ODE FOR THE HIGH-KNOWERS.

Half of Mankind’s woe comes from the fact that, several thousand years ago, somewhere in the Middle East, peoples through their language conceived spirituality OR MYSTICISM….

-Not as a quest for meaning, hope or liberation with the concepts that go with it (distinction opposition or difference between matter and spirit, ethics, personal discipline, philanthropy, life after life, meditation, quest for the grail, practices...).

-But as a gigantic and protean law (DIN) that should govern the daily life of men with all that it implies.

Obligations or prohibitions that everyone must respect day and night.

Violations or contraventions of this multitude of prohibitions when they are not followed literally.

Judgments when one or more of these laws are violated.

Convictions for the guilty.

Dismissals or acquittals for the innocent. CALLED RIGHTEOUS PERSONS.

THIS CONFUSION BETWEEN THE NUMINOUS AND THE RELIGIOUS, THEN BETWEEN THE SACREDNESS AND THE SECULAR , MAKES OUR LIFE A MISERY FOR 4000 YEARS VIA ISRAEL AND ESPECIALLY THE NEW ISRAEL THAT CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM WANT TO BE.

The principle of our Ollotouta was given us, long time ago already, by our master to all in the domain; the great Gaelic bard, founder of the modern Free-thought, who is usually evoked under the anglicized name of John Toland. There cannot be, by definition, things contrary to Reason in Holy Scriptures really emanating from the divine one.

If there are, then it is, either error, or lies!

Either there is no mystery, or then it is in any way a divine revelation!

There is no happy medium...

We do not admit other orthodoxy that only the one of Truth because, wherever it can be in the world, must also stand, we are completely convinced of it, God's Church, and not that one of such or such a human faction … We are consequently for showing no mercy to the error on any pretext that can be, each time we will have the possibility or occasion to expound it in its true colors.

----------------------- ------------------------------- --------------------------------- --------------------------------------- ------

1696. Christianity not mysterious.

1702. Vindicius Liberus. Response of John Toland to the detractors of his "Christianity not mysterious."

1704. Letters to Serena containing the origin of idolatry and reasons of heathenism, the history of the soul's immortality doctrine among the heathens, etc. (Version Baron d’Holbach, a German philosopher).

1705. The true Socinianism * as an example of fair debate on matters of theology *.To which is prefixed Indifference in disputes, recommended by a pantheist to an orthodox friend.

1709. Adeisdaemon or the man without superstition. Jewish origins.

1712. Letter against popery, and particularly against admitting the authority of the Fathers or Councils in religious controversies, by Sophia Charlotte of Prussia.

1714. Defense of the Jews, victims of the anti-Semite prejudices, and a plea for their naturalization.

1718. The destiny of Rome, of the popes, and the famous prophecy of St Malachy, archbishop of Armagh, in the thirteenth century.

Nazarenus or the Jewish, gentile, and Mahometan Christianity (version Baron d’Holbach), containing:

I. The history of the ancient gospel of Barnabas, and the modern apocryphal gospel of the Mahometans, attributed to the same apostle.

II. The original plan of Christianity occasionally explained in the history of the Nazarenes, solving at the same time various controversies about this divine (but so highly perverted) institution.

III. The relation of an Irish manuscript of the four gospels as likewise a summary of the ancient Irish Christianity and what the realty of the keldees (an order half-lay, half-religious) was, against the last two bishops of Worcester.

1720. Pantheisticon, sive formula celebrandae sodalitatis socraticae.

Tetradymus.

I. Hodegus. The pillar of cloud and fire that guided the Israelites in the wilderness was not miraculous but, as faithfully related in Exodus, a practice equally known by other nations, and in those countries, not only useful, but even necessary.

Il. Clidophorus.

III. Hypatia or the history of the most beautiful, most virtuous, and most accomplished lady, who was stoned to death by the clergy of Alexandria, to gratify the pride, the emulation and even the cruelty, of Archbishop Cyril, commonly, but very undeservedly, styled Saint Cyril.

1726. Critical history of the Celtic religion, containing an account of the druids, or the priests and judges, of the vates, or the diviners and physicians, and finally of the bards, or the poets; of the ancient Britons, Irish or Scots. In plus with the story of Abaris the Hyperborean, priest of the sun.

A specimen of the Armorican language (Breton, Irish, Latin, dictionary).

1726. An account of Jordano Bruno's book, about the infinity of the universe and the innumerable worlds, translated from the Italian editing.

1751. The Pantheisticon or the form of celebrating the Socratic-society. London S. Paterson. Translation of the book published in 1720.

"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. 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.

* Socinians, since that's how they were named later, wished more than all to restore the true Christianity that teaches the Bible. They considered that the Reformation had made disappear only a part of corruption and formalism, present in the Churches, while leaving intact the bad substance: non-biblical teachings (that is very questionable in fact).

** 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.

LITERATURE.

THE EXILE OF THE SONS OF USNECH OR UISLIU (Longes mac nUislenn).

A druid is hosted by an old couple to whom he predicts, against any probability, the birth of a daughter and this girl “will make many men die of love “. The old man, like Abraham in similar circumstances, begins by being incredulous. He dismisses the druid. But the druid left, the woman indeed is pregnant.

Then the old man afflicts himself and cries, “for not having asked more. “ But in his case, the prediction is not a prediction of happiness. It is an ill-boding prediction which will bring only ruin and disaster. To divert the fate, he therefore makes the girl brought up far from men, by entrusting her education to an old woman. To be more precise, she is raised in a hillock under the ground, in other words “in a Sidh “. If we hesitate to make her a fairy, let that be used as a sign for us. She had to be sent back, once born, under the ground.

It is spoken to Deirdre, naturally neither of the boys, nor of love. But one night, a young hunter falls asleep on the hillock: he dreams of fairies, he calls. From beneath the ground she hears the man, has a presentiment of love; and makes the hunter coming in her house…

The rest of the legend is better known. King Conchobar wants to reserve Deirdre for himself, but the beautiful sweetheart falls in love with Naoise. Then Naoise helped by his two brothers, abducts Deirdre then flees with her beyond the sea where they will live happily in wild nature during a few years. But Conchobar succeeds in making the three brothers coming back, by promising to forgive them. Unfortunate Deirdre will try vainly to oppose that. She cries, she prophesies. The three brothers are made blind by the nostalgia (of their homeland). It is not besides the only time in these legends that nostalgia diverts heroes from their way or speeds up their destiny. And what was to occur happens: Conchobar makes the three brothers murdered as of their return. A dramatic battle with multiple episodes takes place, where our heroes kill one another, and the castles are burnt. It will be a true disaster for the kingdom of Ulaid, which will bury itself in the civil war, the elite of its army will leave in exile into the court of the neighboring king, delighted to benefit from this godsend. The unfortunate Deirdre survives the disaster, but lets her perish slowly before committing suicide to flee the terrible and sneering cynicism of King Conchobar.

When Cunocavaros/Conchobar sought to soothe her; thus she repeated him what follows

Ah Cunocavaros/Conchobar, what do you still want from me?

You caused me only sorrow and tears

As for me as long as I stay alive

Your love will have no importance for me.

The man to me most fair beneath the sky,

The man I loved,

In death away you tore, the crime was horrible;

I shall see him no longer but only after my death.

Disappeared forever, what a sorrow for me,

Is the shape in which Uisnig’s son appeared

A jet-black hillock on a splendid white body

Which was well known of all the women.

Two purple cheeks more beautiful than a meadow

Red lips, eyebrows color of the beetle.

Teeth brilliant like pearls

With noble color of snow.

His brilliant equipment was recognizable

Among all Alba’s warriors

His purple ceremonial coat suited him well

Edged with a border worked of ruddy gold.

His silk tunic, invaluable treasure

Had hundred lam ??? (a beautiful quantity)

To make it clear it is

Fifty ounces of white bronze (brass?) were needed

A gold-hilted sword in his hand

Two green javelins with spearhead

A shield with an edge made of yellow gold

And a silver boss.

Fair Fergus caused our ruin

By making us cross the sea

He sold his honor for ale

His deeds are nothing but only a distant memory.

And even if on the plain were gathered

All the Ulaid and Cunocavaros/Conchobar

I will give up them all without fighting

For the company of Noisi son of Uisnig.

Do not break my heart today

I soon will come unto my tomb

Is tressiu cuma inda muir,

Madda eola a Chonchobuir

Sorrow is stronger than the sea

Do you know it O Conchobar?

Whom do you hate the most, said Cunocavaros/Conchobar, of these whom you now see?

You yourself, she answered, and with you, Eogan the son of Durthacht.

Then, said Cunocavaros/Conchobar ,you will dwell with Eogan for a year and he gave her over into Eogan's hand. Now upon the morrow they went away over the festal plain of Macha, and she was behind Eogan in the chariot. Dorarngertsi nach facfed a da céili for talmain i n-oenfecht. She had promised herself that she would never have two men at the same time on earth. Well, Deirdre, said Cunocavaros/Conchobar, you have the glance of a ewe between two rams, between Eogan and me!

Now there was a great rock of stone in front of her, she struck her head upon that stone, and she shattered her skull, so she died. She had sworn that she would never have two different companions on this earth.

It is therefore the traditional story of a war caused by a rivalry of men around a woman. With, it is necessary to say it well, a little more class, romanticism, or elegance, than the dirty jokes of Helen of Troy and the story of revenge of her cheated on husband, but there is more. Deirdre incontestably is an agent of Fate. She achieves an order envisaged. Fairies in the Irish legend always play the part of agents of Fate or Tokade (middle Welsh tynghed, Breton tonket, intended, old Irish tocad, fate, toicthech “fortunatus “ tonquedec in Breton language. The labarum is its messenger). They determine disasters. Others do it by their malignancy. This one does it by her grace. But basically the result is the same one. Men throw themselves because of her, the ones against the others. It is rare to find a human drama able to awaken such religious resonances. This legend is among the greatest ones, form a part of these which are worthy to send a message to the men of all times.

But it still interests for another reason the researchers and the scholars. It is that we grasp in actin there two metamorphoses : the transmutation of a goddess-or-demoness or fairy, into the heroine of a novel; the transmutation of the myth into a story of war and love. It is therefore some euhemerism in the wrong way. It is almost too easy to flush out the goddess-or-demoness or the fairy if you prefer, under the human mask of Deirdre. It is more difficult and more adventurous, on the other hand, to perceive, beyond the fury of our heroes and the burning palaces in Emain Macha, the crash of a cosmic collapse. That remains an assumption.

If it is true, it would have occurred in this case, as in many others, a level descent, with condensation in the lower stage, and proportioned distortion.

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

MABINOGI OF KULHWCH AND OLWEN.

“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 exactly the word of our language which suits best to convey this situation because it is neither revenge nor punishment and the effects are not always immediate. The main 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 builds when the hero, caught between two contradictory gessa, is in the need for violating one of these interdicts to respect the other. We will come back on the subject.

THERE EXIST SIGNS OF FATE BUT.....

Let's make it clear, right away, to believe that there may be signs of destiny that concern you, does not mean that we have to rely on professional seers to decipher them, even if our ancestors had this quirk, it is only an incentive to more introspection. Because, let us repeat it, the fact that the outline of our destiny is written in advance, does not mean that its incidents or details are so. A human being is a master of the details of his life. He has in this field the most total free will.

But finally the fact that our ancestors relied WRONGLY on professionals to interpret their dreams or external events such as the direction of a flight of birds ... .proves at least they believe in the existence of signs of fate , therefore of Fate itself.

Labaron is the Celtic word grouping together all these signs of fate among Celtic peoples. But it is often symbolized by the wheel of Fortune, the Breton tarabara, the archeologists' sun wheel, hence its very practical resemblance to Constantinian chrism.

But the belief in the signs of Fate implies that there is a Fate, that is to say that at least BROAD OUTLINES of our future are traced in advance (THE BROAD OUTLINES AND NOT THE DETAILS).

The Labaron is symbolized by a wheel we said but among our ancestors everything was a sign of Fate in reality (or a message of this or that particular god but for druids the gods are also some agents of Fate).

St Columba of Iona had understood this well since he had vigorously protested against this design of the fate in one of his loricas: "I do not adore the voice of birds ...or chance or a son or a woman. My druid is ... etc. "

The evocation of the voice of birds is undoubtedly an allusion to the divinatory practices of certain druids of the Irish decline. They would have practiced a mode of ornithomancy which consisted in predicting, not through flight of birds, but through their singing. The wren was used especially for these augur consultations.

Let us be completely Monganians and not hesitate one second to say it; these Christians have obviously understood nothing of the way in which ancient druids designed Fate or Tokad (Middle Welsh Tynghed, Breton Tonket, intended, Old Irish tocad, fate, toicthech "fortunatus,” tonquedec in Breton language ).

It was an inexorable divination in the long run, but flexible and still keeping most of human autonomy, in terms of short or medium term details.

Diodorus of Sicily. Historical Library. Book V, XXXI mentions "men who know the gods and speak their language" (homophonon in Greek); but Lucan specifies (Pharsalia, I 444-451) " To them alone it is given the gods and celestial powers to know OR not to know.”

There is in this "or" of Lucan all the difference which can exist between answers of the type: "You will conquer because such is the will of the god-or-demons" (prediction); and the answers of the type: "You will conquer because you are the strongest" (rational type prediction in which divinity has not much to do).

Crucial distinction confirmed by the words of the Aeduan druid Divitiacos himself, "who claimed to make predictions sometimes by means of augury and sometimes by means of conjecture" (Cicero, De Divinatione I, 41,90) .In short, the framework in which our (very relative) freedom of human beings unfolds is preexisting.

As everything is in nature, there is a mutual interdependence of all phenomena. Man being a chthonian creature (a Gdonios) he is determined at the outset, and his absolute free will never exists, except in the minds of certain enthusiastic Manicheans like Christians or Muslims.

Freedom is only a pure product of various relations, conditioned on all sides or from every direction, in the whole of Life and Cosmos (Bitos). Human freedom is caught in a constant stream of interactions of various (emotional, physical, mental, etc.) factors.

It is born, passes, and can even disappear.

There are everywhere signs of Fate, but you just have to know how to recognize and interpret them (we speak well here of introspection and of nothing else). Fate can seem unchangeable to Muslims but it is not quite true. Each individual has the opportunity to intervene and change some events if he wishes. You can indeed be surprised by certain events but you can also cause certain events. To take

things into consideration and to better anticipate your future, you must be able to recognize the different signs of fate and to interpret them correctly.

What can these signs of fate be?

These signs of fate can indeed be valuable indicators for us. They can enable us to determine which way to follow or to learn more about what the fate keeps for us precisely.

It is first to be understood that signs can be everywhere and at any moment. These are not necessarily great things but they can be of great importance afterwards. To recognize these signs is also to become aware and to trust your instinct. Some signs can be repetitive, that's why you have to be attentive.

It is common not to pay attention. However, their frequency can be a clue not to neglect. We must be vigilant to what we could call coincidences. Sometimes they are not, and you have to learn from them and to see in them clues about what the fate keeps for you.

An unexpected meeting, an object or a lost number, a message received at a precise moment, all these small elements are as many signs. Their meaning may be different from one person to another.

A certain introspection is therefore necessary. You need to think and define what you want in your life or what path you want to follow. These signs can help you define what opportunities which come up for you are and which ones to seize. These signs are there to show us the way. There cannot be an exhaustive inventory of these signs because they are specific to each one but our ancestors had drawn up a fairly consistent list.

-Thunderclaps in the blue sky.

-Murmur of streams.

-Flight of birds.

-Race of a hare

-etc.

For more information see the very detailed study that Georges Dottin has in his time (1904) devoted to the subject within his book on the religion of Celts (2 pages).

Introspection we have said but also its contrary. Because before you can interpret signs, you have to be more attentive and know how to observe. Indeed, many events often considered as coincidences are in reality signs of fate.

The sense of observation is therefore essential to detect the signs of fate. Their interpretation also depends on this observation capacity and also on another very important element: our intuition. Faced with an event, it is common to have a small voice in the head that suggests some things to us and we must learn to know how to listen to it. Most of the time, our instinct is our best ally to interpret signs of fate.

Our environment is also something to consider and can influence our interpretation of omens. Everything is connected, the least of things that happen in our life has a meaning and our destiny can be changed.

To correctly interpret the signs of our destiny, we must also define what our needs are. Indeed, some coincidences are in reality needs of our subconscious.

What the heirs to the druids of the temple of Grand in the Vosges knew very well when they interpreted the dream made by Constantine in this place during a night of the year 310.

In fact, if you know exactly what your needs are, it will be easier for you to understand their meaning and to interpret them.

But the interpretation of omens also depends on our experience, our idea of life, the choices we have decided to take or not, whether we believe in fate or not, etc. All his considerations are subjective and therefore peculiar to each one. The same omen can have a different interpretation and meaning depending on the person, his or her experience and needs.

FATE OR TOCAD, GEIS LABARON POETIC JUSTICE ETC.

BY METONYMY......

Metonymy is a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept. For example, Washington and the American government.

In addition to its use in everyday speech, metonymy is a figure of speech in some poetry and in much rhetoric.

Greek and Latin scholars of rhetoric have much spoken of metonymy.

Kenneth Burke considers metonymy as one of four "master tropes": with metaphor, synecdoche, and irony.

As far as we are concerned and by metonymy we will refer to (general) Fate or destiny (of individuals), one being only the declination of the other, by studying two notions or families of words that often appear in Celtic literature, the geis plural gessa (a prohibition or more rarely an injunction, fatal, and the labarum or labaron, a Latinized Celtic word grouping omens or other signs of fate.

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 the great business of the former druids.

As far as gessa are concerned, the word is to be understood in a rather active meaning, since it literally determines most often the destiny of individuals. The gessa are in a way agents of Fate and assistants of poetic justice.

Warning to readers. Linguistic Preliminaries.

Among Celts the word Tokad designates the normal “layout “of all things (from the stem tonk- “to cast a spell , to predestine “), or the Order, the Standard. The Tokad or Fate is the divine emanation which makes the inarticulate one going to the articulated stage (rta in India).

What is immediately quite obvious in Irish tales and legends it is the determining omnipresence of what we call in the singular geis, in the plural gaesa or aurgarta; positively balanced by buadha or ada.

What is a geis? We saw on several occasions that a geis functions as well in the sense of the obligation as of prohibition. It is almost invariably individual, but it can be collective also like in the case of Ulaid *. Unfortunately, we have no means of determining or of explaining how and why such or such geis is imposed on such or such individual. And we do not know more how the mechanism of its application functions. We attend simply the disasters and the accidents that its violations cause.

The translation of the word by “taboo “is only an approximation, for want of anything better. Taboo is not an Indo-European notion and its only negative aspect is in contradiction with the often positive meaning that this word has in Irish tales and legends. Considering the importance of the concerned notion, Christianization, of course, succeeded in making every idea referring to it, disappear, whether it is in Great Britain or on the Continent.

Therefore we have no longer a tract which, whatever its possible lacks, could be used as a basis for this presentation. Apart from the text published in 1951, in the proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, by Myles Dillon; and which begins in this way or about : to the king of Ireland it was forbidden that the sun should rise on him while lying in his bed in Tara [i.e., he should be standing before sunrise]; he was not to alight from his chariot on Moy Breagh on a Wednesday,etc., etc. (a long listing in prose and lines of verse, country by country, and a kingdom by a kingdom, follows…)

Except for this document therefore, there exists indeed nothing which can be regarded as a catalog of gaesa. We know some of them which concern kings, but it is ad random in stories, according to the

good will of narrators. And all the rest or almost is reserved for warriors - who would do well without them, but adapt to them – whose celebrity is second only to their boldness or extraordinary physical strength.

Generally, if it is not almost always, the geis is understandable, or is really explained, that at the time of its violation, when it brutally becomes effective and that it causes the death of our hero. And if all gaesa are not inevitably fatal, majority are thus, without any remission. There exists therefore, more still than a network, a system of gæsa - and as many systems as individuals - which make every king or high-ranking warrior a prisoner of his destiny ......

The geis is, of course, adapted to the function of the man who undergoes it, and takes on, through this fact, very many aspects. The geis keeps nevertheless everywhere an aspect of fatality, one especially saw there a kind of result of chance. But we should not believe in the haphazardness: haphazardness is never but the sum of the reasons we do not know. Chance is a contingency which does not exist.

Let us well specify, moreover, that if a woman can be, in fact, the fortuitous cause of the violation of a geis, she is there generally for nothing, because no woman has the power to impose one of them.

When for example the young Deirdre forces Naoise to abduct her, it is by a challenge or provocation, at the same time legal and loving, that resembles a geis in no way.

The act that makes Fate or Tocade appear, also makes at the same time his little brother, his sister, his companion, or his relative, the human destiny, appear.

This declination of Tokad at the lower or human level is the principle of all poetic justice, all virtue, all beauty.

As we have already said it (it is impossible to look more shirk), God or the Demiurge in a way died, but the Fate is like its Last Will, a black light (oxymoron) which reaches us many years after his implosion/explosion…

Each being or object, in the broadest sense of the word, has a peculiar fortune that of each man being called destiny.

All the multiple destinies are ruled by the Tocade, the great universal Law. Fate is thus also a set of resignations or acceptances. The notion of good or evil does not have a place at the individual level, it is the logic and the deontology of a functional group.

The individual destinies can be very different according to the practiced trade. To kill another man for example is prohibited, but it goes without saying that to kill other human beings or to be oneself killed pertains to the vocation of the soldiers.

In the human sphere, to act according to one’s destiny, it is to act according to the deontology of one’s status. We will speak in this case about a destiny specific to each class, and finally to each individual.

In the pertaining to worship sphere, to act according to Tokad, it is initially to perform rites correctly according to the rules. Better, in former druidism the idea prevails that the sacrificial act reflects the standard of the whole universe. There is a harmony between the pertaining worship tokad and the cosmic tokad. The sacrifice keeps the Tokad.

The link between Tokad and sacrifice is illustrated perfectly by the idea that if the sun rises every morning, it is, of course , in accordance with Tokad but it is also because every morning with the rising of the sun there is in each hearth or each house kindling of fire with possibly a libation or a small ateberta (offering).

It is at least the idea which comes out by contrast from this strange passage of the Senchus Mor speaking to us about a certain Connla Cainbrethach.

“ After her came Connla Cainbhretac, chief doctor of Connaught ; he excelled the men of Erin in wisdom, for he was filled with the grace of the Holy Ghost ; he used to contend with the druids, who said that it was they that made heaven and earth, and the sea, etc. and the sun and moon, etc. It was this he said to them ….. Do not boast of your powers, whereas you do not have power to change the order of even one day or one night ; of the administration which is uniform in the elements according to God’s decree “( Ancient laws of Ireland, volume I, page 22).

The Christian refutation is, of course, as ridiculous as its belief in a miracle the day of the battle of Gibeon (the sun stopping its course to give Joshua the time to complete his victory). Cf. Joshua (10,1-15).

If the sun, the moon or any another planet stopped one moment, that would cause such a cataclysm that the solar system would fly into pieces. In addition, if the sun had stopped as a long time as this

theory claims it, the other peoples, lighted by the same sun, should have noticed it. But none preserved the memory of such a phenomenon.

What the druids about whom Connla Cainbrethach makes fun, wanted simply to say, it is that it is thanks to the daily sacrifices or to the daily prayers of human beings that the world is kept. What is, of course, false from an objective and material point of view, but which does nothing but express the fact that the druids of this time, granted as much importance to their worship as Christians as regards mass. For them it was the worship which keeps the world in functioning order, and without worship, without belief, the world can only sink again into chaos. Same idea in India besides.

Fate or Tokade (Middle Welsh tynghed, Breton tonket, intended, old Irish tocad, fate, toicthech “fortunatus “ tonquedec in Breton) is sometimes found personified or symbolized in druidic legends, by an old king living withdrawn out of the world in a mysterious island matching without any doubt to the technique known as of imrama or voyages. Stupidly compared to Saturn or Cronos by Greco-Romans.

As a messenger of Fate of course, it is him who knows the future, and it is him whom people will consult to know 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 [ The Fate ????] sleeps confined in a deep cave of rock that shines like gold — the sleep that Zeus [ Taran/Toran/Tuireann ????] 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 [ the Fate???], 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).

On the popular level, Fate is also frequently represented by a triad like that which was discovered in Vertault (French department of Côte-d’Or) or that which is formed by Banuta, Eriu, and Votala, in Ireland.

These female triads belong to a type spread in the Romano-British or Gaulish statuary. A similar group of three women with fruits in their bosom bears an inscription besides designating them as fairies of the matres type, mother-goddess-or-demonesses, guarantors of abundance and family prosperity. These statues were perhaps placed in or in front of the family altar in the house.

The group carved out of limestone from Vertault represents three women sitting on a chair with a back. These mopates maidens have on their knees, one the infant, the second the linen, the last one the sponge and the basin. These attributes, as their half-stripped chest, suggest that they are closely associated with the care of newborns. The triad of Vertault has a symbolic meaning. The linen can evoke an unrolled parchment, the basin a libation patera. These good fairies which lean on the cradle of the child, match the Moirae, Parcae, or Norns, of the other traditions in the ancient world.

In the triad of the Bollards (Museum of Dijon), a goddess-or-demoness, or a fairy if you want, holds a scale besides. They are also in reality hypostases of Fate (vyuha in Hinduism) representing, one the past, the other the present, the third one the future. Notice of the French Regis Boyer in connection with Germanic Norns: as a Viking proverb says it, “ man does not survive more an evening to the sentence of Norns “. Snorri Sturluson, obviously having learned Greeks (see the three Parcae) wants them to be three, to whom he gives names including at least two (Skuld, future; and Verdandi, present), are made for the purpose in hand , the third one, Urdr appearing alone of ancient origin. In fact, it seems that Norns are as numerous as the human beings (Regis Boyer). The Germanic Norns therefore match the Celtic fairies of the Matres type who too are symbolically three, and more

precisely the matres nessamae. Man does not survive an evening to the sentence of the matres nessamae, were consequently to say the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht), of this time.

The whole under the aegis of a fatal mechanical law which combines and unites its elements in order to produce all that exists in the universe.

The Irish triad Banuta, Eriu and Votala, plays a little the same part in the Irish tradition.

Banuta (modern written form Banbha) is a queen of the god-or-demons of the goddess-or-demoness Danu (bia), her name means “sow “ “female boar “ or “horned one “. It is the daughter of Ernmas, and with her sisters Votala/Fodla as Ériu, she forms a triad, true personification of Ireland. In the incredible legendary or mythical mishmash, in the very bad sense of the word, that Irish bards devoted to this subject, when the Milesians or Gaels land, each of the three sisters asks them to give her name to the island; it is that of Eriu which will be chosen, nevertheless that of Banbha will also be used as an allegory of the land.

But, above these goddess-or-demonesses who act and who move, the Reason can only design another stage of the being. The fate or the higher intelligence (hypertheos), which does not act, which is motionless, which contains in it and contemplates the ideas of these eternal types that hypostases like the soul or the matter product in the world. Time for example is only the image, the emanation, or the consequence, of this fate.

GERMANIC LITERATURE.

Let us allow us here a small inroad into a cultural universe very near, since Cimbri and Teutons in Denmark were being Celtized: that of the Vikings according to the French historian Regis Boyer.

It is necessary for us to start from the idea these men had of Fate , of their destiny. We reduced it to sacredness, itself coming under the worship of the dead and of the god-or-demons. Let us reduce it to what is human and let us return on one of the many words which mean fate, and which we have already quoted: gaefa [notice by the author: nothing to do with Irish gaesa]. In other words, what the powers gave to a man so that he makes his life something admissible in his own eyes, and therefore in the eyes of his community, initially family, without which he doesn't imagine himmself. The gaefa, it is the fate in a way individualized or dealt with, the destiny. The one who knew how to make this gift be productive is a gaefumathr : a gaefa man…

The notion can be widened to the clan. We know that such or such family profits from a destiny, of a share of own chance, the haminggja… And dreams, which play such an important part in the sagas and the poems, are always in one way or another, the expression of this destiny.

The goal of these various interventions is to support the clearness of a man with regard to his possibilities. His second effort will be to accept himself. The third time, most difficult, will be to show, through acts, what he is able to do, i.e., the way in which the sacred fate chose to be interested in him. We would say, to assert one’s personality.

Notice found on a paper stuck by Peter DeLaCrau, and published in this place by his heirs.

P.S. The notion of signs of Fate and therefore of Fate also, exists in Viking sagas for two reasons.

The first is that the pre-Germanic peoples were Indo-Europeanized by Celts.

The second is that Vikings were influenced by Irish men.

And to those who would object that there is no evidence of these cultural exchanges and therefore of a similarity of points of view in certain fields (points of view that we can extrapolate to reconstruct our extinct druidic dinosaur) we will give another example (among others) taken from the books of the French Regis Boyer, or more exactly Jean Renaud.

“A detail of the Njals saga also shows a Celtic influence: the hound offered to Gunnar of Hlidarendi is an Irish dog, whose qualities make us think of the dogs in Celtic legends.

Among the supernatural appearances around Froda, that the Eyrbyggja saga describes, there are also some of them which could be left from Celtic legends . Moreover, the one through whom they occur is originating in Hebrides. But Thorgunna, a reasonable and pious woman, is undoubtedly not identifiable with the Hebridean proud mistress of Leifr, in the Eiriks saga rauda, of whom it is said she knew magic practices.

In the Orkneyinga saga, Sigurdr, the first Orcadian jarl, cuts the head of his enemy and hangs it to the saddle of his horse. It is a practice known by the Celts. But what is more, the tooth which exceeds from his mouth causes to Sigurdr a wound which is infected and he dies: this notion of revenge [or poetic justice ]exists in some Irish legends. Etc., etc. “ (Jean Renaud. Vikings and Celts).

In order to confirm that see A.Walsh “Scandinavian relations with Ireland during the Viking period“ (published in 1922).

What no man nor no religion can therefore deny it is the existence of a principle or of a strictly undifferentiated original absolute immanent, whatever its name. Pro-father or Before-father, Hypertheos, beyond the god-or-demons, Bythos… ; and it is on this shared principle that the high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) built their philosophy, which is a kind of overall shirk. What is odious (taghut) in the eyes of new religions like Islam, of course.

T = Zero. At the beginning the One was then, the single one (principle of the tawhid), the invisible silence, the unnamed one, the ineffable one, that our brothers in the north call Ginnungagap and that vernacular language calls God or the Demiurge. This Being higher than being is neither the One, nor the Multiple One; it is the One in and beyond Multiplicity.

T = Zero. The eabadh point of space-time. Principle and cause, infinite, wrapped in itself, it did not act, but, in the inviolate silence of its abyss, it left itself to implement itself. This operation of the ogham point of space-time out of itself is the first of the powers being able to exist between the higher Being (Bitos) and the world. This first emanation or hypostasis (vyuha in Hinduism) of the One is the Law of the worlds known as Tokad among Celts.

In short and to summarize.

At the origin of everything therefore, there is a still Absolute Being, immanent, transcendent, immutable, folded up on itself, coexistent with its thought (the Tokad). A perfect, invisible, inconceivable, everlasting, being. But this higher Being can leave itself to work or implement itself. This first emanation is released from the primordial isolation, and it is able to generate. The high-knowers of the druidiaction (druidecht) called it Tokad. The Tokad or Fate is the oldest one of the god-or-demons, the one who embraces all that was born.

The Tokad, or idea of things, is the principle immanent to the reality to which it gives shape and meaning in the eyes of men. If the divine reality is accessible to men, it is because this Tokad or Fate is present in the things a little like Plato's Ideas: it gives them the principle of being and their meaning.

The Tokad is a little the God or Demiurge of the Jewish Muslim Christians, it gives us an idea of God or of the Demiurge of the Jewish-Muslim-Christians, the Tokad is Thought or Idea of God or of the Demiurge of Jewish-Muslim-Christians,it goes down, in the manner of a river, from the Being. As the first-born (monogenous) from the Upper Being of beings, Tokad is therefore the only one to understand the greatness of its dream, of its design.

This Tokad or Fate , is the only true son of the Father in the strictest sense of the word. It was the first in the Abyss bottomless of the Eternal To Be One. “It was like God or the Demiurge “and this is why it does not have an age, “it is like God or the Demiurge “ this is why there exists through itself; “all the subsequent things or beings are generated by him, and nothing of what was done or made, was done or made without it “ because it is immutable.

IN OTHER WORDS.

The manifestation of the being is achieved, as we could see it through a whole succession of theophanies.

1) The created or more exactly caused, appeared, Fate or Tocade, from which is procreated any creature, the creator creature, the manifested hidden, the First Last…

2) The epiphany of the essence of being , of which it is possible to speak only through allusion. This Epiphany constituting the whole of the theophanies in which and by which the Tokad or Tocade or “ison son bissiet “ shows itself to itself ; in the form of some primordial, eons or god-or-demons (the par-god, the universal psychic or soulish stock, Neto/Neth, etc.)

i.e., in the shape of the beings, as for their existence in the higher heavenly world.

3) The theophany in the forms of individual entities giving concrete and manifested existence to the divine epithets or names. Since always, these epithets or these names which form its essence, exist in the very essence of Fate or Tocade, because the attributes they designate, without being identical to its essence, refer to it, however. They are the god-or-demons like Lug, Ogmius, Abellio, and so on.

It is important not to attribute to the original Principle these names and these phenomena, but to correlate them with the various heavenly or earthly levels of its Manifestation (the god Pariollon, Vindobitus or Albiobitus, god-or-demons, men, sub-gods, etc.).

These shapes (god-or-demons) bases of the divine names, always existed within the Bitos or higher being. They are these latent individualities which aspire to be revealed. From where the movement which brings to the being the still unknown divine attributes and the existences through which and for which these divine attributes are manifested in action. A god-or-demon it is the big whole of Fate, personified or particularized in one of its names or attributes. It is besides there the only secret of the attributes or epithets of the Tokad/Tocade: God or the Demiurge who creates himself in the awareness of men, in the beliefs. And this is why the knowledge of God or of the Demiurge is unbounded, since the eternal recurrence of the procreation of the world or of the universe, the metamorphoses of the theophanies, the metamorphoses of the being, are the very law of the Being.

* Ulaid or Voluntii. Name of the tribe of the demigod Cuchulainn in Northern Ireland.

THE TOKAD OR TOCADE OR BY METONYMY

THE POETIC JUSTICE THE NATURAL ORDER ETC.

Note found by the heirs to Peter DeLaCrau.

The second of all these hypostases (vyuha in Hinduism) caused by the emanation process was undoubtedly the Tokad or Tocade, when the higher Being of beings or Bitos overflowed from the framework of the One.

What means concretely this law of the worlds?

Projected in a shapeless and without reality space, the Tokad makes it a real and rational universe. The Tocad or Fate is therefore the intermediary through which God or the Devil, according to the points of view, governs the world; it is “the captain and the pilot of the universe “. Such reflections among the Westerner Gnostic people (among ancient druids) led to the belief in a universal law.

Under the name of Tokad, the druidism of the amarcolitanos type (to see and to know) therefore very early sought to know the secondary causations and the secondary principles, which preside over the building of the worlds.

As a famous astronomer said it: there is something mysterious to see bodies so different in size (planets) following the same laws mathematically, to obey all the same forces.

The notion of Tokad resembles that of “true “order or “ poetic justice“ it replaced.

At the base of the notion of Tokad or Fate, there is probably the idea of the regular return of cosmic phenomena, their immutable and always in conformity with themselves, nature.

If the rivers run normally, it is that they run according to the Tokad. In the cosmic realm, if the things took place like it is necessary, they took place in accordance with the Tokad. If the dawn normally shines every morning, it is said that it is because of the Tokad.

In the concept of Tokad, there is the notion of harmony also: it is a question for the man of living in accordance with the Fate or with his Destiny, i.e., in harmony with cosmic rhythms.

IN SHORT.

1) The labarum (intelligence, thought, voice, word). Cf. Welsh llafar (loquacious) old Irish labraid (he speaks), etc. Symbolized later in Ireland by the so-called St. Patrick's Cross and in Scotland by the so-called St. Andrew's Cross.

The Labaron (latinized in labarum) is the voice of Fate acting in the perpetual procreation of the world, but it is also the means through which the human mind apprehends divinity. 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 the great business of the former druids.

By contemplating Labaron = Voice, Verb or Absolute Word of Fate, we can therefore succeed in knowing God or Fate. The Labaron visits the wise or the inspired persons (awenydd in Wales, old Celtic auentieticos).

2) The gessa. An example of geis, the one given by his father to King Laeghaire.

“My father Níall did not allow me to accept the faith* , but bade me to be buried on the ridges of Tara. In the manner of men at war, for the pagans, armed in their tombs, have their weapons ready, until the day of erdathe, that is, the day of the Lord's judgment according to the druids” (Memoir of St. Patrick by Tirechan).

* What nonsense for it goes without saying that Laeghaire had well faith in something, but not in the god of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob! As for the rest, all this is very archaic and refers us to the old Aryan world, especially the gessas, which are most often trifunctional.

Let us now come to this linguistic community born 6000 years ago somewhere in the north of the Caucasus or in the south of Russia (Kurgan hypothesis) such it made an impression.

CHRONOLOGICAL POINTS OF REFERENCE.

But the German Nazi madness of the early 20th century makes all this is still very controversial.

CULTURE OF YAMNA.

4th millennium before our era. North Caucasus, southern Russia, eastern Ukraine. On a Neandertalian background (light-colored eyes and hair) mixture of three other ethnic stocks: Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from Eastern Europe, Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from Western Europe, Caucasian hunter-gatherers.

Unadulterated patriarchate, very hierarchically organized society. Enormous social inequalities: prisoners of war, vanquished peoples, women, slaves, etc.

CORDED WARE CULTURE.

3rd millennium before our era from Russia to the east of France in central or northern Europe.

To the north of this geographical area (in Denmark in Scandinavia in the Baltic countries ....) the culture of Erteboelle (fifth millennium before our era) and the culture of funnel beakers (fourth millennium before our era) seem to have been non-Indo-European.

INDO-EUROPEANS AND INDO-EUROPEANITY (Almak Encyclopedia).

During the 18th, scientists noticed various similarities between Greek, Latin and Sanskrit (one of the languages in India). These similarities have been extended thereafter to other languages for more than two centuries. Thus was born the concept of Indo-European. A linguistic unit gathering Italic languages (of which Latin from where are resulting Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Rumanian, French, Catalan, Occitan or Provencal, Corsican), Greek languages from where the modern Greek is resulting, the Germanic languages (German, English, Globish, Dutch, Frisian, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish), Celtic languages (Breton, Gaelic in Ireland and Scotland, Welsh), Indo-Iranian languages (from which Sanskrit, Bengali, Hindi, Sinhalese, Romani or Gypsy, Farsi, Ossetian, Kurdish), Baltic languages (Lithuanian, Latvian), Slavic languages (Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, Bulgarian, Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Sorbian), Anatolians (all disappeared), Albanian, Armenian, Macedonian, Thracian, Tocharian, etc. Tocharian was a language spoken in current China, more precisely in Xinjiang.

On the model of Latin languages (all the current Latin languages come from the same ancient language: Latin), scientists of the time imagined that it had had to exist at one time an antiquated and single Indo-European language. Their efforts therefore tended to the hypothetical reconstruction of this disappeared language. For that, while being based on the similarities and the divergences, they built phonetic rules of derivations. And they succeeded consequently, not without some vexations, in rebuilding this language of which nothing remains. It is, of course, a reconstruction a posteriori, probable and anything else.

A question arose quickly nevertheless: was this language really spoken one day by individuals in the flesh? What would be logical if we take again the example of Latin, who originates in an obscure small people of Italic Peninsula, but dedicated to supremacy? And subsequently did exist a common civilization/ culture and which; even a political unit?

In the beginning of the 20th century, certain scientists, particularly Otto Schrader, wanted to see the original place of Indo-Europeans in the steppes of the north of the Black Sea, of the Caucasus and of the Caspian Sea. They associated the Indo-European language and its descendants with wandering people of the steppes; who would have invaded thereafter, starting from the third thousand years before our era Europe, part of Central Asia, India, and part of the Middle East (Marija Gimbutas 1956).

This theory is that which is more in vogue today at those who want to find at all costs a people, a culture and an original place for this language: it is called Kurgan (pit graves in the Russian language) hypothesis. It is defended by many scientists, and the theses of the French George Dumezil

were used for supporting it. The works of Bosch-Gimpera, around the end of the 20th century, changed nevertheless the data of the problem. He shifted the original place more in the west , in Central Europe and Eastern Europe. And especially, he did want no longer to see there a single people , but rather a complex phenomenon related to the formation of the various Neolithic civilizations of this geographical area, between the sixth and the third millennium before our era.

Lastly, in 1987, Colin Renfrew proposed to see in the wave of immigration which “Neolithized “ Europe as soon as the seventh millennium, starting from the Middle East, an Indo-Europeanization of this territory. He therefore located the original place of Indo-Europeans somewhere in the Middle East.

These three last theories have all some qualities but also some weak point. All come up against difficulties that another tendency puts forward, in order to emphasize their limits.

Given the crimes against humanity committed by National Socialist German policy between 1933 and 1945 (holocaust by bullets, between 4 and 6 million Jewish victims, etc.),the most critical School calls in question the will itself to find an original people, culture and place, for Indo-Europeans. It calls into question assumptions, methodology, models, and conclusions. Besides this current of thought limits voluntarily Indo-Europeanity to linguistic and ideological convergences, by limiting their historical range.

By pushing its reasoning to the extreme, we could even sometimes come to deny the existence of this Indo-Europeanity, which until now is based on no (archeological or scriptural) concrete material fact, and to make it only a myth. A pure fancy of mind having no relation with a past reality.

My Parisian penfriends point out to me that the same hypercriticism or the same hypercritical methods currently dominant with regard to Gauls and France or Islam have significantly different ideological motivations according to the essayist Eric Zemmour (Poor France!)

Is not France (poor France) the country which produced Jean-Baptiste Peres (1752-1840), an illustrious professor of mathematics or a magistrate, I know no longer, who scientifically demonstrated in 1827 that Napoleon had never existed and that he was only a solar myth.

Who is right, who is wrong? Nothing until now comes to confirm or cancel definitively only one of these various theses. And in the din of the scientific fight which takes place since now more than two centuries, our little voice is not able to bring an answer; but let's not be stupidly hypercritical or in hateful denial or like J.-B. Peres, and let's finally be positive. Below is what we can reasonably say about this.

The theoretical crystallization of Indo-European culture varies according to the authors and the selected historical options. Between the beginning of the Middle Eastern Neolithic era (what gives approximately - 9000 before our era) and the middle or the end of the Eastern-European Neolithic era; or of the North Pontic plains and the steppes in the north of the Caspian Sea (i.e. around - 4000).

Therefore, in any event, during the Neolithic era, at the time when breeding, agriculture, and ceramics, were invented, to speak only about that, and where, in some regions of the globe, pre-urban civilizations started to open…

The study which follows will adopt as starting point the assumption of the real existence of the Indo-Europeanity; this level of Indo-Europeanity may very well stop with the existence of linguistic convergences, even of a single antiquated language, and a common ideology.

What is the functional tripartition of the Indo-Europeans found by Benveniste, Wikander and Dumezil mainly?

It would be the grid of conceptual reading of reality, whether it is cosmic or social, of the historical Indo-European peoples (either they are Indian, Persian, Scythian, Germanic, Greek, Slavic, Illyrian, Hittites, Dacian, Thracian, Phrygian, Italic, Baltic, Armenian, Roman, Celtic, etc.); inherited at the time prehistoric, from this supposed cultural unity before the break-up.

It would be an idealized representation of cosmic and social order. It would be the way all the carriers of the Indo-European culture had to view reality, to invent stories, and to design their history or their mythology (what besides was not necessarily different for them).

In a word, it would be an ideology in the primary or not wasted sense of the word.

The functional ideology would be for Indo-Europeans what yin and yang philosophy is for Chinese.

Taken in isolation, each one of these functions, of course, existed in every human group in which it was always necessary to work and live, to hunt or fight against rivals or enemies, and finally to try to

coax supernatural powers; but Indo-Europeans would be the only ones or at least the first ones to have theorized and organized these three functions each other; to have a clear enough idea of them; whereas the first two or the last two were for example often confused in the status of certain individuals within other peoples.

So what Indo-European tripartition was and what the famous three functions in question were?

To the first function were associated cosmic order, virtue, oaths, contracts, sovereignty, spiritual protection of the community, ethics; and with regard to space, the higher sky and many other things still. On the human level, it was represented by the priests: Indian Brahmans, Roman flamines, Celtic* druids.

Priests were guards of the law, scientists, and those who organized sacred rituals. They were the incarnations of the regulating aspect of first function. Among some Indo-European peoples, there was a gender dichotomy in priestly class. Priests and priestesses did not have the same functions. Priestesses were rather related to prophecies and magic.

To the second function were associated strength, martial arts, courage, wind and thunder, i.e., the intermediate sky from a spatial point of view. On earth, it was represented by the warriors or the lords: Indian Kshatriya, for example.

To the third function: farming, breeding, wealth and production of material goods, health, fruitfulness, love, beauty, and so on. On the human level , it was represented by the people, those who work and who produce. Farmers and shepherds, craftsmen and tradesmen… And from the spatial point of view, their field was the earth on the surface or in its depths, as well as ocean.

The first Indo-European function is therefore that of the priestly sovereignty: cosmic order and social order, justice, regulation, morals, wisdom and knowledge, magic, are its main attributes. It was an ambivalent function having two very contrasted aspects.

The first aspect of this function is that which represents the cosmic or social order, benevolent and peaceful. It is for example a lawyer who judges and approves contracts.

The second aspect represents the relentless and almost warlike cosmic or social order. It is a worrying, remote and wild god-or-demon, which makes the oaths obeyed, for example by punishing those who do not respect them.

This function is in general represented by a clearly recognizable divine pair among the most conservative Indo-Europeans. Varuna and Mitra among Vedic Indians, Odin and Tyr among Germanic peoples, Jup (p) iter and Dius Fidius among Romans.

Odin is a warrior - he presides over the fight on the battle fields - it is therefore a divine representative of the second function. Jupiter is the god-or-demon of Romulus, in the account of the foundation of Rome. However Romulus, first king of Rome, half-god-or-demon, son of Mars - god-or-demon of war – brought up with his brother by a she-wolf, and who is especially the embodiment of the first function, particularly of the first term of its definition; has a troubled even violent reign (several murders to his credit, of which that of his brother, treason, abduction of the Sabines, etc.). On the contrary, Numa, his successor, is peaceful and right. He founds Roman laws and priesthoods. His god is Dius Fidius, combined with Jupiter.

In fact, the first element sets up the order, but it is by an act of violence and of coercion over the chaos, whereas the second manages the order thus established by an organized, peaceful, and legal, action.

The first function thus seems to cover the two others - the warlike and violent function or the productive and peaceful function - as if it included them. The druids could besides, we say well could, without being forced to do, go to war and bear arms. From where, perhaps, the superiority of this function in the eyes of Indo-Europeans.

Among all historical Indo-European peoples, at least among most conservative, the functional god-or-demons all were of male entities, adjoined with more or less symbolic consorts.

Goddess-or-demonesses, or fairies if you prefer, important, are either trivalent (embodying aspects of the three functions like Athena among Greeks, who is at the same time a goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, of wisdom, war and community); or the incarnation of an aspect of the third function (fruitfulness, plenty , etc. Rosemartha for example among Celts…).

During many rituals from one end to another of the historical sphere of occupation of Indo-European peoples - from India to Ireland - the main god-or-demons of the three Indo-European functions, we may even say their representatives, were called upon or thanked through offerings or gestures in their honor, performed in a quite precise order. Initially the first function, then the second, lastly the third.

More than onomastic matchings, they are functional correspondences in question in this case. Of course, there also exist onomastic matchings , but they are secondary and not always relevant for the comprehension of our texts or their analysis: so Indian Varuna matches to the Greek Uranus from the point of view of etymology. And Indian Dyaus (pitar) matches Greek Zeus or Latin Jupiter similarly.

But even if, in a very distant prehistory, these god-or-demons in this case had the same origin, and therefore the same function (what is by no means certain); the separate evolution of the cultures conferred on them a different destiny among the ones and the others. So Varuna remained a deity of first class representing the first function during Vedic time (after what he was not quite so proud compared other god-or-demons); whereas Uranus himself, preserved only a secondary role compared to Zeus.

Conversely Dyaus (pitar) – the sky of the Vedic Indians - stepped aside, if he ever had a big role one day; whereas among Greeks, Zeus became the leader of all the deities as well as the archetypal representative of the first function. Taran/Toran/Tuireann among Celtic peoples deposed by Lug in Ireland.

Strange are the destinies of the god-or-demons when they are men who write them!

The evolution of the search of Dumezil, in general and on this particular point of the Indo-European imaginary world, was noticeable. It is necessary to insist on a point, one of the initial mistakes of this scientist (he recognized it himself) is to have confused “imaginary world “and “social reality “ to have believed that what he located in the imaginary world was embodied in the society. The great (but unsolved) question aroused by Dumezil question is the understanding and the description of the relations which were to be established between these imaginary representations (of which, until proven otherwise, it is necessary to postulate an only internal coherence); and the levels of (social, productive, or power) reality. According to a scale of possibilities which range from the simple ideal reflection of a material form already firmly constituted in itself ( the first way Dumezil ); to the complex integration between structures of reasoning and social data in a system with several centers (it is the model of Marx in his Grundrisseder Kritik der politischen Ökonomie written in 1857); until the assumption of a disconnection and of a total absence of matching between the various levels; signs of wounds, breaks and contradictions, even major and hidden.

As Regis Boyer saw well, the Dumezilian analysis in reality also comes against Scandinavian mythology. His tri-functionalism is quite simply not worth for Northern countries. Our sources, either are disappointing, or are difficult to be interpreted.

As we have had already the opportunity to notice it, but repetere = ars docendi; the problem is that all these documents or almost were written down by Christian clerics or well-read men, the only ones knowing to write at the time. The example of the two great Scandinavian mythographers, the Icelander Snorri Sturluson author of the Edda known as prose Edda, or the Dane Saxo Grammaticus with his Gesta Danorum, both living around 1200, is illuminating . They make an Interpretatio Christiana, Græca or Latina, of the good old myths they no longer understand. These written documents, Eddas and Skaldic poetry, connected sagas and texts, are therefore much too recent: they date back on average, at best, to the 11th century, and are especially pervaded by Christian influences. The prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson dates back for example to the 13th century. The Prolog of the prose Edda begins with an explanation of paganism from a Christian point of view. It evokes several episodes of the Genesis: the creation by God or the Demiurge of the sky and of the earth, the appearance of Adam and Eve, the flood and Noah's Ark. The Ragnarök therefore resembles the Christian Apocalypse, the Valkyries the angels, Odin Mercury, Baldr Baal, the wolfhound Fenrir Cerberus, and so on. It would be necessary to know thoroughly the mentality of these peoples to see clearly, but we are sorely lacking understandable documents clearly. Even if we have very few sure non-Scandinavian accounts, the contacts between the North of Europe and the Celtic, Latin or Slavic, worlds, could not then not to have deep influences, in short, we are reduced to conjecture…

The fact that Indo-Europeans had a tripartite analysis grid on the social level, does not imply necessarily their society of then was tripartite. Ossetes of the North-Caucasus - neighbors of

Chechens, Circassians, and Abkhazians - have like their ancestors the Scythians, a tripartite view of social and cosmic reality, that we find in the tales speaking about the Nart families of their folklore; but by no means have a society made up of three castes or social classes.

It should be well realized therefore that this trifunctional ideology consequently was an idealized representation of reality or a projection in the sphere of the divine one even of the mythological one.

On the other hand, it is quite true that certain peoples or certain cultures of Indo-Europeans, had a social tripartition. It is still the case for example, of the Indian society, which of all the still existing Indo-European cultures, was most conservative, with its castes called varnas: Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Shudras; to which it is necessary to add the “untouchables “ i.e., the slaves, dhimmis or atectoi in Celtic country. We find this tripartition in the feudal Western society divided into clergy, nobility, and third-estate.

But any ideology is not necessarily relevant, and makes it inevitably possible to explain the driving forces of society or of History.

The factors which determine the conscientiousness of an individual, and all the more so of a whole people, are multiple and complex, although some of them; like the production relationships primarily, and the ideology of the dominant class which results from them, or the struggle between the dominated classes and the dominant classes; are most important.

Moreover, this tripartite design of the world was coupled with a bipartite design, which had its roots in the real social bipolarity. Which is by no means the prerogative of the alleged Indo-Europeans, but a universal social fact and which we find here or there on the planet.Starting from the end of the Neolithic era or from the beginning of the Chalcolithic era , a society of classes develops a little everywhere in the world, which is based on the private property of means of production (what did not exist before), at the time especially agricultural; in which those who work and those who direct and grow rich, oppose.

This oppression was idealized even enhanced by dominant ideology. The ideology of the dominant class - lords and priests - was imposed on everybody, even on the members of the oppressed classes.

Functional tripartition can be described as the idealized analysis grid of the dominant classes to explain the world and the society, but also to justify it such as it was, therefore such as it was to be kept. In Marxist words, we would say that the Indo-European tripartite ideology was used by the dominant class to erase the antagonisms of classes which appeared, in order to consolidate their oppression, by keeping oppressed people in the ignorance of their own interests. Either it is done out knowingly or not is very secondary!

First type of bipartition nevertheless.

It is usual in myths that the god-or-demons of the first two functions - priests and warlike lords - are united and fight the god-or-demons of the third function.

It is what we see in the war of the Aesir - god-or-demons of the first two functions - against the Vanir - god-or-demons of the third function - among the Scandinavian Germanic people.

This bipartition and the war of the first two functions against the third, show that Indo-Europeans were perhaps not short-sighted at the point not to see that lords and priests often opposed to the peoples, and exploited them.

It is perhaps also what we find among Irish Celts with the battle of the Plain of the standing stones or mounds opposing the men of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Danu (bia), with the gigantic anguiped wyverns called Andernas on the Continent, Fomors in Ireland, previous occupiers of the country. The children of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if you prefer, Danu (bia), represent the first and the second function, but not knowing agriculture since husbandry was the prerogative of the Andernas or Fomors - some “demonic “ beings representing the third function. Among Irishmen, the end of the battle of the Plain of the pillar stones or mounds ends up in the extermination of a portion of Andernas or Fomorians and the enslaving of the others (see particularly the case of their prince called Bregsos/Bres); bound to reveal to their new masters the secrets of husbandry. The god-or-demons of the first two functions seize thus at the same time, the prerogatives of the third one: the work and the result of the work. Is it possible to be more explicit? !

But, as the great French celtologist C. J. Guyonvarc'h saw it well, the Celtic Heaven has neither druids nor warriors. We wondered why all its aspects are of third function. The reason for that is clear: the sidh being, by principle and in fact, the expression of perfection, all the distinctions of classes and functions are abolished.

We therefore see well where Indo-European “ideologists “wanted to come. The cosmic or social order, i.e., the harmony, the balance obligatory to the good performance of everything, needs the co-operation of the representatives of the three functions. Priests, warriors or lords, and producers, on earth as among the god-or-demons.

Among the Scandinavians and Romans, the war ends besides with a peace treaty of the ones with the others, and a synecism which leads to the foundation of a new society.

Another type of two-fold division among the Indo-Europeans. There was another bipartition, which in a certain way, rises from the previous one. The priestly function, the first function, would have been clearly separated from both others which, socially, among some Indo-European peoples, were represented by the same people: free men, at the same time of the second and the third function. The farmer was also a warrior.

It is for example what Venceslas Kruta considers as regards the Celts of the fourth or third century before our era, somewhere north of the Alps. It is this environment of armed farmers, for whom the carrying of a sword besides was probably and before all an expression of their status of free men, and who formed a true rural militia; that the human resources of the great expansion were recruited.

There existed, however, among all Indo-European peoples a warlike aristocracy, separated from the common run of free men. And this warlike aristocracy probably embodied the second function in a more ideal way.

In the Indo-European ideology, there was a character who personified the three functions at the same time, since personifying the unity of the community, or its central point: the king. The majority of the Indo-European peoples used a derivation from the proto-Indo-European term *reg- to designate the king. This word is also the stem which produced in Latin rectus: “right, “ in German: “recht “. Thus the king (Latin rex, Celtic rix) is the righteous man, the one who says the law, who establishes the uprightness. He is not the one who orders, but the one who “resolves, “ who organizes the society, just like the god-or-demons of the first function organize the universe. He is also the one who dispenses justice. The king is consequently a representative of the first function. He is in a way a priest, but incomplete.

He is nevertheless also an embodiment of the warlike function, as the fact that he was elected among the warriors, within the warlike aristocracy, indicates it. He is therefore like the king god-or-demon of the Indians, Indra, which is a god-or-demon of war. Some Indo-European peoples chose besides to designate the king by a derivation from the proto-Indo-European *welh- which means “to be strong “. A term which, by definition, characterizes the warrior.

The king also promotes the fruitfulness as well as the wealth of the community. He has to produce rain, to make it possible good harvests, and human or animal fruitfulness. A king under whom that does not happen is a bad king, rejected by god-or-demons. An unhealthy person, a disabled person, a patient, a mad man, may not become king. The king is a feeder. He organizes feasts. He must be able to satisfy the food request for his subjects. A recurrent symbol among Indo-European peoples is the inexhaustible cauldron besides, from which sufficient food gets out to feed the people, and which makes possible even , among the Celts, to bring fallen warriors to life. The king has to be rich (today still in French, roy and richness are two words having the same etymological origin). The king is consequently also a representative of the third function. The rites of enthronement show it besides well. The king of Leinster received a white shirt - the white being the color of the first function (the druids were dressed in white) - a lance symbolizing the second function, and a shoe full of money, symbol of richness, therefore of the third function.

Indians say of the rajah that he guarantees their good behavior (1st function), protects them (2nd function), and feeds them (3rd function). He receives in the majority of Indo-European peoples a scepter, a kind of power wand symbolizing the first function. He sits down on a stone throne (the stone of Fal or Scone), connecting him to the chthonian forces of the third function. His marriage is sacred (hierogamy), because symbolizing his union with the Mother-Earth, goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, of fruitfulness, through her earthly representative , the queen.

Another characteristic of the Indo-European king: It is forbidden to him to work. Not because it is bad in itself to work, but because his royal tasks would not make him able to do that. To work would have meant a deterioration of the balance in favor of the third function, of course, most monopolizing of all .

Therefore the king would have been no longer the center of the community. Balance would have been broken, and it is all the community which would have suffered from it.

But there exists a point which seems to contradict this fact. The kings of the majority of the Indo-European peoples, although they are originally warriors, have no longer the right to fight personally. Even if their presence on the battle field was nevertheless necessary to victory.

Germanic heresy.

In theory first function (priestly, sacredness, law) and second function (war and he-men ) are quite distinct (separation of Church and State before the word is invented). But among the Germanic people, the two sovereign god-or-demons (i.e., representatives of the first function) are also warriors: Odin and Tyr. The warlike nature of the first function in the Germanic peoples is also testified by the rites of justice calling upon the combat/duel between the two opposing parties in a disagreement: the trial by combat or judicial duel. Justice is, however, an attribution of the first function. Here we clearly see an intrusion of the second function in the field of the first one. And let us remember that Indra is the king of the Indian god-or-demons. He does not keep less his function of god-or-demon of the war. There are therefore examples, either of the interpenetration of the first two functions, or of the preservation of the warlike nature of kings in the mythologies of certain Indo-European peoples. And not the least, in this that they are, of course, among most culturally conservative of all, with the Germanic ones, Italics, and Indians.

And now what could therefore be the Evil in this Indo-European vision of things?

Myths insist on the fact that the co-operation of the three functions is necessary to the preservation of cosmic balance, universal harmony, order. Therefore the bad/Evil is all that calls into question this balance. It is the Chaos and all that refers to it, as the lie, the disloyalty, the discord, the hatred, the impulses of any kind… The evil, it is also to refuse the (cosmic and social) Order. To do all the opposite, to keep harmony and to respect Order, it is therefore to do good.

A man, like any existing thing, must respect that for what he is on Earth. We find that in many philosophical currents. A warrior must excel in his art. He will become a hero if he embodies the very principles of a warrior: courage and strength. A representative of the third function must be an exemplary member of his class, but not seek to be a warrior or a priest.

The ambition of the Indo-European is therefore to accept his destiny. The question of Fate, of Destiny, is a recurrent theme among the Indo-Europeans. How could it be different, since the god-or-demons write in advance the history of the world and of the Order.

But Fate does not prevent freedom within an imposed framework. Let us remember of Cuchulainn in Ireland: he has the choice between two destinies, a life short but glorious as a warrior, a life long, peaceful, but anonymous. Knowing that Cuchulainn is the warlike ideal, could he refuse his status, refuse to embody that for what he existed? Wouldn't it have badly acted if he had refused to be what he was? It is there an unthinkable thing in an epic account!

Ultimately, what to think of this study? Is it legitimate?

Beyond the reservations stated in the preamble, as beyond our amateurism in the matter, which could lead us to make mistakes; some scientists - linguists and archeologists – put forward justified criticisms about Indo-Europeanism. By even calling into question the methodology followed since the years 1930’s even before. By calling even into question the conclusions and the assumptions, as well as the idea itself of a possible Indo-Europeanity, as it was seen previously (cf. the French archeologist Jean-Paul Demoule). If there never has been Indo-European culture, our work is then only a fancy of the mind based on void.

And to finish on a provocation deprived of any aggressiveness on our behalf (peace and good will to all men!), we will say that even if our work is only a mirage, we carried out it with pleasure. Because we had by no means the need to speak about genetics and evolution of the species, endeavoring to try to explain the reality (the ideology of a scenario writer) rather than the fiction; a pure imaginary world in which reality principles are not necessary.

Here therefore in a few words, what George Dumezil, as well as other philologists and specialists in comparative literature, tried to describe in their various works. It is far from representing all that could be said on the subject. The simplification necessary not to hide you under a heap of details or of

knowledge is the cause of the approximate and fast nature of this talk. We hope nevertheless that it will be sufficient for those to whom this subject, there are still ten minutes, was completely foreign.

It is therefore possible to compare BTVS by Joss Wheldon; as well on the level of the characters taken separately or in groups, as on the level of the structure of the series; with the functional ideology of Indo-Europeans and the way in which they staged it through the mythology or their sagas. Our heroine represents here the human ideal of Indo-Europeans that the king in their design was to embody; the union of the forces which compose the world as well material as spiritual (three positive functions: justice/virtue/wisdom-force-prosperity) is effective here, within a group which embodies society or co-operation.

It is from that perhaps that the TV show Buffy The Vampire Slayour draws its success, unconsciously answering the pattern that our distant ancestors bequeathed us. Is Joss Whedon, the author, conscious of that? It is, of course, the only one able to answer this question. However, it is not necessary that he is. He can, like everyone, have integrated elements of this ideology, and to transcribe them in BTVS, without to be aware of the Indo-European implications.

Some axes of comparisons were only outlined for lack of information. Others were ignored: the relation between BTVS and the idea of fate and love. Topics dear to Indo-Europeans. Moreover, as I already said it, an ideology is not something fixed, since it is determined by existence: material conditions in which men live, production relationship, social relations, etc. (Marx, Grundgrisse.) Material existence of the men evolved since ancient times… ideology too. Two fundamental contributions were done in the 19th century: the psychoanalytical study of the individual by Freud, and its equivalent regarding society: Marxism. The way of considering the psychology of the characters of a story is no longer considered in the same way as 4000 years ago. A “traditional “ Indo-European fictional character would have a psychology which would follow totally the symbolic system of the function he embodies. An impassable yoke limited the stories. These accounts were in the service of a moral. The implication was direct there. Today the yoke still exists, but the shackle which composes it was increased with several other links. There are therefore as many divergent elements than convergent elements between BTVS and the Indo-European functional ideology.

It is obvious in BTVS that Buffy plays the part of a warlike goddess-or-demoness. She could therefore be the representative of the second function. Her role is to eliminate from Earth’s surface demonic forces which threaten human beings. She has as a function protection of Mankind, just like warriors had theoretically as a task to protect their community.

These three functions match, of course, three fundamental needs, that we could say universal, and which constitute everywhere, for all the peoples, the main thing.

There do not exist structures communal to the various mythologies of the various historical Indo-European peoples. It is possible nevertheless, by cross-checking between the various mythologies and the various sagas, to reconstruct an antiquated mythology, such as it could have existed before the supposed scattering.

- Birth of an imperfect world.

- Slow progression of the evil (more and more functional disorder).

- Inversion of social order (slave dominates his master).

- Rebirth of a better world (Disappearance of the Master and of the Slave by surpassing their opposition and disappearance of the functions of both antagonistic elements).

As there exist many variants of this pattern in the Celtic tradition, that is the least we can say; the assumption and the conclusion of all that, it is that each Indo-European people used such or such aspect of a common heritage to modify it according to the realities of his time.

Yann.

Postscript: text of the author above and published in Almak encyclopedia, removed by Peter DeLaCrau but restored by his heirs.

Just like in Judeo-Christianity, Indo-European religion conveys the concepts of sin then of Redemption. It is therefore not astonishing that these topics are found in Christianity born within a culture which knew already these concepts - Judaism -; and which, moreover, had been influenced for several centuries by Greeks, Romans, and the Persians of Zoroastrian Reformation. Thus we can find in Christian Holy Trinity, the traditional Indo-European trifunctional ideology. The Christian God or Demiurge is the gathering of the three functions in the same entity. This change of the Jewish

henotheistic monolatry into [what Muslims regard as] polytheism is, of course, due to the very conditions of the appearance of Christianity: the addition of the Torah on Indo-European mentalities.

* Since there never was pure Celtic race, Celts having very early been a mixture or an interbreeding of Indo-European conquerors and peoples with overcome (Neolithic) peoples with shamans, to say “CELTIC MINDED” would be perhaps more judicious.

BUDDHISTA INTERPRETATIO OR

SEARCH FOR THE EQUIVALENT OF WRATHFUL OR ANGRY DEITIES

IN THE EQUIVALENT OF THE DRUIDIC BOOK OF THE DEAD

Primus in orbe deos fecit timor in the writing of Petronius or Statius.

We saw on several occasions that the role of these repellent deities in a stricter sense of the term was to put the soul minds back on the straight and narrow in the immediate beginning of the travel of the soul after death, so that it is not mislaid and can be reincarnated in the pure land of the world of the gods located far in the west of the world where the sun sets. N.B. The characteristic of druidism, on the other hand, it is to have admitted that it could also exist divinities virotutis, anextiomarus, iovantucarus etc. in short helpful or calming our Tibetan friends would say.

It is the fear which made the gods in this world, we said. This religious concept from the start arouses problems as for its first written expression.

Two Latin writers, Petronius (dead in 66) and Statius (dead in 96) can be one and the other regarded as the authors of these remarks. As we are unaware of the precise chronology of the diffusion of their works, it is not advisable to rather ascribe the paternity of “Primus in orbe… “to the one rather than to the other. The expression would have appeared under the hand of Petronius in one of his pastiches of anthems in hexametric lines of verse included in the Satyricon. During this same second half of the first century of our era, Statius makes a protagonist of his imposing saga, the Thebaid, saying at the line of verse 661 “Primus in orbe deos fecit timor! Et tibi tuto nunc eat iste furor… “. This work which takes over the well-known conflict between Eteocles and Polynices (two sons of Oedipus who should alternatively have ruled on Thebes if the first one had not refused to make way for the second one), brings us, in book III, to a dialog between a warrior and a soothsayer. This last, not very disposed to move forward with violence, invites on the contrary, not without vehemence, to avoid any fight; the warrior therefore will insult the soothsayer and will exclaim: “Primus in orbe… “.

There would be an anachronism to want to interpret these remarks of the warrior in question like these of a freethinker, it is rather a question of understanding his reaction as that of a fighter urged on by the furor or the demonic possession.

Does the expression have a past, or a pre-existence in other authors in word rather close to these which are used by Petronius and Statius ? Such is the question. But as for the posterity of this “Primus in orbe… “ i.e., all the occurrences in which the expression will be used as contrast for the ones, as foil to the others, indeed it is imposing. As of the end of the 11th century, the theologists request it within various polemics; Abelard (1079-1142), in a chapter of his Christian Theology, approaches, among other questions, that of the source of the word even of God; and on this subject, he provides the following answer: “God is a strange (sic) Greek word which is translated into Latin by fear “; “this is why a Latin poet said: Primus in orbe deos fecit timor “.

The freethinker Francis of La Mothe Le Vayer (1588-1672), in his skeptical dialogues after the manner of the ancients and more precisely during the dialog about divinity, quotes the Latin expression “ Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor, ardua coelo Fulmina dum caderent “, names Petronius and makes the

distinction between the alarming source of the idea of God according to the author of the Satyricon and the dream origin of this same idea according to Lucretius.

Lastly, among the most passionate materialists, Baron d'Holbach (1723-1789), driven by a total freedom of thought parading itself through an utter hostility to Christianity, will use this “Primus in orbe… “as a maxim of the activist atheism, free from any transcendence.

!----------- ------------------------- ------------------- !

Notice found by the heirs to PeterDeLaCrau.

There is truth in all these interpretations but it is important to emphasize that, unlike these lines of verse by Statius, the spirituality of Indo-European people don't result from any fear, whether it is the fear of a deity or the fear of death.

This is at least what can be deduced from the spirituality of the ancestors of Brahmins, the rishis, who arrived in Iran and then in India around 1500 before our era, with Aryans, as we find it expressed in the Vedas: in them the homo vedicus gets close to the gods (devas) and is on familiar terms with them.

As for the Brahmins of the far west at the other end of the Aryan world they also had, don’t forget it, deities virotutis, anextiomarus, iovantucarus, contrebis,dunatis,toutatis, etc.In short helpful or calming as we have said higher about our Tibetan friends.

To return to Statius, what seems certain is that the lines of verse of this Roman poet of the Late Empire, stating that fear was formerly the matrix of the gods (Publius Papinius Statius, Thebaid III, 661: primus in orbe fecit deos timor 1) reveal in no way the Indo-European religious sensitivity. “The fear of the Lord “(cf. Proverbs by Solomon, 9,10; Psalm, 111,10 or 112,1) never made up the beginning of wisdom or faith. Such a fear, which generates unhealthy spirituality, could not occur among Indo-Europeans. Because those don't perceive themselves as the “creatures “of an unspecified deity and did not design the world as a “creation “ or the work of a creating god-or-demon (demiurge), emerged at the time of a hypothetical beginning of times.

For these Aryans there, the world is more a “timeless order, “ in which as many god-or-demons as men have their place, their time and their function. The idea of creation is Eastern, mainly Babylonian, just like the idea of a “judgment “inaugurating a Reign of God, during which everything will be changed from top to bottom. Indo-Europeans believed; thus guessing in anticipation knowledge and presuppositions of modern physics or astronomy; in a without beginning nor end succession, of births and declines of worlds, in a twilight of the god-or-demons followed by restorations of worlds and of the panth-eons; Edda and Völuspa among Vikings describe this feeling in a particularly detailed way, much more than the Celtic coins on this topic. Aryans believed in successive disasters (as named them Hellenic people, followed by new god-or-demons and new worlds. From the idea of succession of births and declines of worlds, were born in Iran, the representation of an end of the world to come; of an end of the world which would be preceded by the arrival of a “Savior “(Saoshyant) and accompanied by a “judgment “. This religious view born in Iran was established in the Jewish world then declining. In the spheres of civilization where Man does not perceive the world as a creation (it is the case among the Aryans) and does not design God as a creator; the feeling to be a creature, dependent or determined by the will of a creator, therefore could in no way mark spirituality or pervade piety in a substantial way.

