iconography these deities are often found holding parchments or scrolls, which may signify wisdom or knowledge of healing lore (see the exemplar found at Reculver in Kent) or any accountancy.

They generally have an undeniably phallic appearance. However the actual sex of the figures depicted is a matter of conjecture with some commentators stating that all Cucullati are male. However, some

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images such as the Housesteads one show a clearly masculine figure (the central form) in the company of figures with softer more feminine figures.

It may be like in the cases of the triads of fairies of the matres type, a question of representing the various ages of life. The central figure represents a middle-aged man and the two other figures young teenagers.

However, unlike most of the Cucullati, Telesphorus wears no shoes. In [Great] Britain, there can be little doubt that the Cucullati, in their triple aspect, are Celtic in origin. Unfortunately, only one depiction of triple Cucullati is known from continental Europe, a clay tablet found at Kärlich, Germany.

All other discovered statuettes don’t represent some genii cucullati in a triple shape, but isolated individuals. Waldemar Deonna in his essay entitled: De Telesphore au 'moine bourru' suggests that there has been interpretatio romana and bringing together therefore between a druidic concept and a Roman or Greek god-or-demon.

A good example of this is a figure found near Nimes, France, where the figure seems to have the bare feet of Telesphorus, but the rest of the iconography is clearly Celtic and similar in form to the Cucullati found at Netherby, Cumberland, along Hadrian's wall.

The incorporation of small carved Cucullati among grave goods may also signify that the deities had a psychopompous role, in addition to their relations with fertility or healing. And that they were protectors throughout each stage in human life, from conception through birth to adulthood, to death and beyond.

The genius cucullatus is a male guardian angel, he appears only in the existence of men, what proves once more that he was originally the divine principle of the fathering . The role he plays with respect to man is performed for the woman by the individual Juno , fairy or guardian angel called Matra sulevia or sulevia juno in Celtic provinces. For all the rest, the genii cucullati and the suleviae junones or matrae suleviae, are similar.

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THE OCCULTATION OF THE GODS.

Atchiam cach for cach leth ocus ni-conn acci nech temel imorbais adaim do-don archéil ar araim (Tochmarc Etaine).

GODS DIED! GOD IS DEAD ! THE GREAT PAN IS DEAD ! LIKE ARTHUR AFTER THE BATTLE OF CAMLANN*. WHAT FOLLOWS IS THEREFORE THEIR WILL AND TESTAMENT. GODS TODAY ASKED FOR WE BELIEVE NO LONGER IN THEIR CONSTANT AND PERMANENT INTERVENTION IN THIS WORLD.

* Irish equivalents the battles of Sliab Mis and Drum Lighean. They are, of course, metahistorical battles intended to explain why the gods seem to have withdrawn from the visible world, which they left as disenchanted Max Weber could have said (no longer Lady of the lake). On the purely historical level, specialists are more likely to think, for Great Britain, of the Battle of Arturet / Arfderydd in 573, which ended in the defeat of the last pagan prince of Hen Ogledd (Gwenddoleu, protector of the historical Merlin) and for Ireland of the battle of Cul Dreimne around 560 which caused the assembly of Druim Cetta in 575. The end of the sixth century was really the end of a world for extreme west.

Difference between Meta-history and History. A historian usually studies a historical fact at a precise moment. But according to Henry Corbin, the study of History as a succession of facts remains simplistic, and does not take into account the perception of History by populations. Metahistory therefore speaks of a world, which is not perceptible through senses, but which is that where real spiritual events took place. But real of a reality which is not that of the physical world, nor of that a chronicle records and with which “ history is made “ because here the event transcends every historical materialization. It is a world which cannot be perceived by the organ of common knowledge, neither proven nor rejected by the means of common argumentation. A world so much other which it can be seen or perceived only through the organ of a perception, let-us say, “mystical “(Hurqalya: celestial earth, earth of visions).

The revolt of angels or Iblis against God or the Demiurge and the fall of Lucifer, in Judeo-Islamic- Christianity, is another example of this Metahistory, characteristic of every religion. In other words, of its founding myths.

Bible shows to us Elohim (word translated falsely by God or Lord in the singular) creating the world which is ours by organizing the preexistent Tohu wa Bohu. But this text shows us nowhere their higher god or demiurge creating angels, beginning with Lugifer (Celtic humor). However this notion (the revolt of some angels against God) is, however, essential to its idea of the world. We can understand nothing of the view of History seen by Judeo-Islamic-Christianity, if we don’t admit before the creation of this world, the creation of an angelic world, angelic and therefore purely spiritual or almost ( some negligible matter traces), having been the site of a revolt against God of a certain number of them, as well as the forfeiture of the first man losing his preternatural powers. It is what we call Metahistory not to say some mytho-history.

One of the best illustrations of this Judeo-Islamic-Christian metahistory is still that John Milton in his poem provided us about paradise lost; a poem reporting the original sin, the war between the “remained loyal “angels and the “rebellious “angels, and presenting the various protagonists in an extremely well-informed way.

Lucifer, the fallen angel, has just been overcome by divine armies. With his army, he is about to launch again an attack against Heaven when he hears from a prophecy: a new species of creatures must be formed by Heaven. He then decides to go alone in an expedition . Gone out from hell, he ventures in paradise, and finds the new world being created by God. After having easily deceived an angel by changing his appearance, he creeps into the paradise and discovers Adam and Eve. God

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learns of it, but decides to do nothing: he made the man free, and he will grant to him his grace whatever happens… if, however, he respects divine law. His Son, finding the judgment severe, begs his Father to take upon him sins of the men, what he grants to him. After some doubts, Satan works out a plan to harm God and Mankind: having been informed that God prohibited eating fruits of the Tree of knowledge to human beings , he tries, in a dream, to tempt Eve. But unintentionally, he awakes also Adam, who drives him out. God then sends an angel to warn them, and to inform them of their enemy, so that they have no excuse. Later, Satan redoubles his efforts: he takes advantage of the fact that Eve moved away from Adam for the harvest, and, taking the shape of a snake, he tempts her again and offers to her the fruit of the forbidden Tree, successfully. Eve then will tell her adventure to the unfortunate Adam, and offers to him to also taste it, to what this one ends up yielding, out of love.

As soon as God is informed, he sends his Son to pronounce the sentence: they will be driven out of Paradise, and Satan as his companions, will be changed into snakes. The Son, then taking pity on them, covers them with his power. Nevertheless Adam realizes what he lost, and falls into despair. God therefore sends again an angel to show to the first man (Adam) the future of his posterity until the flood. The latter, reassured, is then let lead by the archangel Michael with Eve out of Paradise. The blazing sword falls behind them, and cherubim come forward there to guard the from now on prohibited place.

Notice of Peter DeLaCrau. This Judeo-Christian myth is admittedly simplistic but it is endowed with a large explanatory power. Metahistory, another name for myth, it is that! And metahistory, Celts too had one, as we shall see (facing the obstinacy of men the exile of the gods out of this world. Their withdrawal underground in Ireland). They are the battles of Sliab Mis, Talantio (Tailtiu/Teltown); Druim Lighean (or Druim Ligen today Drumleene close to Raphoe, in County Donegal); Loch Feabhail Mhic-Lodain (what means the Lake of Feval, son of Lodan today Lough Foyle) or Glenn Faisi according variants.

Some people sometimes ascribe to the Devil the name of Lucifer or Samael. That comes from the time when he had not rebelled yet, with the assistance of fallen angels, against God. Samael is therefore his angel's name and it means “He who carries light , a strange name for a Lord of Darkness. The explanation for this tradition is in the Bible and more precisely in the book of Isaiah (XIV, 12-17).

How you have fallen from heaven,

O star of the morning, son of the dawn!

You have been cut down to the earth,

You who have weakened the nations!

But you said in your heart :

I will ascend to heaven;

I will raise my throne above the stars of God,

And I will sit on the mount of assembly

In the recesses of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.

Nevertheless you will be thrust down to the abode of the dead,

To the recesses of the pit.

Those who see you will gaze at you,

They will ponder over you, saying :

Is this the man who made the earth tremble,

Who shook kingdoms,

Who made the world like a wilderness

And overthrew its cities,

Who did not allow his prisoners to go home?

It is generally admitted that Lucifer rebelled against his creator urged by his arrogance and his haughtiness. But the first theologists were not all convinced that it was some hubris. According to the majority of them, the fall of Lucifer would be rather due to his jealousy towards Man. Like Iblis.

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According to saint Gregory of Nyssa, each angelic power had received from the authority which directs all things, its own share of the government of the universe. To one of these powers, the responsibility of governing and controlling the terrestrial sphere had been entrusted. Then an image which reproduced that of the higher power was modeled with clay, and this being was man. He had in him the divine beauty of the understandable nature, mingled with some secret force. For this reason the one to whom the government of the earth had been entrusted, found strange and intolerable that, from the nature which depended on him, was drawn or brought into the world a being made in the image of the higher dignity. Same thing in Muslim theology with Iblis.

It is only with Origen that we see appearing and being confirmed the theory which overcomes today; that of the hubris, the idea of the jealousy and of the desire will appear again only in the 16th century. But it is unnecessary to point out that large number of Christian writers, except Tertullian, placed in jealousy the true cause of this rebellion.

Jealousy and desire are feelings unworthy of an angelic creature; in Lucifer, they become so intense and powerful that they urged him to rebel against his Creator. But it should be said that the jealousy of Lucifer towards man is less absurd and sacrilege that he would then have felt towards God. Adam, although endowed with remarkable preternatural graces *, was, however, a creature, a being we could consider of the same race as angels. To want to make himself independent of God, to confront God, was the mark of an absurd frenzy, a proof of insanity, while the jealousy towards a creature is more natural and probable. The difference between God and his sons [angels] is immeasurable and non-assessable, while the difference between angels [gods] and men exists only in the level of their respective perfection. Jealousy led Satan to the rebellion, which is an inexcusable fault, but the first engine of this rebellion is much less serious than that our intolerance teaches.

we consider true the assumption of Dante, Lucifer sinned twice: by hubris and by impatience. But this last sin is the first, even most serious, since it caused the other; if Lucifer had been able to wait, he would have realized his hubris was only pure madness.

NON SERVIAM: this famous word is reproached to Lucifer and Iblis! But was this word really pronounced by the prince of angels? Didn't God concede to his creatures and particularly to angels, a free choice? Did God not say to men: "Truth will make you free!“

Editor’s note: we wonder well where the commentator of Judeo-Christian myths from whom we take these some lines, could find that? Not in the Sumerian myth at the origin of all this metahistory anyway!

And wasn't Lucifer, already supported by the grace of God, entirely free? Because if he were not free, how could he have revolted against his Creator? Desire not to serve , i.e., freedom, wasn't always one of the marks of proud and generous minds?

If God knows all, sees all, envisages everything, he was therefore to know that Lucifer, because of his very superiority, was prone to fall, therefore that he would fall. This gift of free choice was to give to Lucifer the possibility of sinning, therefore of falling . His superiority was what started hubris, and freedom was what made his fall possible. God created a world where sin remains possible, revolt possible, evil possible, debauch possible. If there did not exist in the world the possibility of evil, angelic freedom and human freedom could have made a choice between the various kinds of good, of the good works, and of the right actions. It is not Lucifer who created the world, he didn’t create himself alone; therefore it is not his fault if the order of the world allows or tolerates sin. If God is the author and the universal lawgiver, if nothing is possible neither conceivable without his will nor his law, we can conclude from that he had his responsibility in what is occurred to his creatures. He made them in this way, he placed them in a reality which is also his creation, and where all is possible! It is therefore in him only that any admirable or terrible thing, has its cause and its principle. It is a demiurge !

God only wished to raise or to exalt, to make creatures ascend to the summit where the non-being can reach the being, and he had to attend with abandonments, revolts, desertions,falls. He had created an angel more perfect than the others, nearer to him, more similar to him, and this angel fell. He had created a miraculous being, modeled by his hands, moved by his own breath, equipped with

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awareness and science, and man also fell. Most divine of the heavenly creatures rose against God. Most divine of the earthly creatures disobeyed God. Neither one nor the other could refuse the privileges of freedom. Isn't Lucifer's punishment also the punishment of God or of the Demiurge?

………………….

It is well known that Romans historicized their myths and even some myths of other peoples. Here just one of the countless examples of myth changed into history: the Shakespearian story before Shakespeare, of the walking forest (Birnam Wood).

Livy XXIII.

Chapter XXIV.

…While these matters were engrossing attention, a fresh disaster was announced, for Fortune was heaping one disaster upon another this year. It was reported that L. Postumius, the consul elected, and his army had been annihilated in Celtica. There was a vast forest called by the Celts, Litana, and through this the consul was to conduct his army. The Celts cut through the trees on both sides of the road in such a way that they remained standing as long as they were undisturbed, but a slight pressure would make them fall. Postumius had two Roman legions, and he had also levied a force from the country bordering on the Upper Sea, sufficiently large to bring the force with which he entered the hostile territory up to at least 25,000 men. The Celts had posted themselves round the outskirts of the forest, and as soon as the Roman army entered, they pushed the sawed trees on the outside, these fell upon those next to them, which were tottering and hardly able to stand upright, until the whole mass fell in on both sides, and buried in one common ruin arms and men and horses. Hardly ten men escaped, for when most of them have been crushed to death by the trunks or broken branches of the trees, the remainder, panic-struck at the unexpected disaster, was killed by the Celts who surrounded the forest. Out of the whole number only very few were made prisoners, and these, whilst trying to reach a bridge over the river, were intercepted by the Celts who had already seized it. It was there that Postumius fell whilst fighting most desperately to avoid capture. The Boii stripped the body of its spoils and cut off the head, and bore them in triumph to the most sacred of their temples. According to their custom, they cleaned out the skull and covered the scalp with beaten gold; it was then used as a vessel for libations and also as a drinking cup for the priest and ministers of the temple. The plunder, too, which the Celts secured was as great as their victory, for although most of the animals had been buried beneath the fallen trees, the rest of the booty, not having been scattered in flight, was found strewn along the whole line where the army lay.

Romans have historicized their myths we have said.Celts made the opposite exactly. They even never clearly distinguished History and Fiction. For them everything was history (scèl). What we call today,strictly speaking, Myth, not to say History. Besides it is enough to look a little into the multitude of Irish legends to realize that, in Ireland at least, the divine world is far from being motionless and immutable. It is on the contrary overflowing with battles, revolutions, or confrontations, it would be only these of the two battles in the plain of the mounds (Mag Tuiread) of Sliab Mis of Druim Lighean and Tailtiu/Teltown. The life of the Celtic god-or-demons is not a bed of roses nor a long calm river, and it is more livened up than that of the angels of Yahweh (who never experimented but one rebellion; that which was led by the fallen archangel that Christians call Lugifer and Muslims Iblis). There exist indeed traces of another revolt of the god-or-demons of the druidism, that we guess in the writings of Plutarch speaking about the island of the mysterious Celtic Cronos. According to this author indeed, the Fate or Tokade (Kronos in interpretatio graeca) would have been the victim of a kind of revolution which would have changed him into a true deus otiosus; relegated to one of the islands off Great Britain. Ah this cursed Gaelic heresy: a fifth fabulous island in the center of a square formed by the islands of the children of the goddess-or-demoness or fairy Danu (bia) north of the world, Falias, Findias, Gorias, and Murias? Although a deus otiosus, that can wake up sometimes, no?

What follows is therefore some meta-history, not more illegitimate than that of the Biblical rebellion of Lucifer; but inspired by some reflections on what we learn from the family competitions between the god-or-demons in the Irish legend entitled “the fate of the children of Tuireann “. It is obvious indeed by reading this text that there exist two antagonistic branches in the tribe of goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if this word is preferred, Danu (bia), the children of Cainte (Cu, Ceitheann and Cian, therefore Lug) and the children of Tuireann, Brian, Iuchar, Iucharba, including their sister Eithne.

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* The preternatural gifts of the human being according to the Judeo-Islamic-Christian myths: immortality, absence of lust, etc.

DRUIDIC METAHISTORY.

Atchiam cach for cach leth ocus ni-conn acci nech temel imorbais adaim do-don archéil ar araim (Tochmarc Etaine).

The mytho- or meta-history is the set of etiological legends like those highlighted in the Bible by the Germans Hermann Gunkel (1862-1932) and Martin Dibelius (1883-1947), or of only possible explanations (at least schematically speaking) and expressed in the accessible conceptual language for the men of those distant times, for situations whose reality is considered true, given the weak development of sciences at the time.

In druidic mythology, the Man (Gdonios) is able to overcome god-or-demons.

One of the scenarios suggested by druidism, with its variants according to the Schools, is therefore that of the withdrawal of the god-or-demons out of this world: the world (the chaos) having been organized (set in order) , the god-or-demons cease being active, and let its evolution continue according to its own laws.

“For other nations undertake wars in defense of their religious feelings; they wage war against the religion of every people; other nations when waging war beg for sanction and pardon from the immortal gods; they have waged war with the immortal gods themselves “(Cicero. Pro Mr. Fonteio oratio, XIII-XIV, 30-31).

“ Soon after, as if the spoils of mortals were too mean for him, he turned his thoughts to the temples of the immortal gods, saying, with a profane jest, that “the gods, being rich, ought to be liberal to men." He suddenly, therefore, directed his march towards Delphi, regarding plunder more than religion, and caring for gold more than for the wrath of the deities, " who," he said, " stood in no need of riches, as being accustomed rather , to bestow them on mortals……“(Trogue-Pompey, philippic Histories, XXIV, 4,6, according to Justin, Epitoma historiarum philippicarum).

From where the prophecy of Callimachus on this subject.

“And one day hereafter you will come fight with us a common struggle,

When the Titans of a later day will rouse up against the Hellenes barbarian sword and the Celtic Ares,

And from the furthest West rush on like snowflakes

And in number as the stars when they flock most thickly in the sky;

Villages too and the forts of the Locrians and Delphian heights and Crisaean plains

Thronged about and around,

Will behold the rich smoke of the house of their neighbor devastated by the flames,

And will not hear only a rumor to swell in the distance.

Then will be seen at the foot of the temple the ranks of the foe,

Beside my tripods the swords and cruel belts and hateful shields,

Which shall cause an evil journey to the foolish tribe of the Galatians “(Hymns IV, 170-185).

Here what this important druidic notion gave in Irish legends after a historicization of the original myth. The first battle between human and god-or-demons of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Danu (bia), takes place at Sliab Miss, and show a clear victory of human beings over the troops of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Banuta/Banba/Banva. Lastly, after new and bloody fights, in the last of which Belinos Barinthus Manannan, son of Lir (Lero = God-or-demon of Ocean) intervenes; for the possession of the Talantio (Tailtiu/Teltown. The goddess-or-demoness or fairy in question has as continental equivalent Rosemartha); the battle of Druim Lighean (or Druim Ligen today Drumleene close to Raphoe, in County Donegal); Loch Feabhail Mhic-Lodain (what means the Lake of Feval, son of Lodan today Lough Foyle) or Glenn Faisi according to the variants; a peace pact will be concluded.

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It is agreed by the involved antagonists to divide the country in two equal shares. A certain Amarogenos/Amairgin (a name invented by Irish bards) made the division: the people of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if we prefer, Danu (bia), received the lower half of the earth, the basement; the human beings led by Ariomanos (Eremon) received the higher half, the surface.

The god-or-demons of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Danu (bia), therefore let the newcomers have the surface of the earth, and withdraw in the areas of the Hereafter, or take refuge under the hillocks; while requiring for compensation only worship and sacrifices celebrated in remembrance of them. At the time of Samon (ios), the god-or-demons of the goddess-or-demoness or fairy, Danu (bia), allow mortals to cross the threshold of it. Thus the religion will begin. After a victory of the men over the god-or-demons, rather curiously.

To each one, one’s place. Men on earth and god-or-demons in the hereafter.

Some of the god-or-demons of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Danu (bia), were withdrawn in a remote region, “beyond “ westerner seas , called Mag Meld ( plain of joy) or Tir Na Og (land of youth). In them centuries are minutes; those who live here age no longer ; meadows are covered with eternal flowers; mead fills up the bed of the rivers. Feasts and battles are the favorite pastimes: warriors eat and drink fairylike dishes and beverages; they have as partners women with a ravishing beauty.

The rest of the god-or-demons of the goddess-or-demoness Danu (bia) therefore, found a refuge in splendid underground residences that hillocks signal to the eyes of human beings. God-or-demons of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Danu (bia), from now on invisible, owe their Irish name, aes sidhe (people of the hillocks), to these new dwellings.

It is indeed by this name, shortened into sidhe or shee, that Irish people continue to designate fairy people: the banshees (literally: the women of the hillock) in the popular beliefs, of which the apparition is sometimes a sign of death.

PRETERNATURAL SUPERPOWERS OF THE GODS.

More than the pre-natural powers granted to Eve and Adam by the God or Demiurge of Judeo-Islamic Christians, of course!

THE GIFT OF INVISIBILITY.

Atchiam cach for cach leth ocus ni-conn acci nech temel imorbais adaim do-don archéil ar araim (Tochmarc Etaine).

“ Although heavenly things are not in the habit of coming before men's eyes, because the unmixed and incorporeal substance of their subtle nature eludes our dull and darkened vision, yet at that time your helpers submitted to being seen and heard, and escaped contamination by mortal sight after they had attested your worth “(Nazarius of Bordeaux. Panegyric of Constantine 14).

Same thing in Ireland with the notion of feth fiada. “Feth fiada“ is a not easily translatable Irish expression, because each of the two words which compose it has five or six different meanings. It is in fact the gift of invisibility, i.e., what makes the main difference between the world of human beings (Mediomagos) and the other world. People of the next world see all what the men do, but men themselves, in normal time, cannot see it. Most probable meaning is “fog/mist “or “science veil “.

This vegtos vidtouos or feth fiada was obviously established so that the men do not come and take part unduly in the feast of the god-or-demons; and by the way, to get immortality to which they are not entitled, because they do not deserve it.

Editor’s note. The sons of Mil the king of Spain and the Milesian invasions are a true heresy (an invention of the Irish bards of the Middle Ages); but the uncertainties issued from this occultation of the god-or-demons (Talantio or Litavis?) i.e., from their withdrawal out of this disenchanted world, have at least this advantage; we know no longer exactly who is the current king of the next world of the god-or-demons. In the latest news it was an entity named Vindobarros, Finnbarr in Ireland… and Suqellos or Taranis on the continent. Therefore as a result everybody may do what he likes, honor the god-or-demon he wants, for example. In any event, all the great god-or-demons of druidism are more or less multipurpose, so…

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INDIVIDUAL OPINION OF THE DRUID JEAN-PIERRE MARTIN ABOUT THE CONCEALMENT OF THE GODS (major or minor occultation).

The inner vision of men is paralyzed today, as much by the fact that their attention is exclusively turned towards the tangible world, that by the social practices inherited from Judeo-Christianity or Islam.

Since 958 and the last druid of the Court of the Emperor (king of kings) of Ireland, Domnall mac Muirchertach Ua Néill (O' Neill) king of Ailech from 943 to 980 and Ard ri Erenn from 956 to 980 ( dead Christian); since according to the Irish text ascribed to the great Irish poet Urard Mac Coise and dealing with the tale of the plunder of the castle of Maelmilscothach, there were nevertheless still men being entitled to the basic fee due to the practice of imbas forosnai of teinm loida and of dichetal do chennaib in the country during his reign; god-or-demons grew blurred from modern human awareness, in which the psychic entities of a bogus esotericism, even the aliens of science fiction, very often supplanted them. This weakening of the god-or-demons in Western countries is an important component of the process of desecration of thught and of life,what some of our pagan brothers call “the disenchantment of the world “ (Max Weber).

This disappearance or this withdrawal from the world, of gods, therefore forms an additional spiritual difficulty being to be overcome because, without god-or-demons, everything collapses and is reduced. “ No human undertaking has a prosperous issue without the interposition of the gods” (Arrian. Hunting).

The higher Being implodes, withdraws into itself in an unspeakable void and an unfathomable mystery, in which Man is early disinterested. Without the concept of god-or-demons, Man loses sight of his heavenly nature, maims his personality, gives up his major calling. The communities also give up their personality, give up collecting energies of the universe, give u putting themselves in harmony with it. The disappearance of god-or-demons of our perceptual field marks the inability or the refusal of our glance to see metaphysical level; as well as the link which units world of the soul and tangible world, external and inner one. This loss of awareness involves abandoning History to the old demons of monolatry, to the old demons of the metaphysical idolatry that this one claims to avoid (personality cult, Jesus or Muhammad - isma - various superstitions related to the printed text of the Quran); as well as to the disorders resulting from only empirical individuality, and from now on withdrawn into oneself, in the ignorance of its true personality.

Today god-or demons therefore “fish no longer “ men in the public arena but apart from everything, in remote rivers hidden in the woods. They choose and call, an individual by an individual . It is a true quest for the Grail (see its topic of the fisher king). And today druids are only the representatives of these god-or-demons become hidden or invisible for crowds.

But vicissitudes and persecutions of all kinds (racism and/or antiracism in an Orwellian way, etc.) come thick and fast like in Gravelotte on “the men of gods “ during such a dark occultation age , true Kali Yuga in Indian way. It is therefore important to remain in communion with all those who are really friends of the gods, and not to be too much influenced by those who are hostile to them.If god-or-demons belong in no way to a completely gone stage of the history of human awareness, but answer well eternal expectations of the human being, match well a fundamental structure of the human mind (the worrying progression of the number of conversions to Islam seems to indicate it *) then there is no reason here this unparalleled occultation, of the gods, goes on eternally.

From where the Celtic “messianism “ of the French Pierre Lance, true parousy of the god-or-demons rising on the horizon after this temporary night of Fate, which is the night of mankind, in this period of concealment.

In a modern world too often monolatrous and Judeo-Islamic-Christian; i.e., partitioned, withdrawn into itself, devastated by the misdeeds of exaggerated individualism, of materialism and of incommunicability, while scanning the sky with the hope to meet an alien life there; it is time that Man recognizes that it is in himself that he must discover his deep personality, carrier of most secret knowledge.

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The topic of the hidden god-or-demons therefore is one of the basics of current druidry. Since 938, Celtic god-or-demons became invisible in our eyes, although still present in the heart of their dagolitoi (of their believers). In medieval druidism (druidry), we called major occultation this phenomenon.

Hidden like Arthur in Avalon until the return of the Grail (Erdathe/Airtache) they are visible only in dreams, or in personal manifestations having the characteristics of visionary events not ending the current concealment time.

The Celtic god-or-demons appear or disappear no longer like during Antiquity; but they do not appear or still do not disappear, according to the laws of materialist historicism.

See the god-or-demons in the world of the sidh (sedodumnon) or in the world of the white light (the vindobitos or albiobitos); as some thinkers of the druidiaction (druidecht) still do it today; it is in any event always to see them where they are in truth. In a world at the same time concrete but also supra-tangible, and with the suitable organ that the perception of such a world (called Sidh in Ireland) requires according to the Scot Robert Kirk.

It depends on the men that the god-or-demons of druidism judge if they can appear again to them or not. Because they are the men who veiled to themselves all these god-or-demons, by making themselves unable to see them, because they lost or made atrophied their organs of theophanic perception (their sixth sense).

In Orient they are called peri and in the far east (Japan) kappa what brings them closer to the Scottish kelpies.

To consider the end of this concealment will have therefore no sense as long as men will remain unable to recognize their god-or-demons.

Their return will not be an event which can emerge suddenly one day. It will be something which will occur gradually within the awareness of honest druidicists and as they are increasingly numerous.

The time of major Occultation is the time of the god-or-demons incognito.

God-or-demons will not reappear, as long as we are not able to understand their secrets.

The return, to come, of the god-or-demons, therefore presupposes the total metamorphosis of the current men. The return, to come, of the god-or-demons, presupposes a plenary new anthropological revolution, blossoming from the very inner side of Man.

It is therefore to the today goodwill women and men , that our druidism sends its message, not to the hair-splitting pseudo-intellectuals but unable to see further than the end of their nose; or who can't see the forest for the tree ; in short to those who seek, and other things than hard-line Islam 1).

* To convert to Islam was never a proof of intelligence, except perhaps in the case it is by political opportunism (cf. the case of Abu Sufyan Ibn Harb and of the caliph Mu'awiya of Damas) but in fact that betrays the need to have an easy to memorize explanation of the world (see the order of suras).

1) What characterizes the today French intellectual (the political official or the media man, even the simple journalist); it is that he needs approximately 30 or 40 years before discovering a major trend working just in front of him (the bigger it is, the more he is blind to it). Whereas the man in the street, the average citizen, realizes that at the most five or ten years after its appearance. N.B. It goes without saying this general rule has exceptions but when we see what occurred at the time of the war having broken out in Syria, in 2012, this blindness of professional journalists sends shivers down our spine.

NOTE OF PETER DELACRAU ABOUT THE PREVIOUS OCCULTATION OF THE GOD-OR-DEMONS (their minor occultation.)

At the beginning, in Hyperborea, in the islands located north of the world, the god-or-demons (divine energies) were visibly working on earth. And the inhabitants of these mythical countries did not see

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them working only in the work that Hyperborea but also elsewhere in the world according to Greek legends about the worship of Apollo in Delos ......

Batar Tuathai De Danann i n-indsib tuascertachaib an domuin, aig foglaim fesa & fithnasachta & druidechtai & amaidechtai & amainsechta combtar fortilde for suthib cerd ngenntlichtae. Ceitri cathrachai ir-rabatar og fochlaim fhesai & eolais & diaboldanachtai. i. Falias & Goirias, Murias & Findias. A Falias tucad an Lia Fail bui a Temraig. Nogesed fo cech rig nogebad Erinn. A Gorias tucad an tsleg boi ac Lug. Ni gebtea cath fria no frisinti an bidh il-laimh. A Findias tucad claidiub Nuodon. Ni terládh nech dei o dobirthe asa idntiuch bodhuha, & ni gebtai fris. A Murias tucad coiri an Dagdai. Ni tegedh dam dimdach uadh. Cetri druid isna cetri cathrachaib-sin. Morfesae bai a Falias. Esras boi hi nGorias. Uiscias boi a Findias. Semias bai a Murias. It iad sin na cetri filid ocar' foglaindsit Tuata De fios & eolas.

The druid of the later concerned mankind (Fir Domnain and other Belg or Gallieoin of the Irish myth) perceived them like as many aspects or spiritual levels. A long poem of the Book of the Takings (Lebor Gabala), due to the hand of Flann Mainistrech, however, depicts us and in detail their successive deaths.

As by definition god-or-demons are immortal (or at least live as a long time as the cosmic cycle to which they are consubstantial) and that, for them also, and like for human beings, death could not be, at most, only the middle of a long life; the expressions of Flann Mainistrech style: “he died… he fell in front of… he was killed by… etc. “ can therefore only one attempt at translation, into human language, of this process of concealment.

The craftsman of this first occultation was Belinos/Barinthus Lerognatos (Manannan Mac Lir in the Irish apocryphal texts). It is him; after their last battle fought for the Talantio (Irish Tailtiu) or in Druim Lighean, currently Drumleene in Donegal, even Loch Feabhail Mhic-Lodain (what means the Lake of Feval, son of Lodan today Lough Foyle) or Glenn Faisi according to the variants; who gave to the god-or-demons the ability of disappearing behind an invisible wall (feth fiada), so that no mortal can see them again, never. The coat of invisibility of Belinos/Barinthus son of Lero (the cloak of Manannan), just like the fog with which he is often combined, symbolizes the veil which exists since, between the two worlds, the Next World and ours.

Belinos Barinthus Manannan Mac Lir has the power to make the god-or-demons invisible, and he gets magic food to them. He has marvelous pigs which feed and regenerate the god-or-demons during the feast of immortality. Let us add finally that it is also him who divided the Other World of the Sedodumnon (of the Sidh in Irish), between the various god-or-demons. His role, in this first process of occultation, was therefore crucial.

Conclusion about Celtic metahistory.

The disappearance of Hyperborea or of the magic islands north of the world, which involved the first opacity to the light of the Grail, made our knowledge of the god-or-demons more random. See the god-or-demons was from now on only possible through intuitive perception of spiritual nature, often reserved for poets in Ireland or Scotland , which was conveyed into psychic and perceptible images, because men, however, continued to be at the same time of heavenly and earthly nature.

It is, however, advisable not to confuse this view of the god-or-demons, that ancient Celts had, or these visionary talks with the god-or-demons they regarded as their only competitors masters models (from where later Christian visions like the aislingi of Adomnan, Fursey, and many others); with any development of metapsychic powers related to certain organs of our body. It is another problem.

The imbas forosnai or great science which enlightens of the druids in Domnall’s kingdom (10th century), by making it possible to see the god-or-demons working in the world; was the fact of the believing and practicing of the specialists of a god-or-demon, discussing and communicating with him like saint Adomnan and Saint Fursey during their aislingi.

The end of the Hyperborean world on the islands north of the world and of the taking of the earth by the gods is an allegory symbolizing the increased removal from the divine principle, the quartering of the human being between his heavenly pole and his empirical self. This “ Pyrrhic victory “of the men (Fir Bolg etc…) was also a break-up of their communion with the god-or-demons, and a loss of sight of their heavenly self (the genius cucullatus or the Matra sulevia).

It was the first occultation of the god-or-demons, 10000 years or 4000 years ago like in Knap of Howar or Skara Brae in the north of Scotland , no one really does not know. The Greeks depict in their legends on the Hyperborea a land and a climate so fertile that agriculture is a child’s play. To believe that we are still rather at hunter-gatherers previous the Neolithic Revolution, when man had not yet begun to force nature. What is plausible in any case is that men of the time were to have animal

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senses much more developed than those of men today (smell, hearing, ability to feel water, to feel the vibrations of soil, etc.)

After this first concealment, god-or-demons however, continued to haunt the Earth, but transfigured in our legends and dressed with faces and men's clothes. The gods of paganism nevertheless remain as a reflection of the pre-natural powers of man before he fell into agriculture : immortality, infused knowledge, etc.

This luminous aspect of the gods, transfiguring their faces and their clothing of man in our myths, gives us as like a first impression, however, of what waits for us in the kingdom come of the Grail castle (Mag Meld and others). A first impression from what waits for us after the passing in the parallel next world called Vindomagos. The alchemical transmutation, in glorious body, of our poor body envelopes.

The divinity of a god-or-demon it is also the egregore made up of all the forms of energy of his dagolitoi (of his believers). What the Romans called “genius , Christians the corpus mysticum Christi or Christ's body, in other words, his egregore. Each god-or-demon has his own “egregore“ thus formed.

When the god-or-demons therefore emigrated out of this world after the fight for the Talantio (Irish Tailtiu, continental equivalent: the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if you prefer, Rosemartha), known as the third battle of the standing stones or mounds Plain, or after the battle of Druim Lighean (Drumleene), etc.; a part of their thus made up “genius“ was gone with them in the world of Vindobitos or Albiobitos; only their egregore remained on earth

All these gods together form the Sedodumnon now, or more exactly and in a way, the heights of the Vindobitos or temple of higher light (pleroma under the hand of Saint Ireneaus). The soul/minds too gathered in this state of being, await the return into the principle, into the Bitos, that will be the erdathe or airtache enclosing this cycle, in order to start another one (collective or universal erdathe = reintegration in the Big Whole).

Nota Bene. Each achievement of an occultation makes god-or-demons able to approach a little more (with all their dagolitoi) their original rank in the Being of the Pariollon (of the Parinirvana for Buddhists).

Thus the succession of occultations and disoccultations, and that of the billion years, redeems time, this eternity (aiu) delayed by the resistance of the Being (of the act of being) to the light. Real, empirical and objective, history, has for direction and as an end , to make it the means through which Mankinf will regain its lost rank.

In druidism, as we will see it, cosmogony and soteriological eschatology, are closely connected.

THE SEAL OF THE ACTION OF THE GODS IN THE WORLD.

BEYOND THE TOWN OF YS: OCCULTATION (terminology J. Markale) AND EXILE OF THE GOD-OR-DEMONS IN THE SEDODUMNO.

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The allegory or meta-history of this withdrawal out of the world done by the Celtic god-or-demons was, of course, completely misunderstood by the Christian authors having followed. Here for example how the bard Flann Mainistrech saw things in his time. Repetere = ars docendi.

“The forgers of the History

Affirm that the people of the ships and mounds

Being from the Sidhe is gone back there.

It is not what a good Christian must believe.

Ni maith la Crist in creideam.

Gebe creidis co n-anmain

A mbeadli a sidhaibh samlaigh,

Ni aitreabha neam na neart,

Domnai nadh fir nos-eisteadh.

Whoever really believes and in all honesty

That they are now in the sidhe

Will never go to Heaven

Because there is nothing true in all that.

These charlatans say

That people of the ships and of the drinking beakers

Dwell today in the land of Promise.

But the only Promised land

To which had right Toutai Deuas

It is Hell, yes! “

Literally

Baile bith-sheang a mbi breth;

Ai is e in t-ifearnn lchtarach.

Here at least something which has the merit of being clear from this follower of the love religion.

But in a fitting reversal of roles, certain men are able to enter the sidh or the world of the gods, and fight battles in it, on behalf of the god-or-demons, or theirs. It is what Cuchulainn does, on the routes leading to the Other World, when he goes to seek a warrior initiation before marrying Aemer, or in the misadventures of the Serglige. And at the end of the adventures of Nera, the sidh of the gods itself is overwhelmed, even if it is, under this name, only a hill in which a high-ranking person of the Other World is supposed to reside.

The current occultation of the god-or-demons become invisible in our eyes, and withdrawn into another world, is consequently a fundamental theological principle in our Bible to us, i.e., the mythology.

Are there god-or-demons already again alive, i.e., having already started to unveil themselves gradually (the others “being always dead “i.e., always sleeping)?

There exists indeed a whole School of thought which thinks that certain god-or-demons would have already started their disoccultation, that they would have, for example, started again to appear to certain human beings (scientists, philosophers or great minds of this kind); in order to again make the society progress through the revelation of certain technical or scientific secrets. Below a case (some think that the unknown foreigner in question was Gobannos, the god-or-demon of the smithy and of the work of metals).

