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The Gods are those great souls, who animate the whole body of nature

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"The Gauls affirm that they are all descended from a common father, Dis, and say that this is the tradition of the Druids.

Galli se omnes ab Dite patre prognatos praedicant idque ab druidibus proditum dicunt."  -Caesar, De Bello Gallico, 6.18

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Ultimately this is an adaptation of Iolo Morgannwyg's work (call it forgery if you will), it is the oldest and most complete "Theology" we have from the "Celtic" tribes of that time, hence it's inclusion. It is being edited for a Canadian audience and application. It is also being uni-linguistically presented and reformed to fit a a Q-Gaelic dialect for it's use in Scoto-Irish-Canadian (Ui Nial) practice. Here's a Welsh- Gaelic- English Glossary to help with the adjustment: 

 

Aedh =God =Dewy= Hu  (Dis Pater)

 

Siorach =Infinity =Ceugant 

 

Saoirse = Liberty =Gwynvyd ("Heaven")

 

Adharta = Progression = Abred (the middle/Material world)

 

Neamhni =Void/ Nothingness = Annwyn 

 

Donn = Bad/Dark/ Brown = Awrann 

 

Imbas = "Spirit" = Awen 

 

Iolo Morgannwg's 30 point synopsis of Druid doctrine : 

 

1) All animated beings originate in the lowest point of existence; they rise in its scale until they arrive at the highest state of happiness that finite beings may experience  

 

2) All states below the human state are evil, but there is no 'culpability' in this domain: here fate reigns.  

 

3) All beings rise from the condition of animals to the human state, and then they attain to 'some degree of negative goodness'.  

 

4) Every being fills its allotted place in creation  

 

5) In the human state, the balance of good and evil produces liberty: the will is now free to exercise itself.  

 

6) Here, a being has the power of 'coacting with the deity'.  

 

7) All states above the human are good; having attained to one of these, a being cannot relapse.  

 

8) An evil person falls, after their death into an animal state of existence [which] corresponds with the turpitude of their Imbas (soul)'. Eternal misery, however, is incompatible with the attributes of Aedh(God).  

 

9) Finite beings cannot comprehend infinity, therefore Aedh 'manifests itself to finite comprehensions as a finite being, such as in the person of Jesus, Gautama, Churchill, ect'.  

 

10) The ultimate states of happiness permit ' delightful renovations in endless succession', for a finite being cannot 'endure the taedium of eternity'.  

 

11) Memory exists in the lower states  

 

12) In the higher states mankind remembers their past  

 

13) Knowledge can only be gained by experience  

 

14) Knowledge of the higher states is communicated by celestial beings: Bardism always owes its origin to divine communication.  

 

15) Beasts of prey are instruments of divine benevolence: They expedite the passage of Imbas (souls).  

 

16) It is meritorious to die for truth, justice, and virtue.  

 

17) A criminal should voluntarily give themselves up for execution.  

 

18) The sacrifice of animals hastens their progress to the human state.  

 

19) No inferior being should destroy another except to save its own life  

 

20) Every act conducts to ultimate good: the victim of injustice is compensated for their suffering.  

 

21) Fortitude is the greatest of virtues.  

 

22) Pride is 'the utmost degree of uman depravity'.  

 

23) The soul is an inconceivably minute particle of the most refined matter.  

 

24) From a perfect knowledge of the causes of evil, liberty ensues.  

 

25) Humanity's is the 'state of probation' (Adharta)  

 

26) Creation is still in its infancy.  

 

27) When recognized as such evil is hated; 'but being in itself possible it will, with all other possibilities, eternally exist in its abstract principles'.  

 

28) All states of existence, when purged of evil, will remain 'as beautiful varieties in the creation'.  

 

29) They may then be occupied by 'celetials', when they will all be equally honorable.  

 

30) The infallible rule of duty' is 'not to do or desire anything, but what can eternally be done...in the celestial states.' The good of one being must not arise from the misery of another.  