So could not appear among the Indo-Europeans any religiosity which would have perceived man as a slave submitted to an absolute God or absolute Demiurge absolute (as for example the very meaning of the name Abdallah implies in Islam, a term meaning itself submission to God besides). The servile submission of man to God or the Demiurge is a very widespread characteristic. The names of Baal, Adon, Moloch, Rabbat, and others, designate the avataras of an absolute God or Demiurge in front of whom, face down, some slaves men: his creatures, prostrate themselves. For Indo-European on the contrary, to honor the gods, to pray to a deity, it is to encourage or cultivate all the noblest impulses of Man: the Roman will use for that the verb colere, the Greek verb therapeuein. In the Semitic languages, on the other hand, the verb“to pray “ is derived from the stem abad which means “being a slave “.

Hannah (1 Samuel, 1,11) prays to Yahweh, in the beginning god-or-demon of the tribe of the Hebrews, to offer a son, to her, her slave ; David defines himself (2 Samuel, 8,18) as a servant of his

God or Demiurge, just like Solomon (1 Kings, 3,6). It is the fear, the terror, which forms the essence of Yahweh (cf Exodus 23,27; Isaiah, 8,13).

Indo-Europeans never perceived their god-or-demons in this way. The Anthems to Zeus of the Stoic Cleanthes of Asus (- 331 - 233), of whom Paul of Tarsus took as a starting point in order to adapt to the Hellenic mentality, radically contradict the religiosity particularly expressed in Psalm 90.

In Christianity also, the attitude of the believer in front of God is very often designated by the adjective humilis, showing by the way that humility, the feeling of servility, forms the ultimate core of this religion. Such an attitude is in noway Indo-European; it derives from religiosity of the Eastern type. Because he is not “servant “or “slave “of a jealous and absolute God, Indo-European generally does not pray on his knees, even bent in the direction of the ground; but upright, and looking upwards , with his arms raised towards the sky.

Editor’s note. Admittedly, it is not advisable to be too humble, but between humility and hubris, there is perhaps for man a nuance, a medium term, which we could describe as pride. To be hubristic is incontestably a fault. To be proud, proud of one’s efforts, proud of the positive results of what you really did personally, is not a fault.

Like a total man, with his intact honor, the honest Indo-European (honestus: Latin righteous man) stands up in front of his God or of his gods. All the religiosity which would like to remove something from Man, in order to decrease him compared to a become almighty and oppressing deity are non-Indo-European. Every religiosity which considers one or the other part of the world or of the Man, as deprived of value, as lower or “soiling “ every religiosity which seeks “to redeem “the Man and to prepare him for supra-earthly “or “supra-human “values “; is not genuinely Indo-European. Each time “this world “is desacralized in favor of an “Other World “ supposed to be housing “ eternal Good “ we leave the field of Indo-European spirituality. Indo-European spirituality is consequently a spirituality of the “here below “ of immanence. All the forms in which it is expressed show it.

This is why it is very difficult for us to understand the greatness of Indo-European spirituality correctly, because we are accustomed to measure spirituality compared to the values and forms of expression of essentially non-Indo-European religiosity. Most of the criteria, through which we judge spirituality, derive from mental universes unfamiliar to Indo-Europeanity, generally Eastern therefore; they are especially primitive and medieval Christianity which preside over our approaches of other spirituality.

Our evaluation of Indo-European spirituality suffers from it consequently ipso facto. It is in fact as if we try to explain the linguistic structure of Indo-European speeches by means of the elements which proved to be relevant to explain the linguistic structures of Semitic languages. So we are accustomed to see true spirituality only in the religiosity of "hereafter" and to regard every spirituality of this side (of the immanence) as something incomplete or underdeveloped; or to see in it only a stage in the direction of something more accomplished.

The Judeo-Christian representations imposed on our people, prevent us from recognizing the greatness and the nobility of Indo-European spirituality. This handicap is so much more important that, even in the scientific works which have the aim of comparing religions, the Indo-European religious are usually regarded as lower, or less important; because their author, generally, uses comparison criteria copied on the Eastern values. The greatness and the fulness of the Indo-European spiritual world, Hinduism for example, therefore remain largely ignored. Whoever tries to measure any spirituality compared to the level lowering that Man inflicts to himself in front of the deity; whoever wants to assess any spirituality with the way in which it judges how much “this world “can appear problematic, deprived of value or “soiled “compared“ to the "other world “; whoever tries to measure any spirituality through the way in which it primarily designs Man as “a break“ between a perishable body and an indestructible soul, between the flesh (sarx) and the soul (pneuma); will find indeed that the spirituality of the Indo-European people is poor, even elementary. What is not the case, however, of Hinduism.

The god-or-demons on the one hand, and the men, on the other hand, are not, among Indo-Europeans, incomparable beings, distant from each other. And, of course, not among the Greeks.

The god-or-demons seem there immortal men, with “great soul/minds“ (cf. Aristotle, Metaphysics III, 2,997 b). And men [ if they are well-born descendants of noble and famous tribes] , have in them something divine. They can claim to represent, with their family and their tribe also, a portion of the divinity. In the nature itself of Man - his divinity wants it - there are potentialities which sometimes make him able to look diogenes, i.e., resulting from the god-or-demons. This is why the Indo-European

peoples tried all, literally, to embody the aristocratic and popular values in their families; what the Greeks named kalokagathia.

Indo-European spirituality is by no means slavery; it implies by no means the tears of a slave trampled in front of an unapproachable and pitiless master, but the achievement, in confidence, of a real community including and the god-or-demons and the men. Plato speaks in his symposium (188 c) about a “community (philia) reciprocal between men and gods “. The Germanic man, as for him, knew that a friendship bound him to his god-or-demon, his fulltrui (the one he trusts absolutely). Among the Greeks of Odyssey (24, 514), we find the same trustful certainty in the expression theoi philoi (friends gods). In the Baghavad-Gita of Indians (IV, 3), the god-or-demon Krishna calls Arjuna his friend. The highest deity will therefore be honored, like Zeus, as “a father of gods and men “ as a father according to the image of the owner in big farms. Such Zeus Herkeios. Nothing similar, therefore, to a single, jealous and absolute, God. The name itself of God expresses this status besides: among Indians, it is Dyaus-pitar [“Father of Skies “], and among the Romans, it is Jupiter.

Remarks of Peter DeLaCrau.

This text is the chapter II of the book by Hans F.K. Günther, Frömmigkeit Nordischer Artung, 1934. It is not appropriate for us to comment on this work, very valued by the French New Right, but speaking very little about our dear druids. And as far as we are personally concerned, we prefer the speech of Jean Jaures on the idea of God (February 12, 1895, applause).

Some remarks nevertheless, even if my four years of German language are from now on very distant.

Durkheim (1858-1917) in his “elementary forms of religious life “ integrated into his analysis of the “origins of these beliefs “the Latin statement of the line of verse in question, primus in orbe deos fecit timor (without naming the author of it), but disputed its value. The famous formula is in no way warranted by the facts. The primitive did not see his god- or- demons as strangers, enemies, or beings who were fundamentally or necessarily evil-minded or whose favor he had to win at all costs. Quite the contrary, to him the gods are friends, relatives, and natural protectors. Durkheim, as a sociologist enlightened by the recent laurels of ethnography, intends to approach the religious phenomenon by studying its forms within the primitive societies (in Australia, more particularly); he therefore frees what we name “sacredness “of all presuppositions at work in our Western religious configuration. For these societies, the world pertains a timeless order in which each one, god-or-demon or man, has his place, his part; in such a context, man is neither the creature of an Almighty Being (as monolatries having left the mosaic current proclaim) nor (like in Plato) the mixture of soul and matter which turns to the god-or-demons in order to ascribe to them the perfection (immortality) of which it is deprived. These two postures while determining, either the feeling to be subjugated to the will of a creator or the feeling of an irreducible ontological inferiority,are the matrices of a radical fear, generating a specific religiosity which has no equivalent in the groups studied by Durkheim nor among spiritual ancestors of Indo-Europeans. The power to which the worship is addressed, the primitive man does not represent it gliding above him and crushing him with its superiority. The “immanent to himself “ deity, i.e., to the individual and the group of which he is a member, shares the same consubstantiality; in this way , the god-or-demons who are honored are less some foreigners than some friends. To conclude, we will remember that the words of Petronius or Statius contributed well, throughout the history of the Western thought, to feed a constant debate on the nature of the religious phenomenon and, particularly, on the experiment even of the “sacredness “; this one, according to the remarkable analyzes of the German theologist Rudolf Otto (1869-1937), comprises two aspects: sometimes the sacredness is given to us as tremendum (it causes fear), sometimes it applies to us a powerful fascination (it is known then as fascinans).

Günther draws our attention to only one face of the sacredness, the tremendum, and it is his limit there.

The experiment of the sacredness can be the subject of a misinterpretation ; if a natural place, because of its strangeness (a dark and icy cave, a cluster of rocks with strange shapes), if the breath of a hurricane, wakes up something in us, we can well name the feeling of the sacredness, all these factors, as Rudolf Otto suggests, are not necessarily the cause of such a feeling. A phenomenological analysis which would endeavor to exceed the rationalist explanations of every religion could undoubtedly reveal that there is in us, as an element structuring our very being, an “inexpressible feeling of the irrational “ prior to all the torments that confrontation with the world can produce…….

“Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor, ardua coelo Fulmina dum caderent“. The problem is that among the Celts (very little covered by Günther) and following a long deliberation of the high-knowers since Bronze Age, this a little simplistic diagram flew into pieces. The philosophical druidism broke the frameworks of ancient legends and speculated for its own benefit on the soul, the universe, and the god-or-demons; it worked out to spiritualize as to rationalize, always more, myths.

As conquests and acculturation increase towards Central Europe (Cucuteni-Trypillia in Moldova, Karanovo in Bulgaria, Vinca in Serbia, Lengyel in Hungary), many local deities were hosted in the pan-Celtic national Panth-eon, giving birth to a complex system of beliefs and rituals, characterized by a very large number of deities.

When we study the god-or-demons of druidic Panth-eon , we should not forget to take into account the fact that the same deity could be evoked, or represented, in various forms, each one of them expressing some basic and sacred principles.

- One of the specific attributes of the god-or-demon: for example the wheel of Taran/Toran/Tuirean, the lance of Lug, an animal.

- A human silhouette bearing these specific attributes or in the company of this animal.

- A human head (most important for druids) with the body of the animal especially dedicated to this deity (wild boar horse).

- The animal itself representing the qualities of the god-or-demon.

The human shape of the god-or-demons, makes them reachable, closer to men and more open, to their daily preoccupations. Animal appearance is the metaphor of their function.

Other remarks.

It is perfectly exact that Islam means submission to God (to God or to the Devil following the points of view), but servility in the relationship with the divinity is not an exclusive characteristic of the Semitic mind. Sumerians were not Semites, and in the Maya religion also, man is there only to serve the god-or-demons. Moreover, if it is quite exact that Persian thought deeply influenced late Judaism, particularly after Cyrus and the return from Babylon; there remains nevertheless extremely possible that such eschatology (Saoshyant, etc.) could be included in a much broader cyclic history, a little similar to that of the Hindus. And therefore did not form in itself the absolute end of a linear history.

Origin of druidism is nevertheless, obviously, to seek on the side of the Indo-European religion of Italo-Celtic and proto-Germanic invaders having spread little by little in Europe, starting from the third thousand years before our era.

And especially in the Danube Valley according to Marija Gimbutas, supplanting the farmers of the agricultural civilization from Anatolia (civilization of Unetice).

In historical linguistics, Italo-Celtic refers to a grouping of the Italic and Celtic branches of the Indo-European family of languages on the basis of the characteristics shared by these two branches alone and no other. They are generally considered as innovations, probably developed after the break-up of Proto-Indo-European. It is also possible that some of these innovations are not; it is then probable that "these two branches" simply kept in common archaic characteristics.

But this primordial druidic religion very quickly evolved in touch with the overcome and subjected populations of farmers. A permanent feature of this druidiaction favored these changes besides, its tendency to universalism, which appears through an extraordinary capacity of absorption of most various concepts.

In the early time, we can already notice that major deities seem syntheses of different god-or-demons; certain common features had had as a result to equate the ones to the others, several characteristics.

The confluence of the various traditions is easily explained by the aptitude that each Celtic deity has, to take multiple shapes to which the variety of names responds.

The god-or-demons inherited from the Indo-European trifunctional Panth-eon have, on their arrival in the West, met local deities. Rather than to repel those and to prohibit their worship, the druidicists adopted them by making them absorbed by their own god-or-demons. Thus giving rise to characters bearing new characteristics, which sometimes radically drew aside them from these which are ascribed to the traditional Indo-European gods or demons of whom they have the name.

The process was ratified by druids, and it was usual that such or such particular divine form is identified with one of the great god-or-demons of Indo-European Panth-eon; or regarded as the preferential aspect under which a certain number of believers paid homage to him.

Thus the worships known as local or regional were organized. These groups were characterized by the worship paid, if not exclusively, at least with a very marked preference, to such or such deity, considered to be a manifestation of one of the great god-or-demons of the primitive ( of Indo-European origin) Celtic Panth-eon.

The druidic view of the world will remain nevertheless always strongly treated on a hierarchical basis. A pyramid widening towards the base, the universe is organized around a vertical axis symbolized by a tree. From God or the Demiurge to the last water drop, the same current of life crosses, organizes, and moves, the universe, by successive cascades. God or the Demiurge doesn't seem as a creator but as a pro-creator, a primordial parent, an ultimate ancestor, the one from whom life is resulting, to spread in the multiplicity of beings. God or the Demiurge is often represented besides as a couple, in the image of the human couple, pro-creator. Because if life is the major reality, fruitfulness seems the central value in such civilizations. Life is good: what supports it is good, what inhibits it is bad. The individual, the clan, the group, must try to develop it or to promote it at most. It is in this sense that we could speak about “druidic “ethics. The purpose of its religious practices is to connect the individual and the society with universal life. There is a narrow correspondence between human fruitfulness and cosmic fruitfulness. The earth itself is a woman: fertilized by the rain from the sky, it becomes the mother of all the beings which grow on her surface. Such is at least the general idea which arises from this stone Bible that engravings of Mount Bego Mount in the (maritime) Alps are. 40 000 Bronze Age engravings studied by Clarence Bicknell, Carlo Conti and Henry de Lumley, and mainly distributed in the Valley of Marvels and the Valley of Fontanalba.

ON THE PREDESTINED ROLE OF THE CELTIC [MINDED] COMMUNITY OF NATIONS (CELTS WERE PREDESTINED

TO PANTHEISM OR ATHEISM).

Benedict XVI in the Synod of Bishops for Africa of July 26, 2009: "The role of the priesthood is to consecrate the world so that it may become a living host, a liturgy: so that the liturgy may not be something alongside the reality of the world, but that the world itself shall become a living host, a liturgy. This is also the great vision of Teilhard de Chardin ... " (Benedict XVI on July 24, 2009, and not John Toland).

The comparison with a pantheistic weltanschauung becomes obvious on the condition to consider well that God is the whole of what is visible, AND INVISIBLE, in the world, or the universe, and not simply the matter.

A thing that always amazes the scholar who looks at the last centuries of Celtic independence, it is the incredible racism of which Celtic people were victims. Caesar has besides took advantage of this anti-Celtic racism to justify his conquests.

The question is "why was such a reputation so attached to our unfortunate spiritual ancestors?

Why do Greeks and Romans always saw formerly in our spiritual ancestors men devoted to destruction or massacres even to the war against religions, a war respecting nothing sacred?

The Celts are some Titans.

“And one day hereafter you will come fight with us a common struggle,

When the Titans of a later day shall 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 [.....]

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.

Of these shields some shall be my reward;

Others, when they have seen the wearers perish amid fire,

Shall be set by the banks of Nile to be the prizes of a king who labored much.

O Ptolemy, these are the prophecies I have for you!”

(Hymn to Delos, Callimachus).

The Celts are the people of Cronos.

“ On the coast of the mainland Greeks dwell about a gulf which is not smaller than the Palus Maeotis and the mouth of the Caspian Sea. These people consider and call themselves continental and the inhabitants of this land islanders, because the sea flows around it on all sides; and they believe that with the peoples of Cronos there mingled at a later time those who arrived in the train of Heracles and were left behind by him, that these latter so to speak rekindled to a strong, high flame the Hellenic spark there which was already being quenched and overcome by the tongue, the laws, and the manners of the barbarians. Therefore Heracles has the highest honors and Cronos the second “ (Plutarch. On the face which appears in the orb of the Moon, 29).

The Celts descend from Apollo 1).

It is also said that this name [Galatians] comes from a certain Galates, son of Apollo (Eustathius. 12th century. Commentary on Dionysius Periegetes, line 74).

The Celts descend from Ogmius - Hercules - 1) the Celts civilized by Hercules and various elements of genealogy.

“ Hercules, it is told, after he had taken the cattle of Geryones from Erythea, was wandering through the country of the Celts and came to the house of Bretannus, who had a daughter called Celtine. Celtine fell in love with Hercules and hid away the cattle, refusing to give them back to him unless he would first content her. Hercules was indeed very anxious to bring the heifers safe home, but he was far more struck by the girl’s exceeding beauty, and consented to her wishes; and then, when the time had come round, a son called Celtus was born to them, from whom the Celtic race derived their name “ (Parthenius of Nicaea. Love stories, XXX).

In short, of the union of Hercules and Celtine, daughter of Bretannus, Celtus and Galatos come.

The question is: WHO IS THE DRUIDIC GOD-OR-DEMON WHO IS HIDDEN BEHIND THIS CELTIC HERCULES???

“ Some people affirm that the first inhabitants ever seen in these regions were called Celts, after the name of their king, who was very popular among them, and sometimes also Galatae, after the name of his mother. Others affirm that they are Dorians, who, following a more ancient Hercules, selected for their home the districts bordering on the ocean.The drasidae [druids] affirm that a portion of the people was really indigenous to the soil, but that other inhabitants poured in from very remote islands on the coast, and from the districts across the Rhine, having been driven from their former abodes by frequent wars, and sometimes by inroads of a tempestuous sea.

Some again maintain that after the destruction of Troy, a few Trojans fleeing from the Greeks, who were then scattered over the whole world, occupied these districts, which at that time had no inhabitants at all.

But the natives of these countries affirm this more positively than any other fact (and, indeed, we ourselves have read it engraved on their monuments), that Hercules, the son of Amphitryon, hastening to the destruction of those cruel tyrants, Geryones and Tauriscus, one of whom was oppressing the continental Celtica, and the other Spain; after he had conquered both of them, took to wife some women of noble birth in those countries, became the father of many children; and that his sons called the districts of which they became the kings after their own names“ (Timagenes of Alexandria, in Ammianus Marcellinus, History, XV, 9-12).

“ The whole country is called by the Hellenes by the common name Celtica , according to some, from a giant Celtus who ruled there; others, however, have a legend that to Hercules and Asteropê, the daughter of Atlas, were born with sons, Iberus and Celtus, who gave their own names to the lands which they ruled“ (Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Roman antiquities, Book XIV, 1).

“ Celtus and Iberus are sons of Heracles and of a barbarian woman; and it is from them which come these people, the Celts and the Iberians “ (Eustathius. 12th century. Commentary on Dionysius Periegetes, line 288).

“ Since we have set forth the facts concerning the islands which lie in the western regions, we consider that it will not be foreign to our purpose to discuss briefly the tribes of Europe which lie near them and which we failed to mention in our former books. Now Celtica was ruled in ancient times, so we are told, by a renowned man who had a daughter who was of unusual stature and far excelled in beauty all the other maidens. But she, because of her strength of body and marvelous comeliness, was so haughty that she kept refusing every man who wooed her in marriage, since she believed that no one of her wooers was worthy of her. Now in the course of his campaign against the Geryones, Heracles visited Celtica and founded there the city of Alesia; the maiden, on seeing Heracles, wondered at his prowess and his bodily superiority and accepted his embraces with all eagerness, her parents having given their consent. From this union she bore to Heracles a son named Galates, who far surpassed all the

youths of the tribe in quality of spirit and strength of body. And when he had attained to man's estate and had succeeded to the throne of his fathers, he subdued a large part of the neighboring territory and accomplished great feats in war. Becoming renowned for his bravery, he called his subjects Galatians after himself, and these in turn gave their name to all of Galatia“ (Diodorus of Sicily. The Library of History , V. 24).

“ Heracles, then, delivered over the kingdom of the Iberians to the noblest men among the natives and, on his part, took his army and passing into Celtica and traversing the length and breadth of it he put an end to the lawlessness and murdering of strangers to which the people had become addicted; and since a great multitude of men from every tribe flocked to his army of their own accord, he founded a great city which was named Alêsia after the "wandering" (Alê in Greek) on his campaign. But he also mingled among the citizens of the city many natives, and since these surpassed the others in multitude, it came to pass that the inhabitants as a whole were barbarized. The Celts up to the present time hold this city in honor, looking upon it as the hearth and mother city of all Celtica. And for the entire period from the days of Heracles this city remained free and was never sacked until our own time; but at last Gaius Caesar, who has been pronounced a god because of the magnitude of his deeds, took it by storm and made it and the other Celts subjects of the Romans. Heracles then made his way from Celtica to Italy, and as he traversed the mountain pass through the Alps he made a highway out of the route, which was rough and almost impassable, with the result that it can now be crossed by armies and baggage trains. The barbarians who had inhabited this mountain region had been accustomed to butcher and to plunder such armies as passed through when they came to the difficult portions of the way, but he subdued them all, slew those that were the leaders in lawlessness of this kind, and made the journey safe for succeeding generations. And after crossing the Alps, he passed through the level plain of what is now called Galatia and made his way through Liguria “(Diodorus of Sicily. The Library of History IV, 19).

Editor’s note . When we know that Heracles matches, among Greeks, the Celtic god-or-demon Ogmius, a god-or-demon of eloquence, but also the God of the roads; when we think of the etymology given by Diodorus, of the name of Alesia, in connection with the progress ; it is understood that we are there in the presence of a founding myth. From where the exceptional importance of Alesia (of all the Alesia) as a sacred place of Celtic tradition.

The Celts were civilized by Hercules.

“ 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. ...For a long time I stood staring at this in amazement, I knew not 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 not to be unfamiliar with our own. He told me, Noble stranger; I see this fresco puzzles you: let me solve the riddle. We Celts connect eloquence [editor’s note : Celtic Labaron] 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 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.' (Lucian of Samosata. Introductory Lecture, Hercules 1-7).

“It is a custom of theirs that no one should perform a sacrifice without a "philosopher"; for thank offerings should be rendered to the gods, they say, by the hands of men who are experienced in the nature of the divine, and who speak, as it were, the language of the gods * is also through the

mediation of such men, they think, that blessings likewise should be sought “(Diodorus of Sicily. Book V, 31).

* The right Greek word is homophonon.

Let us say to be neutral and objective in this field that a number of ancient texts closely combine some god-or-demons or half-god-or-demons (like Ogmius, father of the language) and Celts. They emphasize their role in the genesis of Celts even in their civilization. Here are some other examples.

According to the Lebor Gabala Erenn or Auraicept na n-Éces and other legends of the Irish folklore on this subject, therefore; a so-called Fenius Farsa (Phoeniusa, Phenius, Fenius, Farsaid, Farsaidh) would have gone, with Goídel mac Ethéoir, Íar mac Nema and 72 followers, in the (biblical) country of Shinar; in order to study the languages resulting from the destruction of the tower of Babel by God. As the various languages already had been dispersed here and there in the world, Fenius sent his disciples in search of them while himself remained on the spot in order to centralize the result. At the end of 10 years of efforts, he was able to compose a new language, from the best of the 72 studied by his pupils, and he called it Goidelic (Gael) in honor of Goídel, son of Ethéoir. He also developed a variety of this Goidelic called Bérla Féne, as well as another called Íarmberla, after the name of his second disciple, Íar mac Nema. Some people compare this name to Iarnbélre, from the P-Celtic Hibernians or Erainn would have spoken in Ireland.

Variants of Auraicept.

“ Incipit Primer of the Poets, that is, eraicept, beginning of lessons.

When Fenius sent his seventy-two followers to learn the languages in the world, Cai Cainbreathach was sent to Egypt. After the disciples had returned from their training, after they had reported their travels (i.e., their peregrinations and their work)…..they asked of him to select for them a select language so that that speech might not be in the possession of anyone else but of themselves alone….Then was selected their language out of the many languages [….] among the principal letters as he has related in the Great Book of Woods, and the Language of the Poets whereby each one of them converses with another, and the Common Language which serves for everyone from many races….

-Query, what language of the seventy-two was published by Fenius first?

-Answer. Not hard. The Celtic Language.

-Query, what is the reason why select language should be said of Celtic?

-Answer. Not hard. Because what was best and finest from every language.

-Query, then, did not Celtic exist before it was selected ?

-Answer. It did indeed, for the seventy-two languages in the world are not found otherwise. For every obscure sound of every language, a place was found in Celtic language owing to its comprehensiveness beyond every language.

-Query, who of the Fenius’s school went to it thither?

-Answer. Not hard. Gaedel son of Ether, son of Toe, son of Baracham, a Scythian Greek.

-Query, how much did he bring of it?

-Answer. The whole of it except what bards added by way of obscuration after it had reached Fenius .“

(Auraicept Na n-Éces, Book of Ballymote).

There was therefore a sacred Celtic language, a philosophical or religious language, communal for all high-knowers of the time of the Great free and independent Celtica, that of Ambicatus. The whole of the words and turns of phrase the druids used to speak to the god-or-demons and even, possibly, the language in which the god-or-demons expressed themselves to speak to men. Such a concept is not unimportant. The language of the current State of Israel, modern Hebrew, indeed was there are some generations ago worked out starting from old Hebrew, WHAT GOT CONSENSUS FROM EVERYONE.

1) Well, some people will object, but what can exist as basic difference between biblical legendS and Celtic legends on this subject ? The human being in both cases is created by God or procreated by the gods?

Admittedly, but it should not be forgotten that with regard to Celts in any case, and according to them, there was well ontological continuity between Divinity and Man; since Mankind was also supposed to descend from the god-or-demons or from the half god-or-demons corresponding or being equivalent to the Greek deities called Apollo (Belenos?) even Heracles (Camulus Smertrius?). Cf. above. Whatever the name of the druidic entities thus called by the Greeks, therefore there was also in this case an intervention of the divinity, not through a creation, but through a fathering. Therefore there was not, at least with regard to Celts, a break of the ontological continuity between the divinity and its procreation. And this continuity, it falls to us today to cross it in an ascending way in order to recover the lost initial unity.

Editor’s note. This that it is what former druidism says. It goes without saying we can and even we must, today, extend this ontological continuity between divinity and human beings, to other peoples. Let us not do like our Indian or Jewish friends with their notion of mlechchha or goy. It is the whole Mankind which is the tool of the Spirit for its upwards spreading. The soul is born to experiment , to grow, to evolve until it can bring divinity into matter (pantheism). The earthly life, in so far as an initial movement prints this direction to it, can evolve in a progressive appropriation of the divine Being and the soul return to its original initial state (without needing to pass through death for that).

But facing so many destruction forces, in this beginning of the third millennium, what hope to keep?

First of all, the convergence (a word much more positive than that of globalization, which, like the tongue of Aesop, is at the same time the worst and the best thing).

There is an increasing unification of the mental and spiritual activities of the planet, just as the human activities were unified within the framework of societies as well as civilizations, or that of the cells in organisms. Not for some mystical reason, but much more simply because efficiency gains lead to it; as surely as, for example, some questions of potential lead a chemical reaction to occur; or deuterium atoms to be amalgamated if the temperature is favorable.

Carl Gustav Jung, with his idea of oceanic feeling, and Richard Buckminster Fuller, will show themselves in line with this idea, already besides in its time expressed in an embryonic form by Baruch Spinoza.

What will it occur as this speed, this frequency, and this flow, will also increase in the exchanges between people, increasing what Paul Valery calls the intellectual temperature of Mind?

We have to expect a qualitative change similar to the phase change of the physicists, observed when, for example, a tiny difference in temperature makes the water passing from the liquid state to the vapor state?

Starting from a certain flow of exchange, the borders of the self cease becoming very clear, and this technical increase in the coupling between the individuals is accompanied by an increasing actual solidarity.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin even goes - but we leave here, in the actual position of knowledge, the field of cybernetics – as far as to suppose this solidarity will have characteristics which are exactly these of love. This assumption, obviously inspired by his Christian convictions, is, however, not essential to the comprehension of his notion of noosphere.

From the Greek noos = psyche (soul, mind, thought, awareness) and sphere (body limited by a round surface). Symbol: the dodecahedron.

The word was used for the first time by Edward Roy then Vladimir Vernadsky * and finally, of course, by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Edgar Morin defines the noosphere as the sphere of imagination, myths, god-or-demons, ideas. The noosphere is the world of ideas, the world of thought, the dimension of reality (therefore of our individual and social life) in which we are creative.

In Wikipedia, we find the following definition of noosphere. This word, that Pierre Teilhard of Chardin borrows from Vernadsky, starts from the observation that a thin film (a few kilometers) surrounding the Earth; that we would call biofilm today; contains at the same time all knowledge of Mankind and all its capacity for data processing.

Noosphere could be represented as a large cloud encircling the planet, just like atmosphere. This immaterial cloud would constitute a great unit, the total human Mind, in a way.

Noosphere is juxtaposed with the lithosphere (nonliving mass), with the biosphere (living mass) and with the sociosphere (the unit of the human and/or ecological relations); and constitutes the whole of

the mental activities of the Earth . Its Egregore in a way. It is a kind of “collective memory of mankind“ which gathers all the cerebral and mechanical activities of memorizing and data processing.

The brain of men belongs to the noosphere, but also all the infrastructure created by it, which take part in the data processing as in the data storage: towns, libraries, political infrastructure, culture, laws, communication networks.

* Vladimir Vernadsky dates back the appearance of noosphere to the extreme end of the 19th century and, essentially, to the 20th century, because it is then only that science was indeed changed into a geological and even cosmic, force.

THE PIECE OF EVIDENCE OR SIGNS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GODS DESPITE THEIR OCCULTATION.

Reminder.

Mankind can reach the knowledge of the reality which underlies the world, and forms its origin or its result.

Starting from the movement and from the future, from the contingencies, from the order and beauty of the world, we can know our Destiny .

There are visible things in the universe ... and invisible things. At least, we can suppose. What is invisible can be seen by intelligence through its powers and its works. What we can know about divinity was always manifest for the pagans.

World and Man show they have in themselves neither their principle nor their end; but that they take part in the From now on Immortal Being in Oneself.

This is why, moreover, true druids consider it is possible to speak about the god-or-demons to all the men and with all the men, they are either monolatrous, agnostic, or atheistic…

Of the reign of the god-or-demons about whom they believed in their return (parousy Christians say, re-enchantment of the world Max Weber would say) after a long occultation, primordial druids, then ancient druids who succeeded them elsewhere north of the Alps in Central Europe, multiplied didactic myths tending to illustrate the power, while showing the limits of it (where the field of pure mechanics begins, hence the field of science). Lucan, Pharsalia Book I: “To you alone [druids] it is given the gods and celestial powers to know or not to know.”

Among the Celts the higher sacrosanct god-or-demon (and therefore never designated by a single title) is not Jupiter nor Zeus (not Taran/Toran/Tuirean nor Lug in Ireland) it is Fate. It is enough to traverse the “sacred “texts or even those which express through the detail of everyday life, the weltanschauung of the men and women of this time (the gessa) to realize it. It therefore appears normal that the key periods of the individual and collective existence are marked by gestures or rites of fateful nature.

The higher god-or-demon is, among Celts, let us repeat-it , primarily designed as Fate. No other god is higher to it, not even the god-or-demons at the top of Celtic panth-eon, insofar as nobody is higher than one’s destiny.

Such a conception of Fate or Tokad, sacrosanct for the old Gnostic ones of the West, initially is collective, placed within the framework of the family or of the clan. These laws of Fate are indifferently applied to the god-or-demons (the god-or-demons too, depend on Fate) or to the men, even if it means to go down then even further, at the individual level (destiny). The Vikings themselves considered that the higher fundamental value, beyond any personal or anthropomorphized element, it was “Fate “with innumerable faces.

This Tokad or “Fate “appeared in each individual by the gift of a variable amount of its divine sovereignty. The perception of this divine deposit had very important consequences in the pagan spirituality of then.

Through it, in it, and thanks to it, each one could understand that Fate had been interested in one’s person as of one’s birth and therefore it is up to each one to accept or to assume (even to try to know) this godsend. Whatever the personal colorings which it had taken for him.

The Scandinavians called hamingja (from megin = power, possibilities, etc.) the set of the budisms or charismas granted to a family (its hereditary gifts in a way); and gaefa the whole of the budisms or charismas granted to an individual in particular (his chance capital in a way).

The honor of each one consisted in well assuming this divine gift of sovereignty, granted by Fate, in also assuming one’s budisms.

This Fate is obviously neither good nor bad, but neutral, though connected with the gdonioi (the men) in particular, as well as with the world in general.

It is a truism: all the powers are not “good “ there are some of them which are bad between quotation marks, because the connotations these terms have for us do not apply really to Celtic ethics.

Signs wonders and miracles. Preliminary definitions.

-Signs: series of coincidences too striking to be due to chance. The sign is more subjective, but it is also very personal. It can therefore touch the person more than a scientifically verifiable, but more distant, miracle. The person feels suddenly surrounded by another invisible world. On the other hand, the sign proves nothing for the one who did not receive it personally.

There exists indeed fundamental laws of nature it is impossible to contradict. In physical science, we have for example two primary principles.

a) The principle of stability of energy: “Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed “(Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, a maxim taken over later by Lavoisier). It is impossible to create from nothing or, on the other hand, to annihilate something. This is why, if a matter appears, like that, in a flash, from nothing, it is that a miracle took place. It can be ascribed only to a higher power which exceeds nature.

b) Entropy: “Any isolated system decreases, is degraded “. We never see a charcoal, once consumed, to be reignited.The Sun loses little by little its energy and will die. A man cannot remain forty years without eating nor drinking. Other laws cannot be exceeded without an infinite power:

- “There does not exist any instantaneous movement “.

- “The future cannot be entirely foreseeable “. It is dependent on the chance, on the freedom of individuals.

-In the field of biology, the natural laws are much more numerous and remarkable. A corpse broken up does not come back to life, an organ does not grow back, a cut spinal cord cannot be restuck, etc.

-The wonder is not opposed to the natural laws. It does nothing but apply them in a curious way, and invites to research. Examples of wonders: levitation, telepathy, not very precise premonitory dream, surprising cures but which can be explainable by the force of a psychology (psychosomatic diseases), stigmata.

-A miracle, unlike a wonder, implies a fact against nature absolutely. It is opposed to the fundamental laws of nature. It requires an infinite power most of the time.

Position of Christians in general or of the Catholic Church in particular on this subject. The Church never recognizes a wonder strictly speaking because, according to it, it does not necessarily have God as cause (but can have a psychological, material or angelic cause). A miracle is an event which can be attributed only to God alone. Examples: the resurrection of Lazarus (John 11) the cure of Jeanne Fretel in Lourdes (her intestine removed beforehand reappears in a flash); saint Charbel Maklouf and the miraculous oil; Marthe Robin, a probable future Catholic saint. Saint Odile describes in the eighth century the Second World War as if she was there. Fatima's prophecies. Prophecies of Nostradamus are, on the other hand, not very credible, because they play with the vagueness. Thousand interpretations are possible].

By freeing men of the earthly evils that are, the injustice, the illness or the death… the primordial or ancient Gnostics in the West brought the evidence of the existence of the god-or-demons and of the god-or-demon of the god-or-demons, above them. “De dhruadh, mu dhe tar gac nde” the Irishman

Mog Ruith exclaims indeed at the time of the siege of Druim Damhghaire. The exorcisms practiced by the high-knowers released the bacuceos of the influence “of the duses or of the anguipeds“” [in fact some failed..... reincarnations in the other world, or some mental illnesses of the kind split personality quite simply]. The miracles of the god-or-demons or of the druids, their prophecies (their satires) are some signs of the divine world, adapted to the intelligence of the greatest number (the multi, opposed to the nonnulli of Caesar), some reasons to believe in an ideal (bellissamos/bellissama) word. These wonders of the god-or-demons, offered to the eyes of men, bore their fruits besides at that time (La Tene) from Poland to Gibraltar (Tartessus) from Ireland, to Romania or even Bulgaria, not forgetting the dikastes in Bulgaria. But no constraint as regards religion could have been one of their slogans, of course, more sincere and more credible in their mouth than in the quibbles or the interested sermons of Islam (taqiyya).

The god-or-demons and their druids accompanied their teaching by many signs or wonders proving that their powers were within reach for whom could see them. But for those who remained apart from this faith, of course, everything remained enigmatic.

Questions and objections come tumbling out of our lips. What it is necessary well to see nevertheless, it is that the "miracles" performed by the primordial druids, or the former druids; are intended especially to prove to the men of their time the powers of the mind on the matter (placebo effect and psychosomatic diseases). They are inseparable from their time.

The former druids knew besides very well they were not the only ones to perform extraordinary things. There always existed false “wonders,“as there always existed false druids (it is enough to look at a little around oneself today).

True miracles of the former Gnostics in the West are not comprehensible, as evidence of the existence of the god-or-demons or of the god-or-demon of the god-or-demons, only if we perceive the link and the coherence between the astonishing acts that they form.

First of the traditional clues of the existence of the world of the god-or-demons: the communion with the dead (the communion of the saints or All Saints' day of the Christians). Spiritualism thus called because it appeared especially in a bright way each November 1st. The communion with the dead, renamed Communion of the saints or All Saints' day by Christians, is the almost spiritualist exchange carried out with the “blessed ones “ of the Mag Meld or Vindomagos (of Heaven).

Because druidicists do not have their models only in the life of the god-or-demons, they also find them in the life of certain heroes of the Vindomagos. In the communion with their minds, disembodied (as long as those were not definitively melted in the heavens higher than this Pure Land) we can always find indeed, help and support. From time immemorial the Celtic-druidic human community therefore surrounded by piety the memory of deceased persons, by offering prayers for them, or by evoking their memory while using adapted rituals, even by temporarily making their soul/mind appearing on earth (spiritualism).

The Celts of Antiquity spent even certain nights close to the graves of their heroes, to have information from their mouth. From Nicander of Colophon (quoted by Tertullian) to Senchan Torpeist (roughly 560-647) and the rediscovery of the Tain saga, testimonies abound.

“I am a Kardecist “. Druidicists in their conferences very often hear such remarks. “You know… Allan Kardec? “

It follows then often a cordial but livened up, talk .

The dictionaries teach us that Allan Kardec is the pseudonym of the writer Denisard Leon Hippolyte Rivail, who lived from 1804 to 1869. He was sent in Switzerland when he was ten years old and became the pupil of the pedagogy reformer named Pestalozzi. In 1824, we find him in Paris, where he is devoted to teaching. Over time he became a member of the Royal Academy of natural sciences. In a past existence, at the time of former druids, he would have lived under the name of Allan Kardec, from where his pseudonym.

In 1854 Hippolyte Rivail was initiated to a discipline born in this middle of the 19th century (in 1847, exactly, on a farm of Hydesville, cf. the sisters Margaret and Kate Fox): the attempts at communication with the souls/minds of the dead. The following year Hippolyte Rivail observed the phenomena of table-turning and semi-automatic (mediumistic) writing. He got the conviction from it there exists a peopled with the soul/minds of the deceased persons, spiritual field, and that it is possible to communicate with them, considering the persistence of their individuality after death.

Deeply impressed therefore by the discoveries of this American woman, Rivail undertook to gather a vast collection of writings that spiritualistic friends provided him, in preparation for them he always formulated a series of questions. The answers he received through mediums were, according to him: “precise, deep, and logical “. In 1857, he published, under the pseudonym of Allan Kardec therefore, all this documentation, in his first book, heading “the Spirits Book “.

As of the beginning Rivail taught “that the spirits, being only souls of human beings, have neither knowledge nor wisdom higher, that their intelligence depends only on their progress; therefore that their opinion is nothing more than a personal opinion “.

But why, therefore, to evoke spiritualism, some people will say ? To this objection Rivail has himself answered: “to materially prove the existence of the spiritual world “.

The Spirits Book has to help men and particularly the members of some other religions to strengthen their belief in the immortality of the soul.

The Bible maintains indeed that the human soul is not immortal. Ecclesiastes 3,20: All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust. It was besides the doctrines of the Sadduceans, who did not believe in the immortality of the soul. “ The living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything“(Ecclesiastes, 9,5).

The Bible contains this severe warning statement besides “ the soul who sins shall die “(Ezekiel 18,4).

This is why, in the law he gives to Israel, Yahweh strictly prohibits to his servants any contact like those the founding spiritualism druid , Rivail, kept with mediums (Leviticus 19,31). The fact that the latter often told him very interesting remarks, changed nothing to the determination of those who opposed him the famous quotation from Saint Paul: “ Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light “(II Corinthians 11,14).

Here what the former druids thought in connection with the ancient sacrifices intended to evoke dead (at least according to Henry Lizeray). “The fluidic forms, separate from the body during the catalepsy, go unaided to the aromas of the meats and of the dishes chosen to grab them then to feed on them. The vapors of still hot fresh blood provide a fulcrum for the formation of the specter “(Henry Lizeray. Secret doctrines of the druids).

“ We are met with the objection that in visions of the night dead persons are not infrequently seen, and that for a set purpose. For instance, the Nasamones consult private oracles by frequent and lengthened visits to the sepulchers of their relatives, as one may find in Heraclides, or Nymphodorus, or Herodotus; and the Celts, for the same purpose, stay away all night at the tombs of their brave chieftains“.

To have in its entirety the great account of the cattle raid of Cooley that the bards knew only in the state of fragments, Senchan Torpeist will even take drastic steps for that, as we have already expounded it besides, but repetere = ars docendi.

“ Muirgen chanted an incantation to the gravestone as though it were Fergus himself then a great mist suddenly formed around him - for the space of three days and nights he could not be found. Fergus appeared to him put on with magnificent clothes and he recited him the whole story of the cattle raid of Cooley, such as it had been originally composed, from the beginning to the end. “

The evocation of Fergus by Muirgen is an extreme success to which all the filid (veledae) were not to be able to claim, but the principle stated by Nicander of Colophon is rigorously identical.

This spiritualist communion of All Saints' day therefore overflows All Saints' day and extends to all dead. Even to those who reached Mag Meld by following, without knowing it, the Reda level of druidic ethics, but without being a druidicist, without having been the subject of a name ceremony ; Fate having the sovereignty to be able to grant to whom he thinks best the possibility of contemplating the gold rock of the Grail, on which the god-or-demon , master of this other world, rests.

Taran/Toran/Tuireann] 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 mentioned before tend and serve Cronos [ the Buddha Amitabha? The Grail ? the Fate ????], having been his comrades 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 the god“ (Plutarch. De facie in orbe Lunae, 26).

The festival of Samon, formerly 1st Samoni, today on November 1st, gathers in the same spiritual communion all those, known and unknown, who are members of the human community. But let us not forget nevertheless that this spiritualist communion initially links between them the members of the touta. Insofar as their “ incorporation “ into the body of the sleeping giant helps them also to approach the state of awenyddion (thanks to the ceremony of the name, the rituals, etc.). Also let us not forget that this spiritualist communion is initially the communion in mind worked out between the members of the Touta living on earth.

“These appearances of the dead are obtained today in the major states of hypnosis“ (Henry Lizeray. Secret Doctrines of the druids).

Second one of the signs (proving the existence of the god-or-demons): the miraculous cures. As the triad reported by Cailte/Caletios in answer to a question of saint Patrick says it very well, in the Colloquy with the Ancients - Acallam na senorach -: “strength of muscles, truth in the heart and accuracy of the language “ such is the ideal of druidism.

Strength of muscles, strength of muscles…

The most mythified memory of the miraculous recoveries of the druidic type, of course, relates to those which were achieved by our Hesus himself (in the Irish Tain Bo Cualnge for example) on the person of the great Queen Morrigani. Maddened by thirst Setanta asked her for milk indeed.

“She gave him the milk of one teat of her cow.

May this be swiftly healed for me.

And the one eye of the queen which had been wounded was cured.

He asked her for the milk of another teat. She gave it to him.

Swiftly may she be cured who gave it.

He asked for the third drink and she gave him the milk of the third teat.

Bendacht dee & andee fort, a ingen.The blessing of gods and non-gods ? be on you, woman “.

And thus the great queen gets back on her feet (she had had a blinded eye, as well as a leg and an arm, broken).

Cure and salvation of the bodies therefore form an integral part of this former druidism, and show well that the druidic hope also relates to the flesh, not only to the soul/minds. According to Irish tradition, the former Gnostic ones in the West made besides true miracles in this field. By using medicinal plants, admittedly, that the Hesus Setanta taught us to collect then to prepare (a cress handful, a wrack handful and a hellebore handful, for example. See in the Tain Bo Cualnge, the meeting with Fergus). And in the same way, suitably used, the mistletoe can also ease a certain number of diseases. Pliny called it omnia sanantem in Latin, what means “cures everything “(olloiaccos).

This concern of the bodies expressed by the Hesus and the former high-knowers of his time, extends until death itself. Resurrections due to health fountains of the kind Glanum (Glanon or Saint-Remy-de-Provence, in Provence exactly) are returns to earthly life of casualties fallen into the major coma. The druidic techniques used to put an end to these comas are not at variance with but prefigure what awaits us to with the fact that the true salvation of men will consist in a total and final resurrection of

their body which will become in the other world IDEAL BODIES (haloed with xvarnah our Zoroastrian friends say, become bellissamos or bellissama former druids would say ).

The mythical equivalent of Glanum also exists elsewhere. It has been identified since, in the legends to read on this subject. It is for example the health or youth Fountain of the first and second battle in the Plain of standing stones or mounds.

“ They brought healing herbs with them, and crushed and scattered them on the surface of the water in the well, so that the precious healing waters became thick and green. Their wounded were put into the well, and immediately came out whole“.

“ Dian-cecht and his two sons, Octorevillos and Medocios, and his daughter Armeditrina were singing prayers (dicetul) over the well named Healing (Slaine). Now their mortally wounded men were cast into it as they would be slain. They were alive when they would come out. Their mortally wounded became whole through the might of the prayers (dicetail) of the four leeches who were about the well“.

We find the same thing exactly, but with a cauldron this time, in Wales. According to the account of the Mabinogi of Branwen, indeed, the people fallen into a coma, cast in a resurrection cauldron, came out from it well awoke the following day. The neo-druids of today are no longer capable of such cures, of course, and perhaps that is better besides; but by their attention paid to bodies, Hesus and the druids of his time therefore did not appear only as men only concerned about the salvation of souls. They were also worried with the body of patients.

Under the name of liaig former Gnostic ones in the West were besides perhaps really capable of astonishing technical miracles, by means of transplants and extraordinary prostheses. At least according to the Irish legends: see the case of the king Noadatus/Nuada, whose arm or hand had been cut.

As we have had already the opportunity to signal it in addition, we found in Germany, in a grave excavated in Obermenzing, in Bavaria, the body of a man who was probably a surgeon druid , living circa 200 before our era. He was buried with a sword, a lance and a shield. But he was especially a doctor and not a warrior; since we found in his grave a trephine (making him able to withdraw from the cranium small sections of bone in 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).

To be a king, it was necessary to be normal, and without infirmity. Every disability or serious injury could therefore disqualify a man among Celts. King Noadatus (Irish Nuada) gave up his throne after having lost his arm, and the god-or-demon called Medros (Irish Mider) too, was a step away to suffer the same lot, because he had had an eye accidentally blinded.

Third of the evidence of the existence of the preternatural or of the supernatural : exorcisms.

It is erroneous to make evil and suffering something simply due to chance. The world and the men are under the influence of negative forces which enslave them, scramble their relations, tear them inside and this up to in their bodies.

Besides the mass monolatrous religions admit it themselves in a way. Even with regard to the crime against humanity perpetrated by the national socialism of the Party of the Workers (German: N. S.D.A.P) against the Jews, during the Second World War. “The nations can be as an instrument in the hand of God to punish […] Israel “(New Catholic encyclopedia).

Miraculous releases or exorcism of possessed people of bacuceos kind, etc.

What we call today cure of epileptics, neurasthenics or lunatics, always came under the psychosomatic field, or the placebo effect. And the cures successfully performed by the former druids in this field are therefore only additional pieces of evidence of the power of mind over matter. We may consequently believe in it without a problem, because these are not here phenomena that science regards as opposites to natural laws. The high-knowers of this time did not consider besides really

these cures as supernatural miracles, but as simple acts of faith. As regards psychosomatic disease, only faith and will indeed, save. Modern medicine rediscovers besides also now the psychosomatic nature of many diseases and admits the possibility of astonishing cures under exceptional psychological influence, in consequence of the placebo effect.

Fourth sign: the power of druids over elements.

Certain accounts of miracles, more than the accounts of cure itself, show the former high-knowers acting on surrounding nature. The high-knowers of this time indeed had the power to act on water. In front of them the lakes and the rivers decrease when they satirize them, and they swell or increase when they praise them. Water is beneficial or a righter of wrongs according to the will of the druid. The former Gnostic ones in the West were also masters of fires, masters of winds (example Cers, the north wind , Galerne, the west wind, etc.). Some had even the power to act on the waves of the sea, legends add.

They also had power on the ground, the hills and the mountains, which could fight for them (see the case of the high-knower called Matugenos, as well as the case of the Irish druid Mog Ruith, at the time of the siege of Druim Damhghaire: he makes a hill cave in).

Transitional state between water and air, the fog also entered the sphere of action of former druids. The account of the Tochmarc Ferbe (the wooing of Ferb) speaks to us even about a druidic tricolor, black, red and green, fog, at the same time warlike. During the battle of Garech (between Conchobar and Medb), the high-knowers of Ulster speak to the skies, and storm clouds set out to attack their enemies.

Fifth sign: hypnotic powers.

“Hypnology was practiced everywhere in the West at the time and it is at Cimmerians that Ovid placed the palace of the sleep […] former druidism also comprised practices […] of hypnotism; as the account of Plutarch in connection with Ogygia testifies it “(Henry Lizeray. S.D.D).

In connection with all that, which it undoubtedly also explains partially, there was the famous druidic breath. It was a means and a cause of illusion even of, temporary or final ,change. Example: “ Three times he directed his face to the army. Through his occult power, he turned on them a magic breath and as a result every man in the crowd took on the appearance of the druid himself. Each man became a gray-haired imposing figure such as the druid himself was. They had crossed the stream in pursuit of the druid and now they turned on each other and the massacre began. There was pulling out of hair, struggling, giving blow for blow and each one delivering mighty savage strokes on the breast and face of the other for each one believed that it was the druid himself he was attacking.“

According to Henry Lizeray “the hypnotic effects also occur by the comings and goings of the people, by the wingbeats and whirling of certain birds “(S.D.D.).

A variant of hypnosis is that Henry Lizeray calls self-suggestive cabbalah. A self-hypnosis of which here the definition, according to him: “In the self-suggestive cabbalah, people manage, by means of diverted gestures and words, so that a person has ideas of which he becomes victim. The individual self-suggesting himself, the other persons do nothing but provide him the occasion of it “(Ogmius or Orpheus).

The female enemies of our hesus will use this hypnotic power against him. Thanks to various trees or plants waved in the wind (faded oak leaves, sanicle, puffballs, thistles…), they will arouse whole armies in the eyes of our hero, to make him believe his country is attacked. (Cf. the Death of Cuchulainn.)

The druidic breath has sometimes even more direct consequences for those who are victims of it. For example, the three druids of King Cormac, when Mog Ruith, after the victory of his, approaches them sufficiently to use his capacities. “My god promised to me that they would make stones of these three as soon as I caught them, provided that I cast my breath at them“. With that he cast a druidic breath and they were turned into stones.

Let us translate into modern language: having succeeded in approaching them, close enough to be able to hypnotize them, the druid plunged them in an exceptional cataleptic state ????

Sixth sign revealing the presence or heralding the return of the god-or-demons: multiplication of food and drinks, wild boars, apples (the apple is the magic fruit which is the very symbol of the other world), and so on.

Because the god-or-demons also come and sit down at the table of the mere mortals who we are (sacrifices of commensality). The division of the meals, even with humblest of mortals, symbolizes the reality of the existence of the divinity. In addition to the inexhaustible wild boars of the feast of Gobannos (Goibniu in Ireland) and the cauldron of plenty , there are also apples we have said. Among the marvelous objects of which the search was imposed by the god-or-demon called Lug, on the three sons of Taran/Toran/Tuireann, there are for example the apples of Avalon. Whoever consumed some of them was never longer hungry nor thirsty was never longer pained nor sick, and they never decreased. In the same vein, let us note that the olla of the Suqellus Dagodevos Gurgunt (Irish Dagda) was as a cauldron of plenty that nobody left without being satisfied. The use of the inexhaustible cauldron, or magic apples, by the god-or-demons, was intended to make comprehensible for the men of this time that their message was before all the life and the hope to become oneself one day equipped with a stunning or ideal body (a bellissamos/bellissama body in old Celtic language, haloed with xvarnah our Zoroastrian friends say) in this other world which is said better.

Seventh piece of evidence (of the existence of the god-or-demons): divination, prediction, and prophecy.

Strangely enough there is just like with their design of the heaven, another point of agreement with Muslims. Not because of an unspecified perennial tradition but quite simply because of our common human nature, which tends to always bring the same answers to the same questions, to the same challenges.

Because Islam also ascribes to its jinns the possibility of concealing bits of information from the inhabitants of heavens.

“Those daemons mentioned before tend and serve Cronos [Fate] , having been his comrades 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 the God-or-Demon “. (Plutarch. De facie in orbe Lunae, 26).

The gift of prophecy is also one of the signs of the existence of Fate. The force of the prediction is such besides that, after having done it, the high-knower is unable to change the course of destiny it marks. It is, of course, what the young Setanta knew who, before being called Cuchulainn, and whereas he was yet only five years old, had heard the high-knower Catubatuos/Cathbad to announce, while answering one of his pupils, the sign of the day (the horoscope. Editor’s note), namely that whoever would take the weapons this day would have a glorious but short life. Cuchulainn indeed went at once and required weapons and a chariot from King Conchobar, and Catubatuos/Cathbad had been initially extremely dissatisfied with that, but had to resign himself to the inevitability.

All that was the subject of only oral transmissions during many generations. When the message thus relayed was finally written down, then it was taken in a complex mythology which did not fail to misrepresent it at the cost of incredible exaggerations. See on this subject for example the extraordinary account in Gaelic language dating from the 15th century entitled “the siege of Droma Damhghaire” (Book of Lismore).

One of the characteristics of this mythology was to multiply or develop the “miracles “ ascribed to druids, for the purpose of “poetic supernatural “. Ah these bards! Everything could not therefore be taken literally about it. Nevertheless, the serious researchers checked these accounts, and got the conviction that druids of formerly had sometimes actually obtained astonishing results in the parapsychological field. What can be released of credible about it forms therefore a not inconsiderable portion of our information about ancient druidism. Without it ancient druidism would not be what it is, without them we would no longer know the role played by the god-or-demons in this world, before their occultation, and we would doubt even the existence of the god-or-demon of god-or-demons, Fate. In front of so many miracles, men of today are astonished, and are struck by doubt, as

in front of the manifestation of something which exceeds them. With all the necessary caution, we can nevertheless admit a core of reality likely, but also many symbols to decrypt in all these legends.

THE PIECE OF EVIDENCE OR SIGNS OF THE IMMORTALITY

OF SOUL/MINDS.

There are many answers to the question of knowing what the word death can mean.

1. Death is a word deprived of meaning , nobody knows what it is really and we will never know (doctrines of critical rationalism).

2. Death is the vital intuition of the end of a lifetime, of which any living being can have a presentiment.

3. Death is a biological fact, that which we see in the corpse.

4. Death is a spiritual process of which there exists trace in an intimate experience.

5. Death is a time which belongs to the manifestation of Life, as well as the birth, and of a Life which is by nature immortal.

6. Death is the result of the existence as it disappears in non-existence (doctrines of the atheistic materialism, of Epicurus).

7. Death is a stage in the spiritual destiny of the soul.

Etc., etc.

It is thus obvious that the Experiments of Near Death Experience arouse at the present time more questions than they bring answers.

Two attitudes can be called extremes.

- The Near Death Experience forms the proof of the existence of hereafter, of the survival of the soul or of the awareness, after death, and even of the existence of God or of the Demiurge.

- It is a hallucination due to an “overdose “of neurotransmitters in the brain, a kind of protective mechanism of the brain, a fantastic explosion.

Mixed approaches (these approaches are interdependent and the list is not complete).

- Psychological: some elements which form the Near Death Experience can be found in altered states of consciousness. Example: the experiment of going out of one's body (a component of the Near Death Experience), the states of trance, the ecstasies, etc. We find in the Near Death Experience strong similarities with shamanic trances, particularly those which are caused by taking hallucinogenic substances (ayahuasca, etc.).

- Psychoanalytical: unconscious causes the experiment, the person thinks to be dead, therefore, thinks of meeting some late ones, or of seeing the light, when he is Christian. He feels an infinite love, when he is Buddhist, an infinite peace, etc., etc. the problem is that the nature and the part of collective unconscious (Jung) remain largely unknown in the altered states of “ordinary “ consciousness: dream, hypnosis, meditative states… It is known that it is capable of subliminal perception, it is even “cognitive “ i.e., it processes the data in a pre-conscious level. It is therefore “intelligent and autonomous “. Is it for as much comparable to “mind “?

- Spiritual: we pick out, of course, analogies with the notions of heaven (or hell), of pure land in which to reappear in order to complete the purification of one’s soul by extinction of one's mind, even on the contrary of saha land for Buddhists.

The Near Death Experience therefore arouses a problem to science. Its study can only be multi-field, mixing social sciences and sciences known as hard, a challenge in the ultra-specialized universe of today science.

The thesis of the simple “hallucination “now…

A perception, without real object to perceive, exhausts in nothing the problem, since concerned mechanisms are not known, and this assumption is at the same time in contradiction with the proven perception of real objects, and with the essential of declarations i.e., an incomparably “clearer “awareness, a whole entirety of the feeling of oneself, and a deep meaning given to this experiment; which doesn't leave room for any doubt as for its more-than-reality.

How the component “out of the body “could be a hallucination, knowing that it is almost impossible to imagine a point of view external to one’s body, or to see oneself?

How brain can produce a more “powerful “ state of consciousness (clearness, comprehension) whereas it is almost out of order?

The question of the role of the brain arises then, the question of its relation to awareness.

The feeling of out of the body can be caused voluntarily: the stimulation of an area of the right temporal lobe produces this effect according to its intensity. A powerful anesthetic, ketamine, produces the same one. Some people see there a forceful argument for the thesis of hallucinations. But the fact that a particular state of the brain is correlated with these feelings, does not imply that it is the initial cause, and that it is possible to say that they “are produced “by the brain. It is impossible for the moment to demonstrate that this state of the brain is not on the contrary the result of a state of consciousness, which finds its origin “out “of it. It is indeed by deduction we consider that brain, in a way, generates awareness, and that it can exist only through it: the common sense says to us that, when the brain is obviously out of order , awareness is inoperative. However Near Death Experience precisely comes to demolish this reasoning, since the brain is regarded as out of order, whereas the subjects live their adventure.

Lastly, the thesis of hallucinations says nothing about the meaning of this experiment: what’s the use of a device to soften a transition towards nothing? Why the feeling of out of the body?

The reassessment of the models is difficult. The dominant feeling is that our view of the world is almost complete, and that only marginal questions remain to be solved. It is, however, the opposite which is true: the extent of our ignorance is much vaster than the sum of our knowledge. With the Near Death Experience , the mystery emerges in the middle of highest technical nature: hospital units of intensive care. It is a shock for the medical community which is still too often accompanied by the rejection of the accounts, or by a form of condescending benevolence. The mystic, the sacredness, the divine one, come under the individual sphere, “beliefs “. Is it possible that this dimension of the Near Death Experience is studied by science? It is up to each discipline to find its field of studies and to know to exchange with other approaches. It is the case within the young “neurosciences “, neurobiology indeed, is mixed in it with psychoanalysis, the various approaches and sub-specialities add their contribution…

(Files of the Group of Experimental Studies of Parapsychological Phenomena.)

Some definitions to end.

-Perisprit. Breton anaon. Definition of Allan Kardec: This word refers to both the bodily energies of a living being and the envelope of a soul after death.

- Disembodiment: feeling or not, to have a (light = avestan xvarnah, old Celtic bellissamos/bellissama) body, or rather to be a point of awareness which flutters. Often at the ceiling initially, then able to move, even to cross the walls.

- Waking dream: the reality, in the event of out of body experiment, is perceived, but “is distorted “ from where a relationship with the waking dream, in which the dreamer controls more or less the creation of his dream background. Out of the body, control is also very difficult, a thought causes a perception, and you brutally change your background like in the dreaming.

- Projection: the subject proves to be able to identify with the object he perceives, to the extent of becoming this object. In the same way, subjective elements slip, “are projected “in the perception of real objects. For example, a person leaves his body, finds himself fluttering in his room, but the cupboard is not on the good side, there is a door in addition, outside it is snowing whereas it is summer…

- Hallucination: for all these reasons, the quarrel is strong as for the objectivity or the subjectivity of the experiment. For medicine, the experiment comes down to a “hallucination “ i.e., its contents and the deep meaning that it has for the subject are not taken into account.

- Unconscious: for a few years, “alternative “works and reflections have tried nevertheless to go a little further. The inducing context of the NDE, which characterizes it, is the proximity of the death of the physical body. It is certain that Unconscious is concerned. But which is it?

- Mystic: certain psychiatrists propose several “levels “ to this unconscious: a first “ Jungian“ level, a collective unconscious burdened with symbols ; the second “Freudian“ namely the suppressed memories with their host of complexes or lapsus; then “mystical “levels, until the Immanent Absolute.

- Extrasensory perception: several witnesses report cases of information getting through unconventional ways. In addition to the out of body experiment itself, which makes it possible to see and hear elements which occur in the same room, “what observes, “can move in close rooms, or very far, including go an “interplanetary“ travel. It is possible for it to read the thoughts or to feel the emotions, and to have visions of past or future.

- Light: it is described as more powerful than a thousand suns, but not blinding . Sounds can also accompany the NDE, described as crystalline, of great beauty (“music of the sidh “).

- Beings of light: perceived “entities “are personified or not. They are often “beings of light “ visible or not, i.e., they are more a “presence “than a form, it is the light itself which is expressed. As several authors pointed out in connection with the appearances, a subject sees what his culture teaches to him as being likely to be seen , in some place and at some point. Jesus on his cross, the wyvern close to such pond, the Virgin in a church during the feast of the assumption, the White Lady by the roadside, an angel in heavens, etc. The myth provides in the social life a frame of reference, of decoding the events, in the same way as in science, a scientific paradigm, or the whole of the culturally implicitly admitted theories, directs the observation of facts. The communication is always of telepathic type. But the druidic tradition has also beings of darkness much more alarming as the calming Epona or the luminous Belenos Barinthus Manannan.

- Return: the decision is made or suggested, “imposed “ even by the guide or the guides. The subject thinks for example of his children, his family. He has the feeling of a task to be carried out, but not necessarily to have to bear witness of this transcendent immanent experience.

- Personality: the experiment is accompanied by a change of the vision of the world, in the direction of a giving up as for the materialist values, money, success, and so on. Many of them in reality struggle to find a balance “here below“. Their lived experience is so far out from the “values “which make our everyday life that we can understand it easily. The relation with divinity (“religion “) is changed in the direction of a tendency to reject dogmas.

- Memories: the memory of this experiment remains long-lived, but the comprehension of its meaning, which, however, seemed obvious, grows blurred. The awareness seems “skimpy “ after its return into the body.

- Negative NDE: it forms a nightmare, a traumatism. It is the negative twin of the positive NDE as regards “transcendent immanent “ contents: evil entities, terror, absolute black, etc. It is, however, rarer than positive NDE.

- Death: the feeling of peace as of well-being is contradictory with the impression, even the certainty, to be dead. The absence of feeling of the passage of time and the impression to be immaterial, everywhere in space, break the usual reference marks of perception. However, the feeling is that this type of background is familiar.

The word “death “ has very complex contents. It implies some cultural representations, the psychological expression of the fear of unknown, religious expectation, a boundary zone of experiment which worries and fascinates, a representation of the end of existence.

THE IRISH BARDO THODOL OR BOOK OF THE DEAD (ECHTRA IMRAM AND VISIONS…)

But it is preferable, as in the case of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, to speak of it in the plural.

These are three distinct literary genres, the fis or vision, the echtra and the imram. Only the fis or vision is clearly the product of a near-death experience, but it has been recovered by Christianity. The echtra lingers little on the meetings made during the travel, on the other hand, it is more the case of the voyages or imrama. They meet Belenos / Barinthus / Manannan and dolphins, the unicorn Niamh / Epona, etc. who are all psychopompous or calming deities, our Tibetan Buddhist friends would say. The imrama or Christianized voyages seem to insist much more on unpleasant or even meeting (the devil and his demons or the Celtic war deities who hide under this name?)

The druidic thought subdivided this hereafter in several fields

The Irish seafaring hero performs a voyage towards places which are located near the world of the dead, but which are not the kingdom of the dead.

You might as well say,then, that this druidic hereafter belongs to men as an extension of their activity or a normal continuation of reality.

So let's take a look at this together now.

One of the essential topics of druidic theology, logical considering its belief in the survival of the soul/mind after death, is that of the travel in hereafter. In druidic theology, critical experiments are indeed always these which imply hereafter.

Approximately 30% of people who came very close to death, either by accident, or by disease, bring back from it an account of Near Death Experience . But the experiment can also occur simply through fear of death, for example before an accident which seems inescapable. The subject can think that he died, but as he comes back to tell it, medicine considers that he did not really die, even if he crossed a state of clinical and/or brain death. Consequently, we could not speak truly about death, and we use for that, as we saw , the notion of “near death “.

The access to an ideal (avestan xvarnah, Celtic bellissimos/bellissamos) world appears well to be the originality of all these texts. Non-Celtic works dealing with the same subject are not marked by this confidence in the possibility of reaching an idyllic place.

The subject generally undertakes such a travel following the invitation or the request of a creature of the next world. Wonders, richnesses, women and servants in this other world, are there undoubtedly a reflection of our desires, frustrated by the various lacks in our life here below (it is some Buddhist abjuration, but backwards).

The texts which follow are extracted from a long study by Guy Vincent, of the Caracara Editions. www. utqueant. org. devoted to the principle of wandering, or of opening up to Providence, even to God, because that seems us well ultimately echoing the importance the ancient druids attached to chance or to Fate.

Accessible by accident or surprising the hero, such a place, in druidic culture, is made available to human ones still alive and posed as a reality. A clear feeling of optimism emerges from it.

The “echtra “is characterized by an invitation from the god-or-demons to a hero called to visit the next world.

In the accounts of echtra type, the real, spatial, travel, is secondary, in the accounts of imram type, typical of island druidism, it takes on the contrary more importance.

The really geographical and in space travel, is a secondary element of the echtra, not an indispensable condition as in an imram.

In an “imram “ the hero ventures on his own initiative at sea, and drifts towards the hereafter against his liking.

But other criteria can also take part (goal, motivation), and make dubious the classification of a text which can very well at the same time come under the “echtra “or under the “imram “(example: the voyage of Bran).

Here the two great principles which we can to various degrees find at work in the imrama of island druidism.

- The wandering: a wandering of which the length proves to be paramount and constituent of the account of imram type.

This notion of wandering is not without reminding, through its ambivalent nature, the Indian concept of “non-action “. This act of renunciation and detachment which has it that we release ourselves from the advantages produced by the acts, but of which any equating with inaction would be false. The hero of the wandering lets himself be led since the consequences of an act always escape man, as if he renounced the vain search of control of effects. But by no means that prevents him from achieving his undertaking, to follow his way according to most demanding codes of conduct (Guy Vincent. Caracara editions. www. utqueant. org). An ethics of the type kission we could say in Old Celtic.

- The supernatural.

The account of imram type is the link or “continuum “ necessary to isolated fragments that it gathers according to idealism and confidence in the outcome of the travel, often noticed by the specialists in Irish literature. The Irish tours at sea towards the ultimate one, show a typical tenderness and serenity, a sense of the accessible happiness, a deep hope, which are missing in the other accounts of this type.

The various stages or islands of these imrama, are also to regard like as many stages of a psychic process a little similar to the Tibetan Book of the Dead . We can visit some of these islands, we can land there, but there are others it is better carefully to avoid, for the salvation of our soul. These accounts would thus be intended to teach to the most clear-sighted persons what they will meet once died, and how to guide their soul/mind according to the dangers and the wonders. Since the various islands or lands are dedicated to abstract principles, such as the island of Joy or Sadness, or to certain categories of quite particular people.

Said differently, it is a heavenly next world differentiated according to the categories of individuals, and that perhaps ultimately echoed a very old common druidic design of hereafter, dating back to before the separation between island druidism and continental druidism.

Ancient Judaism did not do as much distinction, for the simple reason it hardly approached the subject.

These imrama are perhaps distorted fragments of an ancient island druidic “Book of the Dead “ not written, since ancient island druids avoided like the plague the respect of the letter of a text, and not of its spirit. The distant echo of a kind of island guide of the good death intended to divert the soul/mind from the reefs on which, through bad luck, it could sink.

Five imrama were bequeathed to us by Middle Ages.

The Voyage of Mael-Duin, the Voyage of saint Brendan, the Voyage of the Hui Corra, the Voyage of Snegdus and Riagla, the Voyage of Bran son of Febal.

The Voyage of Bran is a still very pagan text which deals with a maritime adventure; whereas, in the other voyages towards the hereafter or “echtrai “ the hero directly reached the palace of glass (where the fairy woman waits him) whose site corresponds to an island or to the inside of a hill. Nevertheless

the voyage in itself is a not very important focus in the work (approximately a third), what explains why people could hesitate between “imrama “or “echtrai “when it was a question of classifying the story of Bran.

All starts, before even as there is boarding. By a distance and disinterest of the immediate world, which hits Bran after he listened to the song of a woman come from the next world, to praise for him its beauties as well as its attraction. Bran understood that this song was addressed to him, and that he was the chosen man of this woman having entered the palace of his king, without nobody seeing her arriving. Her song celebrates a remote island called “Land of women “ in the middle of the Ocean become a meadow in which chariots run. An island supported by white-bronze pillars, where life is enjoyable shielded from any disease.

The description which is made of it, multiplies color epithets (a fog surrounds the island with an enchanting veil) and emphasizes the happiness which prevails in this place. But in addition to the call sent out to Bran so that he joins this land, some lines of verse, added by the copyist monks reporting this legend, announce the coming of Christ. Who will bring to the men the same joys as these which are reserved to the inhabitants of the land of women.

--- --------- -------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ---------------------- ---------------------- ----------

Editor’s note. Such a phenomenon is frequent in our documents. The first Christians having written down these ancient accounts either removed, or added, many things, at the risk of making them sometimes completely incoherent.

The remarks ascribed to the god-or-demon Belenos Manannan, also known under the name of Barinthus, and announcing the arrival of Christ, are the perfect illustration of that.

The researcher must therefore find the initial state of these texts before their mutilation by Christian copyists.

---------- ----------------- ------------------------ --------------------------------------- ------------------------- -----------------

Bran left with three times nine men, crosses, without having approached an island, Belenos Manannan, on a chariot. A former god-or-demon of the other world become a hero, who in the opposite direction of Bran, goes to Ireland in order to have from a woman a son whose feats will be great. The voyage is stopped by the stanzas sung during this meeting, apparently fortuitous, and of which the only interest lies in the differing views on the world which surrounds Bran and Belenos Manannan.

For the latter , the Ocean is a flowered meadow where everything is luminous and immortal, and Bran's boat sails on the top of trees. Belenos Manannan, finally, announces in turn the coming of Christ to renew the world perverted by the fall, which appears to have spared the hereafter islands.

