Druids, Arcane Secret society????

Yeah the title of this thread is a bit vague but whatever. I have been Really interested in druids, symbolism, architypes and religions lately. I have been noticing a lot of things making connections in my area and ws wondering if the druids have managed to still stay in the backround as a completly secret society manipulating the secret societies. It's a confounding thought especially if you consider that the druids according to history books passed on knowledge only by word of mouth with exceptions being in a very complex coded alphabet. Anyway I was just wondering what others know about Druids, and nothing clandestine just info about the way they operated in the past and possible theories. I already know about several druid orders that claim to have a bunch of secret info and I am interested in looking into those but the person i have contacted is kinda taking his time responding to me so i figured i would research in every method possible ATS being one of the best research forums i have ever used i figured i would get some better info this time. Oh this is the second time I have posted a thread along these lines. The first was deleted because one of the moderators believed i was recruiting people into some cult or another.
THAT IS NOT MY PURPOSE THIS TIME AND WOULD DEEPLY APPRECIATE A WARNING BEFORE ANY ALTERCATIONS GO FORTH WITH THIS THREAD IF SOMEONE FEELS THE NEED TO DELETE IT.


THANK YOU AND LET THE THREAD BEGIN!

It's called the secret teachings of all ages and tell me if you see a link to this and druids in history.

Secret teachings of all ages

I'll hopefully be getting that book^^^ soon.

Manly P. Hall, Blavatsky and other esoterists have quoted from the following sources in some of their writings:

(From another similiar thread)

Originally posted by Tamahu

Originally posted by Tamahu

Freemasonry and the Druids




More: members.tripod.com...

BOOK I - CHAPTER IV

Page 59

…In my Essay on The Celtic Druids, I have shewn, that a great nation called Celtæ, of whom the Druids were the priests, spread themselves almost over the whole earth, and are to be traced in their rude gigantic monuments from India to the extremities of Britain. Who these can have been but the early individuals of the black nation of whom we have been treating I know not, and in this opinion I am not singular. The learned Maurice says, "Cuthites, i. e. Celts, built the great temples in India and Britain, and excavated the caves of the former."* And the learned Mathematician, Reuben Burrow, has no hesitation in pronouncing Stonehenge to be a temple of the black, curly-headed Buddha.

Yeah Someone already showed me that stuff. I was more interested in wether or not druids or druid representatives have been feeding certain people knowledge but witholding most of it in order to accomplish there own agenda or something. hmmmm. I mean if religion is made up as a tool to control the masses who originated religion and what if the druids are actually from atlantis or the whole atlantis myth was created by druids. All in all I want far fetched theories on this thread more than anything. Sure there's books and opinions out there but what opinions are in your heads.

Originally posted by Magickesists
Yeah the title of this thread is a bit vague but whatever. I have been Really interested in druids, symbolism, architypes and religions lately. I have been noticing a lot of things making connections in my area and ws wondering if the druids have managed to still stay in the backround as a completly secret society manipulating the secret societies.

Not likely.

In fact, there is a lot of myth and imagined "channelings" mixed into the material on the Druids. What we do know about them comes from the Romans (including Julius Caesar), who wrote briefly about them. One Roman author had a Druid friend, and wrote a bit about his friend and his beliefs.

They were a secretive society/school, but not in the sense that we know it today. It was ... hmm... more similar to a very exclusive and private college. The average person knew nothing about what went on there; they only knew that the Druids had a lot of learning and trusted them.

Knowledge from the Phonecians is very doubtful (there aren't any Phonecian elements in any of the material that is left).

The folk with the most thorough scholarship on the Druids (and who mightily thwack the fantasies and channelings that have no base in fact) are the Reconstructionist Druids.

White Oak Druids are one such group:
www.whiteoakdruids.org...

The Reconstructionist Pagan groups are a reaction to the channeling sessions and peculiar mystical traditions that mixed Victorian melodramatics of Madame Blatavasky and others and Christian religion to produce a pseudo-faith. They go back, examine the books and the evidence (including archaeological ones... and yes, they teach themselves to speak the original language and read the original writings (one reconstructionist friend of mine reads the Ogham runes.))

Here's a guide to Druidism (reconstructionist)
www.wildideas.net...

Here's a short list of books that the scholarly Druids agree are reliable and not full of nonsense:
www.whiteoakdruids.org...

i would have to say that both before, and following the inquisitions and the times when it was not safe to be a druid (or witch, or magus, or even a doctor... yes DOCTOR), that the druids were likely the most open of all so called "secret societies" in their highest points in history they were considered as holy by their people as a jew considers his rabbi.

this having been said.. they were still slightly secretive.. but that was because they knew that roman mystics would steal their lore and knowledge in a heartbeat.. it is for this reason that they created the Ogham, and the practice known as "Oral tradition", that is to say.. the practice of recording ALL the lore and history in their heads and by passing it to the new generation by word of mouth only


Oh and wonderfull authors the two of you have mentioned.. my book guy let me see his copy of Halls "secrets of all ages" and i have a PDF copy of blavatsky's "secret doctrine" both were very throughout and very well written

[edit on 21-10-2005 by Becon of Light]

Originally posted by Becon of Light
i would have to say that both before, and following the inquisitions and the times when it was not safe to be a druid

Sorry, but the druids vanished about 700 years before the Inquisitions. They got into a political-religious squabble with the Romans, and lost:
www.romans-in-britain.org.uk...

.. it is for this reason that they created the Ogham

Actually, the Druids did NOT create the Ogham. It was brought into the British isles in 400 AD or so:
www.celticgrounds.com...

Well dang.. i stand corrected.. that doesnt happen often.. good on you Byrd