“ Johann-Friedrich Schweitzer, alias Helvetius, a violent antialchemist, relates that on the morning of December 27, 1666, he was visited by a stranger. He was a man of honest and serious appearance, dressed in a simple cloak, like a Mennonite. After asking Helvetius whether he believed in the philosopher's stone (to which the famous doctor

replied in the negative), the stranger opened a little ivory box containing three pieces of a substance resembling glass or opal. He then declared that this was the famous stone, and that this very small amount was sufficient to produce twenty tons of gold. Helvetius held a fragment in his hand […] When

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asked to prove his statement by performing a transmutation, the stranger replied that he would come back in three weeks' time

and would show Helvetius something that would astonish him. He returned punctually on the day specified, but refused to operate, declaring that he was forbidden to reveal his secret. He did, however, condescend to present Helvetius with a small fragment of the stone no larger than a mustard seed [….]The man promised to return the next morning at nine o'clock to perform the miracle,but he never came, either that day or the next. Thereupon the wife of Helvetius persuaded him to try the experiment himself.Helvetius followed the stranger's instructions. He melted down three drachmas of lead, wrapped the stone in wax and threw it into the liquid metal. It turned to gold [….] The news traveled like lightning. Spinoza, who can hardly be considered as simple-minded, wished to verify the story in every detail. He went to see the. goldsmith who had examined the gold, and the account he gave was more than favorable: during the fusion some silver present in the mixture was also transformed into gold [….] Spinoza then went to Helvetius who showed him the gold, and the crucible used in the experiment. Some scraps of the precious metal were still adhering to the inside of the receptacle “ (Louis Pauwels Jacques Bergier Morning of the magicians).

Despite all his search made in the whole north of Holland, Helvetius could not find the man nor learn his name, and the stranger never again visited him.

Lucan Pharsalia Book I, 452 : “ To you alone [druids] it is given the gods and celestial powers to know or not to know“.

Was Spinoza deceived? Was the mysterious stranger Gobannos, the god-or-demon of metals?

And could the stone in question be the mysterious Arar’s stone of druids?

Such are the first questions which cross our mind.

The external manifestations of these mysterious strangers were always rare. Here are others.

They are attached to the extraordinary destiny of one of the most mysterious men in the West : the pope Sylvester II, also known by the name Gerbert d’Aurillac.

“ Born in the Auvergne in 920 (d. 1003), Gerbert was a Benedictine monk, professor at the

University of Rheims, Archbishop of Ravenna, and Pope by the grace of Otho III […] He possessed in his palace a bronze head, which answered YES or NO

to questions put to it on politics or the general position of Christianity [….] it would be an automaton similar to our modern binary machines. This "magic" head was destroyed when Sylvester died, and all the information it imparted carefully concealed [….] Naturally, it was widely asserted that Gerbert was only able to produce

such a machine because he was in league with the devil and had sworn

eternal allegiance to him."(Louis Pauwels Jacques Bergier Morning of the magicians).

The question is: which is thus the god-or-demon hidden behind this diabolism of bad quality?

The god-or-demon of medicine and of prostheses of all kinds? (Deinocacectis known as Diancecht in Ireland?)

Our conclusion will be careful.

There was, after the end of the great mythological period of the god-or-demons, and after their occultation is over, “private” apparitions of god-or-demons. "Private,” that is to say without reliable archives , without witnesses endowed with a really scientific mind and equipped with powerful measuring devices, therefore relying ultimately on rumors or on the testimony of a single man.

Their reason for being was not to improve or supplement mythological allegory (which was definitively sealed * with the occultation of the god-or-demons); but to inspire certain individuals at certain periods of history; especially in the field of scientific or technical progress. The "private" nature of these divine apparitions therefore calls for the utmost caution. We are not in Scotland land of fairies of ghosts and of the Loch Ness monster.

Lucan Pharsalia Book I, 452 : “ To you alone [druids] it is given the gods and celestial powers to know or not to know“. It was perhaps only in this case the work of the subconscious of these individuals, in a dream or in the waking state. Or some collective hallucinations as in the case of the Fatima sun dance of 1917.

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* Atheistic leanings of druidism (see Strabo) insists, of course, on this notion of seal of the action of gods in the world.

REMINDER ABOUT SEDODUMNON.

Druidic Other -World (Vindobitus) was composed of two distinct parts: Vindomagos (the “heaven “) also called Mag Meld, etc., etc.; Sedodumnon (the world reserved for the god-or-demons).

Let us remind for the record the sidhs are a little like the cells of the gigantic hive which is the next world of the gods, constantly busy in taking part in the human concerns.

The word sidh comes from the Old Celtic “sedos “: headquarters or palace of the god-or-demons, hillock or underground even underwater abode (as localization of the other world). By an extension of the meaning “inhabitant of the Other World “. It is therefore suitable to retain three basic senses: “peace “ “Other World “ “hill “.

Here is a description extracted from the third version of the Tochmarc Etaine “the wooing of Etanna “; because such a text is a very good example of what Irish monks carefully eliminated from their imrama; i.e., the aim even of such odysseys.

“Will you come with me

To the wondrous land wherein harmony is,

Hair is like the crown of the primrose there.

And the body smooth and white as snow.

There, is neither mine or yours,

White are teeth there, dark the brows.

A delight of the eye the number of our hosts,

Every cheek there is of the hue of the foxglove.

A gillyflower is each one's neck,

A delight of the eye are blackbirds' eggs.

Though fair the prospect of the plain of Fal (the earth ?),

It is desolate after frequenting Mag Mar.

Though choice you deem the ale of Fal’s island,

More intoxicating is the ale of the Great Land.

A wondrous land is the land I tell of;

Youth departs not there before old.

Warm sweet streams flow through the land,

There are choice mead and wine

Stately folk without blemish,

Conception without sin, without lust.

We see everyone on every side,

And no one sees us.

It is the darkness of Adam's transgression

that has prevented us from being counted ???

We see everyone on every side,

And no one sees us 1).

It is the darkness of Adam's transgression 2)

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That prevents us from being counted ???

If you come to my noble folk,

A crown of gold will be upon your head

Honey, wine, ale, fresh milk, and drink, you will have “.

1. Traditional definition of the gift of invisibility characterizing god-or-demons (Gaelic language feth fiada).

2. Obvious Christian interpolation. The monk having transcribed this text could not help, or considered to be preferable, inserting there this mention, which, however, has nothing to do with such a story.

The reasoning of this very Christian author is, however, remained typically druidic. There was a time "T" in History (meta-history) before which the gods were visible and after which they were no longer such. In other words, one of the pre-natural gifts of these first men (Adam + Eve) was to see the gods. The only mistake of this author is not having seen that this occultation of the gods was progressive, and not sudden, and to have linked it to the myth of the first man or to any original sin; concepts unfamiliar to druidism.

Another allusion to the Sedodumnon.

“ In the Britannic Sea, opposite the coast of the Osismi, the isle of Sena belongs to a Celtic deity and is famous for its oracle, whose priestesses, sanctified by their perpetual virginity, are reportedly nine in number. They call the priestesses Gallizenae and think that because they have been endowed with unique powers, they stir up the seas and the winds by their magic charms, that they turn into whatever animals they want, that they cure what is considered incurable among other peoples, that they know and predict the future, but that it is not revealed except to sea voyagers and then only to those traveling to consult them “(Pomponius Mela III, 6,48).

In short, and according to the author, the inhabitants of the island in question…

1. Control elements, since they are able to calm winds or floods.

2. Control diseases.

3. Can change themselves into various animals (swans, crows?)

4. And finally, control time since they are able to predict.

That made much for simple mortals! They are therefore absolutely not Celtic priestesses having really and historically lived on the island of Sena; but goddess-or-demonesses, or fairies if you prefer this word, or women of the Other World (localized in fact on an island in the west), that Pomponius Mela, which mixes up everything, has seen fit to locate in this Breton Island as Vestal virgins.

What this author reports to us is only the ultimate echo of the continental Celtic myths about the Nex World of the god-or-demons, even of the goddess-or-demonesses! Or of the fairies if it is preferred!

This land of joy, youth, and immortality, is located, sometimes in one or more remote islands, towards the west, sometimes under ground, in the kingdom of the fairies, sometimes under the waves of ocean. Whatever its localization, this area receives most laughing names: land of youth, land of the living, promised land, great plain, merry plain. The landscapes are admirable there, trees and birds marvelous. An enchanting music is heard there; people are fed with succulent and inexhaustible dishes there. Mind and senses are similarly satisfied there. It is not there, as some believe it, an abode for the dead, comparable with the Hades of the Greeks or with the lugubrious wax museum of the disembodied souls, in Christianity. Not to mention the Sheol of the Jews. It is on the contrary the land of the gods, of the fairies, of the immortals.

Confirmation will be given to us about it by comparison with Avalon (the island of apples or the fortunate isles of the Life of Merlin, written in Latin, by Geoffrey of Monmouth).

"The Island of Apples gets its name 'The Fortunate Island' from the fact that it produces all manner of plants spontaneously. It needs no farmers to plow the fields. There is no cultivation of the land at all beyond that which is Nature's work. It produces crops in abundance and grapes without help and

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apple trees spring up from the short grass in its woods. All plants, not merely grass alone, grows spontaneously and men live a hundred years or more.That is the place where nine sisters exercise a kindly rule over those who come to them from our land. The one who is first among them has greater skill in healing, as her beauty surpasses that of her sisters. Her name is Morgan, and she has learned the uses of all plants in curing the ills of the body. She knows, too, the art of changing her shape, of flying through the air, like Daedalus, on strange wings. At will, she is now at Brest, now at Chartres, now at Pavia; and at will she glides down from the sky on to your shores.They say she had taught astrology to her sisters--Moronoe, Mazoe, Gliten, Glitonea, Gliton, Tyronoe, and Thiten, Thiten, famous for her zither [Latin cithara] . It was there we took Arthur after the battle of Camlan, where he had been wounded. Belin/Belen/Barinthus was the steersman because of his knowledge of the seas and the stars of heaven. With him at the tiller of the ship, we arrived there with the prince and Morgan received us with due honor. She put the king in her chamber on a golden bed, uncovered his wound with her noble hand and looked long at it. At length she said he could be cured if only he stayed with her for a long while and accepted her treatment.

We therefore happily committed the king to her care and spread our sails to favorable winds on our return journey."

Everything is there! That has nothing history (too bad for Geoffrey of Monmouth) and we have there too; in spite of the distortions that the disappearance of the ancient high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) inevitably could involve; an interesting recollection of what the design of the next world of the god-or-demons, among the ancient Celts was.

A large plain in which ex-warriors play, marvelous orchards who produce apples in every season, heavenly music, eternally serene weather, wealth and beauty, fairy-like women, divine beverages. All that is beside the human beings,at a stone throw from their coasts, beyond appearances.

This happy abode is characterized by an absence of time which has as a consequence the elimination of old age, disease, war, and death. Food and drink are inexhaustible, symbolized by the apple and also by the ale or the mead.

This Other World is a elsewhere concomitant to this world, but with the possibility of a reciprocal interpenetration.

The god-or-demons having ended up to be overcome by men (yes, the Celtic religion is well the only one who formerly worked out such a notion) they indeed gave up the earth to the human beings, after having made peace with them. And they withdrew in another world.

But the god-or-demons who, by definition, escape time and dimensions, are localizable only in accordance with a convention, because it is well necessary to reduce them to standards open to human understanding.

This reflection besides had to form most of the mental activity of the high knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht).

"They have both their own eloquence and their own teachers of wisdom: the druids. These men claim to know the size and shape of the earth and of the universe, the movements of the sky and of the stars, and what the gods intend “(Pomponius Mela. Book III. Chapter II).

"They likewise discuss and impart to the youth many elements respecting the stars and their motion, respecting the extent of the world and of our earth, respecting the nature of things, respecting the power and the majesty of the immortal gods “(Caesar. B.G. Book VI. 14).

And under these conditions, the only possible localizations, are those of the omphaloi: islands, stones, forests, cellae of shrines, etc. insofar as they form temporary or perennial contact points between this world and the other.

After their Christianization, on the other hand, Irishmen located this Next World (of the god-or-demons) in the hills and under the lakes. It has in Gaelic language a specific name of which frequent use spares

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many circumlocutions, sid (modern form sidh), plural sidhe, a word which precisely means “peace “ but which can also mean abode (of the god-or-demons therefore), by a play on words.

It is no longer indeed a conquering divine army as in the beginning, but a company of god-or-demons in exile and literally concealed. Its new chief, Belin/Belen/Barinthus (Manannan for Gaels) is an our society a god-or-demon, in the position of waiting, prolonging the life and the activity of the god-or-demons while waiting for the opportunity of their reappearance in broad daylight (Parousia)1). It is there the meaning of the gift of invisibility, with which he invested the god-or-demons. The god-or-demons are always there, but we see them no longer . People of the sidh, as those of the island that Pomponius Mela saw fit to call Sena, or those of the island of Avalon described by Geoffrey of Monmouth; are not subjected to the contingencies of space, distance or matter. When the god-or-demon Medros/Midir, comes for example to abduct Etanna/Etain, then queen and wife of King Ivocatuos/Eochaid, he arrives without being seen, by making light of walls, obstacles and locked doors.

“I arrived, what an adventure ???? in a marvelous country which I knew already…There is a tree at the gate of the court ; it cannot be matched in harmony ; a tree of silver upon which the sun shines. Like unto gold is its splendid luster [Editor’s note. Archeologists found the representation of such a tree at the time of the excavations in the hill fort of Manching in Germany. It was out of wood and gold-plated bronze, and dated back third or second century before our era]. There are there three score of trees, of which the tops come in contact then are no longer in contact .

300 ? are fed from each tree, with fruit varied and ready prepared. There is a vat there, of merry mead, at the disposal of the household. Still it lives, constant the custom. So that it is ever full, ever and always“.

It is towards such a marvelous island that the pagan heroes like Bran son of Febal and Cuchulainn move (in the wasting sickness of Cuchulainn), or some hardly Christianized characters like Maelduin and… [the end of this paragraph was not found].

“…Demetrius said that among the islands lying near Great] Britain were many isolated, having few or no inhabitants. Some of which bore the names of deities or heroes. He himself, by the emperor's order, had made a voyage for inquiry and observation to the nearest of these islands which had only a few inhabitants, holy men who were all held inviolate by the [Great] British. Shortly after his arrival there occurred a great tumult in the air, and many portents; violent winds suddenly swept down and lightning flashes darted to earth. When these abated, the people of the island said that the passing of someone of the mightier soul/minds [in Greek megalai psychai] had befallen. "For," said they, "as a lamp when it is being lighted has no terrors, but when it goes out is distressing to many, so the great souls/minds [Greek megalai psychai] have a kindling into life that is gentle and inoffensive, but their passing and dissolution often, as at the present moment, fosters tempests and storms, and often infects the air with pestilential properties." Moreover, they said that in this part of the world there is one island where Cronus is confined, guarded while he sleeps by Briareus; for his sleep has been devised as bondage for him, and round about him are many daemons as attendants and servants…“ (Plutarch. On the failure, ceasing, or obsolescence, of oracles. 18).

“The nature of the island is marvelous as is the softness of the circumambient air. Some when they intend to sail away are even hindered by the deity which presents itself to them as to intimates and friends and not in dreams only or by means of omens, but many also come upon the visions and the voices of spirits [ or daemons in Greek] manifest. For Cronos himself sleeps confined in a deep cave of rock that shines like gold — the sleep that Zeus has contrived like a bond for him —, and birds flying in over the summit of the rock bring ambrosia to him, all the island is suffused with fragrance scattered from the rock as from a fountain; and those spirits [or daemons in Greek] mentioned before tend and serve Cronos, having been his comrades [hetaerous in Greek] what time he ruled as king over gods and men. Many things they do foretell of themselves, for they are oracular; but the prophecies that are greatest and of the greatest matters, they come down and report as dreams of Cronos, for all that Zeus premeditates, Cronos sees in his dreams. The titanic affections and motions of his soul make

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him rigidly tense, until sleep restores his repose once more and the royal and divine element is all by itself, pure and unalloyed “ (Plutarch. De facie in orbe lunae, 26).

From the rather obscure quotations of Plutarch, we may nevertheless deduce the following pattern.

There exists, far in the west of the world, one or more, marvelous and paradisiac, islands.

The first king of this field, Kronos in interpretatio graeca, would have been dethroned by the new master of this archipelago, a Celtic god-or-demon compared to Jupiter/Zeus by Plutarch. The case being clear in what relates to him, it has to be therefore the Celtic god-or-demon Taran/Toran/Tuireann. On the other hand, who is the Celtic–druidic entity compared with the Greek giant Briareus, remains more conjectural.

In short!

As we have just seen, the druidic Next World 2) is the world of the god-or-demons 3) at the same time as that of the deceased 4) but to varying degrees. In the traditional Irish design, it is located towards the west, beyond the ocean and it is reachable only by ship. It has a characteristic name, sidh, etymologically “peace “ which is also used to designate the abode of the god-or-demons in Ireland itself, under hillocks or lakes.

The sidh is almost always localized in the innumerable islands, very far towards the west, where chosen people live paradisiac existence in the company of young people and pretty women. Time is abolished, and there is no longer neither disease, neither death nor imperfection of any kind. Feasts are sumptuous and even eternal. From time to time, a woman of the Other World , a banshee, comes to seek a lucky fellow, always a high-ranking character, a famous warrior or a son of the high king, to whom she promises an endless happiness. The essential characteristic of the side is that, being perfect by definition, it does not need to be governed, there is therefore here neither druids , nor a government of any kind. The few human beings who went over there, either by chance, or because they were absolutely invited there, never return from there, except by nostalgia of their homeland. But if they come back from there, they should leave the aiu (the eternity) to return in human time. Generally, they thought to remain absent a few months or a few years, whereas their time is measured in centuries. They crumble into dust by touching the land again, or become at once old men that people recognize no longer.

This topic, Christianized starting from the fifth century, produced immrama or “voyages “of monks and saints searching for paradise. But women are excluded from these marvelous hagiographic stories of which the prototype is the “Voyage of St. Brandan “. The Christianized stories change the sea voyage always very short, of the original topic, into innumerable adventures, sprinkled with dangers, devils, and strange, exotic or perilous islands… which are still not the traditional paradise of Christianity.

Christian authors…

a) Hardly enlarge on the goal of these voyages (the hereafter, the next world, and their delights). They are not very wordy on this subject and, under their hand none of the marvelous descriptions which made the enchantment of their predecessors are found .

b) Eliminated the female element from these stories. From where besides the poorness of what remains of their design of the other world.

c) Lengthened inordinately the time of the voyage itself. This last, which was secondary in druidic spirituality at the beginning, becomes on the contrary, under their hand, the main subject of the account.

d) But in this intention, to fill this gap and to enrich it, they had nevertheless, frequently, resorted to many other topics of Celtic mythology, in connection or not with the subject.

1) But let us be clear. Unlike Jehovah’s witnesses, serious neo-druids do not claim to know when this Parousia of the gods will occur. It is impossible to say. A man claiming to know when the Parousia of the gods will take place can be only a fraud!

2) Pleroma i.e., Albiobitos + Anderodubno.

3) Albiobitos + Sedodumnon.

4) Vindomagos, Mag Meld, etc.

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BRIEF SUMMARY OF WHAT PROFESSOR JAN DE VRIES THINKS ABOUT THE RELIGION OF THE CELTS.

Among Celts, like perhaps everywhere, the ideas about life after death were contradictory. The dead lives in his grave, where some of his goods were put but he also lives in another world. We may imagine the latter in a very diverse way. It is generally imagined as an underground world. It is understood that was deduced from the use to bury the late ones.

Many graves dating back to the fourth century before our era were found in Champagne. The chariot of the deceased man was buried there with the dead, perhaps so that the latter can use it in hereafter.

The Gaelic poems evoking the Hound of Culann rising after his death above Emain Macha in a fairylike chariot (Siaburcharpat/Soibrocarpanton) are only the literary development of this Celtic idea about the life of the dead in hereafter.

In Ireland, people believed the dead remained in the mounds called side. But they were not alone to live there. In Ireland, it is often said the former god-or-demons too, the tribe of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Danu (bia), were also withdrawn in the side, after Christianity had ousted them.

Predictably, since Christianity had lowered all these Powers and all these supernatural characters to the rank of non-existent larvae, people confused then under the same name very different beings, who constituted from now on a very worrying army. In Celtic lands, former god-or-demons, fairies, specters, and soul/minds of the dead, are almost equivalent : they form jointly the other world, and a fantastic other world. The curious fact is this next world remains almost open: people constantly go from the domain of the living to that of the soul/minds and reciprocally; there is a gate between both. In Ireland, this tribe of aes sidhe is itself made up of female and masculine beings who live under, but also on, the earth, without being members of Mankind itself. But it is only a minimal definition there. It includes thus the most varied species of supernatural beings. And it is valid only for the Christian era, when the distinctions between these beings were abolished.

For pagan era, such a definition of the people of aes sidhe would be perhaps inaccurate………………….

god-or-demons lived then in the various parts of the world, the sky and the sea. The soul/minds of nature acted in the most various phenomena: mountains and hills, springs and rivers. The ones were in a good mood towards men (fairies), the others (demons) in a bad one. There were lastly the soul/minds of the dead who lived in the mounds and who, consequently, played there also a great part. The best piece of evidence of this importance of the worship of the dead being besides that, to end up, gods and demons also went to live in these hills of the dead.

Of course, there were also there, some big treasures. We already said how much splendid was the equipment of the graves of Hallstatt Celtic princes. Their memory was preserved for a long time; many pillages of ancient tombs are besides due to such legends. The burial mounds of Hochmichele in Germany, for example was a victim of the grave robbers a few tens of years hardly after its building.

The legends depicted the life in the hereafter under the most brilliant features and we cannot quote all the stories which tell how men could arrive in this marvelous world, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes

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snatched by soul/minds. This adventure was always reserved for the greatest heroes. Like Ulysses or Hercules, some great Irish heroes therefore carried out their nekuia or visit into the land of the dead. We know these of Cuchulaïnn, Loegaire, and Ossian. But it is dangerous to remain in the other world; time pace is not the same there, or rather time is almost motionless there. One day spent over there is like a hundred years on earth. It may therefore happen that on his homecoming, our hero, while dismounting or while touching the ground, crumbles into dust.

It is what happens for example to Loegaire and Ossian. The next world is also a kind of Walhalla. How warriors buried with their weapons could not wish to continue their fights in the grave? Hence all these legends in which dead continue to fight after the battle. It is said that the following day, they come back to life : for example at the time of the great battle in the plain of the mounds (Cath Maighe Tuireadh ); which is the twin of the Scandinavian legend of Hjathningavig.

But dead do not live only under ground in their mounds. Procopius left a curious note on this subject.

“ They say, then, that the soul-minds of men [Greek psyche] who die are always conveyed to this place. And as to the manner in which this is done, I shall presently explain, having many a time heard the people there most earnestly describe it, though I have come to the conclusion that the tales they tell are to be attributed to some power of dreams. Along the coast of the ocean which lies opposite the island of [Great] Britain, there are numerous villages. These are inhabited by men who fish with nets or till the soil or carry on a sea trade with this island, being in other respects subject to the Franks, but never making them any payment of tribute, that burden having been remitted to them from ancient times on account, as they say, of a certain service, which will here be described by me. The men of this place say that the conduct of soul-minds [Greek psyche] is laid upon them in turn. So the men, who on the following night must go to do this work relieving others in the service, as soon as darkness comes on, retire to their own houses and sleep, awaiting him who is to assemble them for the enterprise. And at a late hour of the night they are conscious of a knocking at their doors and hear an indistinct voice calling them together for their task. And they with no hesitation rise from their beds and walk to the shore, not understanding what necessity leads them to do this, but compelled nevertheless. There they see skiffs in readiness with no man at all in them, not their own skiffs, however, but a different kind, in which they embark and lay hold of the oars. And they are aware that the boats are burdened with a large number of passengers and are wet by the waves to the edge of the gunwale and the oarlocks, having not so much as one finger's breadth above the water ; they themselves, however, see no one, but after rowing a single hour they put in at [Great] Britain. And yet when they make the voyage in their own skiffs, not using sails but rowing, they with difficulty make this passage in a night and a day.

Then when they have reached the island and have been relieved of the weight of their invisible passengers, they depart with all speed, their boats now becoming suddenly light and rising above the waves, for they sink no further in the water than the keel itself.

For their part, they neither see any man either sitting in the boat with them or departing from the boat, but they say that they hear a kind of voice from the island which seems to make an announcement to those who take the soul-minds [Greek psyche] in charge as each name is called of the passengers who have come over with them, telling over the positions of honor which they formerly held and calling out their fathers' names with their own. And if women also happen to be among those who have been ferried over, they utter the names of the men to whom they were married in life “(Procopius. De Bello Gothico IV, 20).

Predictably, Procopius is very badly informed on this strange crossing. His “Brittia“is undoubtedly (Great) Britain. But it was not the true goal of the soul/minds of these deceased persons. This one was rather a small island or a group of islands people believed to be further on the Ocean. Irish texts speak about it too. The small islands off the south-west of Ireland besides looked like gates of the abode of the soul/minds of dead people. One of them was called Tech Duinn, formerly Donno Tegia (today Bull Rock ); it is a small island located off the island of Dursey, on the south-western coast of Ireland (peninsula of Beara, county Cork).

Let us give again below the references to the basic texts already subjected to the sagacity of our readers, considering their importance.

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It is obvious that, if the former god-or-demons and the soul/minds of dead live together in the sidh on earth, or more exactly under ground, such is also the case in this remote island of the blessed. The popular belief here does not make a very clear distinction. Some great heroes can be snatched there for a time , or remain there definitively after their death. See the case of the Avalon or Insula Pomorum of the Life of Merlin (Vita Merlini), on which the dux bellorum Arthur would have been evacuated. It is a true Mag Meld, where, without being farmed, the ground produces abundant harvests. There nine sisters live under the direction of Morgan; they can change themselves into birds. It reigns there a peace as well an eternal spring. The inhabitants are unaware of age, disease and worries. We recognize there without a question the Irish Tir Na mBan.

These designs of the next world reflect Mankind dreams. We can speak about the paradise, even about the land of plenty. But these ideas are old, of course; don't we find among Greeks themselves the belief in the Islands of the Blessed, the Hesperides, that they sought on the Western distant shore of Ocean? It is given only to some favored people to reach this island and there to live a aiu (an eternity) of bliss. It is the subject of the Irish tale heading Echtra Condla Chaim meic Cuind Chetchathaig, which can date back to the eighth century. This Condla was the son of the famous King Conn of the hundred battles. One day he was with his father on the hill of Uisneach, an odd-looking woman appeared to them suddenly. She declared that she came from Tir na m-Beo, from the land of the living, where it is neither death there, nor sin. A perpetual joy reigns in it. But only Connla could see this woman; she remained invisible for his father, for example. This one, hearing his son speak like with an imaginary interlocutor, asks him what happens. The woman answers that she loves his son and that she invites him to come in Mag Meld, where King Buadach (the victorious one) rules eternally. Conn asks his druid named Coran, to prevent by his magic formulas his son is bewitched. The woman moves back initially in front of the power of the druid, but she casts an apple to Connla. He lived on it during a month, without eating any other food nor drink. Nevertheless, the apple does not decrease. But he felt a violent nostalgia for the unknown woman.

She comes back a second time while the father and the son are in Mag Archommin. The son acknowledges to Conn he cannot give up the love for this woman, although he loves much his family. The woman renews her invitation and Connla jumps in the crystal boat of the fairy. People saw him moving away, since nobody saw Connla again nor knows where he could reach.

Some passages of this text betray the hand of a Christian copyist. Thus the woman said to the father, when this one, at the time of their second meeting, wants to again call upon the help of his druid:

“ It will not be long before there comes

To make judgments on our broad strand

A righteous one, with many wonderful companies.

And soon his law will reach you.

Conscéra brichta drúad tardechta

Ar bélaib demuin duib dolbthig.

He will annihilate the tardechta powers of druids

In the sight of the black sorcerer demon “.

Allusion undoubtedly after the event (it is always easier) to the arrival of St. Patrick.

It is undoubtedly also this same Christian copyist monk who decided to emphasize resemblance between Mag MeId and the heaven according to Christians: sin is unknown there.

Repetere = ars docendi….The only thing we may say, it is that a life spent in love pleasure and feasts, was not indeed regarded there, as a life of sin.

Conclusion. Beyond the Ocean, there is also one or more other lands located far on the horizon, perhaps even at the bottom of water. Because the waves of the sea themselves cover a province of this hidden world, Tir-fo-Tuinn “the Land under waves “; and which it is better to compare with the Greek Elysian Fields rather than with an island of the dead. It has in our texts many names, inter alia these of Tir na nOg, “land of youth “ Tir na m-beo, “land of the living “, Tir sorcha, “land of brightness“ Mag Meld, “plain of joy “. But we also find Tir Tairngire, “Promised land. “

N.B.This name is obviously due to the influence of Christianity. These magic islands of Ocean were the goal of many adventurous expeditions, which are reported to us in the famous Imrama. Most famous, that of Saint Brendan, proves that topic remained until the Christian time, even if it were with an intention very different. The Irish anchorites, who liked so much to entrust themselves to the sea, in their small coracles, didn't cherish too, the secret hope to reach, guided by the hand of God or of the Demiurge, one of these islands?

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The visions or aislingi of the Middle Ages continued to embroider on the subject. That makes all the more difficult to release from the preserved texts basically pagan ideas, because not only Christian ideas about heaven, but also memories of the classical (graeco-latin) legend of the Hesperides, were undoubtedly mixed in them.

It should be admitted therefore that in our texts a relative uncertainty reigns as for what is understood exactly with this land of the blessed so pleasant to attend (Meldi). A thing at least is very clear: it is forbidden for us to speak about a “Kingdom of the Dead “ in the literal meaning, although this idea may always somewhat be mingled with it.

“ The nature of the island is marvelous as is the softness of the circumambient air. Some when they intend to sail away are even hindered by the deity which presents itself to them as to intimates and friends and not in dreams only or by means of omens, but many also come upon the visions and the voices of spirits [ or daemons in Greek] manifest. For Cronos himself sleeps confined in a deep cave of rock that shines like gold — the sleep that Zeus has contrived like a bond for him —, and birds flying in over the summit of the rock bring ambrosia to him, all the island is suffused with fragrance scattered from the rock as from a fountain; and those spirits [or daemons in Greek] mentioned before tend and serve Cronos, having been his comrades [hetaerous in Greek] what time he ruled as king over gods and men. Many things they do foretell of themselves, for they are oracular; but the prophecies that are greatest and of the greatest matters, they come down and report as dreams of Cronos, for all that Zeus premeditates, Cronos sees in his dreams (Plutarch. De facie in orbe Lunae, 26).

“The Island of Apples gets its name 'The Fortunate Island' from the fact that it produces all manner of plants spontaneously. It needs no farmers to plow the fields. There is no cultivation of the land at all beyond that which is Nature's work. It produces crops in abundance and grapes without help and apple trees spring up from the short grass in its woods. All plants, not merely grass alone, grows spontaneously; and men live a hundred years or more.That is the place where nine sisters exercise a kindly rule over those who come to them from our land. The one who is first among them has greater skill in healing, as her beauty surpasses that of her sisters. Her name is Morgan, and she has learned the uses of all plants in curing the ills of the body. She knows, too, the art of changing her shape, of flying through the air, like Daedalus, on strange wings. At will, she is now at Brest, now at Chartres, now at Pavia; and at will she glides down from the sky on to your shores.They say she had taught astrology to her sisters--Moronoe, Mazoe, Gliten, Glitonea, Gliton, Tyronoe, and Thiten,Thiten, famous for her zither [Latin cithara] . It was there we took Arthur after the battle of Camlan, where he had been wounded. Belin/Belen/Barinthus was the steersman because of his knowledge of the seas and the stars of heaven. With him at the tiller of the ship, we arrived there with the prince and Morgan received us with due honor. She put the king in her chamber on a golden bed, uncovered his wound with her noble hand and looked long at it. At length she said, he could be cured if only he stayed with her for a long while and accepted her treatment.

We therefore happily committed the king to her care and spread our sails to favorable winds on our return journey."

It is this time a next world of third function, exactly as in Ireland in the reign of the ideal king Conn. Prosperity, abundance, wealth, health and longevity.

An island, it is a land, but in the mind of the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht), such islands belonged much more to the heavenly world that to the purely earthly world. These remote islands were in any event doors, or contact points with the other part of the universe. The god-or-demons can come on Earth. Man can make a deal with them. We feel nevertheless that Mag Meld is the developed form of the world of the mounds. The underground eschatology of the sidhe, the burial mounds where the mythical race of the clan of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if it is wanted, Danu (bia), lives, refers to the combined paradigms of the agricultural religion and of the breeding shamanism , taken over and reworded during the Bronze Age. But even if these designs result from the same conceptual source, they differed so much that they should radically be distinguished. Mag MeId is no longer a land of the dead, but a wonderland in the Ocean, where supernatural beings enjoy an endless happiness. It seems that this design arrived to its full development at the moment when Christianity too was spread and brought, also, its nuance to such an idea. After the advent of Christianity, these inhabitants of Tir

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na n-og, Mag Meld, etc. were systematically confused under the name of aes sidhe people; but it seems well that, for pagans, the distinction was absolute.

We find again here the same “confusionism“ about which it is so often spoken in connection with the Celtic Panth-eon or Pleroma. In the case which interests us, the reason is the collapse of pagan doctrines after Christianity had stigmatized them as diabolical inventions.

In the tale entitled in Gaelic Echtra Condla Chaim meic Cuind Chétchathaig, already evoked above, we can read this. “Totchurethar bíi bithbi at gerat do daínib Tethrach ardotchiat cach dia i ndalaib t’athardai eter du gnathu inmaini “. “ The true living, the immortal, call to you; they summon you to the people of Tethra, etc. “. The men of Tethra are perhaps the dead. The account of the battle of the plain of the mounds mentions a king of the Andernas or of the Fomorians having this name and it was obviously believed at the time these people lived under the sea. It is besides why the expression “the plain of Tethra “designates the sea in Gaelic language. Since Tethra is likened , it seems,to the Lord of Mag MeId, in this story, some authors suppose that it was he the sovereign of the kingdom of the dead in the druidic meaning of the word; very different from its classical or Graeco-Latin , even Middle Eastern, meaning: some “Elysian Fields “that people located far on the Ocean, perhaps even at the bottom of water. (End of the opinion of Jan De Vries on the subject.)

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THE HEAVENLY PARALLEL WORD ACCORDING TO MEDIEVAL DRUIDS.

Heaven according to the high-knowers is another parallel world or more exactly a state of the being where the soul (anamone) gets rid little by little of its mind/awareness (menman; cf. Sanskrit manman = mind).

Called Mag Meld; but also Tir na mBan, Tir na mBeo, Tir Tairngiri, Tir na nOg, Magh Ionganaidh, Magh Ildathach, Magh Imchiuin, Magh Argetnel, Magh Findargat, Magh Aircthech, Sen Magh, Caer Wydion, Caer Gwydion, Lly' s Don, Caer Arianrhod or Gwynfa (in Wales), Vindomagos.

A little of etymology now, because Celtic language was one of the most able to translate this kind of concept (too bad for the Hellenists, the Latinists, or the Hebraists): Vindomagos is a Celtic word meaning about “white plain “.

At the origin of this name, probably distributed by the high-knowers or gnostic people in the West called druids (we always return there) there were perhaps accounts of Near-Death Experiences; in other words, some “almost dead “ come to life again after an apparent death, even if everybody doesn’t agree on the subject.

Many of these witnesses speak indeed about white light at the end of a tunnel or of a vortex.

The next world called vindobitos is made of three quite distinct universes, that of the god-or-demons (which is triple: albiobitos sedodumnon and anderodubon, the whole is the pleroma) that of ordinary deceased and that of the great enlightened persons (anatiomaroi, semnothei).

The Caracara Online editions, of the site utqueant. org, publishes research works devoted to various literary writings starting from new methods. One of these studies precisely deals with the parallel next world of paradisiac nature, according to the Celts.

Irish Herefater is located at the opposite of modernity or at best, adapts to it, without never announcing it or conceptualizing it, being made thus afterwards. It remains more rooted in the sphere of former beliefs, of which mankind has difficulty getting rid, than in a producing and inventive for our days, area.

But its membership of old beliefs is worthy to be studied more thoroughly. Indeed, by too much comparing these Irish texts with the abundant and luxuriant stories of the descents into Hell, of the visits of heaven; also by too much comparing the Celtic revival or Ossianism with literary currents like the English or German romanticism, or by doing in the same way between the Wanderings of Ossian; we may only tip the scales in disfavor of Irish imagination, of which charm as a result becomes limited, even local.

The feeling of “missing“ a particularism up to that point badly definite, prevails, and urges us to stop. A series of differences appears; the first relates to the fact that the Irish hereafter is not linked with a death experience, in its legendary primitive form. All these heroes who have contact with the hereafter, Ossian, Bran, Cuchulainn, St. Brendan, etc., do not die, are not in a state similar to death, but in full youth and full force. It remains to know if their adventure is comparable to an initiation in which the hero learns how to die in order to overcome his fear. But in their travel and in their account of this travel, we never see they undergo any ascetic starkness that they give up their desires and their mental representations, that they deprive themselves and suffer. Quite the contrary, abundance and joy accompany them, and their “hardships“are used for glorifying their individuality. The Irish hereafter of the legends and myths does not belong to the human need to conclude life, to guess what there is

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“behind “ etc. It is, let us point it out, beside human existence, and not in its wake. With what can it be well useful? Such is the true question.

Another difference lies in the space representation of these places. The hereafter, by becoming complicated in consequence of the progress of civilizations, is dealt on a hierarchical basis, takes shape, has varied stages, has an often labyrinthian geography, where levels and shapes criss-cross.

Here, the hereafter is without disorder nor violence, deeply continuous, without the conflicts we met in other stories. It is therefore from this difference that it is necessary to start to determine the function of the hereafter in question.

What to say of this “Land of Youth “which haunts Irish literature, if not that it is opposite modernity? Not only, this land looks like a short-lived hereafter, but it condemns its authors literally to take refuge in a reference, a hidden, total, central meaning.

There would exist a place designed by popular imagination which would make it possible to immobilize Time. Conceptually that amounts proposing that there exists a stable point to which it is possible to cling in order to reduce the changing diversity of the real phenomena.

Whether it is suddenly disputed as a supreme illusion, of hope as useless as dull, and every reflection on this subject breaks down. The problem is insoluble unless we reject this contemporary criticism and we take over the former argumentation, or unless, taking advantage of the jolts this same criticism causes, we re-examine the way in which Irish hereafter appears.

It is perhaps not certain these characteristics can make it either obsolete or fashionable.

What we want to say thus, it is the danger, if this notion of hereafter disappears; but also it is impossible to give again to it the place that formerly it occupied because its obviousness grew blurred.

These voyages towards hereafter, and more precisely the Irish texts which speak about them, have at least as a virtue to answer a question. Is there a medium term between the former self-confidence based on an ultimate reference (sought, found, whatever it is) and the contemporary assertion of an infinite formal freedom?

Should we have to side with a certainty of which order and building qualities are praiseworthy, or with an artifice endowed with not less great qualities of audacity and liberation?