These lines of verse are of Christian workmanship and are strangely imbricated in the text since they appear between the description of the marvelous islands and the need for Belenos Manannan of going to Ireland in order to have a son. Of whom we do not know if he prefigures the Christ or if he announces the end of the beliefs in reincarnation. Shouldn't this child take the aspect of a stag, a dog, a salmon? Unless cutting off this passage from Christian inspiration, the respect of work forces to recognize this lack of logic characteristic of certain voyages, this capacity to reconcile the contradictions or to combine elements without trying to destroy them. The juxtaposition breaks the order and highlights an incompleteness which should be preserved (since an author designed this strange union of non-disparate stanzas, but directed towards several manifestations of the divinity).

When Bran has passed on , he arrives close to the island of Joy where all the inhabitants continuously laugh, oblivious of any concern. One of the companions of Bran, landed down on the island, can no longer come back , but remains laughing on the spot. In the other imrama, some people lost themselves in the hereafter; here, fright is absent and no sadness rises with the loss of this companion, as if the Voyage of Bran aimed at an evenness of mood which ignores any romantic dramatic episode. Lastly, Bran arrives on the island of women on which a queen attracts him by means of a ball of thread which is stuck in the palm of our hero. Therefore we notice no real wandering in this adventure, but the last anecdote changes the situation completely : one of the companions of Bran, overwhelmed by homesickness, convinces the expedition to come back in Ireland; the fairy woman prevents them not to touch land; Nechtan who wished so much to return, ignores this recommendation, and as soon as on the ground, crumbles into ashes, carried by the floods. The wandering therefore took place well, but on a temporal and non-spatial level. Time passed without Bran knowing it and after he had told his adventure to men, “ He bade them farewell and from that hour his wanderings are not known “.

The feeling we withdraw from that is well that wandering starts then spatially, after being undergone temporally. It is the first text which offers such a disjunction and such an end to us.

Elsewhere, in other voyages , time loses its regular and mathematical substance, indifferent to crossed spaces of which it measures no longer the distances which separate them. Become an expression of spiritual events which give rhythm to it in long or short lengths, in the way of the ancient line of verse, it was, however, used to delimit the succession of places reached, of difficult passages, of expectations in unspecified places. The Voyage of Bran, through this dissociation, thwarts the usual description codes, and emphasizes better the originality of works which have similar tendencies. It leads us to this result that Time is considered as having this same irregular structure as the space in which these adventures take place: same absences, same crossing points, same superpositions, same richness of aspects or of substance.

The Voyage of Mael-Duin, account fleshed out as well by its anecdotes as by the expression given to the feelings, is not less delicate to define according to our two principles; because the romantic element prevails and harms the development of the myth. The hero, Mael-Duin, is brought up by a queen he believes being his mother until the day when, to wound him, it is told to him that his true mother is a nun; who was raped by a warrior, his father, who died in turn from a pirates attack. Nothing can better bring closer the situation of Mael-Duin to that so traditional of Oedipus (also from a prohibited affair), or of Telemachus (searching for a missing father and seeing his mother shamefully courted); a situation which forces these two heroes to leave, to find a justification for their existence, or to recover wealth and power (basic elements of any novel).

Mael-Duin therefore undertakes to leave and avenge the death of his father in order to assume his filiation well. Then begins his travel in which natural phenomena are increased and changed, among all these strange islands our hero visits. A critic even could claim with enough accuracy that the heavenly delights located in one place are in the travel of Mael-Duin distributed on several islands and in as many marvelous aspects (fruits, colors, fountains, precious stones , splendid women). For others, these stages are to be regarded as a psychic process (similar to those in the Tibetan Book of the Dead) in which it is taught to the initiate, what he will meet once died, and how to guide its soul/mind according to dangers and t wonders. Since, as we saw, the various islands are divided into abstract principles, such as the island of Joy or Sadness, in geometrical forms, in elements or in categories of people.

During the boarding, the three foster brothers of Mael-Duin join him, thus starting a terrible fatality on the whole group; sentenced to a false wandering since it is the excuse for telling the wonders seen on the Ocean; and on themselves. They will not be able to return to Ireland, but will remain on the islands which match their destiny (one will be attacked by a cat and will be reduced to ashes; the second will remain on the island of lamenting men; the last on the island of laughing men). Their loss causes a concern or an interrogation, considering that nothing enables us to know what causes such a destiny for them.

---- -------- ------------ --------------------- ----------------------------- ------------------------ ---------------- -------- -------

Editor’s note. It is not a kind of Irish Bardo Thodol, it may be a reminiscence of the ancient common druidic principle having it that the heavenly other world expecting soul/minds after death, is differentiated; or by no means similar. The incoherent evocation of an island of lamenting men or of any other tragic destiny of this kind would be, on the other hand, due to the influence of Judeo-Christianity because; although differentiated according to social functions (priests, warriors, producers, etc.) the druidic other world is always happy and positive; unlike that of the Islamic-Christians; because hell does not exist there!

--------------------------- ------- ------------------------ -------------------- ----------------------- -------------------- ----------

If two of our principles (wandering, logical-imaginative incompleteness) are poorly represented, the third one is clearly better represented in this regard . Because of this obligation for our hero to see within reach the murderers of his father boasting in their intoxication about their crime; and to be in the incapacity to reach them since the winds push him towards the open sea, far from the island where these unpunished culprits stand. Nothing will remind the everyday world of men during the voyage. If it is not the episode when Mael-Duin and his companions are kept by women and can go away only by breaking the magic thread which sticks to the hand of one of them, to draw them to the port. There, indeed, the desire for returning home is obviously expressed, therefore showing thus the Voyage of Mael-Duin sees in these wonders of the hereafter only a reflection of the reality, of which the savor is superior.

The Voyage of saint Brendan.

A written in Latin language Voyage this time, and of which the distribution will be not only Irish, but European. The date of the drafting varies between the seventh and the tenth century without it is known who was its author. It is very likely that he was Irish, because of his Latin tinged with turns of phrase specific to this island, nor in which place in Europe the text was written. In addition to very many translations and adaptations in vernacular languages starting from this text, specialists are not sure that it is first. It is possible indeed that a Life of the saint was previous to it by a few decades, and made it be a piece of the so widespread genre during the Middle Ages we call hagiography. But the reverse is as probable, namely as the success of the Voyage generated in turn the desire for making the text conform to the literary requirements of the time by integrating it within the usual framework of the lives of saints.

These various questions, to which it would be necessary to add the study of sources and of influences, impassioned critics a long time.

St Brendan, son of Finnlug, grandson of Alta, of the race of Eoghan, was born in the marshy district of Munster. He was famed for his great abstinence and his many virtues, and was the patriarch of nearly three thousand monks. While he was in his (spiritual) warfare, at a place called since “Moor of Brendan’s virtues ” (“saltus virtutum” or Cluain Ferta-Clonfert), there came to him one evening, a certain father, named Barinthus, of the race of King Niall, who, when questioned by St Brendan, in frequent converse, could only weep, and cast himself prostrate, and continue the longer in prayer; but Brendan raising him, embraced him, saying: ‘Father, why should we be thus grieved on the occasion of your visit? Have you not come to give us comfort? You ought, indeed, make better cheer for the brethren. In God’s name, make known to us the divine secrets, and refresh our souls by recounting to us the various wonders you have seen upon the great ocean.’ Then St. Barinthus, in reply, proceeds to tell of a certain island.

‘My godson , Mernoc, the guardian of the poor of Christ, had fled away from me to become a solitary, and found, nigh unto the Stone Mountain, an island full of delights. After some time I learned that he had many monks there in his charge, and that God had worked through him many marvels. I, therefore, went to visit him, and when I had approached within three days’ journey, he, with some of the brethren, came out to meet me, for God had revealed to him my advent. As we sailed unto the island, the brethren came forth from their cells towards us, like a swarm of bees, for they dwelt apart from each other, though their intercourse was of one accord, well grounded in faith, hope, and charity; one refectory; one church for all, wherein to discharge the divine offices. No food was served but fruits and nuts, roots and vegetables of other kinds. The brethren, after compline, spent the night in their respective cells until the cockcrow, or the bell tolled for prayer. When my dear son and I had traversed the island, he led me to the western shore, where there was a small boat, and he then said: ‘Father, enter this boat, and’ we will sail on to the west, towards the island called the Land of Promise of the Saints, which God will grant to those who succeed us in the latter days.’

When we entered the boat and set sail, clouds overshadowed us on every side, so dense that we could scarcely see the prow or the stern of the boat. After the lapse of an hour or so, a great light shone around us, and land appeared, spacious and grassy, and bearing all manner of fruits. And when the boat touched the shore; we landed, and walked round the island for fifteen days, yet could not reach the limits thereof. No plant saw we there without its flower; no tree without its fruit and all the stones thereon were precious gems. But on the fifteenth day we discovered a river flowing from the west towards the east, when, being at a loss what to do, though we wished to cross over the river, we awaited the direction of the Lord. While we thus considered the matter, there appeared suddenly before us a certain man, shining with a great light, who, calling us by our names, addressed us thus: ‘Welcome, worthy brothers, for the Lord has revealed to you the land He will grant unto His saints. There is one half of the island up to this river, which you are not permitted to pass over; return, therefore, whence you came….’

When he had ceased to speak, I asked him his name, and whence he had come. But he said: 'Why do you ask these questions? Should you not rather inquire about this island? Such as you see it now, so has it continued from the beginning of the world. Do you now need food or drink? Have you been weighed down by sleep, or shrouded in the darkness of the night ? Know then for certain that here it is for ever day, without a shadow of darkness, for the Lord Jesus Christ is the light thereof.

We set out on our return journey, the man aforesaid accompanying us to the shore, where our boat was moored. When we had entered the boat, this man was taken from our sight, and we went on into the thick darkness we had passed through before, and thus unto the Island of delights. But when the brethren there saw us, they rejoiced with great joy at our return, as they had long bewailed our absence, and they said: ‘Why, O fathers, did you leave us, your little flock, to stray without a shepherd in the wilderness? We knew, indeed, that our abbot frequently departed somewhere from us, and remained away sometimes a month, sometimes a fortnight, or a week more or less. But never a whole year !

When I heard this I tried to console them, and said: ‘Brethren, harbor no thought of evil, for your lives here are, of course, passed at the very portals of paradise. Not far away from you lies the island, called the ‘Land of Promise of the Saints,’ where night never falls nor day closes; thither your abbot, Mernoc, resorts, as the angels of God watch over it. Do you not know, by the fragrance of our garments, that we have been in the paradise of God?’

They replied: ‘Yous, Father, we knew well that you had been in the paradise of God, for we often found this fragrance from the garments of our abbot, which lingered about us for nearly forty days.’ I then told them that I had abided therein with my dear godson, for a fortnight, without food or drink; yet, so complete was our’ bodily refreshment, that we would ‘seem to others to have been filled to repletion. ‘When forty days had passed, having received the blessings of the abbot and the brethren, I came away with my companions.

Nothing could thus as much move St. Brendan, who, with fourteen companions and three monks come to embark at the last moment, will set sail towards this land promised to the saints. The travel will last seven years.

Before reaching them, islands met will often be the same from one year to the next one , so much the account hardly hesitates to say again or repeat these essential episodes. Instead of a ceaseless proceeding of varied anecdotes a voluntary monotony will therefore prevail, which goes against any imaginative phantasm. In the same way, with regard to logic. The Voyage of St Brendan, by means of an alternation between possible and real phenomena, and dreamed phenomena, multiplies inconsistencies; what, for a long time, had as a result an unjustified contempt for this work.

The three additional companions are left on the islands without we are able to say exactly if a happy or well-deserved fatality weighs on them; the number of fourteen monks is reduced to twelve at certain times (of food division); the succession of adventures is not built in the way of a progression or according to a meaning carefully studied, and so on. Many examples of this voluntary withdrawal compared to the possibilities of imagination or reason, abound. Even the wonders seen at sea, these “Magnalia Dei “as it is said; i.e., an enormous fish alongside which the ship comes as if it was an island (a whale?), or this tree covered with bird angels endowed with words; or this column of crystal similar to the axis of the world and surrounded by a net which goes down in the Ocean; undergo no descriptive grandiloquence, no flight of poetry, which would emphasize shapes, colors, or precious substances.

Saint Brendan also discovers very quickly his voyage could not have a precise human direction, and that it is only an endless drift, accompanied by weariness, repetitions, prohibitions which delay the deadline unceasingly. With constancy and confidence, he agrees to be the plaything of events which, at first sight, are useless, but, in fact, strengthen him in his conviction of the divine greatness, and endures hunger and thirst. Less persuaded to advance or to experiment initiatory stages than attentive to the time when the Divine Grace will decide to finally reveal to him the Promised land of the saints. Never will the principle of wandering be so clearly expressed, since the giving up of the tiller to God is not the pretext for a resting navigation, carried out well, sheltered from uncertainties and dangers.

Saint Brendan agrees to drift in a positive way, in order to know stronger emotive states, would be only the humility which places the glance downwards. The coracle, in which he sails, is a skin boat, relatively low compared to the level of the flood. The idea of a wandering which would have constructive effects and would be necessary, without one seeing there an escape, relaxation or convenience, appears very important, although difficult to define if we locate it between lack of concern and fatality. The hero can be the helpless victim of a fate which harasses him (in what, in this case, his wandering would be highlighted?) But he can also wish to rely on his lucky star, by idleness (in what such a wandering would be then positive and worthy to be praised?)

This is why the wandering of St Brendan which is based nor on one or the other case, deserves attention.

The saint must obey, but he must also act, worry, pray. Strange position where the undergone wandering is nevertheless to direct as if the logic of the simultaneous or reconciled opposites proved to be possible, and definite. At least level, other heroes of the previous voyages gave the illustration of it.

Compromising with the accidents which occur, our seafarer keeps the direction of his thought towards the ultimate one, beyond what runs up, crosses or diverts his route. The islands that St. Brendan visits are deserted, or inhabited by monks who have escaped ageing, and remain in the expectation, while being conscious of this exceptional state. The time mechanism is, in this work of great complexity. Since St Brendan will be able to meet beings of a great age (Judas, the hermit, Paul, the angels fallen from creation) some monks of a generation just former to his (Ailbe’s community); to see three of his companions disappear; and to get from a young man living in the Promised land of the saints a prophecy as for the future of Irish Christendom (it will be a victim of destroying invasions).

Other prophecies pepper the narrative besides, throughout these seven years, in order to strengthen the courage of each one, but it would be vain to release precise lengths inside this seven-year wandering.

* Considering the date of the story, the ninth century, we can obviously think of the Islamization of Europe even of the world but it is more probably an allusion to Vikings.

Some extracts of our text now (in this imram the island of the land Promised for the saints, promised by God, is a paradise drawn from druidic mythology, of course: Avalon = apple orchard) and the island of the blacksmiths represents Hell).

As every blacksmith Gobannos / Gobann / Goibiniu is certainly a rather disturbing and even formidable deity (see his role in the battle of the plain of the standing stones or burial mounds) but it is not directly a deity of war and it is not certain, therefore that the description Saint Brendan gives us of his smithy and of his assistants is well taken, even in a distorted, very distorted, way, from Celtic mythology. It is at most a hypothesis.

CHAPTER XXXI. THE ISLAND OF BLACKSMITHS.

When those eight days had passed, they came within view of an island, which was very rugged and rocky, covered over with slag, without trees or herbage, but full of smiths’ forges. St. Brendan said to the brethren: ‘I am much distressed about this island; I have no wish to enter it or even to approach it – yet the wind is driving us directly towards it, as if it were the aim of our course.’ When they had passed on further, about a stone’s cast, they heard the noise of bellows’ blowing like thunder, and the beating of sledges on the anvils and iron. Then St. Brendan armed himself all over his body with the sign of the Cross, saying: ‘O Lord Jesus Christ, deliver us from this malign island.’ Soon after one of the inhabitants came forth to do some work; he was all hairy and hideous, begrimed with fire and smoke. When he saw the servants of Christ near the island, he withdrew into his forge, crying aloud: ‘Woe! Woe! Woe!’ St Brendan again armed himself with the sign of the Cross, and said to the brethren: ‘Put on more sail, and ply your oars more briskly, that we may get away from this island.’ Hearing this, the savage man, above mentioned, rushed clown to the shore, bearing in his hand tongs with a burning mass of the slag, of great size and intense heat, which he flung at once after the servants of Christ; but it did them no hurt, for they were protected by the sign of the Cross. It passed them at a furlong’s distance, and where it fell into the sea, it fumed up like II. heap of burning coals, and a great smoke arose as if from a fiery furnace. When they had passed on about a mile beyond the spot where this burning mass had fallen, all the dwellers on the island crowded down to the shore, bearing, each of them, a large mass of burning slag, which they flung, everyone in turn, after the servants of God; and then they returned to their forges, which they blew up into mighty flames, so that the whole island seemed one globe of fire, and the sea on every side boiled up and foamed, like a cauldron set on a fire well supplied with fuel. All the day the brethren, even when they were no longer within the view of the island, heard a loud wailing from the inhabitants thereof, and a noisome stench was perceptible at a great distance.

----------- ------------------------------ ----------------------- ---------------------------- ---------------------- ------------------

Editor’s note. Some exegetes of druidism think that it was perhaps Jan Mayen Island erupting…

--------------- ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------ ----------------------- ----------------

Then St Brendan tried to animate the courage of the brethren, saying: ‘Soldiers of Christ, be strong in faith unfeigned and in the armor of the Spirit, for we are now on the confines of hell; watch, therefore, and act manfully.’

On another day there came into view a large and high mountain in the ocean, not far off, towards the north, with misty clouds about it, and a great smoke issuing from its summit, when suddenly the wind drove the boat rapidly towards the island until it almost touched the shore. The cliffs were so high they could scarce see the top were black as coal, and upright like a wall. Here the monk, who remained of the three who followed St Brendan from his monastery, leaped from the boat, and made his way to the foot of the cliff, wailing and crying aloud: ‘Woe is me! father, for I am forcibly torn away from you, and cannot return.’ But the brethren, seized with a great fear, quickly drew off from the shore; and, lamenting loudly, cried unto the Lord: ‘Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us!’ St Brendan plainly saw how the wretched man was carried off by a multitude of demons, and was already burning among them, and he exclaimed: ‘Woe is yours my son, who has made you so evil an end of your life.’

Afterwards a favorable breeze caught the boat, and drove them southwards; and as they looked back, they saw the peak of the mountain unclouded, and shooting up flames into the sky, which it drew back again to itself, so that the mountain seemed a burning pyre.

CHAPTER XXXVI : THE PROMISED LAND OF THE SAINTS.

St Brendan encouraged his brethren : ‘Why are you alarmed? Fear not, for no evil shall befall us, as we have here only a helper on our journey.’

The great whale (Jasconius ?) swam in a direct course towards the shore of the island of Birds, where it landed them all unharmed, and on this island they sojourned until the Octave of Pentecost. When that solemn season had passed, their procurator, who was still with them, said to St Brendan: ‘Embark now in your boat, and fill all the water-skins from the fountain. I will be the companion and the conductor of your journey henceforth, for without my guidance you could not find the land you seek, the Land of Promise of the Saints.’

Then, while they were embarking, all the birds of the island, as soon as they saw St Brendan, sung together in concert: 'May a happy voyage under his guidance bring you safely to the island of your procurator.’

St Brendan and his companions took with them provisions for forty days, as their course lay to the east (sic) for that space of time; during which the procurator went on before them, guiding their way. At the end of forty days, towards evening, a dense cloud overshadowed them, so dark that they could scarce see one another. Then the procurator said to St Brendan: ‘Do you know, father, what darkness is this?’ And the saint replied that he did not know. ‘This darkness,’ said he, ‘surrounds the island you have sought for seven years; you will soon see that it is the entrance to it’; and after an hour had elapsed a great light shone around them, and the boat stood by the shore.

CHAPTER XXXVII. THE YOUNG MAN OF THE RIVER.

When they had disembarked, they saw a land, extensive and thickly set with trees, laden with fruits, as in the autumn. All the time they were traversing that land, during their stay in it, no night was there but a light always shone, like the light of the sun in the meridian, and for forty days they viewed the land in various directions, they could not find the limits thereof. One day, however, they came to a large river flowing towards the middle of the land, which they could not by any means cross over. St Brendan then said to the brethren: ‘We cannot cross over this river, and we must therefore remain ignorant of the size of this country.’ While they were considering this matter, a young man of resplendent features, and very handsome aspect, came to them, and joyfully embracing and addressing each of them by his own name, said: ‘Peace be with you, brothers, and with all who practice the peace of Christ. Blessed are they who dwell in your house, O Lord; they shall praise You forever and ever.’

He then said to St Brendan: ‘This is the land you have sought after for so long a time; but you could not hitherto find it, because Christ our Lord wished, first to display to you His divers mysteries in this immense ocean. Return now to the land of your birth, bearing with you as much of those fruits and of those precious stones, as your boat can carry; for the days of your earthly pilgrimage must draw to a close, when you may rest in peace among your saintly brethren. After many years this land will be made manifest to those who come after you when days of tribulation may come upon the people of Christ.

------ ---------------- -------------- ------------------------------------- ----------------------------- --------------------------- --

Editor’s note. Nobody since heard of persecutions against Christians in Europe. Elsewhere in the world, in the Middle East yes, but in Europe no! Only the last pagans in the Baltic (in Lithuania and Poland) were victims of forced conversions (worked out by the Teutonic knights). Unless, of course, it is an allusion to the religion wars which have bloodied Europe in the name of the god of love starting from the 16th century? Or to the difficult cohabitation with the other « mass » religion of peace of love and of tolerance which is Islam?

------------- ------------------------ ----------------------------- ---------------------------- ---------------------- ----------------

The great river you see here divides this land into two parts; and just as it appears now, teeming with ripe fruits, so does it ever remain, without any blight or shadow whatever, for light unfailing shines thereon : namely Christ.’

They gathered some of the fruits of the land, and various kinds of precious stones; and having taken a last farewell of the good procurator who had each year provided food for him arid his brethren, he embarked once more and sailed back through the darkness again. When they had passed through this, they reached the ‘Island of Delights,’ where they remained for three days, as guests in the monastery; and then St Brendan, with the abbot’s parting blessing, set sail in a direct course.

CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE RETURN OF ST BRENDAN : HIS DEATH.

St Brendan arrived at his own monastery, where all his monks gave glory to God for the safe return of their holy patron, and learned from him the wonderful works of God, which he had seen or heard during his voyage.

Afterwards he ended in peace the days of his life, on the nones of July, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, whose kingdom and empire endure forever and ever.

----- ----------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------

From the travel of Mael Duin, to the Voyage of saint Brendan, transposition appeared very clear to Zimmer, just as the Christianization in other imrama (the voyage of Snedgus and Mac Riagla). The Voyage of St Brendan, in this case later than that of Maelduin (seventh-eighth century), would be to locate in the 11th century, and would come from a mix-up between two Brendan.

- Brendan of Birr, whose Mael Duin (chapter XXX) meets during his voyage the monastic community on an island, and whose Irish hagiography says to us that he was blind. (Vita Sanctae Moduennae: “unus of poetis scotorum praeclarissimus nomine Brenden, vir ab infantia oculis orbus sed in arte poetica inter omnes praecipuus “. It is, of course, the Homeric topic of the blind poet).

- Brendan of Clonfert, younger and who became mistakenly the hero of this Voyage.

Zimmer theory, audacious in itself, was highly disputed initially by the partisans of a more original Celtic cultural identity. Thrall, in 1917, noticed that the majority of specialists in Irish literature had taken with faintness the assumptions of Zimmer. Going back over them in detail, he showed the difference in context and intention between Aeneid and imrama: on the one hand, travel performed involuntarily with the aim of being settled ; on the other travel wanted to be avenged; meetings of natural beings in the Aeneid ; monstrosities or wonders in Mael Duin.

Quite far that Mael Duin is an imitation, it should be recognized to it on the contrary a pagan Celtic core. It was and it will be the opinion of Schröder besides, Kenney, d’Arbois de Jubainville, Plummer, and Selmer, who admitted as bases for the Voyage, a whole pagan literature with original rules and topics.

It remained to know if the Voyage took more after an imram or an echtra: imram prefers to interest the reader by incidents of travel, echtra brings goals and reasons for the travel to the forefront; the first of both is voluntary; the second is the response to an invitation, etc.

Orlandi changed the distribution between echtrai and imrama, by adopting the previous criteria.

Zimmer took into consideration only the reached place, i.e., the Elysium at sea, or the palace dug in a hill, and classified the travel of Bran in the category of imrama, what Orlandi disputed. But these criteria applied to the Voyage, make it belong to both kinds. Voyage starts, for example, by the account of Barintus (just as Bran receives the visit of a woman apparently emerged from a silver branch). Barinthus is a messenger of the Other World; a god-or-demon of the sea who, in the Life of St David (eighth-ninth century) travels got on a sea horse and on the open sea meets St Brendan on the back of a whale. He is similar to Manannan, another sea god-or-demon of Irishmen, but he will be changed into a saint and will be rationalized as a ship's pilot (in the Life of Merlin) by Geoffrey of Monmouth (he is at the tiller of the ship of Artus on the way towards the Fortunate islands). His name according to Zimmer means “white scum “ and as Brown notices it: “In many Celtic tales the messenger of the Next World suggests a travel to the hero, “ in this case Voyage is connected with echtra.

The Promised land for the saints - goal of the travel of Brendan - would draw its origin from the Celtic Elysium “Tir--tairngiri “or promised land, “Tir na nOg “land of the Young people; the field of Life after death, over which the god-or-demon Manannan of many daughters rules . Food is abundant there thanks to a miraculous foodstuff preserved in a cauldron. In the Voyage , St Brendan in front of the crystal column; (Visio Tnugdali or Visio of Adamnan – seventh century - show with this episode of the Voyage strange similarities, when they describe us the Heavenlyl City surrounded by silver and gold walls;) finds a massive chalice which releases them from any need for food or drink. On the Promised land for the saints, he loses track of time; just as Bran returning home cannot leave his ship, for fear of crumbling into ashes, so many centuries passed, without he realized it , since his departure. In this case also, the Voyage is a piece of the literary genre of echtra. The name Island of delights, in addition, translates the Gaelic Inis subai - Island of joy, or Inis cain - fairylike Island.

Approached islands - which form the thread of the narrative - are often “insulae pomorum “- apple islands, as well in imrama as in the Voyage. According to Ferdinand Lot, it would be a false popular etymology of the word “Avalon “coming from the Welsh word “afalon “meaning “apple “; however Avalon is the field of the god-or-demon Avalloc, god-or-demon of death, living in the glass island (Iniswitrin) another name for the world of the dead and for hereafter (cf. Cormac, Condla) and which will become the castle of Maidens in Chretien de Troyes.

Mrs. Bullock-Davies suggests, however, the following etymology: “ynis “= meadow close to a river or island, “ava or aub “= river, which would make Avalon the island or the river meadow “river “. To these Welsh roots, discussed, it is necessary to add the possibility of an Irish origin of the insula pomorum, because according to Chotzen, an apple is a symbol of the next world, of a recovered health, of immortality, in Irish texts. However Manannan married Morgan the daughter of Avalloch, and lives with her in Avalon. Barintus is an avatar of Manannan, let us point it out, and in this case, it would thus lead St Brendan towards the kingdom of the Dead. The islands visited by St Brendan are therefore to compare to the Celtic hereafter, peculiar to imrama.

- On these “apple islands “ the water of spring is venerated because combined with science and truth, as the Irish legends show it. Moreover the Irish word “ fir “meaning “oath, truth “(recognizable in the “saltus virtutum “or Cluain Ferta -the Clonfert of the Voyage) is to be compared to the Indo-European stem * Wer “to bind “; that the Indian god-or-demon Varuna living waters of the sky and of the earth, illustrates.

Other agreements are observed between the Voyage and imrama: the empty Castle where they are served mysteriously, the soul/minds become birds, the three additional companions, etc. Among Celts Hell is frozen: it is a marshy cesspool where cold coexists with fire. However the Voyage describes side by side the transparent sea and the island of blacksmiths (one being frozen, the other being a furnace); just like the Travel of Mael Duin (chapters XI and XII) as well as the Vision of Tundale (Visio Tnugdali, do it: a frozen pond succeeds the forging mill of the demon called Vulcan).

It arises from that the impossibility of classifying the Voyage in a genre rather than in the other. But that enabled us to highlight a whole current of literary review , which sees in the Voyage the" Christianization of a lay literature “ according to the expression of Zimmer. Or better, the Christianization of Celtic topics, the use for religious ends of a rich imagination, the imitation and the occultation of an old Indo-European core.

To these criticisms of Zimmer’s theory, prone to defend Celtic originality against Graeco-Latin Antiquity, were added other analyzes which suggested on the contrary to see in the Voyage of St Brendan, the prototype of imrama and echtrai. The travel of Mael Duin would be therefore later in time to the Voyage of St Brendan. The literary process consisting in parceling out the description of Heaven in several islands, in order to support the interest of the reader (from where a repetition of episodes already pointed out by Nutt and Brown); is found in the account of the voyage of Maelduin 1).

Stokes, since 1889, Carney in 1955, and Grosjean also, in 1975, have even suggested that imrama came in fact from a more or less great distribution or secularization of the Christian text (here the Voyage of St Brendan). And it is exact that the establishment of Christianity in this island, historically speaking, was not done at the expense (and with violence) of the Irish paganism, but it is better to see there a skillful syncretism. Plummer had already had a presentiment of it besides in his study, his only wrong was to give a too large room to Aryan and pre-Aryan Paganism. These last criticisms therefore appear to us overcoming, because of the seniority (stylistically proven by J. Orlandi), of the Voyage, which dates back to the seventh century-eighth century; probable dates of drafting also of imrama and echtrai.

The Travel of the Hui Corra tells us how parents deprived of children relied one day on the Devil to have sons. After the pact is concluded three boys are born (one in the evening, the other at midnight, the last one in the morning) who, once become adult, tackle every possible demonstration of Christian life; killing priests and destroying churches or convents, in order to satisfy their infernal Lord. Until the day when they face their own maternal grandfather, who is also a priest. The elder one, during a night's dream, has the vision of hell and heaven, which causes their conversion to Christianity, and their will to get better by restoring all that they destroyed. Then, after having carried out their time of penance, while contemplating the sun about to set down, it comes to them the idea to know the areas where it sets down. They therefore build a coracle ready to make them travel across the sea.

After forty days of drift towards the west, entrusting their chance to the only will of God (principle of wandering), they discover the island of Sadness, the island of Joy. Where each time one of the members of the group lands , and by imitation is delighted or afflicted , but cannot return, without the reasons for it is known (here we have the principle of logical incompleteness) some islands with strange shapes (one is put on a pedestal or similar to a column; the other is surrounded by a bronze palisade). But appear to them especially, in several scattered scenes, the punishment which waits for the damned persons as well as the joys of the blessed ones, according to a rather regular alternation, which makes it possible to oppose with insistence two types of pictures. The Hui Corra, vainly, hope for a resurrection which is refused to them from island to island, until receiving the command to return in order to contribute to the propagation of the Christian religion, through the account of their adventures.

In fact, this Irish voyage, like the following one, is connected better with the other type of travel at sea that we find in these accounts of imaginary adventures; i.e., the voluntary heroic travel where there is less a real wandering than difficulties generated by a search (delays and dismissals multiply in the adventure of the Hui Corra, without strong commitment from them). Here, the absence of emotive states gives a rather serene and accomplished image of Creation (in spite of the horrors glimpsed, since the heroes do only border on them ), that we find especially in the voyage related to a human decision. The world is complete, organized, foreseeable (everything is in its proper place).

The voyage of Snedgus and Mac Riagla begins thus. A tyrannical king having been assassinated, the culprits of this crime are sentenced by saint Columcille (or Columba) to being given up to Ocean. They must embark then to be pulled by the currents far from the coasts. Snedgus and Mac Riagla, envoys of Columcille, attend the departure of these forced pilgrims, but cannot resolve to return directly in Iona where Columcille waits for them.

The example of the condemned persons encourages them on the contrary to leave at sea too,they also, in the same way. Their voyage therefore begins and will occupy approximately two thirds of the work. The text announces the giving up of the coracle to sea streams and to the wills of God (the wandering is therefore suggested there) so that a whole series of wonders can then take place (birds endowed with words and which prophesy; dog-headed men, pig-headed men); of which strangest is the arrival on an island on which they encounter again the felons of the beginning, absolved and living with Elijah or Enoch, these two sages of the Old Testament gone up into heavens without having experimented death.

---- -------------------- -------------------------- ------------------------------ ---------------------------- ------------------------

Editor’s note. It is perhaps there the distant echo of an ancient common druidic design having it that some exceptional individuals can directly reach the next world during their very life.

For the record let us remind here the basic text in this field.

“ 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 manifest. For Cronos himself [ the Buddha Amitabha? The Grail ? the Fate ????] sleeps confined in a deep cave of rock that shines like gold — the sleep that Zeus [ Taran/Toran/Tuireann] 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 mentioned before tend and serve Cronos [ the Buddha Amitabha? The Grail ? the Fate ????], having been his comrades 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 the god “ (Plutarch. De facie in orbe Lunae, 26).

---- ----------- ------------------ ---------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- ------------------------

The journey of Snedgus and Mac Riagla ends with the meeting of a good king, whose residence resembles an immense church, and who prophesies to them the nearest arrival in Ireland of invaders, since Irishmen forgot the Word of God. It remains therefore only to them to return and announce to their fellow men this sad future.

The distance from human societies is not large enough in this voyage to be included in the desired category of apolitical attitude. Even if the visions of hereafter that Snedgus and Mac Riagla get do not have the moralizer side of the infernal punishments and of the heavenly delights present in the Travel of Hui Corra. The scenes follow one another so as to remind of Ireland (meeting with a Gaelic hero abandoned on an island, gift of a fan for Columcille, etc.). And the fact of relying on God reduces the wandering to an excellent piloting without main risk. Same care of the narrative to fill the logic-imaginative lack produced by the decision to send at sea hobos sentenced because having had the misfortune to revolt against a bad king. The fact of finding them again on an island, happy and repentant, gives a sense to the work, and prevents it from remaining dubious and surprising, or from having these discontinuities that it is important for us to recognize.

Although the work is of a religious nature, it does not have this breath and this inspiration of which we find trace in the voyages matching our three principles.

The Voyage of Snedgus and Mac Riagla, like that of the Hui Corra therefore, belongs to one of the sides of these imaginary tours. It is not to be rejected since, as we noticed, it accompanies, with some awkwardness it is true the other side, in a way perhaps to put forward it or to balance it.

It would be good to see in the extraordinary mental activity of ancient druids, not only the result of a civilization, but especially particular strokes of genius of which range proves to be universal.

We could not too much recognize to these Irish voyages this fertile thought about one of the most distressing problems of human existence; but also this conceptual capacity to exceed the conflict of an objective time opposed to a subjective time; of the cold power of the clock with respect to the frail moments of happiness.

This particular view of time could form the most essential contribution of the Irish literature in this time, so much it happens that many of its heroes are moving into a place or into a circumstance which demands them. Less to highlight their own heroic qualities than to plunge them in a precise mystery which monopolizes them and changes them radically, and of which we could thus summarize the questions.

“Of whom or of what am I the savior and the person in charge?

Why am I the only one to meet an expectation of which I am unaware of the causes?

In what am I, the part which is missing in this unknown mechanism left to my perception? “(According to a study by Guy Vincent).

NR. B. In what concerns us, such a questioning seems well to echo ultimately the importance that the ancient druids attached to Haphazardness or to Fate.

1) Unless, of course, it is not only a literary process, but the literary sublimation of the stages of an authentic near-death experience. What would then make these texts reminiscences of a kind of Celtic book of the dead, a druidic Bardo Thodol therefore.

ELEMENTS OF INDIVIDUAL ESCHATOLOGY.

ON INDIVIDUAL SOUL (ANAMONE AND ANAON).

Former druidism uses the words anamone and anaon (neutral nouns to designate the element which survives the death of the body) and the new druidism the word soul, since it was accepted by modern use. It is therefore the INDIVIDUAL HUMAN SOUL (personified by the beautiful and unhappy Etanna/Etain, torn between the next world and this one, in Ireland: Altrom Tige Da Medar).

Anamone and anaon were nevertheless two words not referring the same reality completely. The anaon it was more precisely the team of the soul (anamone) and of the mind (menman) together. What the neo-druid Allan Kardec calls perisprit i.e., "envelope, visible form, ghost.”Our time confuses everything!

All the anamones proceed from the awenyddia or universal soul, and are as many and varied as are the bodies in which they are incarnated.

An individual soul considered as being emanated from the Divine Big Whole, and intended to be reabsorbed in it after one or more “lives “ primarily in the next world, very exceptionally again on earth.

The individual soul (anamone) is, in its essence, identical to the soul of the world. The individual human soul is only a tear of fire from the universal soul, a spare part from the big stock of soul that some people call psychic pleroma (awenyddio). But the anamone is only its limited reflection, because taking as support the body and the mind, which are limited. The anamone, as for its base, is connected to a body and to a certain psychic equipment.

It is therefore necessary to grant to soul, according to high-knowers, a certain reality, independent of the body and of the mind (of the awareness and of the intelligence). But what reality in this case?

And besides what do we understand precisely by “individual soul “? The respiratory breath, the vital principle which may reincarnate in another support after bodily death? Anatla (plural anatlai) is the (female) noun given by Celts to the vital breath called prana in Sanskrit. Until the Middle Ages often represented by a bird (a lark or a dove leaving the mouth of dying people). Or then a portion of creative divine breath? May we define the ontological truth of embryos and to know, with certainty, when a human person appears? Such are the “inescapable “ fundamental, questions, which are in the middle of the present debate and of our very vision of the human being. To these interrogations, the answers provided by religions prove to be often different from medical ideas; either they are oldest,

these of Indian medicine or of the treatises on the embryo in the Hippocratic Collection; or the most recent research like these of Jung. Because what tells us Jung about the soul?

The ethnological and historical ideas of the soul show clearly that it is initially a content pertaining to the subject, but also to the world of spirits, the unconscious. This is why the soul always has something of earthly and supernatural at the same time (Psychological Types). The soul is a traveler between two worlds: the subject but also the world of the spirits, the earthly one and the supernatural one, the ego and the self… The soul, for Jung, lies in the female side of the being. Let the man integrate his anima, and his soul gradually appears. Let the woman - thanks to the integration of her animus - recognize the inner female one she has on deposit in her depths, and her soul takes shape… In a way , the soul is the female face of God… Because the soul is female as each one knows or at least would have to know, especially since the famous memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar (vagula blandula Anima).

The least we can say is that various theses clash on this subject.

We may, first of all, of course, think that soul does not exist! For atheistic materialists, there exists only the very complex phenomenon of awareness and of the mind. This thesis should not be lightly dismissed, but since it was not the thesis of the majority of ancient druidic Schools, apparently, we will thus detail rather the opposite principle: the soul exists.

Two alternatives arise then at once.

First alternative: the soul is only a pure non-matter, neutral and impersonal or it is only a subjective and individual awareness (in other words an “I “or an “ego “). In short a mind.

Second alternative: the soul is mortal or it is immortal, in the strictest sense of the word (it has an origin, but it will not have an end).

As of the conception of a human being, the cosmos as a whole produced or reacts to the vital energy which livens up the new being, because all is “connected “ physical world and spiritual world. The soul is the spiritual entity (the knot of waves…) which underlies this new living matter. It is a spiritual manifestation made autonomous in the tangible world through its embodiment, it is carrying a tear of fire resulting from Divinity. It traverses the matter, thanks to the physical body, which brings back it “ultimately “to the Divine one, after having made the concrete and total experiment of the perceptible world.

In Ireland, as we could see it, the anaon or team of the human soul and mind was symbolized, even personified, by the entity called in the legends, Etanna or Etain. But on the continent this myth of the human soul torn between the world of the god-or-demons and that of the men was especially linked with amber.

As of Antiquity, some electric phenomena had indeed intrigued former druids. By rubbing a piece of amber, people were then able to draw birds' feathers and as amber seems to preserve within it plants as well as animals, it had been linked by druids with eternal youth. The interpretation of this phenomenon by the druids, of course, is today completely outdated.

Position of true druids was always nuanced or considered, as their myth in connection with the origins of the soul proves it.

The soul (anamone or anaon in Breton language ) was for them simply the divine spark or the share of divinity (tears of the sun) which lies in each being populating the earth, and keeps it alive. Every living being was endowed with a soul/mind, either it belongs to the mineral kingdom (a mountain, a river, a plain, a farmed or not, place, an ocean) vegetable (a forest, a tree; a flower), animal, or human. As regards the vegetable or animal kingdom, it was perhaps to be a deduction drawn from the fact that amber often contains, in a fossil state, vegetable remains, even whole insects.

This important druidic religious concept left traces in the Greek writers.

Diodorus of Sicily. Library of History. Book V XXIII. “ But as regards the tin of Britain we shall rest content with what has been said, and we shall now discuss the electron, as it is called [amber]. Directly opposite the part of Scythia which lies above Galatia there is an island out in the open sea which is called Basileia (Abalus in Pytheas). On this island the waves of the sea cast up large quantities of what is known as amber (glaeson in Celtic language), which is to be seen nowhere else in the inhabited world; and about it many of the ancient writers have composed fanciful tales, such as are altogether difficult to credit and have been refuted by later events. For many poets and historians give the story that Phaëthon, the son of Helius, while yet a youth, persuaded his father to retire in his

favor from his four-horse chariot for a single day; and when Helius yielded to the request Phaëthon, as he drove the chariot, was unable to keep control of the reins, and the horses, making light of the youth, left their accustomed course; and first they turned aside to traverse the heavens, setting it afire and creating what is now called the Milky Way, and after that they brought the scorching rays to many parts of the inhabited earth and burned up not a little land. Consequently Zeus, being indignant because of what had happened, smote Phaëthon with a thunderbolt and brought back the sun to its accustomed course. And Phaëthon fell to the earth at the mouths of the river which is now known as the Padus [Po], but in ancient times was called the Eridanus, and his sisters vied with each other in bewailing his death and by reason of their exceeding grief underwent a metamorphosis of their nature, becoming poplar trees. And these poplars, at the same season each year, drip tears, and these, when they harden, form what men call amber, which in brilliance excels all else of the same nature and is commonly used in connection with the mourning attending the death of the young. But since the creators of this fictitious tale have one and all erred, and have been refuted by what has transpired at later times, we must give ear to the accounts which are truthful; for the fact is that amber is gathered on the island we have mentioned and is brought by the natives to the opposite continent, and that it is conveyed through the continent to the regions known to us, as we have stated “.

The remark of Diodorus of Sicily: “which is commonly used in connection with the mourning attending the death of the young “is interesting and can put us on the right track. It indeed shows us an amber solar symbol, incontestably related to the departure of the soul/mind towards other worlds after death, and linking the soul/mind of the deceased persons with the sun. As for the Heliades or daughters of the sun, it has to be undoubtedly some guardian of sacred fires Vestal virgins, dependent on an unspecified sun worship (a little like in the case of saint Brigit). Or then of a lack of understanding on behalf of the Greeks about the Celtic notion of fairies of trees (the Matronae dervonae for example).

In other words, the soul, since it is of divine origin and nature, will tend to recover the divinity which is latent in it during its earthly stay. The tears symbolize this nostalgia and the subtle chain which still links it to the other world.

Amber therefore always represented the psychic thread connecting individual energy to cosmic energy, the individual soul to the universal soul. It symbolizes the solar, spiritual and divine attraction.

This druidic symbol was intended to make comprehensible for the people the true nature of the souls coming to be embodied on earth. Starting from a former state that the druids compared with the phenomenon of atmospheric or static electricity; since the Greek word therefore meaning amber (elektron) ultimately refers us to this characteristic (rubbed one against the other, the pieces of amber produce electricity indeed).

N.B. Other ancient authors also evoked these legends concerning glaeson (amber).

Apollonius of Rhodes: Argonautika, IV, 611.

“ And far on sped Argo under sail, and entered deep into the stream of Eridanus; where once, smitten on the breast by the blazing bolt, Phaethon half-consumed fell from the chariot of Helios into the opening of that deep lake; and even now it belches up heavy steam clouds from the smoldering wound. And no bird spreading its light wings can cross that water; but in midcourse it plunges into the flame, fluttering. And all around the maidens, the daughters of the sun 1), enclosed in tall poplars, wretchedly wail a piteous plaint; and from their eyes they shed on the ground bright drops of amber. These are dried by the sun upon the sand; but whenever the waters of the dark lake flow over the strand before the blast of the wailing wind, then they roll on in a mass into Eridanus with swelling tide. No desire for food or drink seized the heroes nor were their thoughts turned to joy. But they were sorely afflicted all day, heavy and faint at heart, with the noisome stench, hard to endure, which the streams of Eridanus sent forth from Phaethon still burning; and at night they heard the piercing lament of the daughters of the sun, wailing with a shrill voice; and, as they lamented, their tears were borne on the water like drops of oil. Thence they entered the deep stream of Rhodanus which flows into Eridanus; and where they meet there is a roar of mingling waters. Now that river, rising from the ends of the earth, where the portals and mansions of Night are, on one side bursts forth upon the beach of

Ocean, at another pours into the Ionian Sea, and on the third through seven mouths sends its stream to the Sardinian Sea 2 ) and its limitless bay. And from Rhodanus they entered stormy lakes, which spread throughout the Celtic mainland of wondrous size; and there they would have met with an inglorious calamity; for a certain branch of the river was bearing them towards a gulf of Ocean which in ignorance they were about to enter, and never would they have returned from there in safety. But Juno leaping forth from heaven pealed her cry from the Hercynian rock 3); and all together were shaken with fear of her cry; for terribly crashed the mighty firmament. And backwards they turned by reason of the goddess, and noted the path by which their return was ordained. And after a long while they came to the beach of the surging sea by the devising of Hera, passing unharmed through countless tribes of the Celts and Ligyans. For round them the goddess poured a dread mist day by day as they fared on. And so, sailing through the midmost mouth, they reached the Stoechades islands in safety with the aid of the Dioscuri; wherefore altars and sacred rites are established in their honor forever; and not that seafaring alone did they attend to succor but Zeus granted to them the ships of future sailors too“.

Scholia on a manuscript of Appolonius Rhodius, Argonautika, IV 611.

The Celts have attached this story to them that these are the tears of Apollo, being in wrath concerning the death his son Asclepius whom the nymph Coronis bare in Larissa 4) at the mouth of Amyrus when he came to the sacred race of the Hyperboreans 5) and left Olympus at the chiding of his father.

Scymnus of Chios (or another Greek author).

The Eridanus, which carries the most beautiful amber, which they say is petrified tears, the translucent weeping of black poplars. For they say that it was there that Phaeton was struck down by the thunderbolt. For this reason, the entire multitude of the inhabitants is clad in black and wears the garb of mourning.

Dionysius Periegetes . Description of the inhabited world. Lines of verses 288-301 (in connection with Eridan River). On its banks formerly, lonesome in the night, the Heliades by crying deplored the death of Phaeton; here children of the Celts, in the shade of poplars,collect the amber tears whose glare is similar to that of gold.

Commentary by Eustathius on the lines of verses 288-301. “This sentence of Dionysius Periegetes means that they collect the amber… which, because of its golden glare, is considered to be the tears of the Heliades, because gold is the metal devoted to the Sun“.

The mythological and non-historical nature of all these accounts is obvious. What Lucian of Samosata says about them proves it (swans and amber).

You have no doubt a proper faith in the amber legend — how it is the tears shed by poplars on the Eridanus for Phaethon, the said poplars being his sisters, who were changed to trees in the course of their mourning, and continue to distill their lacrimal amber.

Sure enough, I found myself there not long ago upon another errand, and had occasion to go up the Eridanus; but, though I was all eyes, I saw neither poplars nor amber, and the natives had not so much as heard of Phaethon. I started my inquiries by asking when we should come to the amber poplars; the boatmen only laughed….

‘What liar took you in like that, sir?’ they said; ‘we never saw a coachman spilt; and where are the poplars? Why, do you suppose, if it was true, we would row or tow up the stream for sixpences? We should only have to collect poplar tears to be rich men.’

This truth impressed me a good deal; I said no more, and was painfully conscious of my childishness in trusting the poets; they deal in such extravagant fictions, they come to scorn sober fact. Here was one hope gone; I had set my heart upon it, and was as much chagrined as if I had dropped the amber out of my hands; I had had all my plans ready for the various uses to which it was to be put.

However, there was one thing I still thought I really should find there, and that was flocks of swans singing on the banks. We were still on the way up, and I applied to the boatmen again: ‘About what

time do the swans take post for their famous musical entertainment?— Apollo’s fellow craftsmen, you know, who were changed here from men to birds, and still sing in memory of their ancient art.’

But they only jeered at me: ‘Are you going to lie all day about our country and our river, pray? We are always on the water; we have worked all our lives on the Eridanus; well, we do see a swan now and again in the marshes; and a harsh feeble croak their note is; crows or jackdaws are sirens to them; as for sweet singing such as you tell of, not a ghost of it. We cannot make out where you folk get all these tales about us.’

Once again, let us repeat it: they are druidic myths spread then distorted by the Greek travelers. The ones about the birds of the next world (swans) which, indeed, in the Celtic tradition, are always presented as having a captivating and melodious song, the others about nature or origin of the soul (amber).

As Strabo himself saw it very well (Geography. Book V, I, 9) we must disregard most of the mythical or false stories, as, for example, the stories of Phaethon, and of the Heliades that were changed into poplar trees near the Eridanus (the Eridanus that exists nowhere on earth, although it is spoken of as near the Padus), and of the Electrides Islands that lie off the Padus, and of the guinea fowls on them….FOR NOT ONE OF THESES THINGS IS IN THAT REGION, EITHER.

There exists nothing like that (poplars giving amber, etc.) in the plain of the Padus River, and Phaethon was never crushed with his chariot at this place. It can be consequently only a Celtic myth worked out in the producing areas of glaeson (of amber), the Electrides islands precisely, and in particular the island located in the north of Europe called Basileia (or Abalus); in order to develop this product to the foreigners; then arrived to the plain of the Po River. Come then to the knowledge of the Greeks with the aforementioned amber called elektron, in a form especially worked out for them or the other foreigners potential buyers, by druids.

But the remark of Diodorus of Sicily: “ which is commonly used in connection with the mourning attending the death of the young “ is nevertheless very clear in this respect. As we said it, it shows us an amber (solar symbol) combined with the departure of the soul/mind towards other worlds after death, and connecting the soul/mind of the departed with the sun. Amber is the subtle bond existing between the individual soul and the universal soul, materializing thus in a way, the solar, spiritual and divine attraction. For Phoenicians and Etruscans (funerary rites with amber), it was also a symbol of eternal strength and life.

This “Eridan “ of the poets is perhaps the Elbe or the Oder River , because the myth in question is almost textually (with the exception of the proper nouns) identical to the Germanic myth of the glaesir plain; these amber banks where the recovery of this product amounted to several tens of tons per annum.

And the Apollo in question, it is, of course, the Celtic Abellio ruling over Abalus Island, Phaethon being the Greek name of his son. The image is clear. The tears of Abellio are changed into amber pearls, in other words, the sorrows and the sufferings of divine origin are changed into jewels for men.

1. Cf. inscriptions as Fatis or Matribus dervonibus [or caxsanibus] and the druidic notion of tree fairies.

2. The Gulf of Lions. Apollonius considers here, the Rhine, the Rhone and the Po, like three branches of the same river.

3. Black Forest?

4. A town of Thessaly, in Magnesia.

5. Jupiter having struck down the aforementioned Asclepius, who had found the secret to give back life to dead, Apollo in angry killed the cyclops who had manufactured the lightning. Jupiter, in order to punish him, exiled him from Olympus during some time.

ON THE COMMUNION OF THE LIVING

AND OF THE DEAD.

As we have had the opportunity by attentively studying the worship of ancestors in Black Africa, to see it, the man kept in touch with the forces of nature never thought that there existed between the living and the dead an impassable gap, he always thought on the contrary that dead could sometimes come back into the world of the living, and conversely that the living could sometimes go into the world of the dead. Well, the same applied to ancient druidism.

The topic of the death besides was never very developed in the druidism; because this one did not make a real difference between life and death, which meant only a change of status, not the radical solution of continuity or break that Judeo-Islamic-Christianity considers. Let us say that the two states were hardly distinguished, the living being able constantly to request the dead in order to have information, for example, or in order to make him favorable; the dead coming back as a revenant - in the literal sense of this term - at will, to visit the living, for all kinds of purposes, from pure information to monition. It is remarkable,besides, that the people of the anaon are also present in Breton legends. The fact that the strangeness of this representation called for, as by definition, an upheaval of the grammatical categories male/female, can be considered as normal, in a way, because life for druids takes no heed of these distinctions. It includes everything, it transcends the visions, whatever their origins, it is grammatically neutral, i.e., metaphysically total.

Said in another way , men or gdonioi of all times form the same entity that of the cosmic Gdonios, which lives as well in time (we uns today) as out of time (those who are already in this next world which is said better).

What is certain, it is that in no belief, we find so intense feeling of the invisible and of the solidarity which connects the world of the living to that of the dead. All those who left the earth were in charge of messages intended for the deceased persons. Diodorus of Sicily preserved us this precious trait: “ At the funerals of their dead, some cast letters upon the pyre which they have written to their deceased kinsmen, as if the dead were able to read these letters“. The communication between the two worlds was the usual thing. Pomponius Mela, Valerius Maximus, and all the Latin authors say that , “ Tradition has it that Celts will lend you money, but you will have to pay back the loan in the Other world“ (Leon Denis. The Celtic genius and the invisible or Celtism and spiritualism).

Like the majority of Christian festivals, the festival of All Saints' day does not draw its origin from the Bible. The Church in the beginning had established a festival in honor of martyrs, extended later to all the saints. In the fourth century, people celebrated it on May 13th. It was moved on November 1st in

order to recover an old druidic festival centered on the dead. This festival was celebrated in the night from October 31st to November 1st. The soul/minds of the dead could then return to their dwelling, and the living were to welcome them.

The notion of communion of the living and the dead designates in druidism the union of the whole of the living and dead believers, united in a kind of solidarity through space and time.

On earth, the believers remain in relation to these deceased persons. To speak about communion of the dead and of the living on earth, means “intimate solidarity of these two entities, invisible but strong“. What each member does of good and accepts of painful, not only contributes to his salvation, but can also contribute to the salvation of those on whom he is dependent. The believers on earth hope and even sometimes ask for the fraternal help of those who entered “the glory [Avestan xvarnah old Celtic bellissimos/bellissama] of the god-or-demons “. They pray in addition so that the latter are definitively lightened of any gravity of the matter in the next world, even though it is better. The ritual of Samon and of the day of the dead solemnizes this communion of human beings between them.

ON THE FORMATION OF BRAN WHICH WEIGHS THE SOULS DOWN.

Let us approach now and in a few words, the case of those who,in a way, fail their individual erdathe (their personal return to the Big Whole through the various levels of the paradisiac parallel next world called Mag Meld). Because if everyone or almost is again embodied after death, in Mag Meld, there exists a negligible minority of individuals * for whom this process fails.

There is not, in druidism, strictly speaking, remuneration of the acts, because there is no external distributive justice punishing sins or rewarding virtue. Consequently there would not be a judgment there, because it is a metaphysical impossibility. Nature or God may not morally judge their children.

On the other hand, voluntary acts correspond to an intention which leaves a trace in psychic phenomena, which in turn go into the depths of a being. The traces of this kind form psychic constructions. These keep from their origin, i.e., from the acts, a power of activity which will become exhausted only through a slow process of purification.

The word bran designates the residue resulting from the action of the by definition superior cleaning that is death. But it also designates, of course, and to begin, well before this stage, as we could see it, the psychic consequences of a regrettable act or absence of acts.

The bran is the scale or fat of the soul, the ballast of its vessel, relegated in the bilge.

The word BACUCEOS, BACUCEA (reincarnated) was quoted in a Latinized form, in the plural accusative, by John Cassian (Conferences, 7,32,2) in the beginning of the fifth century.

Quos etiam Bacuceos vulgus appellat, ut semetipsos ultra proceritatem corporis erigentes, nunc quidem in quosdam fastus gestusque sustollerent, nunc velut acclines ad quemdam se tranquillitatis and 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 crederent adorari, et omnes motus quibus vera officia aut superbe aut humiliter peraguntur, explerent.

“ These are commonly called Bacucei 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, and so go through all those movements which express true service either proudly or humbly “.

The individual souls/awarenesses (anaon), overloaded with bran, do not go into the Heaven, they sink and go into the non-world andumnon or anderodubnon. Or more exactly in one of the anterooms or airlocks of Heaven staged by various popular legends.

It is a state of the fact of being and not a place. Or more exactly a state of the fact of being used as provisional passage, and by no means eternal, for the souls having a little too overloaded themselves with karmic bran, during their earthly life of before. The personality (the mind) of the individual anamone, not representing a “self “with eternal existence, since it is intended to die out little by little in the hereafter , there would not be there eternal Heaven or Hell, for it.

In any event, druidism does not believe in the eternity of individual souls. The human soul is only a tear of divine fire, resulting from the universal soul, awentia or awenyddia. What has a personality, although endowed with a shorter longevity, it is the mind and not the soul.

The bad luck which seems to weigh on certain people, as a punishment, is remained an enigma a long time. The primordial druids had therefore established the link between the ategeneto due to the bran accumulated at the time of a past life, and all these lacks of chance. This bad luck was then seen as a consequence of the bran accumulated in past lives. But the word bran designates in fact simply the psychic consequences of a regrettable act or absence of acts. The individual soul/minds or anaon, overloaded with bran, do not go to be reincarnated in the paradisiac next world called Mag Meld, Vindo Magos or differently; but go to the non-world of the andumnon or anderodubnon (Donno Tegia or Tech Duinn, Annwn or Annwfn, etc.) And as nothing is eternal, this Hell itself is only a hard time …same thing besides among Hindus with their kingdom of Yama.

These soul/minds reincarnate after, on earth , in bacuceos or seibaros. But extremely rare * are the unhappy ones enough mentally ill persons or enough "freak" to be pushed back here on earth , tormented in this antechamber of heaven, before being subjected to the forgetfulness of their past life and rejected into new bodies. The amnesia of the original status of soul/mind is a specifically druidic image in this field. By returning towards the Matter, the soul of the bacuceus forgets its previous identity. It is the spiritual death.

These souls too will escape nevertheless one day or the other their plight, either by succeeding in their individual erdathe at the time of a forthcoming death, or by taking advantage of a more general eschatology at the time of the end of the time. “The souls are indestructible, although both fire and water will at some time or other prevail over them“ (Strabo IV, 4).

But let's return to our sheep, the bacuceos.

The remarks of Cassian are rather vague, or more accurately they are very precise, but contradictory. Because if we understand them well, the bacuceos, that can be a little everything and anything (nice or full of arrogance, prostrate or excited, a worshipper or worshipped, etc.).

Let's be clear therefore ! The bacuceus, female bacucea is the product of a very very rare (two or three per century, but, of course, there can be a cumulative effect) penalizing reincarnation, due to the excess of bran (bad karma Europeans influenced by Hinduism say). Seibaros in Ireland is the name given to the poorly material envelope keeping together soul and mind, a set otherwise called anaon in Breton language. The seibaros is called "perisprit" by the neo-druid Allan Kardec. General rule is non-reincarnation on this earth but reincarnation in another world which is said to be better: Vindomagos, Tir na n'Og, Mag Meld, etc ...

Before a definitive dissolution, at the end of a certain time, and possibly after reincarnation in several other parallel worlds each time better (thesis of certain of the commentators of the famous Orbe Alio by Lucan) IN THE UNIVERSAL SOUL, THEN IN THE BIG WHOLE (Hinduism moksha).

Our Buddhist friends think this reincarnation of the soul/minds can be done in one of the six following states: deity (deva), lower deity (asura), human, animal, greedy spirit, tormented spirits (in hell therefore) . Druidism itself considers only the case of the human reincarnations (moreover extremely rare and even exceptional) *.

Druidism is the most relevant means of releasing oneself from the need for reincarnating in bacuceos, but in the case of the bacuceos, it is not the pure soul which transmigrates from a body into another

body, but let us say rather a continuum of awareness. A progressive process of training and individual achievement, in other words, the couple soul + mind (anamone + menman).

We already have had the opportunity to say it, but considering the importance of the thing, it is not misplaced to repeat it.

The bacucei are like the prisoners or the possessed by a suprahuman entity remaining to be defined, inescapable consequence of the time and of the life which distributes, divides, or allocates (the soul/minds?)

The disorders and the behavioral problems described by Cassian are the sign of the adjustment difficulties of the soul/minds to its new body, even fifteen years after (a too small or too big body, etc.).

Some pseudo-druids, as there are some so many today, alas, being based on this account of Cassian (nostalgia of the fall, etc.) maintain it would be possible to remember one’s past lives. But the isolated cases put forward to support this thesis always arouses the problem of the checking.

Transmigration is not a punishment, but an opportunity offered. Either to redeem oneself, by reincarnating as many times it is necessary, or to help weakest or most steeped by the forces of evil, to rise through study and prayer.

In fact, from a scientific point of view, it is as if the patient had a second personality.

Specialists define the disorder known as “multiple personality “by the coexistence, in the same individual, of two or several states of distinct personalities. Either they have their own memory, specific behavioral methods and their own way of social relation, or that they share part of these various behaviors. The two awarenesses fight the one against the other in the same field which is the body, and the soul is like divided. This type of disorder starts to settle as of childhood, but, generally, is noticed by clinicians, only much later; they are besides almost always girls (60 to 90%).

The passage of a personality to another is generally abrupt (a few minutes). The transition is under the dependence of relational context. The transitions can also occur when there is a conflict between the various personalities, or when these latter worked out a common plan. Personalities can be diametrically opposite in their characteristics, and be different even as for the psychological or physiological tests: they can require for example different corrective contact lenses, respond in a different way to the same treatment, and to have different intelligence quotients. Schizophrenia too can obviously lead to the same symptoms.

* Nebuchadnezzar, Hitler, Stalin, and some others. Although for certain thinkers of the Buddhist School of the pure land as Shiran (1173 – 1262), even men as them can reincarnate in the next world of the paradisiac type, in order to finally take there and in the best conditions the lesson of the Buddha of the western pure land (zettai tariki and akumin shoki setsu).

THE LAW OR JUSTICE OF EXCEPTION : THE PENALIZING REINCARNATION (ATEGENETO).

Personal opinion of the druid Leonorios about the Vindomagos (School of Drunemeton).

After death anaon or soul-mind passes in the parallel next world of paradisiac nature called Mag Meld or Vindomagos, in order to continue there its purification in the bliss of the contemplation of the Grail (of the divinity). In other words, in Mag Meld, Tir na nOg, Tir na mBan; some men and women, having completed their earthly life, and covered with an ideal (bellissamos/bellissama) body (Avestan xvarnah); complete to purify themselves by contemplating in the full light and such as they are, the god-or-demons or their trinities. Or then the soul-mind passes at a higher stage in the return to the Big Whole (individual erdathe). Even reincarnates on earth into bacuceos after a more or less short passage in the frozen hell of the andumnon or more precisely of the antechambers of Heaven that it houses.

One of the last elements of neo-druidism is the belief in the possibility of a new embodiment here on earth of the soul/minds of certain mentally ill persons, because the assumption of a past life is the only possible explanation for a certain number of exceptional cases. How to explain indeed in another way , the incredible diversity of human destinies?

The iron law of the ategeneto can be stated thus.

FIRST SCENARIO (most usual . Perhaps 99,9% OF THE DEATHS).

The anaon (the soul-mind) lived correctly. The being sought many times its spiritual enlightening. The man tried to control his lower instincts, last bursts of his animality. His body having ceased living, the soul-mind knows then most important is not to lose its self-control, its awareness, its full freedom of assessment, a little like the solitary swimmer launched in a long crossing. The inevitable hallucinations which will emerge from his psychism will take on a quiet and harmonious aspect then. Nothing nor nobody (no wrathful deity our Tibetan friends say) will be able to frighten him or mislay him then. And the immediate suggestions correlative to this release and to this scattering of his psyche will be reasonable, harmonious, calm, suggestions. In front of it the doors of the Vindomagos will open very wide.

Just as the day of the wise man, made of the achievement of his daily duty and of the utmost of good deeds, generates the sleep of the Righteous person; just as the life of the warrior entirely devoted to the defense of his country or to the protection of the weak and of the oppressed, generates the sleep of the Just Individual; a full life, in which altruism and intelligence often prevailed, is generating better possible destiny.

Those who die within the framework of the Reda or minimal ethics of druidiaction, are guaranteed an immortal life after their death, even if they are not yet purified enough to be absorbed and disappear in the Big Whole of the Pariollon.

Ancient druidism therefore called Vindomagos or Mag Meld this post mortem happy purification, distinct from the fulness of the reabsorption within the Great Whole. It is exactly opposite to the passage within the ices of the anderodumnon called Donno Tegia (Tech Duinn), Annwn, etc.

SECOND SCENARIO (much rarer. Perhaps 0,01% of the deaths).

The anaon wrongly lived. The soul-mind sought only low satisfactions, it forsook its spirituality to flatter only its materiality. Consequently and barely the physical body deprived of life, it will have nothing any more but chaotic, jerky, violent, hallucinations (Catubodua, Cicolluis, etc. the famous wrathful deities of Buddhism), which will throw it into a panic and will make it lose any control of itself in the unknown. These violent reactions, these hallucinations, the panic which results from them, deprive the anaon of its free will and of the possibility of choosing intelligently. The soul-mind, the anaon, will be like the swimmer who panics. It will not be able to overcome the suggestions which will be born from its visions.

And it is these suggestions which will become the reasons as well as the laws of its re-descent on earth, in the form of a bacuceos.

But this reincarnation of the soul-mind takes place only after a more or less long passage time in the ice world called andumnon, or anderodubnon (Donnotegia, Annwn, etc.)

Notice in connection with the Christian (Irish and “Marcusian “ from the name of the author of the vision of Tondale) design of hell.

The vision of Tundale (Tungdal was an Irish nobleman on bad terms with the Catholic Church) was an Irish work of the 12th century, approaching a topic similar to that of Fis Adamnan, or to that of Fursa’s vision.

The misfortune for the West, it was this wretched idea pleased to Christian Europe. It was taken over by the Elucidarium (old French Lucidaire) of Honorius Augustodunensis, another Irish monk, as by a lot of other authors. But this hellish purgatory of saint Patrick , risen from a distortion (or from a lack of understanding) of certain antiquated Celtic myths (the smithy of Gobannos//Goban/Goibniu) , does not have nevertheless anything to do with our dear druidism! Which therefore gives up the full and entire responsibility of it to the Catholics, Protestants, Orthodoxes, and other Witnesses of Jehovah.

Although being of Celtic origin, Marcus (the author of this vision of Tundale) was a sick spirit (destabilized by the growing cultural imperialism of the Church of Rome). Honorius Augustodunensis too, besides. Consequently their hell has nothing to do with the anteroom of the frozen Heaven, of Celtic type. Marcus and Honorius have no longer something Celt. As the support brought by Marcus to saint Malachy, initiator of the Cistercian Counter-Reformation in Ireland, proves it.

More correct from the Celtic theological point of view (and in any case much nearer to the truth on this subject) is the Welsh design of this frozen non-world, taken over later by spiritualism. Some kinds of frozen limbo, where the beings remain, dubious of their state, sometimes mingling, visible or invisible, with the crowd of the living persons.

It should not be forgotten nevertheless that the evil is carried out only on an ad hoc basis. There are sins (errors, faults, human weaknesses, crimes) there is not the Sin, having entered the world with an original transgression of the first man. What a stupid and dangerous idea ! There is no mystery of Evil, of Sin, there are only erroneous * decisions or faults.

There was not one original fall of the first man (Hornunnos), in the strictest sense of the term! There was only a skid that our Toutadis Pater (Hornunnos) repaired himself by developing a method to triumph over these weaknesses.

Remark about the buddhist approach of the question. One of our brothers in the belief that there is a Pure Land that can accommodate all the dead, in the Far East, Shinran (1173-1263) nevertheless explained that (according to him) even Hitler and Stalin went to heaven. "Even the good guys are reborn in the Pure Land" he said "so why not the bad guys. "

It is possible, but only if you believe in it. For no one can be reincarnated in this Pure Land that awaits us after death IF HE DOESN'T BELIEVE AT LEAST THAT IT EXISTS. Because here is the main thing and it doesn't matter the technical reasons put forward by Shinran: the strength of the vows of the Buddha Amithaba and the transfer on our head of his merits (of the merits of the Buddha Amithaba because ours of merits are, um, how to say, at least very debatable, idea that the ancient druids had theorized on their side in the form of the Ces Noinden). At least not necessarily the recitation of the nembutsu. Thinking about it is enough!

Att least, this is our point of view, we barbaric druids of the Far West, on the question.

THIRD CASE.

The anaons will melt themselves directly into the Pariollon or Big Whole which is always only the divine light where the great souls, the pure souls, merge, without passing by the stage Vindomagos.

FOURTH CASE : NON-PENALIZING REINCARNATION (exceptions to the general rule of non-reincarnation on this earth).

The anaons or more exactly the anatiomaroi, go down again on earth, not because they lived badly, but by pure altruism, to help there or teach there the other men remained behind them. Bodies and soul/minds of the semnothei or of the kingetes, become awenyddion, remain, of course, still, until the time of their ultimate disembodiment , but an absolute and immanent inner freedom was already reached by them. Their serenity proves to be absolute. Fears and even hopes are so far they no longer exist for them. The illusions of the world of the great cosmic mother-goddess-or-demoness either. It does not matter then this new momentary existence, from which the original weakness is eradicated by the xvarnah (old Celtic bellissamos/bellissama), is still prolonged for a few moments, or a few centuries. The awenydd has succeeded in making the breakthrough which leads to the top of the next world. He is on the right track, the way which makes a final blossoming of his soul, possible. If the Semnotheos, the awenydd or the Kinges, would want right now put an end to this existence he could do it, particularly in order to avoid the possible decline of the sixth age, the Diexbliniceto (Diblidecht in Gaelic language). But the majority awaits the end fixed by our mother nature.

NOTE: THESE LAST THREE CASES ARE THE ACT OF SOME INDIVIDUALS ONLY, IN EACH GENERATION.

NOTE OF PETER DELACRAU inserted into this place by his heirs.

With one exception perhaps, reincarnation in this world (we do not speak about the reincarnation in the other) is unknown of Celtic tradition, even in Ireland. There exist only more or less legendary cases of metamorphosis, i.e., of changes of appearance or form, or of awareness and personality. There exists indeed, it is undeniable, a certain number of Irish legends, in which heroes and god-or-demons change temporarily of shape, we say well… temporarily.

These psychosomatic metamorphoses are accidents stopping the normal course of existence, without changing its sense. They have nothing to do with the immortality of soul/mind. The real or illusory, best known, metamorphoses, are these of the two royal pig-keeper druids of the North and of the South of Ireland, recorded in the story entitled “Compert in da Muccido “; and these of the children of Lero changed into swans by their mother-in-law (Oidhe chloinne Lir).

Druidism is a culture of the at the same time immanence and transcendence, therefore with no problematization of the meeting of a soul and of a body of heterogeneous nature. In the same way, the divinity is present among the men, in this design of the unity of being. There is no immanent or transcendent order, fixed , establishing animal, plant, mineral… kingdoms, they are arbitrary notions, so much their borders are fuzzy. The Gdonios or Man pertains to divinity by his culture, and all his forms of memory, but he also pertains to animality by his mortality, his need for food, his reproduction. No barrier separates men, god-or-demons and animals, and the central ritual of ancient druidic religion, the sacrifice, unceasingly reminded unceasingly this still to “refound“ distribution.

