Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
30 May 2011
Nature Religions
Long before there was Christianity, Judaism, or any of the world’s major religions of today, there was what we call Paganism.
These very ancient religions grew as an attempt to understand the rhythms and cycles of changing seasons, and to explain the creation of life, the Earth, and the stars.
Such religions developed in Europe, but after centuries of suppression and neglect most had faded from sight by about 500 CE.
However, some aspects of the worship of nature and seasons are making a comeback
today and fall under the title of Neo-
Druidism
FOLLOWERS
Among the ancient Celts, the Druids were a class of priests and learned men. They formed an important part of every Celtic community in Ireland, Britain, and Gaul (France), and their leaders often rivalled kings and chiefs in prestige, if not power.
Andrew Dunn
A group of modern-
They seem to have served as judges as well as priests, and their counsel was eagerly sought by all classes of society.
Druidism is currently experiencing rapid growth, as people try to rediscover their roots, and their ancestral heritage. For many North Americans, their ancestors can be traced back to Celtic/Druidic countries.
BELIEFS
Druids worship many gods and goddesses. Archeologists have uncovered evidence of almost 400 different deities, many of them specific to small localities.
Some of the gods and places sacred to Druids were taken over by Christianity. In Ireland, for example, many wells were dedicated to the Goddess Brigid; those same wells are today associated with Saint Bridget.
The dead are transported to the Otherworld by the God Bile. Life continues in this location much as it had before death. The Druids believe that the soul is immortal. After the person dies in the Otherworld, their soul lives again in another human body. At every birth, the Celts mourn the death of a person in the Otherworld which made the new birth possible.
Druids used many techniques to foretell the future: meditation, study of the flight of birds, interpreting dreams, and interpreting the pattern of sticks thrown to the ground.
FESTIVALS
Druids, past and present, celebrate a series of fire-
Great bonfires would be built on the hilltops. Cattle would be driven between two
bonfires to ensure their fertility; couples would jump over a bonfire or run between
two bonfires as well.
The festival dates relate to the milder climate of the West European seaboard.
Samhain -
Imbolc -
Beltaine -
Lughnasad -
Also important in Nature religious observances are the Spring and Fall Equinoxes and the Summer and Winter Solstices.
This is another “Nature religion” that comes out of Celtic tradition. It is often wrongly called “Witchcraft,” a word that usually conjures up negative images. Wiccans are not evil old hags with warts on their noses using magic spells to cause harm to others.
BELIEFS
Central to Wicca is a reverence for all life and a realization of the oneness of the universe.
Wiccans honour as sacred what they consider to be the five staples of life: air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. They respect all faiths, believing that the divine speaks many languages. Faith is like a wheel with many spokes.
Everybody seeks the source of creation, but the path is unique to each of us. Wicca sees the world in terms of balance between male and female energies, rather than the struggle between good and evil.
Morality is a matter of personal responsibility for the consequences of our actions. We must become aware of the web of cause and effect surrounding each act and learn from our mistakes so that they become useful to us, rather than damaging.
The Wiccan Church of Canada was founded by Tamarra and Richard James in 1979; there are Wiccan temples in Toronto, and Hamilton.
Image credit
Gwen and James Anderson
Sources used in this series
Religions in Canada, Directorate of Human Rights and Diversity, Government of Canada.
The Encyclopedia of World Religions, Robert S. Ellwood (ed.) Facts on File, 1998.
Religion for Dummies, Rabbi Marc Gellman and Monsignor Thomas Hartman, For Dummies Publishing, 2002.
Religious Tolerance, Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Religion, CBC Montreal
© Canada and the World, May 2011
All rights reserved
STONEHENGE
An extraordinary complex of massive standing stones in southern England, called Stonehenge, is popularly associated with Druids. That’s because at the Summer Solstice modern Druids gather at the site to perform ancient rituals.
However, there’s no evidence that Druids built Stonehenge; there’s also no evidence that they didn’t build it.
Nobody knows for sure what the origin of Stonehenge is, except that it seems likely to have had some mystical or religious meaning to the people who constructed it.
The first monument at Stonehenge has been dated to 3500 BCE; the current formation was completed about 1500 BCE, almost a thousand years before the Celtic civilization developed.
Some experts believe that Druids preceded the Celts in England, but as they left no written record it’s impossible to be sure.
Although Stonehenge is the most famous, there are about 50,000 other megalithic monuments across Europe.
The word Druid may have come from the Greek drus (oak), a tree regarded by the Druids as sacred.
“We are not evil. We don’t harm or seduce people. We are not dangerous. We are ordinary
people like you. We have families, jobs, hopes, and dreams. We are not a cult. This
religion is not a joke. We are not what you think we are from looking at TV. We are
real. We laugh, we cry. We are serious. We have a sense of humour. You don’t have
to be afraid of us. We don’t want to convert you. And please don’t try to convert
us. Just give us the same right we give you -
Wiccan Margot Adler