A Gallo-Canadian Recon-Revivalist Druid Organisation.
A New-World home for the worship of God in a modern syncretism of the Celi-De, and the celebration of the histories, arts, customs, and laws of the Gaelic peoples, both old and new.
A Scottish Tree with Welsh and Irish Roots growing in the heart of Turtle Island.
A Sanctuary for the benefit of all living beings, as limitless as space. For all life is precious
The Bards Enigma:
There is no God but that which is truely hidden
There is nothing truly hidden but what is not conceivable;
There is nothing not conceivable but what cannot be comprehended;
There is nothing incomprehensible but what is not measurable;
There is nothing immeasurable but the greatest of all,
There can be no two of the greatest of all in any thing;
There is no God but what is not conceivable,
There is nothing truly hidden but God.
Solution:
What is not conceivable is the greatest of all,
and the immeasurable of what is not in place;
Aedh (God) is the greatest of all, and the immeasurable of intelligence;
And there is no existence to anything but from intelligence;
Aedh (God) is the greatest, and immeasurable of all that are together in place.
Ard Nemeton na Tuatha
The High Grove of the People
Ard Nemeton na Tuatha—“the High Grove of the People”—is understood as a continuation, in this northern land, of the Gaelic-Druidic tradition, received and tended within a Canadian context.
Its roots are drawn from the ancestral lore of Ireland and Scotland—preserved in sources such as the Lebor Gabála Érenn, the Saltair na Rann, and related traditions—while its expression is shaped in fidelity to the land, the season, and the present age.
In this spirit, the following maxim is held as a guiding measure:
Aoraidh na Diathan, cron gun, eagal dad
(Worship the Gods, harm none, fear nothing)
This is received as a rule of life, orienting the heart toward reverence, restraint, and courage.
In keeping with the wisdom attributed to the Druids, the natural world is regarded as a primary context of revelation—
in the stillness of waters,
in the hush of the woods—
where insight is discerned rather than declared.
On Faith and Incarnation
Within the Grove, the sacred is approached in a manner that allows for both inheritance, recognition, and growth.
Some here choose to recognize Jesus of Nazareth as a manifestation of the divine presence known among the Gaels as the Lord of the Tuatha (People) (Teutatis\Tuathatis), the guardian and indwelling spirit of the Tuath.
Thus, rather than standing wholly apart from later Christian developments, this understanding reflects a Gaelic reception of the Eternal Word—one in which the divine is known among a people, through a people, and for a people.
In this light, the Christ may be understood as fulfilment and living fire:
Aedh the enduring,
present in the hearth, in right offering, and in truth faithfully spoken.
Tradition and Practice
The inherited narratives situate the Gaels within both mythic and scriptural lineages. These are here resolved into one system, and held in continuity.
Accordingly, the Grove maintains certain traditional forms:
the study and sounding of the Ogham,
the observance of the seasonal festivals (Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Llughnasaidh, Mabon), and ecclesiastical (Christmas\Yuletide, Easter, The bapstism of Christ, the annuciation to Mary, arrival of the Sangral with Joseph of Arimathea)
and the cultivation of the Bardic, Brehon and Filid arts.
Ceremonial practice (deas-ghnàth) follows the turning of the year as it is known in the North, adapted to the climate and ecology of this land.
Law, Custom, and Order
Continuity with Gaelic custom is expressed in symbolic and practical ways:
through the recitation of triads,
the observance of hospitality and right-conduct,
and the use of discernment in the spirit of the breitheamh traditions.
Within the Grove, the titles druid, bard, and judge are retained in their older sense, signifying functions of wisdom, poetry, and judgment, held in mutual relation.
All such practice is undertaken in accordance with the laws of Canada, within which the Grove operates as a spiritual and cultural body.
Of the Grove
The Grove remains open to those who love truth (gràdh na fìrinn) and who seek, in sincerity, to walk in harmony with th earth and it's cycles and in accordance with the old ways (Sean Nos) as they may be lived now.
Its rites and teachings may be expressed in Gaelic, English, French, or, where appropriate, in the languages of this land.
Thus, the work of the Grove includes the making of offerings (ìobairt), the tending of sacred spaces (nemeta), and the transmission of poetic and spiritual knowledge in forms suited to the present age.
A Closing Affirmation
Ard Nemeton na Tuatha may be regarded, in measured terms, as a forming expression of Druidic life in Canada:
rooted in Gaelic tradition,
open to the recognition of the sacred in Christ within the Tuath,
and made living upon this land.
Its life is not fixed, but ongoing—
guided by inherited wisdom,
shaped through practice,
and held in continuity with those who came before, and those who are to come, by thos of us here and now.
"We, The Gods will give you The land: but, since our hands have fashioned it, we will not leave it utterly. We will be in the white mist that clings to the mountains; we will be the quiet that broods on the lakes; we will be the joy-shout of the rivers; we will be the secret wisdom of the woods. Long after your Children have forgotten us, they will hear our music on sunny raths and see our great white horses lift their heads from the mountain-tarns and shake the night-dew from their crested manes: in the end they will know that all the beauty in the world comes back to us, and their battles are simply echoes of our own. Lift up your faces, Children of Milesius, Children of Beltu, Children of Scotta, and greet the land that is now in your care!" -Paraphrased from Ella Young, Celtic wonder tales
"And you, O Druids, now that the clash of battle is stilled,
once more have you returned to your barbarous ceremonies and to the savage usage of your holy rites.