 

  

 

First examination  

 

(Aedh, the Gaelic word for eternity, is herein utilized to represent the self-conscious aspect of eternity in place of 'God' a Germanic epithet for Odin/Eochaid/Dagda)  

 

This is the Druidism of the Bards of the Dominion of Canada, with their opinion respecting God (Aedh) and all living beings of whatsoever grade or kind they may be. it is rudimentally taught as follows:--  

 

Q: What is God (Aedh)?  

 

A: What cannot be otherwise.  

 

Q: Why can it not be otherwise  

 

A: Could it be otherwise, we should have no knowledge of any animation, being, existence, or futurity, in respect to anything now know to us.  

 

Q: What is God (Aedh)?  

 

A: Complete and perfect life, and the total annihilation of everything inanimate and death, nor can any species of mortality concur with it. In God (Aedh) is life, full, entire, imperishable, and without end.  

 

2) Aedh is perfect life, which cannot be limited or confined, and, in virtue of its proper essence, is possessed of perfect knowledge, in respect of sight, sufferance, and intention,, having its origin in itself, without communion with anything else whatsoever, and wholly free from all participation in 'evil' (Anamat).  

 

3) Aedh is absolute good (Mat), in that it totally annihilates all 'evil', and there cannot be in it the least particle of the nature of 'evil'.  

 

4) Aedh is absolute power, in that it totally annihilates inability, nor can power and will in it be restrained, since it is almighty, and all-good.  

 

5) Aedh is absolute wisdom and knowledge, in that it totally annihilates ignorance, and folly; and therefore no event can by any chance happen, which it knows not of. And in view of these qualities and properties no being or animation can be conceived or contemplated other than coming from Aedh, except natural evil, which annihilates all life and goodness.  

 

6) What would totally annihilate and reject Aedh and life, and therein all goodness is absolute and natural evil; which is thus in complete opposition, and of a contrary nature, and essence to Aedh, life, and goodness.  

 

7) And by means of this direction, may be seen two things existing of necessity, namely: the living and the dead; good (Mat) and evil (Anamat); Aedh and Donn, and darkness in darkness, and powerless inability.  

 

8) Donn is destitute of life and intention--a thing of necessity, not of will, without being or life, in respect of existence and personality; but vacant in reference to what is vacant, dead in reference to what is dead, and nothing in reference to what is nothing. Whereas Aedh is good with reference to what is good, is fullness in reference to fullness, life in life, all in all, and light in light.  

 

9) And from what has been said, it may be seen that there can be no existence of original nature but Aedh and Donn, The dead and living, nothing and occurrence, issue from what is issueless, and existence from mutual union.  

 

10) Aedh mercifully, out of love and pity, uniting itself with the lifeless, that is the evil (Anamat), with the intention of subduing it unto life, imparted the existence of vitality to animated beings, and thus did life lay hold of the dead, whence intellectual animations and vitality first sprang. And intellectual existences and animations began in the depth of Neamhni (the void/ Annwn), for there is the lowest and least grade, and it cannot but be that there and in that state intellectual life first began, for it cannot be otherwise than that the least and lowest grade of everything should be the original and primordial one. The greatest cannot exist in an intellectual existence before the least; there can be no intellectual existence without gradation, and in respect of gradation there cannot but be a beginning, a middle, and an end or extremity,-- first, augmentation, and ultimate or conclusion. Thus may be seen that there is to every intellectual existence a necessary gradation, which necessarily begins at the lowest grade, progressing from thence incessantly along every addition, intervention, increase, growth in age, and completion, unto conclusion and extremity,, where it rests forever from pure necessity, for there cannot be any thing further or higher or better in respect of gradation and Adharta (Abred).  

 

11) All intellectual existences partake of Mat and Anamat (good and evil), and that, more or less, according to their degree in Adharta, from the dead in the depth of neamhni, to the living in the extremity of goodness and power, even so far as would not be at all possible for Aedh to conduct them further.  

