Celtic Triads

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Druidic wisdom comes to us in the form of Triads:   God is of necessity three things: the greatest part of life, the greateset part of science, and the greatest part of force; and of each thing there can be but one greatest part. Three things are continually increasing: fire, intelligence, and life; and these things will end by predominating over all others. Abred, the plane of material life and cyclic incarnation, will be destroyed. The three gifts of music: sleep, laughter, and tears. The Awen symbolizes in man the three Druidic virtues: courage, brotherhood, and selfless service. The higher wisdoms are essentially one. This the ancients well knew and more preceptive are the modern Druids. Dr. Inge's studies in Christian mysticism show this as clearly as do the experiences of non-Christian occultists. Clement of Alexandria testifies clearly that the venerable wisdom systems of this world were all given the same doctrines, whatever local variety of the rite: Prphic, Thracian, Osiriac, Isaic, Bacchic, Cabiric, Eleusinian, Adonaic, Mithraic, Essene, or Druidic. Of these systems the Druidic is what is mediated for the west, and in it our foundations of thought have been laid in the past. In this essentially Celtic system is always a sense of revelation, of ascension and manifestation that is imminent. Life is a tentative thing, a probation between the other worlds. Three phases necessary for every existence in the development of life: the beginning in Annwn (the creative abyss, or Other World), the transmigration in Abred, and the plenitude in the circle of Gwynfyd, or Heaven. Without each of these three things no one can have a complete existence except God who transcends them all. From three things man is compelled into Abred, although in all other things he may turn to good: By pride man falls into Annwn, by untruthfulness he goes even further down still, and by selfishness he decends to the farthest darkness and must strive towards manhood once again. As Druids we believe and teach the philosophy of reincarnation and immortality of the soul. In this it is believed that the soul is born into the womb upon earth (Abred), transmigrates, dies, and is reborn into the other world where it will rest until its rebirth into the womb on earth. The ancients mourned at both the birth and death of a family member. At birth they mourned for the death of the soul in the other world which gave life to the new soul on earth. Philostratus of Tyana (170-249 CE) observed correctly that the Celts celebrated birth with mourning for the death in the Otherworld, and regarded death with joy for the birth in the Otherworld. It is believed that the soul is reincarnated into the womb upon earth until it has experienced all that there is to experience in life and then it will go to rest with the creator in the Circle of Gwynfyd. With each incarnation the soul growing more spiritually complete. To experience all that there is to experience in life: this means to have been the abusor and the abused, the murdered and the murderer, the healthy and the sick, to have lived in wealth and then in poverty, ect.. This is not often something that people want to accept, but the world will always have these types of people and they are here to create balance. Every aspect of life must have a balancing counter part. Without both male and female, there could be no procreation for animal or plant alike; without positive and negative polarities, there would be no substance; without light there could only be darkness; on the same token, without evil there would be no good, and so on. This is partially why we are to remain impartial and not to judge those who we do not understand or agree with, due to the fact that everyone has a reason for existence and this includes those who are not socially or morally acceptable.

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