Druids and the Elements

Ancient Celtic cosmology does not use nor require elabourate correspondences of numbers, directions, elements, colours, and the like as is found in Western occultism. Some forms of modern Druidism do make use of some such correspondences, as well as others that are clearly not Celtic in origin, such as the four Heavenly Archangels (a idea from Cabbala and the Western magical tradition). Among the few magical numbers the ancient Druids did use, Three was usually more significant, for Celtic cosmology tended to organise the world in triads, and not even numbers or mutually-opposite dualities. It is three Goddesses whom the first mortal settlers of Ireland encounter, three Realms of land, sea, and sky that comprise the mortal world, three spirals that make the arms of the triskele.

The Druid's elements may have been eight or nine in number, of environmental rather than abstract nature, such as clouds, stars, oceans, and so forth. The Four Element cosmology comes from certain pre-Socratic philosophers in ancient Greece, including Pythagoras, (father of western occult numerology, among other things) and Anaxagoras. Adventurous Greeks and Romans may have compared this thought with the Celtic metaphysics they encountered. It is known, however, that Pythagoras was aware of Druidic thought, and may have travelled to the Celtic nations. Rather than four elements the Druids may have used three Realms, being the Land, the Sea, and the Sky, for it is on these Realms that the ancient Celts used to make oaths.

Celtic mysticism also includes at least one case of elemental dualism: fire and water. These are the opposing forces out of which are born the three realms, and all life. But as both fire and water have constructive and destructive qualities, it would be wrong to say that the fire and water represent good and evil, male or female, or some other pair of human qualities. They simply are two different kinds of divine force.

There is a strong case to be made that the Druids made use of four directions. The Well of Healing constructed by the Irish god Diancecht, to aid the gods in their battle against the Fomorians, required four operators (himself and his three children) and it is reasonable to presume that they stood in the four cardinal directions of north, east, south, and west, with the well in the middle. Ireland itself is divided into four territories, called provinces: Ulster in the north, Lenster in the east, Munster in the south, and Connaught in the west. At some point there was also a fifth province in the centre, called Meath, and it is in this province that the hill of Tara, seat of the high kings, was located. Many European ritual sanctuaries, such as Gournay-sur-Aronde in northern France (ancient Gaul), are constructed with solar and astronomical alignments that correspond to the same four cardinal directions, anchored by votive offering pits in the centre. So it would seem that the ritual "centre" "middle" or "between" place is central to old Druid magic, no matter what other number symbolism is being employed.

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