 

12) Animations in neamhni are partakers of life and goodness in the lowest possible degree, and of death and evil in the highest degree that is possibly compatible with life and personal identity. Therefore, they are necessarily evil, because of the preponderance of evil over the good; and scarcely do they live and exist; and their duration and life are necessarily short, whilst by means of dissolution and death they are removed gradually to a higher degree, where they receive an accumulation of life and goodness, and thus they progress from grade to grade, nearer and nearer to the extremity of life and goodness, Aedh, out of its merciful affection for animated beings, preparing the ways along Adharta, out of pure love to them, until they arrive at the state and point of Human existence, where goodness and evil equiponderate, neither weighing down the other. From this spring liberty and choice and elective power in humanity, so that they can perform whichever they like of any two things, as of good and evil; and thus it is seen that the state of humanity is a state of probation and instruction, where the good and evil equiponderate, and animated beings are left to their own will and pleasure.  

 

13) In every state and point of Adharta that is below humanity, all living beings are necessarily evil, and necessarily bound to evil, from utter want of will and power, notwithstanding all the exertion put forth, which vary according as they are situate in Adharta, wether the point be high or low. On this account Aedh does not hate or punish them, but loves and cherishes them, because they cannot be otherwise, and because they are under obligation, and have no will and choice, and whatever the amount of evil may be, they cannot help it, because it is from obligation, and not willingly,that they are in this condition.  

 

14) After having arrived at the point of humanity in Adharta, where evil and good equiponderate, mankind is free from all obligation, because goodness and wickedness do not press one upon the other, nor does either of them preponderate over the other. Therefore, the state of mankind is a state of will and freedom and ability, where every act is one of project and selection, consent and choice, and not of obligation and dislike, necessity and inability. On this account mankind is a living being capable of judgment, and judgment will be given upon them and their acts, for they will be good or bad according to their works, since whatever they do they could do differently; therefore it is right that they should receive punishment or reward as their works require.  

 

  

 

Second examination  

 

Q: Prithee, who art thou? And tell me thy history.  

 

A: I am a Wo/Man by virtue of the will of the Gods, and the necessary consequence that follows, for what the Gods will must be.  

 

Q: Whence did thou proceed? And what Is thy beginning?  

 

A: I came from the great world having my beginning in Neamhni. 

 

Q: Where art thou now? and how camest thou to where thou art? 

 

A:I am in the little world, whither I came, having traversed the circle of Adharta, and am now a Wo/Man at its termination and extreme limits. 

 

Q: What wert thou before thou didst become a wo/man in the circle of Adharta? 

 

A: I was in Neamhni the least possible that was capable of life, and the nearest possible the absolute death , and I came in every form, and through every form capable of a body and life, to the state of wo/man along the circle of Adharta, where my condition was severe during the age of ages, ever since I was parted in Neamhni from the dead, by the gift of Ardh, and his (its) great generosity, and his (its) unlimited and endless love.  

 

Q: Through how many forms didst thou come? And what happened unto thee? 

 

A: Through every form capable of life, in water, in earth, and in air. And there happened unto me every se-verity, every hardship, every evil and every suffering, and but little was the good and soairse before I became a wo/man. 

 

Q: Thou hast said, that it was in virtue  Aedh's love thou earnst through all these, and didst see and experience all these; tell me how can this take place through the love of Aedh? And how many were the signs of the want of love during thy migration in Adharta?  

 

A: Saoirse cannot be obtained without seeing and knowing every thing, but it is not possible to see and know every thing without suffering every thing. And there can be no full and perfect love that does not produce those things which are necessary to lead to the knowledge that causes Saoirse, for there can be no Saoirse without the complete knowledge of every form of existence, and of every evil (anamat) and good (mat). And this knowledge cannot be obtained without experience in every form f life, in every incident, in every suffering, in every anamat and in every mat, so that they may be respectively known one from the other. All this is necessary before there can be perfect love of Aedh, and there must be perfect love of Aedh before there can be Saoirse. 

 

Q: Why are the things, which thou hast mentioned, necessary before there can be Saoirse? 

