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FOREWORD

‘A People of the Sea’

There has always been a strange mystique surrounding the Celts, regarding the origins of their race. The ancient Egyptians had referred to them as Kheftiu, ‘a people of the sea’, and they were identified with a confederacy of Cretan mariners-turned-pirates long before ancient Crete’s Minoan Empire was finally destroyed in about 1100 BC. This confederacy, or alliance, included the kinsfolk of the peoples who overran this ancient Bronze Age civilization; among them were the fierce Shardana and Danauna – the reputed ancestors of the Celts. They were later employed as mercenaries in the Pharaoh’s army and had no scruples about fighting their own Aegean kinsmen, who called them the ‘Keltoi’.

This name is believed to be the same title that the Celts used to refer to themselves in order to distinguish one another from the many thousands of displaced peoples seeking new homes in the Aegean, Asia Minor, Phoenicia and Egypt due to the ongoing invasions from Syria. This was a time when a great intermingling of bloodlines and different religious beliefs and cultures took place. Though the Celtic languages belong to a branch of the Indo-European languages, there is a North African origin found in the surviving Celtic languages preserved in their syntax or grammatical arrangement of words. There are four groups of North African languages: Egyptian, Berber, Cushitic and Chadic, with the Celtic syntax being especially related to the Egyptian. While this confirms a cultural link between the ancient Celts and Egyptians there could be another explanation.

According to Robert Graves, a Greek scholar, the Celts’ ancestors were Pelasgian, a pre-Hellenic matriarchal people who occupied mainland Greece and the Aegean isles long before the patriarchal tribes, known as the Achaeans, invaded Greece from the northern region. Pelasgian is a term used by historians when referring to all pre-Hellenic Neolithic people who came originally from Libya by way of Palestine in about 3500 BC. These people were believed to have founded Athens and Delos, and the Crete Minoan Empire, but they adopted the name Danaans after founding Argos in around 1750 BC. A few centuries later the Egyptians referred to them as the Danuana. Both names, meaning ‘the children of Dana or Danu’, came about because they worshipped a great Mother goddess called Dana.

The Greek connection is further amplified in the writings of the sixth-century Greek historian, Hecateus, who was apparently fascinated by the Celts and wrote about them in some detail. He also referred to them as the Keltoi and said they were a people who occupied the lands north of Massilia (southern France) and along the Danube and the furthermost Western Isles across the sea from Gaul beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar). While naming the northern European Celtic tribes such as the Galatians and Helvetii who occupied France and Switzerland, he referred to the Celts who lived in the Western Isles as Hyperboreans, for they occupied a land where the North Wind resided, the name being synonymous.

The land of the Hyperboreans was the reputed birth place of Apollo’s mother, Leda, who became immortalized in Greek myth as ‘The Cygnus’ or the White Swan constellation. More importantly, he mentions that these people had an ancient kinship with the Athenians and Delian (Delos) Greeks. This Greek connection reveals an ancient kinship with the Celts and endorses the astrological link associated with Greek and Celtic archetypal gods, who also represented astronomical principles.

This factor may explain the Celtic alliance with Alexander when he pursued his dreams of conquest into Persia and Egypt. They held his western borders against the Etruscans and Phoenicians who were ancient enemies of the Greeks and Celts.

The migration of the Celts from the ancient world had obviously taken many different routes over a long period of time. The Hallstatt period, which derives its name from a burial site in Austria dated 770 BC, is a geographical checkpoint in the history of Celtic culture. A Celtic warrior was found there, buried in a Chinese silk tunic and adorned with a flower garland. From his remains he was over six feet tall and of strong build; his warrior status was reflected in the rich burial finery, which included a fine iron sword with a gold hilt and superb bronze horse bridle. The decorations, while reminiscent of Mycenaean and Persian art, were early examples of skilled Celtic smiths, whose designs were less formal and epitomized the free spirit of the Celts and their affinity with nature.

