Several of the
similarities between druidism and shamanism which usually are not
mentioned shall be pointed out here (druidism as based upon
LeRoux/
Guyonvarc'h,
Thurneysen, d'Arbois de
Jubainville a.o., shamanism as based on
Findeisen for 20th
century Siberia)
a.
Shamanism encompasses complex activities, and so does druidism in
Celtic society: magician, diviner, healer, poet, teacher, philosopher,
administrator – all this may be covered by the word: medium. The
function of a medium is as well applied to shamans. They are magicians
(wizards, conjecturers), priests, psychopompoi, healer, artists, seer
and they are all this because of a special psychic disposition, which
makes them media.
b.
Shamans are mentally particularly active, creating even religious
invocations and hymns. Up to the end of his life the shaman is expected
to survey the whole of the cultural matters of his ethnic group. In
consequence he knows all tales and legends of the tradition. Quite
similar must have been the status of the druid.
c.
The shaman derives his existence from a holy tree or from a nest
hanging in its branches. Or else he receives there his education and
formation to being a shaman. In his tree he finds his refuge.
Some examples of Celtic literary tradition:
Someone climbs up into the tree-top and returns after having had a
meeting with an eagle or another kind of bird. This motif as found in
the tale of Lleu Law Gyffes of British tradition is met with
also in Siberian shamans' tales.
The heads of the dead lovers Baile and Ailinn appear in a
tree; in a tree appear or are hanging the heads of the gods Erriapus
and Esus. Otherworldly individuals sit in the tree, e.g.
Suibhne, the "Irish Merlin". Here Finn meets the Red One
Son of the Flashing One, who springs and guards a blackbird on the
shoulder, carries a cauldron with a salmon and is accompanied by a stag.
He eats nuts and apples, and from every fruit half is given to the
blackbird and to the stag. Salmon and nuts are the symbol of knowledge,
the cauldron, the blackbird, the apple and the stag are symbols of the
Otherworld.
d.
Before stepping to an ill person's bed, the shaman receives the
visit by his "spiritual girl". If she is kind and amiable towards him,
he recognizes in her visit a hopeful prospect for a good prognostic and
a successful healing, This reminds of the Celtic tale where the
personified Death takes place either at the head or the foot of the ill
person's bed thus permitting to the doctor a prognostic on the
patient's dying or living.
e.
Shamanism knows the concept of Animal Mothers - maybe this is
equivalent to the Oldest Animals Brythonic traditions speak of.
Moreover, Celtic tradition knows mothers in a bird's shape.
f.
Cults of bear or stag are clearly connected to hunting magic, and
in this respect traditions of present Siberian peoples are close to
those of long gone druidism. While the bear lived on only in certain
personal names (the goddesses Dea Artio and Andarta;
Artgenos = son of the bear, which equals the Irish Mac Mathgamhna;
Art; Arthur =-matus; Math son of Mathonwy),
the stag has a clear cut role in respect to Otherworld:
Stags make hunters follow them and attract them to a place which by and
by changes into a part of the Otherworld. Salbhuide, the son of
the king of Munster in Ireland was lost by this way as well as the
Christian Saint Hubertus. Sometimes the stag drags a chariot
which leads to the Otherworld and is known to us as the sleigh of Father
Christmas drawn by stags or deer.
In the course of a séance horns or antlers grow on the shaman's head and
then perish. Numerous are the horned divinities of the Celts known by
the name of Cernunnos (or Cervunnos? cf. Latin cervus- the stag -
Celtic languages are akin to italic languages).
The horned god is often represented in a seated position like the shaman
in a séance. He is accompanied by a stag or a bull or a snake. For a
long period after the Neolithic up to Christian images this picture had
been applied. Generally the horned god is a god of animals. Saint
Kornély (note the name) is a Christian guardian of the animals.
Furbaide Ferbend the Horned disposes of three horns. In the
Tain Ferdach Fechtnach the Horned represents military power.
Conall Cernach, the warrior par excellence, one of the ancestors
of Ireland, is also associated to a snake. In Brittany, Cornik is
the name of the (horned) devil, and those people who attempted to stone
Saint Yves have been marked by a horn on the forehead. Cornu is
the name of the demon haunting St. Patrick. In Brittany the magician
Coethalec makes antlers grow on the head of his enemy, another
magician.
Prehistoric remnants indicate a transformation between stag and
Cernunnos (Cervunnos). The horns or antlers as well as the
squatting position are suggested here as signs of an exceptional
(mental or psychic) condition and not an intensification, as
Green preferred to say.
g.
Dismembering the shaman's body may be a prerequisite for an
initiation. The severed head is put onto the end of a long staff to
permit him seeing anything that is done to the body. Celts knew the cult
of the head, which was separated from the body after death to permit
continued life of the head; it was then often fixed to a staff. The
head of Bran and that of Conaire Mor laughed and spoke
long time after the death of the body etc.
All the shaman's bones are put to their place before his returning into
life. The bones of a hunted animal may call the animal back to life,
provided that the shaman joints them completely. To this Siberian
tradition compare the fairy tale motive where just one lacking bone
prevents calling back the brother or lover from death or spell.
Shapeshifting as well as an otherworldly journey belong to shamanism as
well as to druidism.
h.
Shamans often are represented to be clothed in bird's feathers or
a stag's skin. Similarly this is reported for British druids (e.g. for
MagRuith).
i.
The staff or stick of the shaman finds its direct successor in
the druidical wand and indirectly in the magician's wand up to our
days.
There is a description of a Siberian shaman meeting a Spirit of
Possession. Two items of this description evoke the contortion of
Cuchullain's face (warp spasm) as depicted in the Tain: In
the moment of being possessed his hair erect and he has the feeling of
being lifted up or of extending.
During
their journeys shamans meet with mediating spirits. These may be
identified with certain beings of the druidic tradition. They are
called here mediating spirits because neither in shamanism nor in
druidism they are gods or divinities, yet are superior to human
beings. They are remotely akin to the heroes of antique mythologies or
to the angels of judeo-Christian provenance. Among them we find for
example: Arawn, Keridwen, Koll mac Kollvrewy,
Ferdia, Gwydion, Gwynn/Finn, Kei,
Math, Midir, Myrddin, Oengus and
some of the legendary druids of ancient Ireland.