This question, as naive as it appears in its first formulation, will direct our comprehension of these various, “Lands of Youth “.

Their accounts show a notion familiar to oral literature of formerly: they show clearly what will have to disappear according to modernity of then: Christianity.

It remains to suppose they also delimit new problems, or the alliance of the former and modern systems.

It is not a question of applying a theory to literary facts nor to even draw a conclusion from them. Because to want these texts the simple illustration of a system of thought, or the preliminary and therefore lower stages of a clear scientific and philosophical presentation, would be to degrade them.

The voyage towards the hereafter is a form of thought, an intellectual journey and a talk, in itself and our role is to follow the meandering or to continue the logic of it.

It is a question of removing this topic of the “Land of Youth “from the obviousness and from the easy, even folk, aura, which surrounds it. A questioning replacing this fabulous space within contemporary or universal intellectual efforts was necessary.

We said, “Tir-na-n-Og “is an Irish topic very frequent in the literature of this nation. We will show it, but by including our main research, which is to know if there does not exist what to build without nostalgia a more current hereafter.

The Irish tradition of the “Tir-na-n-Og “.

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The first appearance of the “Tir -na-n-Og “is in the mythological texts of medieval Ireland, and more particularly in two types of stories about which we spoke, the “echtra “ or abduction , and the “ imram “or voyage. Echtra remained especially pagan, whereas imram was more thoroughly Christianized. In the first case, a hero is invited to visit the hereafter, by a fairy who loves him and holds him spellbound; in the second, the hero, accompanied by friends, crosses the oceans and go in this so much desired Land of Youth.

But if it is necessary to see now what aspects these wonderlands take, when they are reached, we will do it only in order to have a model from which modifications gradually will be worked out. This change of aspect, for us crucial, has to make a better approximation possible, and to affirm the permanency of the topic in the Irish letters.

At the beginning, therefore, the hereafter, which is designated with several words, “Tir-na-m-Beo “(land of the living), “Tir-na-m-Ban “(land of women), “Mag Mor “(Great Plain). It is localized either under hillocks, hills and lakes, or on Western islands where Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan the god-or-demon of the dead, reigns. This localization is conventional, and makes it possible for men to comprehend the world of the god-or-demons, who escape time and space theoretically.

Scholars are right to state well that these places are not due to naive minds. And they notice then, as outstanding features of the Celtic paradise (starting from texts like the Voyage of Bran, the sickbed of Cuchulainn and the only jealousy of Aemer, the wooing of Etain, the Battle of the mounds plain ); in addition to some resemblance with that of Islam (sic); first the topic of eternal happiness (absence of diseases, work, daily worries, loneliness); then the abolition of time (one hour there amounts to one century here); lastly, the happiness due to love, consumption of succulent dishes and intoxicating drinks, or to the hearing of divine music.

Music is indeed one of the first earthly manifestations of this next world. The birds which come from there sing all divine music and when people of the sidh are seen in a human appearance, they also are some masters in this art among most difficult. But as much, if not more than the song of the swans, the archetypal divine music is that of the harp. Music is at the same time an entertainment, magic, and therapy. The musical perfection pertains to the Next World. The parallel universe of paradisiac nature, according to the Celts, is nevertheless the result of a theological reflection from the higher-knowers; who believed in the immortality of the soul and perhaps in a reward of merits [this point of view is not necessarily that of the editorial board]. Unless the data are reversed or that it is supposed that this paradise is necessary for the construction of a theory about souls and justice, to explain it all in all.

Irish design of the soul; in spite of the little information available; endows this notion with a strong individual value, unconnected with the social life of the clan; leading to no melting with the divinity [at least initially. Editor’s note]. The soul is alone there, and everything is focused on each one.

We are far from the Greek or Hindu ideas on the soul/mind; this breath which becomes exhausted (like in Homer) in the hell; or which faces the reincarnation after contemplation of heaven like in Plato); or this divine bit which, among Buddhists, has to join the Whole.

Here the soul/mind is a sovereign assertion of the Self, being able to open out free of constraints. At least, it is what we could theorize in comparison with the life of our heroes in this hereafter, which consecrates and differentiates; whereas Greek and Hindu hereafter, for example, assimilates and breaks up. [But nothing proves that it cannot be thus secondly, after a more or less long stay in this Tir-na-n-Og, Tir-na-m-Beo, Mag Mor, etc. to achieve purifying oneself there. Editor’s note].

The opinion of the great French celtologists Le Roux and Guyonvarc'h, to feel a philosophical reflection pierces under these simple descriptions of the paradise, is in our eyes convincing, whatever the little of evidence to put forward. If the Germanic Walhalla is a warrior's paradise, the Irish “Sidh “is a haven of peace, delights and pleasure. We find there, of course,sometimes, descriptions of wars and of battles, but it is through abusive transposition or extension of human practices. Dead and casualties are not offended, and continue to feast. Sidh signifies “peace “ with all the consequences of

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the meaning: inexistence of any war and quarrel, of any intellectual speculation also: the Other world has neither druids nor warriors.

People wondered why all its aspects are “of third function “. Its reason is clear; the sidh being, in principle and in fact, the expression, the achievement, of perfection; all distinctions of classes and functions end up in being abolished because they are no longer necessary. These descriptions illustrate druidic doctrines, they direct and determine these same doctrines. Perhaps it will be felt all these beautiful descriptions are incomplete, or awkward, because they are not presented in theological words. But Ireland did not have other possibilities of conveying or of expressing infinity. She expresses it in finite words by a shortening or a lengthening of human time, because it is the only measure human intelligence is able to grasp. All that is only a means of showing the invisible. But if we put these stories on the level of the myths, temporarily, of course, we would define them as being able to found a reflection which could not continue for historical reasons, or which was destroyed for other reasons. But can we, starting from these texts, find the ventured theories, or work out these which could not appear? That is not sure.

It remains the key idea of a world in which youth and joy are eternal and everywhere present, without anybody being preoccupied with judging men, setting up compartmentalization.

Editor’s note. The notion of judgment, punishment of those who would not have or who would have badly followed divine laws, in other words, the righteous and the unrighteous ones (compared to the aforementioned divine commandments) is typically Islamic-Christian. It is completely unfamiliar to druidic spirituality which apparently is ignorant of hell ideas and of which heaven welcomes everyone in general -the only exceptions being bacuceus- a little like the Pure Land of the Buddha Amitabha. It is impossible to be more clement or compassionate, more human in a way, towards the poor sinner we all are - ah this famous original weakness which affects even the races of masters like Ulaid-).

The Greek, Hindu, and Christian, view, has, in comparison, a diversity which surprises. Is this to say that the notion of soul/mind was less complex among Irishmen? Obviously, their hereafter had a less power of organization, but, on the other hand, it has a great poetic fragrance, which undoubtedly comes from this lack of differentiation.

Nevertheless, the major characteristic of the Irish “hereafter “ does not seem to have been noticed: it seems to have no relationship with death. Its distance is all the more underlined that it is not necessary to pass away to visit it. No experience of death affects it! So it is difficult to justify it, like in the case of the other religions and beliefs, by quite a human need to affirm our existence has a prolongation, cannot end definitively, must lead to something. Irish hereafter does not emerge from a desire, from a lack, from morbid concerns; it settles beside the life, and not

in its wake.

But the critic is embarrassed, to admit this fact, by a phenomenon of a different magnitude, and which we can summarize thus. The hereafter placed in front of us , after human existence, is changed into a hereafter placed behind us, before the present time, ours. Become historical, former, it opens the doors of dreams and nostalgia; it is to show this change that we will endeavor, leaving aside for the time the problem of the “place “of this hereafter as indication of metaphysics.

Let us take as a starting point the splendid poem by Michael Comyn, “the lay of Ossian in the land of Youth “(Laoi Óisín ar Tír Na nÓg), written about 1750. It is a long epic poem being presented in the form of an imaginary dialog between the old Irish hero Ossian and St. Patrick. Ossian tells the person responsible for the Christianization of Ireland his three hundred years' stay in the islands of the world of fairies. The poem begins with some words of St. Patrick questioning Ossian about his life after the defeat of Gabhra. Ossian answers while reporting to him how he met one day the fairy Niamh, and married her, then came back in this world, urged by nostalgia.

Reference versions: The Dialog of Oisin and Patrick by John O'Daly, Ossianic Society Dublin 1859. The translation of Tomas O'Flannghaile published in 1896 in Dublin by the Irish Studies.

“ One day as we the Fenians were all (assembled)

The generous Vindos/Finn and all that survived of us“.

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The trees are blooming, a deer runs in front of the pack, the scene takes place close to a lake. The only cloud on the horizon is the reminder of the death of certain companions and of Oscar, son of Ossian. If not, nothing abnormal seems to affect these existences. Stability reigns: a king, some warriors, a usual activity (hunting). Anything else could be invented as a lifestyle. What exists is enough!

When suddenly from the west emerges a queenly rider, on a splendid steed. Come from elsewhere, very beautiful, with curly fair hair, blue eyes, richly dressed, mounting a shoed gold horse.

The element of surprise is immediate.

Let us note how much the “lure “is common, and matches most immediate desires of a society of warriors or hunters (independence, splendid mount, beautiful woman).

And this woman presents herself: it is Niamh, daughter of the king of Youth.

“’S me inghean alainn Righ na n-Og “ i.e., word for word: “ I am daughter fair (alainn) of the King of Youth."

She wishes to marry Ossian because of the feats he performs of which she heard. This bit of flattery, even sincere, which gives rise to the feeling to be desired or expected, can only increase the fascination of Ossian. A second level of this fascination will appear besides shortly after; thanks to the depiction of the hereafter kingdom which quatrains 27 to 36 recount. Each stanza begins with a “ You will get “(“Do gheobhair… “) followed by the gifts and wonders which await for Ossian over there. It is to a real treat for the senses that he is invited: everlasting spring, melodious music, gold and silver, and so on. His taste for the possession of wealth adapted to his desires is thus maintained: Ossian will get a sword, a coat of mail, hundreds of cows, a retinue of servants and companions of his value. All that forms a whole quite in conformity with the daydreams a warrior may give himself. No external element comes to run up against this promised soft harmony.

After the painful separation moment, our hero therefore crosses the sea.

Stanza 48.

“The smooth sea ebbed before us, and filled in swelling waves in our rear“.

“Do thraigh an mhin mhuir romhain, ‘s do lion ' na broinntibh in ar n-diaidh “.

In the middle of strange spectacles (cities, castles, a red-eared dog chasing a fawn, a young woman holding in her hand an apple of gold, another one dressed in a purple cloak holding a gold-headed sword); which remain for Ossian meaningless, even if he questions Niamh on their subject.

It is besides one of the most successful passages of the poem: these short images with shimmering colors have an obvious evocative power (stanzas 49 to 54).

Fascination of the mystery: an event takes place of which we know neither its cause nor its origin, but we may suppose they are remote, ancient, or of a higher essence.

In the same manner, along the way, Ossian and Niamh stop in a palace of which the princess, a daughter of the King of the living, is the captive of a giant of the people of Andernas or Fomor who forbids her to come back home.

The scene has something ghostly and unreal, because Ossian feels chosen to free her from her oppression, and faces the giant.

This young queen is “equal to the sun's splendor “ her despair calls for a reparation of her rights.

All in her looks fine, diaphanous, imperceptible, and is opposed to the wild brutality of the giant.

It is there a source of considerable and new fascination for our hero: the glory of a valorous and right action. The new “trap “functions extremely well to lead him to be more deeply “inserted “ in the hereafter in question.

After the victory, the festival and a refreshing sleep, Ossian and Niamh set out again but without knowing if the young queen “returned to the Land of the living. “ The unknown of destiny leaves an impression of unfinished proper to daydream.

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The stay in the land of Youth will also call upon another seduction means, wealth, gentle way of life, feeling of welcome and user-friendliness, abundance of colors and buildings, are crowned by the birth of a descent. Niamh gives Ossian two sons and a daughter, whom he calls Finn, Oscar (in remembrance of his father as well as his son on earth) and Plurnamban (“flower of women “). Ossian feels for them a strong attachment.

Such are therefore the various levels of a seduction strategy: female beauty, glory, easy life in the abundance of goods, paternal affection.

When we look at them, we are divided between the idea that they are there attractions in conformity with the common ideal of one time; but also that they are universal tendencies in Man, whose real existence is not always so filled or generous.

The first temporal reminder will occur when our hero is hit by the desire to see again Vindos/Finn and his companions. As if only this desire led him to become aware of the time which is gone.Therefore let us quote the stanza 109 which we will translate as close as possible.

“I spent (there) a long-lasting period (Do chaitheas treimse fada cian)

Three hundred years apparently and more (tri cheud bliadhan is doigh ‘s ni as mo)

Till (at length) I thought within myself that I should see (once more) (Gur smuain mé fein go mb’e mo mhian)

Vindos/Finn and the Fenians alive“ (Fionn ‘s an Fhiann d’fheicsin beo).

But nothing in this declaration indicates the secret reason for this desire. Its suddenness surprises and causes unease. Yeats, in his poem on Usheen, more prepares us for this fateful moment, because with him Niamh does not succeed, in spite of the three islands she makes Usheen visit, to make him forget his companions of formerly. Each adventure on an island is chanted by the regrets of Usheen to be no longer with the Fenians.

Here, the caesura is curter and seems to be justified, less by the nostalgia than by the intrepidity of our hero, persuaded he will come back without mishap.

Stanza 112.

”Creud as eagal dúinn, a ríogan bhláth

’S an t-each bán do bheith fá’m réir? --

Múinfidh an t-eolus dam go sámh

As fillead slan tar m’ais chughad féin!”

“What cause for fear have we O sunny queen,

When the white steed shall be at my will ?

He will easily show me the way

And I shall return to you safe."

Through this desire, Ossian therefore shows that the essential lesson of existence has escaped him, i.e., the need for choosing, and the impossibility of keeping everything on the same level of offered potentialities. To a unified and non-contentious space, from where the irreversible choices seem absent, the final discovery of a break succeeds. Niamh, thrice, recommends to him, “ not to lay a foot to ground“ “ not to alight from the white steed “ “ not to come off the horse “ (stanzas 113-115), for fear of aging at once.

The story ventures towards the meeting of these two modes, and the passage from the one into the other will change the one who will cross it. We will not have here a theoretical approach to it, but the logic or the function of these “hereafter “is discovered then. In rational or imaginary high dose, they describe a state of stability unknown in life but nevertheless hoped; that reason and imagination try to build, through optimization of their data (combination and fitments of the facts, in the most effective possible way). The hereafter is a smooth imaginary surface, timeless, immortal, that thinker or poet build as an ideal support for their projects, which should meet only minimal opposition and constraints. Far from moving us away, as we supposed it, immediately and through fascination, from

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imaginary or rational stability, it is first used on the contrary, to strengthen the latter, to increase it to the extreme limit.

The continuation of the story leads inevitably to the fall of Ossian, who supports badly to see Ireland become Christian.

Stanza 120 of the version published in 1880 in Dublin by the Society for the preservation of the Irish language: “ lf I should be myself, O Patrick ! As I was that day itself, I would put your clergy all together to death,and a head on a neck there would not be after me “.

Because the building of a perfect stability is a painful thing, and it is difficult to see it destroyed, as soon as we are “gone“ or that we have withdrawn from it. Ossian discovers that he became a subject of legends for the Irishmen of then, that he finds weakened and without strength. He refuses St. Patrick's intercession , i.e., some prayers for his companions pursued or tormented by demons in Hell, what he thinks impossible, considering the enemy was never able to overcome Vindos/Finn.

Two logics clash and are incompatible in their respective creations, in their stabilizing coherence, we could say.

Ossian’s disparaging judgment about the lack of strength of Christians comes owing to the fact that every stable center always considers itself as being certainty, and classifies the rest into the fields of doubts or illusions .

With a hand, he holds a flag of a marble , but the girth breaks under his horse and he falls to the ground. The prediction of Niamh is achieved, and while the steed flees, the weight of the years falls down suddenly on Ossian and floors him.

Stanza 149

I lost the sight (of my eyes),

My figure, my fair countenance, and my bloom,

I was a poor, blind old man,

Powerless, witless, unhonored.

We will note how much the “formal “aspect is carefully expressed by the author.

Thus: “dhealbh: form “; “ghnuis: aspect, countenance “; “sgail “: brio, brilliance.

In the same way, we feel that Ossian is “emptied “ from the inside.

“Brigh “: energy, force.

“Meabhair “: memory, reason, intelligence.

“Aird “: openly, publicly, direction.

Various remarks are now possible concerning the role of druidic hereafter in general.

The poem by Comyn does not have the verbal luxuriance nor the imagination of the work by Yeats (the Wanderings of Usheen) but it presents for us a structure easier to grasp and a more obvious “structuring “ less hidden by the great art of Yeats.

Nevertheless the result got here, also applies to this second version of the voyage of Ossian, more modern and fertile. The Wanderings of Usheen is a long epic poem, in three books, published in 1889 by William Butler Yeats. It is a dialog between the former Irish hero Ossian and Saint Patrick. Ossian tells the responsible for Ireland’s Christianization his three hundred years' stay in the islands of the fairies world.

The question now is to know if this interpretation may be generalized to the other “hereafter “(that of the sidh, that of ossianism) we have noticed in the Irish literature.

However, replaced inside this series of problems (description of a state of maximum stability and projection of rational or imaginary intentions, on an undifferentiated space); the druidic hereafter is understood indeed better than before; when we sought to know if it was modern or not.

The “sidhe “ first form of hereafter met, brought neither quite a precise theory of soul/minds nor a very advanced vision of death experience: it was neither a current idea nor a lucky illustration of former beliefs.

It now appears as a parallel space , well away of any bond with a break-up (modernity obliges) or with a passing (from life to death, according to Antiquity). Because its nature is to establish a total

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stability and therefore to eliminate any element of instability; as a separation of the soul from the body, a transfer of a place into another, a passing away, from sleep to awakening, etc.

The hereafter lends itself to our desires, it is the place of their junction, so that it is enough to be let carried to reach it according to a smooth, easy, timeless, travel.

The other hereafter, that of Ossianism, born from an abduction and trickery, proposed an original state of society in a mythical shape, which, functioning as reference; in the way of the state of nature according to the French Rousseau; prohibits modernity for it.

It badly illustrated the need for meaning that the more worked out “hereafter “of the former religions, already able to build eschatology, give to History. But when we study it differently, we realize that this neutral space, faded, monotonous, from where true temporal reference marks are excluded; is also the expression of a stability which matches the tastes of the time clearly, with its moral and philosophical concerns. It was in line with the expectations of an audience in love with a paradisiacal primordial state, dedicated to the expression of gloomy passions, celebrating the joy of being sad and the lamentation. It could not then be a question of conflicts with detailed causes, of belief changes, conquests or revolts, conveying any instability.

These forms of “ hereafter “- because there are some other of them - therefore have a precise function: to stage a perfect stability. It remains to know the reasons, what goals and what utilities, they have?

The structure we propose is the following one. Since they form the continuous prolongation of imaginary and rational constructions, they present a perfect space (because without resistance) to their total and infinite development. But that ends up leading to the setting aside of the reality, to a reduction of the differences, to a fatal ataraxia.

Nevertheless this work is not negative. It not only makes it possible to rouse oneself from a field of which we find over the limits; but also to build the future states of tension, while causing destruction, confrontations, new constraints taken into account, formations of new focuses.

The hereafter which reduced the world to the desires that Man has during his existence, causes various reactions, of which that to repopulate reality. It is a stage necessary so that need to reconsider the relationship between the facts, to recognize what was “forgotten or exiled“ what did not have a place in us, in our awareness, intervenes.

The thought in the strong meaning of the word can then be started, after having visited these extreme lands, initially enemy then presenting the opportunity to exceed the systems which they illustrate, and to galvanize their values. The hereafter is the first geometrical space, simplified, shown to the critical look for a transmutation of the “objects, “which are plated on it. The hereafter is as a necessary training so that it implements its powers of interrogation and of an unsurpassable champion in the art to tie new series of problems. The process of the thought becomes an adventure then.

This adventure is not disordered, since the forms of the hereafter are not unlimited, but we recognized three of them here.

Let us raise them to the rank of paradigms or prototypes. Forgetting of the world, timelessness, factitious illusion, are three dangers that we must constantly to repel ; but which, diffuse, would be invisible, or intractable and which, condensed, becomes the subject of a profitable understanding.

The hereafter is less in fact an alarming sign than an invitation to burst. It expounds what there is communal in our moment beliefs, in our answers facing the unknown. Not so that we are reflected in it, but in order to seize it and to bring to existence what is suppressed or stifled.

A time which refuses to build a “hereafter “is a period which fears the danger of a total grasping of its key ideas, that would require a questioning and a painful tension effort. But perhaps is it difficult for it to proceed thus, because it did not solve its former conflicts yet?

The hereafter is well a communal land, leading to an interrogation and a renewal. If it has disappeared for centuries in the West, wouldn't this be because of a refusal, or of an incapacity, to undertake a revival?

In short, the Irish hereafter followed a conceptual evolution in conformity with the movement of History. And in itself, it is interesting to thus locate it compared with a universal course of events. It remains to it a last change to perform, that in which it will take root in the present and the experience, if it wants to continue existing (Online editions Caracara of the web site utqueant. org.)

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THE PARADISIAC PARALLEL OTHER WORLD IN MEDIEVAL GREAT BRITAIN.

The main difference between legends dealing with the hereafter or other world in Ireland and legends of the afterlife or other world in Great Britain, and it is striking, is their level of Christianization. In Great Britain and with the noticeable exception of Avalon Island, the Christianization of these stories is indeed infinitely deeper than in Ireland. Which is quite logical. Let us not forget that at the very moment or almost more or less a century (11th 12th century) when the great Irish poet Urard Mac Coise showed us at the end of his tale entitled "the plunder of the castle of Maelmilscothach" druids paid for imbas forosnai, teimn laegda, or dichetal do chennaib, some not very kosher specialties.

Do ratath tra do Mael Milscothach iartain cech ni dobrethaigsid suide sin etir ecnaide 7 fileda 7 brithemna la taeb ogaisic a crech 7 is amlaidsin ro ordaigset do tabairt a cach ollamain ina einech 7 ina sa[ru]gad acht cotissad de imus forosnad [di]chetal do chollaib cend 7 tenm laida .i. comenclainn fri rig Temrach do acht co ti de intreide sin FINIT.

On the other hand in the large neighboring island, the literate audience eagerly devoured the stories of knights by a certain Chretien de Troyous.

We can thus schematize the situation. In Ireland many (but not all) of our stories about the other world have remained deeply pagan and include only a few superficial Christian interpolations that do not question the substance and are easily identifiable.

In Great Britain it's exactly the opposite.

As for the story of the grail, for example, there are only two possible solutions.

Either it is a completely Christianized hereafter.

Or it is the interpolation in the narrative, as anecdotal, of the reminiscences of a pagan ritual taking place in an unknown shrine.

Let us point it out lastly and to conclude that the historical period of the king of [Great] Britain known under the name of Arthur is the period which followed the end of the Roman Empire, and, of course, not the time when his legend was written down by various French authors. i.e., the fifth century and not the twelfth century, what changes everything! At the time all the southern half of Scotland, roughly all that was south of a line Glasgow Edinburgh, was of Brythonic or Welsh language and nobody spoke yet here one word of Gaelic language. It is what is called in Welsh language Yr hen ogledd, namely the kingdom of Strathclyde (first king Coroticus, first capital Dumbarton) and the kingdom of Manaw Gododdin (capitals Edinburgh and Stirling). Arthur and Merlin resulted perhaps from them.

Let us not forget indeed that the Christians of York City crushed the last pagan king of the region (Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio) during the Battle of Arthuret / Arfderydd.

And that this defeat of the last pagan king of the region in 574 literally sealed the end of a world (by finalizing the triumph of Christian monks in the country).

The romances of the Round Table in any case result from the deep but then very deep Christianization of ancient fragments of Celtic mythology, in which the god-or-demons became simple heroes, the other world a marvelous or mysterious castle (of the Grail) and so on.

And if Next World there is, the Story of the Grail displays its misfortunes more than it shows its superiority on the real world of men. In that, the novel thus lines up well in the Celtic tradition which imagines god-or-demons overcome by men and forced to give up the surface of the earth to them.

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Gawain is a solar hero, whose strength grows and decreases with the course of the star of the day. It is therefore at midday he is most powerful. He thus presents affinities with the god or demon Mabon/Maponos/Oengus, but the Christianization of the story makes difficult a more thorough analysis of this character. Writers as Chretien de Troyous erased or equivocated some of the outstanding characteristics of the initial Celtic theology that they brought closer to the classical (Graeco-Latin) design of the world of the dead. What the inhabitants of the Arthurian Next World seem indeed to envy this world, it is the life which animates it ; and this is a notable difference with the Irish design of the next world (a collateral damage resulting from Christianity, perhaps). In the romances of the matter of [ Great] Britain, the Next World died. It is struck down by sterility (in the image of the wound to the legs of the fisher king) and time passes no longer there (like in the case of the castle of the queens). Besides water crossing symbolizes this entry in the kingdom of the dead.

In Perceval or the story of the Grail, this other world is a universe marked by wealth. The castles are well located, in fortified places that the presence of water enriches. They were built with invaluable materials which cause the admiration of the hero, and the richnesses they contain are even more astonishing *.

“Between four columns, burning bright, a fire of dry logs cast its light. In order to enjoy its heat, four hundred men could find a seat around the outsized fire, and not one man would take a chilly spot. The solid fireplace columns could support the massive chimney hood, which was of bronze, built high and wide“.

All the needs of the passing knights are satisfied there: warm and invaluable coats are offered to the visitors.

“Two squires came up to help him doff his arms and took his armor off. The third squire led his horse away to give him fodder,oats,and hay. The fourth brought a silk cloak new-made “.

“ The mantle was lined with ermine, and with sable, black as a berry, and the cloth was of a rich red wool“.

“ When the time came to wake next morning, a gown of ermine and samite had been prepared for him“.

Meals of an extraordinary refinement and abundance are served there.

“The table was set upon these trestles and the cloth was laid. And what should I say about the cloth ? No legate or cardinal or pope ever dined at one so white. The first dish was a roast haunch of venison, seasoned with hot pepper.There was no shortage of clear, delicious wine to drink, from golden cups. Before them a page carved pieces from the peppered venison, drawing the haunch to him with the silver trencher and he presented the pieces [….] They were not mean with the wine and dishes, and they were delicious and most agreeable. The food was fine and good : the worthy man and the boy were served that night with all the dishes befitting a king or a count or an emperor.

And after they had dined they stayed up together and talked, while the boys prepared beds. Then there were many different drinks to sample : sweet,aromatic wine, made with neither honey nor pepper, and old mulberry wine and clear syrup. The boy who had never tasted the like was filled with wonder.“

“Squires served him joyfully […] two of these came before him one of them cutting meat for him and the other pouring wine. And the dinner was not short : it lasted longer than a day around Trinity, for it was dark, black night and many great torches were burning before the meal was over. There was likely talking over dinner and afterwards they danced for a long while“.

These splendid palaces are not basically different from the ordinary castles, these of Arthur or that of Gornemant. Everything is there simply larger, more invaluable, more beautiful, more abundant. They are also places marked by wonder. Thus, the light in which the hall of the castle of the Fisher King is bathed , and which cannot be explained in a natural way, especially when the Grail occurs. Its bright whiteness is a Celtic sign of the supernatural.

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Just then two other boys appeared and in their hands they held candlesticks of the finest gold, inlaid with black enamel. The boys who carried the candlesticks were handsome indeed, and in each candlestick burned ten candles at the very least. A girl who came in with the boys, fair and comely and beautifully adorned,was holding a grail between her hands. When she entered holding the grail, so brilliant a light appeared that the candles lost their brightness like the stars or the moon when the sun rises “.

Mysterious defenses protect these residences, for example the castle of the queens in which Gawain in the second part of the story of the Grail, goes.

“There are five hundred bows and crossbows always at the ready. If the castle were ever threatened they’d shoot ceaselessly and never tire, so ingeniously are they arranged […..] In that great hall a clerk well versed in astronomy, whom the queen brought , has created unheard-of marvels. “

“ The moment I sat upon the bed there was a great commotion in the hall. Without a word of a lie, the bed cords groaned and the bells upon them rang, and closed windows opened by themselves and crossbow bolts and smooth arrows smashed into my shield“.

More than seven hundred hit therefore lord Gawain in his shield. But he did not know who struck him, because the enchantment was such as nobody could see from which place came the shoot, nor where the archers hid .

The castle of the Grail besides seems itself to emerge rather mysteriously.

“ He looked around him from that stand but saw no more than sky and land [….] But just then, in a valley nearby, the top of a tower caught his eye. You wouldn’t find one more handsome from here to Beirut! “

Lastly, the pilot specifies that around the castle of the Queens a vast indefinite space also stretches, which too, depends on the supernatural.

“For it’s no good staying here on this riverbank : it’s a wild place, and full of strange marvels. “

Joy of the Court, Erec and Enide.

Brandigant the land of Evrain and Mabonagrain, is, of course, the other world(the kingdom of Bran).

Another world which resembles a druidic shrine of the 1st century, similar to that of Gournay-sur-Aronde in France. See the characteristic detail of the cut-off heads displayed on its palisade. As for that which is evoked at the end, it resembles extremely that of the Valley of no Return, domain of Morgan La Fey.

“ The name of the town is Brandigant….the isle on which the town stands stretches away four leagues or more, and within the enclosure grows all that a rich town needs, fruit and wheat and wine are found; and of wood and water there is no lack. It fears no assault on any side, nor could anything reduce it to starvation. King Evrain had it fortified, and he has possessed it all his days unmolested, and will possess it all his life. But not because he feared anyone did he thus fortify it but the town is more pleasing so… In the town there is a dangerous passage. I have often heard the story, and more than seven years have passed since anyone that went in quest of the adventure has come back from the town; yet, proud, bold knights have come hither from many a land. The name is very fair to say, but the execution is very hard: for no one can come from it alive. The adventure, upon my word, is called 'the Joy of the Court.'"

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Any knight who wishes to undertake this adventure will be the guest of the king, and will receive all the honors. But the king makes him well understanding that if he agrees to be thus lodged, he will have to try the adventure in question, as of the following day at dawn.

“The King leads him without the town into a garden that stood nearby. The garden had around it no wall or fence except of air: yet, by a spell, the garden was on all sides so shut in by the air that nothing could enter there any more than if the garden were enclosed in iron, unless it flew in over the top. And all through the summer and the winter, too, there were flowers and ripe fruits there; and the fruit was of such a nature that it could be eaten inside; for whoever should wish to carry out a little would never be able to find the gate, and never could issue from the garden until he had restored the fruit to its place. Erec went riding, lance in rest, into the middle of the garden, greatly delighting in the song of the birds which were singing there. But he saw a wondrous thing, which might arouse fear in the bravest warrior ; for before him, on sharpened stakes, there stood bright and shining helmets, and each one had beneath the rim a man's head. But at the end there stood a stake where as yet there was nothing but a horn.”

The King spoke and explained to the knight :

“I will tell you nothing of the horn; but never has anyone been able to blow it. However, he who shall succeed in blowing it his fame and honor will grow until they distance all those of his country, and he shall find such renown that all will come to do him honor, and will hold him to be the best of them all.”

The knight went off alone down a path, without a companion of any sort, until he came to a silver couch with a cover of gold-embroidered cloth, beneath the shade of a sycamore; and on the bed a maiden of comely body and lovely face, completely endowed with all beauty, was seated all alone.

Erec draws near to her, hoping to see her more closely.

“Then behold, there comes a knight armed with vermilion arms, and he was wondrous tall; and if he were not so immeasurably tall, under the heavens there would be none fairer than he; but, as everyone averred, he was a foot taller than any knight he knew.”

The giant therefore shouts at the knight,by calling him mad to thus want to approach his lady-love, and challenges him to duel.

The fight is long and violent, and the giant is finally overcome. But by this victory, the knight releases him from the spell of which he was a prisoner. He had indeed promised to his beloved to remain with her in this orchard, until the day when he would be overcome by a knight courageous enough to face him. The lovers are therefore as a result released both from this enchantment, and the knight receives all the honors.

The topic was developed beyond what is reasonable by the writers of the matter of [Great] Britain.

In spite of its wealth and of its wonders, the “Welsh" Next World especially appears there as a world on standby that only a successful spiritual search could take out from its torpor. The castle of the Grail and the castle of the queens are like symmetrical the one of the other. The first one directed by men (the wise Fisher king, a disabled person, and his father, sick), the second one by women (a queen, her daughter, also queen, and the last one, Clarissant). The kings of the Grail’s castle, disabled or sick, look every bit as impotent as the queens, captive of their marvelous palace. All are surrounded only by “squires “ word which normally designates usually a young boy, a kind of page waiting dubbing. But something does not work any more in this Next World, since, in the castle of the queens particularly, they are old persons. Neither in the castle of the Grail, nor in that of the queens, there are true knights being able to dub somebody. The inhabitants of the castle of the queens, like those of the castle of Graal, therefore expect a true knight who will give again health or strength to the kings and to their lands, who will dub the squires or will marry off the maidens.

“ All these people go about their lives at the castle, nursing a wild and impossible hope: they’re waiting for a knight to come and support them, who’ll restore the ladies to their positions, give husbands to the girls and make the squires knights. But all the sea will turn to ice before they find a knight who can stay in that hall, for he would have to be handsome and wise, wholly free of cupidity, worthy and bold, noble and loyal, and clean of all baseness and wickedness. If such a knight comes, he could be the

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lord of the castle, and restore their lands to the ladies and bring an end to the deadly wars, and have the girls married and the squires dubbed, and cast out the enchantments of the hall without delay“.

This hero is therefore each time eagerly expected as a savior: it will be vainly for Perceval, but successfully for Gawain.

* The translations are given with reservations, old French is not an easy language. French of today either besides. And in what relates to me I very humbly admit not to have the mastery of Moliere’s language as well as I would like. My French at times leaves a lot to be desired , I realize that, especially when I take part in web sites.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF WHAT

THE DRUID CORIN BRAGA THINKS ABOUT THE RELIGION OF CELTS.

The high-knower Corin BRAGA was born in 1961 in Baia Mare (Romania), and defended a doctoral thesis of philosophy in the Babes-Bolyai University at Cluj in 1997.

The maritime eschatology of islands, in the west of the world, refers to the paradigm of hunting and fishing shamanism (druid Corin Braga still). It is an eschatology dating back to the Paleolithic era and it stages islands of eternally living beings put under the patronage of the divine figure of Belinos Barinthus Lerigenos (Manannan Mac Lir). This other world that Gaels called Mag Meld ( plain of joy), Tir-na-mBo (land of the living), Tir na n-Óg (land of youth), Tir n-Ailll (the other land) or Tir na mBan (land of women); refers to the kingdom of the King of the Nature in hunting and fishing shamanism. The hero who goes on the sea in order to join the Lady of the other world comes under into the typology of the shaman who marries the daughter of the Forest King or of the Water King. His crossing will be built on the model of the initiatory travel of the soul/mind of shamans in the hereafter.

Indo-Europeans of the Bronze Age, on the other hand, brought the view of a world built vertically; and reinterpreted the impressive mounds they found on the spot as entrances towards a hereafter located under the land of men (under Mediomagos).

Always intended for chosen people, for heroes with magic powers, this search follows no longer a horizontal itinerary, towards the end of the world, but a vertical itinerary, towards another stage of the world. Mag Meld is no longer located on the same geographical level as the land of men (Mediomagos), but on a parallel level, implying the metaphysical tripartition of the universe into the heavens, the earth, and the underground world.

The collective burials in the cairns and the sidhe suggest these large funeral monuments were initially designed as villages for the dead. The sidhe and the cairns then became necropolises, reproducing as in a reversed mirror, the surface world of the living. The tribal kings, consorts of the Great Goddess-or-Demoness, ruled there as demonic sovereigns, i.e., situated between the god-or-demons and the men, dispensers as well of the order in the society of the dead as of the fertility in the society of the living.

Very quickly, as of the time of Hallstatt, an important innovation was introduced; the idea that the tombs are not collective villages for the dead, but some palaces for quite particular chiefs, accompanied by servants and women, possibly. This change is suggested by the passage, at the end of the Bronze Age, from the collective burials to individual burials, intended for the kinglets as well as to the military chiefs. It shows the formation of a strongly organized in a hierarchy, social structure, where the “transitional between god-or-demons and men “kings in the Neolithic civilization of farmers, were compared to the figures of the ancestors of the cattle-breeding Indo-Europeans.

Following the example of the pit graves of the peoples in the Asian steppes, these new tombs are closed micro universes, which receive the guardian heroes of clans. From “villages for the dead

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“receiving all the deceased, the burial mounds became like a kind of “bosom of Abraham “ housing the founders of the tribes or of the clans. A similar heroic institution is found in the Celtica of the first Iron Age. The “princely “civilization known as Hallstatt provided to the archeologists very rich funerary monuments, intended for local military chiefs.

These graves had no longer the same architectural ostentation as megalithic buildings, but they show nevertheless, by the artifacts which accompanied the deceased, the belief in a form of after death survival. It is probably at that time that the eschatology of the sidhe and the figure of the god-or-demons of the goddess-or-demoness or fairy Danu (bia), took the form they will keep in Irish legends. If the personalities who had access to the islands of the eternally living men, of Belinos/Barinthus Lerigenos (Manannan Mac Lir), were a kind of shamans-heroes, those who enter the sidhe are the heroes, ancestors of the clans, the god-or-demons of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Danu (bia). The All Souls' Day, celebrated on October 31st, the day of Samon, is a survival of this eschatology of the Bronze Age, which supposed that dead, especially their transitional between men and god-or-demons, kings, remained in contact with the living persons. Irish mythology places at Samon all the stories which imply a meeting or a royal banquet; which describe a conflict with the powers of the other world, the intervention in human affairs of the powers come from the next world, or conversely the intervention of the men in the sidh; which stage, generally jointly, with a banquet, the death of a king or hero, always for the same reasons: breaches or violations of prohibitions (gessa), misbehavior or unjust war. This interaction, sometimes violent, between the dead and the living, is fully illustrated by the legend known under the title of” Echtra Nerai “: the Adventure of Nera. At the time of the festival of Samon, our hero enters the sidh of Cruachan, he marries a woman of the other world and is informed by this one that, in one year, the people of the sidh will devastate Connaught. Nera therefore comes back to warn his comrades in arms and, at the following Samon, they are the living men on the contrary who devastate the sidh and plunder its richnesses, thus reversing the direction of the dramatic interference between the two worlds.

Classical design of the other world: the Hades of the Greeks, the Sheol in the Bible.

