Druidic Sacrifices

The Celts make sacrifices to the gods, but these are essentially of gold and other precious objects. Then, in important occasions, such as a king’s investiture, an animal such as a white bull or fine horse would be sacrificed. On the other hand, and contrary to what some may pretend, human sacrifices are not a normal feature of druidism. In any case, a true religious sacrifice always requires a druid to perform, nobody else may do it properly.

The Quintessential druid
Author Robin O. Duke
Series The Quintessential Series
Publisher Mongoose Publishing
Publish date 2002

Ancient druids and human sacrifices. Contrary to a widespread and persistent belief, the druids did not perform human sacrifices (or only in exceptional circumstances). At least, there is no archeological evidence of such practices among the ancient druids, and certainly not in Ireland. In fact, this was essentially reported by classical authors. For example, Strabo described men shoot with arrows and impaled in a temple. However, the Celts didn’t use bows and arrows, of which they knew nothing! Then, Caesar who had to justify his conquest of Gaul, described evil murderous druids. However, the most recent archeological discoveries demonstrated that Romans were the ones who performed human sacrifices in conquered lands! There is otherwise the Lindow Man from 2nd century CE, which is similar to other “bogs corpses” found in Germanic and Norse regions. However, it seems that in fact the local population had mingled with Germanic immigrants and their religion had thus been altered, especially when you remember that Romans had already eradicated much of druidism at that epoch. Note lastly that another text stating human sacrifices is Christian Irish, written in Latin, and in praise of St Patrick (where so many people have been murdered in the name of Christianity…). Furthermore, no druid is mentioned in this text!

Here follows the different forms of sacrifices practiced by the Celts:

• Wealth: The most common form of sacrifice is that of wealth, in the form of gold, jewelry, and valuable armors and weapons. Such sacrifices are done by the druids on behalf of those asking for the gods’ blessings and who provide with the wealth to be sacrificed. Typically, this wealth is thrown into sacred wells and lakes during a ceremony that many people attend to.
• Animals: In some important ceremonies like the crowning of a king, animals will be sacrificed. This is always horses or cattle, never lesser livestock or wild animals. For example, for the crowning of a king, a typical ceremony involves the ritualistic sacrifice of a white mare which is then eaten, during a special feast, by the new king and his tribe.
• Evil Creatures: The burning of a creature of darkness in a Wicker Man during Beltaine brings protection to a community for a full year. This kind of sacrifice however, of course requires to have captured a supernatural and evil monster related to darkness.
• Oneself: In some very rare cases, a king or druid, will sacrifice himself to restore the balance. Typically, a tribe would suffer some disaster due to the king’s inability to fulfill his duties, or due to his inappropriate behavior. In such case, the king or druid accepts to be sacrificed to lift the curse that plagues his people and that he feels he is responsible for. Such sacrifices are performed in a very ritualistic ceremony where all of the tribe participates. Generally the king is ritually stabbed to death, then burned on a pyre.
• Criminals: The druids being not only priests, but also arbiters and judges, are called upon for most legal matters. Usually, all crimes, including murder, are not “punished” but compensated with a relevant fine paid by the criminal to those he wronged. However, there are some rare cases where the crime is so special or extreme, that the criminal will be put to death instead. In such cases the druid, as the judge, will oversee the execution which is held in a ritualistic form. However, this is by no way a sacrifice to the gods, and thus has no religious purposes.
• Prisoners of War: The Celts are sometimes known to sacrifice prisoners of war to the gods. This is not, however, a true druidic practice, and should rather be seen as an excuse for savagery. Such sacrifices are in fact always performed by servants of the goddess Morrigann. In doing this, they only truly want to encourage violence, cause more mayhem, and hope to bring more worshippers to the terrible goddess. But such bloody and evil practices have absolutely no religious value from a druidical point of view.