Druidic Wisdom:

Druids as Philosophers

“The outstanding feature of Druidical teaching may be summed upas natural philosophy and natural science – the nature of the physical universe and its relationship to mankind.” ¹

To summarize, from various sources, the Druids taught that one should live in harmony with nature, accepting that pain and death are not evils, but part of the divine plan and that the only evil is moral weakness. From th Old Irish texts one gathers that the Druids were concerned, above all things, with Truth. ²

Then there was the Celtic idea of immortality of the soul which was that death, was but a changing of place and life went on with all its forms and goods in another world, a world of the dead, the fabulous Otherworld. When people died in that world, however, their souls were reborn in this world. Thus a constant exchange of souls took place between the two worlds; death in this world took a soul to the Otherworld, death in that world brought a soul to this. What is clear from all the evidence is that the Celts believed that life in the Otherworld was essentially the same as life in this world.

Indeed, it is a fact that the Druid’s philosophy produced some of the most fascinating early Christian philosophers. These philosophers range from the Gaulish Celt, Hilary of Poitiers (c. AD 315-367) considered one of the most outstanding theologians of the early Christian Church. Then there was Eriugena (c. AD 810-880), sometimes called Johannes Scotus, John the Irishman, who is considered the most considerable philosopher of the Western world between Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas.

It is probably more accurate to speak of Druidic philosophies rather than Druidic philosophy; those who accepted Fate or Predestination and those who did not.

Sources: ¹ ‘The Druid” by Nora Chadwick; ² A Brief History of The Druids by Peter Berresford Ellis

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