- Ritual and the Druids -
tells us that the druids used to bring the cattle as a safeguard against the diseases of
each year to those fires. That is, they would drive the cattle between them. The
second interpretation of the meaning of Beltain is that it is the fire of an idol god, i.e.
Belenos: 'a fire was kindled in his name at the beginning of summer always, and cattle
were driven between the two fires' (Stokes 1868: 19,23). The festival is also known
as Cetshamain, 'I May'.
Tara was the royal centre of Ireland; and Uisnech, in modern County Westmeath,
was, like the sacred spot in the terrain of the Carnutes of Gaul, the druidic centre,
sometimes called 'the navel of Ireland'. The chief assembly took place here at Beltain.
This, too, was a fraught, potentially dangerous season, and many sacrifices had to be
made to protect the young crops and stock from blight and evil forces.
It was a time of portentous happenings. According to the Irish Book of Invasions,
Lebor Gabdla, the incursions of the legendary Parthol6n, the Tuatha De Danaan,
the gods of Ireland, and the sons of Mfl, ancestors of the Gael, all took place at this
season. The invasion of Nemed, too, seems to have happened at Beltain. It was then
that Mide, chief druid of these people, and eponym of Meath, lit the first fire. It
blazed for seven years, a significant number. Fire-lighting was very much a ritual act
in the pagan Celtic world, and the Uisnech fire, lit ceremonially by the druids, was
especially potent and magical. During Patrick's sojourn in Ireland he pre-empted the
druids of Tara who were about to light their Beltain fire, and his great conflagration
struck an ominous blow at the druids and at paganism in Ireland. It was a major
triumph for the Christian faith (Stokes 1887: 4If.).
All the Celtic calendar festivals were in essence fire-festivals, and the druids were
much concerned with fire-magic. Strabo observed that the druids maintained that the
earth was indestructible, although 'both fire and water will at some time or other
prevail' (Geographica 1V+C.197 41 ). The druids held that souls are likewise immortal.
Fire and water were the two elements most revered and employed by the druids in
their sacred rites. Young animals were sacrificed at this fraught season, and there is
some evidence for human sacrifice in the traditions. When the druid Mide lit the huge
Beltain fire, the great heat of which spread over the four quarters of Ireland, the
indigenous druids were enraged. Mide responded by having them collected together
in one dwelling where their tongues were cut out. The druids' tongues were then
buried in the earth of Uisnech (Metrical Dindschenchas 11.42).
The calendar festivals and the great assemblies which accompanied them were
fundamental to Celtic social life, when the people met not as tribes but as a nation.
The hosting of pre-eminent feasts was a visible sign of the wealth and authority of
the kings and the druids.
There was an important Galatian meeting place where twelve 'tetrarchs' met
annually with three hundred assistants at a place called Drunemeton, 'Oak
Sanctuary' or 'Druid Sanctuary'. 'The Council decided murder cases, the tetrarchs
and the judges all others' (Mitchell 1862: 27). This is reminiscent of the assembly in
Gaul described by Caesar (De Bello Gallico V1.13), held annually, at which disputes
of every kind were heard and settled by the druids. The tetrarchs may well have
been priest-kings; like the druids of Gaul they were empowered to act as judges. The
high-kingship of Pessinus, where Drumeneton may have been situated, was given to
certain Celts in the second century Be. This suggests that some of the Celts at least