Irish Druids and old Irish religions / by James Bonwick.

  • James Bonwick
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Irish Druids and old Irish religions / by James Bonwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    furnishes little evidence for romantic conclusions ; but why should tradition hold so tenaciously to the theory ? Making all allowance for extravagance of views, and their variety, it is not easy to explain these early and particular accounts. Although Welsh Druidism is represented by Welsh writers as being so different from the Gaulish, as pictured by French authors, or the Irish of Irish scholars, a few words may be allowed from the publication of the enthu- siastic Morien of Wales. “ It is evident,” says he, “ that the Druid believed in the eternity of matter in an atomic condition, and also in the eternity of water ; and that the passive, that is, the feminine principle of the Divine nature, pervaded both from eternity.”— “ He imagined a period before creation began, when dark- ness and silence pervaded illimitable space.”—“ The Sun is the son of the Creator, who is referred to by the Druids as the higher sun of the circle of Infinitudes above the Zodiacal Sun.”—“ Wherever the solar rites relating to the ancient worship had been performed, those places were still regarded by the masses as sacred.” The Anmvn of Morien is Hades or Erebus, and that “of northern ideas is cold.” Of the Archdruid he says, “ The Divine Word incarnate, such was our Druidic High Priest especially when standing on the Logan stone. The Holy Greal was the cauldron of Ceridwen, or Venus. The Druids’ ecclesiastical year commenced at midnight, March 20—21. God was regarded through the symbol of three letters /[\ or rods, representing the light, or descent of rays, the true Logos. Hu, the divine Sun, was the Menw incarnate. The grave is the matrix of who bears the same relation to Venus as the Creator does to Apollo the Sun. The twelve battles of Arthur, or the Sun, relate to the signs of the Zodiac. Morien observes two sects in Druidism—the