Similar burial sites have been found in Denmark, Bohemia and across the Alpine countries to the Balkans. A large number are the graves of Celtic princesses who were buried with the same elaborate care and adorned with exquisite jewellery reflecting their equal status in Celtic society. The Hallstatt period marks the spread of Celtic settlements right across Europe and confirms their emergence as an embryonic nation whilst other races maintained tribal boundaries and alliances within their own countries. These Celts can claim to be the first Europeans. The Assyrians were known to have employed Celtic or Keltoi mercenaries in their armies and this factor may be related to the funerary relics found at Hallstatt. Assyria was an ancient kingdom in north Mesopotamia and had an empire stretching from Egypt to the Persian Gulf, reaching its greatest extent between 721 and 633 BC. While these Celts evolved their culture along the upper reaches of the River Danube, spreading into Europe over land, there were equally ancient Celtic settlements at Massilia, now the port of Marseilles.

A further migration route into Europe is marked by other Celts known as the Milesians who took the coastal route, stopping off in southern France and northern Spain before finally settling in Ireland in about 1000 BC and spreading into the British Isles. The Danaan people, their remote ancestors, had, however, preceded them in reaching the Western Isles between 1450 and 1500 BC, having stopped off in Denmark and founded settlements there. Both can also claim their more ancient title as ‘the people of the sea’.

Celtic place names and artefacts have been found as far away as India, Indo-China and Japan. The link with India and its ancient Vedic religion is particularly significant regarding the Celtic belief in reincarnation or the transference of the soul into another physical body. The Vedic religion was said to have been introduced into India by the Aryans who first settled in the Indus river tributaries of northern India. It is known that the Aryans were tall, fair-skinned blondes and their arrival from the west is dated between 1500 and 1000 BC, which corresponds with the dispersal of the Danaans and other Aegean people during the Syrian invasions. Other sources put it at an earlier date.

The Vedic religion greatly evolved during this period from a belief in nature gods to a belief in different manifestations of the ‘One’ who was finally called Brahman. As a religious belief system known as Brahmanism, its devotees could win a place in paradise by means of moral behaviour and offerings to their three male gods, Vishnu, Shiva and Krishna who each had their own female consort. The search for the highest knowledge was the knowledge of Brahman, which entailed many reincarnations of the soul. It closely resembles the same druidic belief that the soul journeyed through many different lifetimes seeking enlightenment so it could be finally released from its earthbound existence. Though there were cultural differences, the Celtic and the Brahman social structures both operated through a warrior-class aristocracy. There is also an interesting comparative note regarding the migration route of the Celts.

Vedic mystics believed that the Earth itself is surrounded by its own Prana which relates to the magnetic field, but also forms the etheric substance surrounding the Sun which relays it to Earth through rays of light as spiritual teachings. Ether is a hypothetical medium believed to fill all space and support the electromagnetic waves surrounding Earth. The Vedics believed that through this flowing and integrated substance all the planets move around the Sun. These channels of energy were known as ‘Tattvic Tides’ and are attributed to the axial movement of the Earth as it moves around the Sun causing currents to flow from east to west. The druids called them ‘Wouivres’ or invisible wandering dragon energies that flowed through the surface of the Earth and crossed at special places and formed map references for their migrations.

Today they are known as leylines and many books have been written on this subject. The Aboriginal people of Australia still walk their dream paths or ancient song-lines to honour the spirit of the land, a ritual originated by their nomad ancestors who trekked across vast deserts without the aid of a compass.

When the Celts migrated to Europe, they may have been following a similar map reference because they maintained a steady north-westerly direction towards the Western Isles which they believed was the home of their gods. They also retained this eastern philosophy and religion and it remained uniquely Celtic because it was never adopted by other early Europeans, including the Greeks and Romans.