To you alone it is given to know the truth about the gods
and deities of the sky, or else you alone are ignorant of this truth.
The innermost groves of far-off forests are you abodes.
And it is you who say that the shades of the dead seek not
the silent land of Erebus and the pale halls of Pluto;
rather, you tell us that the same spirit has a body again elsewhere,
and that death, if what you sing is true, is but the mid-point of long life.
et uos barbaricos ritus moremque sinistrum
sacrorum, Dryadae, positis repetistis ab armis.
solis nosse deos et caeli numina uobis
aut solis nescire datum; nemora alta remotis
incolitis lucis; uobis auctoribus umbrae
non tacitas Erebi sedes Ditisque profundi
pallida regna petunt: regit idem spiritus artus
orbe alio; longae, canitis si cognita, uitae
mors media est." -Lucan, Pharsalia 1.450-8
"The Druids usually hold aloof from war, and do not pay war-taxes with the rest; they are excused from military services and exempt from all liabilities. Tempted by these great rewards, many young men assemble of their own motion to receive their training; many are sent by parents and relatives. Report says that in the schools of the Druids they learn by heart a great number of verses, and therefore some persons remain twenty years under training. And they do not think it proper to commit these utterances to writing, although in almost all other matters, and in their public and private accounts, they make use of Greek letters. I believe that they adopted the practice for two reasons – that they do not wish the discipline to become common property, for those who learn the discipline to rely on writing and so neglect the cultivation of the memory; and, in fact, it does not usually happen that the assistance of writing tends to relax the diligence of the student and action of the memory. The cardinal doctrine which they seek to teach is that souls do not die, but after death pass from one to another; and this belief, as the fear of death is thereby cast aside, they hold to be the greatest incentive to valor. Besides this, they have many discussions as touching the stars and their movement, the size of the universe and of the earth, the order of nature, the strength and the powers of the immortal gods, and hand down their lore to the young men.
Druides a bello abesse consuerunt neque tributa una cum reliquis pendunt; militiae vacationem omniumque rerum habent immunitatem. Tantis excitati praemiis et sua sponte multi in disciplinam conveniunt et a parentibus propinquisque mittuntur. Magnum ibi numerum versuum ediscere dicuntur. Itaque annos nonnulli vicenos in disciplina permanent. Neque fas esse existimant ea litteris mandare, cum in reliquis fere rebus, publicis privatisque rationibus Graecis litteris utantur. Id mihi duabus de causis instituisse videntur, quod neque in vulgum disciplinam efferri velint neque eos, qui discunt, litteris confisos minus memoriae studere: quod fere plerisque accidit, ut praesidio litterarum diligentiam in perdiscendo ac memoriam remittant. In primis hoc volunt persuadere, non interire animas, sed ab aliis post mortem transire ad alios, atque hoc maxime ad virtutem excitari putant metu mortis neglecto. Multa praeterea de sideribus atque eorum motu, de mundi ac terrarum magnitudine, de rerum natura, de deorum immortalium vi ac potestate disputant et iuventuti tradunt." -Caesar, De Bello Gallico, 6.14
"The Persians, I think, have men called Magi…, the Egyptians, their priests…, and the Indians, their Brahmins. On the other hand, the Celts have men called Druids, who concern themselves with divination and all branches of wisdom. And without their advice even kings dared not resolve upon nor execute any plan, so that in truth it was they who ruled, while the kings, who sat on golden thrones and fared sumptuously in their palaces, became mere ministers of the Druids’ will.
Πέρσαι μὲν οἶμαι τοὺς καλουμένους παρʼ αὐτοῖς μάγους . . . Αἰγύπτιοι δὲ τοὺς ἱερέας . . . Ἰνδοὶ δὲ βραχμᾶνας . . . Κελτοὶ δὲ οὓς ὀνομάζουσι Δρυίδας, καὶ τούτους περὶ μαντικὴν ὄντας καὶ τὴν ἄλλην σοφίαν. ὧν ἄνευ τοῖς βασιλεῦσιν οὐδὲν ἐξῆν πράττειν οὐδὲ βουλεύεσθαι, ὥστε τὸ μὲν ἀληθὲς ἐκείνους ἄρχειν, τοὺς δὲ βασιλέας αὐτῶν ὑπηρέτας καὶ διακόνους γίγνεσθαι τῆς γνώμης ἐν θρόνοις χρυσοῖς καθημένους καὶ οἰκίας μεγάλας οἰκοῦντας καὶ πολυτελῶς εὐωχουμὲνους." -Dion Chrysostom, Orations 49
1. Three particular ones: one Source; one truth; and one point of liberty; and to know those threes will bring to Saorse.
2. Three particular twos: the two sexes of living beings, namely, male and female; two principles, namely, good and evil; and the two heads of necessity, namely, beginning and end.
3. Three particular threes: the three characteristics of order, number, weight, and measure; the three bodily perceptions, seeing, hearing, and feeling; and the three principal faculties of the intellect, to love, to hate, and to judge.
4. Three particular fours: the four parts of the world and measure, east, south, north, and west; the four points of the sun, namely, the winter solstice, the vernal equinox, the summer solstice, and the autumnal equinox; and the four properties of form, namely, round, triangular, square, and flat.
5. Three particular fives: the five felicities of life, namely, health, liberty, love, welcome, and respect; the five columns of justice, fear, courage, hatred, love, and truth; and the five constituents of matter, earth, water, air, fire, and heaven.