In the Greece of the Dark Ages having followed the destruction of the Mycenaean civilization by Dorians, the majestic burials of the Achaean sovereigns in tombs with “dromos “ were replaced by a cremation followed by the burial of the skeleton in urns. According to the story (although late for a few centuries) of Homeric sagas, this change of rite was accompanied, on the level of the myth, by the appearance of the concept of Hades. In comparison with the previous eschatology, Homeric Hades supposes several innovations. On the one side, it is still an underground space, as well as the funerary residences of the Achaean sovereigns. Nevertheless, unlike the latter, it is no longer an isolated space, but a general and communal space, which lines under the ground, the surface world. The burial hillocks of the ancestors of the clan formed the cells of the other world isolated between them, whereas, in the view of the Hades type, these cells are interconnected and form a global underground network.

A change even more important, introduced by the new concept of Hades, relates to the status of the dead. The chiefs and the tribal kings of Neolithic agricultural civilization, as well as the shamans and the great heroes, founders of the tribes of herdsmen, were supposed to lead , after their death, a transitional existence between that of the men and the god-or-demons. Their tombs were palaces in the hereafter from where they continued to influence the life of the living people or that of nature in general. Death supposed deification, apotheosis, the hero reaching a higher condition, almost divine. This optimistic vision appears to crumble dramatically with the concept of Hades.

The Homeric Hades is no longer from now on a residence of half-god-or-demons, but a prison for shades living a larval life. The dead called upon by Ulysses, Achilles first, affirm that the existence in the hereafter is in nothing enviable compared to the earthly life, that it implies an irreversible ontological decline.

It is not the idea of a punishment or of an unspecified torture which characterizes this new status of the dead, but quite simply oblivion, deletion, disappearance. Once entered Hades, the soul/minds lose memory and awareness, and can no longer keep contact with the living people, they manage no longer to influence earthly life, nor even to control their own existence. They sink ineluctably in a species of sleep and forgetfulness of oneself. The doors of the kingdom of darkness are closed forever on the deceased, and no hope of resurrection or return to life is allowed to them. As much the living people than the god-or-demons in the heaven, turn away from the dead, and give up them to the aiu (eternity) of nothingness.

So strange that it can appear, at the same time a homologous eschatological change also affects the Middle East, with the appearance among the Hebrews of the concept of Sheol. The priests of Yahweh

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teach that dead fall into the oblivion of the darkness that they disappear as much from the face of God (who is a god-of-the-living only) than from the face of the world. The worship of the dead, especially sacrifices and necromancy, is from now on prohibited, as if a metaphysical censorship had foreclosed the world of after the death. The pessimistic, or rather negative, implicitly, eschatology, of the Sheol, will characterize the Jewish religion during the first half of the last millennium before Jesus Christ (before the Babylonian exile).

In the beliefs about the hereafter of all these peoples, an almost total theological silence drowns out the destiny of the deceased persons. The modest funeral rituals the archeological excavations show, suggest that the soul/minds had no longer a great role to play, neither in the world of the living people, nor in the next world. The veil of a negative eschatology appears to be fallen on the exuberant mortuary imaginary world of the former civilizations, thus toning down the hopes about hereafter.

Corin BRAGA was born in 1961 in Baia Mare (Romania), and defended a doctoral thesis of philosophy in the Babes-Bolyai University at Cluj in 1997.

Notes.

Hunting shamanism.

Appeared among the hunters gatherers of the Paleolithic era, the purpose of the hunting shamanism was to meet the essential needs of this time: to find the game. It is believed that the animals are moved by spirits. The shaman joins them in the non-tangible world of the “supernature. “ With this intention he must himself be changed into an animal and marry the daughter of the “game giver“ spirit (the king of the forest), who will be used to him as a guide. This spirit is often stag shaped.

Fishing shamanism.

Same thing. Appeared among the hunters gatherers of the Paleolithic era, the purpose of fishing shamanism was to meet the essential needs of this time: to find fish in sufficient quantity. It is believed that the animals are moved by spirits. The shaman joins them in the non-tangible world of the “supernature. “ With this intention he must himself be changed into an animal and marry the daughter of the “fish giver" spirit (the water king), who will be used to him as a guide.

The hunter gatherers of the Paleolithic era perceived salmons as immortal beings who voluntarily sacrificed themselves to the profit of human beings. It was important not to offend them if not they could not return the following year. The fishing shamans encouraged salmon through songs and ceremonies when the spawning migrations were long to appear.

Breeding shamanism.

The passage to the Neolithic era, with the introduction of the breeding and the invention of farming, causes an important change of shamanism. The survival of the community depends no longer then on the spirits of animals, but on spirits with human characteristic, particularly on those of ancestors. The world of spirits, limited before that, to forest, stretches towards the top and the bottom, towards what will become the Heaven and the Hell. This non-phenomenal world is often perceived as being a ladder with bars or sometimes a tree, with its branches and its roots. The shaman is the one who has the capacity to go up and go down along these various levels of reality, towards the Heaven or the Hells, to meet entities of the higher and lower worlds (some spirits, for example) and to bring back from his trip: pieces of advice, “magic “ treatments and powers, growth of awareness, etc.

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VARIOUS REMARKS ABOUT THE NEXT WORLD.

The druidic hereafter is therefore an abode of the dead but also an abode of the gods (sedodumnon). A bit like the Christian heaven where we can see God the angels and the souls of the righteous or blessed persons. With a big difference: there is neither hell nor purgatory. One wonders well from where can come those which are found abundantly described in the aislingi or Christian visions like that of Adomnan, the most famous of them.

The Irish Other World such it is described for us remains that of a warlike aristocracy. It does not have “producers “and it does not have more druids because it does not need them to be governed correctly. There is neither hierarchical order, nor subordination of any kind, there is no public service. The state of theoretical perfection does not require the existence of industry, of cattle breeding, nor of agriculture; and the druid himself is useless in the ideal society of the sidhe.

The female messenger who speaks of it is always “young and beautiful “. She also has “strange clothing “ but it is said nothing more about her, except on her origins which are these of the Next World, called by her “Plain of Joy “(Mag Meld). Besides she defines very simply this other world as a place of peace - what is beside the meaning of the word sidh – and of everlasting feasts (their nature is not specified). People who live there are prone neither to death, neither to disease, nor to the decay of old age, and they don’t know what sin is. Such is the destiny she promises for example to Connla the son of King Conn, in the Gaelic legend reporting his adventures: he will eternally keep his youth and his bodily beauty which are his. The angel incidentally calls the king of this wonderland, Boadach the “Victorious “. But in addition, it is specified that the inhabitants of this country are always women, and we saw higher why they come to seek only young men of high social status, kings, sons of a king or warriors… The parallel universe of paradisiac nature according to the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) is in the image of the warlike saga. According to it, this other world is peopled only with queens and pretty girls expressly intended to make simply but voluptuously some human beings happy ( kings or high-ranking warriors, worthy to have been chosen). It looks like in heaven according to Islam !

We must therefore conclude that the description of it which is thus proposed to us is not complete and can in no case match a worked-out druidic theology. Because it is necessary to wonder about the posthumous destiny of druids and of craftsmen. They need too, logically a destination for their last travel, or a post-mortem future. Other beliefs following the same line of thinking therefore had to concern druids, farmers, or certain craftsmen. Each one of these categories of men, according to one's social membership, being intended for a particular funerary destiny, that the salvation of one's soul required.

On the posthumous destiny of the other human beings, those being by no means members of the warlike or royal class, there exists the story by Plutarch. Because if there are no druids in Christianized Irish voyages, sages and philosophers are not missing in this author (the Hyperborean ones of the Greek literary tradition can have been only some Celts).

The land of Mag Meld is a remote island of the sea towards the west. Three other islands, as distant from this island as they are between them, are located ahead, completely in the North-West.

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“ A run of five days off from [Great] Britain as you sail westward there is also an island. And three other islands equally distant from it and from one another lie out from it in the direction of the summer sunset. In one of these, according to the tale told by the barbarians of the country, Cronos (sic) has been confined by Zeus (si again) , but that he, having a son [Briareus?] for jailer, is left sovereign lord of those islands and of the sea, which they call the Gulf of Cronos [also called Morimarusa in Celtic language therefore. Editor’s note]. They add that the great mainland, by which the great ocean is encircled, while not so far from the other islands, is about five thousand stadia from Ogygia, the voyage being made by oars, for the sea is slow to traverse [ It is therefore the famous Morimarusa of ancient Druidism. Some people see in it the Sargasso Sea and make this mysterious continent: America! Editor’s note]. Now when at intervals of thirty years the star of Cronos, which we call Phaenon but they, our author said, call Nycturus, enters the sign of the Bull, they; having spent a long time in preparation for the sacrifice and the expedition, choose by lot [ the victims of human sacrifices without doubt or rather their soul /minds. Editor’s note] and send forth a sufficient number of envoys in a correspondingly sufficient number of ships, putting aboard a large retinue and the provisions necessary for men who are going to cross so much sea by oars, and live such a long time in a foreign land [....] those who survive the voyage first put in at the outlying islands [....] the sun pass out of sight for less than an hour, over a period of thirty days, this is the night, but it has a darkness that is slight, as a twilight glimmering from the west. There they spend ninety days regarded with honor and friendliness as holy men and so addressed, then winds carry them across to their island [carry back those who have to be reincarnated on earth, considering the weight of their bran, i.e., bacucei. Editor’s note. The bacucei or the seibaroi = ghosts (Irish siabair / siabhradh) straightly gone out of the kingdom of Tethra even of Donn. See in Wales the folk tales talking about Andumno, Welsh Annwn, and its two sovereigns, Arawn and Gwynn. But this is unlikely and somewhat contradictory, like many accounts of Plutarch besides].

Most of them usually choose to settle in the spot, some out of habit, others because without toil or trouble they have all things in abundance while they constantly employ their time in sacrifices and celebrations or with various discourses and philosophy [therefore, complete their purification? ? ?]; for the nature of the island is marvelous as is the softness of the circumambient air. Some when they intend to sail away are even hindered by the deity [the Buddha reigning over this island??], which presents himself to them as to intimates and friends and not in dreams only or by means of omens, but many also come upon the visions and the voices of spirits [ the gods undoubtedly. Editor’s note] manifest. For Cronos himself sleeps confined in a deep cave of rock that shines like gold [the Grail??? Often compared with an emerald with sparkling facets. Editor’s note]— the sleep that Zeus has contrived like a bond for him —, and birds flying in over the summit of the rock bring ambrosia to him [some angels or bird women, messengers of the next world perhaps. Editor's note], all the island is suffused with fragrance scattered from the rock as from a fountain; and those spirits [or daemons in Greek language] mentioned before tend and serve Cronos, having been his comrades [hetaerous in Greek] what time he ruled as king over gods and men [therefore at the time of Hyperborea in this case. Editor’s note]. Many things they do foretell of themselves, for they are oracular; but the prophecies that are greatest and of the greatest matters, they come down and report as dreams of Cronos, for all that Zeus premeditates, Cronos sees in his dreams” (Plutarch. De facie in orbe lunae, 26)

Either the Greeks did not understand everything , or they interpreted sometimes, if it is not generally, literally, what they heard, that does not change anything to our observation, because the principle is identical. All these islands are in the west (see the pure land called Sukhavati in the Amidist Buddhism) and north of the world, what, in the Celtic orientation, always gives us the same direction.

But the god-or-demons and the masters, in the stories, were overloaded with mysterious and mythical features. Their insulation already was a sufficient reason. The Greeks themselves, took all the fantastic at face value, without any, what a strange thing, seems to have thought of comparing it with the mythological topic of the Fortunate Isles in the Greek legend itself. The god-or-demon who rules over these islands or resides in them is in any event a frightening character, even sleeping:

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Kronos, in Greek interpretation, Saturn for the Romans, is the god-or-demon of the dead, the father of all the living.

The Irish filid were lavish, more still than Breton storytellers, in such descriptions of the Next World during the long royal or princely evening gatherings of winter. They shed a clear light on original designs ,of which invariable essential components are found in all the sources.

This witness statement of Plutarch although second-hand is nevertheless interesting for several reasons,because it is very revealing of the various druidic designs about the real metaphysical nature, according to them, of the hereafter.

It is difficult to say who are the Celtic god-or-demons hidden under the names of Zeus (Jupiter) and Kronos (Saturn), “whose prophecies are of the greatest matters “.

As for the “daïmones “in Greek language (word-for-word “spirits “), which are improperly translated by “demons “ it is necessary to see probably in them subordinate gods, vassoi casses, used as courtiers for the major god-or-demon thus captive of his “son “.

“ Shortly after his arrival there occurred a great tumult in the air, and many portents; violent winds suddenly swept down and lightning flashes darted to earth. When these abated, the people of the island said that the passing of someone of the mightier soul/minds [in Greek megalai psychai] had befallen. "For," said they, "as a lamp when it is being lighted has no terrors, but when it goes out is distressing to many, so the great souls/minds [Greek megalai psychai] have a kindling into life that is gentle and inoffensive, but their passing and dissolution often, as at the present moment, fosters tempests and storms, and often infects the air with pestilential properties" (Plutarch. De Defectu oraculorum 18).

The image of the light of the lamp which dies out, was used by the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht); to make us understand the mode of being of the one who arrived, through death, to the final release, is an unfathomable, imperceptible, state; even if we may nevertheless suppose it or call it meldus nevertheless (blissful or delicious, to be lived).

The image of the light which dies out is in itself speaking. See the Brahmanic design of the fire which doesn’t disappear in the nothingness when it dies out, but which becomes simply elusive, by going up to the sky in the form of smokes.

Some high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) pushed to the extreme limit their reasoning by insisting on the fact this parallel next world of paradisiac nature is not material (treasures, luxuriant vegetation); but rather made of justice and peace since such is the meaning of the Gaelic word sidhe (cf. Welsh heddwch) that I can't help, as for me, comparing with the term of Latin origin “sedative.”

A place having a length, a width and a height, what the soul does not have, could not indeed contain souls. But it should not be forgotten that the soul/minds of the deceased have nevertheless always a body, similar to the xvarnah of Persians ( Old Celtic bellissama/bellissamos) , after their reincarnation in this other world.

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THE IDEALIZATION-RESURRECTION OF BODIES (Old Celtic bellissama/bellissamos).

The crucial text in this field is that of Lucan (Pharsalia 1,454-458).

“Umbrae not tacitas Erebi sedes, Ditisque profundi pallida regna petunt: regit idem spiritus artus orbe alio; longae (canitis si cognita) vitae mors media est “.

“ The shades of dead men seek not the quiet homes of Erebus or death's pale kingdoms; but the same soul/mind [Latin idem spiritus] governs the limbs in another world [Latin orbe alio] and the death is only the middle of a long life if you know well what you sing".

The exact meaning of the word used by Lucan to evoke this next world (orbis, orbe alio) and the phenomenon in question (regit idem spiritus artus); absolutely exclude any notion of life only spiritual or completely disembodied, after death (as among Christians for example).

The word orbis (orbe alio) in Latin language of this time has a very earthly and even very material meaning. It is besides only, according to Salomon Reinach, a prolongation of the earthly and sublunary life, in another part of the world.

Conclusion. There is…

- Nor absence of the body (no shade, or pale kingdom of Dis, Lucan writes explicitly). “Regit idem spiritus artus “… We see badly how that would refer to an incorporeal existence. The soul/mind reappears in the next world or in another part of the world, but still joined with a body.

- But nor body exactly identical to the deceased body either.

- Another body. Undoubtedly somewhat similar to that of the god-or-demons, endowed with immortality, eternal youth, etc. In short a made sublime body, regenerated, glorious, luminous (xvarnah in Zoroastrianism, bellissama/bellissamos in Old Celtic ), but a body nevertheless! Preternatural Christians would say!

N.B.The idea that the immediate or eschatological spiritual realization implies, not the negation, but the resurrection of the flesh, is also shared, indeed with various nuances, by the Zoroastrian tradition.

The hatred for the body, of Manicheism * or Christianity, appears indeed as the unconscious refusal to admit this superiority of Man over god-or-demons, nevertheless indisputable from certain points of view. See the defeat of the god-or-demons in front of the men, at the time of the battle for the Talantio - Tailtiu in Gaelic language, goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if it is preferred, of the farmed countryside, personified by Rosemartha on the Continent - a war also known as the third battle of the Plain of the standing stones or tumulus.

According to the various legends on this subject, the reincarnation in the other world takes place little time after the death. Probably after a longer or shorter stay in the antechamber of the definitive death.

* Manichaeism is also a variant of the original Christianity, Mani having begun as a Christian.

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Pausanias. Description of Greece. X. Phocis. XXI 6 -7.

“ After this battle at Thermopylae the Hellenes buried their own dead and spoiled the barbarians, but the Galatians sent no herald to ask leave to take up the bodies, and were indifferent whether the earth received them or whether they were devoured by wild beasts or carrion birds. There were, in my opinion, two reasons that made them careless about the burial of their dead: they wished to strike terror into their enemies, and through habit they have no tender feeling for those who have gone. In the battle there fell forty of the Hellenes. The losses of the barbarians it was impossible to discover exactly, for the number of them that disappeared beneath the mud was great “.

Pausanias, of course, understood nothing about the attitude of Celts facing the death of their warriors on the battle field and about their similar to that of Xvarnah (Old Celtic bellissama/bellissamos), ideas, regarding the future of the body of the deceased person. Because it is clear in this case that the druids among Galatians [dikastes] moved the concern of the dead or living, body, from this world to that of its future in the hereafter.

“Our enemies have even less to insult us about the bodies of the [ Galatian or Celtiberian] warriors left without burial, Jean-Pierre Martin writes, that the flesh and the limbs of these bodies will be reconstructed completely. Not only with the remainders which will be in the ground, but still with the elements which will have been spread in the most distant folds of other organisms; and that this reconstruction will be done in a flash, as the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) promised to us through their myths on the subject, as of the arrival in Mag Meld of the soul/mind (anaon). After death, each one will find the exact entirety of one’s body - each hair of our head will be counted - restored if it was wounded or amputated, harmonized if it were distorted“.

Harmonized if it was distorted ...... We are there very close to the idea of Xvarnah in the Zoroastrianism. Moreover, here is its definition. The religion of ancient Persia speaks about a light of glory, Xvarnah (Old Celtic bellissama/bellissamos), which is a power at work since the initial moment of the creation according to this view of the world and which will continue until the final act of the transfiguration of the world. This light is the substance which forms Ahura Mazda, the supreme being. The iconography represents it as a luminous halo, a glorious aura. This glory is the perfect Earth, the mother of the world, Spenta Armaiti. She intervenes in the relationship between the soul and the divinity, which takes place in a transitional world between the world of matter and that of pure spirit : the mundus imaginalis (or imaginal world of Sufis). This world is the one in which tangible forms become immaterial and in which pure intellects take a spiritual corporeality. On this imaginal level, the Earth is besides also viewed as an angel or a goddess, Spenta Armaiti.

But this notion also exists in Neoplatonism, in Proclus, who speaks about the higher okhema, a luminous body which is the body in which God-or-Devil placed the soul at its origin, and that it will keep beyond death; contrary to the lower okhema, the okhema pneumatikon, a pneumatic vehicle (from pneuma breath), which disappears shortly after death (called perispirit by druid Allan Kardec).

Because it goes without saying the bodies of these blessed ones living in the pure land of the paradisiac and parallel next world of the druidic tradition are no longer like these here below on earth. This is the least we can deduce from these legends about Celtic hereafter. The body of the blessed ones living in the pure land of the paradisiac and parallel next world of the druidic tradition…. are no longer like these here below on earth.

These bodies continue to exist, but in another way, in a different mode. A very ancient Aryan metaphysical design, that we find still well expressed, for example, in the work of the great Muslim thinker Suhrawardi. Suhrawardi maintains that any soul who wants it can rise until this Light.

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We will not enlarge here on the movement of the ishraqiyun founded by Suhrawardi if not to say that it seems to us match that of awenyddion in Wales. The awenyddion they are in a way the ishraqiyun in Far West. And we will come directly to the concept of mundus imaginalis dear to Suhrawardi by emphasizing well that, considering the influence that the ancient Persian world (Suhrawardi was executed besides for heresy by Saladin in 1191 in Aleppo) had on him WE ARE HERE VERY FAR FROM ISLAM IN A STRICTER AND TRADITIONAL SENSE OF THE WORD (SUNNI).

This mundus imaginalis is designed as being the eighth climate, Hurqalya. It is located above the seven climates or worlds, perceptible by our senses. From this point of view, the getting a spiritual body clothed with xvarnah is presented as participation in the blossoming of the heavenly Earth, i.e., in the metamorphosis of Creation. In such a process, the soul/mind preserves a body after death, a spiritual flesh, its resurrection body (an ideal body), which is participation in the life of Ahura Mazda, the Light of glory (xvarnah).

This notion of Xvarnah or glorious body (Old Celtic bellissama/bellissamos) had astonishing prolongations. Some researchers compared its manifestation forms with these of the Holy Grail in the Western traditions. The topic of the Grail, or mystical cup, mirror of the world, therefore appears in the heroic epic of ancient Iran, and it is consequently present in the work of Suhrawardi, where it symbolizes the passage from the heroic epic to the mystical saga.

As we could see, it is only the central being (the soul), which according to Suhrawardi is again embodied in the next world, not its external personality (the mind), which is only a provisional mold. Unlike druidism for which it is the pair (anaon) formed by both, still closely joined (soul and mind), which is reincarnated in the next world.

It is, of course, in this case, a subtle corporeity, released from all darkness, but such, however, that it characterizes a land of light, matching our darkened cosmos. This idea of land of light was already present in the Zoroastrian theology, but Suhrawardi changes it, since he makes mundus imaginalis the lower level of the world of soul. Consequently, all Iranian mystical philosophy will be determined by this opening on a spiritual corporeity, which will allow, both justifying the abduction from this world, and the celebration of bodily beauty, of love as well as of desire. The mundus imaginalis is not only the world of the shapes of light, it is also that of the resurrection or idealization of bodies. The greatest commentator of Sohrawardi, Mulla Sadra Shirazi (17th century), will also specify that each one among us, during one’s life, works by one’s acts one’s body of resurrection. It is itself, made of beauty or of ugliness according to our desires, which will be, in the mundus imaginalis, our heaven or our hell. Such at least was the opinion of Mulla Sadra on the question (he was probably himself, too influenced by Islam).

But so that no doubt remains on the subject, let us make the most of the opportunity to point it out that the ancient high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) did not believe in the existence of any hell. They did not believe that a soul/mind may one day live and for eternity as a larva in a lugubrious and unhappy universe, similar to that of the manes in the Roman religion, to the Hades of the Greeks or the Sheol of the Jews in the Bible.

The Bernese scholia commenting on the book of Lucan having for title Pharsalia or “the civil war “ are indeed extremely clear on this subject.

COMMENTA BERNENSIA AD LUCANUM.

Line 451.

Driadae negant interire animas aut contagione inferorum adfici.

Druids deny that souls can die or go to hell or be affected by it.

The point No. 25 of the small list annexed to the council of Leptines in 743, under the Latin title of indiculus superstitionum et paganiarum (of course, it is a question of condemning or of disparaging this idea), goes besides also very clearly in this direction. It evokes the fact of imagining that every deceased person is a saint.

And in 851, John Scottus Eriugena also noted in his “ On divine predestination “: God envisaged neither punishment nor sins: they are fictions. For Eriugena also, consequently, hell does not exist, or then he calls it remorse.

But that we have already said it!

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Let us insist, on the other hand, on the fact that this state (soul/mind and ideal body) is itself provisional, and by no means intended to last eternally; but that the return of the soul into the Big Whole (Pariollon) is done generally after a more or less long stay in the heavenly next world of the dead and of the god-or-demons.

ABOUT SOME OTHER PARALLEL WORLDS

IN DRUIDISM OR

THE DIFFERENT ANTECHAMBERS OF HEAVEN.

The next world is in reality made of four types of different worlds. That of the god-or-demons, that of the ordinary deceased persons , that of the great initiated persons, that of the soul/minds who,

because of their weight of bran in their hold, and because of the fact that they did not know to recognize at the right time the psychopompous deities like Epona come to help them, met only wrathful Celtic deities, therefore could not reach a sufficient escape speed, and the result of this pitiless (meta) physical law (of bacuceaction), which is an auxiliary iron law of Fate, did they were again embodied on earth (very very few people are concerned besides with such a failure phenomenon, from where the infinite compassion of the true high-knowers of the druidiaction towards the human weaknesses). But over time and if we refer to our whole Mankind, that can end up in concerning many individuals.

As we could see, there exists, according to the high-knowers called druids, an infinity of parallel worlds in the universe, and the gate of some of them, at least among most famous, was located in Ireland.

Everyone knows the Newgrange passage tomb called Brug na Boinne in Gaelic mythology. But in addition to this sidhe, there existed also the sidhe of Bri Leith, the sidhe of Femen, the Nennta sidhe, Cleitech sidhe, etc., etc. each one being the domain of a particular god-or-demon. Medros/Midir at Bri Leith, for example. There existed a lot of them! And if we add these which are located out of Ireland (for example that of Hochmichele, in Germany, where we straightforwardly found a sanctuary of Viereckschanze type on the spot); we may almost speak about an infinity of sidhe in Celtic mythology.

Each sidhe or brug of one of these god-or-demons or connected divine entities, matches a parallel universe, and it is said land or kingdom of this god-or-demon because it represents the sphere of influence of this supra-human entity; who is therefore responsible for the development of all the living beings that it houses. Let us not take this too literally! Let us say simply that they are poetic images, but the first thing that we must realize, that we must take into account, we uns men of today, it is that traditional druidism views space as being infinite. And it considers this infinite space occupied by worlds, or systems of worlds, themselves infinite. This, of course, is to be related to the fact that druidism admits not only an infinity of sidhe, but also an infinity of god-or-demons. Or at least, if that seems too outrageous, let us say a plurality of god-or-demons, and of sidhe, or parallel worlds, although…

Note found by the heirs to Peter DeLaCrau.

OLD DRUIDIC PROVERB: THE WAYS OF ACCESS TO THE OTHER WORLD OF PARADISIAC TYPE ARE INNUMERABLE (AS MANY PLACES WHERE ONE DIES) BUT THE EXIT DOORS ARE VERY RARE AND CAN BE ALMOST COUNTED ON THE FINGERS OF ONE HAND.

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ABLACH (EMAIN ABLACH). Emain is an Irish word meaning “island “in this context. Ablach comes from apples, apple trees. This parallel next world of paradisiac nature is evoked in the Irish Gaelic story entitled immram Brain Maic Febail ocus a echtra andso sis (the voyage of Bran, son of Febal and his adventures here below). It is called Ynis Afallach in Welsh language, in other words, an apple orchard. It is the name of a mythical abode, where the kings as well as the deceased great heroes lie. It is perhaps an equivalent of Avalon Island. Unless it is one of Amber Islands.

This island, called Abalon or Abalcia, indeed received from Romans the name of Glessaria, precisely because of amber they collected there.

Pliny, Natural history, book XXXVII, 11. “ Sotacus expresses a belief that amber exudes from certain stones in [Great] Britain, to which he gives the name of "electrides." Pytheas says that the Gutones, a people of Germania, inhabit the shores of an estuary of the Ocean called Mentonomon, their territory extending a distance of six thousand stadia; that, at one day's sail is the Isle of Abalum, upon the shores of which, amber is thrown up by the waves in spring, it being an excretion of the sea in a concrete form; as, also, that the inhabitants use this amber by way of fuel, and sell it to their neighbors, the Teutones. Timæus, too, is of the same belief, but he has given to the island the name of Basilia“.

The famous inscription found in Autun in 1844, Licnos Contextos ieuru Anvalonnacu canecosedlon (Licnos Contextos dedicated to Anvalonnacus the throne) is perhaps to put in connection with the master of this mysterious island. But nothing is less sure, some linguists breaking up the name of the god in question into an-valos = without a master.

What is certain, in any event, it is that this Abellio/Abelio or Afallac perhaps Anvalonnacus, is a solitary god-or-demon: we know to him neither partner nor comrade. Caesar did not know his name. Many inscriptions relating to him nevertheless, found in the upper valley of the Garonne in the Pyrenees. With enough probability, Dyfed Lloyd Evans suggests that the name of Abello is in relation to apples, and that it would be a god-or-demon of the “ summer lord “ type, linked with the ripeness of fruits. Abalo meaning “apple “and aballo “apple tree “. It is therefore possible to regard him as the Lord of Avalon Island, of which we know that the name means “apple orchard “ consequently to do him one of the many kings of the next world of the Celtic god-or-demons. Abellio, god-or-demon of the apple orchards, would be a god-or-demon of the harmony in the broad and Apollinian sense of the term, related to Afallach (the father of the Welsh goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if you prefer, called Modron, according to the legends of this country).

More worrying now, or less funny….

THE KINGDOM OF TETHRA.

It is a case which leaves us very perplexed. There is indeed a total contradiction between certain Irish legends, which make it a parallel universe incontestably and without any hesitation, of paradisiac nature (following the example of Mag Meld); and the personality of its sovereign, who is shown to us as a diabolic being by many other accounts, still coming from Ireland. But this is probably an effect of Christianization.

In the story heading in Gaelic language Echtra Condla Chaim meic Cuind Chetchathaig, we can read indeed the following sentence. “Totchurethar bíi bithbi at gerat do daínib Tethrach ardotchiat cach dia i ndálaib t’athardai eter du gnathu inmaini “: “ The living, the immortal call to you; they summon you to the people of Tethra, etc. “.

The people of Tethra are undoubtedly the dead . But the story of the battle of the mounds plain also mentions a king of Andernas and it was well believed at the time this people lived under the sea. This is besides why the expression "house of Tethra" also refers to the sea in Gaelic language. But since

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Tethra is likened to the Lord of Mag MeId in this story, some authors assume that he was the real ruler of the realm of the dead in the druidic meaning of the word, very different from his classical or Graeco-Latin , even Middle Eastern, meaning. Some “Elysian Fields“ that people located far beyond the seas, perhaps even in the bottom of the Ocean. What is in complete contradiction with his role as a prince of Andernas or Fomorians.

! ----------------------------------------------------------- !

It is necessary to also add to this list of the various ways of being, quite a particular level of existence, which is a kind of purgatory or temporary frozen hell.

This other “world “has also its “divinity “: the various entities or underground forces called devils or demons in the other religions like Judeo-Christianism; but that high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) quite simply preferred to call under-gods or lower gods (an-dee for example, in Gaelic language).

There exists indeed in the Celtic literature some other kingdoms beyond death, less known, and which seem to be only transitory crossing points before a possible reincarnation on earth. Disembodied soul/minds may therefore also remain a certain time in the anteroom of the kingdom of dead where another god-or-demon reigns. The legend specifies, for example, that those who die to Donno Tegia (Tech Duinn) are found again in our world. The first among these kingdoms of dead, less known, is incontestably the andubno called Annwn, Annwfn or Annwyn, in other words, the Welsh abyss.

ANDUMNO/ANNWN.

In Wales this other world is combined with the topic of the wild hunt, and there exist many legends evoking the hounds of Annwn (Cwn Annwn) or hounds of mothers (Cwn Mamau). People hear them passing, while barking in the air, following their prey.

Annwn, in the medieval tales, is presented as a kingdom of the soul/minds of the passed away people. According to some versions of the legend, it is located very far in the west, so far that Manawyddan Fab Llyr did not find it, therefore that a man can reach only through death. Other sources claim that the entrance is located on the island of Lundy, in the estuary of the river Severn or, a little more to the south, towards Glastonbury.

But it is obvious that there are as many exits in the antechamber of heaven as traditions or peoples, and that their locations are only human conventions, specific to a particular time.

In the Book of Taliesin, the poem heading Preiddeu Annwfn describes King Arthur and his knights crossing Anwvyn in search of a magic cauldron pertaining to nine female magicians; a Celtic topic we also find particularly in the legends dealing with the Gallizenae on the island of Sein (French department of Finistere).

It is also a question of Annwn in the first of the four tales of the Mabinogion: Pwyll, prince of Dyfed (it is the founding myth of the dynasty of the princes of Dyfed).

Arawn/Ariomanos traverses the forests, with a pack of red-eared hounds, chasing a stag. He has a rival named Hafgan, who has a nearby estate, and has the same powers as him. One morning, he meets Pwyll and proposes to him to exchange their kingdoms for one year and a day. Nevertheless, there is a condition: Pwyll will have to overcome (but without killing him) Hafgan, at the time of a duel. Pwyll succeeds in his search and, moreover, respects the wife of Arawn/Ariomanos.

It has to be the equivalent of the Hindu god-or-demon Aryaman. In the Rig-Veda, minor god-or-demons accompany Varuna and Mitra. They are the Aditya, the sons of the goddess-or-demoness Aditi. In variable number according to sources, most frequently named are Aryaman and Bhaga, on the side of Mitra. The god-or-demon Aryaman protects the set of men who recognize themselves, “arya “as opposed to barbarians. He protects them not so much as individuals, but as an element of the “arya “ set. Bhaga, himself, deals basically with the distribution of wealth.

And on this subject here a strange passage of Athenaeus which looks strongly to us a myth disguised in history.

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In his third book the same Phylarchus says that "Ariamnes the Galatian, being an exceedingly rich man, announced that he would give all the Galatians a banquet every year, and that he did so, managing in this manner: He divided the country, measuring it by convenient stages along the roads; and at these stages he erected tents of stakes and rushes and osiers, each containing about four hundred men, or somewhat more, according as the district required, and with reference to the number that might be expected to throng in from the villages and towns adjacent to the stage in question. And there he placed huge cauldrons, full of every sort of meat; and he had the cauldrons made in the preceding year before he was to give the feast, sending for artisans from other cities. And he caused many victims to be slain - numbers of oxen, and pigs, and sheep and other animals - every day; and he caused casks of wine to be prepared, and a great quantity of ground corn. And not only," he continues, "did all the Galatians who came from the villages and cities enjoy themselves, but even all the strangers who happened to be passing by were not allowed to escape by the slaves who stood around, but were pressed to come in and partake of what had been prepared." (Athenaeus, the Deipnosophists IV, 34).

Arawn/Ariomanos is the chief or the leader of a wild hunt crossing the kingdom of men, each day before November 1st or May 1st; with a pack of phantom hounds, white-haired, but with the end of their ears blood red, called Cwn Annwn. The barking of these dogs resembles the hiss or the honk of wild geese, and the preys they hunt down are the soul/minds of the deceased persons having not been able to reach Heaven ; he wants to drive towards the underground labyrinths in Annwn.

Gwynn ap Nudd is also one of the sovereigns of this next world, according to certain legends.

He is the son of Nudd and the brother of Edern. His name comes from the Celtic vindos which means “white, beautiful, bright “. He is sometimes compared to the Irishman Finn Mac Cumaill.

In the Arthurian tale entitled Kulhwch and Olwen, Cordelia, also known according to the variants of the legends or of the tales: Creiddylad/Creidylad/Creudylad/Creuddylad/Crieddlad/Kreiddylat; daughter of Lludd Llaw Ereint, the most beautiful girl of all Britains, flees with Gwythyr, son of Greidawl. But before they may consummate their union, Gwynn snatches the young girl. The lover raises an army, but the kidnapper is victorious and makes many warriors prisoners. These noble lords will be released only on the intervention of King Arthur, who decides that Creiddylad will remain in her father’s house. Since, every year, on the calends of May, Gwynn and Gwythyr fights for her, and according to Welsh storytellers, that will last until the last Judgment. The allegory is exemplary and illustrates the part of purgatory or of fight between the good and the evil, ascribed to this story, well. The soul/mind, personified by Creiddylad, is torn between the good and the evil, and cannot reach the parallel other world of paradisiac nature, directly.

Gwynn ap Nudd also takes part in the mythical hunt of Arthur intended to capture the wild boar called Trwyth. He has a psychopompous role matching the wrathful deities of Buddhism since one of his functions is also to drive the soul/minds of the dead towards Annwn, accompanied by his pack of fantastic hounds: the Cwn Annwn. This wild hunt is known in the whole West , and belonged to the European antiquated memory. It is generally represented in the shape of an army of dead, or of a procession of ghosts, led by various mythical characters like Arawn, Gwyn, Herne the hunter, Arthur (or Hellekin in France). And woe to the one who meets them!

People never saw again the rash person or he was found the following day, hanged near the place where his way had crossed that of this cursed troop.

In a manuscript of the 12th century, this frightening hunt is thus described: “A large number of people saw and heard the hunters. They were black, great and feeling reluctant, their hounds were dirty large-eyed and very black. They rode black horses… reliable men saw them in the night and maintained that there were well here twenty or thirty people blowing hunting horns “.

Gwynn was quickly dispatched besides in hell by Christian priests, and his name became synonymous with the demon. Dafydd ab Gwilym, instead of saying: “To hell with me! “writes: “to Gwynn, son of Nudd, with me! “ According to a 14th century Latin manuscript against divination, Welsh soothsayers would repeat the following: "ad regem Eumenidium et reginam eius: Gwynn ap Nwdd qui es ultra in silvis pro amore concubine tue permitte nos venire domum,” what can be roughly translated thus "to the king of Spirits, and to his queen, Gwyn ap Nudd, you who are yonder in the forest, for love of your mate, allow us to enter your dwelling."

But the legend of Saint Collen , who gave his name to Llan-Gollen, in the Denbigshire, shows that it is not easily they succeeded in demonizing this former god, in the mind of Welsh people.

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After a brilliant and valiant life abroad, Collen had become abbot of Glastonbury. He wanted to flee honors and withdrew himself in a cell on a mountain. One day, he heard two men celebrating the power and the wealth of Gwynn, son of Nudd, king of Annwn. Collen could not contain himself and left his head out of the cell while shouting at them: “Gwynn and his subjects are only devils! “.“Be quiet ! “the two men answered, “and fear his anger rather “. The following day indeed, he received from Gwynn an invitation to come and meet him. Collen declined it. The next day, same invitation, same result. But the third time, frightened by the threats of Gwynn, and prudently provided with a small bottle of holy water (if it s not some magic, that !), Collen decided to go there. He was introduced into a splendid castle. Gwynn was sitting on a gold throne, surrounded by richly arrayed young boys and girls. The clothes of Gwynn’s people were red and blue. Gwynn welcomed Collen very correctly, and put everything at his disposal. After a short talk, after having said to the king who asked him for his impression on the livery of his people, that red meant brilliant heat, and blue, cold; he sprayed him and his people with holy water, and all disappeared at once.

There exist nevertheless many poems where Gwynn has not yet this devilish nature, and where he is only a hero like so many others (euhemerism in wrong way).

In the black Book of Carmarthen, he appears as being the lover of Cordelia/Creiddylad, daughter of Lludd; having attended many battles, as well as the death of many heroes.

