Magicians, wise men, teachers, healers, Gallic Druids still haunt our imagination. From Galicia to Scotland, Ireland to Britanny, the image of white-robed Druid is registered in the sapwood of oaks.

We all know the druid Panoramix. But Goscinny, the father of Asterix, does not show the sacred place that holds the druid in the Gallic life. He is both a teacher, priest, healer, or warrior chief strategist, and magician to boot. His wizard style makes him dangerous, his difference makes him fascinating. In the tale Táin Bó Cúailnge,Raid of Cooley cows the druid Cathbad causes the death of an envoy who spoke without permission, because "No one spoke before the king, but the king did not speak before his druid."

His teacher's fame earned him countless students from all over Europe.

In Gaul the Druids were also renowned universities, if not more,

than those of Egypt.

Many young Greeks came to study astronomy, natural sciences and mathematics, in oral tradition.

Therefore we have no textApart from rare funerary inscriptions in Ogham language drafted by the Gauls themselves, because the Druids disdained writing, convinced that the written word is dead. (source)Wikipédia

As in Koranic schools, the transmission of knowledge was oral and students knew by heart thousands of verses and natural laws. The only sources are in Latin, mainly the Gallic Wars of Julius Caesar. But Caesar is not trustworthy at all on the subject. For military and diplomatic reasons, he had to justify his massacres in the eyes of the senate, so he lowered the degree of civilization of the Gauls. There are also late sources, as the Welsh and Irish texts, dating from the Middle Ages, but reliable for some authors.

Since the Romans, including Pliny and Lucan, the mostpart of Historians have been thinking that the word Druid was associated with the oak,In Greek: δρυς, drus because of the Druidic rites on this tree. Philologists have established that the term, specifically Celtic, was present both in the text of Julius Caesar and in those of the Middle Ages, and came from "dru-wid-es" which means "very learned". We can add to this list that oak is said Derw in Breton; Dervo in Gallic; Daur, dar in Ireland. In Welsh, oak is said Derwies; and druid, Derwydd. (Note)This argument is flatly refuted by CJ. Guyonvarc'h and F. Le Roux, for whom there is no immediate possibility of linking the name to that of the Druids the oak. Free for them to believe.

We found this old latin description which, surprisingly, is not Caesar's : "Among all the Gallic peoples, without exception, are found three classes of men who are the subject of special honors, including the Bards, the Vates and the Druids: the Bards are sacred singers, the Vates are diviners who preside sacrifices and question nature, and finally the Druids, who, regardless of physiology or natural philosophy, profess ethics or moral philosophy." (source)Strabo, Geography, IV, 4. Over time, the three functions were unified.

These three functions represent the three polesGo to Eternelle trinité of shamanic societies: the art of sacred song for the Bard, the gift of vision for the Vate, and the power to initiate for the Druid. "Ideally, all power is linked to druids and authority of divine knowledge. The king is a noble a mandate of management time on the nobility and the working classes who share the social duties: protecting and respectively meeting the needs of all. " (source)Claude Sterckx, Mythologie du monde celtique, page 54, Marabout, Paris, 2009 

Being healers and teachers, the Celtic Druids were also initiators. They baptised young people on sacred fountains, as the Fontaine de Barenton in Dark Forest.Go to page "The Tuatha Dé DanaanOr Danann. People of the Goddess Dana, or Danu - the gods of Ireland. See page have a god-doctor Diancecht who is an expert in magic and medicine, he heals and restores the wounded, he makes a prosthesis to King Nuada who had his arm torn off, he raises the dead by immersing in the Fountain of Health. Epics are full of these cures, where plants, incantations and potions are used. " (source)Wikipedia

The Celts worshiped many gods, yet the Great Goddess, Belisama,Dana or Danu for the Tuatha, Isis for the Egyptian, Kwang-Ling for the Chinese … dominated the Druidic teaching.

Yet a new religion was growing on ...

From the 3rd century AD, the rise of Christianity gave back the old religion of the Mother Goddess, Belisama yet firmly established among the Celts.

LegendGo to L'or pur des contes says that Merlin, who lived in the 6th century,Go to Merlin le visiteur both pagan and Christian, was the last druid and the first bishop. 

However until the 11th centuryGo to Le printemps des cathédrales and even until the Renaissance, that is to say the 15th century, and even later, there is evidence that the Druids were still practicing their noble art. The priests and bishops sniff in these practices strong smell of sulfur.

Then the druids were hiding.

They did not really want to finish on the pyre of the Holy Inquisition!

Close to the cathedral of Chartres, a curious sign sways in front of a restaurant. It shows a sow that spins.In French: La truie qui file.

This sign is not uncommon, it is found everywhere in France. A nice Breton legend says that a girl would be changed into a sow to escape rape. More serious is the version of Fulcanelli.Go to the next paragraph He said the sow means the druid by homophony.Same type of sound. In French, a sow is "truie" and a druid is "druide", quite similar indeed And if it spins,In French: file it means the druid is a healer too. In the Irish tradition, the filePlural: Filid is a soothsayer who lays his hands. Thus at the sign of The Sow That Spins, only  the insiders familiar with the language of the birdsor Bird's tongue. In French, "la langue des oiseaux" is a secret language dating from the Middle Ages and based on homophony. Go to page knew they would find a druid healer.

By this trick, the druid could practice healing under the very nose of priests without risking the flame of the bundle. Now who is Fulcanelli? Under this name, appeared two booksThe Mystery Of The Cathedrals in 1926 and The Dwellings Of The Philosophers in 1930 dealing with the esoteric symbolism of alchemy. Legend says Fulcanelli would have come to realize the great work late in his life, that is to discover the secrets of eternal life and make Philosopher's stone -that gives control of life and matter-  before disappearing mysteriously.

Legend also says that before leaving, the master alchemist would have left somewhere a legacy of exceptional importance.

By virtue of a very druidic magic called alchemy, Fulcanelli would have given life to an everlasting creature, as immortal as the old Gepetto's famous wooden puppet …