The image of the provisional change of the body or of the psyche of a man, into that of an animal, conveys in its way this unity of the world and this fluidity of shapes. It is the same thing for the god-or-demons who appear to men under a human appearance, socially understandable, and which therefore makes communication possible.

It is consequently necessary to confuse by no means metamorphosis and reincarnation. With an exception, the Irish legend entitled in Gaelic Language Scél asa mberar combad hé Find mac Cumaill Mongan 7 ani dia fil Fothaid Airgdig a scél so sis.

The name of Mongan appears once, and only once, in its complete form: Mongan Finn mac Fiachna Finn: “Mongan the fair , son of Fiachna the fair “. The adjectival nickname Find or Finn (in more recent written form) also means “white “.

One fragment therefore, all in all, affirms to us that Mongan was Finn, son of Cumall. It is the second, in its title and in paragraph 6 alone.

A story where it is said that Mongan was son of Cumall and that he was the cause of the death of Fothad Airgdech.

A ghost, Cailte/Caletios, speaks there to contradict a man by the name of Forgoll.

Bamarni latsu the Finn ol in t-oclach (I was then with you, i.e., with Finn, the warrior said) and Bamarni la Finn tra ol se dulodmar di Albae (I was with Finn and we returned from Scotland).

That can be understood as an unambiguous allusion to the raid of Fiachna Finn in Scotland.

Then, in paragraph 7, we read ba hé Finn dano inti Mongan acht nad leic a forndisse… (It was then Finn who was this Mongan, although he did not allow it was said.)

Was there some confusion of the nickname of Fiachna Finn and of Mongan Finn with the name of Finn son of Camulos/Cumaill?

* Erroneous because being able only fatally to have negative consequences including for oneself (example revenge, retaliatory measures, etc.).

PSYCHOPOMPOUS OR WELCOMING DEITIES.

Callaican or "Lucanian" druidism school.

Lucan. Book I. 452. To you alone it is given, the gods and celestial powers to know or not to know;

Strabo. Book II Chapter IV, 16. 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.

The Callaican or "Lucanian" schools of Druidism therefore do not make them so much some deities external to the beings who voyage in the hereafter beyond death but rather some personifications of the intrinsic or pre-natural qualities of the human being favoring a happy reincarnation in the hereafter. Such is at least their interpretation of the role of these gods or demons.

The first to be appeared are those our Buddhist friends call calming or peaceful deities, because of their part in this process, at this stage of the travel of the soul/mind. They are personifications of all the positive, altruistic, esthetic and peaceful human feelings, contained in the heart. They appear, however, in our dimension, what can frighten, first of all, if they are not recognized. These divine personifications are often animal shaped, because there exist indeed animals known as PSYCHOPOMPOUS. From the Greek “pompos “ which leads and “psukhe “ the soul.

The horse was often linked with the kingdom of the dead, to which he was sacrificed. He played a part of “psychopomp “in many Asian cultures, even in the Mycaenian Greece; where horses were sacrificed to the died great heroes, so that they take them along them in the fields of Herafter. The horse becomes even the only mount of the next world in Brazilian and voodoo cultures.

In druidism, one of the psychopompous calming deities having as a vocation to accompany the travel of the soul/mind in hereafter and therefore to be visualized in order to make one’s reincarnation in the heavenly next world, a success, is our great Queen Epona. Every person sufficiently advanced on the spiritual level i.e., educated in our religion recognizes her immediately in the fraction of a second which follow one’s death, and know how melt oneself in her, for example in the folds of her coat, for thus

avoiding falling down on earth. What is enough to escape definitively the hellish endless cycle , of rebirths or reincarnations in bacuceos or seibaros.

There is of it an illustration in the legend of Ossian in Ireland.

In the Gaelic mythology, Epona the psychopomp appears indeed in the shape of gracious she rider called Niamh, Zoroastrian equivalent: the daena). The best-known legend relating to her is that which describes us his meeting with the famous Fenian Ossian.

Ossian meets Niamh whereas he hunts close to the banks of a lake. She appears to him abruptly on a horse with a silver hoof and a golden mane, called Enbarr (the name of which means in Irish “imagination “. A very full agenda!) Niamh explains to him that she comes by far especially for him, in order to invite him to come in the kingdom of her father, in the next world, the Land of eternal youth. He gets without hesitation on the steed and his father saw him never again. After various adventures in the next world (he fights against an underwater giant), Ossian began to feel homesickness . Niamh therefore entrusted her magic horse to him so that he can visit his country, but also prevented him never to dismount under penalty of being no longer able to come back. When he was back, Ireland seemed to him a foreign country, because all those he had known had died for a long time. People seemed to him much poorer, more miserable or smaller, that the heroes with whom still quite recently he had grown up. Having met by chance ragged men who tried to push a rock, he lifted it with a hand, but his saddle slipped and he fell on the ground. Then his beautiful magic horse disappears at once and the valiant and young warrior he was, was changed into a blind and frail old man. A Christian copyist monk introduced St Patrick into this myth. As everyone seems to think he is a madman, people bring Ossian to the holy man who listens to his story and explains to him all the changes which have occurred in Ireland since the advent of Christianity and endeavors to convert him. But Ossian answered him that he did not imagine a Heaven which would not honor the Fenians eager to enter there, nor a God who would not be proud to have Vindos/Finn among his friends. What would resemble an eternal life in which man could neither hunt nor court smart ladies? He therefore preferred this Hell of which his companions the Fenians , according to St Patrick, underwent the worst torments, and to die as he had always lived, in order to join them.

The kingdom of Epona being, as it should be, the kingdom of the dead, many are the monuments and the statuettes which represent her in the shape of a young woman sitting generally sidesaddle on the right of a mare walking , and sometimes even accompanied by her foal. It is frequently combined with her (for example, held in her right hand), a bird, a puppy (between the legs of the mare or on her knees) as well as a child (the little hesus Cuchulainn?) Epona is one of the matres mopates indeed.

On an inscription of Dioclea (Dalmatia), she is called Regina, and on another of Apulum (Alba Iulia in Romania) Regina Sancta, which shows well that she is one with the Rigantona become Rhiannon the Great Queen in Welsh language. Goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, of the mother earth, or mother of the Great Hesus (Irish Morfessa, Master of Thule-Falias or Fo-Alias). As regards the hesus Cuchulainn Epona, therefore, is really worthy to be called “theotokos “(mopas).

She symbolizes the energy locked up in the earth, in the matter. Epona is the primordial, chthonic, source of any fruitfulness. She throne sometimes on a chariot pulled by two horses, like Cuchulainn besides, which means that she controls, orders and directs, the vital power as well as the cycles of the earthly biological evolution.

It is initially engraved in the stone that she was represented, because stone contains the substance which enables her to make the harvests and the trees bearing fruits, grow. Or to also provide to the wild species wandering on the mountains, rivers, foliations and green pastures. So it was given her sometimes, the name of patron saint of wild species, or of mother of men. Epona is a goddess-or-demoness, or a fairy if it is preferred, whose worship merges, in the earliest times and in all the areas of the ancient world, with that of fruitfulness. She is sometimes riding , sometimes sitting between two horses, sometimes equipped with a horn of plenty, sometimes also, as signaled higher, accompanied by a young dog.

It is therefore completely logical to combine her with the worship of the great Hesus (since this one bears in Ireland a totemic name meaning “dog of Culann “: Cu Chulainn). Culann was a smith.

Epona will end up symbolizing death and fruitfulness, fruitfulness through death. Her appearances and disappearances, unexpected, reflect the alternation of life and death, and, in the final analysis, their unity. By her appearances or her occultations, Epona reveals the mystery and the sacredness of the conjunction of life and death (Mircea Eliade could have said). The worship of Epona is worship dominated by the love and the sacrifice of the mares.

We find in this symbol of the mother the same ambivalence as these of the sea and of the earth . Life and death are dependent. To be born is to leave the womb of one's mother, to die is to return to earth. The mother, it is the safety of the shelter, warm, tenderness and food.

This divine mother called among us Epona, therefore symbolizes the most perfect sublimation of the instinct, and the deepest harmony. Through her paradoxical status of a mother and of virgin, the triple Epona represents at the same time the potentiality of the world and the divine bliss. Contrary to what some neo-druids claim or pretend to believe, gods and goddesses like Epona are part of Druidism, are one of the druid's truth levels, this ancient goddess (Epona) of the Eurasian steppes has been integrated into their vision of the world by ancient druids. Just as original Buddhism has found to the local deities before it an acceptable place and a useful role in its practice in the popular and everyday level, as Charles Norton Edgecumbe Eliot 1862-1931 (Hinduism and Buddhism) has well demonstrated it. The ancient god of death Mara, for example, symbolizes the temptation in it and has become in it an evil spirit and so on…..but what matters most in Buddhism, as in Druidism besides, is not to succumb to the temptation to believe in a personal, creating god, supposed to be eternal or almighty.

To conclude, devas are therefore part of the Buddhist cosmogony and the goddess Tara is for example a deity (a female Bodhisattva) recognized by Buddhism.

As the celtologist Henry Lizeray has very clearly seen it, women also play a major role in the Celtic religious designs; as much through her role of a messenger of the Next World (see angels of medieval Christianity) as through that of deity dominating death and animals.

Epona is the one who occupies the highest place in druidiactio, just under Lug and the great Hesus, ruler of Thule/Falias under the name of Morvessus or Morvesos or Morfessa in the Irish apocryphal tradition. The one who is closest to us also, because her divine adoptive maternity also extends to human beings. She is lastly psychopompous and anextlomara in addition to being mopas.

Also is it normal to look a little into the role of this blessed virgin without consort at least in iconography………….

This glorious destiny was as the anticipation of the xvarnah or bellissamos type resurrection of bodies which wait for us in the heavenly and pure next world that Amithaba called Sukhavati, and druids Mag Meld. It is besides for this reason that she intervenes as a calming deity or a spiritual guide in the strictest sense in the moments which follow death.

Epona is nevertheless not completely out of our world because she accompanies by her prayers our soul/minds on their way towards the other world . By her constantly renewed assistance, she continues to help us up to the end and this is why the blessed virgin, without similar and without a consort in iconography, is always called upon as assistance, auxiliary, intermediary, etc. Epona who, like an adoptive mother, bears the fervent celticist throughout his earthly travel, therefore accompanies him also at the end of this first half of his life. In order to put him in the hands of the Master who lives in the west of the world where the sun sets down.

Practical conclusion for our druidiactio. Contrary to what some modern-day Neo-druids claim, turning towards Epona's maternal and soothing figure is part of druidism. Using one of his images as an aid for meditation or focusing is part of Druidism and it can help to die, so to live. It is popular druidism par excellence. The last refuge of the soldier crushed in a trench. A Celtic equivalent of Buddhism must therefore by compassion include a hyperdulia worship centered around Epona in the foundations of its philosophy. The opposite would be a very useless iconoclasm. The important thing is to philosophically reject the myth of the almighty creating personal god, what is effectively incompatible with our philosophical triangle whose three extremes are atheism, agnosticism and pantheism.

Other psychopompous and benevolent deities or animal entities.

Like reindeer and roe deer, stag seems to have played a part of psychopomp (which leads the soul/minds of the dead): Morholt in Ireland, uncle of Iseult, killed by Tristan in single combat, is depicted by Joseph Bedier as lying dead, sewn in a stag’s hide.

Stag is through his antlers which grows back each year the symbol of the revival of nature. In Celtic mythology, stag for example often incarnates the one who makes soul/minds go towards the world of the dead, the divine country or the “fairyland “. Besides we find this pattern in the Welsh tale “Pwyll

Prince of Dyfed “in the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, where Pwyll hunts a stag on the edge of a clearing in a wood, and thus meets Arawn, king of Annwn (or Annfwn, “the Other World “).

We could add to these examples the hind of the “Lay of Guigemar “in Marie de France, or the stag vainly pursued by Gawain in the story of the Grail by Chretien de Troyes; which are also signs of borders between the Next World and the “reality “of the Court. Although they were coupled with sexual symbols there. We find a similar symbolism in other mythologies (cf. among Greeks, Actaeon shredded by Diana and her pack; or the Eikthyrnir hart in the Eddas, etc.), but the psychopompous and initiatory function of stags, messengers of the next world, is particularly important in Celtic literature.

An undeniable sign of the importance of the stag in the druidic symbolic system is the relative frequency of his appearance in iconography or legend. A well-known deity of druids bears the name of Hornunnos, “the one who has the top of the head like a stag “. He is represented on the silver cauldron of Gundestrup, sitting in the Buddhist posture, holding a torc in one hand and a snake in the other, surrounded by the most various animals, and particularly by a stag. Perhaps it is it necessary to see in these antlers of a stag crowning topping the head of the god-or-demon, a heavenly light radiation. Another remarkable monument is that of Rheims where Hornunnos is represented as a god-or-demon of plenty. We know several others of them. Nevertheless, it seems well that this god-or-demon has to be understood as a master of animals. In Ireland, the son of the great hero of the Ossianic cycle, Finn, is called Ossian (“fawn “), while St Patrick changes himself and transforms his companions into stags (or “deer “) to escape the obstacles of King Laoghaire . He acts thus by virtue of the invocation or magic process called feth fiada, which got invisibility in principle.

The symbolism of the stag in the Celtic world is therefore very vast and concerns, of course, the primordial states. For lack of an overall study, we will have to temporarily restrict ourselves to also notice the symbolism of plenty and longevity. The Celts used talismans, made out of stag antlers, and it was noticed, in Switzerland, in Alemannic graves, burials of stags beside horses or men. Specialists compared the fact to stag masks with which horses sacrificed in the pit graves of Altai from the fifth to the sixth centuries before our era were provided. In Armorican Britain, St Edern is represented riding a stag. The Irish legends tell us that Sadv, the mother of Ossian (son of Finn and famous warrior poet of the third century) was changed into hind by a druid.

In Armorican Britain it is also told that Dahud, the princess of Ys, tracked vainly by King Marc'h, liked to run around in the woods in the shape of a white hind.

Raven crows or vultures.

“… To these men [The Celts who have added to their name that of Hiberi] death in battle is glorious; and they consider it a crime to burn the body of such a warrior; for they believe that the soul/mind goes up to the god-or-demons in heaven. If the body is devoured on the field by the hungry raven * “(Silius italicus. Punica. Book III. Lines of verses 340-343).

* The text in fact speaks about vultures, but we replaced this word by that better known of raven (or crow). That changes nothing to the principle!

Great civilizations, from Asia to Central Europe, entrusted to vultures the responsibility for making human corpses disappear, rather than to directly pollute nature by getting rid of the dead through burial, cremation, immersion, or rotting in the open air. We still know some groups like our Parsis brethren, who practice this “astral “funeral in which vultures are in charge cleanly engulfing the corpses which are thrown to them as food, and leaving on the ground only pure and clean bones. We touch here on one of the fields where the major convictions of a people are expressed, and on its relation with the visible and invisible world. For a Greek of the time of Homer, death without burial nor stele represented the last insult. To give up on the battle field the corpse of fighters to the diligence of vultures, dishonored a chief forever. It goes without saying that this attention focused only on cadavers of citizens, rank and file did not come under consideration.

It was therefore the Barbarians who had recourse to vultures in order to make the corpses disappear, Galatians, Medes, Magi, Bactrians, in short the “Others “seen by Hellenic authors, who remain our rare sources on the matter.

The dolphin.

Last island or coastal scenarios (areas being next to an unspecified sea): the soul/mind leaves on a dolphin. The dolphin accompanied the departed persons in the “Isles of the blessed at the end of the

World “ by carrying them on its back. This is the case of the dolphin appearing on the Gundestrup cauldron in Denmark: it is ridden by a human being. The diadem of Mones, found in Spain (Asturias) and dating back approximately 125 before our era, has many common points with the cauldron of Gundestrup found in the Cimbrian country (Denmark). We see here cavalrymen similar to those of certain statues in the area and agreeing well with the descriptions that the texts dealing with the subject, or some characters handling cauldrons, left us. The scene is supplemented by a certain number of sea animals filling the blanks left between these cavalrymen. Francisco Marco Simon thinks that it is a scene evoking hereafter, and the sea animals in question would be dolphins accompanying the soul/minds of the knights or of the cavalrymen in hereafter.

One of the calming deities we can visualize at the time of death is Belenos Barinthus or Belenos Barinthius Manannan mac Lir if we have well understood Celtic Buddhism. This Barinthus is mentioned in the Life of Merlin according to Geoffrey of Monmouth. It is he frontier runner or pilot who will lead Merlin and King Arthur mortally wounded in the island of Avalon. He is also mentioned at greater length in the Voyage of St Brendan, under the name of St Barrind. It is him who, the first, will speak about the land promised to the saints (Christianized version of Vindomagos or Mag meld) to St. Brendan, and besides will accompany him there. It is in a way an avatar of Manannan Mac Lir that quite a strange prayer still known by the fishermen of the Isle of Man in the 19th century evoked thus.

Little Manannan son of Leirr,

Who blessed our Island,

Bless us and our boat,

Well going out

And better coming in with living and dead in the boat.

The specialists in Mannish folklore explain these dead in question are fish, but all that is quite strange, and this St Barrind is not very kosher.

Happy ending of the process of disembodiment which is death in this case.

After death the kicos (the body) remains here below, buried or gone up in smoke, but anamone and menman still joined are reincarnated in the next world. By taking on another body very close to the previous one (the kicos left on earth) though different on some points nevertheless(xvarnah = idealized body or stunning body = bellissamos/bellissama in Old Celtic language). This reincarnation in the parallel next world of heavenly nature called Mag Meld, or Vindo Magos, takes place little time after the death. At least if according to the general popular belief on the subject.

At the end of a certain time, the soul and the mind will separate definitively, the mind will be erased little by little, and the individual and personal soul finally released will be able to be melted in the universal soul.

We can also reappear in the world of the god-or-demons, since they are mortals although having a life infinitely longer than that of the human beings.

REPELLENT DEITIES.

The complications in the process of disembodiment which is death according to Callaican or "Lucanian" druidism school.

Lucan. Book I. 452. To you alone it is given the gods and celestial powers to know or not to know;

The Callaican or "Lucanian" schools of Druidism do not make them so much some demons external to the beings who voyage in the hereafter beyond death but rather some personifications of the weights or negative forces of human beings, the bad passions who urge to have acts, words or thoughts regrettable, producing bran, and thus prevent a happy reincarnation in the hereafter. Such is at least their interpretation of the role of these gods or demons.

The second phase being able to occur after death is that what our Tibetan friends call chonyid bardo. Awareness then visualizes a certain number of deities with a look a little less seductive or friendly than our luminous and radiant Epona (see the legend of Niamh in Ireland) or than Belin/Belen/Belenos/Barinthus/Manannan, and experiences on the contrary more repellent or ambivalent and somewhat worrying deities like Cobannos / Gobann / Goibniu and his smithy (Mara in Buddhism).

Besides these repellent or warlike deities form a traditional pattern for Celtic art. Energy being activated here by fear, passion, or intellect, the deities look irritated even hostile. These visions express the energy content of the awareness comprehended under the pressure of fear, because all the poisons and all the emotions felt in the life will reappear at this time. The desires of the conscientiousness will appear with the death by taking “shape" in the form of repeated hallucinations, which will try to monopolize its mind.

The legend of the dead according to the high-knowers of the time in the event of failure of the first phase (to follow the calming or peaceful like Epona or Belin/Belen/Belenos/Barinthus/Manannan, psychopompous deities, therefore teaches not to let oneself trapped by these fantastic

representations, terrifying (which take the aspect of true demons) of our human, too human, weaknesses.

Imagination of bards or storytellers represented these hallucinatory phenomena as deities with quite precise symbols. But we should not be mistaken there. In fact, these appearances are only projections risen from the awareness of the dead. They have a reality only in his mind. It is well suited to recognize them to release oneself from them without fear, as being only an emanation of one's ego.

If the soul/mind of the deceased person recognizes them in time for what they are (and it is the normal or usual case besides), by understanding that they are only projections of its bad liking , of all what is negative in itself, and moves away from there [ Metrical Dindsenchas, volume IV, poem 113. “ 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 about tech Duin] then it will avoid wandering from the wander from the straight and narrow path and forking towards the rebirth in bacuceos or seibaros on earth. It will also get ready for best of all the rebirths, the reincarnation in the heavenly hereafter of the Celtic tradition. Once embodied in this other better world known as better called Mag Meld or Vindobitos it does not matter (and if you want to call it Dewatchen like our Buddhist friends, why not?) there is no longer return here below on earth, possible. And it becomes faster and easier to complete or achieve the blossoming of one’s soul.

These repellent deities are for example Tethra the king of the gigantic anguiped wyverns, Arawn or Gwynn in the Welsh tradition, Catubodua or the Sheela na gig and even the Ankou in the West of France. Cobannos/Gobann/Goibniu as for him is more ambiguous.

Sheela na Gig or Catubodua is an aspect of the cosmic great mother goddess-or-demoness who gives and receives life in return, it is a figure of change and transition, who, like all psychopompous“ door “has a worrying aspect. The change is by nature disturbing. In periods of “passage “ we go from the known towards the unknown. What is unknown can be alarming and the aspects of the guards of this door can also be thus. Once the change carried out or the door got through, we can look behind us and question us on our fears. The guards of the doors then become figures of rebirth and regeneration, beautiful and full of compassion.

In the strictest sense of the term, the Sheela na Gig or Catubodua is a female figurative sculpture with grotesque features, presenting an exaggeration of female genitals and which is generally found in churches and castles through all Europe; sometimes accompanied by a male equivalent;

The assumption put forwards by Joergen Andersen and taken over by James Jerman and Anthony Weir, is that these sculptures were born in the 11th century in France and Spain, before being introduced into the British Isles in the 12th century. Most famous of the Sheela na Gig is nevertheless in the castle of Kilpeck, in the West of England. These sculptures are, however, more numerous in Ireland (101) than in the United Kingdom (45). People generally claim that they are there to move away bad spirits. Sheela Na Gigs would be protections against the Devil and the Death; just as gargoyles and grotesque representations of demons in churches and cathedrals of continental Europe. But the Sheela-na-Gig can have a major and more positive meaning.

Like the Greek Thanatos or the Indian Mrtyu, and unlike the French tradition, Ankou is a man, not a woman, like them, he has as a proper noun the name even of the Death: Proto-Celtic *anku- “death “old Irish, Scot, Welsh angau, Cornish angow.

The essence of the tradition about Ankou and hereafter was collected at the end of the 19th century by Anatole Le Braz, in his Legend of the death among Armorican Bretons (book to be read absolutely).

Ankou does not represent Death in itself, but its servant: its part is to collect in its squealing cart (karr an Ankou, karrigell an Ankou, karrik an Ankou) the soul/minds of the deceased persons.

Ankou’s cart is like the ones they used in the old days for transporting the dead. It is usually pulled by two horses harnessed in tandem. The one in front is thin, emaciated, and scarcely able to stand on its feet. The one behind is fat, with a shiny coat and is a good puller.

The Ankou stands in the cart. He is escorted by two companions, who walk. One of them leads the first horse by the bridle. The other has as the job of opening the fields gates and the doors of houses. He is also the one who piles in the cart the dead Ankou has harvested.

When an alive person of here below hears the noise of the cart (wig ha wag!), it is that he (or according to another version, somebody of his entourage) will not be long in passing on. It is also said that whoever sees Ankou dies in the year.

Here how Anatole Le Braz describes him in his collection: “ Ankou is the worker of the Death (oberour ar maro). In many places, the last one to die in each year becomes the Ankou of the place for the following year. When there have been more deaths than usual in a year, they say Ankou is a wicked one (War ma fé, heman zo eun Anko drouk).

Contrary to the skeletal representations of Death, Ankou is represented most of the time as a being in the flesh, since he was man one day. Nevertheless the carved figurations of Ankou in certain churches show him as a skeleton with hollow eye sockets, armed with an arrow or a scythe.

Therefore sometimes they depict Ankou as a tall,thin man with a long white hair and a face shaded by a large felt hat ;sometimes in the form of a skeleton draped in a shroud, and whose head turns continuously, just like a weather cock, so that he can see all the region he has to roam at a single glance.

In one case or the other, he holds a scythe. It differs from ordinary scythes in having its blade turned outside so that when he uses it, instead of bringing it towards him, he pushes it forward.

The Bretons name the Christmas Eve the “night of Wonders. “ During this night, during the midnight mass, Ankou is accustomed to brush past with his cloak all those who will not finish the year.

These repellent deities have for a mission or a role to get the sou/mind of the departed back on the straight and narrow path which leads to the Celtic heaven. We therefore should not be afraid of them, or more exactly we should not worry with them, because the more alarming they are, the less people want to approach them, and the better it is therefore, for us.

It is not the same thing in case of the master of the anteroom or airlock of Celtic Heaven who is Donn. To let oneself be attracted by his seductions prompts you a long stay in his kingdom (Donnotegia) in the shape of a phantom or of a lost soul/mind (seibaros). Even a new embodiment on earth as a bacuceos. But thank gods, such cases are extremely rare. Three or four each century.

THE LEGEND OF THE DEATH .

“Prepare your immortality , on your death, you will form part of the appearing worlds “(Henry Lizeray).

The thought of death is a thought which obsesses us, because psychological time works us and worries us. Death is present in the innermost depth of our faintest anguish, and yet, even while often thinking of it, we refer to it without knowing what it represents. In front of death, each one of us is placed in a paradoxical situation: obsessed by a process of which we are completely unaware, but while thinking nevertheless to know enough of it to fear it! What makes no sense.

History is a cemetery of beliefs whose avatars follow a precise declining curve: what is believed has initially a real existence, then is the object of a symbolic interpretation, then is internalized, lastly is forgotten. Pessimistic, convenient, view, that we must correct. By remembering that the imagined space can be used “to pass in the limit “ of a system and is not without relation with a state of human projects or desires at a given time, by playing a part of account about the development of mentalities and intellectual systems. The space reference is not a handicap, but on the contrary a conceptual need. Let us postulate that it is thus, temporarily, as a challenge and an ordeal. Let us study how the space of the hereafter appears, here and elsewhere.

We will perhaps remember the slow disappearance of the design of hereafter we had observed at the beginning of our study. The hereafter, a real but of difficult access place, became, during European history, a hypothetical, purely psychic, place. This evolution would deserve to be somewhat explained, and we would like to know if it is a normal process.

Indeed, although it is not the case with the Irish hereafter, this notion is in general related to the death phenomenon and the various psychic movements which accompany it. Hereafter is an answer to the anguish to die, and each hereafter is in itself a different answer tried by human beings. As many characteristics which can help us to grasp Celtic originality.

It is the first time indeed in the History that a civilization (ours) gives up knowingly any eschatological prospect; so much criticism of the hereafter beyond death succeeded in making it disappear from our thoughts, to condemn it as an escape out the world, to avoid it as a lack of taste; even to lower it to the level of a naivety for the simpletons.

The refusal to disappear completely, however, remains an instinct always also strong in Man; despaired of being become mortal, and who wishes to find again a chance of radical unknown.

It is consequently from this existential experiment that it is necessary to start, if we want to give again life to the returned to immanence and present hereafter. That is all the more necessary that hereafter is an imaginary place which makes initiation possible. It is necessary to have undergone an initiatory death (intense spiritual starkness, emptiness of awareness, etc.) to acclimatize true death and to integrate it into our existences, in order to give again to its fulness to present. It is essential not to lose

sight of the finality of this exercise, which is to cross alive death experiment, as we pass through fire; so as to have it behind oneself, such a thing from now on found inoffensive and unable to inspire fear.

The Irish hereafter answers this type of experiment and initiation, since in it the hero often marries the daughter of the king of dead, discovers in it the eternal youth risen from a favorable outcome of his ordeals. And if he returns home to die, that could not affect him since he already lived death in a way. These texts could match an educational philosophy or a pedagogy for adults, aiming at promoting a morality taming death.

However, these “hereafter “do not resemble each other, and some of them imply various scenarios of initiation. It will be therefore right to see to which category ours belongs.

The first type of hereafter specific to shamanism is marked by an identity between this world and the other one (in which abundance reigns) and especially by their proximity. “Ceaseless comings and goings “ are established between these worlds in order to meet in it ancestors being partially reincarnated among the living, so that the hereafter is positively made more attractive.

The second type matches Mesopotamia and Egypt, and the invention of town civilization, which, by a rather mysterious action, moves away hereafter and devalues it. This world is colored, attractive; the other one is gray, so much so that people try to recreate in the grave of the dead all the pleasures of the earthly life he left (human figurines, model furniture, decoration of a house). At most, we see rising a hereafter of the pure persons who will have the opportunity to join their god-or-demon after being authorized to “restitch together “ their soul/mind and their body. Separated, therefore in misfortune, contrary to the earthly life in which they are joined. The notion of “land of plenty“ disappears before a more complex intellectual operation which favors participation in Essence.

The third type of hereafter is established with the religions of the Book, which work out another conceptual cut: the time is no longer a short cyclic time, but a directed time, which has a beginning and an end. In the meantime, the hereafter is an adjourned intermediate place, or a final place. What characterizes this hereafter, it is neither its proximity, nor its distance, but its surpassing time, its victory over it, the hope to withdraw from its inescapable running. We will find in this category, Zoroastrian and Mazdean Iran, Islam, Judaism, with the later development of theories particularizing more this relation to time, i.e., Christianity and Hinduism.

This fourth type of hereafter is designed in the case of Christianity as a place in which soul/mind reincarnate and remains single and personal, and in the case of Hinduism as a place of absolute deindividuation before joining higher Being. The hereafter of these religions has to be earned ,hence a strong connotation of Good and Evil, rewards and punishment, divine justice repairing the injustices of here below, all notions which were less developed before.

The French Michel Hulin, after this synthetic review of the “hereafter “ suggests that its disappearance is due to contradictions much too strong, so that only one type of hereafter can solve them. We wish a hereafter which we can imagine, see, approach, but we want it also it is revealing an absolute immanent otherness. We want it is eternal, but we fear that boredom is synonymous with its happiness; we suppose it reserved for the best ones, but without for all that eliminating our freedom…

The conclusion of his studies resumes this position of modernity emerging from every center (hereafter is only one figure of it, as an ultimate reference) to try to go beyond it. From all that, it emphasized with obviousness that eschatological imagination is completely unable to solve such contradictions. It is their victim, just like their indicator, but it can in no manner prevail on them. The solution, if it exists, has to be sought elsewhere… It would be all in all, less to eliminate hereafter than to repatriate it in the here below, by reinstating its repairing and peacemaking function in the very horizon of this short, confused and incoherent life, which usually is ours. Hereafter could well represent the ordinary other side : the hidden side of time. Our daily existence should be able to rely on itself, to be self-sufficient , to be no longer striving for the mirage of a completion to come. We can nevertheless doubt the effectiveness of this morality which locks up Man in the product of his temporary creations, makes him a philosopher of the moment, a judicious lover of his life.

This study has the virtue to highlight two points. It makes it possible to locate the druidic hereafter; it shows that the representations of hereafter made it possible the increasingly refined development of theories on the possible survival of “something “after death; that these representations are primary and are previous to theories, not the reverse.

The last point that we will notice because it supposes a progression, has the virtue to show what immense production of texts, nuances and subtle inventions, we owe to these “hereafter “.

Within these four types of hereafter, that which would be best appropriate for the “hereafter “of the Irish texts, according to Guy VINCENT, it is the first one, that which is still close to shamanistic

designs. Because the passage from one world into the other is not irreversible, but can be traveled in the two directions. It is near the human world, inside the hillocks or on a Western island, in the case of the old legends. Hereafter is that of the dead or the world to come in opposition to that of the living, and the word implies a notion of permanent no return which is not exactly that of the Irish sidh. It is not the Celtic Next World, which is truly “different “only because we are unable to really perceive it: the Celtic languages have no word conveying the idea of a Hereafter for the dead. The fact that old Irish society did not experiment the town phenomenon, confirms this idea. It is only with town societies that hereafter moves away and is devalued; and it is only with great centralized empires or national kingdoms that hereafter is accompanied by a directed historical view, or by a philosophy of the sacred book.

1) The Caracara Online editions. The Caracara Online editions of the site utqueant. org publishes research studies devoted to various literary works starting from new methods.

Our conviction to us it is that druidism is neither Buddhist neither Hindu nor Christian, but the both or three simultaneously, since for it after death there is…

- RESURRECTION of the flesh (the deceased person reincarnates in the next world with an ideal or dream body of xvarnah type –glorious Christians say, bellissamos/bellisama former druids said - compared to that of before).

- PARTICIPATION in the divine (of the gods) life. Participation which lets the personality of the late one remain, who is able to see the divinity or the god-or-demons “face to face “(beatific Vision of the Grail in the way of Plutarch and of his mysterious islands).

- But also COMPLETION OF THE PURIFICATION, and after a certain time radical “melting “of the individual human soul in the Divinity. “Confusion “even since the two substances, human and divine, will merge. Both entities are regarded as being molten one in the other quite naturally, since human soul is a portion detached from Divinity. After death, it returns to its origin by passing through a more or less long stay in the other world and by a process in conformity with its nature. It is an ABSOLUTE IDENTIFICATION, i.e., a radical immersion of the soul in the Divinity with loss of personality. The universal including one (or higher Principle) transcends all: matter and soul , good and evil, duality as also unity.

In what relates to them, for the high-knowers of the druidiaction or druidecht, death is only the middle of a long life, and after death, soul/minds are reincarnated in a parallel other world… let us say better.

Twenty centuries of Christianity (with its idea of Hell) had as a result we know no longer “the art of dying well “to which our ancestors were trained, as of childhood.

Contemporary Mankind, at least that of pagan societies become Christian, therefore has a rather ambiguous relationship with death. This one is at the same time driven back, retracted, but present everywhere, even invading. That is due to the internal contradictions of the Christian message and particularly to its worrying notion of eternal hell or damnation. Our ancestors considered death with much more serenity, because they had understood, as for them, that hell does not exist in the next world. If there exists, it is in this world. And generally besides, hell, they are the others.

Dying are therefore kept at a distance in services created especially, by Christians, for that (hospital, old people's homes, etc.). It is made so that the children do not see them and the corpses are buried behind the church (the pagans would have rather buried them IN FRONT), or even further still. These Christian attempts at the repression of death made that it became an obsession. Media and literature show it finishing its work on politicians, stars, on those who were thought being favored people. Media speak and speak again of the threats which hang today over Mankind: nuclear accident, chemical and biological weapons, but also, in spite of the progress of medicine, the new diseases which come to be added to the others (cancer, aids , and so on). At the same time as we avoid thinking of death because of the possibility of this eternal damnation; there will be many people called , but few are chosen ,Christian religion maintains, and even Jews will not be inevitably some of them in spite of their unbearable racism on this subject *; in other words, the opposite of druidism in which 99,9% perhaps of mortals can become some meldi in the other world and not some “bacucei “or “seibari “, sentenced to a new embodiment or a new life on Earth.

* The druidic concept of chosen people is very different since it is not a question to be chosen by the only single god, father of all men, but to be chosen….by his own gods. What is a non-easily disputable tautology and which amounts saying by following the example of my old master Peter Lance : “Like all the men Celts have gods who match inevitably their collective mentality, Jews have for example a jealous and chief of armies, god (sabaoth) Celts have gods of war but also more peaceful gods like St Brigit, goddess of arts and humanities. And who are in perfect line with their psychism since speaking the same language.

Diodorus of Sicily: men who are experienced in the nature of the divine, and who speak, as it were, the language of the gods [who are homophonon in Greek],

Celts therefore do not form a chosen people BUT HAVE A LANGUAGE CHOSEN ...... BY THEIR OWN GODS. WHAT IS ALMOST A TAUTOLOGY.

It is therefore time for our society to be cured of Christianity and to rediscover the truth covered by its double talk. Because the truth it is here, and this message is a formidable good news (Irish suscetla): there is no hell! No fire Gehenna! Death is only the middle of a long life! What we call “death” is only a change of vital energy! In fact, death does not exist! To die, it is initially to live again in another world which is said traditionally better and in a dream or ideal body (xvarnah our Zoroastrian friends say, bellissamos/bellissama high-knowers say) then to be mixed with cosmic energy.

Man is formed with four elements.

- The soul, the principle of non-matter, eternal (anamone).

- The mind, the lower part of the soul (menman).

- The body, destructible material envelope (kicos).

- The perispirit, complete fluidic body (seibaros). The perispirit or seibaros is the true body which, contrary to the material body, which changes through the age, does not change materially. It is the spiritual aspect of the being , the permanent principle of our personal identity. At least according to the druid Allan Kardec.

Anaon, it is the soul and the mind, the anamone and the menman. What survives after death, what passes in another world after death, it is not only the soul, but the pair, the couple or the team: “Soul + mind “. What reincarnates into Heaven after death, it is therefore…

- The impersonal individual soul called anamone.

- But also the personalized mind called menman.

- The whole in a psychopompous vehicle. What the druid Alan Kardec calls perispirit, but that the former Gnostic ones in the West called more probably seibaros. Druidism teaches to us also indeed that soul and mind are joined with the body by an intermediate element, which takes at the same time after the body and after the soul/mind, the seibaros; semi-material envelope, subtle body, fluidic body, surrounding the physical body as perisperm surrounds the fruit.

Druid Allan Kardec and after him his School think not only that it survives the death, but that it is previous even to life. But nobody is forced to follow him on this point! “ To you alone it is given the gods and celestial powers to know or not to know “ ( Lucan, De Bello Civili I, 452). Principe of the individual quest for the grail.

With death, the kicos (flesh, the body) is dispersed in a way or another here on earth; whereas the binomial pair soul/mind (anamone/menman) passes in the other world for reincarnating there in a body very close to the first, we have said.

Of course, nobody was able to observe this phenomenon, but our ancestors imagined various scenarios to give themselves an idea of the process.

Let us point it out, first of all, that druidism well distinguishes the land of the middle and the divine, heavenly, lands, pure or almost. The land of the middle is that in which we find the different mineral, vegetable, animal,etc. kingdoms of the tangible existence.

On these “impure “ lands in the middle, it is difficult to get clothing and food. It is difficult to follow one’s destiny, difficult to meet the god-or-demons and the anatiomaroi or semnothei. In short, this land of the middle is a land in which conditions, as a whole, are hardly favorable to spiritual development;

and in which it is difficult to evolve; in which it is difficult to follow the way towards the blossoming of one’s soul.

The divine, heavenly, pure land or almost, which awaits us after death, is, of course, completely contrary to the latter; except the anatiomaroi or semnothei, it houses only god-or-demons or men, and food and clothing appear spontaneously, without anyone having to work in order to produce them. It is very easy there to follow one's Destiny, very easy to meet there the god-or-demons and the anatiomaroi or semnothei. In short this divine, heavenly and pure ground is by definition that in which the conditions are much more favorable to spiritual development; and where it is easy for human beings to evolve easy to follow the way towards the return to the Big Whole, and so on.

This Pure Land such as it is described particularly by the various schools of druidism * is a world, a dimension of existence, in which there is neither pain, neither suffering, neither misery, neither separation, neither mourning, nor loss. It is a world or a state of existence in which is neither old age, neither disease, nor death. It is a state of perfect peace, where there is neither conflict, neither war, neither battles or then movie fights without death nor serious injury for those who dream only that: in it perfection and happiness go up to that point!

* See the various islands described by Plutarch. Noibo Adamnan goes even so far as to say about them that it is a land 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. A noble, admirable, ethereal realm, endowed with the wisdom, and radiance, and fragrance of a plenteous land, wherein the enjoyment of every excellence is.

N.B. 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.

!----------- ---------------- -------------------------- !

The important thing is to get well ready , during one’s life, to death, in order to reappear there as the sun after the night. To know by heart or closely and in advance, what will occur after the death of the body, is enough to preserve the deceased person from the infernal cycle of endless reincarnations, into bacuceos or seibaros, of our Hindu friends (samsara). The legend of the death according to the high-knowers, described consequently the various phases of which preliminary knowledge has the power to release from the fatality of rebirth here on earth.

The passage of Lucan (Civil war, I, 448-450): “ And you, vates, whose martial lays formerly made immortal the powerful souls/minds [Latin animas] of those who died in the war... ” is rather strange. It seems to indicate that there exists a technique making it possible to make the individual soul/minds of warriors passing in the parallel next world of heavenly nature. And to thus avoid the rebirth on earth in the shape of bacuceos or of seibaros after passing in Annwn or Donno Tegia. A combination perhaps of songs or recitations, implemented by the vates, and of which key words were to be: serenity, simplicity, naturalness… even letting go .

According to the majority of the traditions, there exists a certain number of prayers and exhortations which we can recite or read during death throes or immediately after the death of the deceased person. To direct one spirit in the hereafter and thus to help it to be freed from the hellish cycle of reincarnations into bacuceos (samsara it is said in the Far East) or half-reincarnation into seibaros.

This technique of vates to lead the soul/minds to immortality, of course, does not help the druidicists who have already reached high levels of awareness; it is especially intended to ordinary individuals, in order to help them to overcome anguish and uncertainties.

It is not easy to make the moments described by the legend of the dead according to the druids, coincide with these of the near-death experience. It is nevertheless possible to consider that near-death experience occurs in this interval, of the first stages or second phases, evoked above.

When the conscious-principle leaves body, it wonders: did I die or not? It cannot determine it. The deceased person can hear the tears and the moaning of his friends, of his parents; especially he can see them, hear their call, but as they cannot know that he answers them, he goes away, dissatisfied. At this time, sounds, lights, rays, appear to him.

Among the various states mentioned by our accounts, we find unstable and fugacious states, comparable with the mirages in the desert; an impression of liquid engulfing and some feelings of flashover; perceptions of smoke or of light curls; the experiment of the luminous points, similar to fireflies; the existence of three successive lights: the white luminosity, comparable with lunar clearness, then the experiment of the red luminosity, similar the light of the Sun, and lastly the experiment of the black luminosity. These primeval lights are defined by certain today druidic Schools as being the spread of our own nature, and its perception would thus match o our awakening or our appearance in the next world.

“ And you, vates, whose martial lays formerly made immortal the powerful souls/minds [in Latin animas] of those who died in the war, and you, bards, you start again to pour forth in safety more abundant song. While you, druids, returned to sinister mysteries and barbarian rites some time ago abolished by the weapons. To you alone it is given the gods and celestial powers, to know or not to know. 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 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 [Latin mens] inclined to throw itself on iron, the strength of character [Latin anima] able to face death, and this lack of care put to save a life which must be given back to you “ (Lucan, Civil war, I, 448-465).

“ One of the precepts they teach—obviously to make them better for war—has leaked into common knowledge, namely, that souls/minds [Latin animas] are immortal and that there exists another life at the Manes. Therefore they cremate and bury with the dead things that are suitable for the living. And long ago traders’ accounts and debts registers also accompanied the dead, in order to be balanced or honored in the other world; and some individuals happily threw themselves onto the pyres of their loved ones as if they were going to live with them“ (Pomponius Mela, Chorographia III, 2,18).

“ Old custom of the Celts. Tradition has it that the Celts will lend you money, but you will have to pay back the loan in the Otherworld. They do this because they are convinced that human souls are immortal. I would call them fool, if these men in their breeches did not have the same belief as Pythagoras in his Greek cloak. The philosophy.... of the Cimbrians and Celtiberians is lively and brave.

They jump for joy when they are at war, because they will leave this life in a glorious and happy way, but they lament them when they are sick, because they will die in a disgusting and miserable way. The Celtiberians even think it is a disgrace to survive a battle when their leader dies since they promised to protect him with their lives “ (Valerius Maximus, memorable deeds and sayings, II, 6,10-11).

“ Even at present... all the.Barbarians, persuade their children that the soul/mind cannot be destroyed, but survives death, so that the latter is not to be feared, so that (ordinary) danger is to be met with a firm and manly mind. “(Iamblichus, Pythagorean life, 30).

“ They wish to inculcate this as one of their leading tenets: that souls/minds do not become extinct, but pass after death from one body to another; and they think that men by this tenet are in a great degree excited to valor, the fear of death being disregarded “ (Caesar. B.G. VI, 13-14).

“ They invite strangers to their feasts, and do not inquire until after the meal who they are and of what things they stand in need. It is their custom, even during the course of the meal, to seize upon any trivial matter as an occasion for keen disputations and then to challenge one another to single combat, without any regard for their lives; for the belief of Pythagoras prevails among them that the soul/minds of men are immortal and that after a prescribed number of years they commence upon a new life, the soul entering into another body. Consequently, we are told, at the funerals of their dead, some cast letters upon the pyre which they have written to their deceased kinsmen, as if the dead would be able to read these letters “ (Diodorus of Sicily, the library of history , V, 28).

If we are convinced that the near-death experiences express an essential dimension of the human being, which needs to be expressed thus, and of which the effects are beneficial; it is therefore important to again root modern Mankind in this dimension of the sacred. These near-death experiences show us that each and everyone can be initiated, provided that a myth underlies this step, and that qualified instructors to accompany it, exist.

The short reminder which follows is not a Celtic-druidic guide of the Good Death in the way of Suqellus or a book of the dead, but a reminder of some pieces of advice to guide the soul/mind of the deceased person in his efforts to be reborn in the hereafter . Probably inspired by the known near-death experience of the former druids. The one who well studied the legend of the death according to the Gnostic ones in the West , or the one who is well pervaded by these great principles, then feels no fear at the time to die. If you are already a familiar of it, then you approach this ultimate test with confidence and cheerfulness.

Let us remind, first of all, that druidism excludes nobody from the access to the heaven a priori; whereas Buddhism itself, excludes from it and from the start the men having made the following faults: to have killed his father, or his mother, a Buddhist saint, to have wounded a Buddha, or to have divided one’s community. See some versions of the larger sutra of the land of bliss (sukhavativyuha). Of the Plain of Joy Irishmen would say.

However such an exclusion contradicts the druidic principle expounded by these some anonymous commentaries on the work of Lucan, and that we have the pleasure of reminding hereafter.

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 the manes exist “

(manes esse, non dicunt).

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.

On the matter druidism has therefore nothing to see with Buddhism, and it is there still one of the innumerable points which separate us from our friends of the Far East.

It is necessary to well distinguish two different parts, two great levels or two different great states of the being , in the Next-World or the druidic Hereafter.

The world of the god-or-demons and the world of the dead.

The world of the god-or-demons is called Sedodumnon.

The worlds of the dead have several names: Vindomagos, Mag Meld, but also Donnotegia/Tech Duinn, Andumno/Annwn, the kingdom of Tethra and so on.

And these various names probably match various degrees or layers of this heaven or of this world of dead.

No barrier exists nevertheless between these two parts of the Next World or Hereafter, and they interpenetrate largely within a common unit: the Albiobitos.

The vast majority of the living beings (100% of minerals, plants, animals and 99,99% or 99,90% of the human beings) reappear after their death in another luminous world; where they can, in the company of the god-or-demons who are their grail, to complete in better conditions, the purification which has to reinstate them in the Great Whole of the Pariollon.

Some ones nevertheless do not go further than the anteroom of the Heaven and reappear here on earth (bacuceos or seibaros) considering the crimes they committed, in order to have a second chance. Because each healthy-minded human being is nevertheless more or less responsible for his acts, despite everything it is possible to find to him as mitigating circumstances (fate, destiny, and so on). He can therefore only undergo the consequences of them.

In a more detailed way here what the near-death experiences have inspired as deduction to the former druids.

Before reaching the white light of the Vindomagos, the soul/minds were subjected to all kinds of extraordinary post-mortem ordeals. Post-mortem ordeal is the application to justice, in the last resort and apart from any human intervention, of the techniques of checking the innocence or the culpability of a defendant; of checking the validity or accuracy of the decision likely to affect him. What excludes any mistake and therefore still any chance, since the destiny of the men relates initially to the god-or-demons. They are these post mortem legal ordeals badly understood by the first Christians (their intellectual level was very low) which gave rise to the Christian imagery concerning the hell, the damnation and its torments.

On this subject, let us remind it once again, our neo-druidism can only protest with strength and vigor against the pseudo-celticist theses of the vision of Tondale, Adamnan and other untrue texts of this kind. This monstrous universe does not come under genuine Irish Celtic mythology, but under personal Christian sadomasochistic phantasms of Marcus (their author), a Cistercian monk close to the Irish St. Malachy: they are only phantasms style “purgatory of St. Patrick. “

Former druidism used for this weighing-sorting-distribution, of the soul/minds, the word “viria “ truth, from where Gaelic “fir. “ The notion in question was that of the truth or of the falsehood, of the right or of the wrong (it is not exaggerated to say that the former druidism was obsessed by the need for fair judgments, in line with the law). The current word, ordeal, expresses only very imperfectly this notion of weighing-sorting-distribution.

At the time of death, the existence of each man, who did not already reach the stage of awenydd, is therefore placed under the light of the amarcolitani god-or-demons, i.e., sharp-eyed; like Tethra, Donn, Epona or Belenos Barinthus Manannan. This great light falls over all that was lived by him. THE JUDGMENT OF THE SOUL, IT IS ITS HISTORY. ITS TRUTH IT IS WHAT IT SEES IN THE MIRROR HELD OUT TO IT BY THE WRATHFUL OR CALMING (PSYCHOMPOMPOUS) DEITIES THAT ARE EPONA TETHRA DONN OR BELENOS.

This moment of truth (it relates to each one at the time of one’s death) or of “virion, “ does not wait for the end of the cycle in progress; the day when the truth will be made on the life and the History, no longer of the individual anamones, but of the whole Mankind. It determines the intermediate situation in which the deceased persons who did not become awenyddion will find themselves.

Each of the departed is put opposite his truth (viria, in old Celtic language), as in a mirror, whence also the name of mirror of the soul/minds , which is given to this process of automatic sorting of the souls. And it is perhaps besides a fragment of this druidic legend of the death, we can find in the text of the pseudo-Plautus entitled querolus or aulularia.

THE LAR: Here men live while following the natural right; here there is not imposture: the sentences to death are delivered at the foot of the oak and are written on bones.“

It is therefore in the presence of Tethra, of Belenos Barinthus Mananann, Epona, Donn or Hornunnos our distant ancestor, sitting under his oak to administer justice there, that this moment of truth of the soul will take place. According to what each one will have done or omitted to do, during the first half of its life, on earth.

A rather benevolent distribution (virotutis) and in any case equitable, of which all these psychopompous deities are witnesses, for those and the ones who will have acted well throughout their earthly life; and who will not have thus accumulated too much bran (karma among Hindus and Buddhists), because of their breaches or of their faults. Anyway nothing to prevent the interstellar rocket of their soul to reach its escape speed.

Distribution of elud, (Irish elutach elodach) i.e., reincarnation sentences for those who will have accumulated too much bran; not while having multiplied the faults, the breaches and the errors, what can happen for the majority of us, but while having committed exceptional crimes. The interstellar rocket of their soul will never reach its escape speed.

As comparison in Amidist Buddhism of the Pure Land, and for the record, from Mag Meld the men having made the hereafter faults are excluded. To have killed his father, or his mother, a Buddhist saint, to have wounded a Buddha or to have divided one’s community.

These realities of the human destiny thus underline the serious one that any man must grant to the fundamental options which lead its existence in this world, and which must always result in positively concrete actions.

Whether in a personal capacity or as a person in charge of this or that human group (family clan tribe nation state company, etc.). It's not the same ethics!

The very anthropomorphic characteristic of this image of the mirror (of the judgment of the soul/mind BY ITSELF) should not nevertheless mislead us. In fact, there are not judgment of the soul/mind in a strict sense of the term. Weighing of the soul/minds would be already a righter word but it is not even that of which it is a question either.

The anamones (souls) which have a mind or menman too burdened with bran, fall down on earth through themselves as a rocket which would have missed its take-off for the stars (planets one of the scholiasts of Lucan says, the sun Henry Lizeray * says ), in order to reincarnate in bacuceos, or in seibaros, that’s all.

Let us take a more modern image: they are rockets which did not succeed to , in a way, reach their escape speed. There is therefore here purely mechanical application of a cosmic law, that of the poetic justice.

The symbol of the weighing of the soul/minds (carried out in the presence of the psychopomp god-or-demons)is not that of a judgment with all that can imply as severity or permissiveness, in short as subjectivity (injustice?) in spite of the allusion of the pseudo-Plautus on this subject “ Here men live while following the natural right; here there is not imposture: the sentences to death are delivered at the foot of the oak and are written on bones.“

The gods or demons like Tethra, Gwynn, Epona or Belenos Barinthus Manannan, Donn, even Hornunnos, are restricted to confirm a fact which in any event had itself its own inexorable, automatic, consequences.

To cut short any ambiguity, the former druids hardly used besides this notion of weighing of the soul/minds, and they referred another symbolism, that of the mirror (made of bronze of course).

Every individual is responsible for his destiny. Good deeds make the anamone more subtle, more transparent. On the other hand, each act or each omission resulting from ignorance, idleness, selfishness, covetousness… has an inner result on the soul (the anamone), through its mind or menman, in addition to its external result. Each one of these acts causes a psychic modification of the human anamone, and leaves a print which will determine its following life: that which will continue in the next world, or very exceptionally again on Earth. Because our actions always follow us, they are not consumed nor ever become exhausted. Nothing is lost, nothing is created, all is changed. Such is the great law of conservation of energy in the Universe. Neither in the sky, neither in the middle of the seas, nor in the caves or the mountains, exists a place where the man can release himself from the consequences for himself of an ill deed he committed; IF IT IS REALLY SERIOUS. Acts have effects determining each human destiny in its present life, but also in a possible other life on earth . Man’s responsibility for his acts is consequently real, there can be no question of determinism of the human acting of divine diabolical or satanic origin. Man is not an instrument without will in the hands of an arbitrary supernatural entity. Man determines himself, through his decisions, the nature of his destiny (reincarnation in a paradisiac next world Vindomagos type) or the new chance which will be granted to him (ategeneto and reincarnation in bacuceos or seibaros). Because there always has to be some place for a reparation (see the natural law and the Irish penitentials) in the druidic tradition. All these actions being caused by the ignorance or the human weakness, who, as each one knows, affects even the best and in the worst moment (cf . the Ulaid and their quite strange annual disease) ;in order to escape from it, it is necessary to learn how to know oneself and from the inner, what of which we were the cause by our acts but we did not feel ourselves. While therefore passing to some extent in turn on the other side of the fence. A possible rebirth here on earth thus leads us to situations which make it possible to live these experiments “on the other side “. Each one can then taste the results of one’s acts and get what he gave.

N.B. For an anamone, to live goodly or to live badly depended very closely on the duties of its state. People don’t expect the same things from a judge or from a soldier, from a farmer or from a king.

Ancient druidic ethics was based on the functional tripartition of the society, it was differentiated. It was therefore not single like in the case of Christianity, true Procrustean bed cutting all that exceeds.

A normal conduct makes it possible to reappear in the next world of the Mag Meld, of the Vindomagos, an exceptionally negative attitude leads to wait in the antechamber of the heaven, even to the rebirth on earth. The one who does good , does it also for him (for the great benefit of his anamone); the one who does evil makes it against himself (it forces himself to reincarnation on earth into bacuceos or seibaros). There is besides here a major difference between druidism and Hinduism. In Hinduism, even the good weight of bran involves a reincarnation, whereas in the druidism, only an exceptional “ bad “ weight of bran tips the balance towards the side of the reincarnation. It is not even completely just besides of speaking about good or bad bran. Druidism considers more simply than there was in fact accumulation of bran due to facts or breaches contrary with ethics, of an exceptional seriousness (then generating ategeneto, beyond a certain limit) or on the contrary very few bran. In other words, not an equal-arm “balance “with two pans dividing itself in this case between good and evil, but an unequal-arm “balance “ with a limit of dangerous overload for the soul/mind (anaon). There is a weight of bran if there were reprehensible acts or breaches, at an extraordinary point; if not all occurs as if there were absence of weight (absence of bran).

The oldest Celtic accounts, themselves, give a report on four places of possible reincarnation: the Vindomagos of the kingdom come, the Sedodumnon or world of the god-or-demons, the human world (Mediomagos) and the different worlds lying on different levels below, the Andumno.

Our Buddhist or Hindu friends also admit the possibility of a reincarnation in the animal world.

N.B. As we already have had the opportunity to say it, the greatest caution is nevertheless necessary in connection with the possibility or not of remembering the past lives. All the isolated cases put forward in order to corroborate this thesis arouse the problem of checking. There can be very well indeed… reincarnation in bacuceos without memory.

* According to Henry Lizeray, and after perhaps a bad reading of the scholiast of Lucan, the sun, indeed, is the open mouth towards which precipitate, after a more or less duration, all beings having a soul, in order to be renovated and made again in a purer form.

The Crom of our Irish brothers is Cronos, i.e., the Time we have said. As religions are only symbols, people sacrificed victims to Crom by analogy with the Time which consumes all, edax rerum. People recognized the same tendency to Bel, the sun of spring, because the word bel means mouth [mistake of Henry Lizeray].

! ---------- -------------------------------------------- !

TETHRA,GWYNN,EPONA, OR BELENOS BARINTHUS MANANNAN, DONN EVEN HORNNUNNOS.

It is necessary nevertheless to remind the projective natures of all these appearances. As several authors pointed out it on this matter, a subject sees what his culture teaches to him as likely to be seen in a place and at a given time. Jesus on his cross, the Wyvern close to such pond, the Virgin in a church during the feast of the Assumption, the White Lady by the roadside , an angel in the skies, etc.

Therefore the myth provides in the social life a grid of reading, of decoding of the events, in the same way as in science, a scientific paradigm, or the whole of the implicitly culturally admitted theories, directs the observation of the facts. Communication is always of telepathic type. But the druidic tradition knows also beings of light much less alarming, even if it is for a good cause, as Donn, Tethra, Arawn or Gwynn ap Nudd. Donn , Tethra, Arawn or Gwynn ap Nudd, are therefore our own shapes-thoughts, of which it is by no means necessary to be afraid. If we know to recognize them, they will dissolve themselves. And it will be still possible to the deceased person to escape the rebirth on earth as possessed of bacuceos type, or as a phantom of the seibaros type. If he relies on Belenos Barinthus Manannan, the Celtic “Buddha “ruling over the next druidic world called Mag Meld.

In the event of failure of this penultimate stage of the travel of the soul/mind after death, the moment of the last trap, that of the reincarnation on this earth, still possible, of course, can emerge.

If it does not trust Belenos Barinthus Manannan, if on the contrary it is fascinated by the “baleful “ or “wrathful “ deities, the soul/mind will fall down indeed again in one of the other worlds like Annwn or Tech Duin (Andumno or Donnotegia). Which are only stages or airlocks towards the return here below in the shape of bacuceos or seibaros.

The people who approached very close death and who lived a NDA (Near Death Experience ), felt the out of their own body to float above it and above the surrounding world. Many described a positive and enriching experiment. It is rarer to have terrifying accounts, perhaps through fear of telling them, of the judgment of the others, or through will to forget them quickly. During these experiments, known as negative, some people felt tormented by the shame and the culpability to have done evil to the others, and would have liked then to be able to rectify their errors.

Judging itself severely, some of them felt unworthy of the unconditional flood of positive energy which ran out on them, and lived particularly traumatic experiments worthy of the hell (see the myth of the wild hunt and of the cwn annwn). Those who are courageous enough to make the account of it, described bleak landscapes, the feeling to have been pursued (by the cyn annwn?), even wounded or still worlds inhabited by beings under the influence of various states of suffering; whose shape is determined by their attachments, their dependence, or the strongest negative emotional tendencies, they inherited from their life.

As we could see, it exists, of course, a druidic School maintaining the assumption that these more or less alarming warlike divinities, kind Tethra, Arawn, Gwynn, Donn; that all these psychopomp animals ; are in reality only projections of our mind, and have no existence in themselves.

What is important to understand well, it is that there is in fact nothing supernatural in all these visions, and that all that the dying person feels and perceives, emanate simply from his own mind; which is filled only of what the life suggested to him (personal experiments, cultural universe, religion also, of course, etc.).

Let us return now to our post mortem initiatory “voyage” and to its many visual “islands” or “stages.” Let us suppose that the soul/mind of the deceased person , frightened by the spectacle of these rather worrying divinities, very far from being as psychopompous as Belin/Belen/Barinthus/Manannan coming to his meeting on a flowered chariot (for example Tethra, Arawn, Gwynn, Donn the dark one…) could reincarnate elsewhere than in these doubtful or second-class other worlds…

Let us insist well then on the fact that we do not receive a new soul with the regeneration which follows the accession to the Celtic heaven of Mag Meld or Vindomagos, but well a new ideal, idealized, stunning, body (bellissamos or bellissama in old Celtic) … This body is spiritual, more subtle than the air, similar to the rays of the sun, as different from the old body as the resplendent sun may be from the moon. Endowed with what our Zoroastrian friends call“xvarnah.” A mental or glorious body equipped with the six senses; it can see its family, to circulate in the world while crossing the obstacles…

According to one of the scholiasts of Lucan, it would seem then that a by-stage progression occurs towards less and less material spaces, where the border between pure thought and matter becomes fuzzier. Each level could be at the same time autonomous, equipped with particular rules of operation, and in a state of continuity/discontinuity with these which are next to it. The progression would thus be made towards worlds (planets the scholiast of Lucan says, the sun Henry Lizeray says while commenting les primitive worships of Crom and Bel ) where the thought becomes increasingly immanent-transcendent and universal, and less and less conceivable for us. To each space a different quality of light would correspond. Of course, we are located here in a model postulating the “real “out of the body of a substrate which becomes autonomous and moves “far “from this body. It is, indeed, the simplest assumption to report the distance objective and precise observations, out of reach of the known physical senses.

The confrontation of accounts shows various states or stages of light, which could match these progressive and “ of dematerialization “ state of awareness, of the perceptions concerning these states.

But this assumption can still come under a binary reductionism. The notion of top and of bottom are conditioned by our gravitational awareness, and we let us conclude from it that what light is rises or that what is heavy falls. It could occur only a uprooting and a re-localization of our awareness, making our system of perception and of analysis able to function differently.

It should, consequently, by no means dismiss the assumption that only inner space is explored; what anticipates in no way of anything the universe which can open to our perception, in this infinitely small. Always remain the paradoxical questions: where is inside, where is outside? How are the infinitely great and the infinitely small encased?

All occurs as if there were, in the space of the body, but on a more subtle level, an intermediate space which would be connected with a third space, that of the light. We can wonder about the continuity or the discontinuity of these spaces. It is not sure that these concepts are well adapted, the typically druidic image (as regards the death middle of a long life in any case) of a Moebius strip or of a Klein bottle would be perhaps more relevant. As if we were on the backside or the outside of a same structure, the center being located just on the torsion surface of the strip.

Those who do not act too badly in the life, and in accordance with the duties of their trade (in other words, who do not accumulate too much bran likely to make the take-off towards stars of the rocket of their soul ; collapsing) can, after their death, reach an area of the Vindobitus which is no longer subjected to the reincarnation; the Vindomagos. According to Plutarch, thanks to the Vindobitus (Vindomagos, Mag Meld, etc.) even the common run of people can thus see a day in turn this brilliant rock like gold face to face, and such as it is, for lack of being able to melt oneself immediately in the Big Whole.

Because of its transcendence, this gold mountain cannot be seen such as it is, that when it opens itself its mystery with the immediate contemplation of the Man and that it gives him the capacity of it. This contemplation of the gold rock of Plutarch in its whole heavenly glory is the Grail or the Heaven in other traditions. Within the eternal light, the meldi will enjoy a new long life there. There is no longer for them either death or suffering. Everything becomes harmonious music there. Mead runs from the rocks, spring of ale and milk spout out of inexhaustible gigantic cauldrons, and the animals of the forest are no longer wild … (in short, see the descriptions of the Insula Pomorum of the vita Merlini: Avalon). The perfect or dreamed life in the company of the trinities of god-or-demons or in communion with them, with Epona, Hornunnos Belin/Belen/Belenos and all the others, it is that Vindomagos.

Ultimate echo of the descriptions of this state of being , working out by the former druids for the men or of the women having a temperament coming under the first and not the second or third function (in the hand of Noibo Adamnan): It is a land 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. A noble, admirable, ethereal realm, endowed with the wisdom, and radiance, and fragrance of a plenteous land, wherein the enjoyment of every excellence is.

To have an almost eternal residence in this sky may be therefore the major aspiration, even of the common run of people. To live in Vindobitus, it is to be with the god-or-demons while temporarily keeping one’s identity. This mystery of communion with the god-or-demons within this area of Vindobitus, exceeds, of course, every comprehension and every representation. The Celtic tradition speaks to us about it in words of light, peace, feast, music, and so on. Because all the fruits of nature or all the happy results human industry are also found there, but as enlightened or transfigured from the inside.

Too much bran led on the contrary to a fall of the vibratory level, a dive or a descent even major in the world and the matter. Whereas the non-accumulation of bran results in escaping the vicious and infernal circle of the endless reincarnations , into bacuceos or seibaros.

The discovery of this great metaphysical law, by the druids, made it possible, while continuing to take account of the reality of certain extremely rare cases, to need no longer a Devil or a Great Satan to explain it. It is automatic, mechanical although exceptional (four or five cases per century).

The mortals could thus at the same time, to find reasons there to hope, as well as reasons to force themselves to surpass themselves.

The Judeo-Islamic-Christian monolatrous ones, who are men only of a one god-or-demon and of one book of spells of the kind Necronomicon, know only a single life in which everything is decided for eternity, the eternal….. salvation or damnation.This Christian or Muslim idea of the judgment of the souls (yawm ed-din in Arabic) is particularly absurd, and proceeds from an obvious lack of reflection of these religions. Because if the soul is a gift or a part of God, to take over their own vocabulary, such a judgment could be only a self-sentencing of God releasing oneself from his own errors on a scapegoat (Satan, Devil, etc.). Such a judgment would be, moreover, useless and superfluous!

Our hero to uns, the hesus Cuchulainn, established himself for the mortals that we are, the standards of behavior, but he knew very well that Mankind often breaks these standards. The Fate therefore took care that these transgressions have in themselves their own sanction (poetic justice of which gods are only assistants). It is the iron law of the ategeneto. These rebirths in bacuceos or seibaros, do not form a punishment strictly speaking, because the sacredness it is the Man (nemetos). The reincarnation into bacuceos or seibaros is only the self-experiment of the state in which the man puts himself because of his own (former) actions.

The higher Being has therefore nothing to do with the part of judge that Christianity and Islam want to ascribe to him. The judgment of the soul/mind it is its own history, its destiny. The experiments made during the various stages of this initiatory tour (death being higher initiation by definition), of course, are conditioned by the mental practices of the departed person, developed during his life and his last thoughts. In the same way that our dreams are also conditioned by our psychic state and our actions.

By the automatic cut from the body cover, death gives us an exceptional opportunity to release us from the influence of our most gloomy animal instincts, and to emerge in the light of a better world. The soul/mind released from the body finds itself free and equipped with ubiquity. If it thinks of a place or a state, it is there instantaneously.

It is consequently a question of exceeding death, while changing its process in an act of freeing, or releasing, from the endless cycle of the reincarnations into bacuceos (ategeneto) or seibaros. This is why it is important to remind to everyone the principal stages which mark out this route (cf. the legend of the death).

The knowledge of this route and of its many traps is essential to the one who is getting rid of one’s embodiment here below. A knowledge which, if we did not reach it during our life, remains nevertheless possible until the moment even of the great departure.

Our bodily existence is supported by various internal elements (flesh, bodily fluids, body heat, breathing and body constitution). Each stage of disintegration therefore will have physical and psychological repercussions, appearing through physical external signs, and through inner signs felt by the dying person. Nevertheless, in certain cases, an accidental death for example, the processes of disintegration can be so fast that it is not possible to become aware of it.

Each time one of these energy centers ceases functioning, it appears to the mind l to the binomial pair soul + mind or anamone + menman) in the shape of one entity which looks calming (Epona, Belin/Belen/Barithus/Manannan…), or on the contrary wrathful, according to the ideas of the deceased person(Tethra, Gwynn…). The druids of today speak about psychopomp gods, our Tibetan friends of peaceful deities. Let us try a little to clearly see there, it is the case to say, because the attitude of the mind at this precise time decides the later destiny of the soul.

If we know to keep our mind in the clearness of the straight and narrow path in the way of a sun that no cloud darkens, by controlling our fears and our visions; we are then capable of controlling the separation of our soul/mind and of our body and the orientation of our beyond-the-death.

This training of the soul/minds is a little like an insurance policy. If we do not manage ourselves to force the blossoming of our soul during our life, we are ensured to succeed in that after the death in this other world. It is the most direct and fastest way being able to lead to it. It is not necessary in this case to practice asceticism or meditation during hours. And fortunately, because the majority of us do not have the possibility of practicing with excess the meditation as a recluse or the mortification. We therefore need a simpler way, more direct, for in a way clearing the passage. The life is very short and can end suddenly, or without warning, as opposed to what the Breton Anatole Le Braz seems to think on the subject: “The people who deny the portents have some of them as much as those who have most. They deny them only because they know neither see them nor hear them; perhaps also because they fear, and that they want nothing to hear, nor anything to see, about the other life… Nobody dies, without somebody of his close relations, his friends or his neighbors, being warned of it by a portent. “

In what concerns us, we maintain that Ankou (death) can strike down without preventing. And when death occurs, we have no possibility of escaping from it: neither our accumulated wealth, nor our fame, nothing can help us except the few considerations which follow.

Celts were in the beginning a people of landsmen and not of sailors (somewhere in the north of the Alps in the second millennium before our era).

1.The first symbolism, as regards the stay of the soul/minds after death, was thus contented with evoking remote lands, located where the sun sets down: Letavia. The binomial pair soul/mind was supposed to go in this Letavia, thanks to the assistance of various psychopomp animals of the kind stags, horses, and others. Hence one of the symbolism of Epona besides, and also that of the chariots graves (the soul/mind of the dead, with this in mind, needed some to go to the country of the setting sun, as in a fantastic ride). Whence also the symbolism of Hornunnos.

The other world is located beyond the seas in Ireland or at the Breton ones, but beyond a river (the river of the oblivion) on the continent. At least according to this passage of Strabo (Geography Book III, 3,4-5): “The country of which I am speaking is fertile….Then come other rivers. And after these the River of Lethe, which by some persons is called Limaeas, but by others Belion; and this river, too, rises in the country of the Celtiberians and the Vaccaenas…Last of all come the Artabrians, who live in the neighborhood of the cape called Nerium, which is the end of both the western and the northern side of Iberia. But the country round about the cape itself is inhabited by Celtic people, kinsmen of those on the Anas; for these people and the Turdulians made an expedition thither and then had a quarrel, it is said, after they had crossed the Limaeas River; and when in addition to the quarrel the Celtic peoples also suffered the loss of their chieftain, they scattered and stayed there; it was from this circumstance that the Limaeas was also called the River of Lethe.“ Strabo therefore took this fragment of a myth literally.

Twice, the Story of the Grail develops the image of a watery border which separates the world of the men and that of the Wonder, more precisely that of the living and of the dead. Is this not on the other bank of this impassable river that Perceval thinks of being able to find his mother, who, however, already died, even if he is unaware of that. But this watery and symbolic border, Perceval will never cross it. Unlike Gawain who, once passed in the boat of a steersman evoking the mysterious crystal or bronze boats which lead to the other world in the Irish mythology, will find, him, his mother and his grandmother. Whose text, however, indicates to us clearly that they died for a long time: “I know Gawain well, good sir, and I have heard that he is not had a mother for a good twenty years at least “(lines 8753 to 8756).

It was besides the case of Lancelot in the Knight of the Cart who discovers, on the other side of the water, in the heart of the kingdom of Gorre, another image of the Hereafter, the future cemetery and his own grave.

