Well since the high point of the Egyptian empire came well before the high point of the Roman Empire it is hard to say that Druids were the first to make magick a part of their religion. They do date back to midevil times though so they defenitly came before Wicca and some of the newer age religions.
Re: The Druid Path. By: WhiteRav3n / Knowledgeable
Post # 10 Sep 20, 2012
In Mesopotamia there was a matriarchal social group that is the oldest religion/civilization known. Of course it isn't the first. They would tie men to trees and sacrifice them for fertility rituals. They believed their blood would make them pregnant. Men were slaves and used for pleasure. They didn't put together that the "pleasure" caused the pregnancy.
That was way before the Druids. I picked up that fact in a sociology class about 10 years ago.
Shamanism in all regions was the first "religion" and it was abound longer than we can imagine.
Dillion, it would be nice to see a few sources. From what I've researched, Druidism as it is known now is 99% reconstructed because the Druids themselves were entirely secretive and didn't write down anything. They did however share the Celtic religion. But what we know of them was from spectators that wrote down what they saw, which isn't very good sources.
Indeed you are correct and thus there is no serious source to be stated. As I believe I stated the article that I posted focused on the actual practice of the Druid path and as I stated in the post I would leave out the history and philosphy that is tied to most religions specificly because of the above stated.
When casting a circle it is not necessary to have a visual representation to mark the boundries of your circle as long as you know the space in which you are working. In the Druid path though I have learned that rocks or stones can be used to give the circle more of a nature feel. If you want to establish a permanent ritual space outside for yourself or for a group you can even use large boulders to mark out your space. Whatever you feel is right for you and you have within your means will work just fine. You if you really wanted to go this far can even plant a grove of trees for this purpose. The number that I have learned to use in these instances is 12. That is 12 stones or boulders but again this can be adjusted to meet you needs and desires.
The earliest of humans Started creating sacred spaces/places. Many used natural objects to mark these areas. You can not attribute these types of practices to one specific group here on earth at a certain place and time.
Ireland and Britain with both Celtic territories, and in fact Wales was the last place to still have classical druids (the last of which died in the 1800s). And Celticism isn't a religion, it was a culture, that spread across and connected much of Europe, much as the Macedonians did for the baltic region
To my knowledge Britain was never a Celtic territory in any sense. I believe they were Anglo Saxon but then again I'm not a history buff so I don't know. Regardless since the original post was on the Druid path and some of its practices that all is a moot point.
Yes just like many cultures and religions take there ground base from many other works. Its hard to tell which religions if any are truly authentic anymore. But that's how these things usually work.
