Druidry Lesson 1~ A Snapshot of the Early Insular Celts

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Lesson 1

Some questions for you to think about:

What are the popular images (good and bad) associated with the Celtic countries and peoples?

When people think of Druids, they think of people who live and worship in forests. There are images of sacrifice, tattoos, and bloody battles. There are images of aristocracy and leadership. Many different ideas of what and who the druids were. There are really no good accounts of who they were, only the writings of other cultures who observed them and most of them were enemies for one reason or another.

What feelings do these images evoke for you?

For me, these images bring to mind the way people now feel about things they don’t understand. From what I feel based on others views, they were very secretive, powerful, and were able to stay out of the focus of everyone if they so desired. They were educated and studied the world and the earth that was at their disposal. They were leaders when they needed to be but could also disappear right under the noses of those cultures around them when needed. These people took care of anyone who needed help when they were allowed. That were tolerant of all unless they were threatened or attacked. I feel like these people would have been great world leaders has they not been eradicated by those who would not understand them.

The land mass now called England was once inhabited by Celtic peoples, yet we no longer think of it as Celtic. Genetic tests have shown that quite a few people who consider themselves English are descendants of the Iron Age tribes. What are the factors that form or challenge both personal and national identity? What makes a person Celtic? Is it being descended from a particular bloodline, or being able to speak one of the languages, or having been raised within a certain culture, or having a spiritual relationship with certain Gods or spirits? Is a combination of two or more of these factors, or something else entirely?

I think that while bloodline can make a person Celtic, culture, beliefs, background, and desire can make a person more Celtic at heart and in the eyes of the world. Celtics were considered honorable. The Celtics or Druids performed rituals to their gods. They were one with the earth and honored it upon the highest. They lived what they believed every day of their lives. They were learners, constantly studying the earth, the gods, and people. They were teachers and story tellers and historians. They were a complete culture, with subcultures, that moved through the vastness of what is now England and so much more of Europe. I think that to be Celtic is to not only be part of a bloodline, but is to worship the earth, practice the old religion, and to honor they self and all around you.

A practical task:

Try to find out something about the tribe that occupied the place you live in during the Iron Age. There may be items in local museums to look at, old hill forts you could visit, or books to read about any of the more prominent members of your local tribe.

In the old days we gathered sacred roots and berries. We fished the Chehalis, Black, Cowlitz, Satsop, Wynoochee, Elk, Johns, Skookumchuck, and Newaukum rivers. Our people fished and hunted from the mountains, across the prairies, to Grays Harbor and in the lower Puget Sound.

In the old days the baskets carried and stored our foods. We relied upon the baskets, the rivers, the land, the roots, the berries, the fish, and the animals. Our lives were tied together by the Creator.

-Liichaat, “Just These Few Words”

For many centuries, two large groups of Salish-speaking people lived along the Chehalis River. They lived in cedar longhouses with one end open to the water from which they received a bounty of salmon and other river-based sustenance.

These two groups were the Upper and Lower Chehalis, and they thrived for a long time, until the encroachment of white settlers forced them to give up their ancestral lands. Rejecting the unacceptable terms of the treaties offered by the US Government, the Chehalis were regarded as a “non-treaty” tribe. This meant financial aid from the government would be limited and unpredictable.

Despite these challenges, the Chehalis people have endured through self-reliance and determination. Today, the Tribe operates thriving enterprises such as the Lucky Eagle Casino and Eagles Landing Hotel, and has recently built new community and wellness centers that have dramatically enhanced the quality of life for our people.

http://www.chehalistribe.org/our-story/index.html