The symbolism of the bridge is very widespread in the Celtic world; it expresses the difficulty of the passage in the hereafter. See the episode of Lancelot and the Sword Bridge in the Knight of the cart precisely. Lancelot penetrates in the next world and is on the point of carrying out a true descent into Hell. He arrives close to a perilous bridge which causes fear and under which there is a stream “ which is as swift and raging, as black and turgid, as fierce and terrible as if it were the devil's stream “ (lines of verse 3015-3018). The novelist describes the borders of the next world according to the ancestral tradition of the Celtic legends.

Before crossing the Sword Bridge , the knight sees on the other bank two lions or two leopards (line of verse 3041), ready to devour him.

We find this topic in the religious conceptions of ancient Persia where the Chinvat Bridge, which means the “divider “or “sorter “in the Iranian tradition, is a perilous passage, wide for the righteous persons, narrow like a razor blade for the irreligious people. From Persia, it will pass besides in Islam.

This archetypal druidic pattern also appears on several occasions in the course of Gawain: “No knight who’s ever gone that way, by road or field, has ever come back, for this is the border of Galvoie, and no knight can cross it and return. I am the only one….. “(lines of verse 6600 to 6606).

We find this idea in the even words of the Proud knight of the narrow passage. “For no knight born of a mother crosses the border of Galvoie to go and boast that he is come from this land if I see him or find him before me “(lines of verse 8384 to 8387).

The inhabitants of this other world have nevertheless all a little something different from those of here below.

It is a place where reigns the happiness which little by little will influence Gawain: “I believe you, lady, he said, for before I saw you I didn’t care what happened to me, such was my despair and grief. But now I am happy and joyful as I could ever be“.

The faces here are haloed with glory: “with a circlet of gold upon her head, and her hair was as bright as the gold or brighter. Her face was white, and illumined by nature with a pure red line“.

It cannot by definition exist in it, hatred, death, desire, and other vices of this kind: “For no knight can enter there and stay alive and well for as long as it takes to ride a league, if he is full of cupidity, or if there is any evil vice in him of false speech or of avarice. A coward or a traitor cannot survive but die there promptly“.

Last point finally: it is a female Trinity (what a blasphemy!) which reigns over this extraordinary kingdom: the grandmother, the daughter and the granddaughter.

In Chretien de Troyes, the transcendence of the hereafter is replaced by the immanence of the happiness in a Christian society . In his relations with the legends of fairies, the romance by Chretien seems a narrative inversion indeed. The fairy falls in love with a mortal, is disappointed by him, finally tests him through a species of penitence, and forgives him. Erec too, falls in love with Enide, disappoints her , is disappointed by her, tests the substance of the couple, and founds again an accomplished liaison.

2. Closely related to this first symbolism, there was also that which located “in the sky “ this distant heaven. The Celts took no care , for example, of the corpses of theirs, fallen on too remote battle fields. Because they were persuaded that the ravens by consuming the flesh of deaths would also carry their soul/mind to the warrior heaven, where they were summoned.

This travel of the soul/mind of the warriors fallen on the battle field, swallowed by ravens which will lead it to the heaven, is also found in the Siberian Shamans.

This image falls under a whole of beliefs largely diffused all over the Altaic world. It is remarkable, in any case, that it left traces in Irish mythology where the raven still plays the same part, and leads the soul/mind of the warriors in the Eden of the fighters having shown heroism. But Silius Italicus too, thought that instead of ravens, they were to be vultures.

Punica, Book III, 340-343 (in connection with Celtiberians having helped Hannibal).

“ The Celts who have added to their name that of the Hiberi also came. To these men death in battle is glorious; and they consider it a crime to burn the body of such a warrior; for they believe that the soul/mind goes up to the god-or-demons in heaven, if the body is devoured on the field by the hungry vulture. “

Ravens or vultures? That was to depend on the areas and climates. What is certain, it is that the druids saw in certain birds the natural intermediaries between the human world and the heavenly universe. Like the smoke going up from the sacrificial or funerary fireplaces, the bird was taken for a messenger, but also a conveyer of soul/mind. A peaceful deity our Buddhist friends would say. The two symbolisms not being necessarily incompatible (it is initially necessary to rise rather high in the sky to join then as fast as possible the country of the setting sun), they were often combined in the primitive druidism.

An intermediate scenario indeed seems to have been that which represented the soul/mind leaving on a chariot in direction of the place where the sun sets. The chariot graves of the Iron Age are the evidence of that. The narrative entitled in Gaelic language Siaburcharpat Con Culainn is a remote reminiscence of it, although its Christianization is obvious.

3. The most recent scenario stages the travel of the binomial pair soul/mind across the sea. But this allegory could be worked out in a significant way only when our ancestors started to reach the shores of the ocean. A third symbolism then was worked out in the bardic imagination of the time, that of the GATES OF THE KINGDOM OF THE DEAD OR OF THE LETAVIA; name of the intermediate land located in the depths of the inhabited universe, between the world of the men and that of the spirits, see Sanskrit Prithvi.

The legend of the dead of the former druidism described us thus the way in which, at the time, mankind conceived this travel of the soul/minds, at least according to the descriptions reported by Greco-Roman authors.

The soul/mind was supposed to go to this place in a boat of crystal, glass, bronze or of simple fishermen, extensible, even on dolphins. They were supposed to leave towards the west by following the sun, beyond the country of the Death gates. Beyond the gates of Death on the sea of the Dead. Former druidism called Morimarusa, dead sea, this water located at the end of the earth, around Thule, water where people could sail only by oar and slowly. Water being regarded as the only barrier logically being able to separate the spirits of the dead from the spirits of the living; the passage of Morimarusa, at the former druids, was thus the equivalent of the passage of Limeas or Oblivio in Celtiberia, or Styx and Lethe among Greeks.

Here the descriptions, somewhat surrealist and mysterious, that various authors left us.

Strabo. Geography. Book II, 4,1 : Pytheas speaks to us about the vicinity of this mysterious Thule “ in which there was no longer either land properly so-called, or sea, or air, but a kind of substance concreted from all these elements, resembling a sea lung [ in Greek pleumon thalattíōi ] ; a thing in which the earth, the sea, and all the elements are held in suspension and this is a kind of bond to hold all together“.

Pliny, Natural history, Book IV. XXVII. “ We must now leave the Euxine to describe the outer portions of Europe. After passing the Riphæan mountains, we now have to follow the shores of the Northern Ocean on the left, until we arrive at Gades . In this direction a great number of islands are said to exist that have no name; among which there is one which lies opposite to Scythia, mentioned under the name of Raunonia, and said to be at a distance of the day's sail from the mainland; and upon which, according to Timæus, amber is thrown up by the waves in the spring. As to the remaining parts of these shores, they are only known from reports of doubtful authority. With reference to the Septentrional or Northern Ocean; Hecatæus calls it, after we have passed the mouth of the river Parapanisus (Parapomisus), where it washes the Scythian shores, the Amalchian Sea. The word “Amalchian” signifying in the language of these races, frozen. Philemon again says that it is called Morimarusa or the "Dead Sea" by the Cimbri, as far as the Promontory of Rubeas, beyond which it has the name of the Cronian Sea. Xenophon of Lampsacus tells us that at a distance of three days' sail from the shores of Scythia, there is an island of immense size called Baltia, which by Pytheas is called Basilia. Some islands called Oönæ are said to be here, the inhabitants of which live on the eggs of birds and oats; and others again upon which human beings are produced with the feet of horses, thence called Hippopodes. Some other islands are also mentioned as those of the Phanesii, the people of which have ears of such extraordinary size as to cover the rest of the body, which is otherwise left naked.

Leaving these, however, we come to the nation of the Ingævones, the first in Germania; at which we begin to have some information upon which more implicit reliance can be placed. In their country is an immense mountain called Sevo, not less than those of the Riphæan range, and which forms an immense gulf along the shore as far as the Promontory of the Cimbri. This gulf, which has the name of the “Codanian,” is filled with islands; the most famous among which is Scandinavia, of a magnitude as yet unascertained: the only portion of it at all known is inhabited by the nation of the Hilleviones, who dwell in 500 villages, and call it a second world. Some writers state that these regions, as far as the river Vistula, are inhabited by the Sarmati, the Venedi, the Sciri, and the Hirri, and that there is a gulf there known by the name of Cylipenus, at the mouth of which is the island of Latris; after which comes another gulf, that of Lagnus, which borders on the Cimbri. The Cimbrian Promontory, running out into the sea for a great distance, forms a peninsula which bears the name of Tastris. Passing this coast, there are three and twenty islands which have been made known by the Roman arms: the most famous of which is Burcana [ Borkum], called by our people Fabaria, from the resemblance borne by a fruit which grows there spontaneously. There are those also called Glæsaria by our soldiers, from their amber; but by the barbarians they are known as Austeravia and Actania. “

DEAD SEA OR SEA OF THE DEAD?

It is possible that through an adaptation similar to that of the original sense of Letavia, this sea was known as Morimarusa, in contrast o the “normal sea “: Atlantic. Because the misunderstanding : mortuum mare = Dead Sea/morimarusa and mortuum mare: sea of the dead takes place then. Mix-up taken over by Pliny: morimarusa… hoc is mortuummare… ultra deinde Cronium (morimarusa) “…

Morimarusa… it is the sea of the dead… beyond it is the Cronian Sea. “ The Greeks on their side spoke about Kronion pelagos (sea of Kronos).

N.B. Celtic mythology added this Morimarusa or sea of the dead was haunted by a watery monster. A variant of the legend made it a gigantic ram-headed snake.

In connection with the inhabitants of this mysterious Letavia, the Latin poet Claudian in his invectives against Rufin informs us even more besides, as if it already had read or heard the accounts of Irish voyages.

Claudian, in trashing Rufinus I, 129-134. "There is a place where Celtica stretches her furthermost shore spread out before the waves of Ocean: It is there that Ulysses is said to have called up the silent ghosts with a libation of blood. There is heard the mournful weeping of the spirits of the dead as they flit by with faint sound of wings, and the inhabitants see the pale ghosts pass and the shades of the dead. It was from here the goddess leaped forth, dimmed the sun's fair beams and clave the sky with horrid howlings. Britain felt the deadly sound, the noise shook the country of the Senones, Tethys stayed her tide, and Rhine let fall his urn and shrank his stream “.

This text, of course, is marked by the traditional ideas relating to the world of the dead in the Graeco-Latin Antiquity (some pale and gloomy shadows). But the fact remains that it is interesting, because it is in similar islands indeed that dead go according to Procopius (De Bello Gothico IV, 20).

“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-spirits [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 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).

The boat or the bark, of wood of glass or bronze, belongs, of course, to the Next World.

But specialists wonder well who can be the people who welcome all these dead by calling them through their name, their tribe or their family ties; and by posing to them all kinds of questions (some agreed signs?) so that they answer them. With their name, their tribe, their family ties… from where the importance of the existence of all this information on the graves.

The family ties evoked by this text are perhaps only a banality of the Celtic anthroponymy (where you are always designated as being the son or the daughter of somebody). But the mention of an exchange between the passengers who land, and those who welcome them, suggests that they are there perhaps close relations or parents come to seek them.

This text is interesting in spite of its late date in the Byzantine Greek literature. As expected , Procopius is very badly informed about this strange crossing. The “Brittia “is perhaps the (Great) Britain. But it was not the true goal of the soul/minds of these deceased persons.

This fragment of text preserves the legendary trace of religious designs absolutely identical to that of Ireland. Because it is not to the island colonization of the sixth century that Armorica, then called Letavia, then Brittany, must be become the crossing point of the dead. This quality is very former, as the short passage of Claudian we examined higher proves it.

As we already saw it many times, another interesting in many respects text (by Plutarch) brings to us additional facts on the mysterious island of Kronos (Saturn) where all these dead went; and which was not, of course, the Great Britain as Procopius thinks.

“ 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 manifest. For Cronos himself [ the Buddha Amitabha? The Grail ? the Fate ????] sleeps confined in a deep cave of rock that shines like gold — the sleep that Jupiter [ Taran/Toran/Tuireann ?] 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 mentioned before tend and serve Cronos [ the Buddha Amitabha? The Grail ? the Fate ????], having been his comrades 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 the god “ (Plutarch. De facie in orbe Lunae, 26).

Plutarch’s Graeca interpretatio mixes obviously many things, particularly the kingdom of the dead and that of the god-or-demons, and it is difficult to know who are exactly the Celtic deities that he gets up with the names Jupiter or Saturn.

Lug and Belenos Barinthus Manannan Lerigenos? Hornunnos? Taran/Toran/Tuireann?

What is probable in any case, it is this whole story nevertheless has a relationship with a kind of beyond the time since Saturn in the Roman mythology, was well the personified time. The inhabitants of this island evoked by Plutarch (the islanders) are out of time and have the privilege to sometimes be able to converse with the gods (demons working for Hornunnos-Saturn).

The rebirth in a better another world is a fundamental concept of the druidism. This rebirth in another world is used to redeem our errors, these which we made in our life on earth. It is necessary to seek to be purified from them to be able to reinstate the Big Whole. Quite different in its form and its extension, and consequently in its importance, is therefore the Irish conception of the Hereafter or rather of a parallel Next World, where the deceased persons live a heavenly existence; Tir na mBeo, Land of the Living, Tir na mBan, Land of Women [we find rather the Heaven of Muslim type with its eternally virgin houris. Editor’s note] Mag Meld, Plain of the Joy (see the name of the Meldi, of Meaux, in the Paris region), Tir na nOg, Land of the Youth.

Generally, this Celtic heaven is very far in the west of Ireland, beyond the setting sun, where the dead go. Sometimes even it is clear and simple translation of the biblical expression, the “Land of Promise “ Tir Tairngiri, where the Tree of Life grows. All in it is beautiful, young, attractive and pure. The departed find there a fate enviable by comparison with that of alive ones in our world. But if the world of the kingdom of the dead is no longer subjected really to the usual categories of space and time, then even such descriptions to characterize it are insufficient. They are only attempts at translation of inexpressible or at reduction to the finite of the infinite one.

The next world called Albiobitos is composed of three worlds, that of the god-or-demons, that of the ordinary deceased persons and that of the great initiates. Thus let us reconsider these various scenarios.

In the phenomenon of disembodiment called death, reality appears by a communion with energies which have analogies with the essential components of the phenomenal existence, and may take various forms, sounds, forces, or lights, for example.

These processes of disembodiment will be different according to the convictions from each one.

The crossing of death is always the reflection of the past existence, according to the way in which it was lived, in good or evil, with generosity or selfishness. The anguish, the death, then the future of the soul/mind in the rebirth or the transcendence, occur in accordance with the matching orientations.

Then various manifestations of the divinity appear.

They are the personified shapes of the intellectual or tangible impulses of the living which mobilize these energies.

FIRST CONCLUSIONS

ABOUT THE LEGEND OF DEATH.

As Henry Lizeray said it very well, “ Prepare your immortality , on your death, you will form part of the appearing worlds.“

This druidic knowledge gives us an outline of realities which exceed the borders of our life, of our world. But what we can currently guess of these realities is only an obscure and distorted image, like in a mirror. Hence besides the legend of the dead by the Breton Anatole Le Braz. Our knowledge is for the moment partial, but one day it will be more complete, and even total, and we will be able to then see the gold rock (the grail ?) in the mysterious island described by Plutarch. We will be able to look it in a way into each other’s eyes.

In any case this knowledge enables us to erase as of now our fear and to differently live suffering and death, even if our nature continues to balk at.

Even when there remains hidden in the unconscious of the druidicist, this ancestral knowledge strengthens. And supports him in his will to follow a way filled with difficulties. Because it is not only a human knoledge, it is also a force which comes from the spirit symbolized by Taran/Toran/Tuireann (because of the lightning nature his manifestations can have). It lives in the soul of the druidicist.

We are thus in peace with the god-or-demons. And the fastest path to follow in order to reach the world of the dead and of the god-or-demons (Albiobitos) was shown to us by the setanta known as hesus known as Cuchulainn (or hound of Culann in Ireland).

Because the suffering itself has its utility in all this, since it pushes us into wanting as quickly as possible to release us from the hellish cycle of the ategeneto (endless reincarnation here on earth into the shape of a bacuceos or a seibaros). This knowledge produces the hope, and the hope never misleads, since the passion for the next world was carefully widespread in our hearts by our spiritual great ancestors. See the many remarks of the Greek and Latin authors on this subject.

It is not possible to describe truly and with precision, what escapes the tangible experiment. Hence besides the anthropomorphic naivety of the legend of the death we have just studied. The druidism does nothing but to propose images, analogies, symbols, which correspond to our situations and our deepest human aspirations, to make us have a presentiment of this beyond the earthly life.

Nevertheless, and in spite of the imperfection of the words or of the representations seeking to express invisible realities, the druidic knowledge makes us able nevertheless; even if it lets plane some mystery on the realities of the life after the life, since they overflow the field of the experiment; to affirm a certain number of things.

First point: the almost immortality of the soul (called anamone among Celts). “I think therefore I am Descartes said, and the one who exists persists, because time and space are the shriveled up branches of a tree always in a period of growth “(Henry Lizeray). Henry Lizeray who adds in his S.D.D that, since nothing is destroyed, bodies and souls return in this case necessarily at their origins. The body returns to earth , matter, and the soul to its original place (the awenyddio).

By discovering this truth; namely that the human life is not truly destroyed with death that it is simply changed by reincarnation in another world; druidism maintains, unlike the Jewish religion and the Bible, that a spiritual element remains after death. A spiritual element that the former Gnostics in the West called anamone and that they call soul today. In relation with the universal soul (awentia or awenyddia) which underlies it and feeds it, this soul is, itself, almost immortal.

The word soul is to be understood in the meaning used by the former druids when they spoke about anamone. i.e., the spiritual principle of the human person, source of its unity, part of the man beside the body but immanent to this body. Because Man Is a body, because man is a body and a soul, in one person.

It is by understanding the soul or the mind in this way that the high_knowers affirm its almost immortality. The druidism affirms the survival and the subsistence after the death of a spiritual element which continues to exist in its relation with the world (transformation matter energy).

The druidic knowledge concretely makes it possible to face death and to reach in the best possible conditions the realities located beyond. The rebirth in the other world and the beatifying view of the rock of gold over which the master of this other world thrones (Plutarch. De facie in orbe Lunae, 26) for the Meldi, the regeneration of the bodies at the end of the cycle in progress, the definitive union between the anamone and the Pariollon for the awenyddion, etc.

This druidic faith is nevertheless not an escape in front of sometimes painful realities of this world. The druidism precisely takes death seriously, but the high-knowers endeavor to distinguish in the events or the requirements of their time, what the new signs of the presence of the Grail in this world,are

The last peace made with the god-or-demons was a final peace, at least within the framework of this cycle, the only accessible to our knowledge. The spirit was given to us which makes us take part as of now in this life of the god-or-demons; and this before even their parousy. Because the living in this world will be then like god-or-demons.

The death and the going to heaven of Cuchulainn were the piece of evidence that this life here below is not to start again indefinitely. Such is the word of truth, the “suscetla, “ that are charged with announcing those who, since, know, and whose soul burns with this sacred fire : the high-knowers or Western gnostic persons called druids.

This view of the world thus remains open to the possibility of a final achievement to come, ultimate and immanent transcendent, but of which only the main lines are perceptible.

What the world will become, the poet said, does not appear yet clearly. But what we know it is that, when the gods reappear, we will be similar to them, because we will be able to finally see them such as they are (disoccultation of the gods called parousy by the Christians).

Such an opening on the future and the immortality was already in the knowledge of the former druidism and, consequently, it therefore remained an essential dimension of the current neo-druidism.

The neo-druidism, ultimately, does nothing but speak about this final destiny of the mortals who we are, about the direction of the History and the various forms of awakening of the awareness or blossoming of the soul.

The major theses of the druidism comprise an eschatological dimension. The god-or-demons of the druidism invite the men to consider, beyond their life and the time of this cycle, a total blossoming of their soul. And the suffering on this earth has therefore a sense: it encourages seeking this blossoming.

It is therefore this achievement promised to Mankind which has to prevail. What we undertake in this world is never completely vain!

Such a prospect can only urge us besides to enter still more resolutely the various ways which are opened to us in order to become like the god-or-demons. Whereas the Bible, itself, absolutely rejects such a prospect for Mankind (Genesis, 3,4 and 3,22).

The Celtic god-or-demons themselves are already with us (contrebis) in this long progression in order to help us in releasing us from the darkness of the animal weakness which can affect the best ones among us (the Ulaid for example) and having a dream or ideal body (xvarnah in Avestan language, bellissamos bellissama in Old Celtic).

Let us summarize.

The druidicists feels interdependent of all the forms of hope without which Mankind could not survive. They distinguish there also something of the mysterious presence of the higher Being in the world he moves. They have nevertheless the burning obligation to reaffirm a certain number of truths.

All that lives, all that is, over time will be only one with the Universal Including , one day or the other. Only the moment of this reintegration into the higher Being called Pariollon.

Each individual soul (anamone) is part of the Being of beings (Pariollon or Bitos), draws from it its vital force, and bears in it its including nature in a nearly invisible way. This immanent absolute Being of the beings is a neutral, neither god-or-demon, neither goddess-or-demoness, nor fairy, without attributes, shape, without a task to be undertaken, everywhere present and nevertheless not easily knowable. It is a transcendent immanent being which gets into the world, instills life to him, and bears it. A principle which does not go by, in the middle and beyond the worlds and the cycles which, themselves, go by. The cosmic tear of fire that is our soul identifies with this original universal Big Whole.

Like the way of the druids of amarcolitanos type indeed showed it to us, it is enough to recognize this unity. Such knowledge leads then early or late to the melting between the anamone and the awentia or awenyddia, and to the disappearance of the individual oneself called mind or menman, therefore to the going beyond of the separation between the individual and his (cosmic) origin. It is liberation through knowledge.

Druidism is, of course, the most abstracted design of the divine that we ever could imagine. Hence besides the charge of atheism reported by Strabo.

“ Some say the Galicians 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). A God or Demiurge who is not named…

Attitude therefore which is the opposite extreme of the simplistic and anthropomorphic stereotypes of the Bible (from Judaism to Christianity).

Endowed with an almost immortal soul, man consequently can, as of his death, either to merge with his principle, or to continue to exist as a human “self “; as a spiritual element endowed with awareness and will (stay in the Vindomagos or reincarnation, for worse or for better).

There exist four means of more or less quickly return to the Being of the beings by metamorphic melting within the Pariollon.

The first of these means is the fact of being summoned by the god-or-demons to become druid that is to say grail searcher (calling of amarcolitanus). The druids of amarcolitanos type never constituted a caste like the Levites among the Jews. “ These had looked for their entries in the official genealogies but were not to be found there, and were hence disqualified from the priesthood “(Esdras, 2,61 to 63).

Many druids were, of course, sons of druids or knights, but their teaching was open to everyone and it is obvious that they were to also deal with the gifted children whom they could locate here or there in the population.

To have the vocation of amarcolitanos and to devote themselves to the knowledge either it is on the personal level (search for the grail) or in order to raise the intellectual level and thus also ethical of the whole Mankind, is one of the means of saving one’s soul of the hellish cycle of the endless reincarnations in bacuceos or seibaros, in this valley of tears which is the dumnon. To become amarcolitanos makes the druid a potential awenydd . i.e., an awakened or an enlightened one, in the good sense of the term, who can foresee the Pariollon at times and levitate invaluable seconds to some extent in a metamorphic state of melting with it or in it.

The second of these means is the way of the fight against oneself, reserved for those who have a more active psychology, reserved for those who have the temperament of a fighter. What we call great

100

Jihad among our Muslim rival brothers (the small Jihad referring to the notion of holy or sacred war of crusade type intended to defend OR EXTEND Islam, the Muslims and the lands of Islam * (Dar Al Islam). But beware of the taqiyya which justifies making one out to be the other. The journalists are always fooled about yet. What occurred in Syria as of 2012 it was well a Jihad in the meaning of “small Jihad” and what people generally understand by jihadist it is the crusader mercenary of the most barbarian armed political Islam.

To return to Celtic minded people we also call Kinges the one who is devoted to such at the same time spiritual and physical exercises, making him able to become awenydd, i.e., to reach the divine world.

Although much slower than the way of the awenydd druid in fact, considering the uncertainty of its results, this path can be nevertheless rather short (a few years???) hence its name of royal road. Suffering and death are in this world because of our animal origin (it is our original weakness of Ulaid type there). It is therefore also through suffering and mortification that man can reach the final meeting with the divine world (Sedodumnon or Albiobitos).

Hesus, the last avatar of Lug grandson of Balaros the king of the gigantic anguiped wyverns, came to show us that such was the sense of the suffering.

The neo-druidism speaks today in this case about eternal life, but it is, of course, for lack of an adequate word. Let us take a lamp lit for the night. Will the flame of the beginning of the night always be exactly identical to that of midnight, exactly identical to that of the end, when the dawn with rosy fingers is appearing? Or are they completely different flames? ?

The death of a man or of a world is only the middle of a long life. One is born, the other one disappears, but this sequence has neither beginning nor end. However, it is neither the same being nor a different being which reappears. All depends on the point of view at which we place ourselves.

In reality , this life, a continuity but also a blossoming of our state of union with the higher Being or Bitos as of this lowly world (dumnon) is in its very fulness an object of expectation for everyone. For men or women of the "first function" temperament, this future life consists in being able to contemplate the golden rock where the divinity in the middle of the white immortal plain of Vindomagoslies (for the Meldi) and to enjoy a stunning or ideal body (Avestan xvarnah, Old Celtic bellissamos bellissama). Such a destiny is an intense life, as well as is the very life of the Bitos, an anticipation of the end of the cycle in progress, where the divinity will be everything in everybody after the disoccultation or parousy (return) of the god-or-demons 1).

But in reality, let us remind it, we have already in us even around us, the first steps of this life, of which the fulness awaits for us beyond death.

In this existence of each day, the eternal life has already begun. We received the gifts of the spirit by which the Fate has resurrected the god-or-demons from the dead (see the case of some of them at the time of the battle of the Plain of the standing or pillar stones . They die, but reappear at once) and we live even in the middle of the evidence that this mystery.will also be achieved in us.

Life is never destroyed, it only changes: nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is changed. When their stay ends on earth, the anamones will reappear in the eternal plain of Vindomagos in order to be able from now on to contemplate there the gold rock where the grail rests. While the anamones of the awenyddion, ategnati or kingetes, meet, themselves, in the Pariollon, by direct metamorphic fusion, worked out in the core of this cosmic super “nuclear power station “. This certainty thus makes the pagan of celticist obedience (option) able to change his own death into a passage, into a change of state, while following the example of our fascinating Setanta Hesus. To die thus, for the one who knows, constitutes an achievement. Here what is said, let us remind it, by the legend of the dead of the former druidism (speaking about the disembodiment of the awenyddion or semnothei, or of the anatiomaroi, among Celts it is true).

“ 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 beings 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 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. On the failure, ceasing, or obsolescence, of oracles.18).

101

The higher Being (Bitos) being interdependent of those who honor it on this earth, it cannot, by definition, to give up them to the nothingness. The salvation gotten for the druids or for the kingetes, after death, takes the form of a beatifying union with the god-or-demon reigning on the next world from the top of his gold rock. A union in which can be lived the very life of the Being of beings. This beatifying union of the anamone of each one (and of his self called menman) with the divine one, fills the (human) being with a perfect joy.

Such a favorable outcome is granted to the amarcolitanoi druids by pure and free sovereign solidarity of the Big Whole of the Pariollon, towards them and what they represent. Because god-or-demons are also interdependent of it. But it can also be conquered after a hard fight by any person engaging himself in the suitable spiritual and bodily exercises (kingetes).

Only a minority of individuals arrives, as of this world, to the state of awenydd. But after death, in Vindomagos, there is little by little progressive melting between the individual soul (the anamone) and the universal cosmic soul (the awentia or awenyddia) and fading away of the mind: the menman. The deceased person becomes little by little as translucent, diaphanous, ethereal (same principle than the nembutsu in Amidist Buddhism).

To discover that other people than awenyddion can be saved by reaching this direct contemplation of the golden rock where the god-or-demon sleeps; it should have been realized, of course, that the relations with him can never be purely and simply destroyed, for those who tried at least, once in their life, to find it.

“ All the island is suffused with fragrance scattered from the rock as from a fountain; and those demons mentioned before tend and serve Cronos [ the Buddha Amitabha? The Grail ? the Fate ????], having been his comrades 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 the god “(Plutarch. De facie in orbe Lunae).

Same principle that the nembutsu we have said higher. You would think we were in the buddhakshetra of Amitabha! Considering the importance of the subject, it will not be inappropriate to give again to our faithful (readers), in a few words, what we already noted on this subject. Buddhakshetra, Land of Buddha or field of Buddha, is a word which designates a field of the universe in which a given Buddha exercises his activity or his influence. According to the Mahavamsa, the field of his earthly life is the jatikkheta, which can be impure or mixed, like our world which is the jatikkheta of the Shakyamuni Buddha. The field in which his teaching extends is the anakkheta. The field in which his wisdom and his knowledge extend is the visayakkhetta, considered as unlimited. The two last ones are pure lands resulting from his achievements and expressing his qualities; those who have kinship for them reappear there. Still according to the Mahavamsa, a Buddhakshetra is equivalent to 61 billion universes. The concept is particularly developed in the Mahayana, in the Lotus and Vimalakirti sutras as in these which are devoted to certain Buddhas like Amitabha, whose pure land is best known by far. It is indeed in the core of the beliefs and practices of the branch known as of the pure land , one of the most important in Buddhism.

Although some texts describe the pure lands as fields distant from our world, the Lotus and the Vimalakirti maintain that they are constituted here below even, around a Bodhisattva, by virtue of the purity of his mind; they are made up only of the beings which rise spiritually thanks to is teaching. According to these sutras, it exists nevertheless quality differences between the pure lands of the various Buddhas. The pure land of Amitabha himself give way , according to some people, to that of the Padmavati Buddha. The currents Tiantai and Tendai too, strongly influenced by the Sutra of the Lotus, consider four lands which people reach according to their level of awareness.

Below some pure land names.

The Land of Perfect Bliss (Sukhavati) of the Buddha Amitabha, best known, described in the sutras of the Pure Land, it would be located in the west of our world.

102

Land of Joy (Abhirati) of the Buddha Akshobhya located in the east of our world.

Emerald Land of the Bhaisajyaguru Buddha; described in the Bhaisajyaguru Sutra, it would be located in the east of our world.

Land of secret Solemnity of the Vairocana Buddha described in the Mitsugon kyo.

Pure Land of the Vulture Peak, where the teaching of the Shakyamuni Buddha reigns.

The Pure Land of the Potakala Mount, of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.

Then why not the Pure Land (Celtic hereafter ) of the Buddha evoked by the text of Plutarch?

Then why not the Pure Land (Celtic hereafter ) of the Buddha Hornunnos?

Then why not the Pure Land (Celtic hereafter ) of the Buddha Belenos?

* It is the most common meaning besides, that of which immediately thinks the vast majority of people who speak about it, the historical Muhammad HAVING ALSO BEEN A WARRIOR unlike the hero of the four Gospels.

1) The parousy of the god-or-demons is the return on earth of the god-or-demons exiled in another universe since the end of the meta-history. It will be a new kingdom for them and us, the human beings, because we will be then as god-or-demons; but this new reign will be short, it will be only a coronation, because f end of this world and birth of a new one will occur shortly after.

FINAL CONCLUSION

ABOUT THE LEGEND OF DEATH.

The legend of the death has to help every departed person to travel in the hereafter. The postmortem ordeal carried out using the god-or-demons (viria or truth-operation with a mirror) necessarily led to two different situations although non-opposite, the land of happiness of the Vindomagos , the more or less stay like a lost soul in the kingdom of Donn/Cernunnos called Donnotegia, which is a kind of anteroom of the Paradise. It is also with a same aim that Yama, the Indo-Buddhist sovereign of the kingdom of the dead , uses a mirror to make the selection. What indeed reflects the mirror held out by the god-or-demon? Truth, sincerity, the contents of the heart and of the conscientiousness.

The belief in the almost immortality of the soul among Celts lead certain researchers to see in the Vindomagos and in the related islands (Mag Meld etc.) a country of the dead, but who in this case had access there? All the deceased persons, some of them only, or the half? The belief in hereafter, after death is rooted in the minds as of the time of the megaliths in Europe. The shamans and the chiefs will be the first to hope for this survival. But little by little all the other (prehistoric) men will adhere to it. The sacred indeed (the nemetos) it is the Man.

Because the higher Being, the Tokad or Bitos, cannot give up to the nothingness those who made it their grail. Even if in this case, to put them in a state of total union with it, an ultimate stage of purification is necessary, for the mortals who could not reach during their life the state of awenydd. The legend of the dead according to the druids has depicted to us this pure and luminous plain with many rather naive details, of course.

People call Vindomagos this ultimate stage before the melting in the Pariollon. Is this Vindomagos a state, a place, or a time?

The passing in the kingdom of the dead over which reigns Donn/Hornunnos, as a seibaros, is the logical result of the refusal by the sou/mind of the true divine , of the calmed divine. This refusal; which is the negation of the life and of the joy that gets the union, even partial and fugacious, of the individual anamone and of the true world; finishes accumulating on the shoulders of its carrier a heavy negative burden dooming him to the ategeneto (the bran). It finishes prohibiting to him temporarily, any stay in the Mag Meld or in the Vindomagos.

103

If the soul of a departed person is misled in the kingdom of the dead of Donn/Hornunnos (Donnotegia) instead of remaining in the large green and luminous plain of Vindomagos, it is because of its faults or its errors. A more or less long stay as a seibaros or lost soul , in the anteroom of the Heaven called Donnotegia, will enable it to make his soul at least worthy of Vindomagos, it will be for him as a first purification.

N.B. They are there realities witnessed by the experience, even if the former druidism translated them in a necessarily picturesque language. The expressions like Vindomagos, Aballomagos, later Mag Meld, Tir na mBéo, Tir na nOg, even House of Donn (Donnotegia) etc. nevertheless designate a world which is not exactly that of the god-or-demons at the beginning.

To pass in the Vindomagos, it is to go to join the god-or-demons in the Vindobitu, of course, but especially in order to be able to be thus allowed to the contemplation of the divine Grail ? on its scented golden rock. A state of blessed meldos which is not yet nevertheless the melting with and in the Pariollon since individuality remains: the soul of X remaining always different from the soul of Y, as long as their individual mind or menman were not dissolved.

The stay in Vindomagos has not to be compared with the melting between individual anamone and awenyddia or universal soul, which takes place only later.

The Vindomagos is also the achievement of the life of the man who was a good briugu. For the ategnati, the druids, and the kingetes, it is not the same thing , as we could see it. The Vindomagos has neither druid nor warrior, except possibly in a temporary way (for 90 days?), at the time of certain initiatory voyages.

What is sure, it is the Vindomagos is not to be conceived as a punishment through which the Fate would be in a way avenged for our infidelities towards the god-or-demons his “children” *. It is only a transition stage,a space-time to one side, and not a geographical place).

The neo-druidism takes over the ancient symbolic system of a place where dead expect. But it has to be clear also that, in this case, the dead become meldi have no longer with the beings and the things of our world the same relations than before.

The druidic tradition maintains that those who are in the Vindomagos, the blessed Meldi, remain sensitive to the prayers and supplications sent to them, and that they can thus intercede in favor of their human combennones remained here below in their hole (dumnon). Or on this side of the river of the oblivion. A little like bodhisattvas in a way. In the most genuine druidic tradition, these phenomena occur generally around the festival of Samon (ios).

The Beatifying view of the gold grail on which the god-or-demon sleeps; a view into which death introduced the men having followed the way of the god-or-demons (divodorum); make them still more painfully being aware , indeed, as Meldi, of our congenital weakness since Hornunnos (the famous sickness of the Ulaid). And thus of the need for the mortals for making themselves worthier of the total union with the Great Whole of the Pariollon.

The happiness of the luminous world that is the Mag Meld or Vindomagos is not an egoistic and solitary happiness, cut from the other men. Communion with the god-or-demons, it is also a look taken at all those who are still on this earth. This communion prefigures that which characterizes the supermankind, to come in the next cycle, after the parousy or disoccultation of the god-or-demons.

Let us repeat it once again! In the case of the men having crossed the divodorum or path of the god-or-demons, the dead is not completely destroyed and in one way or another remains, mysteriously, near the god-or-demons and not far from the grail of the gold rock of Plutarch. The union of those who are still en route in the way of the god-or-demons, called divodorum (combennones) with their brothers born again in this news and pure land of youth (the Meldi), remains too. It appears particularly on the days of samon (ios). Because of the deceased person , there always remains something, at least through those who knew him during his life. To think of the departed, it is already to make him live again.

Because really die only those who are forgotten (it was also the biggest of the fears of Cuchulainn in Ireland).

The former druidism had developed besides all kinds of techniques to question the soul/minds of the Meldi (the spirits of dead).

104

or Herodotus; and the Celts, for the same purpose, stay away all night at the tombs of their brave chieftains“.

We also find in the Bible, Book I by Samuel, in the chapter XXVIII, quite a strange story on the same subject.

But while receiving as they are worthy of it, these gifts from the next world (which appears to us in mind), the druidicist do not forget, however, to also work in this world which goes, by the exercises and the rituals, the prayer and the engagement, the research of the beautiful and of the true one, by the research of the knowledge which explains us how to reach, sooner or later, the total contemplation of the next world of which they expect the return as watchers awaiting for the dawn. Its harbinger will be the parousy of the god-or-demons now concealed, the return of the god-or-demons, the new kingdom of the god-or-demons.

* Anthropomorphic image. The gods or demons are not children who would have been begotten by the Fate but some assistants of the aforementioned Fate, some secondary causations in a way.

105

ELEMENTS OF UNIVERSAL ESCHATOLOGY.

LEITMOTIF ON THE TRAVEL

OF THE SOUL AFTER DEATH.

Any existence here eon earth tends to its final dissolution in the Pariollon (the Big Whole). It is the universal negentropy. Such is the main characteristic of any life on earth and therefore of that of the man. Each one arrives there differently and according to one’s nature.

It seems necessary in all the cases to distinguish the abode of the dead well from the place of stay of the god-or-demons. Even if both are very close, even contiguous, and belong to the same subset called Vindomagos, which is itself an integral part of the Albiobitos.

The pace of stay of the god-or-demons is not really specified or located in our myths. There is some of them under ground, but there are also some of them in the airs or water. In short a little everywhere!

As regards the field of the dead , it is not the same thing.

With some exceptions, any man needs an intermediate phase after death to arrive there: the rebirth in another world where he can get ready to this ultimate travel in the middle of the stars. This next world is not single and is staged on different levels; so that several states of the being can coexist there (kingdom of the dead, kingdom of the god-or-demons - as many sidhs than god-or-demons - or ultimate stage before the final dissolution in the Big Whole, etc.).

Certain people can reach during their life even the lower levels of this next world, where they can live a time thus, in the company of the god-or-demons, while expecting their metamorphic melting in the Big Whole.

The culprits of exceptional crimes must, before arriving at this stage (reincarnation in another world of heavenly nature); in a way to start from scratch and to start again from the square one as in the famous snakes and ladders. They are reincarnated here below on earth (bacuceos).

106

The majority of the deceased persons, not to say totality, complete their purification in the various paradisiac purgatories of the underground or celestial spaces; sometimes going up from one sphere to another at the proper time (another image to try to make us grasp what is truly inexpressible). But this participation of human beings in the almost immortal life of the god-or-demons does not appear, moreover, we repeat it once again, as the reward of an earthly life filled with good works.

Some individuals quite as exceptional, but in the good sense of the term (semnothei or great soul/minds) can reach directly after their death the Pariollon (return to the big Whole strictly speaking).

The druidic legend of the death can help every departed person to travel, while following towards west the sun beyond the Gates of the Death (Letavia, another name of the intermediate land, located between the world of the men Dumnon, and the Vindomagos, which constitutes in a way the entrance of the world of the dead); then on the Dead Sea or Sea of the Dead (Morimarusa) which reigns in the West or the north of the World.

After the death of the body, the soul/mind is accompanied by various psychopompous entities, the first being calming and gracious deities like Epona or Belenos Barinthus Manannan, the seconds some repellent deities like Tethra the prince of the gigantic anguiped wyverns, Arawn or Gwynn in the Welsh tradition, the Catubodua or Sheela na gig and even the Ankou (in the West of France).

The reincarnation in the parallel next world of heavenly nature called Mag Meld, Vindomagos, Tir na n’Og, Ttir na mBan or differently, takes place little time after the death. At least according to the general popular belief on the subject.

We can also reappear in the world of the god-or-demons, since they are mortal although endowed with life having a length infinitely longer than that of the human beings.

But the disembodied persons can also remain a certain time in the non-world where Donn, Tethra, Arawn, Gwynn…rule. The soul/mind of the deceased person in this case is accompanied by various psychopomp entities definitely less pleasant than our gracious Épona or than Belenos Barinthus Manannan leading the souls to the residence of Hornunnos the Buddha in the West .

Certain soul/minds remain then without a body of xvarnah or bellissamos bellissama type and will remain with various other entities commonly called demons, in a transitory crossing point (in fact a state of being) BEFORE BEING REINCARNATED IN CERTAIN CASES on earth in bacuceos.

But once again, let us repeat it, extremely rare are the unhappy ones repelled towards the bottom, and tormented in the anteroom of the Heaven, before being subjected to the lapse of memory of their preceding life then rejected into new bodies on this earth. While turning to the matter, the soul of the bacuceos forgets its own identity. It is a spiritual second death. The amnesia of the original condition of the soul is besides a need in this case. This is why it is impossible to remember one’s past lives.

!--- ------------------ ----------------------- ------------------- !

107

ELEMENTS OF DRUIDIC COSMOGONY.

Individual opinion of the druid Leonorios about druidic cosmogony.

As we already have had the opportunity to notice it, the Judeo-Islamic-Christians claim that God (or the Demiurge ?) created the world from nothing (ex nihilo). However, as H. von Stietencron so well notices it, beside the absolute immanent One, can there be a nothing, i.e., a field that its fulness which includes all would not penetrate? It would be a limitation, a restriction (Hans Küng and H. Von Stietencron. Christentum und Weltreligionen. Translation Peter DeLaCrau). This coming to the being of the chaos of initial raw material (Pariollon) should not therefore be viewed as a sudden appearance from the nothingness, but as a monist phenomenon: the self-spreading of the higher Being. Because the world is not created by the ONE, but the One produced the diversity by self-spreading. There is nothing in the world, neither animal neither plant, nor stone, which does not preserve this relation to its origin and which, therefore, does not have its share in the single immanent absolute being . Said differently, there is more than a simple participation of the world and all the creatures in the nature of God or of the Demiurge (as in the most enlightened variants of the 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 Fate caused not only our earth, our sun, our moon and our stars, but also innumerable parallel worlds. These worlds float in the space like 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 them. One day God Allah or Yahweh too will also disappear, with this world which is ours and which they claim (supreme trick in the mouth of their flatterers) to have created (but the druidic equivalent of the Germanic Götterdernmerung nevertheless did not reach us, except on coins showing a wolf devouring the moon and a solar horse, etc. See further the coin type BN 7229).

Let us return to this spontaneous generation of the initial raw material.

108

Men were always divided on the question of the eternity of the world, but never on the eternity of the matter: Ex nihilo nihil, in nihilum posse reverti. Here is the opinion of the whole classical Antiquity. Here Voltaire quotes lines of the Latin poet Lucretius, in which he summarizes the system of Epicurus: nothing can come from nothing, neither to turn into nothing, i.e., nothing can be created nor destroyed.

Therefore there does not exist and will never exist God or Demiurge eternal creator, omnipotent, source of salvation, and so on. And the druidism is atheistic in the sense that,like Buddhism, it strictly denies the existence of such an anthropomorphic higher god-or-demon, omnipotent, omniscient, at the same time pure love, creator of the universe, etc., etc. The true druidism does not postulate the existence of a creator, and admits only the reality of a creative process (procreation).

Let us repeat it once again! There is no creator, the things depend simply on their own causes: there is no beginning. Anything changes constantly. New circumstances produce new facts which will act in turn as causes and will produce something different again. Only some great cosmic laws cosmic that some people call Fate remain unvarying. It is the notion of generalized interdependence. Everything depends also on its parts or its components.

The primordial shamans resorted to various images, rather naive besides, to speak about the origin of this world. They generally saw that as a separation between the sky and the ground even as a sacrifice.

But the question which arose then was the following one: from where does come the material used by the great architect or the great clockmaker of the Universe? Was it already present at his sides? Was there for example already an original matter also without beginning, from which the world could be worked? Or was there, at the beginning, only the One of the Nothingness, and nothing else at side?

Under the name of Tokador Tocade the druidism of amarcolitanos type (to see and to know) therefore very early sought to know the secondary causations and the second principles, which preside over the building of the worlds; the physical components of the matter and the laws which govern it. To go up the evolutionary chain and to arrive at the liberating knowledge, through recognition of the existential difference between matter and soul (prakriti and purusha for the Brahmans).

This reflection on the Destiny of the beings led to a dialectical design of the relationship between the matter and the soul (relative dualism inside a monist framework).

See, at the other end of the Indo-European world, the monist doctrines - advaita - of the Hindu philosopher Shankara, in the 7th century or the relative dualism - vishishtâdvaita – of the famous Ramanuja (1017-1137).

The ancient druids never went as far in the negation of the world as the Buddhists of the oldest School, or as the Greek philosophers of Parmenides or Zeno of Elea type. For the Eleatics , everything is illusory and misleads us here on earth : our language, our symbols and even our common sense. But between this pure logical requirement, and all the concrete suggestions, dispersed, contradictory, of science or human experience, from which the man cannot escape, interval is too vertiginous. The druids will therefore try to crack the secret of the Nature of the Things by starting methodically to organize the synthesis of knowledge about Mankind and environment, up to that point isolated.

The primordial druids (of the 2nd thousand years before our era) were excellent observers of the sky. They realized very early that times and space were huge and they took into consideration in their reflections this formidable vastness.

According to Celsus ; ( the true word, against the Christians - 178), the notion of cycles much longer than these of the Bible (Celsus makes fun besides of the pettiness of the designs of Moses * as regards chronology); was already usually admitted in Antiquity.

Fragment number 5.

109

“"The world, according to Moses, was created at a certain time, and has from its commencement existed for a period far short of ten thousand years—The world, however, is without a beginning; in consequence of which there have been from all eternity many conflagrations, and many deluges, among the latter of which the most recent is that of Deucalion “.

Fragment number 42.

“ After a long period of time, and recursions and concursions of the stars, conflagrations and deluges take place; and also that after the last deluge, which was that of Deucalion, the period required, conformably to the mutation of wholes, a conflagration. This the Christians, however, have perverted by representing God as descending with fire as a spy “.

The Gnostic persons of the West, however, seem to have gone much further; and to have admitted the existence of supercycles, even more imposing, and looped no longer by the action of fire or water, alternatively, but by the joint action of these two elements. Since such is perhaps ultimately the only possible meaning of this remark by Strabo on their subject: “They say the souls are indestructible, although both fire and water will at some time or other prevail over them “(Strabo. Geography IV, 4 to 6).

The cosmic cycles considered by the druids therefore finish, not like these which are considered in this time there, i.e., through the action of water OR fire, according to the case, but through the action of both JOINED TOGETHER. These “druidic “ supercycles including or exceeding, and by far, the others, have much surprised, of course, Strabo, who was hardly accustomed to such important lengths as regards cosmogony.

The numbers with which current sciences juggle (20 billion years of age for this cycle) make the quantified data of the Bible absurd, childish even in comparison (six small thousands of years for this Earth).

The druidic data too, with their orders of magnitude which made the Greeks, the Romans, even the Jews, laughing, were already less far away from reality.

Druidic cosmology is characterized by the recognition of the formidable vastness of space and time.

In the Book of Lismore (fo.151, b 2) we indeed find the following passage.

“Three years for the field (three-field system ?)

Three lifetimes of the field for the hound.

Three lifetimes of the hound for the horse.

Three lifetimes of the horse for the human being.

Three lifetimes of the human being for the stag.

Three lifetimes of the stag for the blackbird

Three lifetimes of the blackbird for the eagle.

Three lifetimes of the eagle for the salmon.

Three lifetimes of the salmon for the yew.

Three lifetimes of the yew for the world from its beginning to its end.”

That our favorite author [[Eleanor Hull, “The Hawk of Achill or the legend of the oldest animals in the world,” Folklore, Vol. 43, No. 4 (1932): pp. 376–409] comments in this way.

“We arrive thus at 59,050 years,i.e., two multiples of three more than the Westminster calculation, which made 6561 years ; i.e., down to the salmon in the Irish list.”

What had yet what to surprise the people mentioned above since their tradition to them made the birth of the world going back only to a few thousands of years. Certain druidic Schools (most spiritualistic) seem to have seen the things thus.

The material world is the ultimate point of the divine diffusion. The world “emanates,“ “rises “ like from a spring, from God , and it is not necessary that his Will takes part in the formation of the world. That means, on the one hand, that God or the Demiurge could only create, on the other hand, that there is a continuity of emanation between the world and God or the Demiurge.

All that exists has to necessarily exist, since there exists. Because if there is today a reason for the existence of the things, then there was also one yesterday, there even was one of all times; and this cause is always to have an effect, without what it would have been forever or for the eternity, a useless cause.

All the things which exist are therefore eternal emanations of this first engine.

But how to imagine that stone and mud are emanations of the eternal , intelligent and almighty, Being?

110

There are only two sides to take: either to admit that eternal matter is by itself, or that matter comes eternally from a powerful, intelligent, eternal, Being.

But, either remaining through its own nature, or emanated from the Being which produced it, this matter exists from time immemorial , since it exists, and that there is no reason why it could not have existed before.

If the matter is consequently eternally necessary, it is therefore impossible, it is therefore contradictory, that it is not. To say that this eternal Being, this almighty God or Demiurge, from time immemorial necessarily filled the universe with its productions, it is not to remove from it its freedom; on the contrary, because freedom is only the power to act. God or the Demiurge always fully acted; therefore God or the Demiurge always used the fulness of his freedom.

It is consequently as impossible as the world is without God or Demiurge , than God or the Demiurge is without the world.

This world is filled with beings which follow one another; therefore God or the Demiurge always produced beings which followed one another. If the vital impulse which emanates continuously from this higher being, as well in the natural world as in the supernatural world, ceased one moment, all would fall down in the nothingness (Voltaire. Philosophical dictionary).

* Moses. Or rather the scribe who put these ideas in his mouth, the historical existence of Moses being very discussed just like the exodus (we will return on the subject).

** Reckoning of the current “druids”: age of the Earth 5 billion years, age of the universe (what occurred after the appearance of the Great Whole): 15 billion years

FIRST IMAGE AND FIRST SYMBOL.

Appearance of the universes starting from a pre-universe.

“ In addition to the above, there is another kind of egg omitted by the Greek writers. In summer time, numberless snakes rolled up on themselves and become artificially entwined together, from the viscous slime which exudes from their mouths, and from the foam secreted by them it results a ball: the name given to it is "snake egg" . The druids tell us that the serpents eject these eggs into the air by their hissing, and that a person must be ready to catch them in a cloak, so as not to let them touch the ground; they also say that he must instantly take to flight on horseback, as the serpents will be sure to pursue him, until some intervening river has placed a barrier between them. The test of its genuineness, they say, is its floating on water, even though it is set in gold. But, as it is the way with magicians to be dexterous and cunning in casting a veil about their frauds, they pretend that these eggs can only be taken on a certain day of the moon; as though, forsooth, it depended entirely upon the human will to make the moon and the serpents accord as to the moment of this operation. I myself, however, have seen one of these eggs: it was round, and about as large as an apple of moderate size; the shell of it was formed of a cartilaginous substance, and it was surrounded with numerous cupules, as it were, resembling those upon the arms of the polypus: it is held in high estimation among the druids. The possession of it is marvelously vaunted as ensuring success in law suits, and a favorable reception with princes; a notion which has been so far belied, that a Roman of equestrian rank, a native of the territory of the Vocontii, who, during a trial, had one of these eggs in his bosom *, was slain by the god Claudius, and for no other reason, that I know of, but because he was in possession of it. It is this entwining of serpents with one another, and the fruitful results of this unison, that seem to me to have given rise to the usage among foreign nations, of surrounding the caduceus with representations of serpents, as so many symbols of peace-it must be remembered, too, that on the caduceus, serpents are never represented as having crests “ (Pliny. Natural history XXIX, 52).

111

These snakes, it is not said if they bite their tail as in the case of the ouroboros but the text of Pliny speaks well about artificial entwining. This animal image represents the circle which incarnates the eternal occurrence and indicates that a new beginning coincides with an end in a perpetual repetition. The intrinsic meaning of the image of the snake and the idea which is attached to it, namely that through its molt, it is renovated perpetually, are mixed up here excessively. Most important is, however, this circular form of the ouroboros; which symbolizes the notion of perfection and eternity, and by the way the existence of a concept where everything always ends up returning to founder chaos; or on the contrary where everything undergoes a perpetual renewal, by passing unceasingly through the phases of death and resurrection. This shows us once more how the druidic thought integrated the notion of pairs of opposites (oxymoron or gwenn ha du).

The miraculous egg that Pliny saw and that was said to him to be the ovum anguinum, seems well, according to the description that he gives of it, to have been a fossil sea urchin… and the magic practices he reports were only the denatured residue of a religious myth much major… We are thus in the presence of prehistoric designs which, as well in Greece as in West, remain only in the state of mutilated survivals at the time when we manage to grasp them. Pliny records a religious data he relegates to the status of vain superstitions because he did not understand it. (Salomon Reinach, “Zagreus, the horned snake “ Worships, myths and religions.)

The discovery of several fossil sea urchins buried in stone capsules or ciste in the middle of various hillocks or mounds, constitutes the evidence that there was here something much more complex than what Pliny admits. People don’t build a hillock of twenty meters in diameter without serious reason. The text of Pliny thus reports an important cosmogonic legend, mutilated, stunted.

The fossil sea urchin is the symbol of the universe and that is enough for the correction of the inconsistencies of Pliny of which it is vain to propose a materialist interpretation. The Latin author collected fundamental metaphysical data of the druidic doctrines but, not having understood them, he covered them with the disguise of what is, for him, a ridiculous story. We not understood that the ovum anguinum was projected in the air by the hissing of the snakes, on the one hand, if, on the other hand, it consisted of the natural phenomenon of the “ball of vipers “. It is not more understood that this egg, miraculously collected in a sagum, has to be carried by a man, on horseback in order to escape the pursuit of unimportant reptiles; we understand even less that a fossil sea urchin could float or be attached to gold.

It is excluded to believe that Pliny personally saw what he reports. He gives a report on legends - for them he takes care not to take responsibility - only because they relate to the subject he covers. He compiles documentation of which the religious quality escapes from him. And he lumps together concrete reality (the fossil sea urchin) and druidic legend (the snake egg) to disparage the latter.

Only a high symbolism can justify the presence of a fossil sea urchin in an empty capsule or cista under a mound without burial nor cremation. It is not either by superstition that a Vocontian Roman knight wore a fossil sea urchin as a talisman, but because he knew the sacerdotal symbolism of the cosmic egg. And it is not more because he condemned a superstition that the emperor Claudius made the unfortunate one put to death, it is because he referred to the druids, sentenced as mathematici.

(Analysis once more extracted from the work of the remarkable French celtologists that are Francoise Le Roux and Christian-Jacques Guyonvarc'h. We criticize enough the France of today, which is no longer that of Lafayette, alas, to hail such exceptions).

As we have just said it, this mythical topic, survived, not without distortion, until in the Welsh Middle Ages and, further forward , in the Arthurian literature. For example, in the story of Peredur recorded in the Mabinogion. Peredur fights there against a black man and having only one eye. He leaves victorious the combat and constrained him to explain to him how he lost his eye.

“ Thereupon the maiden came to Peredur with such arms as pleased him; and he fought with the black man, and forced him to crave his mercy.

"Black man, you shalt have mercy, provided you tell me who you are, and who put out your eye."

"Lord, I will tell you; I lost it in fighting with the Black Serpent of the Carn. There is a mound, which is called the Mound of Mourning; and on the mound there is a carn, and in the carn there is a serpent, and on the tail of the serpent there is a stone, and the virtues of the stone are such, that whosoever should hold it in one hand, in the other he will have as much gold as he may desire. And in fighting with this serpent was it that I lost my eye. And I am called… “

112

The snake is what remains of druidic legend reported back by Pliny and which, of course, misunderstood by Pliny himself, is not better understood in the Christianized Welsh story of the Mabinogion. But we find still and always the topic of the stone and of the gold, the stone being probably the substitute (through lack of understanding ) of the “snake egg “ being be potentially a talisman.

! ---- -- - --------------------- ---------------- ----- -!

The snake egg considered as containing the germ from which universe will develop, is an almost universal symbol which is explained itself. To tell how our universe is born starting from a pre-universe, the mythological accounts resort to metaphors and scenarios which are found from one School to another. The first of these metaphors scenarios is that of the egg. The egg is a reality preexistent to our universe, and also a place of gestation of the deities. The egg, when it opens, releases a breath which causes the spreading of the cosmic long life. The birth of the world starting from an egg was therefore a very widespread common idea among Celts (but not among the Greeks according to Pliny).

Same images also in the African tribes. Among the Dogon, the primeval egg produces twins of which one leaves prematurely, what explains the lack of perfection and the impurity of our world. Egypt, as for it, evokes the vibration (or the breath) internal to the primordial egg and which sets in motion the Bitos or Cosmos. In the former Shinto mythology in Japan, primitive chaos also resembled an egg which was to be torn so that the world can occur. We find a comparable design in Tibet: the main elements of the universe proceed from an egg.

For the record, below a short reminder of what the Hindu doctrines say on the matter.

The egg of the world (Brahmanda) is the cover of “the Gold Embryo “( Hiranyagarbha, original germ of the cosmic light, and this egg is contained in the primeval water while being brooded by the symbolic swan Hamsa “Single Bird “). The cosmic egg is the shape taken by Brahma, which existed before Existence itself, beyond the Being and the Non-being; and which, through its own energy, divided the divine egg in sky and earth and created the manifested world. In other words, the embryo contained in the cosmic egg is at the highest level of the cosmogony. Above Prajapati “Lord of Creatures “who is the expression of Brahma compared to the level of existence of the human state. And of Purusha, the primal man, from whom the god-or-demons and the men result; and who is the Victim, immolated by the god-or-demons themselves, whose sacrifice was essential to creation. The Hindu equivalence of the egg and of Brahma similarly accounts for the importance of the egg as a“druidic “ symbol, linked to the preeminence of the sacerdotal class.

What it is necessary to retain from this, it is that the universe can be born only from a space which gives it a form of independence compared to the chaotic and evil forces which besieges it. The creation of the world is conceived as a form of “delivery “compared to forces which would like to prevent its appearance and which then continue to threaten it.

In the various traditional forms, the exit into the manifested world generally takes place under the influence or the Earth's attraction and the return towards the non-manifested Principle under the influence or the celestial attraction. So, the Egg of the World is often divided into two halves representing the Sky and the Earth. And the two reverse currents of the cosmic force can be symbolized by a snake which wraps the egg, called amphisbaena, endowed with a head at each end, themselves rolled up in opposite directions. The two heads match the celestial and terrestrial poles of the cosmic force.

The intermingling of the snakes, the ball, is the junction point where all the energies converge. And from this conjunction is born the egg or the cosmic cauldron called Pariollon. It is from this egg that everything comes because it contains everything. It is the concentrated Unity, but it is not the origin, because there cannot be absolute origin. The egg is secreted by the snakes representing former energies spread out which, at one time of the History of the Universe or Bitos, cease their evolution, to undertake their involution, their concentration. The egg will be able to release new energies, which will be spread in turn, to start again their involution and to produce another egg, and so on eternally.

113

For the druidism the world was created from nothing (except the first of course). The world is immortal, but it passes through cyclic phases. After along period of expansion, it is reabsorbed imperceptibly. Then starting from a “rest “ (primeval egg of a new universe), it reappears under the action of the relentless laws having presided over its destiny (Tokad).

There exists in the whole former Celtic field a certain number of dodecahedrons out of openwork, knobbed, bronze ; with variable dimensions and weight (between 35 and 1100 grams); on the utility or the use of which specialists hesitated a long time, but of which the religious part is beyond any doubt. They constitute, moreover, a remarkable coincidence of the Celtic and Pythagorean designs.

Some people brought them closer to the eggs of snakes, about which Pliny the Elder speaks, and which were very famous. These eggs would be made of reptiles intertwined or knotted in ball. They would be endowed with all kinds of beneficial virtues. The druids used them. People generally compare them to fossils of sea urchins, but some authors rather bring them closer to the dodecahedrons, whose trihedral angles are topped with small balls, today without relief, but which could in the beginning evoke the projecting heads of the intertwined snakes. Be that as it may, of the identification of these figures, the bringing together of the symbols of the magic egg and of the dodecahedron is not fortuitous: the one and the other symbolizes the development of the universe.

Let us reconsider the design that the druidism makes for itself of the cosmos. The universe such as we perceive it falls at the same time within space and time. However, in the druidism, time is not conceived in a linear way as it is the case 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 building and a time of destruction. When the being of the universe is materialized, the universe is spread in all its majesty starting from a mass of matter and soul/energy which is nothing else than the rest of a previous universe. At the end of times, when the wheel of the supreme fate turned completely, the bitos or universe is reabsorbed little by little; concentrating all the elements which remain in a new rest which in turn will be used as a basis for creation of the following universe. In this two-stroke cyclic movement, the creation, although it changes form, continues. There is therefore neither true beginning nor absolute end. The creation, just like the destruction, is relative, and in the absolute, there is neither creation nor destruction 1).

So for druidic thought is it from a snake egg that the universe is born. For it, in the beginning, was the cosmic egg of the Big Whole, i.e., all the matter and all the spirit of the Bitos or of the universes,concentrated, floating in the absolute vacuum. This egg of the Fate compared with a cosmic snake was the eternal or cosmic Spirit, but the eternal or cosmic spirit cannot know itself directly. It is necessary that it begins in a way to become different, to be expressed, to leave itself to become aware of it.

From where the original explosion, there are several billion years, which put an end to this form of existence of God or of the Demiurge by dismembering him like a cavaros (like a giant). It is from this death of God or of the Demiurge that was born the cut between the soul and the matter. Evolution, they are therefore the complex and dialectical relations of these two faces of the dead God, the soul and the matter, which while developing, give the life and the successive multiplicity of the beings rising from each other.

1) But this manner of conceiving the world as immortal or cyclic does not solve the question of the absolute beginnings, of course. It is necessary for that to resort to the concept of nothingness, as we already noticed it.

2nd image and 2nd symbol!

SKY AND EARTH.

We can read in the Gaelic account of the exile of the sons of Doel Dermott, that…

“ Condla, the thin one was in the island, his head against a high stone in the west of the island, the feet against another so high stone in the east of the island? and his wife? washed his head. When he

114

heard the noise of the boat which arrived, he rose up and blown before him with such a violence that a wave rose on the sea .”

His head against a high stone… We have probably there the fragment of an image or of an allegory worked out by the ancient high-knowers of the druidiaction in order to make some phenomena understood by their pupils, their population (definition even of the druidic mythology besides), but detached of its context and used by the bards in order to spice up their stories.

It is the position in which the Egyptian goddess Nut is depicted though directed back to front (our giant looks towards west and does not face east). We do not want to say by the way that Egyptian civilization and Celtic civilization result from the same superior ancient civilization of Atlantis type but that this astonishing resemblance of the two patterns, the Egyptian and Irish one, shows that it is a very old mythical topic that our account uses while understanding it no longer very well, and without another explanation. The initial pan-Celtic myth from which this detail is a fragment was already no longer understood for centuries by the bards spreading these stories intended to entertain the populations the evenings of winter night by the fireside. Condla the thin one (why thin besides, because the island does have to be located under him and he his in a way arched above it?) is in any case a not very ordinary man, to say the least, since he is able to start storms.

THE EARTHLY COSMIC SNAKE.

3rd image and 3rd symbol.

We should not ask a perfect logic to Celtic cosmogony, nor undoubtedly to any cosmogony. A myth is a sacred symbolic account , allegorical, which tries to bring a coherent interpretation of the natural and historical facts, in order to answer the metaphysical interrogations of the men (for example about theogony, cosmogony, anthropology, etc.). The myth is initially and especially all an attempt at explanation, at injection of meaning to “facts “ therefore to observed, lived, felt, elements. The second point is that the myth is symbolization, what implies an implication of the deep layers of the imagination, of the unconscious, of the great archetypes. Lastly, the third important point is that the myth is socially shared, since it provides a general interpretative framework through a narrative, a “beautiful story “ full of sense for the society from which it emanates. The myth is therefore distinguished from a pure subjective, individual, fiction; it is also distinguished from the scientific result, established rationally, “proven “ or all at least accepted by the academic scientific community.

Our ancestors distinguished two kinds of cosmic snakes carefully. The first category, they are gigantic snakes which brood the undifferentiated form of the universal egg, another symbol or image to mean the cosmic cauldron of the Big Whole, the Big Whole as an origin.

The snake, in this allegory, symbolizes a primeval multiplicity, a single and multiform primordial creature which does not cease to wriggle , to disappear, and to reappear. We approach there the myth of the origins. One of these which belonged to the druidic speculations according to Caesar B.G. VI, 14: “of deorum immortalitalium vi ac potestate “(“on the power and the majesty of the immortal gods “) and of which Ireland preserved to us only a negligible part.

It is this cosmogonic myth or symbol which Pliny reproduced without understanding it and we understand no longer now the reason for being of the rider who flees with this egg of snake in the folds of his coat (the god Atepomarus ?? Taran/Toran/Tuireann?) The Roman imperialism made a whole side of our collective imagination strictly incomprehensible. Let us remind it once again, the intellectual civilization of our spiritual ancestors is a forever engulfed Atlantis. Vae Victis!

The second category of cosmic snake is that which plays a part in the maintenance of the Earth.

What the texts do not say to us, but is content with insinuating, the monuments teach it to us: the druids honored a snake god-or-demon, and this snake god-or-demon was horned.

On the altar of Mavilly, the horned snake is reproduced beside the images of the twelve gods or demons of the Roman Pantheon; alone it represents, on this monument of a major importance, the druidism.We still find it, on the altar of Paris, in the hand of a kind of three headed Mercury, who is accompanied by a ram; it is met on the section of the stele from Beauvais, of which the face is occupied by an image of Mercury, and on various monuments of Celtic origin, to which it is necessary to add the great silver vase of Gundestrup. The ram-headed snake is a symbol of all the energies at work on or in our planet.

115

At the base of this myth we find again the snake, the dragon or the “worm “ what the Welsh Middle Ages names indistinctly pryf, and we still find in the continental myth – handed down miraculously by the folklore - of Melusine and the “wyvern “.

The Irish oared wheel or roth ramach, is a complex and difficult to decipher allegory, considering its Christianization. Its form, at least such as it is described to us by the Irish tradition, makes it a flying ship(or more exactly going as well at sea as on earth) with gigantic dimensions (since containing thousand beds bearing each one thousand men). It has to keep all its sails set until the day when it will break on the pillar (the mountain?) of Cnamchaill. The appearance of this ghost ship is related with a Saint John day having to proceed one Friday, and with the end of the world or more exactly the last Judgment (“any who looked upon it was blinded, any who heard it were deafened, and any who touched it would die “). This rowing wheel is closely combined with a mythical Irish druid precisely called Mug Ruith, in other words “the servant of the wheel “.

Specialists made it in turn…

- A solar symbol (a solar wheel)

- A vaster cosmic symbol (a cosmic wheel)

- A wheel of Fortune or Fate.

- A divinatory wheel.

The manipulations worked out by Christianity were such as it is very difficult today, in the absence of new texts, to have a right idea of what this druidic symbol was in the beginning. Perhaps a little all that.

The overgrowth of this wheel, the fact that it carries human beings, that it is likely to be affected by a disaster of cataclysmic nature matching the end of the world, incites us to think that it is rather an allegory of the Earth floating in space.

!------------- ------------------- ------------------- !

It is sometimes ascribed to the high-knowers of Former Druidism a rather tempting view of our planet. This one would be a kind of bubble (cruinne, a Gaelic word derived from the Celtic crundnios meaning spherical, the sphericity of the Earth having also been discovered by the ancient druids) formed by the hollow of the Sky and the planar surface of the Earth; floating itself on a huge half-sphere shaped water mass. In the primitive Indo-European cosmological representation, the earth was indeed seen as a single flat and circular continent, surrounded by external water (the Okeanos of the Greeks). The Celtic term Litauia designated consequently in the beginning simply the extent of this surface of the earth.

This old Celtic theonym meaning “the flat one, the stretched one “ matches besides the name of the Sanskrit goddess-or-demoness Prhvi/Prithvi. This design has the virtue of underlining the primordial role of water and oceans in the formation of the earth and therefore of the life. The earth of the men is never but a circular island (a rowing wheel? ?) lost in the vastness of the remote oceans, haunted by a ram-headed snake.

But in the beginning, before even the appearance of the Earth, only was primeval water. A limitless inert ocean surrounded by an absolute darkness (which is not the night because the latter was not caused yet). Then in this primeval water fire and the light appear spontaneously. This primeval water is then rejected to the periphery of the space dried up by the action of the sun, but mythical and fabulous beings continue to haunt this dead sea (morimarusa). One of them is therefore represented in the shape of a ram-headed snake. This ram-headed snake is the representation of an invisible, causal and timeless big snake, Master of the vital principle and of all the forces of nature. It does not take care of the cosmic egg as we have seen it previously, but of the Earth, and it is, of course, a frightening test for the soul/minds mislaid in these extreme places at the end of the world. Worst of the wrathful deities of the druidic book of the dead. Worse than the frightening Master of Tech Duinn.

There are two conceivable ways to keep the Earth “alive, “ either by carrying it, or by embracing it with a continuous circle, which prevents its break-up in the same way that the hooping of a barrel prevents this one from bursting.

116

Well , it is precisely what this ram-headed snake guardian of an Earth of which it ensures durability. But the ram-headed snake, it is also the dynamics of the circle (Ouroboros). i.e., the first wheel, of motionless appearance because it rotates only. But of which the motion is infinite because it is renewed ad infinitum in itself. The ram-headed snake, it is therefore also in a way consequently the symbol of the eternal dialectics of life and death.

The visible on earth snakes seem besides only the short incarnation of this big snake. It is, however, not it which will put an end one day to this Earth that it keeps firmly in space as hooping keeps the barrel, it will be the role of the cosmic wolf there (we will come back on the subject). An earth designed at the origin not as a sphere (crundnios/cruinne), but like a round shield floating on the water. That the cosmic snake supporting the earth encloses with its coils, lying down at the bottom of water surrounding the aforementioned shield or oared wheel. The symbol even of the circumference embodied by the circular shield or by the lenticular rowing wheel comes here to supplement that of the center (its hub).

The ram-headed snake forms a pair of opposites, but it forms it with itself, because it encloses the world in biting its tail, cf. the ouroboros, present in many cultures.

When the hour of the end of the world is come, the ram-headed snake will slacken its coils and will thus cause the chaos and the shipwreck of the current earth, then nothing any more will keep the contents “of its barrel.”

This shows well that the ram-headed snake of the former druids is in reality the guardian of the Earthly order, in spite of its monstrous appearance combined with a primeval terror comparable with that caused by the fear that the sky falls one day on our head. The ram-headed represents therefore in its chthonic symbolism the life in its first state of latency, as the deepest layer of life, approaching the mother earth narrowly.

Similar images in other traditions.

