Articles
Cult of the Severed Head
Woe to the Woad
Who Were the Druids?
or not...
I find that most practitioners of a Celtic-ish path will not or do now cover the Cult of the Severed Head. I decided when I overhauled this website that I would touch up on this subject.
When I first learned of the Cult of the Severed Head I was in an Internet chat room and someone threw out some comment like, "Didja know the Celts were head hunters." The of course the battle ensued regarding whether or not the Celts were head hunters or not. I, not taking the claim at face value, had to research.
First I would like to point out the there probably wasn't a Cult of the Severed Head, the severed head was probably a cultic ritual item. To have a Cult you need to have a charismatic cult leader. A carving or an actual severed head is not a cult leader, unless it talks, but we will get into that later.
The fact is that the Celts were indeed "head hunters," though I don't feel that those words describe the honor and veneration given to the heads.
Herbert Kuhn suggests in L'Ascension de L'humanite that the act of taking heads during prehistoric times marked man's discover of the spiritual principle residing in the head and not the body.
The Celts being head hunters is not unique among archaic peoples. What is unique is the extent to which the venerated the head. It is incorporated into their art and religious practices. Even today, carved stone heads can be seen all over Ireland and Scotland. According to Anne Ross, "Evidence strongly suggests that the Celtic Cult of the Severed Head stems directly from Unified and earlier Bronze Age Europe where the had was clearly used in certain instances as a solar symbol."
To the Celts that act of taking a head was not a grisly act of dishonor to a fallen foe. In fact the would often take the head of one of their allies lest it fall into the wrong hands, creating the idea that the head was the whole person and could exist in its own right. The concept of the head being the whole would also play a roll in ancestor worship. The Celts believed that you could control a person's afterlife through the use of their head. There are Archaeological9 discoveries of skulls at farmsteads, that appear to have been once nailed over door ways and gates. Celtic warriors may have believed that the power of their fallen foe could be used to help protect their homes and families. These same heads also could have been an offering or thanksgiving for the periods of good harvests.
This concept of protection and or offering also translated to temples.
The idea of a Cult of the Severed Head came to light because of two famous temples discovered in what would be southern Gaul, Roquepertuse and Entremont. Niches were carved to hold actual human skulls in the pillars at the gate of Roquepertuse. At Entremont the heads are carved images in the stone pillars.
Within the temple of Entremont there were also twenty skulls found in the sanctuary, which could have been offerings. It is also said that the heads of enemies were taken as a trophy and the flesh was removed, the skull was hollowed out, and decorated with gold. These decorates skulls were then use by Druids for ritual libations.
I believe the use of skulls for ritual libations could have brought about the association of heads and holy wells. In Scotland and Ireland the cure for different aliments is to drink for a skull at certain holy wells. (This is especial true for Epilepsy in Scotland). There are also many wells that have stone heads as part of their structures. there is a legend that tells of St. Helen's Well in Eshton where the head is below the water line. One would hold their breath and dunk their head under the water and kiss the stone head for luck or a cure.
"The head appears to have been regarded as an object of power, bringing luck and strength into a house or increasing the holiness of a sanctuary. A further reason for valuing a severed head might be its association with divination, suggested by the part played by speaking or singing heads in Irish tales." Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe
Often times a head taken in battle might be brought to a celebrator feast where food and drink were offered to it. In turn the head might speak or sing. Sometimes heads didn't wait that long, and would speak on the battle field and either relate a prophecy or issue orders.
In the famous Welsh tale "Branwen Daughter of Llyr", Bran the Blessed is wounded in battle by a poisoned spear, before the poison reaches his head he demand that this followers sever his head and take it with them. For eighty years they prospered and felt no sorrows under the "Hospitality of the Noble Head." Unfortunately one of Bran's men breaks the spell and the head had to be buried. Bran's head is said to be buried at the White Mountain in London facing France.
In the Welsh version of the Quest for the Holy Grail Peredur also known as Percival is entertained in a castle where they boy pages bare a bloody severed head on a platter. What this head represents is unclear, however some feel that the head itself is a representation of the Holy Grail. The head motif is found on many vessels such as cauldrons and bowls. The cauldron of re-birth is a very important symbol in Celtic beliefs, and is actually carried over into the Christian Holy Grail myth.
The had motif can even be found on churches and cathedrals as the Green man and later Gargoyles. The Celtic idea of the Severed Head is that heads are looked upon with reverence as a sacred talisman. These talismen have healing, protective, apotropaic and life-giving properties.