The Mabinogi reconciles Christian and pagan legends. Not being able to wrest him from hell, into it Saint Collen and his friends irrevocably settled him, the author explains indeed it is only in order to subdue the demons and to prevent them from harming to the mortals that he was sent there.

As we have had the opportunity to say it already, rather briefly, people call hounds of Annwn or Cwn Annwn in Welsh folklore, the ghost dogs taking part in the wild hunt led by Gwynn (or Arawn?) and therefore considered by Christians as being hounds of the Master of hell. They were linked with the migrations of the wild geese of which night honk was supposed to be their barking. Certain stories describe them to us escorting the soul/minds of the deceased persons in their travel towards the hereafter.

These wild hunts took place only on certain nights of the year. On the day before the feast of Saint John , Saint Martin, Saint Michael the archangel, of All Saints' day, of Christmas, of the New Year, of Saint Agnes, of Saint David, and OF the Good Friday. Or only in Autumn and Winter, and during gourdeziou (twelve days ranging from Christmas to Epiphany). These hounds on the occasion were accompanied by a horrible witch called Malt-y-Nos (Mathilda of the Night).

Arawn is also known , in some variants, as king of Uffern, a Welsh word generally translated by hell, particularly in the writings of Taliesin. What would therefore make it a Christian synonym of Annwn. It is nevertheless difficult to say if this equating of Annwn to a kind of hell is due to Christian influence; or if the original pagan design went already in this direction. A second-rate Mag Meld but also Tir na mBan, Tir na mBéo, Tir Tairngiri, Tir Na nOg, Magh Ionganaidh, Magh Ildathach, Magh Imchiuin, Magh Argetnel, Magh Findargat, Magh Aircthech, Sen Magh, Caer Wydion, Caer Gwydion, Lly's Don, Caer Arianrod or Gwynfa (in Wales) or Vindomagos…!

A second-rate Mag Meld , but not hell nevertheless since the Gnostic people in the West called druids did not believe such a thing can exist. This is indubitable and we will never get tired of repeating it.

Bernese scholia commenting on the Pharsalia by Lucan.

Hermann Usener. Scholia in Lucani bellum civile/Commenta Bernensia. Liber I (1869).

451.“ Druids deny that souls can die [Driadae negant interire animas]

OR GO TO HELL

[aut contagione inferorum adfici] and

454“They do not say that manes exist “ (manes esse, non dicunt).

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this idea), goes besides also very clearly in this direction. It evokes the fact of imagining that every deceased person is a saint.

Repetere = ars docendi.

Then let us say perhaps another world of the type… Purgatory..... These soul/minds of the deceased persons chased by the Cwn Annwn or hounds of Annwn, makes me indeed much thinking of possessed men or women called bacuceos, bacucea (male female reincarnated); quoted in a Latinized form, in the plural accusative, by John Cassian (Conlationes, 7, 32,2) in the early fifth century.

“ Quos etiam Bacuceos vulgus appellat, ut semetipsos ultra proceritatem corporis erigentes, nunc quidem se in quosdam fastus gestusque sustollerent, nunc velut acclines ad quemdam se tranquillitatis et affabilitatis statum communes blandosque submitterent, seseque velut illustres et circumspectabiles omnibus aestimantes, nunc quidem adorare se potestates sublimiores corporis inflexione monstrarent nunc vero ab aliis se crederent adorari, et omnes motus quibus vera officia aut superbe aut humiliter peraguntur, explerent “.

“ Others we find affect the hearts of those whom they have seized with empty hubris (and these are commonly called Bacuceos ) so that they stretch themselves up beyond their proper height and at one time puff themselves up with arrogance and pomposity, and at another time condescend in an ordinary and bland manner, to a state of calmness and affability: and as they fancy that they are great people and the wonder of everybody, at one time show by bowing their body that they are worshipping higher powers, while at another time they think that they are worshipped by others“.

The remarks of Cassian are vague enough or rather they are very precise, but contradictory. Because if we understand them well, the bacuceos, that can be a little everything and anything (pleasant or arrogant , prostrate or excited, adored or worshipping, etc.).

N.B.The disorders and the behavioral problems described by Cassian are the sign of the adaptation difficulties of the soul/mind to its new body, even fifteen years after (too small or too large body, and so on).

In fact, from a scientific point of view, everything occurs as if the patient had a second personality.

The disorder known as multiple personality disorder is defined by “the coexistence, in the same individual, of two or

several distinct states of personality; either they have a proper memory, specific behavioral methods and their own styles of social relation, or they share a part of these different behaviors. The two minds fight against themselves in a same field which is the body, and the soul is like shared. This type of disorder starts to settle as of childhood, but, generally, is noticed by the clinicians that only much later; they are besides almost always girls (60 to 90%).

The passage of a personality to another is generally sudden (a few minutes). The transition depends on the relational context. The transitions can also occur when there is a conflict between the various personalities, or when these last worked out a common plan. The personalities can be diametrically opposite in their characteristics, and differ even in the psychological or physiological tests: they can require for example different corrective lenses, answer in a different way the same treatment, and to have different intelligence quotients “. Schizophrenia too, of course, may also, lead to the same symptoms.

The communication with the hereafter could be established by such “spiritualist “possessions, but we should not forget nevertheless that all this is only the interpretation, by John Cassian, of a civilizational phenomenon. On certain points, he is, of course, wrong: he thinks for example that benign tumors are the passages of these soul/minds, in the bodies in question. However it is there an aberration worthy of the worst “witch hunts “of the Middle Ages.

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Some pseudo-druids, as there are so many today, alas, being based on this account of Cassian (nostalgia of the fall, and so on) maintain it is possible to remember one’s previous incarnation. But the isolated cases put forward in support of this thesis, always arouses the problem of verification.

In any event, well-understood druidism is the means par excellence of freeing oneself from the need for reincarnating in bacuceos, but in the case of the bacuceos it is not only the pure soul which transmigrates from a body into another body, it is rather let us say a continuum of awareness. A progressive process of training and of individual achievement, in other words, the duo soul + mind (anamone + menman) = anaon.

Also let us notice the case of the half-reincarnations or partial reincarnations in seibaros (Irish siabair/siabhradh, phantom). They are the soul/minds who fled from the ice of the before-paradise (andumno or anwn), abundantly depicted, and with much imagination, by popular legends relating to the kingdoms of Don (Donnotegia) or of Tethra in Ireland; or by folk tales relating to the kingdoms of Arawn and Gwynn in Wales.

A correctly carried out funerary rite (the name engraved well on the tomb stone, the adequate signs while arriving into the next world also according to Procopius, etc.) makes the one who dies reappear to the immortality in Mag Meld, adorned with a true body of glory (Avestan xvarnah, Old Celtic bellissama/bellissamos) from where importance of the funeral); but a negligible minority reappears here on earth in order to die again, and this, until they purged their faults. Some accounts imply that, among the druids, it twas especially the vates who dealt with making the soul/mind of the deceased go into the parallel next world of paradisiac nature, called Mag Meld or by any other name of this kind. Lucan evokes particularly the bards or the vates “ whose martial lays formerly sent to eternity the powerful souls/minds [in Latin animas] of those who died in the war “ “ Uos quoque, qui fortes animas belloque peremptas laudibus in longum uates dimittitis aeuum, plurima securi fudistis carmina, Bardi “ (Lucan, Pharsalia, I, 444 to 462).

DONNO TEGIA/TECH DUINN.

A case quite as doubtful is the parallel next world called Donno Tegia, or more exactly Tech Duinn in Ireland. We write doubtful, because it is attached to a character, Donnos/Donn, belonging in no case to the most genuine Celtic tradition, but rather to legends coming under the fertile imagination of the Irish bards. The Milesian legend of the Lebor Gabala Erenn or Book of the taking of Ireland, for example. And we saw all that it was necessary to think of these odds and ends.

The Gaelic name of Donn goes back to a form * dhus-no, related to Latin fuscus, and means “black “or at the very least “dark “(traditional color for the kingdom of the dead). Some Irish texts say him able to change himself into a stag (according to Roger Sherman Loomis, Celtic myths, p. 134) what would therefore bring him even closer to Hornunnos.

Remarks on loose sheets found by the heirs to PeterDeLacrau and inserted by them into this place.

The nemet Hornunnos was in his time a kind of Hyperborean Buddha in the Far West. A high shaman called anatiomaros by the Celts and semnotheios by the Greeks. A little like in the case of a king making for him a stronghold in hostile territory; the result of the innumerable praiseworthy actions achieved by this great shaman was the discovery of a better earth, and he swore to lead the soul/minds into it.

Each anatiomaros fully fulfilled has thus his land in which he teaches. The characteristics proper to each one of these better lands depend on the vows each semnotheos stated at the beginning of his career. In the case of the Nemet Hornunnos, this better land is in fact only an anteroom of heaven, a

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transitory state being used as passage towards the paradisiac next world in a stricter sense of the term. A world of saha would say in a way our Buddhist friends, only intended to make its inhabitants progress in their awareness of truth.

An advanced anatiomaros indeed, can prove to be able to build another world on his own, a little like a magician, but what is the usefulness of it? He can cause a better land , he can give of it an outline to the soul/minds of the deceased persons, he can even keep them inside a small moment, but he cannot keep them there indefinitely.

According to the poet of ninth century named Mael Muru of Othan, Donno Tegia (Tech Duinn) is the gathering place of the dead (Cu cum dom thig tissaid uili iar bir n-écail) and this, from the proper will of this god-or-demon.

A stone cairn was raised across the broad sea for his people.

A long-standing ancient house which is named the House of Donn after him.

And this was his testament for his hundredfold offspring :

“You shall all come to me, to my house after your death“

(Kuno Meyer, der irische Totengott, und die Toteninsel page 538).

Metric Dindsenchas, volume IV, poem 113. Donn appears in this story as a king having freely sacrificed himself for his, but also as a primordial ancestor. His grave will be therefore, consequently, inevitably associated with shipwrecks and storms, in the Irish folklore.

Tech Duinn (Donno Tegia), whence the name? Not hard to say. When the sons of Mil came from the west to Ireland, their druid said to them, ‘If one of you climbs the mast, and chants incantations against the god- or-demons of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Danu (against the Tuatha De Danan therefore) , before they can do so, the battle will be broken against them, and their land will be ours; and he that casts the spell will die.’

They cast lots among themselves, and the lot falls on Donn to climb the mast. So was it done: Donn climbed the mast, and chanted incantations against the god-or-demons of the goddess-or-demoness or fairy Danu (bia), and then came down. And he said: ‘I swear by the god-or-demons that now you will not be granted right nor justice.’

The men of the clan of the goddess-or-demoness, of fairy if it is preferred, Danu (bia) also chanted incantations against the sons of Mil in answer from the land. Then after they had cursed Donn, there came forthwith an ague into the ship. Said Amairgen: ‘Donn will die, and it were not lucky for us to keep his body, lest we catch the disease. For if Donn be brought ashore, the disease will remain in Ireland forever.’

Said Donn: ‘Let my body be carried to one of the islands and my people will lay a blessing on me forever.’

Then through the incantations of the druids a storm came upon them, and the ship wherein Donn was foundered. ‘Let his body be carried to yonder high rock,’ says Amairgen: ‘His folk will come to this spot.’ So hence it is called Tech Duinn: and for this cause, according to the heathen, the souls of sinners visit Tech Duinn before they go to hell, and give their blessing, before they go, to the soul of Donn. But as for the righteous soul of a penitent, it beholds the place from afar, and is not borne astray. Such, at least, is the belief of the heathen.

The doors of Donno Tegia or Tech Duinn were kept by two dogs of wildest ones: one black and the other white.

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This account implicitly locates the kingdom of Donn under the sea, the cairn in question being only an entrance; that would therefore make Donnotegia (tech Duinn) a land beneath the waves a little similar to Tir fo thuinn or to the town of Ys in France.

There exist nevertheless two other possible localizations of this mysterious Donnotegia or house of Donn.

In addition to the place where Donn fell overboard ; (the bull rock… why bull and not stag besides, unless bringing closer the character Donn to the bull or dun termagant in Cooley staged by the Tain Bo Cualnge); two other places claim this honor: the small fort of Dunbeg on the west coast of Ireland, and Cnoc Firinne or Knockfierna in the County Limerick. A cavity not far from the top looks like one of the entrances of the underground palace of Donn, and the dead were formerly transported there “in order to be with Donn “.

Donn would be therefore a god-or-demon ruling over the dead in transit towards the druidic other world whatever its name: Mag Meld, Vindomagos, Tir na Nog and so on.

Strangely enough, he makes a pair with another of his brothers called, himself, Eber Finn (Eber the white). What seems to be the piece of evidence of a certain dualism on this level of the legend, unlike all that we can know of the genuine druidic thought.

Donn is also known in the county Fermanagh as the ancestor of the Maguire, being able to intervene on behalf of them in certain battles. His legend resembles much that of wild or cursed hunts: he is supposed to gallop on a white horse during the storm nights.

Dishonored dead go by no means in the parallel next world of the paradisiac type (Vindomagos, Mag Meld etc.) but come back on earth under the name of Sluagh. At least in popular beliefs and folklore. In Ireland and Scotland, sluagh was the name given to the wandering and restless soul/minds. Under the influence of Christianity, these sluagh were regarded as sinners having their place neither in heaven nor in hell, and rejected by the god-or-demons, as well as by the earth itself. They were almost always described as dangerous or destroying and flying in the airs in bands, in the appearance of birds coming from the west, to creep into the houses of the dying people, in order to try to carry with them their soul/minds. But we are there more in folklore strongly influenced by the Christian under-culture, than in the pure druidic theology. The high-knowers called druids think all that there are various stages in the afterlife.

Donno Tegia or Tech Duinn was perhaps an underwater kingdom where the soul/minds of the dead met before passing to another stage of their travel. From there, the ordinary dead, we could say, undertook a voyage towards the west, towards Tir Na Nog, the Land of Youth; where they finished the rest of their existence with the god-or-demons like Belin/Belen/Belenos/Barinthus/Manannan, before passing at a higher stage and melting themselves in the Big Whole (Pariollon). Others were again embodied in order to learn the lessons of another life. The reincarnation as a totem animal, or in a next line of descent, is a usual event in certain cultures, but much more exceptional in druidic world. There too and once again, that makes us much thinking of the notion of possessed persons or bacuceos on the Continent. For the record: “ Others we find affect the hearts of those whom they have seized with empty hubris (and these are commonly called Bacuceos ) so that they stretch themselves up beyond their proper height and at one time puff themselves up with arrogance and pomposity [….] as they fancy that they are great people and the wonder of everybody, at one time show by bowing their body that they are worshipping higher powers (sublimiores), while at another time they think that they are worshipped by others“ (John Cassian. Conlationes, 7,32,2).

Some authors, because of this aspect somewhat “ wild hunt “surrounding the Irish myth of Donn the dark; wonder whether this character would not be in fact to be compared to Herne the hunter, the ghost rider having a head decorated with stag antlers, who leads the wild hunt through the English sky; and even of the entity called Hornunnos on the Continent.

YS.

The next world may also, in popular legends, be underwater while being perfectly similar to the human world as for its aspect, and entirely free of any contact with water. The engulfed or underwater city

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called Ys, in France, is an alternative localization of this other world in the Celtic imagination. Wells or fountains are means of reaching it…

King Gradlon ruled formerly over Cornouaille, supported by two saint men who advised him, the monk Winwaloe as well as the hermit Corentin, he had made his bishop by giving him his castle of Quimper. The sovereign had a daughter, Dahud, very beautiful, of course, and for whom he had made a splendid city built: the town of Ys. This city, located on the bay of Douarnenez, was protected against the sea by dams and locks of which the king kept the key preciously. Dahud lived there a life of softness and pleasures. One day, on the dam, she meets a tempting knight who convinces her to conceal the keys that her father keeps around his neck. Taking advantage of the sleep of the king, she therefore seizes them , and gives them to the red knight… who is not other than the Devil… This one then opens the locks and the city is overrun by the floods. Only Gradlon riding his horse Morvac’h, and Winwaloe succeed in escaping, after Saint Winvaloe had convinced him to abandon Dahud to the sea. Drowned, this one changed, people say, into a mermaid, Morgan, which is baited to downfall the sailors…

Thus Dahud became, in our legends, a whore involving a whole city (Ys) in the very Christian punishment, of her crimes, and that the saint, brushing past her with his crozier, condemns and curses. In this affair King Gradlon becomes almost a minor character, a patsy, chosen victim of a guilty affection, and that a great saint saves at the very last moment.

Editor’s note. King Gradlon should have to be only a small clan or village chief, leading a paltry troop of immigrants fleeing their country (the Great Britain of the fourth or fifth century) in the most complete destitution; and rather badly welcomed by rural Romano-Gauls mainly remained pagan. Or by townsmen become Christian, but being wary of these foreigners as they were fearing plague. Mary-Morgan or Dahud, like many Celtic god-or-demons and goddess-or-demonesses, or fairies if this word is preferred, does not have true genealogy. Gradlon is only his putative father. It is only a woman or a messenger of the god-or-demons, come to lead the king to the Next World, the town of Ys, which will last until its immersion under the water of the Ocean.

ASSUMPTION-SHAPED CONCLUSION.

The access roads to the parallel and of heavenly nature other world are innumerable, but its exit doors are infinitely rarer and more difficult to traverse, including in what regards their calendar, we said, and their list is quickly closed.

The few cases of parallel next world we have just reviewed are far from being as definitely paradisiac as that on which we lengthily discoursed in the previous chapter. And which is called according to manuscripts Mag Meld, Tir Na mBan, Tir Na mBeo, Tir Tairngiri, Tir na nOg, Magh Ionganaidh, Magh Ildathach, Magh Imchiuin, Magh Argetnel, Magh Findargat, Magh Aircthech, Sen Magh, Caer Gwydion, Lly's Don, Caer Arianrod or Gwynfa (in Wales)…

These parallel next worlds less eminently paradisiac, Annwn, Tech Duinn, Ys, are perhaps only very transitory crossing points. A kind of anteroom of the paradisiac world of Mag Meld or Vindomagos type, a decompression chamber before a reincarnation on earth for the deceased people having deserved such a punishment, and called bacuceos or seibaros (ghost). A dark and underground world resembling, not hell, since the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) did not think it can exist.

Therefore resembling rather, let us say, a kind of purgatory (Andumno or Anderodubno) before entering finally Heaven. But, once again, let us point it out, it can be only a different state of being, and not of a really geographical place.

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THE KINGDOM OR REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED SIDHS.

One of the fundamental laws of quantum mechanics is that the same causes do not produce the same effects necessarily, it is indeterminism. In certain experiments of quantum physics, a particle (for example an electron, photon) can “decide,“ to go on the left or on the right. But, even if the initial conditions are absolutely identical, it is impossible to predict on which side it will move, this choice depends on the chance. It is what was called “reduction of the wave packet “ and several physicists have drawn theories to try to explain or eliminate this element of chance.

In 1957, the physicist Hugh Everett affirms that there is no chance, because the particle took the two directions. In “our “universe, it went towards the left and in “another “universe towards the right. There would be therefore a multiplication of parallel universes, forming new branches ad infinitum, each time a quantum particle has to choose between various options.

According to the traditional theory of the initial explosion , the universe was born from a point (or singularity) where all that it contains was condensed in a zero volume: the ogham point of space-time called eabadh. But what was here therefore before this initial explosion? According to traditional explanation, there was nothing: but vacuum. Even space and time did not exist. They appeared at the same time as the universe. Under these conditions, the question of knowing in what the universe inflates does not even arise.

Some astrophysicists expressed the assumption that the initial explosion would be perhaps that of a “bubble “born in a kind of “cosmic foam “. Our universe therefore would not be unique. Other universes, where the laws of physics are perhaps very different as of ours, could also emerge from this foam.

Science and scientists maintain that it is completely impossible to detect or get any information about these supposed parallel universes.

But some great initiated persons , they are of yesterday or today, as for them maintain to have or detect information on some of these parallel universes (next world, heaven, kingdom of the dead, god-or-demons, etc.).

Buddhakshetra, Buddha-land or Buddha-field, is a Buddhist word which designates a domain of the universe in which a certain Buddha develops his activity or his influence. According to the Mahavastu there are three kinds of Buddha-khettas, or regions of Buddhas.

Jatikkheta : a type of universe in which the Buddha can appear. There can appear only one Buddha at a time. No Buddha can arise until the Order of the previous Buddha has completely disappeared from the world. When a Bodhisattva is conceived in his mother’s womb for a last reincarnation, after having

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left a divine abode (divya loka), a wonderful light is then manifested throughout these worlds, and the ten thousand universes are shaken because of that.

Anakkheta : the realm of dominant influence of the Buddha.

Visayakkhetta : the realm in which wisdom and power of the Buddha can be developed. Theoretically unlimited.

The two last fields are pure lands resulting from his realizations and expressing his qualities; those who have an affinity with them reappear there after their death. Always according to Mahavamsa, a Buddhakshetra is equivalent to 61 billion universes. The concept is particularly developed in the Mahayana, in the Lotus sutra and in the Vimalakirti sutra as in these which are devoted to certain Buddhas as Amitabha, whose pure land is best known by far. It is indeed in the core of the beliefs and practices of the pure land branch, one of most important in Buddhism.

Although some texts describe pure lands as fields distant from our world, the Lotus and the Vimalakirti sutras maintain that they are born in the impure world but around a Bodhisattva, by virtue of the purity of his mind; they are made up of the beings which get better spiritually thanks to his teaching. According to these sutras, it exists a difference in quality between the pure lands of the various Buddhas. The pure land of Amitabha himself gives way,according to some people to that of Bhaisajyaguru. The Tiantai and Tendai tendencies, strongly influenced by the Lotus Sutra, consider four pure lands that man reaches according to his level of awareness : the land of common dwelling, accessible to everybody, the land of skillful means with remainder accessible to the listeners, the pratyekabuddhas and the bodhisattvas of lower rank; the land of the real reward where most advanced bodhisattvas live; the Land of Eternally Quiescent Light accessible to the dharmakayas.

Then why not the pure land (Celtic hereafter) of the Buddha Hornunnos ?

N.B. We are not racist like Judeo-Islamic-Christians , we have no problem in recognizing what is beautiful good and right in other religions (see the parable of Ogmius told by Lucian of Samosata) but let us come back to the topic.

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PARALLEL WORLDS

AND DRUIDIC BUDDHAKSHETRAS, CONTINUATION.

Brief summary of what the professor Jan De Vries thought about the religion of the Celts (according to my own translation because I was always very bad in German language, and in any event these four years of German are distant).

In Ireland, people thought the dead lived in the mounds called sidhs. But they were not alone to live there. Legends report that the former god-or-demons, the men of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if this word is preferred, Danu (bia) too, also withdrew into the sidhs, after being overcome by men. As Marie-Louise Sjœstedt herself said very well by commenting on what this notion produced in Ireland.

After the famous battles fought for the possession of the plain of Talantio (Gaelic Tailtiu, another personification: the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if you want, Rosemartha, on the Continent) or at Druim Lighean (see our booklet about the great battles of metahistory according to the druids), it was agreed to divide the land in two equal portions. The Tuatha De Danu (bia) accepted the lower half, i.e., the basement. It is therefore in this way that the, until that time, air or celestial * god-or-demons, by going under ground, took possession of the mounds, prehistoric tumuli or natural hillocks (in which the Irish farmers recognize still today the abode of fairies); ; that the king of the gods of then, had divided between his, by allocating such residence, such sidh, to Lug, such other to Ogmius, and so on. Not only the lands and the caves, but also the water of the depths, came down to the god-or-demons. The Lake of the Bird, in Connaught, for example, also houses a sidh.

At least according to Irish bards who thus confused the three levels of every self-respecting pagan pleroma : air, “celestial” or human, chthonic.

It was inevitable; since Christianity had lowered all these supernatural characters to the rank of ghosts or demons; Irishmen therefore confused under the name of aes side, very different beings; who formed from now on for them a worrying army of more or less evil spirits. During the Middle Ages, in Celtic countries, the former god-or-demons, the fairies, the spectra, and the soul/minds of the dead, are almost equivalent; all together they form the fantastic world of aes side.

In Ireland the people of the aes side in question are composed of female or male beings living under, but also on, the ground, without, however, being members of Mankind itself. But it is there only a minimal definition. It includes the kinds of most varied supernatural beings. The ones (fairies) are in a favorable mood towards men, the others (demons) rather badly.

But this view of pagan spirituality is valid only for the Christian era, when distinctions between all these beings (air, celestial or chthonic) were abolished. For pagan era, such a definition of the people in aes

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side nevertheless, is inaccurate. The god-or-demons lived then in the various parts of the world, the sky and the sea. The nature spirits were present in the most various phenomena: mountains and hills, springs and rivers. There were lastly, but in a world aside, the soul/minds of the dead, who lived in the burial mounds.

N.B. The best piece of evidence of the importance of the worship of the dead among Celts is besides perhaps that, lastly, gods and demons in Ireland also went to live under their hills.

The legends depicted the life there with most shimmering colors. Of course, there were there too big treasures. We said how much splendid was the equipment of the Latenian graves. Their memory was therefore preserved a long time in legends.

We feel today that Mag Meld is a developed form of the world of the burial mounds. But, even if these designs result from the same conceptual source, they diverged so much that they should radically be distinguished.

Mag MeId is not at the beginning a land of the dead , but a wonderland in Ocean, where supernatural beings enjoy eternal happiness. This view of the world of the god-or-demons had perhaps come to its height when Christianity was spread, and therefore it brought to it also, its touch.

Let us try to see there, more clearly.

Former druids or high-knowers in the West regarded the multiplicity of the worlds and of the phenomena as proceeding from the Pariollon (or Parinirvana among Buddhists): a concrete application of the famous doctrines of the multiple states of the Being.

During the first Bronze Age, the sidhe therefore were most probably imagined as some kinds of “pockets “or enclaves in the hereafter. They were isolated units, having no relations between them, i.e., not having been yet merged or reunified in the image of another single and general lower world; stretching under the land of the living. In other words, each god-or-demon had his quite particular domain, completely separated from that of the other god-or-demons.

In Ireland during the Middle Ages under the influence of Christianity, the evolution of ideas had as a result that sidhe were no longer understood only as local dwellings of deceased persons, deified heroes, even of underground god-or-demons; but as main doors leading towards a more or less federal underground empire: the United-sidhs in a way. If at the beginning of the Bronze Age, the graves inherited from Neolithic civilization, in all probability, were regarded as isolated worlds or enclaves; at the end of the Middle Ages in Ireland, under the influence of Christian ideas, they end up joining and weaving a true “infernal “space located under the surface of the earth. The large kingdom of the god-or-demons of THE goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Danu (bia), is a mirror or an underground double of the men kingdom.

The fact remains that the majority of the legends evoking these sidhe or abodes of the Irish god-or-demons, show their total autonomy the ones towards the others.

It is the same thing besides regarding the lands of Buddhas in the Far East, the famous Buddhakshetra. According to sutras, this land of the perfect bliss is often called “Pure land “ or “Western Paradise “. The Muryoju sutra describes it in detail. On this land, people feel no suffering, but only joy, hence its name. It is said to us that everything is very beautiful there. Without going down into details, Sukhavati, the happy land, the land of the bliss of the Buddha Amitabha, is described to us as entirely made of sparkling jewels, of light, of lotus flowers, music and perfume. You can find more details in the three sutras of the “pure land “. The Buddha called Amitabha, surrounded by his two main bodhisattvas, sits there on a splendid throne.

Cf. for reminding how the vision (aisling) of Adamnan and the Irish text called “the ever-new tongue” describe for us this next world.

“ A world without hubris, or vanity, or falsehood, or outrage, or deceit, or pretense, or blushing, or shame, or reproach, or insult, or envy, or arrogance, or pestilence, or disease, or poverty, or nakedness, or death, or extinction, or hail, or snow, or wind, or rain, or din, or thunder, or darkness, or cold“ (Finit Fis Adamnain ).

What could be more wonderful indeed for a man than this kingdom….

104. A place in which there is heard no voice of anger,nor jealousy nor sorrow nor hardship.

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105. Happy then is the one who is summoned to that kingdom…..When the light of the sun is not needed, nor that of the moon and the stars…..A place where no need for clothing or food will arise (Tenga Bithnua recension 2 manuscript of Rennes).

As for us we prefer the description given by the 8th century Echtra Condla.

Where everything is beautiful, attractive and pure

Where exist neither fault neither disease nor time

Neither border neither war neither suffering neither sorrow nor slavery.

Here music is marvelous,

There brooks of mead run

And peace there is eternal everywhere.

Below some other pure land names, since it is thus our brothers in paganism in this area of the world call their parallel universes.

Land of Joy (Abhirati) of the Buddha Akshobhya, located east of our world.

Emerald Land of the Buddha Bhaisajyaguru; described in the Bhaisajyaguru Sutra, it would be located to the east of our world.

Land of the esoteric grandeur of the Buddha Vairocana, described in the Mitsugon sutra.

Pure land of the Vulture Peak, where the teaching of the Buddha Shakyamuni reigns.

The pure land of the Potakala Mount, of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.

Notes.

* The air gods or demons of Celtic legends are personifications of the atmospheric forces like wind (Santa Ana winds, Circius in old Europe, Galerne in France, etc.) lightning, thunder.

The celestial gods are “air” only by convention, but they are especially active in the world of men besides (the original druidic myth locates them often on the same level as human beings, but in remote islands).

And there is, of course, the case of the gods or demons like the god of lightning or thunder (Taran/Toran/Tuireann) which are at the same time air and celestial.

Air, celestial, and chthonic gods-or-demons, form a gigantic pantheon, more than an ordinary pantheon in the Greek way, a pleroma.

! ------------- ---------------------- ------------------- !

EXITS (OR ENTRANCES) OF PARALLEL WORDS IN IRELAND.

Below, on the other hand, a first list of some of the parallel worlds known by Irishmen under the name of Sidhe.

Brugh Na Boinne, in County Meath, today Newgrange. It is, of course, best known of these parallel worlds or of these exit/entrance of a parallel world. It is supposed to have housed Lug, the Suqellos Dagda Gurgunt, and Mabon/Maponos/Oengus.

Brí Léith in County Westmeath. Medros/Midir was its lord. Vocusmnaca/Fuamnach and Etanna/Etain lived there.

Slieve Gullion, close to Armagh (the residence of Cuillen or Culann the blacksmith. His dog was killed by the hesus Cuchulainn).

Rath Cruachan, (also called Cruachain, or Rathcroghan). County Roscommon, in the Connaught. It is from this side that came the prophetess Videlma to warn Queen Medb against the risks incurred by the raid she planned to undertake in order to seize the bull of Cooley. According to local legends, the passage towards the next world would be located in the cave of the cats.

Sidhe Finnachaidh (today Sliabh Fuaid) close to Tara, County Meath. The god or demon called Aillen Mac Midhna, according to various legends, was accustomed to leave this place, each year, at the time

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of the festival of Samon, in order to spread disorder in Tara, by burning houses, or by casting a spell. Finn will have to use his magic lance to succeed in getting rid of him. Lero/Lir would also have a moment remained in this sidhe according to certain legends.

Sidh-ar-Femhin, in the plain of Cashel. The god-or-demon who became its lord was Bob the red (Bodb Derg). The harpist named Cliach could make its door open, only by playing music in front of it.

The hill of Allen, the hill of Grange and Rathangan in County Kildare. These hills form a way or a magic line which brings bad luck if it is followed during the night. It is on this hill of Allen that Ossian began to stop at the time of his come back from the land of eternal youth (Tír Na nÓg). Many legends are attached to these three heights.

Cnoc Firinn or Knockfierna, County Limerick. It is the dwelling of the god-or-demon called Donn.

Síd Uamuin, in the Connaught. Ethal Anbuail, father of Caer Ibormeith, was the lord of this sidhe. His daughter (Caer Ibormeith) will marry Mabon/Maponos/Oengus. Cf. the story entitled in Gaelic language Aislinge Oengusso: the dream of Oengus.

Sidhe Findabrach, north of Brugh Na Boinne (Newgrange). Land of the tribe of Derc. The sons of Derc having one day abducted Enghi, daughter of Elcmar, the place was consequently called Cnoguba (today Knowth) what means “nut lamentation “.

Cleitech, close to Brugh Na Boinne (Newgrange) in which the damona Bovinda/Boand and Elcmar settled down after having left the Brugh.

Mullachshee, close to Ballyshannon, in county Donegal, also known as Ess Ruadh. Land of Ilbhreac, son of Belenus Barinthus (Manannan Mac Lír).

Druim Nemed, in Luigne, Connaught. Caoilte and Cascorach stopped here while going to Ess Ruadh.

Cnoc Meadha (Knockmaa) close to Tuam, county Galway. Land of Finnbheara, king of the fairies in the area or last king of aes side according to our Irish counterparts (what a heresy!)

Many others exist. For more details, to see Onomasticon Goedelicum; locorum and tribuum Hiberniae and Scotiae by Father Edmund Hogan.

A similar evolution had to occur as regards the air god-or-demons. With this important difference, it was by no means a question for Christian transcribers, to let people believe only one moment that these celestial dwellings of the god-or-demons; of which, however, we have the trace in Welsh mythology (caer Arianrod = constellation Corona Borealis, caer Gwyddion = Milky Way, etc.); could form a celestial in the meaning of “heavenly “ kingdom.

Here for example how the bard Flann Mainistreach considered the things in his time.

“The forgers of the History

Affirm that the people of the ships and mounds

Being from the Sidhe is gone back there.

It is not what a good Christian must believe.

Ni maith la Crist in creideam.

Gebe creidis co n-anmain

A mbeadli a sidhaibh samlaigh,

Ni aitreabha neam na neart,

Domnai nadh fir nos-eisteadh.

Whoever really believes and in all honesty

That they are now in the sidhe

Will never go to Heaven

Because there is nothing true in all that.

These charlatans say

That people of the ships and of the drinking beakers

Dwell today in the land of Promise.

But the only Promised land

To which have right Toutai Deuas

It is Hell, yes! “

Literally

Baile bith-sheang a mbi breth;

Ai is e in t-ifearnn lchtarach.

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Here at least a thing which has the merit to be clear from this follower of the love religion.

The general evolution of the ideas was initially to locate all these celestial deities in remote islands in north or west of the world, then under the influence of Christianity to finally reject them also under ground. The Irish case is particularly obvious in this respect.

It is tiresome to quote all the legends which narrate us how men went in another marvelous world, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes snatched by soul/minds. This adventure was always reserved for great heroes; we know that of Cuchulainn, of Lóegaire mac Crimthann, and Ossian. But it is dangerous to remain in these next worlds; the time pace is not the same one there, or rather time is almost motionless there. One day spent over there is like a hundred years on earth. It can thus happen that at his going home, our hero, when he dismounts or lands, crumbles into dust. It is what happens for Loégaire and Ossian.

The next world is also a kind of Walhalla. How warriors buried with their weapons could not wish to continue their fight in this parallel world?

Hence the strong criticisms expressed to St. Patrick by Ossian in the famous dialog published in 1859 in Dublin for the Ossianic Society by John O'Daly and finally his refusal of Christianity.

O Patrick, were I without sense

I would take off the heads of your clerics

There would not be a book or a crozier,

Or matin bell left in your church.

…..sorrowful is my tale !

The sound of your lips is not sweet to me ;

I will cry my fill, but not for God,

But for Finn and the Fenians not being alive !

Beyond the Ocean, there is also one or more other lands located far behind the horizon, perhaps even at the bottom of water. Because the waves of the sea themselves cover a province of this hidden world, Tir-fo-Tuinn “the Land under the waves “; and that it is better to compare with the Greek Elysian Fields rather than with an island of the dead. It has in our texts many names, among others these of Tir Na n-ôg, “land of the young “, Tir Na m-béo, “land of the living “, Tir na sorcha, “land of brightness “ Mag Mell, “plain of joy “. But we also find Tir Tairngire, “Promised land. “ This last name is, of course, due to the influence of Christianity. Such bewitching islands in the Ocean were the goal of many adventurous expeditions which are reported to us in the famous Imrama. Most famous, that of St.Brendan, proves the topic remained until the Christian time, even if it was with a very different intention. The Irish anchorites, who liked so much to entrust them to the sea, in their small coracles, didn't cherish too the secret hope to reach, guided by the hand of God or of the Demiurge, one of these islands?

The visions of the Middle Ages continued to embroider on the subject. That makes all the more difficult to release from the preserved texts basically pagan ideas, because undoubtedly were mixed there, not only some Christian ideas about heaven, but also some memories of the classical (Graeco-Latin) legends of the Hesperides. Most complex case being undoubtedly that of the text of the ninth century entitled in Gaelic language “tenga Bithnua” and which happily seasons a Judeo-Christian pattern of the apocalypse type with typically Irish details, or at least with natural phenomena reflecting the culture of the British Isles in the seventh and eighth centuries.

We must therefore recognize that it prevails in our texts a relative uncertainty as for what is understood exactly with this land of blessed people pleasant to attend (Meldi). A thing at least is very clear: it is forbidden to us to speak about a “Kingdom of the Dead “ in the strictest sense of the word, although this idea can always somewhat be mingled with it.

The king of the andernas or fomorians named Tethra, is known as lord of Mag MeId in the story having for title Echtra Condla Chaim meic Cuind Chétchathaig. We can’t help but be made perplexed by this mention.

It stands out from all these legends that the inhabitants of Tir na n-og are systematically confused with the people of aes side; but it seems that, at the time of paganism, there was then a clear distinction between the two worlds. We find again there the “confusionism“about which it is so often spoken in

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connection with the Celtic Panth-eon or Pleroma. In the case which concerns us, its reason is the collapse of druidic doctrines, after Christianity had stigmatized them as devilish inventions (end of our quotation intersected with comments, of the book by Jan De Vries about the religion of the Celts).

What is certain from the point of view of druidism, on the other hand, it is that a whole life spent in love pleasure and feasts, was not regarded as a life of sins.

In other words, there is more than a simple participation of the world and of all the creatures in the nature of God or of the Demiurge (as in the most enlightened variants of Judeo-Islamic-Christianity). There is identity between God or the Demiurge, and the World. Or more exactly between God or the Demiurge and the Worlds, because the Higher Being caused not only our earth, our sun, our moon, and our stars, but also innumerable parallel worlds. These worlds float in the space as oak leaves floating in the breeze. Like oak leaves, they open and are closed, are born and die. And their god-or-demons also, because the god-or-demons are born and disappear with these leaves. The druidic equivalent of the Germanic Ragnarok nevertheless did not reach us ; except in symbolic form in the decoration of certain Celtic coins, notably those of the Unelli in Cotentin depicting a gigantic wolf preparing to devour a sun wheel (on a golden stater) or devouring the moon and giving off what appears to be plants.

THE MORAL PARADOX.

