' Druids: a Holy Female Sisterhood

August 27, 2010

Female Druids also known as dryads (Greek) or oak nymphs were oracular priestesses, each with her own personal tree spirit. Dryads were also known as priestesses of Artemis, whose souls dwelt in trees. Dryads could also assume the shapes of serpents and were called Hamadryads or Amadryades. Dryadism and druidism (Scottish) were two phases of the same religion, restricted to a female priesthood in the earlier, matriarchal stage, but later open to male priests as well. Irish churches were originally known by the old druidic name of dairtech, or "oak-house," a sacred grove. The Christian church attacked the Druids for their paganism, and also for their tendency to include sacred women in their ranks.

The "colleges" of druidesses, dryads, and high holy sisterhoods were later assimilated into Christian nuns. One of the three classes of druidesses consisted of secluded sisterhoods, such as the priestesses of Brigit, who lived in convent-like sanctuaries while tending perpetually burning sacred fires. Another less secluded class of druidess consisted of married women who lived at the temple and went home occasionally to visit their husbands. A third class was composed of temple servants who lived with their families.

There is no break between the ancient semi-magical formulae chanted by the Druids and later incantations of the wizard and “wise woman.” '

https://www.kathycrabbe.com/blog/2010/08/druids-a-holy-female-sisterhood

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Deck: The DruidCraft Tarot
Spread: One Card
Date: Tue Jan 05 05:18:22 EST 2021


Your Card
XX • REBIRTH (Reversed)

KEYWORDS

• Following a call • New directions • Renewal • Transformation • Decision-making

Ornament

Here we see the initiate being reborn from the Temple-Tomb of New Grange. It is The Fool, as the child represented in the previous card of The Sun, and soon to be seen as the hermaphroditic World figure in the next card, but here emerging from the womb of the temple on the morning of the Winter Solstice.

The Priest-Initiator stands outside the entrance, blowing upon a dord (a ritual horn). He summons the soul to wake up, to be reborn, to accept its life, reap its rewards and begin a new cycle. The spiral pattern on the entrance stone reinforces many of the themes of this card: the mysteries of birth and death, regeneration, redemption, renewal, and reaping. The light of the pale midwinter sunrise illuminates the scene, and we can see a hare, and holly, ivy and mistletoe in the foreground.

The Significance of Rebirth

The traditional Tarot names this card Judgement, and we see an image of people emerging out of tombs as their bodies are resurrected at the sounding of a trumpet on the last Day of Judgement. This image seems exclusively Christian until we realize that the theme of rebirth is a concept that preceded Christianity by thousands of years. The Ancients built their places of burial and worship together, as do Christians, and temples such as New Grange were the repository for ancestors’ bones, as well as possible places of initiation. The knowledge that death and rebirth are part of a cyclical process is written both in the land and in the sky – in the way that the crops flourish, die and are reborn each year, and in the way the moon is reborn each month, and the sun each year at the time of the Winter Solstice.

Even the image of the trumpet is found in earlier religions. Bronze Age trumpets known as dords have been found all over Ireland, and also in Scotland and England. They were hurled into water as sacred offerings, and were probably played with the circular breathing technique used on didgeridoos. Studies of the acoustic properties of temples such as New Grange show that the Ancients almost certainly used chanting, drumming and trumpets such as dords to create magnificent and awe-inspiring sounds that enhanced the rituals being performed there.

Meaning   The Power of the Call   Tarot experts have suggested that the key symbol for this card is the trumpet: it indicates the power of the call, and the magical creative power of sound. Finding this card in a reading might suggest that you have heard the call of your vocation, your mission in life, the spiritual path you are seeking, or simply the call of a new direction you need to take.

It is a call to change, and to renewal – to rebirth into a life that is more fully your own and more fully at one with existence. Finding this card usually indicates that the process of change has already begun, but it can sometimes also indicate that a decision must be taken. You may have come to a crossroads in your life, and a decision is required that will take your life in a new direction.

The card’s numerological counterpart is II The High Priestess. Traditionally, initiation is often carried out by a woman, and this will have occurred within the temple, which also represents the womb of the Goddess, as depicted so vividly in the story of Ceridwen and Taliesin. But, on leaving the temple and being reborn, it is the Priest who welcomes you into the world, as Elphin welcomed Taliesin when he emerged from the leather bag. The High Priestess in this instance represents the mysteries of the inner world and the moon; The High Priest the mysteries of the outer world and the sun. Both, as ‘parents’, nurture the initiate into full consciousness, which is represented by the final card of the series: The World.

When the cards are laid out in three rows according to the three levels of initiation, The Lovers card of the first line is directly above the card of Death, and beneath that is – quite fittingly – the card of Rebirth.

◆ The message of Rebirth is ◆

You hear the call and awaken to the new light of day. You have entered the darkness and drunk of the cup of silence. You have chosen life and emerge reborn.

Ornament

REVERSED KEYWORDS

• Denial of an inner call • Stagnation • Procrastination • Fear of change

Reverse meaning   Sometimes an inner call can seem hard to follow. We know that we need to make changes but we don’t know how – or it may simply be that we fear the consequences. As a result we enter a period of stagnation. We procrastinate, hesitating to commit ourselves, but in doing this it feels as if something is somehow dying within us. Action, therefore, probably needs to be taken soon.



Presented by The DruidCraft Tarot app from The Fool's Dog.