If you would like to make a skull donation to me, please e-mail me ;)
Contributing Sources (and further reading):
The Folklore of the Scottish Highlands
Anne Ross Copyright 1976
The Mabinogion
Translated by Jeffrey Gantz
Copyright 1979
The Celtic World
Barry Cunliffe
Copyright 1979
Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe
H. R. Ellis Davidson
Copyright 1988
Stony Gaze
John Billingsley
Copyright 1998
L'Ascension de L'humanite
Herbert Kuhn
For me woe to the woad all began when I was watching Highlander (the TV series), and one of the immortal characters was using eyeliner to draw blue markings on herself. I thought to myself, "I wonder why they didn't have her using the original paint, instead of something modern." Later, I met someone who was also intrested in the Celts that told me woad was made of 7 different ingredients, and a recipie could be found in an ancient Welsh manuscript. I began researching from there, but could find no such manuscript. I began to doubt the existance of woad, until recently. A theory that, I feel, has credibility has been brought to light.
Anyone who has an intrest in Celts or Picts has probably heard of woad and the warriors it was applied to. Visions of nude blue warriors running through the mist adhere themselves to he psyche, especialy when woad has been featured in such moves as Brave Heart and Arthur. What was this mysterious blue concotion?
Most re-enactors, pagan, Pictophiles and Celtophiles will tell you it is a plant woad Isatis tinctoria mixed with various substances from fat to distilled cow urine. Woad itself produces a dark blue to black color like indigo. Infact woad was the predicessor to indgo. We do know woad was used to dye cloth, however it did not turn blue until it contacted air. This causes a problem if one is mixing it with fat, air contact would be minimal and would take some time to occur. Another problem I see is that indgo is nearly black and a comtemporary writer, Julius Caesar, states the color is virtrum I believe that is a blue like lapis or perhapse a Ginsing Arizona ice tea bottle. Pliny observed, women were said to paint their bodies blue like Ethopians before festivals. Curiously, woad plant seeds didn't show up in Britain until the late Iron Age (the Iron age ranged about 400 B.C.-400 A.D.), so the Picts and/or Celts probably would not have been painting themselves blue with the woad plant for centuries as some believe. They had to be using something different to paint themselves.
I have spoken with some people who have tried to re-created the woad mixture. All of them said that it didnt' work. Either other substances had to be mixed with the fat or some such binding agent, this could smear, or it would just dry and flake off. I have also been told some of the woad re-creations smelled pretty bad (I could imagine if anything near urine was used. I have also read that the indigo plant doesn't smell very good itself whether or not that pertains to woad I couldn't say).
Unknowingly the idea of using eyeliner put fourth from the Highlander TV episode, offers some clues. Some of the ingredients of eyeliner include: Ferric ferrocyanide and iron oxides. Ferrocyanide pigments are known to create colors such as Iron blue, Prussian blue and Chinese blue among others. Iron oxide would most likely produce a red to orange color. We know the Celts mined and worked metals they could then, of course, have easily gather the metal oxides and use them to create body paint.
Of course we don't have a living breathing immortal to tell us what woad was, but we do have a witness of sorts, Lindow Man.
In 1984 in Lindow Marsh, Cheshire, UK two peat cutters discovered a well preserved human foot, which lead to the discovery of a mummified body of Lindow Man a few days later. Lindow Man has been dated to about 2 B.C.-119 A.D. some time in the middle of the Celtic Iron age. What is very interesting is that the skin testing of Lindow Man (along with other bog bodies) found iron, copper, ferrocyanide oxide and clay based paints but no plant based paints."All test for indigotin (the colorant in woad) were negative; the test itself is very sensitive." Lindow Man: Body in the Bog pg 41.
There are a few scattered writings from contemporary peoples that really only give faint clues as to the compostion of the body paint used by the Celts or Picts. The bog bodies can give mute testimony to the use of metal oxides. Only future research may give us certainty as to what componets that were in the body paint. If the woad plant/or indigo created such a superior blue color, why is it not used in cosmetics today? Clearly in centures we have found nothing better than metal oxides.
Contributing texts and web links:
The Conquest of Gaul
by Julius Caesar
The Picts and the Scots
by Lloyd and Jenny Laing
Lindow Man: The Body in the Bog
by I.M. Stead, J.B. Bourke, Don Brothwell
The Ancient Celts
by Barry Cunliffe
Links
http://www.cyberpict.net/sgathan/essays/woad.htm
http://www.hippy.com/albion/woad.htm
http://home.columbus.rr.com
Where they the noble priests of Atlantis?
Where they Pre-Christian Christians?
Were they Pre-Wiccan Wiccans?
Crazy men in white robes with long white beards?
None of the Above...
Getafix
The Druids were the Priest class of the Celts.
What most people think of when they hear the word “Druid” is probably Gandalf the Grey or Merlin and some sort of Good v.s. Evil plot line. The truth is much different. Many people don’t even associate the Druids with the Celts.