The Vedic poems of Rama were collected by Valmiki, a figure almost as shadowy as Homer. One of the epic poems relating to the Goddess Sita during her years of lonely exile is not unlike Homer’s epic Iliad. Sita also resembles the Egyptian Isis and Vedic mythology has parallel versions in Egyptian, Greek and Mesopotamian myths – as well as Celtic.

The following introductory chapter reveals how the Celtic priests or druids absorbed a great deal of astronomical knowledge and religious belief during their many travels around the ancient world, upon which they founded their lunar zodiac and its eightfold calendar year.

INTRODUCTION

Two Schools of Astronomy
EGYPTIAN AND MESOPOTAMIAN GODS

There were two schools of astronomy operating and evolving in ancient Egypt, which was really a battle for supremacy between a solar or lunar year calendar that synchronized with a star map or zodiac. This division of thought was basically an attempt at solving the mystery of whether life and natural phenomena had a male or female origin. It was also a fundamental issue regarding an accurate seasonal reference for agricultural purposes. Their astronomical observations later formed the basis of druidic starlore and its associated religious beliefs that centred upon the eight-fold druidic year and a thirteen-lunar-sign zodiac.

The early Egyptian astronomer priests had been integrating their astronomy and religious beliefs with a Mesopotamian source since around 5400 BC. Mesopotamia was a neighbouring region of south-west Asia centred on the middle reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and reckoned by archaeologists to be the site of several of the most ancient civilizations – the Sumerians, Babylonians, Chaldeans and Assyrians. Prior to this date, around 6400 BC, Egypt was invaded by a race of people coming from the south who were Moon and tree worshippers of Osiris, Thoth and Knonsu, with the exception of a Sun god called Chnemu. They found a population worshipping Ra and Atmu, who were Sun gods identified with the rising and setting Sun.

The southern invaders brought with them a lunar year of 360 days and, though Osiris remains a Moon god, the axis of their temples determined the Sun’s place at the Autumnal Equinox and the start of their New Year. This factor suggests the invading people from the south came from a country below the equator where the seasons are reversed – central or southern Africa. The Mesopotamian people who invaded Egypt in around 5400 BC came from the north-east, Red Sea area and founded temples at Redisieh and Denderah. Others appeared to have come over the land isthmus and founded temples at Annu and introduced the worship of Anu and the divine dynasty of Set.

Their temples were aligned with Draco, the Dragon constellation, and their religious beliefs were also associated with Ursa Major (the Great Bear) and the northern star Capella – all circumpolar stars. The Egyptians at that time believed that circumpolar stars represented the powers of darkness associated with the Underworld Kingdom of the Dead, for they were always visible at night and never appeared at sunrise. Astronomically speaking, circumpolar stars never rise and set, but can move around the celestial pole during the precession of the equinoxes, which is basically what the ancient Egyptians were observing at this time.

The evolving Osiris and Set myth corresponds with the displacement of Ursa Major by Draco, which the early Egyptians had always referred to as ‘the Mother of Time’ because it was their earliest observation of a group of stars that appeared to have a fixed position in the sky. Osiris therefore became displaced for a time, having been mythically murdered by Set, but around 5000 BC his son, the hawk-headed god Horus arrived in Egypt from the south to avenge his father. Horus killed Set and the northern people were defeated, but the southern people by then had become Sun worshippers, in that Osiris became both a Sun and Moon god.

The cult of Set was retained, with Anubis (Anu) the son of Osiris in charge of the Underworld Kingdom. Set is known as the dark twin or brother of Osiris, and their wives, Nepthys and Isis, are also twin sisters, representing the dark and light phases of the Moon. Anubis is the son of Osiris and Nepthys, and Horus is the son of Osiris and Isis. This appears to be an incestuous relationship, but as a divine family they each represent various aspects and cycles of the waxing (increasing) and waning (decreasing) light of the Sun and Moon. The Winter Solstice and the northern star Capella came to mark the rebirth of Osiris as a Sun god.