In the Germanic countries, the snake Jörmungand (also called Iormungand) plays the same part. Jörmungand is a gigantic sea snake, son of Loki and of the giantess the Angrboda. It was also called “the Mysterious Dragon of North “. It is the brother of Fenrir and Hel. After its birth, it starts to grow to such a point that it encircles the world and can bite its tail, thus keeping the seas in place. What resulted in the alternative names of Snake of Midgard or of Snake-World. One day Thor decided that it was time to stand up against Jormungand. He went to the harbor and he tried to rent a boat. The only one about in a good state he could find, belonged to a giant who feared outwards journey at sea when Jormungand was awaked. Thor did not inform him of his intentions and paid a sum more than reasonable. Then he took the strongest fishing line he could find. He approached the place where Jormungand was and hung the head of a ram to its hook. Then he plunged his line, and there was not much time before Jormungand rises to the bait . He began then to pull with his whole strength. The snake also pulled, and the boat pitched. The pilot, frightened, cut the line, and the snake disappeared in the depths with its ram’s head.

The myths in connection with Jormungand come to us mainly from the poetic Edda (Hymiskvitha and Völuspá) as well as from the prose Edda (Húsdrápa). Among the sources of less importance, we may quote the kennings of skaldic poetry.

N.B.The problem is that all these documents or almost were written down by Christian clerics or well-read men, the only ones knowing to write at the time. The example of the two great Scandinavian mythographers, the Icelander Snorri Sturluson author of the Edda said prose Edda, or the Dane Saxo Grammaticus with his Gesta Danorum, both living about 1200, is illuminating . They make interpretatio Christiana, græca or Latina, of the good old myths they no longer understand. These written documents, Eddas and skaldic poetry, connected sagas and texts, are therefore too recent: they date on average, at best, of the 11th century, and are especially impregnated by Christian influences. The prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson dates back for example to the 13th century. The Prolog of the prose Edda begins with an explanation of the paganism from a Christian point of view. It evokes several episodes of the Genesis: creation by God or the Demiurge of the sky and of the earth, appearance of Adam and Eve, the flood and Noah's Ark. The Ragnarök therefore resembles the Christian Apocalypse, the Valkyries the angels, Odin Mercury, Baldr Baal, the wolfhound Fenrir Cerberus, and so on. It would be necessary to know thoroughly the mentality of these people to see there clearly, but we are sorely lacking clearly understandable documents. Even if we have very few

117

sure non-Scandinavian accounts, the contacts between the North of Europe and the Celtic, Latin or Slavic, worlds, could not then not to have deep influences, in short, we are reduced to conjecture…

In Egypt the gigantic snake Apophis plays the same part. Its name Aapep or Aapef (in Egyptian language) meant “giant “or “gigantic snake “. It is precisely represented in the shape of a gigantic snake which daily attacks Ra’s boat sailing on the Nun, in order to put an end to the process of creation, but it is each time overcome. Each rising of the sun thus marked the victory of Ra over Apophis. Apophis is the god-or-demon of the evil forces and of the night, personification of chaos or evil trying to reduce to nothing the divine procreation.

BIRTH AND ORIGIN OF THE EARTH. 4th image and 4th symbol.

As we could see it, ancient druids had their ideas with regard to the birth of our world to us, the Earth and its sun.

The iconography of the engraved patterns decorating the sides of Mount Bego, in the Alps (a true stone bible) , witnesses in favor of this dualistic vision. In the valley of Wonders, stylized or abstracted diagrams depict their view of Cosmos, their religious practices on this subject; the three principal steles on the Peak of Marvels evoke perhaps three episodes of the birth of the Universe, such as it is sung by the Greek poet Hesiod. The image most usually widespread at the time was therefore that of a separation of ( the god-or-demon of) the sky and (goddess-or-demoness) of the earth. Having had for result making the planet livable by mankind, because the Gdonios (the Man, literally Chthonic, Greek Khthonios ) resulted from the depths of the earth, according to them. It is besides this etymology which is at the origin of the famous remark of Caesar. The words of the Eduan druid Divitiacus, kind “ among us and by definition mankind is resulting from the depths of the earth “ became in his commentaries: “ They assert that they are descended from Dis Pater, and say that this tradition has been handed down by the druids “(B.G. VI, 18).

Tries of transposition in the cosmogony of the former druidism. Inside the primeval chaos of the egg of snake the first differentiation appears, between Taran/Toran/Tuireann, the sky; and the great cosmic mother goddess-or-demoness or fata Morgana: the sea. This division is not done laterally but hierarchically (with a top and a bottom). Taran/Toran/Tuireann thus continues “to cover” (in sexual and space meaning) the great cosmic mother goddess-or-demoness located under him, and for this reason nothing can occur to existence ????????

Closer to us there exists another druidic myth interesting to meditate, the one which deals with the origin of the medicinal plants.

He was recorded in the book of the Taking of Ireland, at the time of the second battle of the Plain of standing stones or mounds.

“ Medocios was buried by Diancecht, and herbs three hundred and sixty five, according to the number of his joints and sinews, grew through the grave. Then Armeditrina opened her mantle and separated those herbs according to their properties. But Diancecht came to her, and he confused the herbs, so that no one knows their proper cures unless the Holy Spirit should teach them afterwards“.

Conclusion.The myths of dismemberment of a giant (cavaros) or of an anthropomorphic supernatural being, show us at the origins, before the final advent of the Earth such as we know it, a being who gathers in him the whole of the potentialities of our planet. Following competitions between deities, this being is killed, dismembered, but the various parts of his body will be used to cause the Earth such as we know it. The final or decisive stage is always an ordering or a consolidation of the formerly scattered elements. Mountains, sky, clouds, pools… will be made up starting from the dismembered elements of the giant.

FORM AND EARTH MOTION. 5th image and 5th symbol.

118

We should not expect a perfect logic from Celtic cosmogony, nor perhaps from any cosmogony, either it is Biblical or Quranic.

A cosmogony much more probable is indeed provided to us by what Irish medieval bards told in connection with the three waves of Ochain and the shields.

To answer the question that Father Edmund Hogan in 1892 wondered on this subject, thus let us state 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: three or nine waves (from where the image of the ram headed horned gigantic snake enclosing the earth with coils). What affects the waves (the ram-headed snake) affects the earth (the convex shield). Then by shift in meaning “affects all the Ultonian shields.” An image perhaps used to suggest an extraordinary cataclysm.

Perhaps some people will object to this assumption that the Irish druids always considered that earth was round as the use of the term cruind (crundnios) shows it, to designate the earth and the title even of the book by Dicuil devoted to this subject around 825: De mensura orbis terrae.

Perhaps! But wouldn't this be a little too good to be true?

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 gold of the cruinne” is perhaps only an interpretation of the 16th century; date of the variant of the legend of the manuscript speaking about Cuchulainn and comprising this word (Aided Con Culainn).

It is true that the discovery of the Antikythera mechanism in 1900 shows well that certain pagan circles of Antiquity had come to an amazing level of knowledge before darkness of medieval Christianity falls down on the West.

FRAGMENTS OF THE END OF THE WORLD ACCORDING TO THE DRUIDS.

A draft or poem by Peter DeLaCrau concerning the end of the world, and found by his heirs.

A big sign will appear in the sky. A wolf will swallow the sun, and another the moon. The sun will be darkened, the moon will give off no longer its soft light. The firmament and its stars will fall on the earth, some earthquakes will cut through the globe and the blue waved sea will come on the face of the world. All the powers which are in the sky and on the earth will be shaken. The tribes of the earth will lament, and this is what each man will say when he is put still alive into the earth: och, och. It is for uch those tombs are built , this shall be its name therefore, forrach ….

In reality nobody knows very precisely how the high-knowers of Antiquity conceived this apocalypse. The only thing sure it is that it is well like that they saw the things since we have of it a trace in the writings of the ancient authors. The answer of the Celtic ambassadors (some druids) sent to Alexander during his expedition in Thrace in the 4th century before our era.

As we already have had the opportunity to announce higher, but repetere = ars docendi, Ptolemy, son of Lagos, indeed reports that during this campaign, Celts of the shoes of the Adriatic Sea met Alexander in order to knot with him hospitality or friendly relations. The king, who had welcomed them cordially, asked them, a little drunk, what they feared most, persuaded that they were going to designate him.

“ Alexander took the city and all the booty which the Getae left behind. After razing the city to the ground, he offered sacrifice upon the bank of the river.... There ambassadors came to him from Syrmus, king of the Triballians, and from the other independent nations dwelling near the Ister. Some even arrived from the Celts who dwelt near the Ionian Gulf. These people are of great stature, and of a haughty disposition. All the envoys said that they had come to seek Alexander’s friendship. To all of

119

them he gave pledges of amity, and received pledges from them in return. He then asked the Celts what thing in the world caused them special alarm, expecting that his own great fame had reached the Celts and had penetrated still further, and that they would say that they feared him most of all things. But the answer of the Celts turned out quite contrary to his expectation; for, as they dwelt so far away from Alexander, inhabiting districts difficult of access, and as they saw he was about to set out in another direction, they said they were afraid that the sky would some time or other fall down upon them… “ In other words, the end of any life on Earth.

An account of the interview which the Celts in Thrace had with Alexander the Great in - 335 at the confluence of the Danube and of the Morava River. According to Arrian. They were to be the ancestors of Scordisci.

Let us remind also for the record the strange Irish legend of the roth ramach, referred to above.

There was, of course, a druidic eschatology, and it was therefore to be rather subtle and complex. The quotation even of Strabo proves it, Strabo who finds it apparently contradictory. “ They say the souls are indestructible, although both fire and water will at some time or other prevail over them“

On the other hand is completely missing to us, as for the druidism, the equivalent - which existed - of the Germanic Götterdämmerung. The gap is, of course, due to Christianization. And if the deities of the Tuatha Dé Danann, in other words, the god-or-demons of prechristian Ireland, are sometimes named in metaphors; their destiny of entities, subjected, they also, to the process of break-up which will occur during the end of the world, is considered at no time. We are therefore reduced to the conjectures about the subject, but we nevertheless have enough clues to have some idea of it.

In April 1999, was found indeed, in the forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (French department of Yvelines) a small silver coin, of an approximately 16 mm diameter, extremely interesting.

On the obverse: the left-facing profile of a character wearing a torc; whose thick hair is divided into two masses separated by a vertical parting, and decorated with light scratches, tilted forwards on the front part, and horizontally on the back part; in front of the mouth, a sun with fifteen rays.

On the reverse: a horse which gallops towards the right behind an eight spoked wheel, whereas below him a half-lion half-wolf monster runs in the same direction, with ears backwards, while holding in its open mouth a lunar crescent.

This monetary reverse, a priori little common, could have been taken for new, if the sagacity of Michel Dhenin, Chief curator in the coin room of the FnL, had not promptly identified it with the type BN 7229. The type BN 7229 was known hitherto only by a single specimen coming from the Saulcy collection, which is resulting from the same coin dies as that which was found in Saint-Germain-en-Laye , but appears less better struck. The torc one is very little visible, the reliefs of the face crushed, the crescent moon of the reverse, partly off the planchet, is not identifiable.

This silver coin was ascribed to the Veliocasses…

On the type BN 7229, the wolf makes a pair with a horse caracoling behind a wheel above him, and it is therefore advisable to jointly take them into account in an attempt at explanation.

The solar nature of the equine appears obvious here and completely in line with the tradition, perceptible in Europe as of the Bronze Age, which compares the movement of the diurnal star with the race of a celestial horse. The most spectacular document of early time (1300-1200 before our era) in this field is the pertaining to worship chariot found in 1902 in a peat bog of Trundholm (Denmark); on which the sun, figured by a gold disc, is pulled by a horse (and undoubtedly two in the beginning), the unit being assembled on three pairs of wheels.

We can consider; in this case as in that of the coin which interests us (and more largely on all those where the equine in question is accosted with heliacal signs: stars, rings, wheels); that the horse constitutes then a representation of the sun, figured in a reduplicate way by the disc or the wheel.

The most specific iconographic element appearing in the reverse of the type BN 7229, is the image of the monster semi-lion semi-wolf snatching the moon in its jaws, a topic which is not new. Indeed, a gold stater ascribed to the Unelli shows, under a lying palm, a monster semi-wolf semi-lion on the right, turning back his head, with the mouth open, the roughcast tail turned over upwards; which seeks to devour (or which regurgitates) the sun, figured by a four spoked wheel , and accosted on its left with a compartmentalized lunar crescent. From the backside of the animal a branch constituted of four side by side opposite leaves, escapes. Under the wolf, an eagle head up , wings spread out, and in front of the canine, some shapeless patterns…

120

If the myth of the monstrous wolf seeking to devour the celestial luminaries, does not appear in the fragments of Celtic mythology which the late and incomplete collections of Welsh or Irish texts handed down to us; the idea of it shows through the Breton oral tradition which uses the expression Diwall alloar diouzh ar bleiz: to protect the moon from the wolf, which means today “to make useless efforts, to waste one’s time “but had, at the origin, to have a cosmological dimension…

In the final analysis how to interpret this spectacular scene? It appears to us rising from the above mentioned elements that this one is structures according to several superimposed pairs of oppositions: horse/wolf, sun/ moon, day/night, cycle/event, order/chaos. We can then do of this iconography, either a discursive reading (in a way “literary “), or a conceptual interpretation (more “abstract “). In other words, this coin image is the visual transcription of senses elements which can be comprehended , either according to a mythological code, or according to an astronomical code.

In one case, the spirit is directed towards a eschatological interpretation; which results in supposing that the scene is the plastic expression of a mythological episode, in which god-or-demons - and/or forces - represented by a monstrous wolf carrying chaos, and a solar horse incarnation of the celestial order, are opposed; in a cosmic disaster more or less equivalent to that which reports abundantly the Scandinavian literature.

We may however choose a more symbolic approach of the coin scene - without excluding the gods or demons from it – while seeing there a turning into images of the astronomical designs of the former druids about the sidereal phenomena; which regularly give rhythm to the running of the cosmos (the course of the sun) or come to stop it in a cyclic way (eclipses)… on the gold coins of the Aulerci Eburovices, the wolf tries to bite the legs of the horse. This can be very well understood as an attack of the wild beast against the sun, figured par the equine, which would match the aggression against the moon, engraved on the silver coin , about which we have just spoken.

At all events, it will be probably never possible to decide between these two semantic grids, but it should be underlined that, far from being excluded, they had to constitute, in the mind of the former Celts, complementary explanations of the world. The occultations of the two celestial luminaries can announce their dreaded destruction - to come in the time of the myth - and the representation of the thirty years century, where the cosmic wolf devours a lunation, to be previous the big and dramatic cyclic renewal of the universe. It therefore seems to us, ultimately, that it is well in this rich dialectics between the mythical one and the sidereal one, that is locked up the deep sense of the unrestrained stampede which unleashes ; through the piece of sky circumscribed in the sphere of a silver copper, a solar steed rider and a moon eater wolf. The reading level can also be related to the social and cultural status of the one who observes. The high-knowers understood the symbols, concentrated thought, but the common people preferred to them, the mythological adventures as it prefers the cartoons today, a fortiori to the treatises of theology or even of History. However, the end of such an age does not coincide necessarily with the end of the world. The Hindu philosophy postulates for example that a savior called Kalkin, tenth avatar of Vishnu, will occur in extremis, at the time when all will seem lost. He will triumph over the corrupted ones in a great eschatological battle at the evening of which the right order (dharma) will have been restored and the conditions of a new golden age joined together (D. Hollard. The silver coin BN 7229. Society of numismatic and archeological studies).

121

Repetition being strongest rhetorical figures let us reconsider some crucial points.

LIFE OF THE WORLDS

by the druid Leonorios.

As of the 4th century before our era, our research show a new conviction: that which refers to creations and alternate cosmic destruction of the universe or bitos. The mechanism of these appearances and disappearances undoubtedly was the subject of many speculations. When Diviciacus indicated to Cicero that he practiced “physiology “, it is undoubtedly such research on the basic elements of the world he referred.

Only bits arrived from there to us, and they are unfortunately clarified in none of the accounts in our possession. Except that of the general of Alexander the Great called Ptolemy: “ they said they were afraid that the sky would some time or other fall down upon them.… hoti oudena, plen ei ara me ho ouranos autois epipesoi “. Arrian (Anabasis or the campaigns of Alexander. Book I, chapter I).

Strabo however kept to us another fragment of it, the notion of universal resorption through 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 “. Geography. Book IV, 4 to 6); what matches what we call Pralaya in Indian cosmogony, or the Indo-Iranian notion of Apam Napat (fire in water).

Q: What there is in the beginning of each world?

A: Fire and Water. Fire and water existed from all eternity , they remain distinct even when they are contained one the other.

Q: What can we conclude from that?

A: This Fire, which is very different from the element fire, which is only one symbol, has a mysterious nature. Intelligence and Sensitivity, Power and Action. The Soul is the inner manifestation of this primeval fire. Fire is the center which is spread in the circumference. It is quiet and does not have true

122

life, because when it irradiates, then it absorbs at the same time. And it finds its expansion only in the second principle, water.

Q: What do you want to say by water?

A: It is the absolute and immanent manifestation of the life. It is produced by a radiant exaltation of the Fire which succeeds in overcoming its gravitational forces.

Then the process starts again and a new universe or new a bitos appears. The fact has nothing of a creation ex nihilo, but occurs in stages, starting from a primeval principle put moved by a universal law: the Tokad. The Tokad ensures the preservation of the universe or bitos when this one appears; when this one implodes, it preserves in its thought (labarum) the fate or diagram of the world, ready to reappear during a new creation.

At this stage the Divinity cannot be dissociated from the process of the evolution of the universe. It is one of the components of the good running of this universe or bitos. But the power of the Fate is to make the world self-creating. As a conductor, it creates only by inspiring dynamism into the orchestra of the self-transforming evolution of the world. The Fate or Tokad does not create. It does not control. It is a kind of “invisible hand “which, inside the universe or bitos, is at the same time a thread of continuity, a promise and an incitement. It propels and accompanies thus the “process “of the evolution of the world. At the end of each cycle, the world implodes and is brought back to its basic components, at the beginning of each period of expansion, it reorganizes while following immutable rules.

Reversibility just like irreversibility are important concepts as regards physics and particularly thermodynamics. Everyone at least once made the following experiment: a piece of glass breaks on the ground and does not reconstitute itself. On the other hand, we can pull a rubber band, distort it, then, within a certain limit, when it is slackened, it finds its initial state exactly. The first experiment is typical of an irreversible transformation, the second one is what approaches most a reversible transformation.

So simple can they appear, these two examples illustrate the possibility or the impossibility for a system of finding spontaneously, and in an exact way its previous state immediately. Classical mechanics supposes implicitly the reversibility of the phenomena. Indeed, in all the fundamental equations, it is possible to reverse the time, i.e., the change of the variable time “t “in “- t “leaves the fundamental equations invariant. The theoretical conditions of a reversible transformation are the following ones: continuity of the intensive variables, slowness (quasi-static transformations), absence of dissipative phenomena.

In a more precise way, we can say that a reversible transformation is an ideal model for which the exchanges of extensive variables are quasi-static; i.e. carried out in a great number of stages so that the imbalance of the combined intensive variables is carried out through very weak variations, and in the absence of dissipative phenomena. It is very often possible, under suitable experimental conditions, to approach this model.

Certain phenomena are in principle reversible: imagine a bag filled with marbles and shake it. To show the movie in the wrong way will give nothing surprising… the marbles move, but nothing is contrary to the common direction.

WELL, THE DRUIDISM POSTULATES THAT, IN THE SAME WAY THAT ANY DIVINE ELEMENT OR ANY DIVINE SPARK, WILL RETURN ONE DAY SOONER OR LATER IN THE BAG OF MARBLES OF THE BIG WHOLE. It is the law of reversibility of the Bituitos or law of reversibility of the world procreation. Thus the great scientist who was Laplace, did not hesitate a day to predict, not only a total determinism of the laws of physics, but also the possibility, starting from a given state, to describe the past or the future of a mechanical system. Time has no flow direction.

The wheel of Toran/Taran/Tuireann ( Breton tarabara) and its labarum is a key symbol of the druidism. The wheel of Toran/Taran/Tuireann represents the time, it incarnates the cosmic cycles of birth and death, early childhood, childhood, youth, adulthood, maturity, degradation or deliquescence.

123

“Divinis humana componere licet “wrote Ausonius (in its small poem on the use of the word libra). “ We may compare human things with divine “.

The Irish high-knowers distinguished several ages in the life of a human being.

1 * Noidenotaxeto > Nàidendacht: infancy.

2 * Mapotaxeto > Macdacht: childhood.

3 * Geistlaxeto > Gillacht: adolescence.

4 * Ogiolagiato > Hoclachus: youth (the young adulthood).

5 * Senodageto > Sendacht: the mature age.

6 * Diexbliniceto > Diblidecht: the old age.

One can thus suppose that i twas the same thing for the life of a world or a universe (bitos), of a cycle.

The world in which we live is only the more or less advanced stage of a cosmic cycle which we call Aiu, which is “the total development of a world “ and which represents a “state or level" of the universal Existence (Bitos).

Each Aiu is divided into cycles, called setlocenia.

Each setlocenia in fact lasts 59.049 years (length of the world in the Welsh tradition according to Jan De Vries and his study on the religion of the Celts).

It is divided itself into six columns (colomna ais in Gaelic language) which we can compare to the six ages of the life. These ages, which follow one another within a bituitos, are marked by a “growth “and “degeneration “the ones compared to the others.

The early childhood of the world.

The childhood of the world.

The youth of the world.

The adulthood of the world.

The mature age of the world.

The old age of the world.

Editor’s note. The figures indicated in various neo-druidic texts for the length of a bituitos, and consequently for that of the matching columns of ages, have by no means to be considered as constituting a “chronology “in the ordinary sense of this word; i.e., expressing numbers of years having to be taken literally. Science since increased these figures considerably. Besides the same Welsh tradition quoted by Jan de Vries gives 19.683 years of lifespan to the yew, what is much (unless it is a cosmic tree).

The basic notion to take into account in the calculation of the duration of these cycles or cycle of cycle is rather the astronomical period of the precession of the equinoxes called “great year “; of which the length amounts to 25.920 years, so that the displacement of the equinoctial points is of a degree in seventy-two years. This number 72 is precisely a submultiple of 4.320 = 72 X 60, and 4.320 is in turn a submultiple of 25.920 = 4.320 X 6. The fact that we find for the precession of the equinoxes the numbers related to division of the circle is besides still a piece of evidence of the truly natural nature of the latter; but the question which is posed is now this one: what multiple or submultiple of the astronomical period in question, matched the duration of a bituitos at the Gnostic ones in the West?

In Mesopotamia then in Greece, the notion of “great year “ was applied to approximately half of this period often estimated approximately at 12.000 or 13.000 years, its precise length being 12.960 years.

Given the very particular importance which is thus ascribed to this period, it is to be supposed that the druidic bituitos was to include an integer of these “great years “; but which???

In short! For the druids of Antiquity, time was not conceived in a linear way as it is the case in the Jewish thought, but in a cyclic way: there was always a pre-universe. For certain people and in particular for example the Aztecs or the Mayas, there would have been also other earths before ours, and our earth of today would be only the last in progress, the fifth, that of our current era. Four times destroyed as well as the life which haunted it, but four times saved by the sacrifice of the god-or-demons who have literally plunged into the water or into the fire to obtain its resurrection.

124

The problem of the exit of the nothingness (designed as non-existence and not as emptiness or nothing) having been solved as considering previously, three great phases follow one another always alternatively: a time of appearance a time of preservation and a time of destruction. When the appearance is materialized, the universe or bitos is spread in its whole majesty starting from a point of soul and of matter (the fire in water * of the druidic explanations simplifying the question); which is not other than the rest of a previous bitos or universe. At the end of times, when the wheel of Taranis or Tarabara in Breton language , made a full rotation, the universe or bitos is little by little reabsorbed; concentrating all the elements of that which preceded in a new rest which in turn will be used as a pre-universe or starting point for the formation of the following one. In this three strokes cyclic movement , “creation,” although it changes form, continues. There is no longer true beginning , nor true end of the world, all changes: creation, just like destruction, is relative. In short with each new birth of the world, this one is reorganized according to immutable rules; (the fate or Tokade) ; at the end of the cycle, when the world implodes, the Tokad or Fate has already in its thought the general outline of the universe or bitos ready to reappear at the time of a rebirth in space. In each age of the world, the Tokad enclosing of its coils the snake egg, engages again the evolutionary process. But it is true that the Tokad or Fate is hardly particularly worshipped today. People build no longer temples to it. It is somewhat forgotten.

* Apam napat in the Indo-Iranian tradition.

DEATH AND END OF THE WORLD. OR MORE EXACTLY

OF THIS WORLD, OF THIS CYCLE.

The word eschatology is a word derived from the Greek term eschatos meaning the last. The eschatology (Speech on the End of time) concerns theology and philosophy having ties with the last times, the last events of the history of the world or the ultimate destiny of mankind, usually called the “end of the world “. In many religions, the end of the world is a future event prophesied in the sacred texts or the folklore. More largely, eschatology can also embrace concepts which are linked such as that of Messiah or Messianic times, the afterlife and the soul.

The eschatology as a study of the end of the world attempts to study how and when our world will re turn to nothing for the ones, will molt into a new world for the others.

They are studies centered over last times, the last days before disappearance, i.e., the border between the existence and the after-existence. The eschatological studies thus bring some people to work on the causes and the manifestations which will reduce our world, our universe, our bitos, to nothing (at least according to the Judeo-Islamic-Christians). That amounts studying the mechanisms having for result generating a moment of reduction to nothingness if nothingness can exist.

The eschatologist is an explorer or a researcher at the door of the “nothingness “which attempts to try to determine a phase of the dynamics of this “nothingness “.

The high-knowers of Antiquity were very clear on this subject. (Strabo. Book IV, 4 to 6): “ They say the souls are indestructible, although both fire and water will at some time or other prevail over them“

We cannot question this information (the Strabo draws from Posidonius). i.e., that of the determining by the high-knowers of primary elements making up matter and returning to a pure state at the time of the final blazing fire of the universe or Bitos. We can only put it besides in context with the Indo-Iranian notion of Apam Napat. Apam Napat is a name at the same time Vedic and Avestic. It means literally, the “Son of the waters “(of space, i.e., of Ether), because in the Avesta of the Parsis, Apam Napat stands between the fire yazatas and the water yazatas.

Both fire and water will at some time or other prevail over them …

125

Such a formula will astonish only those who do not know the theories of the Ionian physiologists or these of the former stoicism.

Water and fire were indeed, for them too, the primary elements used in the composition of the universe.

The destruction of this one therefore has to result in a reappearance of these primary elements. Such a design of the universe known as bitos and of its end, therefore leads naturally to a cyclic and perpetual system.

In other words.

- The matter (universe) is eternal.

- And the souls also, just like god-or-demons.

- But one day all this will be reabsorbed in a gigantic implosion.

This cosmic disaster will not be synonymous with annihilation, destruction, or return to the nothingness. It will involve only the breakdown of the universe in its fundamental forces (soul and matter, fire and water), in a gigantic black hole of space.

Souls and Matter could not be lost, since they are indestructible, but they can, on the other hand, be changed radically. Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is changed (Lavoisier).

“Divinis humana licet componere. We may compare human things with divine “ (Ausonius, eclogue on the word libra).

It is the destiny of the world like that of the soul. Its death is only one of the points of an infinite life line, having billions and billions of them.

If it dies, it is to reappear and to be reincarnated , it does not matter that this reincarnation follows immediately or not its exit of the black hole in question.

As we already have had the opportunity to say it, the mechanism of the appearances and disappearances of the world or of the universe, is clarified in none account in our possession, except that of the general of Alexander the Great called Ptolemy . “ They said they were afraid that the sky would some time or other fall down upon them… hoti oudena, plen ei ara me ho ouranos autois epipesoi “. Arrian (Anabasis or the campaigns of Alexander. Book I, chapter I).

Strabo, however, kept to us another fragment of it, the notion of universal resorption through 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 “. Geography. Book IV, 4 to 6).

But that we have already mentioned it above. It was only important to underline it.

From where perhaps the terror of Brennos and of his dreadful warriors in Delphi during a storm, a few decades later, in 279 before our era (Trogue-Pompey, philippic histories , XXIV, 4-8, Pausanias, Description of Greece IV, 1-4).

But the fragment of Strabo kept to us the essence of it, the idea of universal resorption through fire and water, matching what is called pralaya in Hindu cosmogony.

The things, whatever they are, follow an eternal cycle, whirling and repeated ad infinitum. They pass from a state of before existence into a state of existence then into a state of after existence, which itself passes into a state of before existence, etc. Lucan. De Bello Civili I, 454-462. “ Death is only the middle of a long life if you know well what you sing. “

The nature of non-being is temporal and moving, it is cyclic i.e., the things are of a nature which alternates between non-existence and existence. The existence of all things depending on our senses, the length even of these existences depends directly on our perceptions. So, the planet Earth exists since a few billion years. Because our knowledge and the perception that it gets to us, enable us to date, with relatively negligible margins of error, its age, i.e., its lifespan until our days. In the same way, we know to date, with, of course, less precision, the age of certain stars or galaxies and, by comparison with the age of our planet, we realize that our solar system is very young. That tends to prove that the nature of non-existence is majority in the duration or, if we want, that the nature of existence is, itself, minority. Even what we imagine to have always existed is finally only a substitute for existence compared to the infinity of the nothingness. Of the nothingness conceived as a non-existence and not as a vacuum or nothing.

The Greek term aion means “age “; certain translations can be understood in end of the age or of the cycle, instead of end of the world. The distinction has also a theological meaning , because the times of the end, in many religions, may include the destruction of the planet (or of all the living beings); but

126

with the survival of mankind, in a new form, or partially (the chosen people) thus putting an end to the current age, and by starting a new one.

Egyptian religion.

For the Egyptians, in a very distant future (some million years), when the men have achieved their destiny on earth, the Demiurge will destroy the Creation (either they are the men or the god-or-demons). But what was not created cannot be destroyed, therefore there it will remain the uncreated (Nun and the Demiurge will find themselves and will marge again). Then the cycle will begin again. Editor’s note. This design of the world therefore implies that men, the living or the dead , and the god-or-demons also, have a limited lifespan.

Zoroastrianism.

In Iran the period of remission before the erdathe (irlandais airtach) or end of the world having to last thousand years, was combined with the come back of Saoshyant. Saoshyant is indeed the name of the Messiah or supreme savior in ancient Persian mythology. His advent will mark the arrival of the last days and of the Frashkart (the ultimate revival). It is sometimes said that the Saoshyant will be born from a virgin who will be pregnant with the seed of Zoroaster while she bathes in a lake. He will come to renew the world and bring back the dead to life . During this ultimate revival, Mankind will be subjected to a burning torrent, which will clean it of its stains or of its vices, and will make it able to live in the company of Ahura Mazda. For all those who will have lived a without reproach life, this burning torrent will not have more effect than “warm milk “. Saoshyant will sacrifice a bull and will mix his grease with magic elixir, the haoma, to make with it a beverage of immortality which he will then give to each member of the mankind.

N.B. At the junction of the policy and of the religion, and because of a distant Indo-European influence, we discover the same idea in the Shiite world. The Shiite Muslims watch for the return of the Mahdi, i.e., of the hidden Imam.

Hinduism. Hindu traditional prophecies, as described in the Puranas and in many other texts, say to us that the world will fall into chaos and degradation. There will be a fast rise of perversity, greed, conflicts, a state of affairs called Kali Yuga. When the falseness of the fraud, lethargy, drowsiness, violence, discouragement, anger, illusion, fear, and poverty prevail [ about the druidic Kali Yuga, see higher the dialog of the ancients - Acallam na Senorach - and the prophecy of the great Queen Morgan at the end of the second battle of Magos Turation…] when the men, filled with self-importance, regard themselves as equal the Brahmans; then will have come the time of the Yuga Kali. But this end of the cycle will be followed by the appearance of a divine incarnation: The Lord will appear as an avatar of Kalki […] He will restore uprightness on the earth , and the minds of the men will become as pure as the crystal […] the Sat or Krita Yuga (in other words the golden age) will be restored.

Buddhism.

As of its beginnings, Buddhism was seen as immersed in a time of decline. According to the Sutta Pitaka, Buddha predicted that his lessons would disappear at the end of five hundred years: the ten moral precepts will be no longer practiced and will then be replaced by their opposite; it will follow a period of misery and the end of the reign of the true dharma. The Buddhism having also exceeded the pessimistic forecasts of its founder, the lifespan of the doctrines was prolonged up to 5000, then 10.000 years. But its end is always considered. Some commentators such as Buddhaghosa describe us even its erasure: at the time of a first stage, the saints or great initiated persons will appear no longer in the world; then the lessons will be emptied with their contents, before entirely disappearing; finally, the memory of the Buddha himself will be erased, and his relics will be joined together in Bodh-Gaya, place of his enlightening , to be cremated there. But a certain time after that, a new Buddha, that people will call Maitreya, will appear to start again the wheel of the dharma, and the Buddhism thus resurrected will again show the way towards the nirvana.

NR. B.1.Siddharta Gautama known as Shakyamuni, the Buddha of our era, had succeeded himself many Buddhas of the past, in particular Amitabha (or Amida in Japanese language).

2. The cycles of decline and re-establishment of the Buddhism reproduce the cycles of creation and destruction of Hinduist cosmology. People distinguish in a cycle three times (or five periods, according to the authors). That of the “true dharma “ that of the “semblance of dharma “and that of the “end of

127

the dharma “ in which therefore is located Buddhism since practically its beginnings, if we understood well, we uns barbarians druids of the Far West . This concept played a big role during the disturbed periods of the history of China and Japan which lived the birth of millenarianist sects. Certain currents attributing much importance to the faith (Pure Land, Nichiren Buddhism) are based on this belief to promote their teaching. With as an argument that in these times of end of dharma, the “traditional “ Buddhism primarily founded on the asceticism and the meditation, lost of its effectiveness, therefore that only faith or devotion can still save.

Judaism. The end of days described in the book of Daniel, called Aharit HaYamim, of which the most important stage, at the point to be often mixed up with the total process, is called Youmot Hamashiach (the Messianic Times). This belief is far from being additional. It appears in the thirteen principles of Maimonides. And this one writes in his commentary on the Mishna (tractate Sanhedrin); where these ideas are expounded for the first time; that those who do not believe in it do not form part of the people of Israel, and will not get therefore their share in the world to come(still this wretched racist idea of chosen people!)

The End of the world according to the Judaism is divided into a certain number of successive times.

a) Hevlei haMashiach and Ikveta De'Meshicha (Messianic harbingers). It is an era of world sufferings, in which in particular the war of Gog and Magog fits, i.e., Israel against the nations, prophesied by Ezekiel and Zachary. This apocalyptic confrontation is also known under the name of Armageddon.

b) Then return of the prophet Elijah, who brings back the Messiah, and beginning of Messianic Times themselves.

c) Techiyat HaMetim (Resurrection of the dead).

d) Yom HaDin (the Day of judgment).

e) And finally establishment of the Olam Habah (world to come) for eternity.

EDITOR’S NOTE.

Our name is not Moses Maimonides but we will allow ourselves nevertheless to make also some commentaries about the subject from a druidic point of view, because this Jewish eschatology was mainly taken over by Christianity, as far as its racist claim to reserve a happy hereafter to the only members of its community by excluding of it the pagan ones (the famous “ outside the Church no salvation !”

a) The harbingers of the end of this world ..... the usual vaticinating on the matter. The Germanic ones also had their (the Ragnarök) druids also cf. Strabo) the Irish bards (prophecy of the great Queen Morgan and dialog of the ancients on the subject). In fact, nobody knows precisely how it will happen!

b) Return of Elijah with the Messiah who will have to be genetically a descendant of King David … on our premises we have the come back of Arthur and the return of the gods, parousy of the gods, disoccultation of the gods.

c) Resurrection of dead… No! Transformation of the bodies of those who will be still alive at this time…. into ideal or dream bodies (endowed with xvarnah our Zoroastrian friends would say, bellisamos in old Celtic) THOSE WHO ALREADY DIED BEING ALREADY ENDOWED WITH THEM.

d) Judgment of the dead. Non-existent stage in druidism because THE JUDGMENT OF THE HEART IT IS ITS OWN HISTORY, ITS DESTINY.

e) The world to come….This ideal world equipped with xvarnah lasts only one moment in druidism. This reign of the gods also. IN ORDER TO BE USED AS MODEL, AS REFERENCE Then everything disappears to start over again from (almost) zero.

Christianity.

Short reminder on the state of the ideas on this subject in the Jewish world at the time of the birth of Christianity. Under the influence of various traditions, in particular Greek, and following a period of several centuries, rather muddled on the political and spiritual levels.

The Sadduceans believed in no resurrection(it is perhaps the initial point of view of the Hebrew bible)

The Essenian sects believed only in the resurrection of the soul.

The Pharisees believed as well in the resurrection of the soul as to that of the bodies.

On this point the Nazorean Jesus was therefore completely Pharisee.

128

The Greek term eschatos is used in the New Testament to indicate that the end of the world will start in fact with the second advent of Christ. The Nazorean Jesus indeed taught to his followers that he would come back quickly to judge the living and the dead (ah this obsession of judgment and laws!)

The Christians of the 1st century believed consequently that the end of the world would occur during their life.

The texts are nevertheless rather ambiguous and suggest.

- Either the death of the individuals.

- Either the end of the human society or of a generation (end of one world).

- Either the end of the world (the events the last generation which will live on earth will see).

We find a trace of these multiple meanings in the Gospel of Matthew 24,37 - 42. It is a passage where the hero of this moral and metaphysical novel called Jesus, speaks about his glorious return, a mystery usually reserved for the end of the world. However he also described there the individual death of a man, then of a woman: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left“.

The Christians of the 1st century of our era were therefore stupidly convinced that the end of the world would occur during their life. The hero of their novel (Jesus), in the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 13, verse 8, indeed compared in it the end of the world with the pangs of childbirth of a mother. The image thus implies that the world is already “pregnant “ with its own destruction, but that nobody apart from (or the Devil), can know the moment in which that will occur.

The doubt started nevertheless to bore in the befuddled darkness of their mind when, over the years, the Christians realized that what they believed imminent did not happen. Around 190, Justin declared that God delayed the end of the world because he wanted that Christianity becomes before a world religion.

At the end of the 2nd century, the majority of the Christians from now on were convinced that the End of the world was beyond their generation; and the hero of their metaphysical novel will denounce in it the attempts to engage in speculations on the future, to know “time and due course “.

Such attempts to predict the future were discouraged, though a date was fixed for this End of the world, using the Jewish traditions. While using this system, this End was thus fixed at the year 202, but when it had passed without anything like that occurs , it was fixed at year 500. After 500, as still nothing had happened , this notion ends up losing its importance in the Christian religion.

The last attempt was that of the Irish archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656), Professor at Trinity College in Dublin. He wrote that the creation of the world having taken place in - 4004, on October 23rd at midday, the apocalypse was to therefore occur on October 23, 1997, at midday. Exactly two thousand years after the birth of Christ and six thousand years after creation, since through extrapolation with the six days of the Genesis, the world was to last six thousand years. The seventh day of rest of the creator matching the Millenium which will bring thousand years of bliss before the last Judgment.

As a “rigorous “scientist, Ussher therefore locates the age of the biblical characters and adds them: Adam 930 years… Noah 950 years, etc. But as a man of his time, he works according to an absolute confidence in the veracity at face value of the biblical accounts. And if no historical source mentions the date of birth of Christ, we know the date of death of the famous Herod: 750 ab urbe condita (Julian calendar) or 4 before our era (Gregorian calendar). However Herod and Jesus necessarily cohabited at least some time, if not, the accounts of the Bible have no longer sense.

Thus if Herod ruled at the birth of Jesus, Jesus inevitably was born at the latest in the year - 4. From there, a thorough knowledge of Old-Testament texts makes it possible to determine the lifespan of each generation leading to the advent of Christ, and consequently to go up to Eve and Adam. It is then enough to add 7.000 years to the date of the beginning of times to have that of the ultimate Ends!

The chronology of Ussher was in his time an enormous success. Thanks to the margin of 350 years ranging from the date of its establishment by our archbishop to that of its (theoretical) realization to come, the majority of the Christians could refer to it until the 20th century. The inveterate followers of creationism, since 1997, established others of them besides.

129

Such a belief increases obviously the power of the churches, of the sects, of the parties… over the conscientiousnesses. By the exercise of a pseudo-control of time based above all on credulity… until time catches up with the vainly fixed deadline , of course!

The Christian then Muslim idea, of the last Judgment, of the Judgment of the souls, is in reality particularly absurd and proceeds of an incredible lack of reflection of these religions. Because if the soul is part of God, to take over their own ideas, such a judgment could not be then only a self-judgment of God, discharging himself from his own errors on a scapegoat in fact (Satan, the Devil, etc.). Such a judgment would be, moreover, useless and superfluous.

Muslim Eschatology.

Drawn from Quran and hadiths, the book of Mohammed Ali Ibn Zubair Ali entitled “Signs of Qiyamah “ deals with the arrival of this enlightened (the Mahdi). The historical origin of the Islamic eschatology is similar to the Christian eschatology, the Islam being built starting from Judaism and Christianity. The day of the judgment or Yawm Al-Qiyamah (Resurrection Day), Allah (God or the Demiurge according to the points of view) will raise the dead, then will send the believers to the Heaven. And miscreants, unbelievers, non-repentant people, evildoers, criminals, corrupted people, druidicists, pagan ones, in Hell. Muhammad having spoken of that with his companions, some of them thought that the end of the world would arrive with their own death.

Antichrist will emerge from a road located in an area between the Sham (current Syria-Lebanon-Palestine) and Iraq, and will begin to invite the people to come in order to worship him. He will cause large troubles or temptations ( fitna). Most to follow him will be the Jews, the women and the Bedouins. Seventy thousand Jews from Ispahan (in current Iran) will follow him in the whole world, just as the wind scatters rain in all the directions. Except for Mecca and Medina, because it will be forbidden to the Antichrist to enter there. He will reign forty days. He will command the skies and it will rain, he will command the ground and it will produce vegetation. Then the earth will crumble, the fog or smoke will cover the skies during forty days. That will be spread all over the earth, what will cause in the believers something similar to a small cold, whereas the unbelievers themselves,will be struck down much harder. To finish, an icy wind will fall down on earth and will kill all the believers, leaving on earth only the unbelievers , who will be therefore the witnesses of the Last hour. Angel Israfil will sound the trumpet, and the resurrection of all the human beings will start.

This Antichrist will be one-eyed (i.e., he will have an eye good and the other damaged); on his forehead the word will be written “kafara “(i.e., Kafir or unbeliever). But only the true believers will be able to see this inscription between his two eyes.

The hadiths report that a warrior saint, the Mahdi, that the Twelver Shiites identify with Muhammad Al-Mahdi (their last Imam) will defend Islam against this Antichrist. But it is Jesus returned on earth who is supposed to overcome the false Messiah in question. Then, Jesus and the Mahdi would remain on earth during a few years. According to certain traditions, Jesus would marry, have children before dying, thus returning to a “normal “ human nature.

The majority of the monolatrous mass religions therefore have doctrines which maintain that “chosen “members “preferred “or “worthy “of the only true belief, “will be saved “or “will be released “ from the judgment and from the anger of God or of the Demiurge, to come; and that they will be sent in the heaven, before, at the same time, or after the latter, according to the scenario of the end of time that they keep.

Today ignorance having decreased, their beliefs are generally limited in the existence of a hereafter and in an explanation of the origin of the world.

130

BACK TO THE FUTURE.

Individual opinion of the druid Jean-Pierre Martin about druidic cosmogony.

The history of a long life (of a cycle) according to the high-knowers is, as we have just seen it, a coherent and continuous development. But the history of the Mankind and of the Cosmos or Bitos of this cycle is also entirely directed towards its return at the origin according to Strabo. “ The souls are indestructible, although both fire and water will at some time or other prevail over them “ (Geography IV, 4).

REMINDER.

Druidic cosmology is based on the design of a cyclic course of the history of the world, of periods in the formation of the world, and of successive cosmic disasters followed by new formations of the world.

It is the same thing, but at the cosmic level, that we know here below on earth. Birth, life and death, formation maintenance and extinction. Or more exactly early childhood of the world, childhood of the world, youth of the world, adulthood of the world, mature age of the world, old age of the world.

As wrote it very well Ausonius (on the use of the word libra) “Divinis humana licet componere “ “ We may compare human things with divine “.

The history of a long life (of a cycle) according to the druids, is a coherent and continuous development, we have already said. Time is in general considered under the aspect of length of the phenomena, like at the astronomers. We admit major cycles renewing themselves eternally and including groups of smaller cycles. After an end of the world, the universe or bitos is displayed once again.

131

“Nothing of the Whole perishes, but destruction and production succeed each other by turns, and all by a perpetual change of forms, and a certain most beautiful variety and vicissitudes of things,operate necessarily towards the participation, Good, and preservation of the whole (pariollon), and make, as it were, an everlasting circulation. That celebrated darling of the muses(Musaeus of Athens a prehomeric philosopher) was of opinion, that from one all things are made, and shall be reunited to the same“. (John Toland. Pantheisticon).

Scotus Eriugena was of a somewhat different opinion: the universe is designed in four different categories, of which the origin is God and of which the term leads to God. All the beings created finally are reabsorbed in their creator. The concept of good and evil is abolished, guilty and innocent finally having to live the same destiny.

There is neither absolute beginning nor end, there are only relative beginnings or ends. Every destruction is followed by a new beginning, but there is unlimited continuity of the spirit, while at the same time even, the worlds appear and disappear in their cyclic proceedings.

The spirit lives in these temporal dimensions in an endless repetition. The individual knows that the space he has is unlimited there. He knows indeed that Pariollon fills with life not only our earth, our sun, but also innumerable parallel worlds. Pariollon is like a God or cosmic Demiurge. Innumerable worlds emerge from him then are lost again, in him.

The universe was not created by God or the Demiurge formerly in a first beginning, then left to its own devices . The universe is procreated at every moment, so that the divine act of procreation is constantly at work, and God or the Demiurge could not be withdrawn into any elsewhere, contemplating from his height a creation he would ignore. The druidic view considers the Divine one as immanent to the world, as a Creative Intelligence which contains in itself, perpetually, the procreation of the world. In the infinitely near and, of course, not in a remote elsewhere of the origins.

REPORT.

Science and History of the previous centuries were built against this old pagan philosophy, which consisted especially of a speculation on the cycles; and since St. Augustine the Christian tradition did not lack in refutations of these cycles reduced to being only simple coincidences.

It is necessary to go back to the origins of Christianity to find the first traces of them. To mark the difference between the pagan faith and the Christian beliefs, the Church Fathers decided that the assumption of the rebirth and the cyclic interpretation of time were to be given up, beliefs which were, however, admitted by the first Christians. We find very clear traces of them , especially in the apocryphal writings . It was indeed unbearable for the first Christians, to think that the Christ, who had suffered so much, was to still come back again still and still to save Mankind. It was to justify the unbearable one, to admit the repetition of what generated all the sufferings of Christ and to have to renew the Sacrifice. Hence their almost instinctive reaction. No, Christ died on the cross once and for all, and Mankind was consequently saved once and for all. Consequently, the time appeared as a line on which events were marked. The Genesis, the fall, the revelation made to Moses, the birth of Christ, the road to the cavalry , the Resurrection and, in times to come, the advent of the City of God (as St. Augustine says). It was then necessary to imagine with a “beginning“of time, what matches the creation ex nihilo, i.e., an “end “of times, the Apocalypse - what makes sense only in a design of time in the form of a straight line. A linear representation of time was therefore posed, as sheerly opposed to the cyclic representation of time which prevailed before. What is rather strange, it is that this representation of time as a line survived the decline of Christianity in the thought. The most extraordinary metamorphosis of the linear representation of time, bequeathed by Christianity, is nothing less than the myth of the unlimited progress which was born at the dawn of modern techno-science and of capitalism (or liberalism with market economy), swaggering. The future is radiant! The main road of progress opens directly in front of us. And we can, delirious with hubris, to regard the vanished past as a mass of grotesque superstitions. As a wandering of Mankind in a fortunately vanished savagery. With (Western) “science “ (Western) “technology “….(Western) “civilization “ is coming. It does not come to the mind of a man of the 21st century, that this progress, in which he believes so blindly, may also be , all in all, only a myth and finally a religious idea.

Because it is certain that if with regard to the scientific data and the technology, we can consider that accumulation is possible, with regard to ethics and morals everything is always unceasingly to be started again. The technological advancement is possible but the moral progress no. In the field of

132

ethics and moral, the cumulative effect we can observe in the field of sciences and technology, does not exist! Cf. Syria in 2013.

There exist in reality two ways of looking at cycles.

The first is that of the eternal recurrence, the second is that of the spiral.

The first assumption is very clearly expressed by the stoics and was taken over besides by Nietzsche. Plato affirmed it already clearly: time moves in a circle. Marcus-Aurelius wrote besides in the same sense: “ each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle “. Nature time, in which our human time is taken, makes a loop which returns perpetually on itself, so that Creation is repeated indefinitely, as has to be repeated the universal Destruction. In short, the universe or bitos is regarded as eternal, but it is periodically destroyed and regenerated with each creation. These doctrines of the periodic blazing fire are found in Heraclitus and in the stoical thought in Zeno. As a result, from a cosmological point of view, what is strictly historical, becomes finally relative. The current one, in comparison with the vastness of the cycles of Nature, is a much little thing, and to attach to it would be an error. The essence is in the perpetual coming to oneself in Time, in the Identical one. In Nature, nothing is new under the sun, everything is repeated ad infinitum. The wise man stands in the timeless one. “When we see what is now, we have seen everything , and what occurred since immemorial time, but also what will occur until the infinite one; because everything is similar wholesale and in detail “.

It is nevertheless difficult to believe that Time can totally and perfectly loop on itself, and to repeat for eternity the continuation of its events. It is even more than strange, it is unbearable, as it is unbearable to think that all that we lived, can be reproduced identically ad infinitum, a little in the way of a movie which would play in a loop on television. However it is nevertheless what find in the Stoics. Eudemus, paraphrasing Aristotle, writes, some three centuries before our era: “ If one were to believe the Pythagoreans, with the result that the same individual things will recur, then I shall be talking to you again sitting as you are now, with this pointer in my hand, and everything else will be just as it is now” . In the cosmogony of the Stoics , the universe is consumed periodically through fire which generated it and rises from the ashes to revive the same history. Again, the various seminal particles go together, again, they give shape to the stones, to the trees and to the men…

This design was undoubtedly only partially that of the druids, because it is the exact opposite of the topic of the seduction of the back worlds of the Celtic tradition. No transitory passage towards a elsewhere, and a beyond this world, no compensation in a heaven. Only the Fate which implacably repeats what was formerly written.

The second assumption is more definitely druidic. The second figure of the cyclic time is indeed not that of the circle but that of the spiral. The image of the spiral combines that of the circular recurrence, but with, with each coil, a light linear shift.

As in the case of the caduceus, the coils of the snakes then represent the whole of the cycles of the universal manifestation. Each cycle reflects a state of manifestation or one of its modalities. The end of a cycle coincides with the beginning of the following, and the death of a cycle always occurs with the birth of another. Consequently, the changes in the manifested states can be measured along a vertical axis which crosses each coil or cycle in its center, where all the aspects specific to the considered state are in perfect balance, in perfect harmony. This axis symbolizes the direction of the manifestation of the being or of the Primeval Unit.

Such is the meaning of the representation, often badly understood, of the druidic theory, of which we will give a short outline. Because we deal with druidic cosmology, with a very complex theory of the cyclic time that, far from confining itself with a simple mythical account of the origins of the world, delivers a precise mathematical analysis. What is gripping indeed, it is the vastness of the lengths considered. This time is not historical time, but the Time of Nature in which the History comes to take place. What we call today History is only here a very very weak portion of Time. A flutter of the eyelids in the breathing of the infinite. Time of Nature is analyzed in loops or spirals, which themselves contain other loops. There is here neither absolute beginning of time, nor an absolute end, but a rhythmic pulsation of the Manifestation. The Manifestation is a play of the being with itself, and with each dice roll, a new combination of possible occurs, taking over the former elements to lay out them differently. Infinity plays infinitely with itself. We are not at all therefore in the representation of the eternal return of Nietzsche and, however, the cyclic movement of Time is indeed present. The Time thus described

133

exceeds every human imagination, it wraps the appearance of all civilizations, of their greatness, their height, their end.

In the Middle Ages on the Continent, the men contemplating the horizon of the Ocean thought that the Earth was flat 1). They therefore did only judge according to the appearance of what they could observe. When a circumference is of a dimension as considerable as that of the Earth, the human observer feels it is flat. The same type of argument applies to time. The line of time, from the point of view of our human concerns, seems obviousness. But with a broader prospect, like that of the druidic tradition, we could perceive that in reality the time line is the segment of a curve. The linear representation of time is a short-sighted vision, a very short-sighted vision.

In the druidic view of time, progress remains nevertheless always perfectly thinkable, the advent of a kind of spiritual Age in the way of Teilhard de Chardin completely conceivable … Except that it would not be a question of a final eternal completion. Suppose that a Golden age opens again in our eyes, it would eventually too at the end of a certain time yield to its own perfection.

There is not in the druidic tradition true contradiction. “The important thing is not to give up its historical situation… but to keep in mind the prospects of the Great life (bituitos), while continuing to fulfill one’s duty in historical time “.

It is exactly the lesson given, at the other end of the Aryan world, in the Bhagavad Gita, by Krishna speaking to prince Arjuna. Because after having presented the huge prospect of cosmic Time, Krishna invites his interlocutor by no means to leave the earthly concerns. Arjuna releases his bow, overpowered by the imminent destruction which will take place in the fight against the clan of the tyrants who seized power, the Kauravas. He would like to leave the scene of History. But Krishna orders him very firmly to assume his duty, in the context of a crisis in which he must play his part. The action does not wait and it must be carried out. If myself I did not act constantly he says, the whole universe would be destroyed. Stand up and act while fulfilling your duty, the destiny which is yours.

The cyclic representation of time therefore has nothing of a gratuitous speculation. It opens only prospects radically different from the linear representation of time. It is deeply significant. It has nothing absurd, primitive, antiquated or infantile. It belongs to an unmemorable heritage of Mankind, it is present in all civilizations. It develops a sense of the sacredness which precisely is missing in the linear representation of historical time.

1) Whereas the scientists in Ireland, themselves, knew already, or still, the notion of crundnios (cruinne), i.e., of globe. And Greeks worked out the Antikythera Mechanism.

135

WORKING PAPERS.

WORKING PAPER No. 1.

THE POINT OF VIEW OF PALEONTOLOGY.

Ape is said apa in Galatian language(abanas in the dictionary of Hesychius). And if the Galatian scientists knew the apes, they had therefore been able only to notice that the man resembles this animal. Besides the white clay figurines of the factories in Allier show us various monkeys equipped like the human beings. Romans did not have humor, and the Celts have enormously. But by equipping the monkeys with usual clothing, like the famous hood, the bardo-cucullus, at whom were they laughing ? The power? Themselves? Russians under Stalin reacted by the self-derision. The Celts of the Roman Empire seem to have made in the same way.

Thomas Huxley, an anatomist contemporary of Darwin, attentively examined the skeleton of man and that of apes, and concluded from it that, among all the apes, the two species closest to us are the gorilla and the chimpanzee. But Huxley could not determine which of these two species is closest to us; it is only since 1967 that we could confirm that it is the chimpanzee. And even more: the genetics showed that chimpanzee in fact is a species much nearer relative of human beings than of gorilla! Although on the anatomical level chimpanzee resembles more gorilla than human being, on the genetic (and therefore evolutionary) level , it is our sister species whereas gorilla is a cousin species. Human being and chimpanzee (there exists in fact two species of chimpanzees) share between 98 and 99% of their genes. We conclude from it that man is not a descendant of the ape : man is a naked ape , whose closer relative is chimpanzee. In other words, the last among the current apes with which we share a common ancestor is chimpanzee: man and chimpanzee are descendants of this last common ancestor, who remains to be discovered, and no other species is descended from him.

The origin of Man by Cyrille Barrette, a recognized specialist in the behavior and ecology of the mammals, at Laval University in Quebec.

136

Man is interested in his origin since always. In all civilizations and at all times, we find creation myths. This question interests, in addition to the authors of myths, theologists, philosophers, and scientists. The following four great existential are asked for at least 2.400 years.

Who are we? From which do we come? And where do we go, particularly after death? Why do we exist?

Unlike the many and diversified mythical stories on the origin of the man, Science tells a single and universal history, shared by all the men who adhere to his method, where they are. And here the general information which biology can affirm almost with certainty, on the nature and the origin of Mankind.

1. Mankind is an animal specie like the others. 2. Our species has ancestors: it emerged starting from other species. Any current living being is the current final point of an uninterrupted chain of living beings for 3,8 billion years. 3. The emergence of human being was carried out on several million years (a million years = 500 times 2.000 years!) 4. As it is the case for all the species, the emergence of Mankind is a mixture of natural selection and History. 5. We are more close relatives of certain species than others.

These assertions are recent: 300 years ago, we could say nothing of all that. But no reflection on human nature can now ignore these five biological realities.

What do we know today specific one about our history, of which we were unaware 100 years ago?

1. It occurred in Africa. 2. It starts there is between five and eight million years. 3. It has the shape of a bush including a large number of more or less related branches. 4. We knows today a score of actors in this history. 5. We better and better knows the family ties between these species and between these species and us. 6. We know our branch could have never existed: as long as it had not emerged, its appearance was 100% dubious.

JACOB'S LADDER OR BUSH?

There exist two scientific ways to consider what occurred between the time of our last common ancestor and today; one is false and the other is true. In a caricatural way, we may say that the first is a Jacob's ladder and the second a bush.

The view “Jacob's ladder “was the one adopted by all the researchers and thinkers of the evolution until about 1970. The view “ladder “of the human evolution is linear, ascending and cumulative: the species follow one after the other in time, each one being a little less ape that the previous one, and a little less human than the following one.

It is starting from this linear vision, shared by the majority of the great thinkers of the evolution from 1850 until almost 1975 and strongly rooted in the popular culture, that was invented the notion of a missing link. Each species which follows one another in time constitutes a link of the linear series – of the ladder - which leads from ape to the Man. It is a question of seeking their fossils to find them. Mankind, of course, occupies the top of this ladder.

Today, almost nobody adheres still to this design “Jacob's ladder “of the evolution. Starting from the publication of certain scientific articles, in 1971, and 1972, a criticism of the linear view of the evolution was developed, of which result was the replacement of this linear view by the bush view. Because in reality, evolution does not make lines, but bushes: it extends and ramifies in multiple parallel, proliferating and complex directions. The idea of line, of evolutionary linear ladder, is a purely human construction. This new view of the evolution applies to the whole of the living world, including our species. This new design of evolution does not question the two principal theories of Darwin: the natural selection, mechanism through which evolution is done; the theory of the common descent.

CLADOGENESIS AND ANAGENESIS.

The study of the very large diversity of species connected at three current groups, the finches of the Galapagos Islands, the fruit flies (drosophilas) of the archipelago of Hawaii, and some fish of the African Great Lakes; just as the study of diversity in two extinct groups of which the fossils are very abundant, the horses and the antelopes; show us that, in all the cases, the evolution never makes linear and foreseeable series, but always some bushes ramified at and unforeseeable, in particular including a large number of dead branches. i.e., of lines which did not arrive until today.

137

We concluded from it that in the majority of the cases, the origin of the species is not the product of anagenesis, but of the cladogenesis.

Anagenesis is the process through which a species changes gradually to become a new species: it is a linear and progressive transformation.

The cladogenesis is the budding of a new species starting from the population of an old species; the old species therefore does not change, but continues its existence, and new species can continue to bud from it.

Initially, the notion of anagenesis was applied as much to the fifty million years of history of the horses as to the five to eight million years of history of Mankind. According to the anagenesis, there exists only one species at the same time; according to the cladogenesis, several species can coexist simultaneously.

However, there is no reason so that the “bush “ view describes well the evolution of the finches, of fruit flies, fish, horses and antelopes, but not that of the human beings . There is no reason so that Man’s evolution is linear, whereas that of all the other species is bushy.

The bushy view has a consequence which is far from being inoffensive , and which constitutes the primary reason why such a great resistance was opposed to it. This view implies that the emergence of our species, starting from the knot which separates our branch from that of the chimpanzees, was neither inevitable, neither foreseeable, nor predetermined. The emergence of Man was completely dubious, following the example that of all the other species, and this, unlike what the linear view says us. According to the bushy view , we could very well have never existed. At each stage of our history, our line could very well have given another thing or have stopped.

In a linear ladder, it is easy to predict what will be the following level - the link - . But in a bush, it is impossible to predict in what directions the new branches will go, or if and when they die.

The new species a given species will generate in the future, depend on two things: the whole of the characteristics and the whole of the capacities of the initial species, which are the products of its history; the whole of the random - and thus unforeseeable – circumstances, this species will meet in the future. The new species too are therefore unforeseeable. This mixture of Chance and History, is called contingency. The history of a line, including ours, is never neither already written nor completely the result of the chance: reality is much more complex. An example of contingency: the date of my death. It is neither predetermined nor due randomly, but it depends on my history (age, diseases, wounds, etc.) and on my future history (lifestyle, play of extreme sports, and so on). The date of my death is a mixture of chance and history. Well, in the same way, the history of a line, it is a mixture of natural selection and contingency.

The linear and progressive view is completely false, even if it is simple and that we like it. Actually, evolution goes nowhere particularly; that is true of all the species, including ours.

Starting from the knot which separates it from that of the chimpanzees, our branch did not grow in a linear way, but bush ramified; of all the species appeared in our bush, ours, Homo sapiens, is the only having survived until today. If other species, as Homo erectus or Neandertal, had survived, we have no idea of what they would have given today.

The origin of the Man.

We better and better knows where and what to seek. From Aristotle to 1850, we discover no pre-human bones. From 1850 to 1900, we discovered three species: Neandertal, Cro-Magnon and the man of Heidelberg. From 1900 to 1950, we discovered three new species; from 1950 to 2000, we discovered fourteen new species. Lastly, from 2000 to 2005, we discovered five or six new species. The discovery of all these fossil species rang the death knell of the Jacob's ladder view: the facts impose the bush view as regards the human evolution, as for the evolution of all the other species. We should have known that since the beginning. We should have known that our history was the product of the same processes as that of all the other species: a mixture of natural selection and contingency (risks of History and circumstances). The idea of hominization initiated by Teilhard de Chardin, is only a myth is only a fancy of the mind.

The word evolution seems to indicate a progression , as if Man, starting from of a distant animality, had, inexorably and in a continuous way, advanced towards the present stage we call easily “progress “. It is good tone today (unlike the first theories), to replace this human evolution within a

138

more total framework (evolution of the life in general), where a lot of scenarios open (random notion?), some remaining and others not.

The knowledge resulting from the discovered fossils owes much to the chance. Before the first burials (around - 200.000 years), death was often not very natural, we imagine the influence of the beasts of prey on the moving of the corpses, but it is necessary to also count on the factor of burying. The remaining bones are trampled, often carried along by water or the geological evolution, and their current positioning has no longer something to do with that of origin. That also explains that we find especially teeth and jaws, the most resistant parts of the skeleton.

We can note nevertheless that the first fossil “ape “ was discovered in 1837, and that it constituted the first piece of evidence of the possible distant origin of Man. Buffon, in 1749, made this origin going back to 8000 years, not forgetting Linné (1758), which developed the first classification of the natural world, arranging Man in the genus homo. Before this time, only of the remainders of tools were available. All this body of presumptions therefore led to Charles Darwin (1859), who confirmed the fact that Man was not a divine creation, but the result of an “animal “evolution having its laws. Since then, the discoveries of fossils followed one another: Neandertal 1856, Cro-Magnon 1868, Asian Pithecanthropus 1891,Taung Child (Australopithecus) 1925… just as the theories and the dating!

It is in the Rocky Mountains that we found the traces of an “original “primate, tall like a big rat, the purgatorius, dated back to approximately 70 million years: about the date of the disappearance of the dinosaurs… It feeds on insects (as before), but also on flowers and fruits (it is new): itself and its descendants will colonize the rest of the world. It has 44 teeth. The concept of ecological niche is important, since, from the same animal, will emerge, according to the places and their lines of communication, the men (Africa) and (for example) the lemurs.

How took place the changes which make it possible the evolution of a big rat (purgatorius) towards the Man? The major elements supporting them are climate and geology, through the food they “suggest “. We observe for example a relatively obvious correlation between the extinctions or appearances of certain species, and important climatic phenomena (example: the extinction of 90% of the species, 220 million years ago). The geographical communicating (Eurasia - Africa, 18 million years ago) makes it also possible the transfer of species, which, once spatially separated, evolve differently (ramapithecus towards the orang-utan).

It is only around 5 million years that we find traces of higher primates (32 teeth), isolated in Africa (aegyptopithecus, a small Egyptian ape): from where the idea that we descend a) from the ape b) from Africa. It is high as a big cat and has a brain of… 40 Cm3.

We discover then the proconsul (brain: 150 Cm3, one speaks then about hominoids), tall as a chimpanzee, which benefits from the connection of the Africa-Asia plates to spread around 17 million years. It will give itself rise to other apes. For example, the ramapithecus in Asia (of which filiation leads to the orang-utan), the kenyapithecus in Africa (15 million years, brain: 300 Cm3, our more probable communal ancestor ape/man), and the dryopithecus in Europe.

We are in the research of the common ancestor just before the separation, on the one hand, chimpanzees/gorillas, on the other Australopithecus/men, which we situate the date between 10 and 7 million years.

Today, we know that chimpanzees as well as bonobos, are closer to us than gorillas, then come the gorillas, whereas the orang-utan is most distant. It is therefore false to say that Man descends from the apes, because among the apes, some are closer to us than others.

Four big steps led to the human branch.

- The primate went down to live on the ground.

- He stands up straight then walked upright.

- His brain developed, what involved…

- THE CIVILIZATION!

First “Hominids “(7 million years).

The characteristic basically distinguishing the Australopithecus from the great apes is their almost permanent bipedalism (but there are others of them), although they still climb trees and that their gait is “swaying “. Besides we observe differential evolutions of the body: certain parts (arms, brain, lower limbs, it depends) evolve separately, and give “mixed “ species (Afarensis has a human “bottom “ but an “ape “ top).

Food still vegetarian. Weight: approximately 40 kg. Brain: 450 Cm3.

Possible use of natural objects (stones or sticks) of a little higher level than the current apes, but no fabrication for a precise use.

No fixed camping: they stop where they are. They live in groups.

139

Homo habilis: the first man (2,5 million years).

Origin: East Africa (Olduvai, Tanzania). Important climatic crisis (dryness), which will ring the death knell of the most “robust “species, while man will opt for omnivorous food.

His bony ridge above the eyes remains still very marked. Brain: 750 Cm3 - Weight: 40 kg. Continuation of the bipedal evolution (solider lower limbs and feet, more slender upper limbs), but especially development of the brain (with perhaps appearance of the spoken language, thanks to the evolution of his respiratory system and larynx).

Intentional fabrication of tools, still frustrate, being used by him for cutting out the meat and breaking the bones, and building of a voluntary habitat (though basic: circular protections), in which habilis comes back each night and brings his food. He leaves the forest definitively.

Beginning of a task sharing between men and women,making it possible to ensure the cohesion and the survival of the group. The “family “relations (let us remain careful) are affected by that. When the group reaches about thirty individuals, it scatters, and we date back to these times the first migrations as well as the conquest of the rest of the world (or almost).

Food is more and more meat-based , especially in the form of “carrion “(meat and marrow) when they are large animals.

There is perhaps at the time on Earth 150.000 human being at the maximum.

At the end of the 20th century,we realized that all the fossils in relation to the human line had been found in the east of Africa. For this reason we thought that our origins were African, since, on the one hand, the species closest to us in current nature, chimpanzees, live in Africa; and that, in addition, the oldest fossils of our line were in the east of Africa. From where the following theory: the large valleys of the African Rift became distorted there are six or seven million years. Rains coming from the Gulf of Guinea coming up against this Rift, the West of Africa remained wet: it is there that will live the bonobos, the chimpanzees or the gorillas, which have, themselves also, evolved. In the East, on the other hand, there were fewer rains. The forest was transformed into an environment of mosaic type. It is there that our line appeared. At the beginning of the 21st century, this theory was consolidated by the six-million-year-old fossil found in Kenya and called Orrorin.

And then Toumaï was found in Chad in 2001. This fossil, from 6 to 7 million years old, invalidated the previous theory. Today therefore, we can no longer say that Mankind was born in the East or in the West. On the other hand, the analysis of Darwin, according to which Man would have been born in Africa, is consolidated.

What does not mean necessarily that the current Africans are the exact copies of these distant ancestors. They too are only very advanced forms, come from elsewhere also. The oldest Africans are to be sought on the side of the Pygmies Hottentots or Bushmen, even of the Ethiopian groups (Galla , Amhara).

The origin of Mankind by Pascal PICQ, paleoanthropologist author of several scientific works and articles centered about the question of “what is human being? “.

Man and chimpanzee differ only by 1% of their genetic inheritance. Does the search of their last common ancestor constitute the Grail of human paleoanthropology?

Pascal PICQ.

Of course! While realizing that Man is descended from the ape, people imagined assumptions, dreams, called “missing links “ half great ape, half man. Today, we gave up this concept in favor of that of “last common ancestor “ which designates the ancestral species from which the line which will give birth to men separates from that of chimpanzees.

Orrorin is an achieved biped, provided with big canines. His femur is more suited to the bipedalism than that of Lucy, who, however, goes back to 3 million years. From where the idea of an Orrorin standing up in savanna. Then was discovered Toumaï, who has a rather short face, with small canines, like us, the men. However it is not certain that he walked upright. Consequently, now we don’t know if all the characteristics we thought exclusively human, are “drifted“ or “evolved “. Nobody can

140

solve this debate in the actual position of our knowledge; it is necessary for us to look at other fossils, in particular oldest.

In fact, we will never be able to recognize this last common ancestor. We will never be able to recognize the last common ancestor, because he will have not only characteristics evoking the lines of the great apes and the men, but also some features which will be particular to him.

Approximately 500.000 years ago, several species cohabited: Neandertal, Homo sapiens, Solo Man of Solo and Flores Man, in Asia. Why only one did survive?

Pascal PICQ.

Our line was always a great evolutionary success, with biodiversity. But the Ice Age being increased, around 1,8 million years only one branch will remain: the genus Homo with the first “true “man called Homo ergaster. It is him which will leave Africa. At the same time, all the other lines die out.

This branch will leave Africa to spread itself in Europe and Asia. In Europe its descendants became the Neandertals, and those of Africa, the Homo sapiens. They also became some Homo Erectus more or less specialized, like the men of Solo, in Java. 800.000 years ago, some Homo Erectus, moreover, made boats, and went on the island of Flores.

40.000 years ago, on this earth , there was Homo sapiens - we - as well as the Neandertals, Solo men and Flores men . 30.000 years ago, Neandertal disappears, followed by the man of Solo, 27.000 years ago. 18.000 years ago, at the moment when we paint Lascaux, Flores men disappear in turn, so that there remains only one species today: the Homo sapiens.

We therefore belong to a group in a extinction process , but we could spread again on Earth thanks to our civilization. Fire, tools, shelters, enabled us to ensure our survival, thanks to the innovation and the technological adaptation.

Homo sapiens, in his modern form, took an increasingly important place on Earth. But 60.000 years ago, we could not have imagined this continuation of the History. Indeed, Cro-Magnons and Neandertals were contemporary in the Middle East and had the same technical and cultural practices. Consequently, what made that Neandertal disappeared and not us?

Pascal PICQ.