I know a girl that hates the Druids, but she said to me she would like to know more about the Celts. I had to bite my tongue not to blurt out that the Druids were the priest class of the Celtic people.
Celt is a hard word to define, because the Celts were basically several tribes that had similar language and customs. There wasn’t a “Celtic Nation” (not until Vercingetorix tried to make one that is). The Celts inhabitant a vast tract of land from the Pyrenees to the Rhine and from Ireland to Romania.
Think of it this way, back in the olden days when the pilgrims set foot on American soil and found what they called Indians. Native Americans have many distinctive tribes, that have their own languages, customs and Gods. The Celts were the same way, but they were all classified as “Celts” because of this similarity. Actually it was the Greeks that labeled them ‘Keltoi’.
The Celtic people were a strong, proud, and superstitious people. They had little fear of death because of the teachings of the Druids (I will get to this later), and they loved to fight. They would fight amongst each other and kidnap women and marry them, and steal cattle (which was a very popular pastime). They were fearless in battle, and were definitely a force to be reckoned with. They lived their life as if there was no tomorrow, because sometimes there just wasn’t.
Now in the middle of all of this were the Druids, who were the priests (I like to think of them as Warrior Priests), law givers, seers, story tellers, musicians, scientists, astronomers (bards, ovates, & druids) and most importantly the advisors to chiefs. The Druids could stop battles between tribes, and so great was their power that a satire against a chief could cause him to loose his leadership. The Druids were a privileged class and were exempt from taxes and military service. It is said that it took the apprentices 20 years or more to become Druids. These apprentices would have to memorize everything since it was considered a sacrilege to write any religious ideas down. (Celts used Greek or Roman for legal documents).
An “Arch Druid” presided over all the Druids, and when it was time to select a new one, there was a council, where the most eligible were chosen, if there was a tie the decision often came down to a battle between the individuals the winner of course became Arch Druid.
It is even thought that the Druids had a centralized government if you will, with the Arch Druid at the head, presiding over everything. I tend to believe something similar was true because the Romans took so much care to destroy them. The Romans usually left the priests of other religions alone, and even added customs to their own. Not so for the Druids, Jews, and Christians.
Now I know you are itching to know if the Druids sacrificed people like in the Chick Tracts say…
Well yes, the Druids sacrificed everything. Most individuals were probably volunteers, although some were prisoners. How could someone volunteer to be sacrificed to a god you ask? Examine your faith, if you can’t understand, then I can’t really explain it to you. This really isn’t barbaric as it seems at some point in history every religion sacrifices people and animals to their gods. Druids today DO NOT sacrifice people or animals, the greatest sacrifice we make today would be an original (extremely well done) piece of art work going into a fire.
This is a VERY brief description of Druids and Celts, I recommend you go to the recommended reading list and start reading.
Specutlations:
I know that when a child was born to the tribe it would be 3 years before the child would be accepted into the tribe as a member. Before that they were thought not to be "human" or of the fairys. I think this has something with the high infant mortaily rate back in those days. If a child did die they were not burried in the tribal grave yard.
Now being Celts I would assume they have a huge celebration when a child reached three and became a member. Now I also speculate that at this ceromony they would divine the future of the child. I think it is at this point where any child that was sutable to be a druid was taken note of. I believe that at the age of 9 years old the child was then taken to be raised with the druids and to become one of them. Then I think the first 3 years the child is with the druids they are sequestered in a secret druidic place where they are trained. After the first 3 years I think the now apprentice is able to go out to the tribes, or go back to thier tribe and be taught furthur at that location by the existing druids, or they could stay at the university. I think that there were grades of druids like "freshman" "sophamore" etc denoting the training level and the abilities of the apprentice. I believe the average "graduate" would be about 30 years old. I think possibly the grades might be trees of the ogham...maybe or they could have just called them buy number...grade 1 grade 8...
I think the secret druidic place would be the head/university of the druids. The Arch Druid would be found here. I think some druids would stay there their whole lives to train the new ones, to pursue their wisdom or to be administrators of sorts. I think the majority of druids did go back to their tribe, or to different tribes as the need arose. Kind of like the priesthood today.
One of the things I can't figure out is why don't we ever hear of the druids reproducing themselves through druid/durid marrage and birth. I still refuse to believe that there were no female druids, but it sure makes me think about it. I have been thinking that maybe druid/durid mating was taboo or geis. I think if a female druid got pregnant that would end her career as a druid.
The Druids of today, like many other pagans are the same as everyone else. The person that sits next to you at work could be a Druid, or a Witch, or any other type of pagan. We do still venerate nature, we still leave votive offerings, and we still honor the ancestors.
There are many different types of Druids, as there are many other types of pagans or christians. There is not set mold for a Druid.