The astronomically based myth of Osiris and Isis is a prime myth which has many parallels around the world. In Celtic myths, the original legend of King Arthur and Guinevere was also based upon the same astronomical principles. Arthur was primarily a Sun king who was identified with Ursa Major, the Great Bear, and the powers of darkness which he battled against were identified with Draco, the Dragon constellation. Capella marks the northern and southern horizons and it held a special place in Egyptian and druidic starlore because it marked the return or rebirth of the Sun at the Winter Solstice and its death or descent at the Summer Solstice.

Egyptian astronomy and its associated religious beliefs continued to evolve and another invasion from Babylon took place in around 3700 BC. The Babylonian priests worshipped a Sun god as well as Anu, and the axis of their temples determined the Sun’s place at the vernal or Spring Equinox, and the start of the New Year. This period coincides with the building of pyramids, which are orientated east to west. Temple building began on a much larger scale as the blending of southern and northern cults was reconciled at Thebes, or modern-day Luxor. Osiris was identified with the Spring Equinox as a Sun god and Isis with the Autumnal Equinox as a Moon goddess. King Arthur and Queen Guinevere were also associated with the same astronomical positions and archetypal gods.

The year 3200 BC marks the rise and worship of Amon-Ra, King of the gods, whose name means ‘The Hidden One’, for he concealed his name and soul. The Celtic god Celi, whose name means ‘concealing’, closely resembles Amon-Ra, who was associated with the golden realm of Amenti, the land of the Dead, which the druids referred to as Annwn. Both of these realms were aligned to the western horizon, the place of the setting Sun. From this time onwards temples built in Egypt were aligned to all four points of the orbital relationship of the Sun with earth; the solstices and the equinoxes.

There were also galleries orientated to both southern and northern constellations as well as adjacent temples to the Moon. The Egyptians retained their lunar calendar of 360 days that was divided into twelve months of thirty days each with five extra days now added for religious festivals and agricultural rites. Their New Year now began at the Summer Solstice, which coincided with the heliacal or rising of the Sun with Sirius (Sothos) and the seasonal rising of the Nile.

This lunar calendar of 365 days, however, did not take into account the extra quarter day, which meant it lost one whole day every four years. Though this defect was eventually corrected over a period of time it did cause havoc regarding their chronological record of the early dynasties. Nevertheless, their lunar calendar was imported into pre-Hellenic Greece and then Rome where it was mathematically adjusted to the exact duration of the solar year and it became a Sun calendar and Sun zodiac, which is still in use today.

Druidic Eight-fold Year and Lunar Zodiac

The people who introduced the Anu priesthood into Egypt are believed to have come either from north Babylon or from the race who invaded this area at the same time. Archaeologists have no explanation regarding the meteoric rise of culture among the indigenous population and it appears that this phenomenon cannot be traced to another civilization at that time. This has led some writers of ancient mysteries to believe the Anu priests were survivors of the lost world of Atlantis, but it remains a fascinating though controversial theory. However, the Sumerian civilization was the first to emerge around 4000 BC and a record of the Anu priesthood, which had found its way to Egypt, is referred to in a much earlier Sumerian creation myth.

This myth was eventually inscribed in cuneiform symbols on clay tablets and dated around 3500 BC. It refers to the arrival of great sages, ‘the Great Sons of Anu’ who had descended from the sky and instructed the Sumerians in all the arts and sciences, in agriculture, medicine and law. Sumerian omen tablets known as the ‘Enuma Anu Enlil’, dated around 1646 BC, refer to this golden age and to the god Anu and the planet Venus. They were preserved in the library of an Assyrian king and are the oldest astrological records known to exist anywhere in the world.