The moral sanction therefore does not appear in the pagan design of the Celtic Elysium. And it is not there, like some people think, an abode for the dead comparable with the Hades of the Greeks. It is important on this subject, to understand well at which point the Greek and druidic ideas were different, to summary what we already had the opportunity to emphasize in connection with the notion of Hades or Sheol.

The classical design of the other worlds, it is the Hades of the Greeks, the Sheol of the Bible. But for the druids, Hades nor Sheol did not exist! The druidic ideas about this subject shocked much besides in Antiquity (the true good news, the true suscetla, it was, however, well this one: hell does not exist!)

Lucan : Pharsalia or the civil war.

According to your masters, the shades of dead men

Seek not the quiet homes of Erebus

Or death's pale kingdoms;

But the same soul/mind [in Latin idem spiritus] governs the limbs

In another world [in Latin orbe alio]

And the death is only the middle of a long life.

The scholia commenting on the line of verse 451 or 454 are also extremely clear.

COMMENTA BERNENSIA AD LUCANUM.

Line 451.

Driadae negant interire animas aut contagione inferorum adfici.

Druids deny that souls can die or go to hell or be affected by it.

Line 454.

Manes esse non dicunt sed animas in revolutione credunt posse constare.

They do not say that the manes exist, but believe that the souls can indefinitely achieve revolutions (to return to their starting point to begin again a new life).

ADNOTATIONES SUPER LUCANUM.

Line 454.

Hoc enim disputant animas ad inferos non ire, sed in alio orbe nasci.

They dispute indeed the fact that the souls can go down to hell, because they think they are born after in another world.

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GLOSULE SUPER LUCANUM.

Line 454.

Id est sicut uos dicitis anime ad inferos non descendunt, sed in orbe alterius hemisperii incorporantur iterum uel in aliqua parte orbis a uobis remota.

I.e. according to you the souls do not go down into hell, but will again be embodied in a part of the world located in the other hemisphere or in any part of a world unknown to you.

But this participation of the human beings in the immortal life of the god-or-demons does not appear, we repeat it once again, as the reward of an earthly life filled with good works.

No text, whatever it is, implies a heavenly and infernal duality, where the souls would be distributed according to a posthumous destiny determined by the merits or the faults of their earthly existence. The notion of sin, with its procession of rewards, punishments, forgiveness and repentance, heaven and hell, is entirely unknown by druids to whom we could ascribe these remarks of the great Japanese mystic named Honen “ Even good guys will reappear in the Pure land, even more so the baddies ! “.

And in this land of happiness they are only pleasure, joy and youth without a shadow of restriction.

There is not purgatory: venial sin does not exist more than unrighteousness or crime.

Irish eschatology is deprived of any ethical sense. Death was not, for druids, the relief of a life of sufferings or the punishment of a multitude of ill deeds. It was, to take over the expression of Lucan, the middle of a long life. This belief justifies the evocatio of Fergus, appearing clothed in his military dress and reciting the entirety of the Tain Bo Cualnge. It still justifies the burial of dead with their weapons, sometimes with their cattle and their servants. In its form and its expression, this belief is therefore quite different from that Christianity propagated.

Some high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) push to the extreme by insisting on the fact that this parallel next world of paradisiac nature is not material (treasures, lush vegetation), but it should not be forgotten that the soul/minds of the deceased nevertheless always have a body, similar to the Xvarnah of Persians (Old Celtic bellissama/bellssamos), after their reincarnation in this next world.

It is indeed important to understand that, in any event, this mysterious kingdom of the dead is not a place, but a state. The field of the dead is not localizable since it is a state of being.

Apparently, however, these two worlds are interconnected: people pass from the realm of the dead to that of the god-or-demons and conversely without much difficulty: there is always an open door between the two universes.

For the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht), death never be dramatic as among Christians. It is especially, for the soul/mind that arrives in the parallel universe of paradisiac nature, of druids, a blossoming, even a sudden enlightening. Mag Meld is a luminous world, as its other old Celtic name indicates it: “Vindomagos “.

In reality, contrary to the ambiguities of the formulation of stories, we do not receive a new soul with the regeneration which follows the accession to the Celtic, paradisiac, parallel universe, of Mag Meld or Vindomagos, but a new body… This body is spiritual, more subtle than the air, similar to the rays of the sun which produces all the bodies, as different from the old one as the radiant sun can be from the night. It matches the xvarnah of Zoroastrian religion, old Celtic bellissama/bellissamos.

Lucan. Pharsalia. I, 454-458: “ According to your masters, the shades of dead men

Seek not the quiet homes of Erebus

Or death's pale kingdoms;

But the same soul/mind [in Latin idem spiritus] governs the limbs

In another world [in Latin orbe alio]

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And the death is only the middle of a long live;

If you know well what you sing.

Happy the peoples beneath the Great Bear

Thanks to their error; because they do not know

This supreme fear which frightens all others:

Hence the spirit [in Latin mens] inclined to throw itself on iron

The strength of character [Latin animate] able to face death,

And this lack of care put to save a life which must be given back to you, etc.,“

Scholia commenting on the Pharsalia of Lucan. Commenta ad versum I, 454-458. “The dead indeed they burn him with his servants and his horses, and part of his furniture so that he may use it; this is why they go courageously into battle, and don’t spare their life, as if they were going to recover it in another part of the world. [Qui enim defunctis equos servosque et multam suppellectilem comburant quibus uti possint, inde animosi in proelia exeunt ne vitae suae parcunt, tamquam eamdem reperituri in alio naturae secessu] “.

Lucan, of course, was mistaken while locating this parallel universe of paradisiac nature as it was done at that time; but what he saw well, on the other hand, it is the life post-mortem, according to the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht), is perfectly concrete; and that it has nothing to do with the Greek designs (Hades) or the Roman design (the kingdom of Dis) of evanescent shapes. The Celtic hereafter is concrete. Nothing comparable with the Greco-Roman dark abode, there, landscapes are bathed with the same sun, there you breathe the same air, there you breed the same herds, there you live the same life as in the world of mortals. But that we have had already the opportunity to say it.

Various druidic Schools developed the idea that every believer too, whatever could be his faults, will go that way.

The parallel universe of paradisiac nature of druids is composed of an infinite number of levels (not to be confused with stages, one above the other, according to the merits of each one). We cannot imagine somebody who sacrificed all his life to work for the good of mankind; sharing the same paradisiac level with somebody who, of course , never did evil, but also was never concerned to do good. In Heaven as on Earth, some people deserve better than others. These various “levels “match a more or less great proximity to the Big Whole, symbolized or represented in various ways according to traditions. God or the Demiurge or one of his hypostases (vyuha in Hinduism), or by an object. See for example what Plutarch reports to us about the island of Kronos or Saturn.

Plutarch (46-126) is one of the greatest thinkers of the ending GREEK paganism and he had perhaps a presentiment of its disappearance in front of Christianity. Plutarch’s speculations about divination are rooted in the experience and the ritualist knowledge of the Delphi priest he was.

One of his major works is without any doubt the three dialogs known as Pythian: On the E at Delphi, Why the Pythia does not now give oracles in verse, On the failure of oracles (moral writings, dialogs 24 to 26).

“As to the mortality of the beings of the kind [the demons] , I have heard it reported from a person that was neither fool nor knave, being Epitherses, the father of Aemilianus the orator, whom some of you have heard declaim. This Epitherses was my townsman and a schoolmaster, who told me that, designing a voyage to Italy, he embarked himself on a vessel laden well both with goods and passengers. About the evening the vessel was becalmed about the Isles Echinades, whereupon their ship drove with the tide till it was carried near the Isles of Paxi; when immediately a voice was heard by most of the passengers (who were then awake, and taking a cup after supper) calling unto one Thamus, and that with so loud a voice as made all the company amazed; which Thamus was a mariner of Egypt, whose name was scarcely known in the ship. He returned no answer to the first calls; but at the third he replied, Here ! here! I am the man. Then the voice said aloud to him: "When you are arrived at Palodes, take care to make it known that the great god Pan is dead.”

Epitherses told us, this voice did much astonish all that heard it, and caused much arguing whether this voice was to be obeyed or slighted. Thamus, for his part, was resolved, if the wind permitted, to sail by the place without saying a word; but if the wind ceased and there ensued a calm, to speak and cry out as loud as he was able what he was enjoined. Being come to Palodes, there was no wind stirring, and the sea was as smooth as glass. Whereupon Thamus standing on the deck, with his face

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towards the land, uttered with a loud voice his message, saying : "The great Pan is dead.” He had no sooner said this, but they heard a dreadful noise, not only of one, but of several, who, to their thinking, groaned and lamented with a kind of astonishment.

And there being many persons in the ship, an account of this was soon spread over Rome, which made Tiberius the Emperor send for Thamus; and he seemed to give such heed to what he told him that he earnestly enquired who this Pan was; and the learned men about him gave in their judgments, that it was the son of Mercury by Penelope.

There were some then in the company who declared they had heard old Aemilianus say as much.

Demetrius then related that about [Great ] Britain there were many small and desolate islands, some of which were called the Isles of Daemons and Demi-gods; and that he himself, at the command of the Emperor, sailed to the nearest of those places for curiosity's sake, where he found few inhabitants who…“

The “De facie in orbe lunae “(On the face which appears on the orb of the Moon), which is in close connection with the “De defectu oraculorum “(On the obsolescence of oracles), seems to be composed at the same time.

It will be noticed that in the two dialogs a man by the name of Lamprias (a brother of Plutarch) gives an account and is presented as one of the protagonists of these dialogs. He stages an anonymous foreign traveler [ an Hyperborean druid ?] having been for thirty years a priest of Kronos on an island in the Atlantic.

The interlocutors of the failure of oracles propose various explanations of the increasingly scarce of oracles at the time of Plutarch. Dealing all three with divination, which was a basic element in the religion of then, these dialogs promote and defend a certain design of the divinity and of providence [predictions are the doing of jinns or demons]. Linked forever at the end of ancient paganism by this account of the death of the great Pan , they concern as well philosophy and theology as cosmology, anthropology, physics, arithmetic and theory of the soul/mind. Plutarch, a philosopher and priest of Apollo, indicate in it the limits of knowledge and of rational justification without, however, ceasing practicing them.

In this beginning of the second century, the worship of the god or demon in Delphi, Apollo, declines, and his oracle, the famous Pythia, was little by little silenced, for lack of questions and visitors. It is in this context of somewhat melancholic decline that Plutarch wrote his three dialogs known as “Pythian “dealing with the oracle of Delphi. The first “On the E at Delphi “about offerings, the second, “ Why the Pythia does not now give oracles in verse “ deals with the inspiration of the Pythia, and the last wonders finally, “On the obsolescence of the oracles “. The three texts were probably written by Plutarch at the end of his life, when he was himself a priest in Delphi and saw the sanctuary, in spite of his efforts (sometimes successful), to empty itself unrelentingly.

The dialogs of Plutarch are a reflection on the god-or-demons. In the De defectu oraculorum (On the sanctuaries of which oracles ceased), Plutarch for example called upon the assumption of the demons or jinns, as a transitional race, to try to explain the oracular mechanisms.

In the case of Kronos, it is, of course, the interpretatio graeca of a Celtic myth to which Plutarch understood nothing. The demons are undoubtedly some human beings come at a very high level of spiritual rise and of happiness. As for the sleeping or “otiosus “ god-or-demon whose name was conveyed into Kronos by our author, we can wonder if it is not Taran/Toran/Tuireann. Since, according to Irishmen, he was dethroned by the family of Lug. (What a heresy! At least what a revolutionary innovation, it is the case to say, compared to the reference druidism which is, like it or not, the ancient druidism somewhere in Central Europe).

The lower layers of heaven according to druids are still those of desire, from where all the imagery which surrounds them, and especially intended for the warriors besides *. The soul/minds of the

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deceased persons continue their purification there. Above there are the skies where there is not any more but pure souls or almost. The god-or-demons who live in them are freed from desires, but still have forms, or are still visible in forms. It is the god-or-demons who are not forces of nature, but gods, ideas or allegories, able to be used as support to our prayers and to our meditation (Belenos, etc). The soul/minds of the deceased who remain there are characterized by states of being increasingly released from the psychic movements of the low world.

Above there are skies where there is even no longer appearance. This realm, as its name even indicates it, excludes any material localization and layout , and thus implies the suspension of every perception.

Beyond, it is the return into the Big Whole (Pariollon). The liquidation of everything acquired knowledge is completed for the soul, even her mind was gone from there, the final end of this individual soul therefore results very logically from the exhaustion of the phenomenal construction which maintained her life.

“Prepare your immortality, on your death you will be a part of the worlds in developing. “(Henry Lizeray).

ECCLESIAE METROPOLITANEAE COLONIENSIS CODICES MANUSCRIPTI.

Line 457.

ORBE ALIO: apud antipodas. Hi de metapsihei (sic) senserunt, et euntem ad corpus in tribus elementis purgari dixerunt. In igne in perusta, in aere in temperata, in aqua in frigida. Vel alium orbem vocat alia corpora digniora vel indigne apud nos. Fuit enim sentencia, animas in comparibus stellis positas. Et descensus per cancrum. In planetis vero pro diversitate eorum hauriebant diversa. In corporibus tandem pro merito quedam cicius celum petebant, quedam de corpore in corpus transeunt, donec firmamento consecuti resipiscant.

ORBE ALIO: on the other side of the world. Here what they thought in connection with metempsychosis, and they said that we must be three times over purified before entering a (new) body. As for one’s ardor through combustion, as for one’s air through a moderated heat, as for one’s water through cold. Or then they call another world the fact of going in bodies worthier or less worthy than those of ours here below.

This sentence means perhaps the souls laid then in stars of comparable nature that they. Then went down again through Cancer. While growing rich through these planets by various elements according to their needs and their nature. Finally, after having entered new bodies certain ones reached more quickly heaven according to their merits while others continued to go from a body into a body until they also reach the firmament.

The commentator of these lines of verses by Lucan obviously did not understand anything in the druidic mythology of then. The truth of their speculations in connection with the posthumous destiny of the soul is indeed much simpler with regard to the last stage of one's life.

The sun was then perceived as one of the stages the souls took when they traveled towards the skies of hereafter. The soul spouted out into the sky (comets as shooting stars were regarded as souls of exceptional beings, on the way towards the stars, going up to the heaven we would say today) and went through the sun. But the sun was not the ultimate term of this travel of souls. The soul passed through it to reach a sphere still higher, located ultimately in the very heart of the sky and of the stars. The sun was therefore under these conditions a one way crossing point. Beyond, the soul lightened of her mind (the anamone lightened of her menman) can no longer go backwards.

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The constellation called “Milky Way “(Caer Gwydion in Welsh) was perceived as being the ultimate mythical stage the soul took once arrived at the end of this fantastic game of cosmic hopscotch.It is one of the oldest known constellations.

Its current name comes from the Greek legend speaking about Hercules. Indeed, a day, whereas he was a child, he was put on the bosom of Hera sleeping. Unfortunately, Heracles not controlling yet his strength, wanted to be breast-fed by the goddess-or-demoness, but he sucked so strongly that milk squirted and spread in a large milky trail in the sky: the Milky Way.

Of course, the mythological interpretations of other civilizations were radically different. Several people of Asian East for example linked the Milky Way with a representation of Heaven. In the same way, Altair and Vega stars are sometimes represented as lovers, for whom the meeting is allowed only once in the year, the seventh day of the seventh month. This day is called Qixi in Chinese language, Tanabata in Japan, Chilseok in Korea.

The return to the Big Whole (individual erdathe or universal erdathe) is therefore the climax point of this pantheist view of the druidism defended so well by John Toland. Facing or being above this world, ruled by causality, there is precisely the realm over which causality does not rules. The Big Whole is not a heaven. The parallel next world of paradisiac nature is the result of merit, even negligible (in fact, for Buddhists, it is enough to believe in Amida), the Big Whole itself, supposes the absence of merit and demerit. Besides, there is not necessarily a bond between death and this Big Whole. The Big Whole can be reached or more precisely approached as soon as the human soul loses its mind or menman. The Pariollon (Parinirvana in Buddhism) was the splashing of light produced by the melting together of these myriads of great souls, according to Robert Graves (cf. his White Goddess **), the place itself of the melting of the beings and of the world. Let us say more simply than it can be reached by an ecstasy of shamanic or pantheistic type (cf. Welsh awenyddion).

Fuit enim sentencia ... ..Our comment to us on this verse of the Pharsalia by Lucan.The Meldus or blessed one so delightful to be attended, living in the parallel world of paradisiac nature according to the high-knowers (Plain of Joy, Mag Meld, Vindomagos, Sukhavati, etc.) can reach, too; after his departure from this heaven (his second death in a way), the purification of his soul having been thus completed; this Big Whole, which is beyond the abode of the god-or-demons; or if it is preferred, the abode of the god-or-demons accomplished (the sedodumno to power 10). The druidic heaven (the parallel world called heaven) is only the state of being in which the soul gets rid of its individual mind/awareness (menman).

N.B. The anatiomaros or great initiated person (Greek semnothei ) is the one who is released from any species of desire, from any species of sorrow, is released from everything by meditation, and who also conquered the large science which enlightens (imbas forosnai). He knows everything and is capable of everything, he has already a foot in the next world of the god-or-demons (Sedodumnon). It is therefore in this case, a mental state reached on earth, by a human being during his life. He can continue to move among men, but he belongs no longer to the world of illusion or of relativity symbolized in the Middle Ages by the fata Morgana (Morgan La Fey): it has already a foot in the immutable one, in the eternity. On his death, he enters the Big Whole, directly without passing through the square “heaven “ of this cosmic hopscotch. The last form or phase of instantaneous blossoming of the soul, called moksha or great enlightening by the, a little deviant, Indo-Buddhist druids.

* Inevitably, as they became the dominant class after the disappearance of druidism, it is the legends dealing with them which reached us in greater number. But it was to be also some myths concerning the destiny after the death of the body, of the soul/minds of the deceased people,members of the third function, that of producers.

** Author nevertheless having much “ erred.”

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THE PERSIAN HINDU JAPANESE BUDDHIST HEREAFTER.

Beyond the purely external resemblance, between Sukhavati and Mag Meld, most interesting in this design of the heaven located west of the world, according to Buddhists, they are the conditions for reaching it: very clearly a Persian influence is guessed there.

The Iranian philosopher of the 12th century, of whom the thought draws from the very sources of the ancestral Mazdaism, Suhrawardi, speaks about it as the world the spirit pilgrim meets in his mystical experiences. To describe the process of the soul rising towards this awareness level, Iranian symbolic system speaks about the ascent of Qaf mountains. It is a cosmic mountain whose top is not another thing than the highest center of Man’s psyche. On this top, is the emerald rock [ the Grail ?] which colors the vault of heaven with green. It is where the Holy Ghost resides, the Angel of Mankind. For Sufis besides, emerald is still the symbol of the cosmic soul.

Suhrawardi presents this world (âlam Al-mithâl), as being a dimension located between the pure “soulish“ and material levels. Theosophically designated as Malakut (the world of the individual soul and of the soul/minds therefore), it plays the role of a transition between the world of the forms and that of the pure essences. It is designated as being the “Eighth Climate “ the “Earth of the Emerald Cities “ Hurqalya.

Hurqalya is the place in which all the events are real, but supernatural. There is the world of the archetypes of the cosmic and human creation, the world of our origins and of our completion, there is the homeland of the human soul/mind. Hurqalya is the place the soul/minds reach after being detached of their physical body. The place in which the soul/mind crosses the bridge called Chinvat, this thin thread stretched between both plates of the balance of the good and of the evil*.

The place in which, the soul/mind, after the crossing of the bridge, meets its Daena (its component “pure soul “ symbolized by a splendid maiden, or by a horrible witch according to the cases); whose luminous splendor is proportioned with the spiritualization and with the radiance conquered by the soul during its earthly life in partnership with the mind.

In Hurqalya are the divine entities assigned to all the forms of the bodily life and death; assigned to Mankind as well as to its natural or supernatural evolution, on Earth and in Hurqalya.

The soul/mind can reach this level before death, by using a faculty purely spiritual and completely independent of the body, the active imagination. Hurqalya is the place of high visionary experiences,of mystical ecstasies, of initiations. It is starting from this heavenly land that the soul/mind nourishes its glorious body to come, its light body, its bellissamos body.

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Active imagination is the power which forms the subtle body of Man, forever inseparable from soul, because forming his spiritual individuality.

On Earth, actions of men. In Hurqalya, the result of these actions.

On Earth, the physical body. In Hurqalya, the light or glory body. Of the bellissimos body.

“See the things in Hurqalya “ it is to discover their hidden meaning, spiritual History appearing through the factual History. This inner, visionary, world, was never so well described than in the mystical accounts of Sohrawardi.

It is the world where the events of our hiero-history are achieved, the theophanies, the manifestations of the Xvarnah - the light of Glory of the Zoroastrian theosophy – Old Celtic bellissama/bellissamos, so near to the manifestations of our Holy Grail.

The spiritual history of Suhrawardi is the account of the initiation of human soul, the history of its return towards the heavenly, cosmic, door, or “emerald rock “ located at the top of the mountain called Qaf - the top of the spiritual hierarchy -. It is the earthly paradise of Hyperborea, the land which was not reached by the Fall, the “land of the soul/minds “about which also the Persian poet Abdul-Karim Jili speaks.

THE HINDU HEREAFTER.

The heaven of Indra (Indraloka) is a Hindu design; the excellence of the karma made people going there; but they never remain in it perpetually, it is here the difference with some other designs of this parallel next world of paradisiac nature. Indra, in Hindu religion, is the god-or-demon of the sky and of the day, the king of the good genies, the master of the clouds, lightning, and rain. He was often compared with the Taran/Toran/Tuireann of the high-knowers or Western gnostic people. Indra is often represented sitting on the elephant Airavat, with four arms, and holding with a hand a lotus flowers [Editor’s note. Taran/Toran/Tuireann, himself, more modestly, is then represented on horseback, lightning in his hand].

Indra’s court was located in Svarga, his sky or his kingdom in the clouds, surrounding the highest summit of Mount Meru. This sky could move everywhere, at the pleasure of its lord.

This other luminous world was there to welcome those who did not have shown themselves unworthy of reappearing near the god-or-demons. The warriors killed went there after their death. Indra and the beautiful Indrani preside over the destiny of this heaven. No pain, no suffering or fear, was possible there. Apsaras and Gandharvas often danced there and thus entertained those who presented themselves to the court. Games and sports contests were also organized there. But the Hindu heaven (Svarga) is only one episode in the long travel of the being who transmigrates. A little like in druidism besides, for which this blessed stay is only a step, an ultimate step before joining the stars, before returning to the big whole.

See above our comment to us on the line of verse 457 of the Pharsalia by Lucan: fuit enim sententia etc.

* We also found that Persian symbolism of the bridge in some medieval Irish visions or aislingi, that of Saint Adamnan, for example.

THE MULTIPLE HEREAFTER IN THE SHINTO RELIGION

Let us skip the evil parallel worlds and let us come directly to the various good parallel worlds of this very attractive culture.

The Large Heavenly Plain called Takamagahara.

Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters) is the first Japanese historical work, at the same time as the oldest Japanese literary monument which reached us.

However this Kojiki reports that at the beginning of the world, the kamis were born in the Plain of High Heaven (Takama no hara or Takamagahara). The Japanese myths are teeming with references to this heavenly country and to descents on earth of the god-or-demons who live in this place. Thus, after Izanagi had entrusted the government of the Plain of High Heaven to the goddess-or-demoness Amaterasu and that of the sea to Susanoo, this last one goes up to heaven in order to see his sister. He spreads chaos in the heavenly plain and, banished, goes down on earth. This myth stages two major deities of the Japanese Panth-eon: the solar goddess-or-demoness Amaterasu Omikami and

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her brother Haya Susanoo no Mikoto. This episode provides us several information on the Plain of High Heaven. We learn in particular that the field of Amaterasu has geography, fauna, flora and organization, comparable with these of the land of men.

But the heaven does not house only god-or-demons. It is also the destination of the soul/mind of some dead persons. It is at least what several texts let be supposed. We find there two kinds of references to heaven: the words used in the meaning “to die “ and the presence of birds in several texts.

In the old texts, we seldom find death designated such as it is, especially the death of important characters. The Kojiki or the Nihon Shoki does not say, “to die “ but “to hide in the rock “ or also “to leave divinely “(kamu saru), “to hide in the clouds “(kumo kakuru) even “to rise divinely “(kamu agaru). These two last expressions, used to describe the death of important characters, the emperors or their close relations, suggest well that the soul/minds of the deceased goes up to heaven. In the same way, several stories describing the death of famous characters, mention birds. The Kojiki indicates: “ Thereupon the dead prince, turning into a huge white dotterel, and soaring up to Heaven, flew off towards the shore [.....] So the bird flew off from that country, and stopped at Shiki in the province of Kafuchi. So they made built here a famous mausoleum, Yamato-Dake laid in it. Forthwith that imperial mausoleum was called by the name of “Imperial tomb of the White-Bird” : Misazaki Shiraki. Nevertheless the bird took flight to heaven nevertheless once again and flew away“.

This passage is clear: after a short stay in the tomb, the soul/mind of the deceased leaves the earth and goes bird-shaped to heaven. Other texts suggest this rise of the soul/mind to heaven. The fact that members of the imperial line, descendants of the celestial kamis, go, after their death, to join the land of the god-or-demons, country of their ancestors, is therefore not really illogical. But what is it as for soul/minds of the common people? Can we imagine a system of beliefs establishing various worlds of dead, according to the social status of the deceased?

At all events, the Plain of High Heaven was apparently regarded as the country of kamis, and the destination of the soul/minds of dead emperors. As for humblest, the Nihon-shoki or the Kojiki not lingering over to describe their death, it would be quite bold to be categorical on their destiny.

The land across the ocean.

It seems the Tokoyo no kuni (country of Tokoyo) is one of the oldest beliefs of the inhabitants of the Japanese Archipelago. But the concept of toko-yo underwent many changes. Toko would mean “what does not change “ i.e., permanency. But the meaning of yo seems to have much varied during time. Meaning in the beginning, “cereal, “ it came by association of ideas , to designate rice harvest, then maturity, fertility, up to symbolize a land of plenty. Etymologically speaking, the expression toko-yo no kuni would therefore designate a country of eternal plenty. As from the time of the Manyoshu, “yo “takes an additional meaning, that of desire or sexual relation. People therefore also made the Toko-yo no kuni the eternal paradise of love. But, beyond this notion of land of plenty, the Toko-yo is also the abode of the dead, that of the soul/minds of the ancestors, even the country of the eternal night; although this last meaning is perhaps only derived from homophony (toko-ya, the eternal night, is also pronounced toko-yo).

The Kojiki refers to this paradisiac land, made of abundance and of love, in which the benevolent soul/mind of the ancestors dwell, in the myth of Okuninushi.

This passage teaches us nothing very precise on the Toko-yo,except that this country is located across the sea. The fact that Sukunabikona goes there, lets us, however, suppose that he precisely came from there, and that this country is the dwelling of good kamis. But the continuation of the text of the Kojiki comprises, some lines after, a passage of which the meaning is rather obscure, following the account of the visit of Sukunabikona. These two passages of the same myth therefore would make Toko-yo the land of the good kamis and tamas.

The second part of the Kojiki or Record of Ancient Matters, which covers the reigns of the first Japanese emperors, also refers to the Tokoyo, in the chapter devoted to Emperor Suinin.

This anecdote makes us think the Toko-yo was then regarded as an exotic country, concealing treasures, but also as a land in which time goes differently.

The Toko-yo is also, as we saw, the land of ancestors, from where they sometimes return to visit their descendants. These characters are some marebitogami, some deities who sometimes come from the hereafter to bring men the benefits of the Tokoyo. Their visit generally takes place at the beginning of the year. They bring the guarantee of a happy life and of a rich harvest, they drive out calamities as well as diseases. Perhaps it is then necessary to compare this concept with the beliefs in the Ryukyu Islands, particularly with the Nirai-Kanai, a country located across the sea, and from which beneficent ancestors come.

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We may therefore thus summarize the characteristics of the land of Toko-yo.

It is located across the sea.

Time goes there differently: it is the land of permanency, of youth without decline.

It is an exotic country where abundance is never exposed to winter rigors, as the “ever-fragrant fruits “ show it.

This land houses good entities who are kamis and ancestors, who come each year to drive out tragedies or to bring their benefits to men.

The Ne no kuni, or land of the roots . This expression is sometimes synonymous with “land of Yomi “ but it happens that it also refers to a less repulsive image. The underground country should not be only this wretched region that the myth of the underground search of Izanagi describes to us.

Besides another passage of the Kojiki provides us more detail on this underground country. It is the escape of Okuninushi into the Ne no kuni.

This myth proposes to us a vision of the Ne no kuni very different from that the story of the visit of Izanagi to the land of Yomi offered to us. It would be nevertheless, according to the Kojiki, the same country. But divergences are noticeable.

The journey of Okuninushi resembles an initiatory trip, a rite of passage. After having undergone ordeals, he comes back stronger. From his stay where Susanoo lives, he brings back a wife and some weapons which give him the strength, the victory and the power in his country.

The ne no kuni is not therefore an evil country. It is especially, for Susanoo, the “country of his mother “(Haha ga kuni). For Okuninushi, it is a lucky hereafter, a land of love and power.

The land under the waves. Another lucky country is presented to us in the myth of Umi no Sachi and Yama no Sachi. Hoderi no Mikoto and Hikohohodemi no Mikoto, are two kamis brothers, born from Ninigi no Mikoto, a celestial kami, and from Konohana no Sakuya Hime, daughter of the mountain kami Oyamatsumi no Mikoto.

This account is very similar to the myth of the visit of Okuninushi into the Ne no kuni: a kami confronted with his siblings goes to seek the assistance of a deity ruling over an “other world “. He finds in this country a wife, magic objects, and pieces of advice about the way of defending himself. Back in his country the kami takes the received advice, and emerges victorious from the confrontation.

The visited next world proves to be a lucky country, source of love, strength and power. But in the case of Yama no Sachi in fact, it is not a question of an underground country , but of an underwater country. Although the text of the Kojiki does not locate the palace of the ocean kami explicitly under the waves, an indication enables us to place it there. At the time of the departure of Yama no Sachi, the ocean kami says that he will leave “for the Country-Above “ and make him accompanied back by a shark.

Another story refers to a happy world located under the waves. It is that of Urashima Taro: a young man helps a turtle in difficulty. To thank him, the latter leads him to the Dragon palace (ryugu) located under the ocean. In this palace, abode of the ocean kami , Taro is received with ostentation. He marries the daughter of the kami, and spends three years in the luxurious palace. But he left on the dry land his mother, and wishes to join her. His wife lets him leave unwillingly, and entrusts to him a box, to open on no account. Back home, Taro finds neither his mother nor his house. Lost, he recognizes nobody. He forgets the piece of advice of the daughter of the kami, and opens the box. It escapes from it a thin white smoke and, whereas he looks at it rising in the air, the young man changes very quickly into an old man and dies. Although it ran out only three years under the sea, Taro had remained much longer absent from his home. By opening the box, he had made time able to catch up with him.

This story adds another characteristic to the country under the ocean: time goes there very slowly. It is not only the land of plenty and love, but also that of eternal youth. What brings us back to the oldest of the designs of the next world, dealt with here: the country of the Toko-yo, sung so well by the poets of the Meiji era.

Note for the readers. It goes without saying, even if there were distant and indirect Indo-European influences on the history of Japan, that we claim by no means that all these resemblances are the proof of the existence of a perennial tradition. The aforementioned resemblances are explained only by a common human nature, it is this communal human nature which explains the similarity of our dreams or of our aspirations of human being.

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The oldest human remains in Japan belong to the Paleolithic era. It seems that populations come at the same time from Siberia, via Korea, but also from China and even from Southeast Asia, as of this period were found on the islands of Japanese Archipelago.

Ainus are, of course, white people, but not white people of European type. They are for the first time mentioned by Japanese in the Kojiki as being the descendants of an ancient people: the “Emishi “(literally, the “barbarians who are not under the political authority of Japan “). They inhabit the northern half of the Japanese Archipelago, but will be driven back little by little on the island of Hokkaido. Their almost absence of resistance is undoubtedly explained by their belief according to which the land belongs to nobody. They much influenced the incipient Japanese culture, on the other hand. The Japanese word kami comes perhaps from the Ainu kamui.

Among Ainus, it is a ritual which particularly impressed ethnologists, it is their bear ritual. Indeed, we are in the presence of a religious ritual, without the least economic utility, but clearly related to the breeding, whereas this people do not practice it. The same ritual, applied to a wolf (not yet a dog), or to a bovine (still wild) or to another animal likely to be domesticated, would have given in the long-run effects easy to imagine: domestication, and the not envisaged practical interest, but imposing itself, would have covered the ritual intention which was no longer noticed. But as the bear is not, it seems, domesticable, the ritual could be preserved without too many variations, and seems an invaluable cultural fossil, which can help us to imagine the process behind the breeding.

THE MULTIPLE HEREAFTER OF BUDDHIST RELIGION.

As we could see it briefly higher, we can distinguish, in Buddhism, between impure land of Buddha, and pure land of Buddha. In the impure lands of Buddha, it is difficult to get clothing and food. It is difficult to hear the Dharma (the law of the worlds or Fate), difficult to meet the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas there. In short, an impure land of Buddha is a world in which the conditions, as a whole, are hardly favorable to spiritual development. A world in which it is difficult for human beings to develop, in which it is difficult for them to follow the way towards awareness. Our own earth, on which Shakyamuni reached the wakening, is therefore, and that will surprise nobody, an impure land of Buddha. Besides the Mahayana sutras describe it as being a dirty, unpleasant and dangerous place. This obviously shows they exaggerate, our world is also endowed with a great beauty, from the smallest flowers to most majestic peaks (this is one of the many points that separate-without opposing-Druidism and Buddhism).

A pure land of Buddha or Buddha-kshetra, on the other hand, is its exact opposite. Apart from the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, it houses only gods and men. Food and clothing appear there spontaneously, without anyone having to work to produce them. It is very easy to hear the Dharma, very easy to meet Buddhas and Bodhisattvas there. In short, a pure land of Buddha or Buddha-kshetra, is a world where the conditions are highly favorable to the spiritual development, where it is easy for the beings to develop, easy to follow the way towards a salutary awareness.

Land of Buddha (Buddha-kshetra) is therefore the generic term designating the sphere of influence of a Buddha. The word “land “refers well here to the world of visible phenomena. A Buddha kshetra is the zone inside which the influence of a particular Buddha operates, the spiritual power of a particular Buddha. “Kshetra “ means field, and a field, of course, is something which is cultivated, something in which seeds are sowed. The use of the word “kshetra “- or field - in this context suggests the tangible beings, the inhabitants of the “Buddha-kshetra “ are like plants, and the Buddha is, so to speak, the cosmic great gardener. The Mahayana texts often describe the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas as “bringing to maturity “or “making the beings mature “; in other words, leading them gradually, step by step, little by little, to spiritual perfection. We find very early this kind of image - that of the field, of the plant, of the growth - in the history of Buddhism.

This dream of an ideal society is found for example in the design - or the view - that certain Buddhists have, of Sukhavati, “the land of bliss “in Sanskrit; another name for the Pure land located in the west, of the Buddha named Amida or Amitabha, such as he is described in some of the great Mahayana sutras. Such as it is taught particularly by the Shin schools of Japanese Buddhism. A Pure Land of the type represented by Sukhavati, the “land of happiness “ is a place, a world, a dimension of existence, in which there is neither pain, neither suffering, neither misery, neither separation, neither mourning,

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nor loss of any kind. It is a place where, as in Mag Meld, there is neither old age, neither disease, nor death. It is a place of perfect peace where there is neither conflict, neither war, neither battles *, nor even no incomprehension - perfection and happiness go there up to that point! The great Mahayana sutras also teach us that the Pure Land, or Land of bliss, is a place where there is no distinction of gender, and where nobody needs to work. Food and clothing appear themselves, each time people need them. In this Pure Land, nobody has something to do except remaining sitting on his gilded, purple or blue, lotus, at the foot of the Buddha, and listening to him teaching the Dharma (the law of the worlds or fate). To crown it all, in this land of bliss in the west of the world, the weather is constantly sunny.

The beings are born to Sukhavati – as well as in the other pure lands - by appearance, and not as resulting from a sexual union. Having thus appeared in the Buddha-ksetra, they see the Buddha and his Bodhisattvas, Mahasthamaprapta and Avalokitesvara, in front of them; and have anything else to do but listening to the lessons of Amitabha, anything else to do but growing, anything else to do but spiritually developing*.

Let us remind here for comparison what we quoted above from Adamnan's vision (aisling) and from the 10th century Irish text called "the ever-new tongue" about their other world.

"A world without pride, without vanity, without falsehood, without blasphemy, without fraud, without pretense, without shame, without embarrassment, without dishonor, without contempt, without envy, without arrogance, without epidemic, without disease, without poverty, without deprivation. Without destruction, without death, without hail, without snow, without wind, without rain, without noise, without thunder, without darkness, without coldness "(Finit Fis Adamnain).

What could be more wonderful indeed for a man than this kingdom….

104. A place in which there is heard no voice of anger,nor jealousy nor sorrow nor hardship.

But beware, it goes without saying that we do not maintain that these visions of another world to come are borrowed from Buddhism, but as they cannot by definition come from the Hebrew or Biblical designs of Sheol despite their frenzied Biblism, especially in the case of the tract of the 10th in Gaelic language entitled "the ever-new tongue,” the high-knovers we are, wonder from where these views of the other world come.

* The difference between the Buddhist land of joy and the Irish plain of joy in the versions intended for the warrior class, is that in the latter there are many battles where all those brave men act wholeheartedly by thumping with all their might but that in the end EVERYONE COMES BACK TO LIFE IN ORDER TO START AGAIN. A little as in yesteryear films with the scene of the general brawl . As for the versions of this land of joy for druids, see the stories of Plutarch.

!----------- ----------------------------------------------------- !

Draft found by the heirs to Peter DeLaCrau and which they thought fit to insert into this place in the edition of his works.

As we have had the opportunity to see it , the best-known example of a pure land of Buddha, is, of course, Sukhavati, the land of the Buddha of infinite light (Amitabha). Located it is said to us, in an area of the universe at ten billion lands of Buddha towards the west. Its Western localization, where the sun sets down, thus refers to death. Arrived at this point of our talk, it is important to remind or underline that people do not reincusarnate in Sukhavati thanks their own merits, but that it is Amida or Amitabha, who transfers his to us. This is also a little the same thing in Druidism. The gods who rule the paradisiac island west of the world TRANSFER TO US THEIR MERITS (after the death of bodies. Belin/Belen/Belenos/Barinthus/Manannan for example).

