Celtic Mythology and Religion

DRUIDISM.
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discussed, and looking from a lofty philosophic
pinnacle on human affairs, they pronounced human
souls immortal.
Such is the history of Druidism in Gaul and early
Britain : of its course in Ireland we have no direct
information. It is only when Christianity has been
long established, and Druidism a thing of the remote
past, that we have writers who speak of the Druids ;
and in their eyes the Druids were but magicians that
attended the courts of the pagan kings. The lives
of the pioneer saints, Patrick and Columba, are full
of contests between themselves and the royal
magicians, who are called in the Gaelic Druid and in
the Latin versions Magi. But in all the numerous
references to them in Irish chronicles and tales
there is no hint given of Druidism being either a
system of philosophy or religion :
the Druids of Irish
story are mere magicians and diviners, sometimes
only conjurors. But as such—as magicians—the
Druids play a most important part in Irish pagan
history, as chronicled by the long posterior Christian
writers. From the primaeval landing of Partholan
with his three Druids, to the days of Columba, we
have themselves and the bards exercising magic
and divining powers. The second fabled settlers
of Ireland, the Nemedians, meet the invading
Fomorians with magic spells ;
but the fairy host
of the Tuatha De Dannan are par excellence the
masters of Druidic art. Their power over the forces
of Nature—over sea, wind, and storms—shows them