Druidic Eight-fold Year

The planet Venus was also associated with the Babylonian Love goddess Ishtar who overshadowed all other goddesses in the process of time as did Isis in Egypt. Ishtar was also referred to as Anu, the daughter of the sky and Nannar, the daughter of the Moon. Her eight-pointed star emblem referring to the eight-year cycle of Venus was found carved on an ancient Babylonian boundary stone and, though dated about 1120 BC, it is believed to represent a much earlier period in Babylonian history.

As an astral symbol it represents harmony and balance relating to eight points of the year that correspond to the four seasons, two equinoxes and two solstices, and it is the origin of the eight-fold year of the druids. During the Celts’ many travels around the ancient world it becomes increasingly apparent that they had absorbed a great deal of Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Greek knowledge of astronomy with its associated starlore myths. The Celts had always used a lunar calendar and zodiac similar to the early Egyptian one, but it was based on thirteen lunar months of twenty-eight days with one extra intercalary day known as ‘the Nameless Day’, making 365 days. They also knew about the extra quarter day that meant adding an extra day every four years, which they were able to accurately calculate by using the numerous old stone circles they discovered on arriving in Britain and Ireland.

Druidism, the religion of all Celtic people, began to rapidly evolve in Britain with Stonehenge representing a central crossroads of Sun and Moon worship in the northern hemisphere. Its early structure of about 3200 BC was built around the same time as the new temple buildings at Thebes in Egypt, which represented a blending of their Sun and Moon cults. Stonehenge also evolved as a solar/lunar astronomical temple for both worship and cultural reconciliation. It was known to the druids as ‘Cathoir Ghall’ or ‘Cor-Gawr’, the root word Cor being synonymous with Gorsedd or a throne, and Awr signifying a time-circle or recorder. The first priesthood associated with Stonehenge were worshippers of the ‘Cult of the Dead’, which closely resembles the ancient Egyptian cult of Osiris and Set. When the Celts arrived, while familiar with the ritual lunar year which records the birth and death of Sun kings and gods, they were perhaps somewhat in awe of this ancient priesthood.

In the Celtic myths of Pwyll and King Arawn, the newcomer Pwyll has to undergo the initiation rites of Arawn in order to become the supreme ruler of both kingdoms – the living and the dead, or the upper and lower realms. It is a parallel account of the joining of the upper and lower kingdoms situated north and south of the Nile in Egypt. As Pwyll successfully completes his initiation it would appear to suggest that the druids were accepted into the ancient megalithic priesthood, whose belief in life after death was a more primitive form of reincarnation, which formed the foundation stone in druidic beliefs.

The eight-fold druidic year was based on the two solstices and two equinoxes and the four seasons represented by four fire festivals marking the four quarter days of the Moon. The fire festivals of Brigantia, Beltane, Lammas and Samhain were celebrated on the first day of the months of February, May, August and November. The first three were identified with their triple-aspected great Mother goddess. She was the Bride or Maiden known as Brigantia or Brighid in February marking spring and the Mother Dana or Ceridwen at Beltane marking summer. Lammas or Lughnasa marked autumn, when she entered her Earth realm to be reborn in spring. Samhain marked the period of winter and was identified with Pwyll, God of the Underworld, who would regenerate the Sun god so he could be reborn at the Winter Solstice. Samhain also marked the beginning of the Celtic New Year because the Celts calculated a day from sunset to sunrise, and their New Year accordingly began at the darkest time of the year.

The thirteen lunar months marked the passage of the Sun through the cycles of the Moon, and Celtic Moon signs represent the two dimensions of light and darkness. When comparing the two zodiacs, the disadvantage of the Greek/Roman Sun zodiac is its failure to be a perpetual calendar like the Celtic lunar zodiac, which makes no attempt to relate the equinoxes and solstices to the twelve zodiac constellations. The thirteen-month lunar calendar and zodiac is more ancient than the twelve-month version and is less easy to handle with the equinoxes and solstices falling at irregular intervals. The druids, however, obviously preferred a ritual calendar and zodiac that represented an exact guide to the seasons as well as a guide to the stars and Creation itself.