Druidism both is, and isn’t, a religion. It originated in a culture that didn’t originally have the Roman Catholic view of religion. It‘s perhaps more accurate to say it’s a wisdom tradition, sort of like a western Taoism.
Shamanistic? Yes, in a sense, but not as strictly grounded as that. They had a long standing, and sort of unified tradition. So in a way, Druids were a single people, though they weren’t totally in agreement with each other, nor was this required.
They were serious philosophers, and were perhaps the first “natural philosophers.” Natural philosophy was what would come today to be modern science, but Druids weren’t materialist. They were content to not take the world apart, and instead see it, the people in it, and the forces of nature, as a whole. They did practice divination, but it wasn’t “fortune telling.” It was more a way to get a look at the “invisible” part of the world, and they believed everything followed cycles. So seeing the future wasn’t impossible, but they didn’t see it as especially important.
Druids believed in an immortal soul, but they didn’t believe that it needed to be saved, or it would be damned. They in a sense didn’t believe in death as we understand it now. Literally everything has cycles, and a soul would reincarnate. Whatever you did in your past life was just your life, and your current life isn’t “new.”
Reincarnate for infinity? Literally no beginning or end, ever? Oh, they had a view of a beginning, but it wasn’t really time related, and they had spirits they saw as Gods.
Were they Gods or ascended? Same difference in a Druidic view. The divine realms were just sort of a heart to nature. Heaven wasn’t a paradise that was better than this place. They didn’t see earth as bad. It was really only one reality that had visible and invisible parts.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~