The Four Tenets Of The Druids

I have been reading a little about the Druids recently and, from what I understand, there appears to be four main tenets to their beliefs:

(1) We all have eternal lives.
We all have an eternal soul (anan) which travels through an eternal cycle of lives. Between breaks in these lives our soul resides or rests in the Land of the Living.

The hard part I have with this is that we seemingly do not remember our lives on earth, which may be in any form, including inanimate - and these are not necessarily in a sequential order. 'Death' erases our memories of the life lived here, but we do retain the wisdom we have learned from our experience as a ... human, animal, mineral or whatever.

I've always thought of reincarnation as being sequential with gradual steps along an evolutionary track - each, hopefully a little improved from the previous one.

(2) There is a spirit in all things.
Everything is alive whether that be rocks, rivers, water or the wind. The land and all things are to be revered as they have their own spirits and often gods and goddesses as well. We, living now, are simply part of this community of life.

I guess this means we should have a respect for all of nature - after all we may possibly incarnate as a rock or part of the landscape.

(3) There are multiple worlds.
There are other worlds which exist alongside those we all accept. I mentioned the Land of the Living in (1). There is also, for example, the Realm of Sidhe where fairies and similar entities exist.

These other worlds interpenetrate each other, and our own, so it is possible to travel between them in the right circumstances. Perhaps this is how some people will occasionally see fairies and the like or relatives who have died.

The hub of all of the various worlds is the Land of the Living where the soul is said not to be constrained by death, time or birth.

(4) Respect for our ancestors.
We should revere our ancestors as we are part of a lineage or group, sometimes associated with an area or maybe a clan.

This lineage or clan is made up of the dead as well as the living and has its own mythology linked to divine ancestral beings.

I don't profess to be an expert on the Druids, so some of what I have written may be slightly off track. There are, however, dozens of books about the Druids should you wish to take the subject further. Try Amazon USA or Amazon UK.

Much of ancient Druid history is unrecorded and appears to have first been mentioned in about 200BC. One of the first texts is by Julius Caesar and in this he writes of the Druid philosophy:

"With regard to their (the Druids) actual course of studies, the main object of all education is, in their opinion, to imbue their scholars with a firm belief in the indestructibility of the human soul, which, according to their belief, merely passes at death from one tenement to another; for by such doctrine alone, they say, which robs death of all its terrors, can the highest form of human courage be developed. Subsidiary to the teachings of this main principle, they hold various lectures and discussions on astronomy, on the extent and geographical distribution of the globe, on the different branches of natural philosophy, and on many problems connected with religion"

In the 18th century there was a revival of Druidism in England and it was then that they became linked to ancient monuments such as Stonehenge.


I must admit I don't feel adverse to the Druid's philosophy. Maybe this is why I chose to live in Cornwall, one of the Celtic regions of Britain.

Further Reading:
Druid Words As A Thought Of The Day
Exclusive Photos Of The Stonehenge Mystery
The Ancients Secret Transmitters Of Energy