 

A: Because there can be no Saoirse without prevailing over evil and death, and every opposition and Donnadh (From Don: Cythraul), and they cannot be prevailed over without knowing their species, nature, power, operations, place, and time, and every form and every kind of existence which they have, so that all about them may be know, and that they may be avoided, and that wherever they are they may be opposed, counteracted, and overcome, and that we may be cured of them, and restored from under their effect. And where there is this perfect knowledge, there is perfect liberty, and evil and death cannot be renounced and overcome but where there is perfect liberty; and there can be no Saoirse but with Aedh in perfect liberty, and it is in perfect liberty that the circle of Saoirse exists.  

 

Q: Why may not perfect knowledge be obtained, without passing through every form of life in Adharta? 

 

A: On this account, because there are no two forms alike, an every form has a use, a suffering, a knowledge, an intelligence, a Saoirse, a quality, an operation, and an impulse, the like and complete uniformity of which cannot be had in any other form of existence. And as there is a special knowledge in each form of existence which cannot be had in another, it is necessary that we should go through every form of existence, before we can acquire every form and species of knowledge and understanding and consequently renounce all evil, and attach ourselves to every Saoirse. 

 

Q: How many forms of existence are there? and what is the use of them? 

 

A: As many as Aedh saw necessary towards the investigation and knowledge of every species and quality in good and evil, that there might be nothing, capable of being known and conceived by Aedh, without being experienced, and consequently known. And in whatsoever thing there may be a knowledge of good and evil, and of the nature of life and death, there is a form of existence which corresponds with the attainment of the knowledge required. Therefore, the number of the kinds and modes of forms of existence is the sum that could conceive and understand with a view to perfect goodness, knowledge, and Saoirse. And Aedh caused that every living and animate being should pass through every form and species of existence endued with life, so that in the end every living and animate being might have perfect knowledge, life, and Saoirse; and all this from the perfect love of Aedh, which in virtue of its Divine nature it could not exhibit towards Humanity and every living being. 

 

Q: Art thou of opinion that every living being shall attain to the circle of Saoirse at last? 

 

A: That is my opinion, for less could not have happened from the infinite love of Aedh, Aedh being able to cause, knowing the manner how to cause, and continually willing every thing to exist that can be conceived and sought in Its own love, and in the desire of every animation whilst opposed to evil and death. 

 

Q: When will this condition happen to every living being, and in what manner will occur the end of life in Adharta? 

 

A: Every living and animate being shall traverse the circle of Adharta from the depth of Neamhni, that is, the extreme limits of what is low in every existence endued with life; and they shall ascend higher and higher in the order and gradation of life, until they become human,, and there can be an end to the life of Adharta by union with the goodness. And in death they shall pass to the circle of Saoirse, and the Adharta of necessity will end for ever. And there will be no migrating through every form of existence after that except in right of liberty and choice united with Saoirse, with a view to re-experience, and re-seek knowledge. And this will remain for ever, as a variation and novation of Saoirse, so that no one can fall into Siorach, and thence into Adharta; for Aedh alone can endure and traverse the circle of Siorach. By this it is seen that there is no Saoirse without mutual communication, and the renewal of proof, experience, and knowledge, for it is in knowledge that life and Saoirse consist. 

 

Q: Shall every person, when they die, go to the circle of Saoirse? 

 

A: No one shall at death go to Saoirse, except those who shall attach themselves in life, whilst human, to goodness and godliness, and to every act of wisdom, justice, and love. And when these qualities preponderate over their opposites, namely folly, injustice, and uncharitableness, and all evil 

 

 and  ungodliness, the person, when they die, shall go to Saoirse, that is heaven, from whence they will no more fall, because good is stronger than evil of every kind, and life subdues death, prevailing over it for ever. And they shall ascend nearer and nearer to perfect Saoirse, until they are at it's extreme limits, where they will abide for ever and eternally. But the person who does not thus attach themselves to godliness, shall fall in Adharta to a corresponding form and species of existence of the same nature as itself, whence they shall return to the state of humanity as before. And then, according 

 

as their attachment may be to either the godliness or ungodliness shall they ascend to Saoirse, or fall in Adharta, when they die. And thus shall they fall for ever, until they seek godliness and attach themselves to it, when there will be an end to the Adharta of necessity, and to every necessary suffering of evil and death.