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There is therefore by no means to worry on this subject. According to Shinran, a famous Japanese mystic of the13th century, the only fact of believing in it involves the reincarnation in Sukhavati, the recitation of the name of Amida or Amitabha being only a way of thanking him for making us reappear in his realm.

In certain versions of the great sutra, Amida or Amitabha excludes from this possibility the human beings having made the following crimes: to kill one’s father or mother (parricide), a saint man, to wound a Buddha, or to divide the community.

But for Shinran, this is only a warning statement. And those who committed these crimes are also reincarnated in the pure land of Sukhavati. Because to exclude them from it would be opposed to the principle of infinite compassion which must guide us: to welcome without exception all the living beings.

Shinran goes further than his master Honen while thus bringing this concept to its maximum druidic potential. Where a number of people (whose Honen) say: “Even the villains will be reincarnated in the Pure land, even more so the good guys “ Shinran reverses the proposal: “Even good guys will reappear in the Pure land, even more so the baddies ! “.Regarding this point, the Buddhism of pure land stuck to a key idea of the Mahabharata. Far from any Manicheism, the Mahabharata indeed presents to us a masterly lesson on the indissociable nature of the Good and of the Evil. The last two songs of the poem report the ascent into Heaven, beyond the Himalaya, of the Pandavas, the “goodies “ consequently, a long time after they won the war and killed all the Kauravas. This ascent of the “winners “is a kind of ultimate ordeal, to which they are subjected. In the beginning of the long walk leading to the heaven, each survivor of the Pandava clan is punished for his breach of the Dharma, of the law of worlds (of fate).

In the end, only Yudhisthira remains. The god-or-demons agree to let him enter, but refuse this favor to the dog which followed him since he left his capital. The whole perspicacity of the last of the Pandavas is necessary to guess that it is an ultimate examination of passage, and that this mysterious dog is not another thing than the Dharma itself (the law of worlds), his true father. When Yudhisthira enters heaven finally with his father, what does he see? Duryodhana, the bad cousin, the envious adversary, the warmonger, enjoying already the happiness of Heaven with all the other Kauravas killed in action! While the Pandava family, that of the “goodies “ undergoes worst tortures… [Editor’s Note. The difference with the Heaven of druidic type it is that in the Heaven of the druidic type the “goodies” are nevertheless not tortured]. The anger and the rancor of Yudhisthira, disgusted by what appears to him as the height of iniquity, are a prelude to a happy end where all, friends as well as enemies, are reconciled. What Yudhisthira therefore, had seen while entering the Heaven, was only the last nightmarish illusion, the last test, inflicted on the hubris of the Righteous person.

Although seemingly paradoxical, this proposal goes to the whole hog of the logic of the Pure Land: the goodies thwart the power of the wish of Amida by their “calculations “ by their confidence in their own force but such is the power of this wish which that it can overcome their distorted orientation. All the more so, the wish will make the baddies reappear in the Pure Land (of Amida) , the baddies i.e., those who can rely only on the power of Amida, being completely deprived of force to escape from the difficulty by themselves.

Shinran summarized the thing thus: “I Shinran, I believe only in the words of my good teacher, there is only to pronounce the Nembutsu (the name of the Buddha) and we are saved by Amida“ (Japanese name of the Buddha).

The rebirth in Sukhavati is carried out whatever the faults of the one who places one’s faith in the Buddha of infinite light, because he does not make discrimination between the good guys and the villains [what is typically druidic besides !].

There is no either minimal number for the recitation of the name of Amida or Amitabha; to recite the name of the Buddha being only a way of saying to him thank you for making us reappear there.

All that is obviously quite difficult to believe, because it is difficult to imagine that we may be embodied again in this other heavenly world only by having faith. Shakyamuni Buddha recognized it besides himself in the small sutra. To believe this is really difficult, because that requires to give up any idea of personal merit, and to understand that these are not the actions which make us reappear in this land of Joy ; but the merits of the Buddha who transferred his to us, as in the case of the druidic pure land that Mag Meld is, this is not our own merits or our own good deeds which make us be reincarnated over there, but the sovereign grace of the god presiding over the state of the being Belin / Belen / Belenos / Barinthus / Manannan. The word “sarana “ which is generally translated by “refuge “ is not to be understood as a place where people take refuge to flee or escape woe. Etymologically, “sarana “simply means “support, “ or “light source “.

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It is this "Taking refuge" which makes all the difference between Buddhists and non-Buddhists. It is not even necessary to take refuge in a formal ceremony with a Buddhist teacher, but it may help to clarify your choice and to remember your commitment.

The taking refuge is the starting point of the spiritual engagement of Buddhist, his baptism in a way . And there is, off course, a ceremony known as “taking refuge “in the Jodo shinshu School; but it is in no way a sacrament, because those who were not the object (or the subject) of such a ceremony but nevertheless believe in Amida or Amitabha, may reappear or be embodied again in Sukhavati. The faith alone is enough! No sacraments nor special ceremony or secret practice therefore in Buddhism! [Editor’s note : we can say the same thing about druidism !]

No need to recite sutras, mantras, to practice meditation… Amitabha makes us be reincarnated there through the only fact of believing in him, and it is not therefore need for such things in order to reappear in this heaven located in the west of the world. It is not that these practices are bad in themselves, but as regards the rebirth in this Pure Land, it is only necessary to believe in him and to pronounce his name.

Shinran told besides to disciples who came from everywhere to consult him: “you crossed more than ten provinces to come and see me. You only made it in order to question me on the best means of going to be again embodied in Sukhavati. But if you think that I know another thing that the name of the Buddha for that, or that I am very versed in his sacred writings, you are mistaken coarsely! The original wish of Amida makes no distinction between the young people and the old men, or between the good guys and the villains. Only the faith in him is important, because Amida promised to us to release everybody, including those who committed heaviest faults or gave way all their lives to the most various passions.

Therefore if we believe wholeheartedly in his will to save us, then we need nothing else, and there is nothing better than the nembutsu (name of the Japanese Buddha) to express it.

Each one is ensured to be reincarnated in this paradisiac parallel next world if we believe in him enough to whisper the name of Amitabha, whatever our faults. Because it is not thanks to our personal merits, so ridiculous, that we can reappear there, but thanks to those of the Buddha named Amitabha, who made us be born again there, by transferring his to us. A highly skilled Buddha as Amida is endowed with an infinite compassion towards all beings “.

Note of the author. The same thing can be said of all the gods of the Celtic-druidic other world. Anyone may be reincarnated in this paradisiac parallel next world if we believe enough to whisper the name of one or more of these gods who rule the next world, whatever are our faults. For it is not through our own merits, ridiculous, that we can be embodied there, but thanks to those of all the gods, who made us be born again there, by transferring theirs to us. The gods of Druidism are endowed with an infinite compassion towards all human beings even towards most sinners.

Note of Peter DeLaCrau found by his heirs.

On several occasions, the Vimalakirti Nirdesa proclaimed the absolute and total vacuity of all these Buddhaksetra. It is only to make the souls mature that the Buddhas cause Buddhaksetras of every kind. The Buddhaksetra is only a simple mental construction in the thought of the men to be purified.

The fundamental question is well to determine if this Pure Land way (Mag Meld or Vindomagos in the druidic tradition) comes under the transient way or under the “true “way. Transient, it means that the Pure Land is only a land of change, which falls under the Triple World of Samasara [which is ours]. The human being therefore does not leave the Triple World of Samsara, and he will have to still reappear there several times. “True “ it means that this Pure Land ( buddhaksetra) falls under the retribution, if not under Dharma [ or fate] itself, and does not depend on the Triple World, it is “out of the cycle of endless reincarnations “. This world, the Saha world, is not different from the Pure Land of

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the Shakyamuni Buddha, the Vimalakirti Nirdesa says. The inhabitants of the Saha world which is ours, blinded they are by their passions, see a world filled with rubbish, covered with cracks and mountains, where, in fact, a large plain made of jewels stretches . The Shakyamuni Buddha makes the world here below appearing impure in order to help its inhabitants to progress.

After having revealed during one moment to Shariputra the purity of the Saha world which is ours, the Shakyamuni Buddha indeed said: “"O Shariputra, a Buddha-field is always as pure, but the Tathâgata [Buddha] makes it appear to be spoiled by many evils, in order to bring about the maturity of the inferior living beings. “

It is therefore only a means! In reality, there are not two places, one pure and the other impure. The one who crosses the river to go on the other bank discovers that in fact, he is dreaming, that there is no river to cross.

The Vijnanavada School of awareness, and later the Zen school, maintain that the Pure Land is, in fact, the heart of the practicing. If the rebirth in this buddhakshetra named Pure Land (but that druids call Mag Meld, Vindomagos and so on) is an exercise of samadhi (of wakening), then this rebirth is a pure mental event. Nobody met anybody, and nobody went somewhere. There is not face to face between the practicing and the master of this buddhakshetra. According to these different sutras, the rebirth in this next world would therefore not result from a space moving which would occur with death, but from a change in the mind of the believer here and now - it would be a pure mental event.

The traditional Schools of the Great Vehicle maintain that only the Bodhisattvas can see the Buddhas of retribution (and their land of retribution).

Ordinary men, overpowered by all kinds of quite human weaknesses, or in the grip of the most various passions, can only go after death in the lands of transformation (nirmana kshetra); caused “magically “by the Bodhisattvas, as a transient means to complete their purification.

Answering a question about the rebirth in the buddhakshetra of Amida, the Treatise on the Great Virtue of Wisdom (Maha prajnaparamitasastra) traditionally ascribed to Nagarjuna, answers this. “ When going out of his focusing, the Bodhisattva thinks : ’Where do the Buddha come from since I didn’t go anywhere ?’

He knew indeed that the Buddha didn’t come from somewhere and that he himself did not go anywhere.”

The Pure Land of the Serene trust of the Buddha named Amida is nothing else only this land, and the Buddha you call Amitabha is your own mind.

Unlike Buddhism, druidism admits all the paths being able to help human beings to return to Big Whole (Pariollon), and rejects no one of them a first glance. At the most he thinks that some are obviously faster than others, and can in a way constitute short cuts.

His teaching is interested as well in the most rigorous asceticism as in the most impassioned hedonism.

The goal of the human soul is to rise to the primary principle , to the One. We must tend to know it, to melt us in it. To reach the ecstasy, where the individual is at one with the divinity or the cosmic soul. But to reach this divine world, it is not necessary to reject this world (the life in the conditioned existences of this world). The next world and this one are opposed perception modes , of the same reality, according to whether we are dominated by ignorance, or we are aware of the true knowledge. The other world and this one are only the flip sides of the same coin. There is no impure perception, but only the unbounded deployment of the body, of the word, of the mind and of the wisdom (Avestan xvarnah, Old Celtic bellissama/bellissamos).

This Druidic School does not make body the only engine or the only force of its teaching, but only recommends, for those who have the capacity of it, to use all their potential. It is a question of discovering the divine One in oneself and not out from oneself. We therefore find here exactly the same principle as in the case of the… [the text stops in this place].

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APPENDIX No. 1.

ON A QUOTATION OF DIO CHRYSOSTOM

THE PRIMORDIAL SHAMAN-KINGS ACCORDING TO THE DRUID LEONORIOS.

“ Furthermore, since they cannot always be ruled by kings who are philosophers, the most powerful nations have publicly appointed philosophers as superintendents and officers for their kings....the Celts appointed those whom they call druids, these also being devoted to the prophetic art and to wisdom in general. In all these cases, the kings were not permitted to do or plan anything without the assistance of these wise men, so that in truth it was they who ruled, while the kings became are servants and the ministers of their will, though they sat on golden thrones, dwelt in great houses, and feasted sumptuously. (Dio Chrysostom, Discourse, 49,7.)

There is here the memory of a distant state of the society where the king was also a priest responsible for being the intermediary between his people and the gods or demons. There is perhaps here the memory of a primeval indistinctness where everyone could be at the same time druid warrior-king and hunter gatherer.

Besides we find a very good example of this primordial indistinctness of the primitive Celtic society in the person of the great Shaman chief of the clan, called Hornunnos, in Ireland by the name of Nemed < Nemetos: the sacred one. Because it is with him that the sense of the sacredness appears for the first time on Earth, according to Celtic metahistory. Hornunnos the nemet, the chief or the spiritual father of the first true human settlement in the world; is the first “creature “in this world having become aware of the duality of Man, of this initial cut between the two faces of the reality, the soul and the matter. In Ireland this primordial shaman is called Nemed, which means “ a privileged person, a noble “. The Irish name coming from the common Celtic Nemetos which means “sacred “ the translation of Nemed by “privileged “ has, of course, to be taken in the strong meaning in its case. The great wizard chief of the clan, Hornunnos, is the first Nemed of the History or more exactly of the Metahistory of Celts.

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On this point, we separate for once from the current master in Celtic civilization and culture, C.J. Guyonvarc'h, already so abundantly quoted. We indeed think that this Nemet Hornunnos is also, a primordial man, a shaman king, since he symbolizes the metempsychosis par excellence. It is undoubtedly him that Julius Caesar designates by the name of Dis Pater, ancestor of every human line according to the high-knowers of the druidiaction. You can tell by the fact that he is always combined with the torc which is in a way the archetypal distinguishing feature of Celts. But it is especially a spiritual father of all true men (in fact initially the men of the clan) more than a biological father for our species.

Not really the first man in the biological meaning of the term, but the first man, the first great man, in the moral sense: the first human being having become aware of the fundamental duality of the universe : the world of men the world of spirits or of gods.

Michael Perrin defines shamanism as one of the great systems imagined by the human mind in various areas of the world in order to give sense to the events and to act on them. According to him, shamanism implies a bipolar or dualistic representation of the person and of the world. The human being is made of a body and of one (or several) invisible component (s), often described as soul (s), and surviving death. The world is also double. There is this world, visible, daily,profane, and a world other. It is the world of the gods or demons and of their envoys, of the spirits of all kinds, of the masters of animals or plants, of the ancestors, of the dead… It is the world the myths describe. Shamanism also supposes that certain human beings can at will establish a communication with the world other. They can see it and know it, unlike the common run of people, who does nothing but undergo it or have a presentiment of it. They are the shamans. They are designated or chosen by the world which is other.

The great wizard Hornunnos therefore was as a spiritual father for all those who, then, and because of him, will also be aware of this duality body/soul. The common run of people made him a true ancestor, in the biological meaning of the word, in other words, the father of the Celtic race. But for the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht), let us remind it, he was only the spiritual father of true Mankind.

From where the following double symbolism: Hornunnos = control of the animal spirits or instincts, but by law, order and justice, and not by the strength. The phenomenology of mind by Hegel shows how the awareness progresses gradually since the elementary forms of the animal feeling to the complete knowledge of the absolute and immanent soul/mind; by going through law and ethics precisely, and by including philosophy, etc. Things obviously started by this first human settlement of which the chief and spiritual father (the shaman king) was the nemet Hornunnos since the sons of the Nemet Hornunnos left in exile in the islands north of the World, where they learned druidism.

Hornunnos = therefore abundance, because abundance rises from the cosmic order and from justice. You can tell by the fact that, in the event of injustice from the king : his kingdom becomes sterile (becomes a waste land). At least according to the legends and particularly these of the Round Table.

The great shaman Hornunnos is the first who had the sense of the sacredness we said, from where his name in Ireland (Nemed > Nemetos). Gallioin and Fir Bolg or others, resulted from him, biologically for the basic Celts, morally for the high-knowers of the druidiaction).

The Nemet Hornunnos is the first biped having had the sense of the body/soul ratio we have said. This revolt of the nemet Hornunnos, this movement of return to the importance of the soul , it is the engine of human evolution, the engine of every history, it is the synthesis according to Hegel. We are there in the presence of an authentic fundamental druidic triad that we can still guess besides between the lines in the Welsh triads (which insist so heavily on knowledge).

- The thesis (soul-fire).

- The antithesis (matter-water).

- The synthesis (the shaman King Hornunnos). From the first human settlement to super mankind, from the primordial man to Hesus.

When the men will be become like the god-or-demons, become god-men, will be returned to the universal soul (awenyddio) , and thus will have approached the Par-God , the synthesis will be finished. There will be metamorphic melting of the soul and of the matter, and childbirth of a new world, by return to the origin (one day only fire and water will prevail, druids prophesied according to Strabo). Such is the only direction possible of the suffering and of the History : the ogham point (Eabhadh) of the space-time aimed by this arrow.

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The “Lugian “ revolt of the great wizard Hornunnos, spiritual father of the first human settlement, our ancestor since the Fir Gallioin, Bolg, etc. descend from him, will have reached his goal.

During the Middle Ages, the great wizard Hornunnos became Saint Cornelly, the patron saint of the cattle (in Great Britain with Saint-Cornelly in Cornwall , in Brittany, in Carnac, at La Chapelle-des-Marais, in Pluméliau and Plouhinec). Or then straightforwardly the devil, considering his horns.

The Irish tradition has several primordial men playing the part of the spiritual father of the tribe. The continental tradition too, seems to know one of them, the great shaman Hornunnos, whose image in the Romano-Gaulish statuary is always combined with the symbolism of death (broad and flattened face, turned towards the setting sun). The symbol is clear: life comes from death.

In any case, here what the continental tradition says as for it, in connection with this primordial shaman king:

The stag horned god-or-demon put us into a new category that of the god-or-demons who take part in animal nature. Why? At the time of the passage to human shape, the animal would have left to the deity some of his bodily characteristics. The famous image of the “sorcerer “in the cave of the Trois Freres, in Montesquieu-Avantes (Ariege department); joins the eyes of the owl (visual acuity), the tail of the horse (speed in race) and the double antlers of stags, which has to comprise a precise meaning. The interest attached to this prince of the forest dates back to prehistory.

The oldest comparable image, according to what is believed , is met in the form of an engraved rock, in the Camonica Valley, in Italy. This drawing, datable of the fourth century before our era, represents a god-or-demon with the antlers of a stag, who holds up, with his right hand, the Celtic necklace known as torc, and supports with his left arm a horned snake, rather not very distinct. Beside this great figure a naked man stands, appreciably smaller, arms up, perhaps a worshipper; the genitals of this second character are emphasized with insistence, what could be an allusion to human fruitfulness. On the basin of Gundestrup, the same character is sitting cross-legged, and holds with a hand ostensibly a Celtic torc or necklace, with the other a big ram-headed snake ; some animals surround him, including a splendid stag; he seems to order the world of wild beasts.

Lastly, the Parisian bas-relief which mentions the name of the god-or-demon Hornunnos, shows him with ears and antlers of stags, sitting like the previous one, having torcs around his neck and in his antlers. He looks like an old man, perhaps bald.

In Rheims, Hornunnos is equipped with a new attribute: the bag full of coins (not grains), that he pours in the presence of a stag and of a bull; elsewhere, it will be a cake or a food basket.

In Les Bolards (Nuits-Saint-Georges, French department of the Côte-d’Or) a bas-relief represents the three-headed god-or-demon, a purse on his knees, another at his feet; sitting on a throne alongside two goddess-or-demonesses holding a horn of plenty, of whom one, capped with a mural crown, has male genitals; in the lower register, a tree, a bull, a dog, a hare (?) a wild boar, a stag [some elementals and teutates or egregores – animal- spirits - serving this primordial man?] Accompanied sometimes by a goddess-or-demoness, or by a fairy if you want, having a horn of plenty (in Sommerecourt, French department of Haute-Marne); he appears therefore in an increasingly clear way as a god-or-demon of land fruitfulness, a friend of the most powerful quadrupeds and of this monster among the strongest ones, the horned snake, that he feeds; an “underground “god-or-demon, if there is one.

It has the strength of the king of forests as well as the power of the man able to work the land and to make money: to him the goods of the Nature envisaged in its two aspects, wild and farmed.

The Romano-Gaulish iconography does not hesitate there either, to still triple its power, by ascribing him three faces, if not three heads: a statuette of Autun in Burgundy represents him thus, with the snakes.

There is here a well-known phenomenon, known as “repetition of intensity “. It is more significant that the distinctive attribute of the god-or-demon, this antlers of a stag, symbol of power and revival, is also given to a goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, of whom we know several statuettes.

On one of them, preserved in the British Museum, she is sitting “cross-legged “ and holds with one hand a plate or a sacrificial bowl, with the other a horn of plenty full of fruits and leaves; alliance of breeding and farming, in other words, the whole land prosperity. The « cup » images towards which the two snakes stretch out perhaps comes under the symbolism of comparable nature.

Animals of the lower world, the snakes have at their disposal underground treasures, we can think that they make them go up with them and spit them in the cup, which becomes by the way a container of abundance or immortality.

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APPENDIX No. 2.

Since we do not have to be men of one book as the Judeo-Islamic-Christians but the men of 12 (or 33) books at least as Fenians, below editorial specification.

SHAMANISM AND NEO-SHAMANISM.

The word “shaman“ was borrowed from Tungus language (Siberia) by the orthodox Russian archpriest named Avvakom Petrov Kondratiev in the 17th century. If we take the word “shamanism“ strictly speaking, in its Tungus meaning , its field of application then concerns only this society. At most we could extend it to a portion of Siberia. The Buryats defined themselves as peoples with shamans, by contrast with the peoples with God or Demiurge in order to be distinguished from Russians at the time of colonization. Nevertheless, if we consider their main characteristics, we may then use the word “shamanism “in a broader sense, that of a model. Because what we may compare they are the models drawn from these societies, of course, and not the societies themselves, nor their rituals.

The shamanism is spirituality, centered on the mediation between human beings and spirits of the supernatural world (the game spirits, the dead of the clan, the souls of the children to be born, the soul/minds of the patients to be brought back to life, etc.). It is the shaman who embodies this function, within the framework of a narrow interdependence with the community which recognizes him as such. The ritual of the shaman is not frozen, there exists personalization of his practice. Each shaman does differently from the others, there is no liturgy and he has a personal talent to practice this hereditary function. In this sense, it is therefore not a religion, at least in the usual meaning of the term. The expression of the shaman when he is in touch with spirits, gives him the appearance of a madman but the shaman is normal apart from the sessions. His behavior during the ritual affects neither his authority, nor his sense of responsibility. Crucial functions for the life of his community can be entrusted to him. The accession to the status of a shaman passes through a symbolic death in the world of human beings and through a rebirth in the world of spirits. But this symbiotic relationship with the spirits generally involves a matrimonial double life for the shamans, in the sense that they have a human family and a family (a wife?) in the world of the spirits.

Starting from the end of the 19th century, the contact with the spirits was regarded as the basic religious phenomenon. In the 20th century, Mircea Eliade, influenced by the mysticism of Orthodox Russian Christianity, attached the shamanist complex (beliefs, rites and myths) to religion; and it was then especially the ecstatic experiment, which was defined as the basic religious experiment. But this last notion is also very discussed, other authors preferring to it the term of trance, the only word to imply a musical element.

According to the ethnologist Jeanne Favret-Saada, Europe would have had, until the Middle Ages “shamanic “ practices also known under the name of sorcery.

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Horst Kirchner tried to explain European rock art by a kind of paleolithic shamanism since 1952. This thesis was taken over, for Eurasian paleolithic art, by the prehistorian D. Lewis-Williams in his book on the shamans of prehistory, published in 1996. But it remains discussed among prehistorians.

The purpose of hunting shamanism is to meet an essential need: to find the game. Certain people of Siberia or North America living on hunting, preserved its primitive functions. It is believed that animals are animated by spirits. The shaman joined them in the non-tangible world of the “supernatural “. In order to carry out this project, he has to be himself changed into an animal and then to marry the daughter of the spirit giving game spirit (the spirit of the forest), which will be used as a guide for him. This spirit often has the shape of a stag. The gesticulations of the shaman, that Europeans sometimes took for madness, are nothing else only the manifestation of his animal nature.

The breeding shamanism . This shamanism is affected by various changes and even by deep transformations when hunting gives way to breeding activities or to agriculture.

With regard to breeding, it should be remarked that initial motivation of domestication was perhaps to have a reserve in totem animals to be sacrificed, as the case of the bear ritual among Ainus in Japan can let us suppose it . We are indeed in the presence of a religious ritual, without the least economic utility, but clearly related to breeding, whereas this people do not practice it. The same ritual, applied to a wolf (not yet a dog), or to a bovine (still wild) or another domesticable animal, would have given in the long run easy to imagine effects: domestication. And the practical interest not envisaged, but imposing itself, would have covered the ritual intention that people would no longer notice. But as the bear is not, it seems, domesticable, the ritual could be preserved without too many variations, and appears as an invaluable cultural fossil, which can help us to imagine the process behind breeding.

It is therefore the need for acclimatizing the animals to make them victims suitable for ritual sacrifice, which would have given rise, as unforeseen consequence,to domestication; a practice which seems to us naively as having been anticipated for its economic profitability, whereas it is expensive, and even very expensive. Only the ritual requirement makes it possible to justify the efforts made to preserve close to oneself and to feed an animal which does not lend itself to it, and this over a long period. The difficulties should be considered (to find what to feed it, to avoid diseases to it, to suffer its parasites, its excrement, its badly controllable behavior, etc.) whereas the same meat could be found in a day of hunting. The breeding therefore seems a fortuitous consequence of the need for having a stock of victims to be sacrificed, in people who had the chance, unlike the Ainus, to have within reach a domesticable species.

In the case of the breeding or agricultural shamanism, the survival of the community depends no longer then on the spirits of the animals, but on spirits with human characteristic, particularly on these of the ancestors. The world of the spirits, before limited to forest, is stretched towards the top and towards the bottom, towards what will become Heaven and Hells. This non-phenomenal world is often perceived as being a ladder with bars, or sometimes a tree, with its branches and its roots. The shaman is the one who has the capacity to go up and go down along these various levels of reality, towards the Heaven or the Hells, to meet entities of the higher and lower worlds (some spirits, for example) and to bring back from his voyage, some piece of advice, “magical “ healing and powers, expansion of awareness, etc. But we have already said that.

Specialists call “auxiliary spirits “in shamanism, the spirits of dead ancestors, some great mythical figures, some spirits, masters of animal species or some anthropomorphic entities of nature. The auxiliary spirits extract the shaman, of his human environment to insert him in that of spirits.

Auxiliary spirits are generally subjected to the choosing spirit: it is the latter which hands them down to the shaman (Siberian shamanism). To get their services, the shaman must feed them with his own body: their requirement is food. They give to the shaman the means of the hunt in the hereafter. Each one is specialized in a determined service. A shaman may have several of them. Most of the time, they have the shape of a given animal: a bear, a wolf, a stag, a hare, but also a goose, an eagle, an owl, a crow… They can also be spirits of nature: the spirit of wood, of ground, of a plant, of the hearth, a phantom… The shaman takes up the auxiliary spirit during his shamanic performance. The latter is much more than an imitation, the shaman identifies then literally with this spirit and changes himself into it. The auxiliary spirit then plays the part of psychopomp, i.e., it accompanies the shaman in the hereafter.

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The travels of the soul/minds. The universal folklore is very wordy about the travels of the soul/mind. The variants and the techniques are plentiful, and it is impossible to embrace the whole of the designs of it. The data are even sometimes straightforwardly contradictory, according to the points of view of authors. Those which are described below form a general outline.

The soul/mind has the faculty to leave its body, among ordinary people, as among shamans and epic heroes.

Among ordinary people, it leaves it in certain particular times: during dreams, intoxication and diseases. These processes are not controlled.

In the shaman, on the other hand, the departure of his soul/mind is observed during the disease known as initiatory (absence of the soul/mind), during the fury characteristic of the shamanic performance (the going feral according to Roberte Hamayon), during its travel in the world of spirits (the ecstasy of Mircea Eliade). He carries out on earth and as many times as he wishes, “exits out of his body “.

There exists a similarity between the accounts of the shamanic ecstasies and some epic topics of oral literature: the heroic adventure is related to the travel of the shaman in the supernatural world. Often it is carried out in the shape and the appearance of animals. It is a question of crossing spaces to which human shape prohibits the access.

The concrete but natural support of the travels of soul/mind is represented by certain birds, particularly the swans which are the archetypal carriers of soul/minds: they bring soul for children and animals to be born, showing thus soul imparting and renewal of life, in accordance with the practice of the great rituals of spring and autumn. It is instructive besides to know the soul takes the appearance of a bird, as well in the child and this before the word development, as in the old man, at the time of the loss of the teeth and of the appearance of verbal confusion.

The soul/mind remains in the body only on condition it is well fed there. Any weakening increases the vulnerability of the body and then it becomes the prey of spirits whose strategy is to expel the soul/mind and to keep it off that one. In a schematic way, the travel of a shaman follows the attack of fury occurred during the shamanic performance. This madness is the going feral which matches the union with a spirit. For Roberte Hamayon, this going feral is the condition even of the fulfillment of the travel and conveys the distancing from the world of men. For Mircea Eliade, incorporation and possession by spirits are universally widespread phenomena which, strictly speaking, do not pertain to shamanism.

Subsequently , the shaman collapses, in general in a reserved place. He is inanimate. It is a state of trance the medicine will describe as cataleptic. His soul/mind is in the hereafter, and with spirits. Back in this world, the shaman tells what he saw, what he did. He also can mime it, sing it, dance it, accompany it with cries and exclamations. For Mircea Eliade, the dance may form an integral part of ecstasy, just as the choreographic imitation of an animal. When he answers the questions from the audience, it is sometimes the spirit which is in the shaman who speaks. It is then a dramatic trance.

The magic flying of the shaman is largely depending on the cosmology of the world. This one is divided into three parts:Heaven, world of the deities, Earth, world of men, and Hells, world of the ancestors. The flying conveys the transcendence of the shaman compared to human status, and the autonomy of his soul/mind. In fact, it also conveys the intelligence and the comprehension of secret things and of metaphysical truths. Because they are able to go up and go down in the spheres, the spirits can go down and be incorporated in the shaman. But the magic flying also overflows the framework of shamanism since it is an ideology of universal magic.

The flying is thus performed upwards and downwards.

Upwards, it is the ascent, the rise towards the celestial powers. The shaman can go through the opening of the Pole Star, the nail in the sky, or the navel of the sky.

Downwards, it is the descent in the kingdom of shadows, or at the seabed, where the deities of sea animals are (case of Inuit).

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Indo-European cosmology resembles that of Neolithic shamanism: the universe consists of three worlds, Heaven, Earth and Hells, which are connected by a tree (the world tree, Irminsul among Saxons, Bilios among Celts).

Scandinavian shamanism. There are examples very clear of shamanism in the Scandinavian world, especially in its mythology. Thus, the god-or-demon Odin of the Scandinavians can leave his body, which lies then as sleeping, in an animal form, and to travel where he wishes. He has a horse endowed with eight legs, very rapid, which is also identified with a cosmic tree (Yggdrasill) similar to that which is used by the shamans at the time of their trip. In addition, Odin is also a great magician, and he can force the dead persons to give up the secrets of the Hereafter, what a prerogative of the shaman is.

Celtic shamanism. It is difficult not to see in characters like Mog Ruith and his friend Gadhra, in the story heading Forbhais Droma Damhghaire (the siege of Druim Damhgaire) some Irish shamans. “ He [Gadhra] appeared to be as rough as a pine tree, and as tall as a king’s house. Each of his eyes appeared as large as a royal cauldron. His knees were behind him and his heels in front. He carried a large iron fork in his hand. He wore a gray-brown mantle around him, hung about with talons, bones and horns. A buck goat and a ram followed him about and all who saw him in this guise were seized with fear and trembling“.

And with reason! Hypnotism ?Exaggeration of Irish bards endowed with a great imagination (ah these bards !) ?

Clairvoyance, divination or magic, in any case, are more the business of women than of men (from where the beliefs in witches). Male shamanism is relegated in mythology while the priestly functions are performed by a class of priests. The cases of sacred fury of warriors (vergio) are ecstatic trances similar to the phenomenon of possession by an auxiliary spirit.

Ancient Greek shamanism: Hyperboreans.

Karl Meuli, Scythica (Hermes 1935). The main theses of Meuli's article are: 1) that shamanism existed among Scythians; 2) that this Scythian shamanism was adopted by the Greeks.

The Greeks were in touch with Scythian shamans as of 630 before our era, when they colonized the area of the Black Sea bordering on the Scythian country (for example Olbia Tanais and so on).

At least if I understood well the 50 pages in German language of the eminent Swiss philologist, my four years of the language of Luther and Goethe together, being far, and in addition I was not very good in this idiom.

Specialists call also “Hyperborean “ the group of thinkers, magi or shamans, former to Socrates and even to the first of the Presocratic philosophers (Thales): Aristeas of Proconnesus (around - 600), Epimenides of Crete (around - 595), Pherecydes of Syros (around - 550), Abarix (around - 570), Hermotimus of Clazomenae (around - 500).

Greeks made them a School anticipating Pythagoreanism. Pythagoras has indeed shamanic aspects, without being a shaman himself in the strictest sense of the term. He clearly distinguishes the soul/mind from body, he uses magical cures, he believes in a kind solidarity between human and animal, etc.

Clement of Alexandria lumps together (Stromata, I, chapter 21): Pythagoras, Abarix, Aristeas, Epimenides, Zoroaster, Empedocles, Phormio.

Pliny gathers Hermotimus, Aristeas, Epimenides, Empedocles.

Closer to us, Walter Burkert enumerates as “miracle workers “: Aristeas, Abarix, Epimenides, Hermotimus, Phormio, Leonymos, Stesichoros, Zalmoxis, Empedocles. Empedocles (around 460 before our era) could, it is said, keep wind, divert plague, free grounds of sterility, cure through music, and even bring back to life.

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These characters are at the same time shamans and thinkers or even philosophers. With Abarix and Aristeas, Giorgio Colli writes, here is the frenzy of Apollo at work. The Apollinian ecstasy is a trip out of oneself: the soul/mind gives up its body and, released, is transported outside. That is shown by Aristeas. Aristeas of Proconnesus was transported to far at the time of his “ Apollinian frenzies “. He gave up his body, which laid like dead. On his island, a statue represented him beside Apollo (Herodotus IV, 13-15). Pliny the Elder reports that it represented his soul/mind leaving its body in the shape of a crow, therefore that it flew.

To the mysterious Abarix, on the other hand, is ascribed an arrow, a clear symbol of Apollo, and Plato refers to his magic spells. We may conjecture they (Abarix and Aristeas), really lived […] What Herodotus reports in connection with the change of Aristeas into a crow is also worthy of interest: the flight is an Apollinian symbol […]. Other information about Epimenides gives of hIm a shamanic representation which is to be connected with Hyperborean Apollon. His ascetic life , his vegetarian diet , even his fabulous detachment with respect to the need for feeding oneself take place within this framework. […] It is, indeed in Epimenides we can grasp for the first time both aspects of the antiquated individual wisdom from Apollinian sources: the divinatory ecstasy and the direct interpretation of the oracular word from the god-or-demon. The first aspect can be already located in Abarix and Aristeas.

N.B. The shamanism is also signaled in China. It was taken over by Taoism. According to the work of the third century, Baopuzi, the priest experiments ecstatic trips which take him up into heaven, where he can meet god-or-demons, ancestors, even to find medical remedies. He is helped for that by animals, dragons, tigers or stags.

Although it can still be used for making religious emotion representable and thus preserve for the individual the possibility of a communion with the divinity; neo-shamanism (just like neo-druidism besides) nevertheless lost any specifically religious characteristic.

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APPENDIX No. 3.

THE RETURN OF GOD OR OF THE GODS.

In Great Britain, this period of remission before the erdathe or end of the world having to last thousand years, was combined with the come back of the king of [Great] Britain Arthur. A hidden or in dormition king since the disastrous battle of Camlann. Arthur is the very type of the war leader, wise and especially chosen by the god-or-demons (the lady of the lake). His place of convalescence is the fruits island or fortunate isles (Insula Pomorum quae Fortunata vocatur). It is a kind of parallel next world of heavenly nature, abode of fruitfulness but also of longevity, controlled by nine sisters, whose elder one, the queen Morg (Morgain or Morgane), is a fairy who knows the secret of healing arts . The name of” insula pomorum “ seems a Latin translation of the word of Celtic origin Avallach or Avalon, which meant “apple orchard “. According to other traditions, Welsh, English and Italian also, the dwelling place of Arthur would be a lost cave, in which he sleeps surrounded by his last valiant knights, thus escaping the attention of the living.

In Germany, this period of remission before Erdathe or end of the world having to last thousand years, was combined with the return of the emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. From the 9th century to the 15th , and more particularly starting from the 12th century, indeed in Germany the legend of the sleeping emperor developed: Charlemagne, Frederick Barbarossa or Frederick II according to the time or the mood of storytellers. And it was obviously a Germanic transposition of the myth of the lost king […] The emperor Frederick did not die. He sleeps in a cave in the mountains of Thuringia, sitting in front of a stone table, while his beard turned already several times around the leg of the table. Sometimes, he stands up to ask: “Do the ravens always fly around the mountain? “And the shepherd who takes care of him answers: “Yes, my lord! “sadly. The emperor resumes his ancient dream then, waiting for the day when he will bring Germany to the head of the other peoples.

Into Bohemian, in a cave […] King Wenceslas II laid, died in 1305, a wise and powerful prince who had joined together under his government Bohemia, Poland and Hungary. In a mountain of Montenegro, the king of Serbia Marko (1371-1394) waited who, although already subjected to Ottoman protection, represented for following generations a vague memory of the medieval freedoms of yesteryear. The sword of King Marko was inserted down to its hilt in a rock. This king of Serbia would come back when the rock would be so worn by time that the sword would be released from itself. Let us notice the obvious similarities with Excalibur, the sword of Arthur.

In Portugal this period of remission before Erdathe or end of the world having to last thousand years, was combined with the return of King Sebastian I (Dom Sebastiao). He ascended the throne in 1568, when he was fourteen years old. The character is a little particular. According to the points of view, he is either admired, or hated; people see in him a Messiah, or a clumsy person (it is a euphemism). Not

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astonishing! We deal nevertheless, with him, with a very young adult, endowed with a frail health, furthermore.

Nobody knows with certainty what his body became, but what certain is, it is people refused this disappearance.

He became then a legend and since has various nicknames: O Adormecido (sleeping one, king in dormition) or O Encoberto ( Hidden [ King]). Various legends show him to us, still expected, and imagine him coming back as leader of the nation, in order to give it again its glory and its power of formerly. Some texts even specify to us that will be done during a day of fog.

The Sebastianism is a messianic movement combining culture, history and spirituality. More precisely, the Sebastianism is the continuation of a Portuguese messianism which had existed already for several centuries; and located at the junction of three historical broad outlines: the borrowed from Persians Judeo-Christian Messianic tradition ; the millenarian theories of the Cistercian monk Joachim of Fiore; and lastly the knighthood narratives of the Celtic myths dealing with the Breton King Arthur. In the Portuguese nobility (as in others besides), the tradition of chivalry romances remained indeed a long time.

