Druid Rituals?

Question

What are druid rituals? I saw the movie Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour, and this guy named David did this druid ritual with skull-shaped turnips with candles in them. Kind of like mini jack-o-lanterns. But David found out that he was going to be killed on his 21st b-day. so a lady called him and said for him to do the ritual, and he loooked it up in a book, and saw that you had to carve fifty turnips into the shape of a skull with little tea candles in them. and for the person to be safe from a spirit, to sit in the circle of fifty turnips, and they were to wear a mask to confuse the spirit.But i am confused saying as many other druid rituals may be different from the one i am talking about. But do they actually work?

Answer 1

Well, we should all realize that what you see on TV is not what you get in the real world. This rule applies to all things on TV - including this!

The Druids passed down their knowledge verbally. They didn't write anything down. Christianity passed through, and most of what the Druids were about and did was lost - a few things did find their way to writing, but by Christians or Romans who were bias.

In conclusion, what you saw on TV about the "Druid rituals" was nothing of the sort. It was a story on TV only. You will find that much of what you see on TV regarding Paganism is fanciful and untrue. It's just what sells at the time.

Answer 2

There is very little regarding specific rites; however, some of them have survived, in part, as references in the stories. We know that cattle were driven between two bonfires to purify them. We know the identity of the next High King could be divined by the Bull Feast, and know (roughly) what it entailed.

However, it's piecemeal, and we don't have all the details. We don't know if anything special went into the bonfires. We don't know what was chanted during the Bull Feast. We have glimpses, not a full view.

There is no book of rituals that has survived down through the ages, though there are folks working on collecting reconstructed rituals, so given time, a book of new rituals might exist. Even when it does, however, I wouldn't trust Hollywood to get it right.

Answer 3

Modern Druidry and ancient Druidry are not very related. For the Modern form, Bonewits' book is not a bad suggestion at all.

For the ancient Druids, I like Ellis' The Druids, personally.

And the original Jack-o-Lanterns were turnips. Swedes/Rutabegas (which are just really big turnips) actually.

Answer 4

LeslieAnn is an idiot if she thinks christianity is all love, light, & laughter. The bible is full of murder.

Druidry today is based on reconstruction of evidence found and we can never really know exactly what was in the hearts and minds of those that practiced it. You may want to check out some books on Druidry (someone mentioned Isaac Bonewitz) or check out some websites like The Henge of Keltria.

Caesar did not understand the beliefs of the people they fought. He just had his biased views put into print or "rags" like The Enquirer. Remember: history is written by the victor and doesn't necessary resemble the truth.

Answer 5

I'm not sure if what you saw was an actual druid ritual. Druidry is an ancient form of Celtic Paganism - Polytheism that is earth or nature based. Try looking up Neo-Druidism for more specifics. There are many religions that are steeped in magic practices and in my opinion they do work, however, I believe that it is the power of the human that propels them. Magic to me is simply 'mind over matter'.

Answer 6

Uhhh... Hollywood is NOT representative of actual Druidry.

I doubt it is an actual ritual at all. Druid's rituals tend to be more about honoring the gods and their ancestors than about the supernatural.

Edit: And Matt J is right. It's definitely not pre-Christian druidic. No one knows exactly what they did, though scholars do have some conjectures based on archeology and what little historical information there is.

Answer 7

"present day Druidism" is a watered-down version of what they think of that the classic, real Druids practiced. in spite of each and every thing, present day governments tend to frown on human sacrifice (and to boot that, it relatively is relatively messy) and easily, it relatively is no longer universal for a fact that they even practiced human sacrifice. so a ways as i be attentive to, they painted their bare bodies with blue clay and worshipped spirits in o.ok.timber. yet easily little or no is widely utilized with regard to the unique Druids. it relatively is purely yet another of the loads of religions dreamed up by making use of guys.

Answer 8

One does, what One can.

Do any "Religious" Rituals work?

One can only hope.

The Gods have an Agenda that may, or may not benefit us. Druidic Rituals are built to provide the people involved with a sense that they have their own future in their hands, and give an opportunity to do something about the situation.

/!\

Answer 9

Will you people please quit watching the Wicker Man???? I can't believe the BS they're spewing! Oh wait, yes I can... People love to spread bullshit.... sounds better than the real thing.

Don't rely on movies to give you good information. They make up 90% of that stuff to make it look good... to make $$$. There's very little true historical facts in movies... especially when it comes to ancient religions.

As many have stated, the Druids were wiped out under, not the church... but Julius Ceasar. There's NO evidence of blood orgies - that is Catholic Propaganda. Damn, I wish people would friggin read up on this stuff before repeating it. But I guess it sounds good to them and makes their own blood-stained past look more like Disney World to them.

Answer 10

Druids didn't write things down and most of thier culture was decimated along with the other Celts. Info is being found on archeological digs and the like, but it's not pure. None of our lore is really. Much was lost in the Conversion. *shrug