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The Druids
| Druidism and
other Neopagan religions are currently experiencing a rapid
growth. Many people are attempting to rediscover their roots,
their ancestral heritage. |
| Most modern
Druids connect the origin of their religion to the ancient Celtic
people. However, historical data is scarce. The Druids may well
have been active in Britain and perhaps in northern Europe before
the advent of the Celts. |
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| Many academics
believe that the ancestors of the Celts were the Proto-Indo
European culture who lived near the Black Sea circa 4000 BCE.
Some migrated in a Southwesterly direction to create the cultures
of Thrace and Greece; others moved Northwest to form the Baltic,
Celtic, Germanic and Slavic cultures. Evidence of a Proto-Celtic
Unetice or Urnfield culture has been found in what is now
Slovakia circa 1000 BCE. This evolved into a group of loosely
linked tribes that formed the Celtic culture circa 800 BCE.
By 450 BCE they had expanded into Spain; by 400 BCE they were
in Northern Italy, and by 270 BCE, they had migrated into
Galatia (central Turkey). By 200 BCE, they had occupied the
British Isles, Brittany, much of modern France, Netherlands,
Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, North West Spain, and their
isolated Galatia settlement in Turkey.
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| Although
the Celts had a written language, it was rarely used. Their
religious and philosophical beliefs were preserved in an oral
tradition. Little of their early history remains. Most of
our information comes from Greek and Roman writers, who may
well have been heavily biased (the Celts invaded Rome in 390
BCE and Greece in 279 BCE). Other data comes from the codification
(and modification) of Celtic myth cycles by Christian monks.
The latter included the Ulster Cycle, the Fenian Cycle, the
Cycle of Kings, the Invasion Races Cycle from Ireland, and
The Mabinogion from Wales. Unfortunately, much Celtic history
and religion has been lost or distorted by an overlay of Christianity.
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The Christian Church adsorbed
much of Celtic religion: many Pagan Gods and Goddesses became
Christian saints; sacred springs and wells were preserved
and associated with saints; many Pagan temple sites became
the location of cathedrals. By the 7th Century CE, Druidism
itself was destroyed or continued deeply underground throughout
most of the formerly Celtic lands. There is some evidence
that Pagan religions did survive in isolated areas of Estonia,
Latvia and Lithuania into the 20th Century. |
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