Spring begins right this moment, Monday, 20 March 2023, formally at 21:24 UTC, although our climate might not replicate this. Because of international warming the climate right here is more and more unpredictable and whereas most of us are shielded from its extremes, vegetation and wild life appear to be getting increasingly confused.
Druids have a good time the event at midday, with The Druid Order doing so on Tower Hill, processing there this 12 months from The Ship in Hart Road in white robes with their banners and performing a ritual celebration.
The Historical Druids had been a Celtic higher class we all know comparatively about as they stored no written data of their non secular actions however there are some descriptions by Caesar and different Roman and Greek authors of their significance and their pagan practices, though some features of those might have been primarily based on rumour and propaganda.
Druidry was apparently a wholly oral custom, with druids spending years of examine and studying texts and rituals by coronary heart; a few of these might have been handed down by means of the years in folklore, significantly in Eire, however a lot or all of this might be later romantic invention.
Based on Wikipedia Caesar “wrote that they had been one of many two most necessary social teams within the area (alongside the equites, or nobles) and had been liable for organizing worship and sacrifices, divination, and judicial process in Gallic, British, and Irish societies.”
Many of the historic sources state that one side of their non secular practices was human sacrifice, presumably of criminals “however when criminals had been in brief provide, innocents could be acceptable.”
One kind that’s stated to have been used for this sacrifice was the “wicker man” the place the sufferer was encased in a big picket human effigy and was then burnt alive. However they’re additionally stated to have practised divination by stabbing a sufferer within the chest and observing the move of blood and the convulsive motion of the limbs because the sufferer died.
Fashionable-day druid ceremonies are significantly tamer, with druids showing as peaceable lovers of nature, which after all had way more apparent significance in historic instances – although we are actually realising pretty desperately that our trendy neglect or indifference to it’s having disastrous penalties on biodiversity and future meals provides.
Some bushes, particularly oak and hawthorn appear to have performed a big position within the worship of historic druids, and there are numerous groves of bushes across the nation believed by some to (sorry) have druidic roots. Definitely a few of these historic groves, no matter their origins appear to have a non secular nature.
The Romans additionally wrote in regards to the druids as philosophers, and Wikipedia has an quote from Caesar on this the place he writes that they believed the human soul was indestructible, passing at loss of life from one physique to a different. He additionally commented on their curiosity in astronomical issues – maybe most clearly expressed at Stonehenge and different historic monuments, in addition to “on the extent and geographical distribution of the earth, on the completely different branches of pure philosophy, and on many issues linked with faith.“
I’ve photographed the Druid Order ceremonies in a number of years on each the Spring Equinox at Tower Hill and the Autumn Equinox on Primrose Hill, a extra dramatic setting. The images right here come from 2008, however I’ve taken very related ones in different years. Though impressed by earlier actions and mentioning a few of these concerned throughout their rituals, the precise type of their celebration will not be historic, however somewhat over 100 years previous.
Extra photos from 2008: Druid Order – Spring Equinox.
Tags: 2008, anceint groves, British, Caesar, Celtic myths, Celtic higher class, divination, Druid Order, flowers, Gallic, hawthorn, human sacrifice, human soul, immortal soul, Irish, libation, London, London Photographs, mead, midday, oak, oral custom, pagan practices, peter Marshall, Roman authors, romantic invention, seeds, Spring, Spring Equinox, swacrifices, Tower Hill, wicker man, worship
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