North of the Pyrenees, it is the great monarch. Prophecies about him start to spread roughly at the same time as that of the king of [Great] Britain called Arthur. The medieval time was indeed particularly fertile in false prophets of all kinds. In addition to the predictions ascribed to Merlin the wizard, there were also other false prophets, whose pompous predictions all went in the same direction; and announced the arrival of a Great Monarch of the Messianic type, coming to save the world from destruction. The prophecy drawn from the Mirabilis Liber and ascribed to Cesaire, in agreement with the majority of prophecies about the Great Monarch, announces for the end of time, the coming of the prince in question.

There exists little of commentators speaking clearly about the Great Monarch who, more than a character, is the incarnation of a superhuman eschatological function. Eric Muraise, however, ventures there, even if it means to give to his description a connotation worthy of the science fiction or futuristic literature. The Great Monarch is a Capetian prince forgotten named Henry, born in Blois and living since in Ireland (damn?) He appears at the time when Europe, shaken by very serious internal disorders, undergoes the simultaneous or concerted invasion of troops coming from east of Elba and North Africa. A true scenario of political fiction obviously and stupidly marked by an out of fashion “Cold war “. The Russians would be rather in the same boat as us with their Chechens, what Europeans still did not understand. See the stupidity of the reactions of European intellectuals and media in August 2008 at the time of the conflict with Georgia. Difficult to be less clear-headed and less objective! Difficult to be more stupid ! It is to believe that European elites (politickers and their friends journalists) still live as in 1950.

Muraise extrapolates starting from a large number of known prophecies and predictions. For a historian, this French author affirms, the question is not to know if prophecies are believable, nor if the bringing together of these prophecies with realities are legitimate, but to consider their suggestive potential on masses (Cf. Gustave Le Bon and his studies dealing with the psychology of crowds).

Some authors think the “prophecy of the Great Monarch “ never existed. By introducing this topic into prophecy, people made the Great Monarch appear as a re-founder of the monarchy, which brings back his people to original youth, in illo tempore Mircea Eliade would say. But, surreptitiously, it is then proceeded to a shift of the topic of lost king to that of the hidden immortal king.

Admittedly, the Great Monarch is not the unhappy Arthur transported by fairies on the island of Avalon, nor Frederick Barbarossa sleeping under the mountain; staying awake through centuries waiting for the need of their people. This role is transposed to his concealed lineage. But what certain is, it is this prophetic thread is based on powerful mytheme; lost king, fortunate isles, the king of the world, a cataclysm followed by a return to the Golden age; present in the Westerner imagination for millennia.

Even the three founders of the first alliance of original Swiss cantons in 1291 were considered to sleep under the meadow of Rütli *, where they had sworn their oath, on the bank of the Lake Lucerne.

We especially detect in all these legends the characteristic features of a true “Penelope complex“: the hope in the return of a too early missing person, a beloved monarch, a preserving falling asleep, in a remote or protected place, an inevitable and definitive triumph. This political chiliasm seems to result from the secularization of millenarianism of the Parousy type, more especially as the legend assigns to the “sleeping savior“ that he will wake up when his country would need him. [Great] Britain, Bohemia, Serbia or Germany, endangered will call the missing king. These historical or archetypal sovereigns would escape death influence, either to return one day and witness for the edification of other

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generations, or for finally reaching the eternal life. Their sleep would be only a long protected phase, which would preserve their potentialities, which would reserve their merits for a greater achievement. They would thus expect a favored moment in the future when their awakening would then come to enthrall, teach or help, the witnesses of this wonder.

Basically, the topic of the lost king or of the concealed king, as of the hidden imam, symbolizes the sacred essence of royalty, as opposed to its temporal achievements. It guarantees the archetypal regeneration of the royal function. Its temporary occultation withdraws it from wear, from the solvent forces which move away his lineage from the ideal model.

Among Celts this millenarian idea was preserved only by Bretons and Arthurian cycle.

Then is this a heresy, a local particularism, or the ultimate echo of an older panceltic druidic myth? A heresy or a reminiscence?? It is up to each one to see.

* Perhaps a former Celtic sanctuary (nemeton).

APPENDIX No. 4

LIFE AND WORK OF THE BRILLIANT FORGER WHO WAS EDWARD WILLIAMS

KNOWN AS IOLO MORGANWG (1747-1826).

As we have already the opportunity to say, druidism being a Celtic paganism, heresies in the Judeo-Islamic-Christian meaning of the word cannot exist in it, but there is teaching which moves really much away from the communal broad outlines. Hell not existing, none of these heretics will ever be found in it, at most it will be necessary more time for him so that his soul opens out in the Big Whole (Pariollon) after having spent more or less time united with its mind in the heaven according to druids (a next world which is a state of the fact of being and not a place in space, of course).

By heresy we want simply therefore to evoke completely forged deceptions, having nothing to do with the reference druidism which can be only the ancient continental druidism appeared somewhere in Central Europe there is more than 3000 years.

It is therefore to the Welsh bard Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg) that the very contestable honor goes to have published, the first, the collection of writings, allegedly made in the 16th century, by a person named Llewelyn Sion, under the title of Llyfr Barddas. A minister, the reverend John Williams Ab Ithel, then distributed under the title of Barddas, on behalf of the Welsh manuscript society , in 1861, and 1862, as regards the first volume.

The second volume, published in 1874, is shorter, and is presented as “an unfinished book… found in the stock of the late Mr. Rees of Llandovery, after it was purchased by Bernard Quaritch, 15 Piccadilly, London “.

The sources are not mentioned by other means, but it is probably there too, a counterfeit by Iolo. This work took a great part of the first volume, but in a more detailed way: many stories telling how Prydain ab Aedd instituted bardism after having conquered the island, and so on.

The Barddas is a work in two volumes. The first, that of 1862, want to be the simple publication of manuscripts proving the persistence of the bardic thought from Antiquity up to now. Here like it is presented.

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Y GWIR YN ERBYN Y BYD.

BARDDAS.

A COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THEOLOGY WISDOM AND USAGES OF

The bardo-druidic system

OF THE ISLE OF BRITAIN

with

TRANSLATION AND NOTES.

The Rev. J. WILLIAMS AB ITHEL

RECTOR OF LLANYMOWDDWY, MERIONETHSHIRE.

AUTHOR OF “THE ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES OF THE CYMRI “& C. & C.

PUBLISHED FOR

The Welsh Mss. SOCIETY

“Except to supply some of the headings, no liberty whatever has been taken with the text. Even obvious and glaring errors, whether in the orthography or punctuation, have been transferred to our pages exactly as they were found in the manuscript. The translation has been rendered as literal as possible, short of becoming obscure. This was considered expedient, not only with the view of exhibiting the style and idiom of the original, but in order to guard against any misapprehension of the sense, which a free construction is too apt to produce“.

Notice of Peter DeLaCrau.

It was not the case, of course! Although J. WILLIAMS AB ITHEL is mentioned there as being the author; the book, which therefore claims to be a publication of manuscripts having belonged to a person by the name Llewelyn Sion of Glamorgan (1560), or to other Welsh bards of the same kind; has been in fact written by Iolo Morganwg himself. In any event, even if we suppose that such manuscripts really existed, they could only have reflected the ideas in vogue during the 16th century on this subject and could have contained only negligible traces of ancient druidism. These manuscripts allegedly studied by Iolo Morganwg are no longer available for consultation, of course, since they are, as by chance, missing. But, if they were, of course, they would not reveal us other things but texts of Christian influence as regards the content, and containing only some details of ancient druidic tradition. This kind of document therefore justifies in no way an authentic thought derivation from that of the West Gnostic people (druidecht) of Antiquity.

But that we have already said.

We find there a kind of mystical Christianity based on a theology having nothing to do with official druidiaction (druidecht) the latest attestations of which (imbas forosnai etc.) date back to the tenth century, according to the conclusion of the tale by Urard Mac Coise entitled "The plunder of the castle of Maelmilscothach.” The book of our good reverend evokes at the same time Welsh heroes of the Middle Ages and Jesus Christ, and is based on a (Christian) mysticism having nothing to do with what we know from a reliable source of ancient druidism. The universe is founded on two opposed forces, God (the life energy) and Cythrawl, a negative energy tending to destroy it, coming from Annwn, the abyss. Nothing to do with the matter and spirit (water and fire) of Strabo (Geography IV, 1, 13).

We therefore cannot regard both Barddas books as representing really the doctrines of the West high-knowers or Gnostic people. It is well rather that of the late bards whose Llewelyn Sion collected the writing, about 1560. And particularly some (disappeared today as we have emphasized it) manuscripts, by Einion the Priest, Dafydd Ddu (David Black), Rhys Goch (Red Rhys), etc. The whole allegedly preserved in the library of Rhaglan castle, in Pembrokeshire.

“Here is the Book of Bardism, that is to say, the Druidism of the Bards of the Isle of Britain, which I, Llywelyn Sion of Llangewydd, extracted from old books, namely, the books of Einion the Priest, Taliesin, the Chief of Bards, Dafydd Ddu of Hiraddug, Cwtta Cyvarwydd, Jonas of Menevia (Mynyw), Edeyrn the Golden-tongued (Dafod Aur), Sion Cent, Rhys Goch, and others, in the Library of Rhaglan,

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by permission of the lord William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, to whom God grant that I may prove thankful as long as I live “(Llewelyn Sion).

But at the time of Llewelyn Sion, there was already more than thirteen hundred years that Christian doctrines had prevailed with the defeat of the last of the pagan kings who protected Merlin, Gwendoleu or Gwenddolau, at the time of the battle of Arthuret (Ardderyd Arfderydd) in 574.

From where besides the strange assertion, in the form of synthesis which we can find there: “ The three special learning which the nation [of the Cymry] got. The first was that of the Gwyddoniaid from the age of ages. The second was that of the Bards, after the time of Prydain, the son of Aedd the Great. The third is the faith in Christ. Out of these three arise the sciences of the nation of the Cymry.“

N.B. Gwyddon is a Welsh word in connection with the name of the wood in old Celtic (vidu) and meaning something like “high-knower” (druid).

In the 18th century, the Eisteddfod (plural: eisteddfodau – assembly of Welsh bards) was started again under the impulse of Goronwy Owen; the last meeting dated back to 1450. The Eisteddfod will become annual in the 19th century. This Celtomaniac Welsh movement was the cause of a new discovery and of an edition of the poetic heritage, but also of the counterfeit and of the forgery of false old texts as we saw, and Morganwg will be the main instigator of this undertaking, with Owen Pughe.

After all these excesses, the study of Welsh poetry will become again more rigorous, and in 1877, a chair of Celtic will be created at the University of Oxford, of which John Rhys was the first holder. In 1893, the University of Wales will be created then, in 1907, the National Library. Let us by the way pay tribute to this courageous and useful effort of a whole people to free itself from the English yoke (Plaid Cymru).

Let us repeat it once again: if it is exact that during the Middle Ages, various pagan rites were recorded here or there, the true founder of this neo-druidism is, as we said, Iolo Morganwg. It is him who worked out the doctrines and invented its rites. The early Church in the area had, of course, taken from druidism some of its symbols, but what survived of druidism was quickly pervaded with Christian culture. The theology developed by Iolo Morganwg therefore pertains to the Christian background, and remains unrelated to the ancient druidism of the high-knowers (Gwyddoniaid) or Gnostic people in the West.

In any event, megaliths have nothing Celtic and they are especially not druidic symbols or monuments. Peoples of Central Europe, become master in the work of wood and metal, Celts did not start by using stone for their architecture or their sculpture, and even less to engrave inscriptions on them. They came there only at a later stage. The fundamental concept among them was never megalithic monuments supposed to mark out an earth current nor any landing strip for UFOs, flying saucers, or aliens; but the tree and the forest (the Hercynia silva) what is besides more environmental.

The majority of specialists in Celtic field therefore refuse any derivation between this neo-druidic movement and Celtic civilization. There does not exist, in any case, either in Wales or in Brittany, or, all the more so " in Gaul" (France) , organization or group, opened or closed, which has an uninterrupted traditional derivation dating back to the druids of Antiquity.

BIOGRAPHY OF EDWARD WILLIAMS KNOWN AS IOLO MORGANWG (1747-1826).

His mother was a cultivated woman member of the Mathews family (high society of Llandaf and Radyr).

In 1773, he left and sought work in London where he attended the meetings of the Welsh Gwyneddigion Society. After having worked in various areas of England, he came back in his native Glamorgan in 1777; and in 1781 married Margaret Roberts. In 1786-1787, he was imprisoned for debts in Cardiff. Some specialists think besides that the Cyfrinach Beirdd Ynys Prydain (“the secret of the bards of the Isle of Britain “) one of his best-known counterfeits was written during this period.

In 1791, he returned to London to proclaim, in various Welsh clubs or English literary clubs , that he had discovered the mysteries of the ancient druidism of Gwyddoniaid).

In 1792, on Primrose Hill, he organized a ceremony called Gorsedd Beirdd Ynys Prydain: the seat of bards of the isle of Britain.

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Iolo returned to Wales in 1795, and started there to gather materials of the great book on British bards he planned to publish.

From 1801 to 1807, many of these counterfeits were published in the Myvyrian Archaiology, Iolo having succeeded in persuading the persons in charge of this erudite publication they were genuine texts drawn from old manuscripts read by him.What the very erudite and scrupulous Eugene O'Curry will do some time later on his side in Ireland, with his notes of readings about history or Irish manners; without ever being denied.

As for him Iolo died in 1826, while leaving these manuscripts unfinished.

This collection is now at the national library of Wales. The non-authenticity of these texts was definitively shown by the professor Griffith John WILLIAMS in 1956, but they nevertheless made serious studies on medieval Welsh literature deviating during at least a century.

There are not dozens of methods to succeed in reconstructing druidism, the true one, that which really existed in the head of ancient Celts 1) and which guided their action during centuries.

The first of these three ways, it is the study (collection confrontation and criticism), of the notions explicitly or implicitly, but always rightly, of course, given as druidic by these ancient authors we have just evoked.

The second of these ways is made up of all that we may deduce from the actions or the reactions (tacit acceptance, expressed judgment) of the gwyddoniaid (Gnostic people in the West) or of their successors thus defined. In short their druidiaction.

The third of these three ways, it is the study (collection and confrontation or criticism) of the remarks explicitly or implicitly, but always rightly, of course, ascribed to Gwyddoniaid or high-knowers ( West Gnostic people). Or to the legitimate successors of aforesaid ancient druids (i.e., in a way not stopped by invasion or acculturation, Romanization, Christianization, etc.). For example, in Ireland the “poets” of the kingdom of Domnall mac Muirchertach Ua Néill who in the middle of the 10th century or at the beginning of the 11th century continued to have in their repertory Dichetal do chennaib teimn laegda and other imbas forosnai prohibited by St. Patrick.

At least, according to the conclusion of the Gaelic text entitled "The tale of the plunder of the castle of Maelmilscothach" by Urard Mac Coise, consulted by Eugene O'Curry (see the publication of the six of his lectures page 135 of volume 2).Because when it is a question of druids, Irish hagiographers do like all hagiographers in the world. The consequence is that we may also use Irish hagiography to show the persistence, in Irish (and Celtic) mentality, of concepts and habits, which are not explained by Christianity: what we call the druidiaction. It is there a distinguished favor the insular hagiographers did not think of doing to us.

John Minahane in his 2008 book on Christian druids is full of praise for Eugene O'Curry (a genius) and his work.

It turns out, however, that the druidic druids did not convert to Christianity, only the low-ranking druids, the filid, did.

"Down to the introduction of Christianity in the year of our Lord 437, the instruction of youth is entirely in the hands of two classes; the fileadh or poets and the druids .”

Minahane, on the other hand, deduced well from O'Curry's work that the fileadh in question had inherited from the druidic druids their philosophy.

It is therefore necessary to put again a little order in all this terminology.

File (velede). Etymologically the file is a “clairvoyant “ who has the writing (see Lepontic or Cisalpine runes) in his remits. This is why this name, file, remained after Christianization, because the use of the writing, though different since it had become didactic and no longer only magic, did not embarrass him. In Ireland almost all the names of functions will consequently appear as specializations of the file or “poet “ a word which will become the synonym of druid in this country.

Faith. A vate or soothsayer (Old Celtic vatis, passed in Latin in the same form. And especially not ovate which is a cacography). It is up to him to interpret the dreams and the signs meaning something for the future of the king and of his kingdom.

Bard (Celtic bardos, cf. Welsh bardd, Breton barzh, French barde)… But in Ireland the bard was supplanted by the file (velede or poet).

The Liaig or doctor, a specialist in the three medicines, psychological, surgical, or through plants. To notice: we found in Germany in a tomb unearthed in Munich-Obermenzing in Bavaria, the corpse of a man who was probably a surgeon druid, around the year 200 before our era. He had been buried with a sword, a lance and a shield, but he was especially a doctor and not a warrior. Since we have also found in his grave a trephine (making him able to withdraw from cranium small sections of bone in

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order to reduce the pressure exerted by the brain-pan on the brain), a probe, and a retractor (Cf. Jose Maria de Navarro and his study on the grave of a Middle Latene doctor, published in 1955 by the Prehistoric Society).

The cruitire or harpist, a specialist in the three fundamental kinds of music of Celts, that which sends to sleep, that which makes people laugh, and that which makes cry, or even sometimes die.

The deogbaire or cupbearer, in charge of the preparation of fermented drinks, ale or mead, in the royal feasts. See the haoma or soma of Indo-Iranians.

The sencha or historian, antiquarian. His main function is to inform, as far as possible, on the genealogy of the king and all the events which relate to his dynasty.

The scelaige or storyteller: it is he who, during the long winter evening gatherings, tells the king (and his court) some stories.

The brithem or lawyer: it is he who says, “what is right “ in disputes. The king does nothing but follow his conclusions.

The dorsaid or gatekeeper: his task is to inform the king about the identity of persons who arrive at his residence.

The muccido or “pig keeper “: he keeps the herds of pigs or wild boars, sacred and symbolic animal of the first priestly function. It is for example in the service of such a character that the future St. Patrick is supposed to have spent his youth.

That makes much druidiaction!

We will be interested here in this book mainly in their role as priests philosophers or moralists, in short in their spirituality. But the task will be very difficult because; as John Toland our great Master to everybody saw it very well; starting from the fifth century, St. Patrick and his immediate successors made all that was contrary to letter and spirit of Judeo-Christianity disappear from laws or customs. And particularly therefore the famous Dichetal do chennaib teimn laegda and other imbas forosnai. There remain only traces or fortuitous snippets, randomly preserved or distorted as they were transcribed , because scribes understand them no longer, of all what would have so highly interested us.

Irish documentation is, of course, essential for whoever wants to study the druidism of a country having never been colonized by Rome, but the expansion of Christianity in this land nevertheless sped up the decline and the decadence of indigenous druidism. It is therefore necessary to use these documents, of course, but with the highest precaution.

Examples of mistakes appearing in the medieval Irish tradition.

- The demonization of the second (or first) family of gods or goddesses from the original druidic Panth-eon or Pleroma, the underground gods, some kind of gigantic anguipedic wyverns (called Andernas on the Continent, Fomorians in Ireland). See particularly the case of the warlike god-or-demon Cicolluis, become Cicholl Gri-Cenchos in the story of Partholon. In the Irish medieval texts, deformity as well as bodily anomalies (unicity of the eye, of the leg and of the arm) are signs or marks of the infernal world of these entities which are the Celtic equivalent of Greek Titans and of Germanic Wanes. It is Christianization which rejected them into hellish darkness. The unicity in question is simply at the beginning the sign of the primeval nature of the beings of the underground other world, as the columns representing a Taranis/Jupiter on horseback trampling a gigantic anguipedic (originally undoubtedly some trees) show it well [particularly at Mainz in Germany].

- The historicization or backwards euhemerism of some god-or-demons, thus changed into kings or heroes having really existed: euhemerism in the wrong way. Or then the giving out to some characters having really existed, of characteristic which had characterized before such or such god or demon.

For example, Finn, Conchobar, Cuchulainn, even noiba Brigit, etc. even if it is there, besides, a more Christian than druidic heresy.

- Giving out to the god-or-demons, of a birth, a death, and therefore of a genealogy. But no divine genealogy, following the example of these which are made for human beings, is possible, of course, in the case of "true" gods or demons which are (negative for the ones therefore positive for the others) forces. It is besides why the genealogies of Christ differ all from each other, and let us not even speak

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about that of Muhammad (pious Muslims dare to make him go back to Adam and Eve through Abraham!)

- The change of an avatar of Toran/Taran/Tuireann or of Belin/Belen/Belenos, particularly honored in the Isle of Man, into an independent deity (Barinthus Manannan mac Lir).

- The lengthening or change of the list of kings ruling in the other world of the god-or-demons…

- Including the incredible Milesian legend. All that is relating to the origin of Gaels and their landing on the island is indeed false and totally false (taken from the Greeks and from the Old Testament).

- Etc., etc.

* We use the word pleroma which means “full” in Greek in order to show well here we are not limited to the only celestial and luminous superhuman entities but we also include in what we intend to mean…. Superhuman chthonic underground dark and unconscious, entities.

1) The notion of ancient Celt is very clear, it is based primarily on the language. In Antiquity every person having as native language, a Celtic language, was Celt. We may perhaps, to attach to them more or less Celtized, or having more or less undergone the influence of the Celtic civilization ( Germanic peoples, Cimbri, Teutons, North Italians, Galatians in Turkey) populations ; but, of course, not Egyptians, Galileans… or Atlanteans.

The high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) were the intellectuals of these peoples, they were lawyers doctors, architects, professors, musicians…

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AFTERWORD IN THE WAY OF JOHN TOLAND.

Pseudo-druids with fabulous initiatory derivation (the famous and indescribable or hilarious perennial tradition) having multiplied since some time; it appeared us necessary to put at the disposal of each and everyone, these few notes, hastily written, one evening of November, in order to give our readers the desire to know more about true druidism.

This work claims to be honest but in no way neutral. It was given itself for an aim to defend or clear the cluto (fame) of this admirable ancient religion.

Nothing replaces personal meditation, including about obscure or incomprehensible lays strewing these books, and which have been inserted intentionally, in order to force you to reflect, to find your own way. These books are not dogmas to be followed blindly and literally. As you know, we must beware as it was the plague, of the letter. The letter kills, only spirit vivifies.

Nothing replaces either personal experience, and it’s by following the way that we find the way. Therefore rely only on your own strength in this Search for the Grail. What matters is the attitude to be adopted in life and not the details of the dogma. Druidism is less important than druidiaction (John-P. MARTIN).

These few leaves scribbled in a hurry are nevertheless in no way THE BOOKS TO READ ON THIS MATTER, they are only a faint gleam of them.

The only druidic library worthy of the name is not in fact composed of only 12 (or 27) books, but of several hundred books.

The few booklets forming this mini-library are not themselves an increase of knowledge on the subject, and are only some handbooks intended for the schoolchildren of druidism.

These simplified summaries intended for the elementary courses of druidism will be replaced by courses of a somewhat higher level, for those who really want to study it in a more relevant way.

This small library is consequently a first attempt to adapt (intended for young adults) the various reflections about the druidic knowledge and truth, to which the last results of the new secularism, positive and open-minded, worldwide, being established, have led.

Unlike Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which swarm, concerning the higher Being, with childish anthropomorphism taken literally (fundamentalism known as integrism in the Catholic world); our druidism too, on the other hand, will use only very little of them, and will stick in this field, to the absolute minimum.

But in order to talk about God or the Devil we shall be quite also obliged to use a basic language, and therefore a more or less important amount of this anthropomorphism. Or then it would be necessary to completely give up discussing it.

This first shelf of our future library consecrated to the subject, aims to show precisely the harmonious authenticity of the neo-druidic will and knowledge. To show at which point its current major theses have deep roots because the reflection about Mythologies, it’s our Bible to us. The adaptations of this brief talk required by the differences of culture, age, spiritual maturity, social status, etc. will be to do with the concerned druids (veledae and others?)

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Note, however. Important! What these few notes, hastily thrown on paper during a too short life, are not (higgledy-piggledy).

A divine revelation. A (still also divine) law. A (non-religious or secular) law. A (scientific) law. A dogma. An order.

What I search most to share is a state of mind, nothing more. As our old master had very well said one day : "OUR CIVILIZATION HAS NO CHOICE: IT WILL BE CELTISM OR IT WILL BE DEATH” (Peter Lance).

What these few notes, hastily thrown on paper during a too short life, are.

Some dream. An adventure. A journey. An escape. A revolt cry against the moral and physical ugliness of this society. An attempt to reach the universal by starting from the individual. A challenge. An obstacle fecund to overcome . An incentive to think. A guide for action. A map. A plan. A compass. A pole star or morning star up there in the mountain. A fire overnight in a glade?

What the man who had collected the core of this library, Peter DeLaCrau, is not.

- A god.

- A half god.

- A quarter of God.

- A saint.

- A philosopher (recognized, official, and authorized or licensed, as those who talk a lot in television. Except, of course, by taking the word in its original meaning, which is that of amateur searching wisdom and knowledge.

What he is: a man, and nothing of what is human therefore is unknown to him. Peter DeLaCrau has no superhuman or exceptional power. Nothing of what he said wrote or did could have timeless value. At the best he hopes that his extreme clearness about our society and its dominant ideology (see its official philosophers, its journalists, its mass media and the politically correct of its right-thinking people, at least about what is considered to be the main thing); as well his non-conformism, and his outspokenness, combined with a solid contrariness (which also earned to him for that matter a lot of troubles or affronts); can be useful.

The present small library for beginners “contains the dose of humanity required by the current state of civilization” (Henry Lizeray). However it’s only a gathering of materials waiting for the ad hoc architect or mason.

A whole series of booklets increasing our knowledge of these basic elements will be published soon. This different presentation of the druidic knowledge will preserve nevertheless the unity as well as the harmony which can exist between these various statements of the same philosophical and well-considered paganism : spirituality worthy of our day, spirituality for our days.

Case of translations into foreign languages (Spanish, German, Italian, Polish, etc.)

The misspellings, the grammatical mistakes, the inadequacies of style, as well as in the writing of the proper nouns perhaps and, of course, the Gallicisms due to forty years of life in France, may be corrected. Any other improvement of the text may also be brought if necessary (by adding, deleting, or changing, details); Peter DeLaCrau having always regretted not being able to reach perfection in this field.

But on condition that neither alteration nor betrayal, in a way or another, is brought to the thought of the author of this reasoned compilation. Every illustration without a caption can be changed. New illustrations can be brought.

But illustrations having a caption must be only improved (by the substitution of a good photograph to a bad sketch, for example?)

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It goes without saying that the coordinator of this rapid and summary reasoned compilation , Peter DeLaCrau, does not maintain to have invented (or discovered) himself, all what is previous; that he does not claim in any way that it is the result of his personal researches (on the ground or in libraries).

What s previous is indeed essentially resulting from the excellent works or websites referenced in bibliography and whose direct consultation is strongly recommended.

We will never insist enough on our will not be the men of one book (the Book), but from at least twelve, like Ireland’s Fenians, for obvious reasons of open-mindedness, truth being our only religion.

Once again, let us repeat; the coordinator of the writing down of these few notes hastily thrown on paper, by no means claims to have spent his life in the dust of libraries; or in the field, in the mud of the rescue archaeology excavations; in order to unearth unpublished pieces of evidence about the past of Ireland (or of Wales or of East Indies or of China).

THEREFORE PETER DELACRAU DOES NOT WANT TO BE CONSIDERED, IN ANY WAY, AS THE AUTHOR OF THE FOREGOING TEXTS.

HE TRIES BY NO MEANS TO ASCRIBE HIMSELF THE CREDIT OF THEM. He is only the editor or the compiler of them. They are, for the most part, documents broadcast on the web, with a few exceptions.

ON THE OTHER HAND, HE DEMANDS ALL THEIR FAULTS AND ALL THEIR INSUFFICIENCIES.

Peter DeLaCrau claims only one thing, the mistakes, errors, or various imperfections, of this book. He alone is to be blamed in this case. But he trusts his contemporaries (human nature being what it is) for vigorously pointing out to him.

Note found by the heirs to Peter DeLaCrau and inserted by them into this place.

I immediately confess in order to make the work of my judges easier that men like me were Christian in Rome under Nero, pagan in Jerusalem, sorcerers in Salem, English heretics, Irish Catholics, and today racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, person, while waiting to be tomorrow kufar or again Christian the beastliest antichrist of all the apocalypses, etc. In short as you will have understood it, I am for nothingness death disease suffering ……

By respect for Mankind , in order to save time, and not to make it waste time, I will make easier the work of those who make absolutely a point of being on the right side of the fence while fighting (heroically of course) in order to save the world of my claws (my ideas or my inclinations, my tendencies).

To these courageous and implacable detractors, of whom the profundity of reflection worthy of that of a marquis of Vauvenargues equals only the extent of the general knowledge, worthy of Pico della Mirandola I say…

Now take a sheet of paper, a word processing if you prefer, put by order of importance 20 characteristics which seem to you most serious, most odious, most hateful, in the history of Mankind, since the prehistoric men and Nebuchadnezzar, according to you….AND CONSIDER THAT I AM THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE OF YOU BECAUSE I HAVE THEM ALL!

Scapegoats are always needed! A heretic in the Middle Ages, a witch in Salem in the 17th century, a racist in the 20th century, an alien lizard in the 21st century, I am the man you will like to hate in order to feel a better person (a smart and nice person).

I am, as you will and in the order of importance you want: an atheist, a satanist, a stupid person, with Down’s syndrome, brutish, homosexual, deviant, homophobic, communist, Nazi, sexist, a philatelist, a pathological liar, robber, smug, psychopath, a falsely modest monster of hubris, and what do I still know, it is up to you to see according to the current fashion.

Here, I cannot better do (in helping you to save the world).

[Unlike my despisers who are all good persons, the salt of the earth, i.e., young or modern and dynamic, courageous, positive, kind, intelligent, educated, or at least who know; showing much hindsight in their thoroughgoing meditation on the trends of History; and on the moral or ethical level: generous, altruistic, but poor of course (it is their only vice) because giving all to others; moreover deeply respectful of the will of God and of the Constitution …

As for me I am a stiff old reactionary, sheepish, disconnected from his time, paranoid, schizophrenic, incoherent, capricious, never satisfied, a villain, stupid, having never studied or at least being unaware of everything about the subject in question; accustomed to rash judgments based on prejudices without any reflection; selfish and wealthy; a fiend of the Devil, inherently Nazi-Bolshevist or Stalinist-Hitlerian. Hitlerian Trotskyist they said when I was young. In short a psychopathic murderer as soon as the breakfast… what enables me therefore to think what I want, my critics also besides, and to try to make everybody know it even no-one in particular].

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Signed: the coordinator of the works, Peter DeLaCrau known as Hesunertus, a researcher in druidism.

A man to whom nothing human was foreign. An unemployed worker, post office worker, divorcee, homeless person, vagrant, taxpayer, citizen, and a cuckolded elector... In short one of the 9 billion human beings having been in transit aboard this spaceship therefore. Born on planet Earth, January 13, 1952.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE BROAD OUTLINES.

As regards the bibliography of details see appendix of the last lesson because, as Henry Lizeray says it so well, traditions that must be interpreted. It is there the whole difference which exists between former druidism and neo-druidism.

Lebar Gabala or The Book of Invasions. Paris 1884 (William O'Dwyer)

Base of the druidic Church. The restored druidism. Henry Lizeray, Paris, 1885.

National traditions rediscovered. Paris 1892.

Aesus or the secret doctrines of the druids. Paris 1902.

Ogmius or Orpheus. Paris 1903.

CONTENTS.

Introduction Page 004

Preliminary development : the various levels of truth. Page 007

The thousand and one ways of seeing or of perceiving divinity Page 009

The thousand and one ways of seeing or of perceiving divinity (developments) Page 012

The parable of Ogmius Page 016

The height of ancient druidism Page 022

The five acorns from which the mighty oak grows Page 024

Elements of druidic cosmogony Page 026

The universal psychic or soulish stock Page 031

The cosmic mother great goddess (matter) Page 034

The higher part of the Hyperworld called Albiobitos Page 036

The first of the eons of the original Pimpetia: the time Page 039

The second of the eons of the original Pimpetia : the Ago or War of the opposites Page 042

The third of the eons of the original Pimpetia : the Oxymoron Page 047

The fourth of the eons of the original Pimpetia: the Life Page 049

The fifth of the eons of the original Pimpetia: the Brilliance or Brigo Page 051

Summary Page 055

Dyads and triads Page 059

Angelology and demonology: transitional beings in mass religions Page 062

From the light of Albitos to darkness of non-world Page 066

The Sedodumnon or World of the gods Page 071

The dissident point of view of the neo-druid Allan Kardec Page 073

Our spirits’ book to us Page 081

Regarding the gender of angels (and gods) Page 096

The non-varronian mythological bases of druidism. Page 100

Elementals and egregores or teutates Page 102

The genii cucullati or guardian angels of druidism Page 110

The great Pan is dead (the occultation of gods) Page 120

Reminder about Sedodumnon Page 132

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Brief summary of what professor Jan De Vries thinks about mythology of Celts Page 137

The heavenly parallel world according to medieval druids Page 142

The paradisiac parallel next world in medieval Great Britain Page 150

Brief summary of what the druid Corin Braga thinks about mythology of Celts Page 154

Various remarks about the other world Page 157

The idealization-resurrection of bodies Page 160

About some other parallel worlds in druidism (different antechambers of Heaven) Page 163

The kingdom or republic of the sidhs Page 173

Parallel worlds and druidic buddhakshetras, continuation Page 175

The moral paradox Page 180

Persan, Hindu, Japanese, Buddhist,hereafter Page 186

Appendix No.1: On a quotation of Dio Chrysostom Page 195

Appendix No. 2: Shamanism and neo-shamanism Page 198

Appendix No. 3: The come back of God or of the Gods Page 203

Appendix No. 4: Life and work of the brilliant forger who was Edward Williams

known as Iolo Morganwg Page 205

Afterword in the manner of John Toland. Page 211

Bibliography of the broad outlines Page 214

BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

1 Quotations from the ancient authors speaking about Celts or druids.

2. Various preliminary general information about Celts.

3. History of the pact with gods volume 1.

4. Druidism Bible: history of the pact with gods volume 2.

5. History of the peace with gods volume 3.

6. History of the peace with gods volume 4.

7. History of the peace with gods volume 5.

8. From Fenians to Culdees or “The Great Science which enlightens” volume 1.

9. Irish apocryphal texts.

10. From Fenians to Culdees or “The Great Science which enlightens” volume 2.

11. From Fenians to Culdees or “The Great Science which enlightens” volume 3.

12. The hundred paths of paganism. Science and philosophy volume 1 (druidic mythology).

13. The hundred paths of paganism. Science and philosophy volume 2 (druidic mythology).

14. The hundred ways of paganism. Science and philosophy volume 3 (druidic mythology).

15. The Greater Camminus: elements of druidic theology: volume 1.

16. The Greater Camminus: elements of druidic theology: volume 2.

17. The druidic pleroma: angels jinns or demons volume 1.

18. The druidic pleroma angels jinns or demons volume 2

19. Mystagogy or sacred theater of ancients Celts.

20. Celtic poems.

21. The genius of the Celtic paganism volume 1.

22. The Roland’s complex .

23. At the base of the lantern of the dead.

24. The secrets of the old druid of the Menapian forest.

25. The genius of Celtic paganism volume 2 (liberty reciprocity simplicity).

26. Rhetoric : the treason of intellectuals.

27. Small dictionary of druidic theology volume 1.

28. From the ancient philosophers to the Irish druid.

29. Judaism Christianity and Islam: first part.

30. Judaism Christianity and Islam : second part volume 1.

31. Judaism Christianity and Islam : second part volume 2.

32. Judaism Christianity and Islam : second part volume 3.

33. Third part volume 1: what is Islam? Short historical review of the set QUR.HAD.SIR. and SHAR.FIQ.MAD.

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34. Third part volume 2: What is Islam? First approaches to the set QUR.HAD.SIR. and SHAR.FIQ.MAD.

35. Third part volume 3: What is Islam? The true 5 pillars of the set QUR.HAD.SIR. and SHAR.FIQ.MAD.

36. Third part volume 4: What is Islam? Sounding the set QUR.HAD.SIR. and SHAR.FIQ.MAD.

37. Couiro anmenion or small dictionary of druidic theology volume 2.

Peter DeLaCrau. Born on January 13, 1952, in St. Louis (Missouri) from a family of woodsmen or Canadian trappers who had left Prairie du Rocher (or Fort de Chartres in Illinois) in 1765. Peter DeLaCrau is therefore born the same year as the Howard Hawks movie entitled “the Big Sky.” Consequently father of French origin, mother of Irish origin: half-Irish, half- French. Married to Mary-Helen ROBERTS on March 12, 1988, in Paris-Aubervilliers (French department of Seine-Saint-Denis). Hence three children. John Wolf born May 11, 1989. Alex born April 10, 1990. Millicent born August 31, 1993. Deceased on September 28, 2012, in La Rochelle (France).

Peter DELACRAU is not a philosopher by profession, except taking this term in its original meaning of amateur searching wisdom and knowledge. And he is neither a god neither a demigod nor the messenger of any god or demigod (and certainly not a messiah).

But he has become in a few years one of the most lucid and of the most critical observers of the French neo-druidic or neo-pagan world.

He was also some time assistant treasurer of a rather traditionalist French druidic group of which he could get archives and texts or publications.

But his constant criticism both domestic and foreign French policy, and his political positions (at the end of his life he had become an admirer of Howard Zinn Paul Krugman Bernie Sanders and Michael Moore); had earned him, moreover, some vexations on behalf of the French authorities which did everything, including in his professional or private life, in the last years of his life, to silence him.

Peter DeLaCrau has apparently completely missed the return to the home land of his distant ancestors.

It is true unfortunately that France today is no longer the France of Versailles or of Lafayette or even of Napoleon (who has really been a great nation in those days).

Peter DeLaCrau having spent most of his life (the last one) in France, of which he became one of the best specialists, even one of the rare thoroughgoing observers of the contemporary French society quite simply; his three children, John-Wolf, Alex and Millicent (of Cuers: French Riviera) pray his readers to excuse the countless misspellings or grammatical errors that pepper his writings. At the end of his life, Peter DeLaCrau mixed a little both languages (English but also French).

Those were therefore the notes found on the hard disk of the computer of our father, or in his papers.

Our father has certainly left us a considerable work, nobody will say otherwise, but some of the words frequently coming from his pen, now and then are not always very clear. After many consultations between us, at any rate, above what we have been able to understand from them.

Signed: the three children of Peter DeLaCrau: John-Wolf, Alex and Millicent. Of Cuers.