Our species Homo sapiens appears 200.000 years ago; it is the modern Man or Homo Sapiens sapiens who is approximately 40.000 years old. The lifespan of the species in the mammals is on average approximately a million years. Do we have still a 800.000 years full power in front of us? That concerns our collective responsibility. We speak more and more, today, of the posthuman one. Since the Neolithic era, with the invention of agriculture, men exploited the variability which nature produces. They are able today, to not only select from what natural variability produces, but also to work on the processes even which produce this variability: the genetic engineering. Can one go against that? Francis Fukuyama thinks that the human nature is a “good fairy “ which will make that we will correct our faults. As for me , I have the impression that we play the sorcerer’s apprentice. We are unaware of the consequences these manipulations will have.

One day, a representative of Monsanto said to me that I was anti-GMO. I answered him: “No, I am neither for, nor against, but when you tell me that the GMO will save from hunger in the world, you make fun of me, because we can already feed everyone on this planet. Moreover, the GMO, even if they can help with that, will never be able to compensate the selfishness, the corruption, and the inequalities, that men produce on the Earth. It is therefore a problem of humanity, philosophy and ethics, and not only scientific and technical. “ An excellent objection which we can also make to the philosopher Marek Halter.

The farmers who refuse the GMO would be, according to him, privileged few. This corn could be used to feed those who are hungry… What an amount of untruths! It is on the contrary in part the overproduction of North, related to industrial agriculture and to the subsidies which go with, which is responsible for the ruin of the farmers in the South. Mr. Halter, I have much respect for what you did or wrote, on what you know. Then I beg you , avoid wasting everything by becoming a parrot which can only repeat, on what you do not know, the slogans of the speculators you denounce. You think that anger is a source of youth; make it is not a source of ignorance.

141

Can we admit the cloning for the rest of Mankind ? Some think that yes. I , as for me, II will say that the genetic engineering affects certain genes, but that the environment itself, is a factor acting enormously on evolution. The cloning is only a datum among a whole of much more complex elements, which make, as of the birth, an individual interacting with his environment. We will never be able to reproduce us identically , because the environment of the cloned one is not that of the cloner: it is well what makes the life!

As for the future of the man, it will depend on the way in which we will be able to share the notion of progress which developed in the West during the 20th century. Hominization and progress were thought as universal “laws “or “processes,“ as self-evident or at least inescapable. In fact, it is like the evolution, with all its constraints and its uncertainties.

Now let us approach the relation between Man, progress, science, and the future of mankind.

According to Francis Fukuyama, the evolution necessarily leads towards more complexity, progress, perfection. The question of the technological supremacy of Man on nature arises today. But mankind, able to dominate forces of nature, like any other species before it, is today threatened by its own power. Facing this unheard of situation, would it be only a paradox of the history of Life?

Pascal PICQ.

We are not a paradox: we belong to the history of Life. But if life started again under the same initial conditions on Earth, it would be very different. There would be no men, dinosaurs nor flies, but other forms of life.

What is complexity? Man has complex relations with the world, but our genome has only 30.000 genes, much less than rice grain. Quantitatively, it is therefore simpler, but it is in its expression, its grammar, that it becomes complex. The term complexity therefore is somewhat ambiguous. It is functions which are complex, and not necessarily structures.

I think consequently that the West should not be arrogant, nor scorning, with respect to the other human populations. Simply, we developed other capacities, through our studies, our cultures, our techniques. We do not hold all the knowledge. We made choices during our history.

Doesn't the idea that the life always survived in spite of the disasters, give a full power for the exploitation of the planet?

Pascal PICQ.

It is a true problem. Neo-creationists accept the idea that there were five great natural disasters in the history of the Earth, but they underline that life always continued. Translation in their relation with the world: we can continue to exploit the resources placed at our disposal by Providence, by Earth, because whatever it occurs everything will be able to continue.

I add, as for me, that life will continue indeed, but in no way with the same actors. Will it do it with or without us? The sixth extinction is under way. It is caused by Man and it appears extremely fast, thousands of species disappearing each year. It is necessary to change our relation to the world. It is that, the hominization: a permanent awakening.

Hominization, it is not this design as arrogant as anthropocentric of the history of life; it is not a state of grace, a “freedom “ without responsibility. It is a reflection, a permanent awakening on our human condition and our relationship to nature, our nature. Hominization, that starts now, and that never stops.

The concept of sustainable development can be defined as follows: a development meeting the needs for the generations present, without compromising the capacity of the future generations to meet theirs. Could sustainable development, based on a balance between economic growth and ecosystem, constitute this unique opportunity to give again a direction to progress?

Pascal PICQ.

Sustainable development is an important change of paradigm. Indeed, the view of progress implied that the past of formerly was less good than the present, and that the future would be better than today. That goes no longer without saying , even if the debate is not simple.

For the first time in History, with the notion of sustainable development, a generation is concerned with future, with following generations. It considers no longer that its well-being will continue to grow indefinitely and that, inevitably, the following generation will be able to meet its needs thanks to that.

142

But let us not be naive: any species has an action on the environment. Even our most conscious possible actions, to keep the future of the generations to come will imply to draw from the natural resources. It remains to be seen how to do it as well in the better way . We should know how to preserve the nonrenewable resources, and to set up new resources, while safeguarding the chances of the future generations as well as possible. But for that, we need a real awakening, in our daily life. And it is necessary to act quickly: we have a generation to try to save what can be saved.

Science admits it is able to say nothing about the question of sense of the existence nor about that of the life after death but it has many things to say on the questions of the nature and of the origin of the Man. These two questions are in fact two aspects of the same reality: the question of the origin relates to the circumstances which made the characteristics of the human nature setting up.

Science is distinguished from all the other approaches aiming at answering these questions, in what it is submitted to a severe, untameable, pitiless, cruel and invincible, master: reality! The least small fact can make greatest theory ashamed. But this master has no hold over every history built outside science; these histories are therefore free to say everything or its opposite… and don’t refrain from doing that. They cannot therefore all be true simultaneously; and probably besides that none is true. But they are admitted by a very huge audience moved by its desire to believe. On the other hand, the histories told by Science are the only ones which are likely to be true. Science tends, moreover, to improve its histories to make them approach the truth more and more.

Cyrille Barrette and Pascal Picq.

Some people deny the existence of races at the human beings. One in the ways of defining the concept of race, at the human beings, is to compare the genetic diversity found between the individuals belonging to the same race, with that found between the races; diversity being larger inside the races than between the races, we conclude from it that the concept of race does not apply to the human beings : the races, at the human beings do not exist.

On the other hand, if we consider the same criteria at the human beings as at the other species, i.e., anatomical characteristics (size, color of the feathers or of the fur , etc.); then, it is obvious that we will see various races in mankind.

Lastly, if we consider the importance of the races in the social relations, particularly on the level of the pairing of the people, we cannot deny their existence.

In any event, the idea even of superiority or inferiority, poses another problem. Indeed, according to which criterion to decide that a human group is superior or inferior to another? Will we measure inferiority/superiority through athletic performances (and which: endurance, resistance, precision…) ; the intellectual abilities (and there still, which ones: imagination, training, memory…) ; or resistance to the infections, fruitfulness, or co-operation and altruism? In fact, the theory of the evolution implies clearly that superiority has no absolute sense, but only a relative sense in a certain context. Context which can be upset by the introduction of a new species. Or, in mankind , of a new method or of a new social design.

There exist two great assumptions to explain the geographical distribution of the human ones.

1. Multi-regionalism. Homo erectus would have left Africa one million and half years ago. Some groups would have gone into Europe, others to China, others to South and South-east Asia; others finally would have remained in Africa. This theory supposes that all these populations of Homo erectus would have then developed, in parallel, into Homo sapiens slightly different from each other. There exist variants of this assumption: populations of Homo sapiens would have developed, or by remaining isolated the ones from the others, or by mixing the ones with the others. One or the other of these variants would have given, today, only one species with a great diversity. This assumption is accepted by only a very small minority of researchers.

2.The most widespread view today is this one: Homo sapiens would have emerged only once and in only one place, in Africa (we do not know exactly starting from what ancestor; it could be Homo habilis, a form of Homo erectus, etc.), then would have migrated out of Africa and would have pushed back Homo erectus, which was already there, as well as Neandertal, who occupied Europe and passed on

143

to Whites a number of his characteristics. Color of the skin and eyes but also some diseases, about which they do not boast. Up to 15% of their genes.

According to this assumption, we all are Africans. Homo sapiens would have then diversified in various environments, without mixing with Homo erectus. The races would be therefore the product of the adaptation of a same species, Homo sapiens, in different ecological conditions.

How Man will evolve? The evolution by natural selection is always unforeseeable. Even with a true bush, it is impossible to predict which will be the branches which will emerge starting from the buds. Moreover, the bush, is a very simplified model of the reality of evolution. However, the human being has an exceptional characteristic: he is safe from the natural selection. It is therefore very probable that we will no longer evolve on the biological level; but, of course, we will continue to evolve on the cultural, scientific, technological, levels… We have practically not evolved besides on the biological level for 100.000 years: we have the same body, and particularly the same brain, as Cro-Magnon.

The visions of science fiction which shows the human being of the future with a big head and a big brain are not plausible. Because so that happens , it would be necessary: 1) that there is a diversity, in the population, as for the size of the brain (what is true); 2) that this anatomical diversity matches a genetic diversity (what is also true: the size of the brain is genetically given); 3) that there is a correlation between reproductive success and the size of the brain… what is not true. People who have a bighead do not make, on average, more children than those who have small ones. Selfishness of the intellectuals as Barres noted it, or part of the women, it does not matter!

Another example is that of the wisdom teeth *: these will not disappear, and the fault falls to the dentists about it! Indeed, the third molars were disappearing: a certain proportion of humans do not have wisdom teeth, or only one or two , or have some of them which don’t emerge from the gums. Our jaw having reduced, the wisdom teeth have no longer enough place. Before the arrival of their extraction by dentists, those who had some of them, suffered from abscess or other problems, what involved less a good health, therefore, a shorter longevity. These people there conceived therefore, on average, less children: the natural selection was eliminating their genes from mankind. The extraction of the wisdom teeth stopped this process.

The only way of making the size of the brain increasing, of eliminating the wisdom teeth, or the little toe, or modifying s whatever characteristic it is (but provided that it is genetically determined); would be to make artificial selection with ourselves as we do it with our domestic animals and plants. i.e., it would be necessary to control who reproduces and who does not reproduce.

Report written by Daniel Fortier, physics teacher at the junior high school Lionel-Groulx (Sainte-Therese, Quebec).

* The tooth that Vindos/Finn touched with his thumb to have intuitions worthy to be these of a clairvoyant.

Editor’s note. As in the case of the incentive to the universal interbreeding, obligatory or made politically desirable, therefore! But it would be there a mentality of horse stock breeders!

We also prefer to eliminate from the report of this conference a prediction of the author which has no reason to appear in it: “It is foreseen that before the end of the 21st century, the majority of the population of Western Europe will be Muslim “. Such a prediction has nothing to do with in a study on druidic spirituality, and in any event, this regression will not take place if the common sense overcomes *. Our part is well to enlighten Mankind, to make it less alienated as far as possible, and not to make it move back in obscurantism in the name… in the name… in the name of what by the way? ?

The set QUR.HAD.SIR. and SHAR.FIQ.MAD is inferior, and even inferior to druidism even to Christianity! There does not exist, for example, in the Islamic religion (Quran hadiths Sira and Sharia Fiqh Madhahib); equivalent of the parables of the adulteress (Christianity-Gospel) or of the wife of Partholon (druidism: Irish book of conquests). Nor some equivalent of the law repressing more seriously the crime committed against a foreigner than that which is perpetrated against one of one's compatriots (or co-religionist therefore by definition at the time, cf. the druidism according to Nicholas of Damascus : collection of remarkable customs); even still of the parable of the good Samaritan (Christianity-Gospel). Over and above the fact that ancient druids also (they were homophonon according to Diodorus of Sicily, Book V, 31) also spoke the divine language par excellence (kalam nafsi. But it is true Mu’tazilis recognized that Quoran was not uncreated. Duly noted!)

On the other hand, what is certain, and there we entirely agree with this author, unlike a spread idea, creationism progresses a little everywhere in the world. French schools for example lately received (coming from Turkey) a richly illustrated book presenting the creationism as a possible alternative to

144

the theory of the evolution. Everywhere in the world indeed, but for different reasons, individuals found a common enemy in the person of Charles Darwin.

* It is true that with the media people we have it is not won!

WORKING PAPER No. 2

THE TEILHARDIAN VIEW OF THE END OF THE WORLD (LEADING TO THE END OF THE HISTORY, BUT ALSO

TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE COSMOS).

Mankind is not the result of a linear evolution which leads directly from matter to him. But he is the result of a “groping “of the life.

The history of the life is conceived as a research and the apparent chance is only the pressure of the Life towards more adaptation.

- The groping, in Teilhard of Chardin, is his way of giving an account of the chance in the natural evolution. Rather than to claim that chance does not exist, Teilhard integrates it in a broader representation according to which the Life - keyword of his thought - tends through experimentation towards increasingly complex and increasingly conscious states. For better adapting to the environment.

- The tension is not linear, direct: it is made of attempts or mistakes. Nothing is a forgone conclusion …

Teilhard says to us that the history of the Life is strewn with corpses and failures. But he adds, nevertheless life always triumphed!

With the appearance of Mankind, i.e., of a reflective awareness, the issue will be confused. Whereas the living groped in all the directions for better adapting to the environment and the adversity… The destiny of the Man becomes objective and analyzable by the human awareness.

The future is not then only a simple matter of unconscious groping or of deterministic thrust , but of responsibility. It is not by looking at his origins we understand the Man and the sphere of the thought, but by scanning his spreading and his future. The Man, with complete freedom, can break or stop the

145

evolution, even regress… [Such is besides the great fear of the author of this compilation, the recent expansion of Islam or of Christian fundamentalism inspires the greatest amount of concern to him].

Second principle which has to guide our analysis of the spreading of the Noosphere.

So attractive is it, the problem of the origins, even solved in detail, does not solve the human problem. We are right perfectly to regard the discovery of the fossil men as one of the more enlightening and most critical lines of modern Research. We would, however, not have to be deceived for that on the limits, in all fields, of this form of analysis which is the embryogenesis. If, in its structure, the embryo of each animal is frail, fugacious, and consequently, in the past, practically imperceptible, how much more still, in its characteristic features, it is equivocal and indecipherable! It is not in their germs that the beings appear, but in their blossoming. Taken at their spring, the largest rivers are only thin brooks. They are therefore not by looking backwards that we can understand the enigma of the human phenomenon!

Teilhard does not condemn the research of the paleontologists necessarily, far from it, since he was himself one of them… but he thinks that the paleontologists and the biologists see only one dimension of it…

The beings appear and are understood truly only in their blossoming we have said. To grasp the really cosmic extent of the human phenomenon, it was necessary we follow the roots from there, through the Life, to the first envelopments of the Earth on itself. But, if we want to understand the specific nature and to guess the secret of Mankind, there is no other method than to observe only what the reflection already gave, as what it announces.

In short, Teilhard de Chardin invites us to reconcile two apparently contradictory positions…

On the one hand, the Man is only a branch, moreover, in the tree of life. It is an animal, close cousin of the apes. Position of the majority of the scientists and nature philosophies.

In addition, the human phenomenon is irreducible with the animal genus: there is something in it single one.

HOW TO RECONCILE BOTH?

- The (a) position matches the observation of the origins, of the germs.

- The (b) position matches the blossoming and the spreading of Noosphere.

In this sense, Teilhard de Chardin therefore forces us to think in the duration and not in the instantaneity.

However, nothing is a foregone conclusion : the possibility of a failure of the evolution leading to the Man exists…

Two questions can then arise.

- Will the failures of the human adventure be limited historically and geographically, as in the vegetable and animal evolution, which leaves behind it many corpses? And in this case, the human history will arrive to a final achievement…

- Or can the human adventure crumble completely, following a kind of collective suicide?

For this last question, to read again his reflection about the nonsense of the world. Teilhard believes by no means in a imminent cosmic cataclysm. Since the living produced a new species able to face more effectively the adversity as well as the adaptation to the environment, he reckons that human ingeniousness will always manage to get through riskiest situations…

The cosmic nature of Mankind.

The Man is a cosmic being and not “a virgin wax “on which it is possible to write everything and anything.His lines of growth are biologically defined. As a person , i.e., as a whole, member of the cosmic Whole, the human being has the fundamental duty to be improved, to be personalized, in the direction of the Evolution which carries him; i.e., from the spiritual origin to the spiritual completion. It is the evolution which makes it possible to distinguish the Right from the Unright, to say what is truly Straight.

The Law of the Evolution.

For Teilhard, the Universe is not an Order but a Process. Nothing is immutable in the universe, “nature is future “. The “universal drift “ is in the middle of Time and Space. Everything evolves, changes, and becomes more and more complex, in a total process of cosmogenesis.

146

This process, it is the Hominization, the evolution of the human phenomenon, from the prehuman being to the ultra human being, by spiritualization of the Matter. The Law of Evolution, it is the major law of the rise of the cosmic energy, which culminates in human energy.

The Morals of the cosmogenetic Evolution.

The objective is the melting of everything in the Whole. The means of it is the Hominization, and can result only from the dynamism of the socialization, which is a force, and not a social statism. The Rightheous one, i.e., the law, is to make possible the full development of the force of socialization. Is wrongful, all that limits the socializing and therefore personalizing force.

The disappearance of the modern law.

The modern law, which is unfair, will disappear. All the moral and legal laws of the modern world will be absorbed by the cosmogenetic Evolution. The liberal law will be replaced by “universal psychic energy “. Through a progressive and increasing socialization, the organic one replaces the legal one.

By the development and the rise of the spiritualization, the adjustment of the One to the Whole becomes automatic, because necessary. So it is thus, well, it is enough to let the primarily biological nature of the moral and social law, play, which universalizes, “organicises “ and automates, the responsibility…

The advent of the Man marks an entirely original stage, of importance equal to that was the appearance of the life; and that we can define as the installation on the planet, of a thinking sphere, superimposed to the biosphere : the noosphere.

We only start to realize… that Mankind occupies a key position, a main axis position, a polar position in the World. So that it would be enough for us to understand the Man, to have understood the Universe *. Just like the Universe would remain misunderstood, if we do not manage to integrate into it, in a coherent way, the entire Man, without distortion. Not only with his limbs, but with his thought.

* Editor’s note. “ We may compare human things with divine “.

At the beginning, complexification…

It is necessary to recognize in the Life the expression of one of the most significant and most fundamental movements of the World around us; not under some sentimental or gratuitous option, but by a network of sound reasons which are discovered immediately. If we become aware of the structural and close connection, llinking “the vital accident “to the enormous and universal phenomenon (so obvious, and, however, still so little understood!) of the complexification of the Matter…

Given up to oneself, unquestionably, a part of the cosmic fabric, not only does not break up, but still, through a kind of flower of itself, starts to vitalize. So that, in addition to the entropy (by what energy is degraded); in addition to the expansion (by what the layer of the Universe spread and are grained); in addition to electric and gravitational attractions (by what sidereal dust is aggregated); we have from now on (if really we want to cover the experiment and to comprehend the whole phenomenon) to consider or admit; livening up the total mass of the things; a constant, perennial, current, of “complexification which interiorizes “. The same Universe is rolled up and centered from the very simple one to the immensely complicated; the movement accelerating here and there (as in a kind of headlong rush) instead of slowing down. We may also speak of passage from the Not arranged to the arranged one…

If, in one way or another, our World is really something which is arranged, then we understand better that Life can no longer be looked in the Universe as a surface accident; but that we must regard there as putting an astounding pressure everywhere - ready to burst anywhere in Cosmos through the least crack. And once left, unable not to use any chance and any means to arrive at the extreme of all that it can reach, outside in complexity, inside in conscientiousness…

What, in each point and at every moment, defines and measures the rolling up (the arrangement) of the Universe, it is, by definition, the level of vitalization reached by the Matter on the considered point and top. But it is not all! What once again is necessary to add, defines and measures the vitalization of a given corpuscle, it is its level of internalization, or “psychic tension “ (conscientiousness, culminating at the Man in the wild). Since, we recognized higher, the two variables are closely dependent. What is this to say, if it is not that , if there were by chance in the living a portion ( a certain organ) more

147

especially connected with the psychic development of the being; it is the complexity of this part alone (the rest doing nothing but disturb measurements!) which could, and which would have, being used, to assess the level of corpusculization reached by the examined living . Didn't I name here the nervous system? exclaims then Teilhard…

The author then lengthily enumerates the research results on the evolution of the nervous system and of the brain in the mammals, anthropoids, primates… since the oldest times.

In fact, once recognized that, in the superior living, it is the level of cerebralization which measures the true complexity (i.e., the almost absolute state of vitalization) of the beings; it is almost a truism to decide that it is through Primates, and more especially through Anthropoids, that passed on the Earth, before Mankind, the main axis of the cosmic movement of corpusculization, or formation of delimited, mobile and autonomous individuals.

Mankind, the plunge of the Reflection.

What explains the biological revolution caused by the appearance of the Man, it is an explosion of awareness.

Father Teilhard specifies here, in a note, that the human group behaves functionally like a single final “inflorescence “on the Tree of Life. He also notices: higher effect of corpusculization, the Noosphere, ultimate and superior product , in Mankind , of the social ties forces, takes a full and final sense only under one condition. It is that it is looked at, in its total whole, as forming one immense corpuscle, where is completed, after more than six hundred million years, the biospheric effort of cerebralization. Then he insists again on the fact that the process took a great length. To speak about socialization, it was necessary that there is a large number of individuals.

Effects of orthogenesis.

By “orthogenesis “in the most etymological and most general senses of the term; it is necessary to understand the fundamental drift whereby the Fabric of the Universe behaves in our eyes as moving towards corpuscular states increasingly more complex in their material arrangement; and, psychologically, increasingly more interiorized. Drift directly fallen, within an increasing concentration of the nervous system.

REMARKS OF TEILHARD OF CHARDIN ABOUT THIS TIME OF OUR HISTORY.

If we look towards the infinitely small, the number and the indifference of the elementary particles, seem alarming. If we look backwards to the birth of the world, we enter a swirl of energy beyond all that we can imagine, where only the chance, the random leaps, seem to direct any outline of evolution. And even, if we look into the world of the living, we see that Man appears to be only an animal species, moreover. On a time scale, the appearance of the Man, three million years ago, seems to be only a transitory and quite frail breath…

BUT Teilhard de Chardin notes …

- So that the awareness arises, it is necessary that nature tries out all the possible ways.

- And the possibilities or the functionalities of the awareness depend on organic complexity. There exist no awareness in a simple universe.

- If the evolution, of which life laws are based on the adaptation to the environment, made it possible the appearance of Man, it is that Man bears in himself the best guarantees of adaptation.

- As soon as the awareness appeared on Earth, it covered the whole Planet: a new era started… the Noosphere is the thinking sphere which covers our Earth: it follows the “Biosphere “which represents the alive cover on the surface of the globe.

Just as the Biosphere seems to form only a total unit , but organized in multiple branches and multiple species; in the same way the Noosphere – of which we can understand the senses only in the future - will tend towards an organic unit more powerful than the Biosphere, because it answers the environment better…

Since arose the scientific problem of the human origins - since that an increasing team of researchers persists in excavating the past at its initial point of hominization - I cannot find a more expressive catchphrase than this one to summarize the discoveries of Prehistory.

The more lucky finds of human fossils multiply, the more their anatomical characters and their geological succession light, the more it becomes obvious, through a ceaseless coming together of all the indices and all the evidence; that the mankind, so single it is by the stage where reflection brought it, shook nothing in Nature at the time of its appearance.

148

Either indeed that we look it in its environment, or that we considered it in the morphology of his stem, or that we inspected it in the total structure of its group; it rises in our eyes exactly like any other species. The appearance of the Man on Earth shook nothing deeply in the Biosphere. Mankind entered it without noise…

When Man appeared in nature, “in the middle of the primates “ as “axis and arrow of the zoological Evolution, “ he was similar to the other animals, except that he bore in him a very particular difference: the still sleeping capacity to reflect. At the stage of the hominization, the first men had potentially a brain able to reflect, but a still primitive nervous system. The dispersive movement of the first peopling of the Earth did not support the communication. Thereafter, nevertheless, during the beginning of the stage ranging from Homo sapiens to the dawn of the Neolithic Age, Mankind begins to gather together, while forming a convergent line on the Earth: the grouping became necessary. This favorable condition encouraged the Man to jump the Step of the Reflection. A very special phenomenon then occurred: the birth of a new planetary sphere, above the Biosphere, the Noosphere. To this process of the creation of a new planetary cover entirely formed by the whole of the human thought, Teilhard de Chardin gave the name of Noogenesis.

The result of the Noogenesis is therefore the Noosphere, a riper layer, fulfilling and definitive, consisted of the whole of the thought of Homo sapiens. It is open to every subtle modification since the primitive stage, until it can house all human knowledge, all the increasingly complex ideas or technologies, even the whole planetary awareness.

So that the brain is capable of this almost unlimited absorption that the human thought can develop until modern times, it was necessary that Man undergoes some essential modifications in his brain and his nervous system.

Evolution, Teilhard tells us, did not arrive yet at its end; it rebounds, in the same process of rolling up on oneself; but this time as evolution aware of itself, by giving rise to a new stage of the Noogenesis, which by no means stopped after the creation of Noosphere. On the contrary, with the overpopulation of the Earth, Noogenesis progresses. How to recognize this progression, this new stage of the Noogenesis? Is there hope for a true planetary awareness in the third millennium? Will we dare to expect an age where Matter will be put at the service of Mind instead of the opposite as today? If so, how will this change be performed t?

According to Teilhard, this bounce of the Evolution is done by subtle mutations, from generation to generation, along a continuum, while following the genetic phylum having begun in the shadows of the enormous past of the Man. It is visible in our eyes in small nuances we observe with each remarkable difference in the space of some generations.

Let us take the phenomenon of the size difference between a generation and its descent. It has been a phenomenon already observed by Science for a few decades, formerly more dispersed, but currently more frequent. Noticed before only in the people of the North of Europe, this phenomenon is obvious today in the people of the whole world, without reference to race nor of consanguinity.

Parallel to this mutation, there is another difference in the IQ of the younger generations; we can notice easily there a sensitive difference in favor of the generations F 2. That proves, by pointing out to us the “Law of Complexity-Conscienciousness “which governs the evolution, and by taking account of the development of the structures of the brain, it is a movement of cerebralization. It is a cerebral complexification, as physical as psychic. Physical, given the specialization of the neurons with the increase in nerve fibers necessary to occupy more space in a taller physical body and in a more complex brain; and psychic, compared to the behavior of the Man, who, according to the main law, becomes more conscious of himself, and seeks more and more Individuation, in an inner convergence fitting in the evolutionary direction.

This movement of cerebralization by psychic as well as physical mutations prepares the next evolutionary stage. Because, as Teilhard explains it to us, Evolution is a initially basically psychic change, facing the organic “limits “of the brain: the movement in the future will be in the Mind of Mankind.

Followed while going up towards the very great complexes, the same “psychic “element, as of its first appearance in the human beings, expresses, in relation with its matrix of “complexity “ an increasing tendency to control and autonomy.

149

After the emergence emersion comes. From the point of view of cosmic involution, not only the conscientiousness becomes coextensive with the universe, but the universe remains in balance and in connection with the matter , in the form of the thought, on a higher pole of internalization.

So, when we examine the behavior of the Modern Man, it is necessary to give it a sense ; to scan its ultimate motivation; and not to lose oneself in too detailed considerations on its so improved physical structure, which comes to crown the Evolution. Better, so that this human phenomenon has a sense, it is necessary to suppose another dynamic structure in the Man; what would be his Spirit, his soul, which would not have a palpable “housing “in all these cerebral specialized outgrowth; but which henceforth will direct his psychic behavior towards more spiritual development, for the Age of the collective awareness to come.

The progress of Mankind prolonging that of all the other living forms, incontestably develops in the direction of a conquest of the Matter put at the service of Mind. The thought improving artfully the body even of its thought, the life rebounds ahead under the collective effect of its reflection.

Effects on Noosphere.

This process of rebound of the evolution will not be able to occur without being in line with the main law of Complexity-Awareness, by following the law of Convergence (“Everything that rises, converges “). What leads us to think of a Universe which is rolled up while blossoming.

Since Noosphère is a cover made of human thought, it evolves simultaneously with the whole of the evolution of the planetary awareness. Any person who creates culture, contents… and puts it in the common inheritance, contributes to the extension of the noosphere, by “marking one’s territory “inside the latter. He is (co) owner, not of a portion of the noosphere, but of the totality of this one… with billion others (co) owners.

In his article “Noosphere and Hyperworld “ P. Berger quotes these thoughts of Teilhard. Deep into the most spiritualized zones of our being, undoubtedly, some inner needs remain; which unrelentingly force us to continue without stopping our moving forwards … Doubling, and little by little relaying the push coming from the bottom, here therefore that the appearance of an attraction going down from the top is discovered as organically essential for the continuation of the operation: essential to support the evolutionary thrust. And essential, at the same time, to create, around the Mankind in the process of totalization, psychic warmth, cordial atmosphere; out which the economic-technical influence of the world could only crush the soul/minds the ones against the others. Without succeeding in welding them between them and unifying them. Under these conditions, it would be useless for us, of course, to seek to escape the swirl which tightens on us. On the other hand, what is excessively important, it is to know how, in this swirl, to spiritually direct us or behave ourselves; so that the totalizing pressure to which we are subjected, has as a consequence, not to dehumanize us through mechanization, but (as it seems possible) to superhumanize us by intensification of our understanding power.

What can we do to encourage, to ensure that the self-cerebralization of Mankind becomes the most concentrated expression of the reflective bounce of the evolution moving towards the conquest of the matter put at the service of the Mind?

The only possible exit will be of spiritual nature, by relying on the great and hard work of the Evolution; which, by succeeding in creating the human beings with so much care, cannot be conceived as being organized single-handedly randomly. It is necessary to affirm, with Teilhard, that “Yes“ it is a directed evolution, conscious of itself; because there is an Engine which directs it and attracts it to It, an ultimate point [Editor’s note. Cf. the letter eabadh of the oghamic alphabet].

In which shape, along which lines, could we conceive in the future the progress of the “noospheric “ effects?

In a collective and spiritual form initially! As of the appearance of Mankind , we could note a certain deceleration of passive and somatic changes of the organism, in favor of the conscious and active metamorphoses of the individual taken in society. The artificial one relaying the natural one. Oral or written transmission being added to the genetic (or chromosomal) forms of heredity…

It may be that, in its capacities, as in its individual force of penetration, our brain reached its organic limits. But the movement does not stop necessarily . From West to East, the evolution is from now on elsewhere occupied, in a richer and more complex field; to build, with all the minds put together - the Spirit - beyond the nations and the races, the taking as a whole , inevitable and already in progress, of Mankind.

Mankind has in front of it huge possibilities… Since the Plunge in Reflection, thanks to the astonishing properties of “the artificial one “which, separating the instrument from the organ, makes it possible the same being to intensify but also to vary indefinitely the modes of its action without losing something of

150

its freedom; thanks at the same time to the extraordinary power of the Thought in bringing closer or combining in the same conscious effort all the human particles; we entered a completely new field of the Evolution… We do not have yet an idea of the possible size of the “noospheric “ effects. The resonance of millions human vibrations! The collective and additive product of a million years of Thought!

With the cyberspace , this famous planetary awareness, so much preached by precursors like Teilhard de Chardin, becomes palpable. In the cyberworld, the notion of a foreigner does not exist!

Editor’s note.

It remains nevertheless in the view of Teilhard de Chardin, some rests of dualistic thought, due to his Christian formation. It may always be indeed, according to a relentless law, which nothing in the past has yet escaped, that Evil too, also growing at the same time as Good, reaches at the end its height, itself also, in a specifically new form. No top without abyss… in the course and under the process which gathers it, Noosphere, come at its unification point, would be cleaved in two zones, respectively attracted towards two antagonistic worship poles… Last once still, the ramification.

In short, Teilhard always considers two almost contradictory possibilities; while indicating to us that we must turn our efforts towards the good one (For more details on the thought of Teilhard de Chardin see Maria Luiza Glycerio and Janice B. Paulsen).

As Teilhard de Chardin understood it very well , History is anything else only the materialization of the Soul which seeks itself throughout the world, and tries to better understand itself. The men, thrown in the middle of the historical process, act while pursuing their interests, according to their passions. But they work in fact for the universal Reason (the noosphere) and the realization of its ultimate end: the self-deification of the universe.

Editor’s note. Same reasoning that in the case of the invisible hand of Adam Smith. It is very debatable. At the very least very optimistic.

The history of the men is therefore depends on the development of the Soul or of the universal Reason in the world, what leads to a design of the end of the History where the whole of the Soul is carried out.

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

The thought of Teilhard of Chardin in this respect collides directly, among the Christians, their residues of dualism, inherited from the Greeks, and from the Manichean model of evil, identified with matter.

Philosophically, Teilhard indeed reduces the old antagonism spirit/matter in a unified vision of the reality: spirit and matter, two faces of the same reality.

Evil and Good are the two poles of our evolution in a movement morality.

Everything is Evil which divides and makes us regress towards the Multitude.

Everything is Good which unites and makes us progress towards the unified Multiplicity.

Each one of us is in a dynamic of ascent or descent. It is only in this dynamic that we can judge our situation: what a good for me was yesterday can be an evil today, if I go down again there; what is a good for X is perhaps an evil for Y, if it were his situation of yesterday and if he progressed since.

Vladimir Vernadsky deplored that the discovery of the evolution (which he ascribes to Cuvier, before Wallace and Darwin) eclipsed the other problems. “ The evolution of species occupies a central place in this design, but draws attention to it to the point of forgetting about other biological phenomena which are just as important, if not more“. And he pleads to the biologists so that they are interested more in biogeochemistry, in order to provide the data necessary to its later development. Moreover, the relationship which can exist between the evolution of the species and the biogeochemical phenomena is, according to him, “one of the most important scientific problems of our time “.

If he considers the evolution as something which is no longer “doubtful “ he refuses the elements reactionary and Malthusian elements peculiar to the Darwinian theory and its metamorphoses. For him [and like St Columba of Iona], to replace the God of the religion by the God chance, is not satisfactory. There is well a direction in the evolution, which is not only controlled by fortuitous meetings of molecules, by changes. The principal effect of this evolution, considered from a biospheric total point of view , is to increase chemical activity and free energy.

151

The theory of the evolution of Darwin, and the biosphere of Vernadsky, were unified by Teilhard de Chardin in a powerful holistic approach of the “human phenomenon “; that he designs as a stage of the evolution leading to the spreading of the noosphere. Which prepares the advent of an end of the world through the super-spiritualization in an attractive point or a driving force of the space-time.

This point is conceived as being the convergence center of the evolution. This point of the space-time expresses the advent of an era of harmonization of the awareness, based on the principle of the “coalescence of the centers “. Each center, or individual awareness, is brought to enter cooperation, increasingly closer, with the awarenesses with which he communicates, those becoming, in the long term, a noospheric whole. The not homogenizing identification of the whole with the subject who perceives it, involves an increase in awareness, of which this point forms in a way the center of attraction concerned, on the individual level as much as on a collective scale. The multiplication of the centers, like relative images of the whole of the harmonized centers, takes part in the advent of the spiritual resurrection, or theophany, of the human incarnation.

Announcing the planetarization that we experiment today, Teilhard thus develops the notion of noosphere he borrows from Vernadsky, to conceptualize a sphere of thought wrapping the Earth. Man must, according to him, to join the divine one in a point of perfect spirituality, which would represent de facto, and with no sadness, the end of time.

The Christian formation of Teilhard made that he was unable to help in putting a Christlike interpretation of the myth here: the cosmic Christ. It is an assumption which in reality brings nothing to his reasoning and we can perfectly to without it.

Globalization causes less enthusiasm. But as said it Ernest Renan, i twas never guaranteed to us by whoever that the discovery of reality would be pleasant for us.

Hominization and humanization.

Teilhard also thinks of identifying, parallel to biological evolution, evolution of moral type: the affection for the offspring is found in the mammals and not in the reptiles appeared in an earlier way. The mankind, in spite of its bouts of sporadic violence, endeavors to develop increasingly elaborate networks of solidarity (Red Cross of Dunant, Welfare state of Bismarck… The bodily evolution which led to the hominization is coupled , according to him, with a spiritual evolution, which he names humanization.

Wondering from which this addition of awareness comes, he allocates it to the growth in complexity of the nerve structures: the brain of the mammals is more complex than that of the reptiles, that of human more complex than that of the mice.

Evolution and organization.

The evolution occurs then in his opinion in the possibility of the awareness of communicating the ones with the others and of creating, de facto, a kind of super-being. While uniting together through the communication, the awarenesses will make the same qualitative shift as the molecules which, while gathering had passed abruptly from the non-living to the living.

End of this world!

Very far from reaching a maximum (or even to go backwards) as we too often hear people saying that the Man is today in full rise… No physical or psychic force - on the planet as it is - appears able to prevent Mankind, during several million years still, to seek, invent, create, in all directions.

A)Initially collectively, Mankind tends, technically psychically, to converge on oneself… Under these conditions, Mankind tends towards a higher state of collective reflection being expressed, not through an expansion and an increasingly larger diversification of our field of affectivity or of knowledge; but well rather by a view of the world still more narrowly localized. In that, we could say, theoretically and ideally speaking that Mankind will finish when, having finally understood, it will have, through a total and final reflection, reduced everything in it to shared passion and idea.

B)Then individually. At the end of the growing phase of socialization which has been just closed, we had believed that it was in a gesture of insulation, i.e., through individuation, that we were going to reach the end of ourselves. From now (i.e., since Hominization entered its phase of convergence); it becomes obvious that it is on the contrary only by an effect of synthesis, i.e., by personalization, that we can save what is really sacred in the depths of our selfishness. The extreme center of each one of us coincides (without merging) with the confluence point of a human multitude stretched, reflected, and made unanimous, freely, on itself.

152

C) Finally cosmically. If truly, by its thinking portion, the vitalized Matter converges, we must well to imagine, matching the point of noospheric reflection, some absolute immanent end of the Universe … Just as the astronomers speak about a primitive atom, is it not strange that the biology, extrapolated in the extreme (and this time forwards) leads us to a similar assumption? That of a universal focus, no longer of externalization and physical expansion, but of psychic internalization, towards which earthly Noosphere, in the process of concentration (through complexification) seems intended to arrive…

Teilhard assesses the chances and the conditions of the success of the evolution of this world, and concludes by the following proposal. If the psychic pole of convergence towards which revolves, by being arranged, the Matter, was nothing else, nor nothing in addition, than the totalized impersonal and reversible, grouping, of all the cosmic grains of thought, temporarily reflected the ones on the others; then the rolling up on oneself of the World would be broken up when the evolution, by progressing, would more clearly be aware of the dead end where it leads. Under the penalty of being unable to form a keystone for the Noosphere, the ultimate point can be conceived only as the meeting point between the Universe arrived to its limit of centration, and another center even deeper. Self-remaining center and absolutely ultimate principle, that one, of irreversibility but also of personalization.

And it is in this point, if I am not mistaken, that on the Science of the evolution (so that evolution is able to function in hominized environment) the problem of God slots into; driving force, collecting and consolidating, ahead, of the evolution.

CONCLUSION.

We will notice that the super-being evoked by Teilhard de Chardin is without relation with the superman of Nietzsche, in whom Teilhard sees only too simple an extrapolation of a completed past. And which does not take into account the phenomenon of increasing communication between the individuals (“the caterpillar who questions its future imagines itself super-caterpillar“). For Teilhard, it is no longer on the level of these only individuals that the process of evolution is carried out, and he even dares, on this subject, a lyric sentence. “Nothing in the universe could resist a sufficiently large number of grouped or organized intelligences.“ Ernest Renan saw the God in the process of construction.

The Catholic Church having always preferred to ascribe Evil in the World to the works of Satan, and not to a plan wanted by God himself, therefore required of Teilhard to adjourn his publications. And registered in the Index, until further information, what was already printed under his name.

153

WORKING PAPER No. 3.

ANOTHER VISION OF THE DESTINY OF MAN, LESS COLLECTIVIST THIS TIME.

Poem of the Bad Passer-by (summarized by Peter DeLaCrau).

He has come. He whom disquieted priests exorcised, whom sorcerers evoked on dark nights, without yet seeing him appear, to whom the presentiments of the transient masters of the world lent all the monstrous or graceful forms of gnomes, spirits, genii, fairies and familiar spirits. The reign of man is over.

After the coarse designs of primitive fear, more clear-sighted men foresaw it more clearly. Mesmer divined him, and ten years ago physicians accurately discovered the nature of his power. They played with that weapon of their new Lord. I have seen them amusing themselves like impudent children with this horrible power!

Woe to us! Woe to man! He has come, I fancy that he is shouting out his name to me and I do not hear him ...

the Horla will make of man what we have made of the horse and of the ox. Woe to us!

But I must know him, touch him, see him! I remember the words of the monk at Mont Saint-Michel:

"Can we see the hundred-thousandth part of what exists? Look here; there is the wind which is the strongest force in nature, which knocks men, and blows down buildings, uproots trees, raises the sea into mountains of water, destroys cliffs and casts great ships onto the breakers; the wind which kills, which whistles, which sighs, which roars--have you ever seen it, and can you see it? It exists for all that, however!"

154

My eyes are so weak, so imperfect, that they do not even distinguish hard bodies if they are as transparent as

glass!... If a glass without tinfoil behind it were to bar my way, I should run into it, just as a bird which has flown into a room breaks its head against the window panes. A thousand things, moreover, deceive him and lead him astray. How should it then be surprising that he cannot perceive a fresh body which is traversed by the light?

Why should we be the last? Its nature is more perfect, its body finer and more finished than ours, that ours is so weak, so awkwardly conceived, encumbered with organs that are always tired, always on the strain like locks that are too complicated, which lives like a plant and like a beast.

There are four, only four ! What a pity! Why are they not forty, four hundred, four thousand! Ah! the elephant and the hippopotamus, what grace! And the camel, what elegance!

But, the butterfly you will say, a flying flower! I dream of one that should be as large as a hundred worlds, with wings whose shape, beauty, colors, and motion I cannot even express. I see it ... it flutters from star to star, refreshing them and perfuming them with the light and harmonious breath of its flight!... And the people up there look at it as it passes in an ecstasy of delight!...

Perhaps time alone has power over that Invisible and Redoubtable Being. Why this transparent, unrecognizable body, this body belonging to a spirit, if it also had to fear ills, infirmities and premature destruction?

After the man the Horla. After him who can die every day, at any hour, at any moment, by any accident, he came who was only to die at his own proper hour and minute, because he had touched the limits of his existence!

WORKING PAPER No. 4.

AT THE SOURCE OF HATRED:

THE MONOLATRY.

It is the Bible which provided us the “better one “(the quotation marks are essential) of the examples of religious intolerance.

EXODUS 20,2-17. “You shall have no other gods before me [….] You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, I am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation “.

DEUTERONOMY 6,13-14. “ Do not follow other gods“*.

MATTHEW 4,10. 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'"

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 2814.

“ That is why we do not say expressly, "hallowed be your name 'IN US,”for we ask that it be so IN ALL MEN “.

* Each one will be able to note by the way that these basic texts of the Judaism or of Christianity are in no way the expression of the belief in one god (since they admit implicitly that there are other gods); but are the expression without concession (it is an order, a command) of the will to prohibit, to those to

155

whom they are addressed, every worship other than that of the god-or-demon of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

However the worship of one god plunges the man in the withdrawal and in the metaphysical idolatry, in short in alienation or intolerance. The vile remarks of the letters of St Justin to the emperor Antoninus Pius (around 155), explaining to him why Christianity is best religions for the Roman imperialism, makes only that to consolidate this analysis of monotheism.

The sect of the Nazoreans (Acts of the Apostles, 24,5) will definitely never change.

The Ancients said that it was fear that first made god-or-demons in the world: Primus in orbe timor fecit deos 1).

We could say from this point of view that the mandator deity then handed over the reins to his agents, and that fear was transferred from the first to the second ones. Consequently, it was fear that also made the priests: Secundus in orbe timor fecit sacerdotes. But it is well from ourselves, from our apprehensions and our alarms, they draw their power. The authority in general is primarily matters of mental projection. See for example the experiments of Stanley Milgram recorded in his book abou the submission or obedience to the authority. All the psychologists will say it to you: the projection we make initially and spontaneously (at least we think it ) on the beings and the things, have nothing to do with the lucid and matured perception we can then have of them. It is induced in us by education, the training we underwent being children, the force of habit then.

Very quickly, if projection feeds fear, once initial conditioning interiorized, the threat needs no longer to be explicit, in no way. The danger in fact is not in this phenomenon itself, which is inevitable at least at the beginning of any life, but in its use or its manipulation by those who seize it and crown themselves with it, in order to keep during all their life their flock in infantilization. Think for example of the sacrament blackmail that certain priests do… Through our fears, our accumulated projections, we build our own cage, we contribute to our alienation. Our prison has our anguish as foundations. Epictetus said it well: it is not the things which torment the men, but the idea they made of them to them.

1) Lucretius (98-55 before our era) from the line of verse 1218 to the line 1221 of his De natura rerum (book V), wonders about the religious fear which seizes the heart of the man when the lightning tears the sky: “ What man is there whose mind with dread of gods cringes not close, whose limbs with terror-spell crouch not together, when the parched earth quakes with the horrible thunderbolt amain, and across the mighty sky the rumblings run?“.

Lucretius does not say strictly the lightning makes the god-or-demons, but that the fear of the god-or-demons and the fright due to the flashes setting earth ablaze, are in a way concomitant; it is a little higher in the book V, at the lines 1168 and sq., that we can locate a more substantial reflection on the origin of the god-or-demons, or at least on the initial genesis of their representation in ourselves. The origin of this representation would be oneiric and obeys a double method. The sleeping man, if in him the reliefs of diurnal frights grow blurred, is receptive to the “simulacra “of the god-or-demons, i.e., to the subtle material translation (from the back worlds to our universe) of the effigies of the god-or-demons themselves: the peaceful sleep is favorable to the reception in our soul of these divine stereotypes; but when strange phenomena excite the imagination of the primitive man, then the latter ascribe in his dreams a disproportionate unreal dimension, to the objects of the hallucinated visions produced in the waking state on the screen of his imagination: “ Because, in sooth, even in those days would the race of man be seeing excelling visages of god-or-demons with mind awake; and in his sleeps, yet more bodies of wondrous growth“.

The worrying spectacle of the nature, of the dreams who break any moderation, as many factors which feed the anguish of the men. If Lucretius deplores the subjective origin (i.e., hallucinatory) of the idea that we make for ourselves of the god-or-demons, he does not refuse therefore any objective value to the idea itself: an idea is not necessarily discredited because its origin obeys a particular psychogenesis. Moreover Lucretius, as a faithful disciple of Epicurus, guard of a full orthodoxy, by no means denied the existence of the god-or-demons; the latter, because they enjoy an unchanging corporeity responsible for a perpetual ataraxia, are, conversely to what the crowd suppose to them, the beings on the contrary most able to inspire full serenity to us.

156

WORKING PAPER No. 5.

TOWARDS A REENCHANTMENT

OF THE WORLD.

The disenchantment of the world (in German Entzauberung der Welt) is initially a poetic expression of Schiller (literally meaning unbewitchment of the world, if I remember correctly, but it is true that my four years of German are far away) taken over and developed by max Weber.

It evokes today a relation to the world resulting from the development of science and technique, leading to a loss of meaning and illusions, therefore to a growing disappointment.

It is good form today to want “to correct“ Weber. It seems to us, however, that there is not much to add to his analysis of the phenomenon.

Weber indeed sees in the Calvinism the final point (let us say the result) of a long process started with the ancient Judaism and relayed by the Greek thought, until the birth of capitalism. The cultural incredible feat of the Calvinists or other followers of the Reformation will have been to base their speech on human psychological features up to that point considered as vices or faults , for instance the cupidity; thus becoming active agents of a kind of disenchantment of the World. This disenchantment of the world has therefore as effect an emptiness of sense: the fundamental sense of the world, of the existence, disappeared for the modern mankind. The events are regarded as the only product of physical forces, of which the comprehension is, in theory, still accessible to man. The world thus becomes from there to be regarded as deprived of sense, being a pure physical mechanism empty with intention.

157

In short, in his analysis of the process of rationalization of the modern West, Weber insists on the fact that the change of the mental tendencies, or ethos, of the actors, played a crucial role. Scientism was born especially from the change of the action principles (particularly ethical) controlling the life conduct of men. Thus, in his analysis of the birth of capitalism, Weber grants little place to the change of the means of production (what, on the other hand, constitutes the analysis of Marx, who is not always wrong nevertheless, quite the contrary, let us admit it). For Weber, capitalism is therefore mainly risen from the appearance of a new economic ethical code, finding its origin in the Protestant mentality. In this new economic ethos, the life conduct of the actors is directed by the principle according to which the finality of the existence is the work within the framework of a trade: work becomes an end in itself. In the emergence of this new economic morals, the religious beliefs (the reformed religion ) had, for Weber, a fundamental part. Weber thinks thus that the main causes of the emergence of capitalism are not technical or economic, but mainly ethical and psychological. If capitalism could develop, according to Weber, it is thanks to the work asceticism in the world which was in the center of the Calvinist , and more largely puritan, world. In this one indeed, work becomes there the highest task the man may achieve for the glory of God and, especially, the believer one can find in his professional success the confirmation of his status of chosen people of God. It is in the secularization of this asceticism, having specific affinities with the “spirit of capitalism “ that capitalism found the primary impulse to its expansion, by enabling it to overcome the “world of hostile forces “which was opposed to him.

! --------------------------------- ----------------------------- !

The language of the former druidism is thus sometimes colored, as we can note it, poetic even!

The neo-druidism maintains simply as for it, that those who will have lived in this world while avoiding accumulating too much bran; i.e., who will have lived while avoiding multiplying errors and faults, and especially unforgivable faults or crimes with exceptional horror; will have in heritage the pure land which awaits for them since the birth of the world. So that they can there be trained to the melting in the core of the fantastic spiritual “thermonuclear “power station which will close this cycle.

The druidic doctrines of the Vindomagos bring the only possible answer to the doubts and interrogations we can have. Men and women who could not succeed in arriving at the state of awenydd; but who nevertheless at least succeeded in not accumulating too much bran ( ill deeds); reappear after their death in another world of inexpressible peace and light. Called Vindomagos but also Abelliomagos, Aballacon (Avalon or Tir na Ablach), Plain of Joy (Mag Meld), Land of Youth (Tir na Og), etc. Where they can get ready in complete peace to be able, one day, to become awenydd in turn *.

The Vindomagos, whatever its name, which varies according to the nations and the traditions (it is called for example Pure Land or Sukhavati in the Far East), is a world of happiness and peace, without suffering nor passion. Where the blessed Meldi (the believers admitted in this “place”) can mature without obstacles, released from the generating of ategeneto burden: the bran. Before reaching themselves too, the superior illumination and being able to melt with the Big Whole of Pariollon.

The intermediate stage which this world of Vindomagos constitutes; also called Abelliomagos, Aballacon, Avalon or Tir na Ablach, land of the living , Land of women, and others; make the combennones who proved to be unable, because of their human weakness (type sickness of the Ulaid) , to follow the path of the druids or of the kingetes (royal roads of the fighters against oneself) to succeed too, so that their soul opens out finally.

The relation with the deity cannot be really destroyed for the combennones who were good briugu. i.e., who went as far as making many efforts to follow the path of the gods (the reda), while going sometimes as far as sacrificing their life for that.

The druidic doctrines of the preliminary passage in an anteroom of the Celtic heaven, to experiment there some time the destiny of a lost soul (seibaros), do nothing but note reality, in certain cases, of a temporary incapacity for the happiness of the life in a better next world; after death, through reincarnation of the soul in the Vindomagos or Mag Meld. This short stay in the anteroom of the heaven, according to the druids, thus makes it possible to the deceased persons to better get ready at the following stage of the travel of his soul to him: the Plain of Joy (Mag Meld), the Land of Youth (Tir na n’Og), or other, because it does not matter the name provided that we have its exhilaration.

The druidic doctrines of the reincarnation do nothing but note the reality in certain cases (extremely rare) of a new life on earth; after death, through reincarnation of the soul in other bodies, if there were

158

accumulation of too much bran before, by the departed person. This reincarnation thus makes it possible to the deceased person to be purified, by accumulating no longer new cause of ategeneto.

Reincarnation in another body, but in the next world; by no means excludes the possibility of a resurrection of the bodies, of a resurrection of the flesh, of those who will be still in life on earth when the time of the great regeneration of the universe erdathe or airtach in the Irish texts, arrives on earth. The reassuring example of Setanta, so mythified is it, is to be meditated on this subject. Having, in previous embodiments, faced himself the hellish cycle of the ategenetones, the hesus Setanta Cuchulainn left victorious from it through his ascension into heaven . Thus witnessed according to the Tradition: “ The soul of the Hesus Cuchulainn appeared there to the thrice fifty queens who had loved him, they saw him floating in his phantom chariot over Emain Macha, and they heard him singing though dead:

Emain O Emain !

Powerful realm ! “

* Here how Noibo Adamnan following Plutarch describes the Vindomagos which awaits for the men and women rather of first function type and even more precisely of “contemplative” type, and not of warlike type basking in the brawl.

A Kingdom 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. A noble, admirable, ethereal realm, endowed with the wisdom, and radiance, and fragrance of a plenteous land, wherein the enjoyment of every excellence is.

WORKING PAPER No. 6.

TOWARDS A NEW WORLD POLYTHEISM.

Foreword. Below the term of Greek origin polytheist will be used in the following meaning “which has several centers of interest, which is based on several values and not on one”.

! --------- -------------------------- ------------------- !

Eigth billion men live today on this Earth. Among them two billion and half claim to be Christian (of which a billion Catholics), two billion claim to be Muslim, a billion claim to be Hindu, 800 million claim to be Buddhist, 17 million to be Jewish, and a hundred and thousand 1) only are druidicists. However the dialog between religions started seriously a few decades ago hardly.

Because the Man is well the only animal of which we can say: “ To you alone it is given the gods and celestial powers to know or not to know “ (quotation of Lucan in connection with the Celts, De Bello Civili I, 452).

There is no other God or Demiurge that the Tokad, such as he gradually revealed himself to all men of good will, through the gods its assistant forces. But the first just like the last of the beings is the Pariollon or Big Whole. The Pariollon or Big Whole is the immortal and without end, pleroma of the being. It alone is its very being, it is through itself all what it is. Of the Pariollon we can hardly grasp what it is, we can especially grasp what it is not. Pariollon is in no way in the image of Mankind. He is neither man nor woman. The Pariollon is pure spirit and pure matter. Materia prima et ultima where there is no yet place for the gender difference.

159

But even without this very strong faith (the gods are only the secondary causations of the divine Tocade) , it is possible to find the way which leads directly to the next world of heavenly nature, which lies ahead us after death. The druidism concedes without a problem that there is in the other worships an honorable beginning of the quest for the Grail.

The druidism recognizes all what can be true or good in the other religions (Zoroastrianism of our Parsee brothers, Mithraism, religion of Simon the Magician, Odinism, Hinduism, popular Christianity, satanic verses of Islam and so on…). Druidism is not sectarian. The Celtization of the minds and of the hearts for which we hope and pray implies initially a respectful dialog with those who are not yet spiritually Celts (see the famous dialog of Lucian of Samosata about Hercules).

All the ways can lead to the sacred well source of life in the desert *. The druids prefer the small path which feels good the hazel nut (the camminus), but the important is to avoid the highway and its accidents (the mass religions).

And in any case, it is always by following the walking one that we find the path. The Greek Eleatic Buddhists are not lucky because the movement is demonstrated by walking .

Man always wondered about the existence of the god-or-demons. “ They likewise discuss and impart to the youth many elements respecting [...] the power and the majesty of the immortal gods “ (B.G. VI, 13).

Multiple are the expressions of this universal aspiration to the divinity, because it is only in this divinity that Mankind can find truth as well as happiness: “nate memento beto to divo! “. Or “mento beto divo !“ (They are two variants of the life of St Symphorian of Autun, of which translation in Latin is “memento dei tui “).

Most obvious aspect of this small “divine “ side of Man lies in his capacity to be in communion with the divine one the days of Samon (ios). But this intimate and vital relation which links men and god-or-demons, can be forgotten, ignored, and even rejected, either it is through monolatry or atheistic materialism (which comes to the same thing unlike the atheistic spiritualism which, itself, is very different of it).

To believe is a completely fundamental human act. But when the men refer to the Divine one, what the want to say exactly?

The Universal Including indeed could not be mixed with the various caricatures of monotheism that make of it modern monolatries, which alienate Man (the mass religion that are Judaism, Christianity and Islam).

For Jung the existence of a "completely other" is not defined as the transcendent God because it escapes all grasping. The "completely other" on which men feel they depend is what Emile Durkheim highlighted in his famous 1912 essay entitled "the elementary forms of the religious life," namely the basic elements of religion that our friend Jung took up under the name of "numinous" while associating it with his notion of archetypes (gods?)

“If we are going to look for the most primitive and simple religion which we can observe, it is necessary to begin by defining what is meant by a religion ; for without this, we would run the risk of giving the name to a system of ideas and practices which has nothing at all religious about it [like Islam], or else of leaving to one side many religious facts, without perceiving their true nature......

These definitions set aside, let us set ourselves before the problem. First of all, let us remark that in all these formulae it is the nature of religion as a whole that they seek to express. They proceed as if it were a sort of indivisible entity, while, as a matter of fact, it is made up of parts ; it is a more or less complex system of myths, dogmas, rites and ceremonies. Now a whole cannot be defined except in relation to its parts. It will be more methodical, then, to try to characterize the various elementary phenomena of which all religions are made up, before we attack the system produced by their union. This method is imposed still more forcibly by the fact that there are religious phenomena which belong to no determined religion. Such are those phenomena which constitute the matter of folklore. In general, they are the debris of passed religions, inorganized survivals ; but there are some which have been formed spontaneously under the influence of local causes [ ????].

All known religious beliefs, whether simple or complex, present one common characteristic : they presuppose a classification of all the things, real and ideal, of which men think, into two classes or opposed groups, generally designated by two distinct terms which are translated well enough by the words profane and sacred \ (profane, sacré). This division of the world into two domains, the one containing all that is sacred, the other all that is profane, is the distinctive trait of religious thought."

Anima naturaliter pagana and not Muslim, Christian, or Jewish.

Only paganism is really universal, because it says to each man and each people: “Become what you are, be increasingly more particular, be increasingly more different, be increasingly other than me and

160

don’t pass by my road! Go yours! Then and only then harmony of the world will become possible “(the last of the great French celticist: Pierre Lance).

Animan naturaliter pagana … Every man is born a pagan. They are the parents and the social environment (see Pavlov’s dog) which make him then a Jew, a Christian or a Muslim. Paganism was and is still the first religion of Mankind. To claim opposite as Islam Judaism and Christianity do it…. is a dangerous (because a source of intolerance) buffoonery. Soul is naturally pagan.

Belief without reason makes believers some blind men. We saw it well with the religion of the Book: the Judeo-Islamic-Christianity and their various Necronomicon. It is dangerous that men cling so blindly to so illusory and dogmatic doctrines, even if it is not too bad on certain points.

We should not be satisfied with following a religion, it is also necessary to personally check the accuracy of its teaching(in other words to carry out one’s personal quest for the grail). While letting the others make their own experience in this field. The druids have, of course, the mission of working out the salvation of the World while teaching how to go to the other, but we should not under any pretext impose this teaching. The proselytism of the witnesses of Jehovah or Allah does not exist at the pagan ones.

The druidism always understood the attachment which can exist towards the traditions, whatever they are, towards the sanctuaries (offerings and pious sacrifices of use since always like in Meccah); this is why the neo-druidism often exists today jointly with other forms of religious expression. Somebody may at the same time be interested in druidism while being interested in shamanism, magic, Buddhism, Christianity, Wicca, and so on.

The message of the druidism is not always accessible to everyone, it is reflective. This is why the invocation of simpler god-or-demons; like the god-or-demon of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Yahweh, become Jehovah, or Allah, etc.; cannot be completely deprived of interest in certain cases, in order to satisfy the religious practices established during childhood.

Because you are not born Jewish Christian or Muslim, you become it through a religious conditioning type “Pavlov’s dog.”

All these non-philosophical and non-well thought because revealed, monotheisms, are, however, confronted with the central problem of the men or women of one book, of one spell Book, that of the literal faith, of the legal devotion, or of the fundamentalist legalism.

The vetero-testamentary Law comprises 613 commandments (mitzvot).

The Roman Corpus juris canonici (of 1917) comprises 2414 canons.

The most famous collection of Islamic traditions, that of Al Bukhari (dead in 870) comprises 7300 hadiths.

All the questions, from the call to prayer, to the dental care, through purchase and sale, are governed by the religious law. The holders of this monolatrous power, of course, reckon always necessary or normal the laws they enact. But they represent actually an incredible burden, which leaves no freedom of thinking or doing, to Mankind, the only solution being the submission to the higher entity (according to them). Such is the literal sense of the word slam (submission).

A lot of monolatrous peoples (Jews, Christians and Muslims) identify the obedience to the divine will with the obedience to these written laws and to their tradition of explanation. But what’s the use of living in this case? (If all our actions are programmed in advance?) There is no longer possible evolution of the anamone (of the self). There is no longer true freedom, even limited, there is only a very subjective illusion of freedom.

It was always easier, of course, to stick simply to the letter of a general law, rather than to seek, according to the concerned individual.

However, no written law can take into account all the cases which can arise, fill the gaps, take into account the concrete interests, of the Man. All these people of one book (Jews, Christians and Muslims), of course, tried to adapt, in the way of the Roman lawyers, legal directives become meaningless, to the concrete conditions of new life; even to deduce from them some ideas matching these new situations. But that did nothing but involve a new accumulation of written laws (through interpretation or explanation of the original law) bordering hoax (Shariah, Talmud).

However more regulations and prohibitions are accumulated, more you end up concealing the main thing. The holes of the net are all the more numerous as the mesh is finer.

161

“ They are said there to learn by heart a great number of verses; accordingly some remain in the course of training twenty years. 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.....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, book VI chapter XIV).

Instead of working to diffuse, like neo-druidism does it; new interrogations on the function of the religion in the life; the underlying philosophical position of all these people of the book (of one book) continues to cultivate the fiction of an unchanging human mindset. The fiction of a Revelation established in a whole hodgepodge of Writings, and for this reason regarded as infallible in its methods and its statements, although often contradictory in the facts.

The gnostic ones in the West who know the importance of never solidifying something in writing, and who knows how civilizations are mortal, therefore invite monolatrous people (Judeo-Islamic-Christians) to a new reading of the spell books in question (Bible-Gospel-Quran).

The word of the god-or-demons is perceptible only in a human word, the revelation of the Universal Including which is the Pariollon or Big Whole, necessarily passes through the mediation of a human experiment and interpretation. From where the druidic topic of the Celtic = chosen language ** of the god-or-demons.

Diodorus of Sicily, Book V, 31. “ It is a custom of theirs that no one should perform a sacrifice without a "philosopher"; for thank offerings should be rendered to the gods, they say, by the hands of men who are experienced in the nature of the divine, and who speak, as it were, the language of the gods **, it is also through the mediation of such men, they think, that blessings likewise should be sought “.

* Zamzam in Meccah. Because the true druidism also fully recognizes itself in the circumambulation (tawaf) carried out around the well and both sacred stones of the Kaaba.

* The exact Greek term is homophonon.

According to the Lebor Gabala Erenn or Auraicept na n-Éces and other legends of the Irish folklore on this subject.

Variant of Auraicept.

“ Incipit Primer of the Poets, that is, eraicept, beginning of lessons.

-Query, what language of the seventy-two was published by Fenius first?

-Answer. Not hard. The Celtic Language.

-Query, what is the reason why select language should be said of Celtic?

-Answer. Not hard. Because what was best and finest from every language.

-Query, then, did not Celtic exist before it was selected ?

-Answer. It did indeed, for the seventy-two languages in the world are not found otherwise. For every obscure sound of every language, a place was found in Celtic owing to its comprehensiveness beyond every language.

-Query, who of the Fenius’ school went to it thither?

-Answer. Not hard. Gaedel son of Ether, son of Toe, son of Baracham, a Scythian Greek.

-Query, how much did he bring of it?

-Anwer. The whole of it except what bards added by way of obscuration after it had reached Fenius .“(Auraicept Na n-Éces, Book of Ballymote).

The Fate may appear to men through a whole series of assistants or secondary causes as the gods but may also appear very well to men through a whole series of other avatars or various mythical incarnations, variable, of the type “God-men.”

Apollonius of Tyana; Siddharta Gautama or Simon the magician, for example. It is therefore not impossible in this druidic view that the famous rabbi from Nazareth (sic) called Yehoshua bar Yosef was too, a great awenydd, or a god-man. Even if his message is definitely less interesting than that of druidism (too much turned towards Jewish people, too unrealistic or too demagogic) and its historicity discussed (many myths in the history of his life and his work: from where did he come? Where did he get all his knowledge? How did he earn his living? Etc.).

162

The druidism raises Lug, Hesus and Mariccus, above the History of the world, but only to make them the vectors of a philosophical projection in the interiority of the soul/minds.

Most important in the avatars explored by the druidism, it is not so much the historicity of Lug, Hesus or Mariccus, but the spark (of light) which is in them.

These incarnations can be repeated in each the cycles or long life of the History of the world, in any time and any place. The divinity hidden behind or in the earthly manifestation, remains more important than the manifestation itself.

The divine message is addressed to all, but because of the diversity of the men and of their differences, each individual understands it in a different way.

Rare are those who understand it in its totality, but it is already of a great help, even when you grasp only a small portion of it, as those who are spiritually Semites (Christians according to the pope Pius XI) do it. Each mortal indeed is located at his level on the way which leads to the castle of the Grail and it is therefore perfectly normal that his relations with the deity are different from those of his neighbor.

The polytheistic philosophy of druidism is a total universal view of the world (German Weltanschauung) which extends to the multiplicity of the religions even other than paganism, which have all, too,to play their role on this Earth, and, therefore, the right to exist. The more there are flowers in the meadow and the more beautiful the meadow is! That thousand and one flowers thus, open out on its fields! They are also some tries to approach the sacredness, the nemetos, having their utility. The Man is free to choose his destiny is free to approach or to move away from the Grail, according to the followed path, nothing is written in advance.

The multiplicity of the religions is necessary to make men and women, of whom the needs are different, and who are not on the same level of spiritual developmental, able to find their own access road to the next world.

According to its natural environment, all these religions seek to pave to the Man the way in its direction, whatever the name that we give to it.

They do not have all nevertheless the same effectiveness.

Unit of goal does not mean identity of path.

Certain religions lead more quickly to the goal, others quickly prove to be dead ends or detours (for example Christianity).

The man steps into it only because he is unaware of the best way.

Admittedly, to venerate other god-or-demons than the Celtic god-or-demons, or that the Fate and its assistants, can also be working, but these results will be only of short length. The druidism itself, knows the more adapted way.

Druidic polytheism therefore does not claim that all the religions are identical, but only that, seen from the summit of the mountain, there is a convergence of a part of the paths they take, because some of them are mislaid in long detours to reach it. In what a state besides! All the religions are not identical. Some of them are less effective than others, contain a larger portion of mistakes.

The ethical problem it is the handing down on one’s own initiative to children not having yet the necessary maturity to really think of it, such religious practices; which will condition “ in the way of Pavlov “ the rest of their life; instead of leaving to them the free choice to believe, or not to believe. That is equivalent in fact to leave in front of them one open door, and to lock all the others. The handing down to the children of a religious option rather than another, should therefore be prohibited, and the religious options should be submitted only to freely consenting adults.

Nevertheless, facing the various descriptions of reality offered by religions, it is not a question to declare the ones true or the others false. But to see well that each one in fact is adapted to the capacity of understanding or comprehension, of its believers, to their level of evolution or awareness, therefore to their environment ultimately.

It is for example obvious, and we have already signaled ; that the set made of the Quran the Hadiths and the Sira is doubly inferior to druidism even to Christianity! There does not exist, for example, in the SHAR.FIQ.MAD. (Quran and hadiths) an equivalent of the parables of the adulteress (Christianity-Gospel) or of the wife of Partholon (druidism: Irish book of conquests). Nor some equivalent of the law repressing more hardly the crime committed against a foreigner than that which is perpetrated against one of his compatriots (or co-religionist therefore by definition at the time, cf. the druidism according to Nicholas of Damascus: collection of remarkable customs); even still of the parable of the good Samaritan (Christianity-Gospel). Besides which the ancient druids too (they were homophonon

163

according to Diodorus of Sicily, Book V, 31) also spoke the divine language par excellence (kalam nafsi. But it is true the Mu’tazilites admitted that Quran was not uncreated. Duly registered !)

We come thus to a juxtaposition of different interpretations, which is not the refusal of any personal conviction on behalf of the druidism; but simply recognition of the various levels of religious experience; from the Christian blind faith to the hair-splitting or to the pilpul of Buddhists.

Only such polytheism can contribute lastly effectively to the peace in the world, by removing any religious pretext to wars. Let's get this straight ! Such a polytheist point of view cannot alone prevent the conflicts, but it can, on the other hand, contribute to effectively reduce the incomprehension and the intransigence of fundamentalisms. When the Muslims have understood that the essence of their pilgrimage in Meccah is not due to Abraham but to a pagan origin, then they will show more comprehension towards paganism.

Because most fanatic, cruelest, fights, are these the color, inspire, or legitimate, the religions of one book. No peace thus between the peoples, without respect of the worship freedom. But can we tolerate intolerance?

The protection of all the religious communities, even other than of druidism, is a part of the duties of any originally well Celtic-minded good king (Shamanism, Megalithism, Odinism, and today Hinduism, Buddhism, Celtic Christianity, etc.). These religions are often, we saw it, the path being best appropriate to the level of spiritual evolution of the peoples (their collective mentality). We could see it in the case of the foundation of the Galatian kingdom (the urban populations could remain as atectoi or “protected people “ the worship of the great mother of the god-or-demons in Pessinunt was kept, and so on).

Of course, generally the religions of the pagan type adapt more easily to tolerance (because of their inwardness) that the religions in which the design of the divine one implies dramatic choices, causing crises. And leads thus to a division between those who follow and those who do not follow, between chosen and not chosen people, between saved and damned people (see for example Judeo-Islamic-Christianity).

Like any revealed religion, Islam is persuaded to have the absolute truth and as each one knows an absolute truth becomes tolerant only as from the moment when it is no longer fully believed. The convinced Muslim cannot be tolerant. The tolerant Muslim is a Muslim who starts to no longer believe 100% in Islam.

Even thing for Christianity, of course. If contemporary Christianity is no longer so intolerant than before, it is more because of its decline than by choice. Until in the 1950s, its slogan was “outside the Church no salvation!”

The tolerance of paganisms as that of the druids can, itself, on the other hand, sometimes go as fa as the assimilation without criticism, the lack of critical mind, the lack of strength in the resistance against new religious totalitarianisms of our time. Case of much of the current French neo-druidic small groups, like the college of the druids bards and ovates of Mrs. H.C. - publication A.G. -; the Breton gorsedd of the Doctor G… L.S., the druidic group of Messrs. P… and D… Publication M. - which mixes up appreciably druidism and Odinism, etc.

We understand very well the reasons of the Hellenistic development of Christology, the interest of the great councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon. We see well indeed what were their deep intentions. But Let's get this straight ! It has to be out of the question for true druids to lapse into Christianity, even without Christ. i.e., to adopt the most absurd basic ideas exclusively belonging to it, without justification other than the weight of unconscious conformism and some habits (example: the original sin, etc.).

In the total context of this new world polytheism underway, the high-knowers are driven only by the following question: how to render comprehensible to people of the Book, a book of spells of the kind Necrtonomicon, that druidism “ it's not so much a rocket science “ than that.

