Crusade Against the Grail - Rennes-le-Chateau Research and ...

66 PART TWO
We must keep this in mind when, in our considerations, we speak of dualist
Manichaeism and its Western variant Catharism. Were the Cathars Druids who
were converted to Christianity by Manichaeist missionaries?
The Druids engaged themselves with theological, philosophical, juridical, and
pedagogical problems. The superior of each local caste was called "good-father."
In the Pyrenees, as in Ireland, Druidism managed to survive for a long time against
the unstoppable advance of Christianity. It was not so easy to penetrate into
isolated regions where the native peoples, under the influence of their own priests,
clung to their traditions.
The votes were astrologers, soothsayers, and medical doctors. For their time,
they had a profound knowledge of astrology. Many marvelous tales were told of
their methods for curing illnesses.
The bards were poets and cantors. They were also called privairds (in
Provencal, trobere; in English, troubadour or inventor). In religious ceremonies
and palace festivities, they accompanied the songs of the gods and heroes with the
chrotta, a type of harp. They found copious material for their mythological epochal
poems in Druidic theories of salvation.
So it is that the Druids were not solely the keepers of dualist mysteries—
mysteries that we can only guess at, because they were transmitted orally from
teacher to student. Like the oligarchy of princes and nobles, they constituted a
closed hierarchy that included both the vates and bards. 6
The word "druid" has three meanings: the first is "Seeing-thinker" or tro-hid.
The second meaning is "Wiseman" or magician. The third, which is the best
known and probably the most correct, comes from the Greek drys or the Gallic
drou, which means "oak."
From the Septentrion to the Indus, the oak was the sacred tree, linked to all the
myths and cults that were close to nature. An oak was an object of special
veneration in Dodona, in the north of Greece. The will of God was interpreted
from the rustling of its leaves and the trickling of the holy well that sprang from its
roots.
When the Argonauts left in search of the Golden Fleece, which they would
find hanging from an oak, they put a piece of wood from the sacred tree of Dodona
on the bow of their ship.
The druidic oak and the medlar tree, whose fruits were gathered by the Druids
during ceremonies, are referred to so frequently that we will examine them again.