Druidic Beliefs
There were no temples built for the Celtic gods. Shrines and sanctuaries were established outdoors at sacred groves or nearby sacred lakes. Sacrificial things, human and animal, took places at these sacred sites. Icons made of either of wood or stone were stored in the shrines, along with sacred, precious artefacts. Hauls of silver and gold were deposited into the holy lakes and rivers.
According to the Roman historian Tacitus, one of the centre of the druids were at the sacred grove on the island of Anglesey. In AD 61, because of human sacrifices that took place, the Romans under Suetonius Paulinus took action to eradicate the bloody practices; druids were massacred, and groves were destroyed.
It was only when Gaul and Britain had become provinces of Rome, did the Celts have temples built and the Celtic deities receive Romano-Celtic names. Despite these names, all the inscriptions on these Gallic and British deities were written in Latin, since neither Gauls nor the Britons have their own writing systems.
The only source in the Irish literature that indicate that Irish worshipping a god, in the usual sense, come at the reign of the high king, Tigernmas. Tigernmas was said to have introduced the worship of Crom Cruach. Human sacrifices were performed before the stone idol of Crom Cruach.
Some ancient Gallic deities such as Belenus, Danu, Lugus, Ogmios and Epona survived the early spread of Christianity to be transmitted into Bel, Ana, Lug or Lugh, Ogma, and Macha – the Irish deities of the Tuatha De Danann.
While the Welsh had transmitted Belenus/Bel into Beli, Danu/Ana into Don, Lugus/Lug into Lleu, and Epona/Macha into Rhiannon. The British god Nodons was transmitted into the Welsh Nudd, who was sometimes equated with Nuada Airgetlám.
Ignoring the Irish and Welsh literatures and concentrating on the ancient Gaul and Britannia during the Roman empire, you will find that there is no Celtic pantheon, such as the Greek and Roman Olympians or the Norse Aesir. There are hundreds of Celtic gods and goddesses, where some are more popular in Continental Europe and the British Isles.
There is very little evidence of magic from the ancient druids in Gaul that appears frequently in Irish and Welsh literature. The classical authors believed that druids practised magic and witchcraft but were very vague to what sort of magic. What is clear is that the ancient druids took special interests in healing and divination.
Like shaman or medicine man, the druids made charms and talisman to ward off evil spirits.
As physicians and healers, the druids gathered herbs and poultice. They gathered plants known as selago, without using iron. Another special plants were the marsh plant, known as the samolus, used as charm against diseases of cattle.
Pliny the Elder (AD 29-79), philosopher and natural scientist, wrote that druids held the mistletoe and oak trees (genus Quercus) as sacred. The mistletoe were rarely found on oak trees. The druids would cultivate mistletoes with great ceremony on the sixth day of the moon. They always used golden sickle to carefully cut the mistletoes and gathered them in white cloak. It was said that mistletoe contained special properties that would cure all illness and diseases. It was said to be antidote to all poison and impart fecundity to barren cattle.
However, in the medieval Irish literatures, it was ash trees, often called rowan and quicken trees (genus Sorbus aucuparia), and the yew trees (genus Taxus) that were sacred. They contained magical properties. Also sacred were the apple trees (genus Pyrus malus) and the hazel (genus Corylus).
In Tóraigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne (The Pursuit of Diarmait and Gráinne), the giant Searbhan (Sharvan) guarded rowanberries on the Quicken Trees, in the forest of Dubros. The magic berry could restore an old man of 100 to his youth of 30-year-old.
The Welsh legend, seemed to favour the apple trees. In the poem attributed to Myrddin, the antecedent of Merlin, he hid up in the apple tree, when the men of Rhydderch, but he was hidden by the magic grove.
Though druids could heal, using some sort of magic or just using herbs, it was mainly the work of physicians. The most famous physician was the Danann Dian Cécht and his children. Dian Cécht had blessed the spring, which healed the Danann warriors during the Second Battle of Mag Tuired. His son Miach had restored Nuada’s arm.
The magic is more explicit in Irish and Welsh literature. Some druids used wands, especially when transforming another person into an animal, plant, or rock.
A sorceress or witch was called bantuathaig. Be Chuille and her sister Dianann were the sorceresses of the Tuatha Dé Danann. They used their magic to conjured up host of warriors from the grass and leaves, during the war against the Fomorians.
In Irish and Welsh legends, prophecies and divination were frequent in the literature.
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