No religion today can allow to it a “splendid isolation “ in the way of the 19th century.

We cannot, and we do not have the right of it, to continue to be unaware of the philosophical moral or esthetic values of the billion other men having lived or always living our planet. We do not have the right to either elude longer the normative questions concerning truth or untruth, in short the values.

From the belief in many god-or-demons to the refusal to believe in God or the Demiurge (atheistic materialism) through the belief in a one god-or-demon; the present small library for the young people does not start from the principle that druidism would be the only one to be right. It tries simply to describe and enumerate the universal great truths admitted by all, while putting them within reach of

164

those who feel spiritually Celtic. i.e., in more or less anthropomorphic concepts and images used by the druidism in its work of pedagogy for teenagers.

Any religion is initially consequently concrete meeting with the sacredness, lived and embodied meeting. Either this higher reality called Pariollon is conceived as impersonal (for example in the case of the Judeo-Islamic-Christians) or un-personal (for example in the case of the pagan ones), as power in the singular (God) or in the plural (gods, spirits, angels or demons).

The religions are relation with something which exceeds or includes the man and his world, with an ultimate true reality, whatever the way in which is designed this Pariollon (the higher Being, the great spirit…). The true religion is a philosophy which proposes to the Man means of making his salvation i.e., ending in another world of heavenly nature (Mag Meld not to mention names). A religion, it is therefore also a relation carried out on the social or individual level, in a living way, in a tradition and a community (in rituals, ethics, and doctrines).

Finally, at least according to druidism.

Any religion is a vision of the life, life attitude, believing lifestyle (and death style). Each religion is an individual or social model including the men and the world, a frame of reference through which men see and live, think and feel, act and suffer (even if they are not always aware of it). A frame of reference based in the immanence but spreading itself in the transcendence, thanks to which Man is directed, intellectually, emotionally. Any religion provides an including sense of the life, guaranteeing the higher values, guaranteeing the unconditional standards, and creating a spiritual fatherland.

In spite of all the difficulties that it supposes, the druids that we are will try to proceed by rational argumentation, instead of insulting or caricaturing, as “monotheists “ do it. We will try to achieve a double goal thus.

- A druidic self-criticism in light of the other religions (that will result in a lot of removals or some revisions, so hurting they are).

- A druidic criticism of the other religions in light of the message of Celtic philosophy since there was a druidic philosophy according to Diogenes Laertius and the Stromatae by Clement of Alexandria (see our first lesson).

It will be in this double approach, to avoid the limited or arrogant absolutism, which “absolutizes “ its truth to it and dissolves the truth of others.

The Gnostics in the West do not intend to defend here, nor an exclusivist point of view , which would condemn overall non-Celtic religions and their truth; nor a position of condescending superiority which would consider from the start our philosophy as being better (in its ethics, etc.).

Such an attitude can lead only to a lazy apologetic , the impossibility of learning, and to the quiddity. In short to the dogmatism, which thinks to have by definition the fulness of the truth, or privileges the letter compared to the spirit, which obviously prohibits to it to find them one day.

But nobody must either expect from us, druids, a surface and irresponsible relativism which would put on the same level all the values and all the standards or all the religious systems.

A badly understood polytheism, which would ratify the other religions without debate, reflection, and criticism; without drawing attention to the non-truths in spite of all the possible truths; which would exclude from criticism, by considering them as taboo, certain religious positions or decisions…

Such polytheism could only lead to a primary antiracism, minimizing the question of truth, or not daring even to pose it. To a coward laissez-faire prone to all the compromises, to all the abdications, even facing the unacceptable one. Even facing intolerable acts you would have said in 1774! For that, it will be necessary, however, to admit a thing, it is that the border between what is false and truth is not a border separating the religions between them, but going inside the religions themselves, whatever they are.

Druidism rejectS nothing of what is true or sacred in the other religions. We have, for example, nothing against the fact of carrying out circumambulations around the Kaaba, that it is in formal dress or in a state of total ritual nudity, to eat mutton on this occasion, or to venerate the black stone of in Meccah. The druidism considers with respect these ways of acting and living, these rules and these doctrines, which differ in many points of what it practices itself and proposes; but bring often also a share of truth. The whole problem is to separate the wheat from the chaff.

It is necessary to agree not to deny the values of the other religions but it is also necessary to refuse to accept without reserve their non-values. Stoningal,refusal of the change of religion, mutilation of robbers - it is more intelligent to make them work in order to refund their victim- the marriage of the young girls, the second-class status of the women and of the non-Muslims, the obligation to observe

165

Ramadan, prohibition to criticize Islamic religion (its founder and his Necronomicon) its Islamocentrism of bad Samaritan, etc., etc., etc.

Humanity needs a dialog done with a reciprocal to give but also to take, which can detect the deep intentions.

The condition of the dialog is the respect of the other such as he is, of his beliefs and of his convictions. It is important therefore in this field that the monolatrous, Jews, Christians and Muslims, seek finally to better know the basic components of the religious tradition of this paganism they scorn and insult so much. And that they make finally the effort to leave their selfishness (their islamo-centrism, their Judeo-centrism) , to seek through which fundamental traits the pagan ones are defined really themselves.

On this point, we begin to arrive to a consensus between the representatives of the various mass religions. The contempt of other spiritualities gives way to comprehension slowly, the ignorance to study, the forced conversion to dialog. More and more Christians look into paganism to study it. The spiritual world is like the natural world: only diversity will save it. Exactly like the health of a forest or a meadow can be measured with the number of plants or species which thrive in its center. Only a great multiplicity of spiritual or philosophical paths will make the men able to find their way through the darkness or the dangers of our time (quotation from memory of Margot Adler).

Here what for example the Christians of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) think already about that.

And it is the first time since the Inquisition that the pagan ones are accepted by a group pertaining to one of the mass religions currently dividing the planet. That some “UU “(sic) of pagan belief and Judeo-Christian “UU “(again-sic), can pray together, under one roof, constitutes a formidable step forward of religious pluralism. Immense are the long-term implications of it, not only for Unitarian universalism, but also for the whole of the Western religions, and therefore for the future of our Mother Earth.

Critical polytheism consequently, which calls each religion, not to justify everything of it, but to show what it has better,deeper.

The stake today is to understand from the inside slowly, why Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu and so on, sees but with other eyes than the druidicist. Sees but with another heart, his destiny and the World, the service of the god-or-demons, as well as the help to be dispensed or not to other men (Nicholas of Damascus and the parable of the good Samaritan) . Why he shows a different attitude as for policy, law, and art.

In short, we need a religion where all the parts feel mutually responsible, and become aware that nobody alone has the truth; but that we all are on the way towards a larger truth which exceeds us.

Truth cannot nevertheless be different according to the religions. The truth can be only the truth. What varies, these are the views that we have of the truth.

What imports consequently it is, through any exclusiveness, to seek the inclusive or the complementary one.

Such a polytheist approach of the things can, of course, only modify not only our answers, but also our questions themselves, our view of ourselves, as well as the way in which we understand the Big Whole. Such polytheism does not impoverish us, it enriches us on the contrary. Our very first concern must be to widen our horizon of comprehension and information. Information, discussion and mutual transformations, such polytheism must consequently result , not in a without criticism mixture, but in a mutual lighting, stimulation, enrichment.

Such is the narrow crest trail leading to this reciprocal comprehension, which is not a beginning of single world religion, but a beginning of pacification in this field (the war of religions initiated 2000 or 2500 years ago).

Because it is obvious that the biblical or Quranic word nevertheless did not fall directly from the sky, and that it was not inspired or dictated word by word by God or the Demiurge. Bible Quran and Necronomicon are human creations. To deny it borders on madness.

166

There are the logical , traditional, usual, ordinary, god-or-demons (the Fate and the various god-or-demons who are its assistants for example). But also some god-or-demons being out of the ordinary, more difficult to understand and define, considering their many contradictions (Yahweh/Jehovah, Yeohoshua ben Yosef known as the Nazorean, Allah, and others).

As saw it very well Marcion of Sinope: the god-or-demon of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, does not match the criteria of omnipotence, omniscience, and kindness, which are generally applied to him. It is not therefore the true higher being. The god-or-demon of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is only a creative demiurge similar to the sons of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy, Danu (bia), in Ireland, with the snake in the role of the Andernas or Fomorians. The god of Abraham, or rather the gods of Abraham besides (Elohim and Yahweh).

Quran and Old or New Testament are not holy, perfect, uncreated, books, it is necessary to accept literally, because they are not without lacks, errors, contradictions, darknesses or mixtures, without limitations, mistakes, or approximate translations. The Mu’tazilites unfortunately were right too early, who had in their time already understood that Quran was not uncreated but “created!” Traduttore traditore Cisalpine Celts of the Norther League say besides.

Moreover, on their subject, it is not possible to disregard History.

There are in the neo-druidism many criticisms of the mistake in the world spiritually not Celt; but these judgments apply in fact only to the men who fight or disparage in a really guilty way, the druidic message. It should be taken into account that the fact that the good news of the druidism (the suscetla) was not yet understood or heard in an adequate way by everyone. They are therefore less final sentences than explicit and pressing calls to comprehension.

Let us not forget also that beside the great light of the druidic message which is as a fire in the clearing, there is also a crowd of other lights, less piercing, it is true.

Some non-druidicists and even some non-pagans can therefore reach “our“ next world of heavenly nature if they act consequently.

In any event, the higher Being speaks even also to people of the Book at times, and it is close or interdependent of every man of good will.

Its light enlightens every man come in this world (anima naturaliter pagana). The illumination by the beams of its sun is always possible, everywhere and in any time.

A certain number of non-druidicists of past or present, could, or can, experiment the divine sovereignty of the God Being or of the universal Demiurge (Zoroaster for example).

Some men (even non-druidicists) enjoyed particular knowledge, had too, a specific task to carry out (for example: Odin/Wotan at the Germanic ones).

To those of our contemporaries who are interested in the religious questions, we therefore will bring a little outline of what the druidism, the true druidism, is; in a few words, accessible to everybody, since in theory intended for the young people (it is a summary, not a sum).

It will not be a question of answering in detail all the questions or all the possible objections, but of resulting , within the pages, in a kind of summarized presentation of the druidism, in light of the other great religions. i.e., in a presentation therefore taking into account the principal criticisms from the other religions, to reach a higher truth, on the content ; but always rooted in the Celtic language and civilization as regards the form.

It is aberrant to see so many men or women celebrating authentic pagan traditions (Midsummer's Day, Christmas, the pilgrimage in Mecca and so many others…) while jumping with horror by hearing the word “pagan .

We meet more and more nowadays members of other religions in our cities, our schools, in the companies. It is an increasingly pressing problem since not only our geographical religious horizon, but also our historical religious horizon, is considerably lengthened. Since also that, in a world which moves, the old borders between mass religions start to grow blurred, considering the internal collapse of Christianity. We leave our insulation and we learn how to perceive the reality of the others. After a period of hot , then cold, war, lastly a more tolerant than peaceful, period of coexistence, it may be that we are today on the way to enter a fourth time, that of the coadministration of the sacredness.

In spite of all the obstacles and all the problems we experiment for the first time in the history of the World, we finally attend the slow emergence of a planetary and total awareness of the sacredness; the beginning of a finally serious dialog between the religions.

It is perhaps here one of the most important phenomena of this beginning of the 21st century and which will work only in the 22nd. So it is appropriate today, more than ever, to understand and admit finally, the other religions, as full partners of a gigantic and peaceful confrontation, creating in-depth

167

study of the truths. Certain monolatrous people indeed may appear true involuntary pedagogues sometimes, by leading unwillingly to the true comprehension of the god-or-demons of the Fate.

The truth of what we believe does not exclude the truth of what the others believe. Let us imagine that we are lost by night in the middle of an immense unknown landscape, with only a small torch each one to light us. May we claim to describe the whole of this landscape? Won't each one describe it in a different way according to what his torch will show him?

One will affirm: it is a virgin forest!

Another: it is a desert plain!

A third: they are rocks at the seaside.

Their truths are incompatible and, however, they are all right. As we rise, our view of truth lengthens and we see that the ways which, below were separate, starting from a certain height, converge.

The objective of this mini-library intended for youth is therefore to use as well as possible the small lights we have at our disposal; in order to explore at most this unknown landscape called Pariollon or Big Whole, Allah, Brahman, Nirvana, Yahweh, the god of Abraham of Isaac and Jacob, etc. Each one will thus be able before closing again this book to contemplate this prayer and to have one’s own idea.

Nature is of prime importance for the druidism, because Man is not made of nature, he is nature himself, and heaven, moreover. Let us always remember that we belong to nature, that we are the part of a colossal whole and that we are never absolutely separate from it. Our body and our soul are composed of the elements forming this universe, just like these of the animals, the plants, and the minerals.

We all are children of Litavis/Nerthus, the Mother Earth. Any life here on earth is resulting from the Nourishing earth (Rosemartha) either it is food or the countryside fertilized by a flash come from the sky (our heavenly father) because everything is tied together in our world (all is interdependent).

Our relations with the Earth in general and the countryside where we live, with its own spiritual forces, are of very great importance. Give attention to your environment, where you can be. Take time to observe concretely, without being content with simple readings on their subject, the life of the animals and of the plants around you. Learn how to listen to the answers given to your metaphysical mental distress by the brooks and the waves of the ocean, the wind and the storms, the animals and the insects. Listen also to the stories the buildings and the towns in which you live, tell you. Everything has a soul, and everything has lessons to give you. Honor these spirits everywhere present in nature by addressing to them also some thought. Their answers will be able to help you.

We should follow the lessons of our Mother Earth through the messages our brothers and sisters deliver in it; all that breathes, swims, flies, moves, grows, is changed, and therefore exists.

Let us try to live in harmony with everything that is, but also to treat respectfully everything which lives.

The soul of the Mother Earth is what makes the interconnection of everything which exists on earth, possible. Our souls are part of her soul in the same way that our bodies are part of her body.

The winds themselves can bring information if they are questioned in an adequate way. The trees of the Forest bring serenity, the waves of the Ocean the patience or the truth of this world, since water is the memory of everthing.

Go in wood and speak with the sky, the ground, the rocks, the rivers and the brooks. Listen to the answers, listen to your ancestors. It is by that every authentic spirituality starts.

1) This figure is the total, not of the active and convinced druidicists; but of all those who, at some point in their life, were interested in druidism. A well-known historical phenomenon o which paganism in general and Druidism in particular lend themselves particularly well. It is only a problem when one of the religions involved is an intolerant monolatry. There is a problem only when one of the religions involved is an intolerant monolatry.

Since polytheism is by definition tolerant, not exclusive, and also by definition admitting the validity of all kinds of other warships, contrary to the monolatries characteristic of current mass religions, no other worship , no other god (agnostos theos/sive deus sive dea) could completely dislike true

168

druidicist. The real druidicist always strives on the contrary to the most complete irenicism towards other cults. This attitude of intellectual openness, comparable to open secularism in political matters, often leads to a kind of double membership with regard to the basic druidicist. This is what John Toland very precisely advocated for his pantheists (in his pantheisticon) besides, but for other reasons it is true (the fear of persecution).

The current number of druidicists is therefore difficult to determine because of the well-known historical phenomenon of double membership, which lends itself particularly well to paganism in general and particularly druidism. There is a problem only when one of the religions in question is an exclusive monolatry.

As I see that you do not understand or that you are pretending, I will give you some examples.

-Free double membership. Some 1st century of our era Jews were also Christian. History books call them Judeo-Christians.

-Forced double membership (under penalty of exile). Some 16th century Spanish Jews, the Marranos, were both Jewish (secretly at home) and Catholic (on Sunday at mass).

-“Forced” double membership. Islam allows its followers to display all outward signs of dominant religious conformity if they have reason to fear for their lives. This is the principle known as taqiyya (suras 3.28,16.106). Historically especially practiced by the Shiites living under Sunni domination but Sunnis can also have recourse to it as in the case of the Moriscos still in Spain. Arthur de Gobineau, in 1865, in his work Religions and philosophies, seems to be one of the first Western authors to describe the principle of this religious concealment.

-Half-free double membership. Many 11th-century Icelanders were officially Christians in their foreign relations or in their dealings with foreign countries, but remained pagan privately or in their homes (decision of the godi Thorgeir Thorkelsson).

-Completely free double membership.

The cohabitation of Buddhism and Shintoism in Japan since the 8th century is an excellent example of this double observance still observable today, and it even has a name:shinbutsu shugo. According to the circumstances, the average Japanese is either Buddhist or Shintoist. In fact, most Japanese celebrate weddings and births following Shintoist rites and funerals following Buddhist rites. In Japan many Buddhist temples have a space dedicated to kami within their walls, when the kami are not themselves considered as emanations of the different Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

-Double membership totally free. Some current druidicists but there is no name in old Celtic to designate this kind of religious practice. Od course!

* We do not put Christianity in this short list because of the parable of the good Samaritan of which there exist besides no equivalent in Judaism nor Islam. The only equivalent is the Celtic habit reported by Nicholas of Damascus who announces that among Celts the murder of a foreigner therefore of a worshipper of other gods ..... IS MORE SEVERELY PUNISHED THAN THE MURDER OF A COMPATRIOT (the druids undoubtedly wanted by prudence to avoid every risk of reprisals from close peoples).

169

APPENDIX No. 1.

THE SYMBOLISM OF AMBER.

Amber is located between two worlds: a forever absorbed vegetable universe and the mineral world which inexorably changed into crystalline jewels the tears of an excreted resin ten thousand centuries ago! Amber is a matter which call to mind in a way the tangible reality. Looking fragile, it appears aside the time, which does not seem controlling either its color, or its consistency. Whereas the mineral universe tends “to petrify “all that the past leaves as traces of life, amber is as an inalterable paradox. Fossil containing fossils, it is an element of the mineral kingdom, while preserving characteristics related to the plant.

We seldom meet a matter like amber which combines chemical influence and physical influence.

The chemical composition of amber approaches the following formula: C10 H16 O, with some variants. The hydrogen or oxygen content can change. Moreover specialists detect in it sometimes the presence of nitrogen or sulfur.

Since the years 1950 , the organic chemistry, activity which developed around the combinations of carbon, worked out many medicinal or other products. In sedatives, sulfa drugs, antibiotics and antiseptics, we find chemical compositions which are very close to that of amber: aspirin (C9H8O4), Prontosil (C12H13O2N5S) Sulfra drugs (C10H10O2N4), etc. This comparison rather broad, makes it possible to locate the effective action of amber in a chemical reality which demonstrated its effectiveness at the same time. It is probable, moreover, that the physical action of this fossil sap, combined with an undeniable chemical action, causes on the skin strong enough physicochemical messages to fight against certain neuralgias around the neck. The experiment of the Ancients was therefore well founded it seems, and by extending research, we could still find curative applications, well beyond the current prospects.

We find amber in Maryland, in Alaska and in Canada, in the province of Saskatchewan, where it is dated back to the Cretaceous. It is present in China (Mukden), in Japan (Kuji), in Thailand, in Malaysia and in Vietnam. In Burma, amber can be winy yellow, red, green or sometimes even blue, it

170

was formed between the Eocene and the Oligocene. In the Arabic Peninsula, amber also dates back to the Cretaceous. In Mexico (Chiapas) people dig to exploit it. In the Dominican Republic (Palo Quemado), it was famous for its blue. It would be necessary to also quote Africa (Zanzibar, Gabon, Nigeria), New Zealand, India or Australia. In France, after the Esterel, the discovery of the deposit in Corbeilles shows that there remain still possibilities of finding some, in good many sedimentary grounds.

Amber of the Baltic is the resin of a conifer which abounded, at the beginning of the quaternary, on a territory recovering part of the current Baltic, which explains why this sea contains inexhaustible stock of it.

First deposit of the sphere by its resources, the amber of the Baltic represents two thirds of the amber in the World, it is especially the first by quality of the amber which is there. The geological formation of this sediment explains this advantage.

The north-European tectonic plate meets the central plate in the extreme southern limits of the Baltic. At this place it slips under the central plate. This movement, in the past, caused a major geographical modification.

While the Baltic Sea was a plateau covered with of an immense forest (Pinaceae, Taxodiaceae, Cupressaceae, etc.) the northern plate slightly subsided to come under the central plate. This change transformed this stretch into vast fresh water lake.

The trees were destroyed by water and the resin which they had produced therefore became a sediment of this lake. The continuation of the tectonic movement caused the opening in the south-west towards the North Sea. The salt water replaced the fresh water and light sediments as amber were carried by the currents, on certain points of the coasts of this sea: Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Germany and Baltic States.

The amber deposits were carried out in sands or clays, without strong pressures being exerted on them. The sedimentation pressures generally break fragile elements, and their almost absence in this process preserved the amber of the Baltic of crumbling. The marine environment also preserved this matter of all the erosion agents, and this coincidence made amber of the Baltic the very first one in the world as regards quality.

The Man of Stone Age allocated to amber supernatural properties. The old Germanic ones used amber as incense and made it burn. So they called it “brennstein “ the stone which burns. Its combustion releases a particular odor which perfumes since Antiquity the temples dedicated to the god-or-demons. Its malleability before the plastic era earned to it a favored place in the consideration of the men because, even again melted, amber preserves its physical and chemical properties.

7000 years ago the first inhabitants of Scandinavia used in pendants, pieces of amber found on the beaches of this sea. Its influence on the well-being is so easily checked that, since Prehistory, magic and therapeutics attribute to it innumerable virtues….

It is undoubtedly at that time that was born the idea that amber is the subtle bond between the individual soul and the universal soul, materializing solar, spiritual and divine attraction. Thus amber acquired a great value, and also a great importance among, inter alia, Etruscans, Phoenicians, Egyptians,

For the Phoenicians and the Etruscans (funerary rites with amber), it was a symbol of eternal strength and life.

Homer mentions , in the Odyssey, amber jewels, as princely present: they are some earrings and a necklace made of amber balls.

At the time of Thebes, that is to say 2000 years before our era, Pharaohs used amber as jewel, perfume or for medicine. Rarest matters converged towards their palaces. The amber from Lebanon or Arabic peninsula probably acquired at that time an excellent fame. The dynasties which followed one another until the Roman domination used this precious substance by increasing their provisioning to the borders of their influence.

Since then, it never ceased being in vogue. Until the 19th century, people regarded this matter as invaluable as well as the money or gold. Between the years 1895 and 1900, the production of Baltic amber for the jewelry, reached enormous proportions. Three varieties are available.

Traditional amber cognac color.

Milky amber , rarer, called “royal amber “.

Amber with several colors.

All these ambers are natural, and the various colors come from natural inclusions as well as from the process of fossilization.

171

Celtic people established an amber road going as far as Spain and Greece. This “amber road “connects the Baltic to the Adriatic Sea by the rivers (Weser, Elbe, Vltava or Moldova, then the Po; or then by the Danube). Amber is then worked in the Cretan or Peloponnesian workshops, before being redistributed in the whole Central Asia.

Origin of amber was the subject of many mythical accounts, of which some were recorded by the Greeks or the Romans. The Greek amber merchants, going up the European rivers like the Danube or the Po, brought back to us some fragments of the druidic design relating to amber (adapted in their way of course). Somewhere we are all small sparks (some small tears the myth says) resulting from a big flame (the psychic pleroma or tank of souls), and this tear is the source of all that was, as of all that will be.

The legend reported by Lucian of Samosata says for example that Ogmius involved some men behind him while keeping them by the ears with an amber chain. This fragile bond, but symbolic, the men preferred not to break it, to follow their spiritual guide towards wisdom.

Another legend. Phaeton, son of Phoebus (the sun) convinced one day his father to authorize him to drive the chariot of the sun, for a few hours, through the skies; but he approached much too close to the earth, which was burnt. To save the planet, Jupiter struck Phaeton with his thunderbolt, and Phaeton died. The sorrow changed into trees his mother and his sister, but their tears continued to show their affliction. Dried with the sun, their tears became amber.

Amber and the Electricity fairy. The property of amber is to electrify itself by friction. It was the only possible manifestation of electricity at the time. Before the invention of the battery by Alessandro Volta, the followers of sciences, to show the existence of electricity, used a machine made up of an amber ball which turned while rubbing against a sheepskin. Small pieces of paper or wool bits were attracted by the ball after some rotations.

This experiment led in the search of a means to accumulate thus obtained electricity, step which led to the invention of the battery.

Former druids knew already this characteristic (but these currents at the time were not called yet “static electricity “) and had communicated information of it to Greek travelers or tradesmen.

The Greeks called it elektron (from where the word electricity) i.e. “made by the sun “ perhaps because of this history or, perhaps because it becomes charged with electricity when man rubs it on a fabric; and that it is then likely to attract small particles. It is Thales which, after the druids, has rediscovered this magnetic phenomenon c, around 600 years before our era. With the Romans, amber in all its forms took various meanings, but the perfume produced by the combustion of amber was reserved for the Jupiter temple, in order to express the rise of a “nectar “reserved for the first of the god-or-demons.

The Romans sent armies to the conquest of the producing areas, in order to assure to them control of it.

In his Natural History, Pliny devotes several pages to amber, called in Latin, “electrum “ and criticizes irrevocably the fantasies of the authors who had hitherto mixed Celtic myths and geographical untruths. His text explains it is a solidified sap found on the shore of the “North Sea “; adding that, quite before him, the Ancients knew already that it was a matter of vegetable origin, since they had called it succinum.

He specifies that it is a product of such a high luxury that a statuette of man in amber is paid more expensive than several well-alive and vigorous men, on the slave market. Nero would have brought the amber colored hair into fashion, after a poetic praise of the color of the hair of his wife. At the same time, in medicine, people use it for the throat, the earaches, the sight, the teeth or the stomach. People consume it in powder, crushed with honey and rose oil, people wear it as an amulet. People burn it to perfume the air. It also occupies, according to Pliny, an important place in the manufacture of translucent false stones, of amethysts in particular, since it is possible to dye it with all the colors.

Arab doctors use properties of amber, to cure a lot of ills, and in the eyes of this people, amber quickly becomes a symbol.

They are besides these Arab doctors of the Middle Ages, which will give the name of ambar to this product.

172

Their sake for art will generate the manufacture of amber collars with very large, opaque, and yellow, or red, balls. To obtain them Arabs are in the habit of remelting various ambers they import while tinting them. We may also think that the rise of their commercial contacts, as well as the improvement of their artisanal practices, led them to mix other resins with this invaluable matter.

Either they are Vikings, Goths, Visigoths or Franks, the people in the north of Europe also preserved a long time a great attachment for amber and its virtues. According to their superstitions, it would protect from spells, evil eye, poisons, wounds, and would be even a sign of virility.

Its chemical composition has, on the other hand, to warn to us against a possible consumption in the form of powder, as the Romans did it. We should not joke with this kind of product, even less to play the sorcerer's apprentice. We must apply the greatest caution to the internal use of amber after ingestion.

The amber rosaries or amulets are as condensers of current. And while charging themselves, they discharge from their own excesses those who wear them or tell their beads with them.

Amber collar for children is an old European tradition which probably goes back to the Celts. Its use around the old amber roads , is noted as far as Spain. When a baby teethes, his jaws are the object of intense pains. An amber collar will calm his growing pains and will alleviate his nerves. Beyond the calming effect, the wearing of this collar will balance the newborn, thus stimulating his adaptation to the life he starts.

In a more general way, all the neuralgias can find an appeasing in a local application of amber. But let us not make especially the error nevertheless to believe that this matter can be a remedy for all the ills, its use locates in priority towards the neck, for the throat, the ears, the nose as well as the lungs. The asthma attacks of various origins, pollen or nerves, are also calmed, just as anguishes, nervous imbalances or epilepsy.

Without going until making it a panacea, it is possible to think the wearing of amber, generally, brings to the organism a real preventive well-being. As well on the nervous level as on the biological level.

If the women without complex adorn themselves of collars, current mores do not allow too much the men to do in the same way. Let us remember nevertheless that the first collars worn by human beings were intended to the warriors. By slipping it under their shirt, the men too may , very discreetly, to profit from all its benefits.

The tumultuous life of our time causes anxiety or distresses. Amber is an ideal answer to this kind of oppression. To wear an amber collar makes it possible to fight against the depressing feelings, the nightmares.

173

APPENDIX No. 2.

Notes found by the heirs to Peter DeLaCrau.

THE ANTEROOM OF HEAVEN IN THE CELTIC TRADITION: THE ANDUMNOS OR KINGDOM OF SUQELLOS (DONNOTEGIA IN IRELAND, etc.)

The departed persons can reappear in the world of the god-or-demons, since they are mortal too , although having a lifespan infinitely longer than that of the human beings. But the soul minds of the deceased persons can also, as we said it, remain a certain time in the before-paradise or in the anteroom of the heaven which is the kingdom of the dead.

First (possible) stage or island in the travel of the soul/mind after death.

As we could see it, the druidic next world is composed of many different kingdoms or parallel worlds. Besides the same concept is found in the Far East under the name of land or field of Buddha (buddhakshetra). People call land of Buddha or buddhakshetra over there indeed, a dimension or sphere of influence created by the thought of a great initiate of semnotheos type; the human beings who go there have the possibility of opening out there without obstacles in the spiritual field. Zangdok Pelri, the Glorious Copper-colored Mountain, is for example the pure field of the Buddha Padmasambhava.

In Ireland, the anteroom of the kingdom of the dead is called House of Donn (Donnotegia or Tech Duinn) and it is located at the south-west of the country, off the peninsula of Beara, under the island of the bull rock.

Metrical Dindsenchas, volume IV, poem 113. “ 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 about tech Duin “. It is therefore a wrathful deity our Tibetan friends would say, whose part is to just frighten the souls

174

of the deceased persons after death, so that they are not mislaid in this place. In short, not such a bad kid than that ultimately!

Donn is an Irish god-or-demon of the dead mixed up with Eber Donn (Eber the dark one), one of the chiefs of the tribe of the sons of Mil. The elder one even (or a primordial ancestor? ?) Among the eight sons of Mil, there was indeed, according to these rather eccentric legends, Eber Donn, Eber Finn, Eremon, Amorgen, Erannan and Ir. Ir died by the fault of Eber Donn (“the dark one “), and the latter was thus condemned by his other brothers not to have a share of the country which they were going to take. The Irish texts also seem to refer his rather complex relations with the deities of the Mother Earth (the matres Banva/Banba/Banuta, Votala as Eriu in Ireland). He insults Eriu, goddess or demoness, or fairy if you prefer, symbolizing Ireland, and perishes then drowned off the coasts after being himself sacrificed for his people (after having challenged the Amorgen druid with his war cry according to other versions). His grave (Tech Duinn or House of Donn in Gaelic language) located on a small island at the south-west of Ireland, will become one of the gates of the kingdom of the dead. And will be therefore as a result inevitably combined with the shipwrecks and the storms, in the folklore. The myth of the lord of Tech Duinn echoes distantly perhaps a human sacrifice. Donn would have formerly achieved his sacrifice by throwing himself in the Ocean, which as a result became his field.

At all events, the Irishmen made him a god-or-demon of the dead , ruling over or under rocky small islands, located at the extreme south-west of the country. The island of the bull (but by the way, why a bull and not a stag, nobody knows, unless it is an allusion to the famous dun bull of the Tain Bo Cualnge) located off the island of Dursey, on the south-western coast (peninsula of Beara, county Cork). The gate of Tech Duinn was kept by a pair of wild dogs: a black and the other white. Donnos/Donn therefore lives in this island or under this cairn-shaped island, from where he guards the dead having really committed abominable crimes, and returns them to their destiny. By leaving them reincarnate on earth in the form of bacuceos, after a more or less long stay in his kingdom.

The legend specifies besides that those who die in Donnotegia (Tech Duinn) find again themselves in our world. As nothing is eternal, the hell itself indeed is only a hard time (same thing besides among Hindus with their kingdom of Yama). N.B. Another traditional residence of Donnos/Donn is Cnoc Firinne (Knockfierna in the County Limerick). The local folklore also evokes for that the small fort of Dunbeg, on the west coast of Ireland.

Another (possible) stage or island of the travel of the soul/mind after death.

The kingdom of Tethra.

Tethra is a king of the gigantic anguipeds wyverns having joined with his army the three other princes of this family of god-or-demons called Balaros, Indicios and Bregsos (Balor, Indech and Bres mac Elatha in Irish language); in order to fight the second battle of the Plain of the standing stones or mounds , against the air god-or-demons known as children of the goddess-or-demoness, or fairy if you want, Danu (bia). In vain besides, he was overcome there and lost his life. His magic sword, called Orna, was recovered by Ogmius. It was a sword which could tell all the high feats of its master once pulled out. Goddess-or-demoness of the war called Bodua (Bodb) or Cathubodua (Bodb Catha) the crow or raven of the fights is frequently associated with him.

Another (possible) stage or another island of the travel of the soul/mind after the death.

We find this concept (of an antechamber of the heaven) under the name of Annwn or Annwfn (written wrongly sometimes Annwyn, Annwyfn or Annwfyn) in Wales. One of the gates of this world, according to the Welsh, is located in the island of Lundy, another in Glastonbury.

The famous poem of Taliesin entitled “the Spoils of Hell “(Preiddeu Annwfn) places there a magic cauldron kept by nine witches.

The Hunt for the white stag of Erec and Enide reminds of the fact that white animals, in the Welsh folklore, come from Annwn. It can be a wild boar like in the mabinogi of Manawydan, son of Llyr, or a white pig in the lay of Guingamor, or of a white hind as in the Lay of Graelent. These white animals were sometimes red-eared, such the dogs of Arawn, in the mabinogi of Pwyll, or the mount of the knight wearing harness of a fair vermilion color in the lay of the thorn.

The Welsh etymology of the word suggests that its initial name, andumnos, and before that andedubnos, meant something like “underground “or “very deep “. It is a next world of which the

175

inhabitants are gods or demons according to the point of view adopted. It is consequently difficult to classify it in the category of the heavenly worlds or that of the hellish worlds.

For Irishmen the kingdom of Andumnos is ruled by the giant wyvern king called Tethra, or by an entity called Donn (the dun bull? ?), but for the Welshmen, it is initially ruled by Ariomanos (Arawn) then by Gwyn ap Nudd (Vindos son of Noadatus/Nuada/Nodons, not to confuse with the famous king of the Irish Fenians).

Arawn is therefore one of the kings of Andumno or Annwn. He traverses the forests, with a pack of red-eared white hound ,in pursuit of a stag, archetypal psychopomp animal. He is the chief or the leader of a wild hunt crossing the kingdom of the men each day before of November 1st or May 1st, with his pack of phantom dogs, called Cwn Annwn.

Arawn is also known as, in certain variants, as king of Uffern, Welsh word generally translated by hell, in particular in the writings of Taliesin. What would make him consequently, a Christian synonym of Annwn. It is nevertheless difficult to say if this identification of Annwn with a kind of hell is due to the Christian influence, or if the original pagan design went already in this direction. 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) Vindobitos or Vindomagos… of second class!

Gwynn ap Nudd is also one of the sovereigns of this rather worrying other world. He often mixes with the human things and appears in particular in the Welsh tale entitled Culhwch and Olwen, where he is said holding from God himself his empire over the demons.

“ It is not possible to hunt the boar Trwyth without Gwynn the son of Nudd, whom God has placed over the brood of devils in Annwn, lest they should destroy the present race “.

The folklore made Gwynn a cursed hunter, riding over the clouds, in company sometimes of King Arthur himself, and accompanied by these mysterious red-eared dogs.

As we could see it, Gwynn ap Nudd also takes part in the mythical hunt of Arthur tracking the wild boar called Trwyth. He has a psychopomp role since one of his functions is to drive back the soul/minds of the dead towards Annwn, accompanied by his pack of fantastic dogs: Cwn Annwn. This wild hunt is known in all the West, and belonged to the European antiquated memory.

The Mabinogi reconciles Christian and pagan legend. Not being able to rescue him from the hell, where St Collen and his friends irrevocably installed him, the author explains indeed why it is only in order to subdue the demons and to prevent them from harming to the human race , that he was sent there.

Like in the case of Tech Duinn it was therefore here still a hell that theoretically every departed had good chances to recognize and prevent, considering its obviously alarming appearance and that the druidism, which is fundamentally optimistic, therefore took hardly into account, except as an assumption perhaps.

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 the manes exist “

(manes esse, non dicunt).

176

APPENDIX No. 3.

BRETON HERESY.

Hindu and Celtic religions show many common points. Some people for example noted strong similarities as for the representation and the function of some of them. It is the case for Suqellus (Hok-bras in Huelgoat) and its “equivalent “ Yama. And in the various Christian Golden Legends, we find the same attributes as in the case of Suqellus, for example with saint Roch , or Saint John the apostle (and his chalice).

Relentless Ankou warns us against the lapse of memory of our ultimate end. These sentences are engraved on the walls of ossuaries or churches. “I kill you all “(Brasparts and La Roche-Maurice), “Remember man that you are dust “(La Roche-Maurice) or, written in Breton language, “death, the judgment, the cold hell: when the man thinks of it, he must tremble “(La Martyre).

Many ossuaries, or buildings, where the bones of the deceased pile up, testify to the familiarity of the Bretons about the death: the parishioners meditate naturally in front of skulls. In addition, the soul/minds of the departed (anaon) are never far.

Formerly, at the time of the important moments such Christmas or especially All Saints' day, it was usual to leave in their intention in the house, a good fire, as some pancakes.

But the fear of the Bretons appears especially with the evocation of Ankou. In France, in Brittany more exactly, the Ankou is the master of the “Anaon “; the wandering soul/minds fated to the infern yen (cold hell) symbolized by various watery universes: oceans, streams, lakes, marshes, fogs, rivers, etc., and particularly in this wild area called the Monts d’ Arree.

Ankou is omnipotent. It is depicted like a skeleton, sometimes draped with a shroud, holding a scythe fixed in the wrong way. Old representations show it armed with an arrow or a lance.

177

Ankou moves during the night, upright on a cart of which axles squeak. This funeral procession is the “karrig an Ankou “, cart of Ankou (“Karriguel an Ankou “, literally wheelbarrow of Ankou), replaced by the “Bag nez “ a night boat in the areas of the littoral (cf.Procopius). To hear the wheels of the “Karrig an Ankou “ squeaking the night, or to cross on the road the ominous team, are signs of the death of a close relation.

And it is there that in our view there is heresy: the demonization of Suqellus, changed into a scowling skeleton by Christianization. The Master of the death process was formerly represented in a way much less lugubrious. Suqellus was the sovereign intercessor of the god-or-demons whose attributes are the cauldron of plenty ; “from which nobody moves away without to be satisfied “(it is also a resurrection cauldron, because dead who are plunged in its center come out from it alive); and the mallet which with has the property to kill by an end or to resuscitate the dead by the other. Ankou has the same attributes as Suqellus. Ankou is the best representation of the druidism [opinion of the School chaired by Gwenc'hlan Le Scouëzec].

The probability of a presence of Suqellus in Huelgoat is reinforced by the fact that at the gates even of the town, we enter the Underworld. While going up the small valley of the Fao River on a few kilometers, we arrive in Brennilis and in the Marsh of Brasparts, that which is called Youun Ellez and which is traditionally the Gate of the Hells or the field of the Ankou. There opens the Youdig, the bottomless abyss through which our world is connected with that of the chthonic deities.

Editor’s note. The “Night washerwomen “(Kannerezed noz). Between the sunset and the sunrise, these women, tall and thin, come in the washhouses of this world, doing the laundry of the shrouds. They are soul/minds who, in the ices of the non-world, await for their release and must work, in remission of their sins. Watch out to the unhappy ones who meet them, to them i it s reserved at the very least a tragic destiny… See all what we could write in volume I in connection with the wild hunts and the kingdoms of Andumno, Donno Tegia, or Ys.

But formerly in the reference druidism it was simply goddess-or-demonesses playing the part of messengers having for function to warn our heroes.

APPENDIX No. 4.

THE BARDO THODOL.

The name of the work, or rather that of its principal part, made up of the words bardo (intermediate state), tho (to hear) and dhol (to release), means liberation through the hearing during the intermediate stages being able to exist [between the death and the rebirth].

In the text three other bardos are also described, which are not specific to death, but belong to the experiment of the living : that of the ordinary state of awareness, that of the dream, that of the meditation. The work mentions the rituals to observe as the four prayers recited by the Tibetan lamas. If the body is not present, an effigy on paper of the deceased person, called the jangbu, is attached to a stick then placed on the altar. At the conclusion of the ritual, the lama burns it, thus releasing the soul of its faults; this one is reincarnated at once. The integral version contains in addition descriptions of the various signs announcing a close demise (what Anatole Le Braz calls the portents), and how to possibly make to put back the deadline.

There are nine doors which are these of the world, but only one which is that of the Mahamudra (nirvana). If you close the nine doors, it does not remain you then only the way of the liberation.

Buddhism differs in that from the druidism which, itself, distinguishes several access roads (divodorum) to the next world, according to the individuals.

In the Tibetan thought, the process of biological death lasts approximately three days and half, what is hardly plausible. During this period, it is possible , according to the Tibetans monks, to whisper some passages of the Bardo Thodol in the ear of the deceased person, who is supposed to still be able to

178

hear them. He can then be guided through the passage of the bardo of dharmata, which is the passage through the experiment of the divine luminosity. Bardo of Dharmata is the interval in which illusions disappear and in which truth becomes clear.

Tibetans call Phowa, or “transfer of conscientiousness at the death time “ the Buddhist method which makes it possible, when we arrived at the end of our life, to pass in the heavenly other-world of the Amitabha Buddha, named Dewatchen (Vindomagos for the druids). Through a combination of the breath, of recitations of mantras, and of visualization techniques , applied to the death moment ; the awareness is ejected through the opening of Brahma, thus avoiding the rebirth in the six kingdoms of the cyclic existence (according to the Buddhists).

Starting from this opening, the awareness can be directly transferred in the pure land of Dewatchen.

P.S. It is said in our neck of the wood (Lucan Civil war, I, 448-450): “ And you, vates, whose martial lays formerly made immortal the powerful souls/minds of those who died in the war... ”

APPENDIX No. 5.

GROUP OF EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES

OF PARAPSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA in Toulouse.

Goals.

A) The scientific study of the metapsychic phenomena.

Extrasensory perception gathering the phenomena generally designated by the words telepathy, clairvoyance, premonition, presentiment, premonitory dreams, rhabdomancy, dowsing.

The psychokinesis, which designates an action supposed of the thought on the matter: appearances, moving of objects incompatible with Newtonian physics, unexplained cures, “haunted houses “.

B) Continuation of former works in case of phenomena of which scientific reality is acquired and the study of the possibility of this reality in the other cases. This activity can take the form of investigations of ethological type, but results especially in laboratory experiments “strictly speaking, “

C) The scientific study of accounts and document concerning the “near-death experiences “ the TransCommunication.

D) An action of psychosocial hygiene, energetic and permanent , aiming at supporting a rational attitude with regard to the studied phenomena. Insofar as it has the material possibility of it, the G.E.S.P.P. takes part as soon as an allegedly paranormal “ affair“ is known by the general public.

E) As far as its means, its support for any scientific researcher in metapsychic ( parapsychology).

F) A policy of scientific publications intended for the general public.

179

It goes without saying the works of the G.E.S.P.P does not imply a stand of philosophical or religious type.

The G.E.S.P.P. has nevertheless met since its creation various oppositions.

- On behalf of part of the French scientific circle which, badly informed, considers these phenomena could not be researched. The opposition of these French researchers is undoubtedly not the expression of a majority opinion in the scientific community, but for this reason many research cannot be developed as it would be necessary.

- On behalf of individuals having understood the study of these phenomena made it possible to highlight swindles.

The G.E.S.P.P considers its ethics imposes to it a task of information and education for the general public always ready to drift towards the irrational one. It therefore takes part regularly to satisfy the requests coming from various institutions and answers an important mail coming from isolated people, requesting information or maintaining to be, either the object, or the victim, of certain phenomena.

The members of the G.E.S.P.P are all voluntary and the group has very weak incomes compared to the costs of the scientific material. It thus accepts sponsorships as to work within the framework of conventions, about programs of specific investigation, established with public or private organizations.

For any further information, to contact Y. Lignon.

APPENDIX No. 6.

RETURN ON THE NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE (N.D.E.)

Accounts about N.D.E. multiplied these last years for two essential reasons: developments in the technologies of cardiorespiratory reanimation and the faster intervention of the helps. However accounts date back to Antiquity, but we also find accounts of N.D.E. in the documents of the Irish Middle Ages (aislingi, imrama, echtrai).

A large number of impression-feelings are reported. All are not necessarily lived by the subjects having had these experiences.

There are many common features in these impressions and strong variations in the “contents “ which can be extremely pleasant or on the contrary terrifying.

The N.D.E known as “negative “are more rarely reported. There are of them nevertheless many examples in medieval Irish Christianity.

The N.D.E is the ultimate point until where a man can go towards the other side of the mirror. But since he returns from there, there was not, consequently, truly death in the strict sense of the term. The expressions “Near Death Experience “ or “Experience at the door of the Death “ therefore do not evoke a travel on the other bank; but the feelings experienced at the time of a dramatic event of the life told with all the emotional power that the range of the symbolic system conceals, of the imagination and of the emotional one. This intense emotional experiment, even if it also represents sometimes a projection of the personal and collective unconscious, can become “spiritual “. While transforming a life. For some people it will represent a “piece of evidence “ of the hereafter or an aspiration to the hope.

180

John Eccles thinks that a form of awareness exists independently of the sense organs and of the brain, and therefore of the body, even would survive it. Because experiments (carried out on people being under no religious influence) reveal that , with the approach of death, the mind would be detached from the body, whereas vital activities grow blurred.

The visions reported by subjects which came very close to death, called Near Death Experience, prove it.

The primary characteristic of Near-Death Experiences is they reveal a reality inaccessible to our ordinary perceptions.

As we have had the opportunity to say it, it exists positive Near-Death experiences and bringing back happy or reassuring visions, but also negative Near-Death Experiences.

A negative Near Death Experience is alarming, even distressing and, consequently, it is not pleasant for the one who lived it and reports it.

Some people today reckon these negative and infernal Near-Death Experiences remain marginal phenomena. Kenneth Ring and Peter Fenwic estimated at 5% the number of negative Near-Death Experiences (1999). They unquestionably exist, however, and are very represented in the accounts of the Irish Middle Ages.

These experiments are often combined with some the basic concepts of the Judeo-Christian religion (the fire Gehenna symbolizing the hell for example).

The standard pattern is this one: the subject plunged in a deep state of trance has the feeling to float in weightlessness and out of his body. What he calls his soul emerges then in another world, generally hellish to begin in the Judeo-Christian N.D.E. like these of Adamnan, Drythelm, saint Fursa or Fursy, Tnugdal or Tundale, Laisren; including the Purgatory of St Patrick and the Elucidarium by Honorius augustodunensis. Then or alternately what he calls his soul emerges in a warm light, makes the meeting of beings of light coming to welcoming him in order to help him to cross the passage, and generally reaches the final view of a radiant (and/or infernal) city. The subject returns from this experience radically changed.

Recently, some researchers succeeded in artificially causing one of the first phases of the Near Death Experience : an “out of the body “. By stimulating a particular area of the brain of a patient, this one felt to become lighter until seeing herself “lengthened on the bed, from the ceiling “. For many scientists, this experiment tended to prove that the Near-Death Experiences fall within a hallucination.

It is possible that the Near Death Experience is well, as certain researchers opposed to his acceptance claim it, a pathological disorder due to the neurotransmitters responsible for the sight. The accounts of Near Death Experience after use of ether would support in a way this theory, especially since other drugs, like the LSD for example, attack the synaptic transmissions thus.

The handing down and the amplification of such accounts of Near Death Experience , from generation to generation; with in more the intervention of novelists or poets to format them (the bards); gave what we call the aislingi, echtrai or imrama, in the island Celtic world.

Now let us review some of the most famous accounts testifying the possibility for the soul/mind to survive out of the body. But once again, let us repeat it, we affirm by no means that these aislingi, echtrai, or imrama, are reports of Near Death Experience. Our conviction is simply that at the origin of these legends, there is authentic Near-Death Experiences, and that thereafter they were enriched and formatted by well-read men of druidic obedience.

The theories which explain these visions hustle. One of the first is that the stop of the vital functions and in particular of breathing, involves a reduction in the quantity of oxygen distributed to the brain as to the tissues, causing a fast increase in the CO2 level. However, it is established that anoxia (insufficient oxygenation of the brain) causes visions. But the anoxia would not constitute the single cause of the aislingi, echtrai, or imrama. The visions would also rise from a massive secretion of endorphins by the brain, right before death. These substances close to morphine, produced naturally by the brain in a period of stress, mask the immediate pain, as in an important personal injury. Endorphins would be thus responsible for the serenity described in the accounts.

Echtra, aisling, or imram, could also be a pathological phenomenon of depersonalization, near to schizophrenia. This phenomenon of neuroprotection would be therefore at the origin, not only of a “disconnection “of the awareness, but also of the need to protect oneself facing the imminence of one’s own death. While taking refuge in a world of phantasms built starting from conscious and/or unconscious beliefs.

181

As we have had the opportunity to see it, in Christian mode these aislingi gave texts like the visions of Noibo Adamnan, Drythelm, St Fursa or Fursy, Tnugdal or Tundale, Laisren….

The Vision of noibo Adamnan (aisling adomnain).

After a long introduction in the glory of God or the Demiurge and his saints, the text reports to us what the soul of Adamnan, having temporarily left its body at the time of the feast of Saint John the Baptist, could see. And especially the land of saints. The description of it which is made is not without evoking these of the Celtic next world (Vindomagos, land of eternal youth and so on…)

Then the six skies or the six different stages of the Purgatory come, they resemble already much the hell.

When the guardian angel had finished making passing in the eyes of Adamnan these visions of the kingdom of heaven and the first adventures of each soul having left its body; he took him with him in order to show him the hellish depths and its innumerable sufferings torments or punishments of all kinds.

Such was the last land where they arrived. An abyss filled with fire was on the further side of it ; huge is flame, extending beyond the margin on either hand. Black its base, red the middle and the upper part thereof. Eight monsters were in it, with eyes like coals of fire.

---- ------------- ----------------------------------- ---------------------------------- -------------------------- --------------------

The topic of the islands surrounded by bronze or silver walls is, of course, a quotation from the island druidic mythology, particularly that which related to the imrama. The topic of the flames of the hell is, on the other hand, an image incontestably of Christian origin. Because for the druids, the provisional state of being of any soul/mind having missed its entry into the heaven and therefore vowed to remain a certain time in its anteroom, even to be reincarnated on earth, was rather combined with cold and ice. See the famous Irish legend entitled Siabur Charpat Con Culaind. What follows, on the other hand, is an umpteenth variant of the well-known Celtic topic of the perilous bridge. It is found in many legends ranging from the ancient Persia to the Arthurian cycle.

Considering the importance of this topic in the religion of our brothers in Humanity called Parsi or Parsee, some words on their religion are necessary as comparison…

Note of Peter DeLaCrau on the subject found by his heirs.

Parsism is the religion of the Parsi, followers of the Zoroastrianism, or Mazdaism, who were forced to leave Persia (Iran), following the Muslim-Arab conquest (7th-8th century), in order to settle in India; where we find accounts of their first colony starting from 717. The Qissa-i Sanjan (“legend of Sanjan “ 16th-18th century) reports this exodus.

The Parsis continued to follow the religion of Zoroaster, or Zarathustra (which they called Zardhust), in the countries where they found refuge. The expression “fire worshippers “ very often used to designate them, proves to be unsuitable, even if it is true that they venerated fire as a sacred symbol, a little like the druids.

Parsis, today present in ten countries, are approximately 180.000. Most important group is that which lives in the Indian areas of Gujarat and Bombay. The Parsis constitute today an active and politically open community. They took part in the fight for Indian independence, and are characterized by their wise even undertaking mind. So much for the political fields - the Parsis mainly ensured the industrialization of India – as in these of education and assistance. Their community remains nevertheless closed: you are Parsi only by filiation and with religious validity, endogamous, matrimonial tie.

Parsis, being based on the Zoroastrian traditional dualistic cosmogony , reckon their duty is to increase the positive part of creation, works of the Wise Lord, the god-or-demon Ohrmazd (Ahura Mazda). And to dam up the harmful work of his perfect antithesis, the evil god chief of the demons,

182

Ahriman (Angra Mainyu). It is from this duty that the specifically religious tasks which are the farming of the fields and the procreation of children, come out.

The ethical code of Parsis initially consists in choosing between the good and the evil; the moral behavior is guided by values such as the rectitude of thought (humata), words (hukhta) and deeds (Huvarshta). The one who lives according to these requirements is a Righteous person (ashavan), the one who ignores them is a “villain “(anasharam). The trespass of these values is a sin which can be expiated only by the confession (paitita, patet) to a priest. The penitence that the latter imposes can be to take care of the development of the farming, to take part in the building of bridges or channels, even to make agricultural tools. We would say today therefore, sentenced to community works. Very good idea! Certain sins, like the contamination of the soils, water, and air, by the burial or the cremation of the deceased persons, can be redeemed , neither in this world, nor in the other (they are anaperetha). They are punished by death on earth and through hell in the hereafter (N.B. Importante difference with Christianity and with Islam nevertheless, this hell is not eternal. It will have an end and will result finally in the heaven when Ahura Mazda has overcome the evil).

Parsism comprises rituals which punctuate the essential moments of life: birth, puberty, marriage and death. Among these rituals are of a very particular importance the ritual of initiation (naujote) and the funerary ceremonies. When they are about eight years old, children are received within the community, it is a decisive rite of passage meaning the official entry of the believer in the army of Ohrmazd and in the fight against Ahriman. During this ceremony, children receive a sacred tunic and a sacred belt. The white cotton tunic (sudreh) has to be worn directly on the skin : it symbolizes the purity. The rope made of lambswool (kushti), tied around the waist, is untied at least five times a day, at the time of the prayers.

Parsis practice neither burial nor cremation. The funerary ceremonies seek to limit the spreading of the evil. So, the corpse, which people hate, is very quickly isolated; the iron coffin is transported towards the towers of silence (dakhma) by men dressed in white, and the corpse, naked, is there exposed, so that the vultures devour it. The bones are then thrown at the bottom of a central well.

The towers of silence are cylindrical buildings, closed on all sides, except the top open towards the sky, approximately four meters high , with the roof sloping towards the inside. Only the Nasasalars, Parsee mortician's assistants, may penetrate there. We can still see some of these towers in Bombay. On the other hand, in Iran, the open burial was prohibited for hygienic reasons, what was not without posing serious problems of conscience to the community.

Before the offering of haoma is presented to the fire temple, the soul/mind of the deceased person reaches the Chinvat Bridge (“bridge of judgment “). When you enter the bridge, Mithra delivers a sentence to each soul/mind a judgment, during which Rashnu carefully weighs the good and the evil deeds: after being judged, the departed may cross the bridge. For the righteous soul/minds, this one is wide and leads to Heaven. For the corrupt soul/mind, it is on the contrary narrow like the blade of a saber, and leads to the cold darkness of hell. The one whom merits amount to the faults is directed towards the hamestagan, a kind of purgatory, in which he will have to wait until the last Judgment.

A hereditary priestly caste is appointed for the celebration of the worship and the other rituals, like that of the confession. The priests (atharvan), which belongs to well-defined families, receive a suitable education. The high priest, who celebrates the divine office with seven other ministers of the temple, is called zoatar (“invoker “). The zarathushtrotema is the chief of the Zoroastrian hierarchy ; he resided initially at Raga (current Rey, close to Teheran) and was submitted only to the king of Persia. The sacred fire , symbol of Ormazd, god-or-demon of the Light, housed in a bronze vase, posed on a square stone, constantly burns in the fire temple. Five times a day, the priest enters this reserved part of the temple, the adaran or fire room, and celebrates the specific ritual, by reciting some passages of the Avesta (that made us much think of Muslim prayers). The other part of the temple is open to lay people and their personal pilgrimages.

The Avesta (distortion of an old word meaning “praise “) is the sacred book of the Parsis, it is a text written in the 9th and 10th centuries. But the Avesta that we know matches only the quarter approximately of the original Avesta, of which the twenty and one books are summarized in the Denkart. The Avesta, ordered according to the liturgical requirements, includes the following books.

183

Yashna (“sacrifice “), text subdivided in seventy-two chapters, dealing with the fire sacrifice, framed with seventeen gathas (“songs “), the oldest part of Avesta, composed, in a particular dialect, by Zoroaster himself.

Vispered (“all the judges“) an appendix of the Yasna: a collection of litanies.

Videvat (“law against the demons “), containing a description of the ceremonies of exorcism or purification and regulations on the purity.

Khordeh Avesta, or Smaller Avesta, book of prayers for the lay people, including Yashts (“hymns “), a collection of twenty-one fragments of anthems in the honor of various deities (Anahita, Mithra or the Fravashi), organized according to days and months.

N.B. The resemblances to Christianity are only coincidences due to the Persian influences on the incipient Judaism.

Although falling incontestably under the paganism, the Parsee religion differs basically from the druidism on a point: its dualism (the druidism itself is monist)… [End of the note by Peter DeLaCrau about the Parsis]

But let us return to the vision of our Irish Adamnan.

---------- -------- --------------------------- -------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- ---------------

An enormous bridge spans the abyss, reaching from one bank to the other ; high the middle of it, but lower its two extremities. Three companies seek to pass over it, but not all succeed.

One company finds the bridge to be of an ample width, from beginning to end, until they win across the fiery abyss, safe and sound, fearless and undismayed.

The second company, when entering upon it, find it narrow at first, but broad afterwards, until they, in like manner, fare across that same abyss, after great peril.

But for the last company the bridge is broad at first, but strait and narrow thereafter, until they fall from the midst of it into that same perilous abyss, into the throats of those eight red-hot serpents, that have their dwelling place in the abyss.

Now the folk to whom that path was easy were the chaste, the penitent, the diligent, they who had zealously borne a bloody testimony to God.

The band who found the path narrow at first, but afterwards broad, were they who had hardly been constrained to do God's will, but had afterwards converted their constraint into the willing service of God.

They, however, to whom this way was broad at first, but strait thereafter, were sinners who had listened to the precepts in God's word, and after having heard, fulfilled them not.

Furthermore, vast multitudes abide beyond, feeble and powerless, upon the shore of perpetual pain, in the land of utter darkness. Every other hour the pain ebbs away from them, and the next hour it returns upon them again. Now these are they in whom good and evil were equally balanced, and on the Day of Doom, judgment shall be passed between them, and their good shall quench their evil on that day ; and then shall they be brought to the Haven of Life, in God's own presence, through ages everlasting.

--------------- ----------- ------------------ --------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------------------

Editor’s note. The topic of the ebb and flow, of the rising and ebb tide, is a well-known topic of the island Celts. See the famous poem entitled in Gaelic “Sentainne Berri “ the old woman of Beara. What follows is, on the other hand, typically Judeo-Christian at least for half. For two reasons: the symbolism of fire to evoke this state of being, and the belief in the eternity of this state. In addition to the fact that for them it was provisional and by no means final, the druids rather compared it to a winter from which the spring may leave. The images and the symbols relating to it, coming under the field of the

184

coldness and of the ice in what follows, are therefore perhaps of druidic origin. Except with an immense difference!

For true druids indeed, hell did not exist, and there were only very the rare human ones (let us say some David or Nebuchadnezzar, some Hitler or some Stalin, some Pol Pot) to deserve the hell of the reincarnation on this Earth.

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 the manes exist “

(manes esse, non dicunt.).

Once again let us repeat it, a state of being characterized by an infinite or eternal suffering cannot exist. It is inconceivable, and all the perversion of bad pagans converted by bad Jews was necessary , to succeed , in the name of love, to make such alarming designs of the life and of world circulating. If this state of the being characterized by the suffering exists, it can be only very provisional, and intended for a negligible minority of individuals. But let us return to the typically Jewish and Christian concept of hellish fire accompanied by endless sadistic tortures; the imagination of the Christian, author of these texts, having reached dismaying of grotesque and sadistic ridicule heights, on the matter.

-------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another great company is there, near to the last-named group, and monstrous their torment. And this is their plight : they are fettered to fiery columns, a sea of fire about them up to their chins, and about their middle fiery chains, in the shape of vipers. Their faces are aflame with agony. They who are tormented thus are sinners, fratricides, ravagers of God's Church, and merciless defenders of the Church’s lands, who, in presence of the relics of the Saints, had been set over the Church's tithes and oblations, [1s] and had alienated these riches to their private store, away from the Lord's guests and needy ones.

Great multitudes there are, standing in the blackest mire up to their girdles. Short cowls of ice are on them. Without rest or intermission, through all time, their girdles are perpetually scorching them with alternate cold and heat.

Demon hosts surround them, with fiery clubs in their hands, striking them over the head, though they struggle against them continually. These wretches all have their foreheads to the North, and a rough, sharp wind blowing full upon their foreheads, in addition to every other woe.

--------------- -------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Editor’s note. As we saw it higher with the appearance of the phantom chariot of Cuchulainn (Siabur charpat Con Culaind), this image of the icy wind from the north, and responsible for all kinds of miseries, is without any doubt of Celtic pagan origin. But let us return to the sadistic and insane imagination of the followers of the religion of love, forever…

---------------- ------------------------ ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------- -----------

Red showers of fire are raining on them, every night and every day, and they cannot ward them off, but must needs endure them throughout all ages, wailing and making moan.

Some of them have streams of fire in the hollows of their visages ; some, fiery nails through their tongues ; others, through their heads, from side to side. They who are so punished are thieves and

185

liars, and they who have practiced treachery, reviling robbery and rapine; judges of false judgment and contentious persons ; women who have dealt in poison and spells, robbers ? (aithdibergaig) and learned men who have practiced heresy.

Another great throng is set upon islands, in the midst of the fiery sea. About them is a silver wall [built] of the raiment and the alms [which they had bestowed]. These are they who have practiced mercy without zeal, [21] and have remained in loose living, and in the bonds of their sin, until the hour of their death ; but their alms are a bulwark unto them, amid the fiery sea, until the Judgment, and after Judgment they shall be brought into the Haven of Life.

-------------- ------------------------------ -------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------- ---------

Editor’s note. It is perhaps here something which distantly echoed the druidic tradition having it that there is no eternal damnation, but a postmortem temporary state of the being before reaching the highest happiness (the state of meldos). If it is well a concept of druidic origin, it has been completely misunderstood, and, therefore, distorted or scrambled, by the Judeo-Christianity of the author of this vision.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------

Another great multitude is there, clad in red and fiery mantles down to their middle. Their trembling and their outcries make themselves heard, even unto the firmament. An unspeakable throng of demons is throttling them, holding in leash the while rawhided, stinking hounds, which they incite to devour and consume them. Red glowing chains are constantly ablaze about their necks.

Every alternate hour they are borne up to the firmament, and the next hour they are dashed down into Hell's profound. Now they that are punished in this wise are the regulars who have transgressed their rule, and become loathers of piety ; also, impostors who have deceived and seduced the multitude, and have undertaken miracles and wonders which they are not able to perform. Moreover, the children that are tearing the men in orders, are they who were committed to them for amendment, but they amended them not, neither reproved them for their sins.

Thereafter is another vast company ; East and West they go, unresting, across the fiery flagstones, at war with demon hosts. Innumerable showers of red-hot arrows are rained upon them by the demons. Running, they go on without stop or stay, making for a black lake and a black river, that they may quench those arrows therein. A weeping and wailing, truly miserable and piteous, do the sinners make in those waters, for in them they only meet with augmentation of their pain. Now they that are punished thus are cheating artificers, weavers, and merchants; judges that judged falsely, both Jews, and others likewise ; impious kings, Church’s land managers of lewd and crooked ways, adulterous women, and the panders that destroyed them by their evil practices.

Beyond the land of torment is a fiery wall ; seven times more horrible and cruel is it than the land of pain itself. Howbeit, no soul dwells therein till Judgment, but it is the province of the demons only, until the Day of Judgment.

At that time, woe unto him that shall dwell amid those pains, in company with the Devil's own tribe ! Woe unto him that is not ware of that tribe ! Woe unto him over whom a vile and savage demon is set in dominion! Woe unto him that shall be hearkening unto the spirits, making moan and complaining unto the Lord, for the speedy coming of the Day of Judgment, that they may know whether they shall find any remission of their doom ; for they get no respite ever, save only for three hours on every Sunday.

Woe unto him unto whom that land shall be for a lasting inheritance, even forever and ever ! For this is the nature of it: Mountains, caverns, and thorny brakes ; plains, bare and parched, with stagnant, serpent-haunted lakes. The soil is rough and sandy, very rugged, icebound. Broad fiery flagstones bestrew the plain. Great seas are there, with horrible abysses, wherein the Devil's constant habitation and abiding place is. Four mighty rivers cross the middle of it : a river of fire, a river of snow, a river of poison, a river of black, murky water. In these wallow eager hosts of demons, after making their holiday and their delight in tormenting the souls.

186

What time the holy companies of the Heavenly Host are singing the eight hours with harmonious melody, praising the Lord with cheerfulness and great gladness, then do the souls of the wicked utter piteous and weary wailing, as they are buffeted unceasingly by the demon hordes.

Such then are the pains and torments which his guardian angel revealed to the spirit of Adamnân, after his journey towards the Heavenly Kingdom.

The soul of Adamnan was then again taken up to the 7th heaven, and an angel ordered to him to go down again in its body, in order to report to everyone what he had been able to see.

The text continues by reporting that it is well what from now on Adamnan did, following the example of noibo Patrick and of many other great characters of the biblical or Roman antiquity.

Our text finds again then the Celtic vein of its beginnings. The soul/mind of the Righteous persons resembles the inhabitants of the next world according to the druids (they take the shape of white birds). And finishes on this strange description of a heaven resembling much the Buddhist nirvana.

N.B. 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.

The Vision of Drythelm.

In 731, this honorable father described as a pious layman, living in the area of Cunningham, very close to the Scottish border, fell seriously sick, and an evening, he died.

At dawn, he regained life, thus putting to flight all those who kept vigil over his corpse, except for his wife, terrorized too, she also, but happy. Thereafter, Drythelm divided his goods in three shares, a third for his wife, a third for her children, a third for the poor, and he withdrew in a hermitage isolated of Mailros (Melrose), located in a meander of the Tweed River. He lived there in penitence and when he had the opportunity of doing it told his adventure to whom wanted to hear it.

A resplendent character, dressed all in white, had led him towards the east in a very broad, very deep and infinitely long valley, surrounded on the left with terrible flames, on the right with terrible gusts of hail and snow. These two slopes were full with human souls that the wind made passing unceasingly from one side to the other. He passed then in increasingly dark places where he distinguished nothing any more but the clear spot than made his guide in front of him. Suddenly emerged from the dark fireballs spouting out of a large well and falling down there. Drythelm found himself alone. In these flames went up and went down, like sparks, human souls. The whole accompanied by inhuman tears, by sniggers, and by a stinking odor. Drythelm noticed especially the tortures that demons inflicted to five souls in particular, of which one was a monk, recognizable with his tonsure, another a layman , a third one a woman.

Whereas surrounded by devils who threatened to catch him with grips of fire, Drythelm thought he was lost, a light appeared suddenly and began to grow like that of a star. It was his guide which came back. The devils dispersed and fled while seeing him arriving.

His companion made him change direction, and brought back him in more luminous places. They arrived to a wall of which the length and the height was so great that his eye could not take in it, at a glance, but they crossed it in an incomprehensible way. Drythelm found himself in a large green

187

meadow, full with flowers, brilliant and scented. Men dressed in white had there in innumerable groups, pleasant assemblies.

Drythelm crossed the meadow, a still softer light intensified little by little, songs rose, a perfume surrounded him, next to which that he had felt in the meadow was only a very small odor. The light had become so brilliant that the one of the meadow did not seem to him any more but a weak gleam.

He was therefore on the point of entering this marvelous place when suddenly his guide immediately forced him to turn back, to the place of stay of the dressed all in white souls, by tellinh him :

“ You are now to return to your body, and live among men again “. Drythelm felt through that an immense sadness and contemplated last once greedily the charm and the beauty of the place where he was, as well as the company that he saw there. But whereas he wonders in silence, without daring to do it, on the way of asking something his guide, he found himself again suddenly alive among the men.

Bede. Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum. (Translation Peter DeLaCrau, who had to call upon the memories of his seven years of Latin to succeed in that.)

CONCLUSION.

It is necessary to read and to read again the accounts of echtrai and imrama or aislingi (visions). They contain multiple traces of this inexpressible one which could be put in images starting from a memory. The power which perspires from these accounts is each time source of questioning. The work of the reason, the analytical reasoning, the Cartesian logic, are not the only way of knowing of Mankind. The direct, intuitive, lightning, immanent, even transcendent, experiment, as at the time of these major altered states of awareness which are the aislingi, seems to be really another mode of comprehension of the world. The two ways are complementary, are fed mutually, and can coexist. It is necessary to encourage this mutual fecundation and to leave the simplistic debates normal/paranormal, rational/irrational which, while raising bad questions, bring only misleading answers, in a direction as in the other. The question is the true nature of the Man. The thorough study of the echtrai and of the imrama or of the visions, will necessarily contribute to building the answers, if, with the rigor of the reasoning, we combine an acceptance of certain possibilities…

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.

188

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?)

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.

189

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?)

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!

190

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].

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.

Literature Page 004

Metonymy of Fate Page 009

Notes Page 015

Chronological points of reference Page 016

Interpretatio buddhista or search for the equivalent of wrathful or angry deities in the equivalent of the druidic book of the dead Page 024

On the predestined role of the Celtic [minded] community of nations Page 030

The piece of evidence-signs of the existence of gods Page 035

The piece of evidence-signs of the immortality of the soul/mind Page 043

191

The Irish book of the dead (echtra imram and visions) Page 046

ELEMENTS OF INDIVIDUAL ESCHATOLOGY.

On the individual soul (anamone and anaon) Page 059

On the communion of the living and dead Page 064

On the formation of bran Page 065

The law or justice of exception (ategeneto) Page 068

Psychopompous or welcoming deities Page 071

Repellent deities Page 076

The legend of the death Page 079

First conclusions about the legend of death Page 097

Final conclusion about the legend of death Page 102

ELEMENTS OF UNIVERSAL ESCHATOLOGY.

Leitmotiv on the travel of the soul after death Page 105

Elements of druidic cosmogony Page 107

First image first symbol Page 110

Fragments on the end of the world according to the druids Page 118

Life of the worlds Page 121

Death and end of the world OR OF THIS WORLD? Page 124

Back to the future Page 130

WORKING PAPERS.

No. 1 The point of view of paleontology Page 135

No. 2 The Teilhardian view of the end of the world Page 144

No.3 The poem of the Bad Passer-by. Page 153

No.4 At the source of hatred the monolatry Page 154

No.5 Towards a reenchantment of the world Page 156

No.6 Towards a new world polytheism Page 158

APPENDICES.

No. 1 The symbolism of amber Page 169

No. 2 The anteroom of the Heaven in the Celtic tradition Page 173

No. 3 Breton heresy Page 176

No. 4 The Bardo Thodol Page 177

No. 5 The group of experimental studies of the parapsychological phenomena in Toulouse Page 178

No. 6 Return on the near-death experience Page 179

Afterword in the way of John Toland Page 187

Bibliography of the broad outlines Page 190.

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).

192

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.

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 13rd, 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 thus born the same year as the Howard Hawks film entitled “the Big Sky”. Consequently father of French origin, mother of Irish origin: half Irish half French. Married to Mary-Helen ROBERTS on March 12th, 1988, in Paris-Aubervilliers (French department of Seine-Saint-Denis). Hence 3 children. John Wolf born May 11th, 1989. Alex born April 10th, 1990. Millicent born August 31st, 1993. Deceased on September 28th, 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 of course 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 (on 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 country of his distant ancestors.

It is true unfortunately that France today is no longer the France of Louis XIV or of Lafayette or even of Napoleon (which 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,