text: It has long been thought that the word
  ‘Druid’ probably came from the Greek
  drops, which means ‘oak’, therefore
  suggesting that the Druids would be the priests
  of the god or gods identified with the oak tree.
  However, it may also be derived from the word
  vid, meaning ‘to know’, which would lead one
  to believe that the Druids were considered to be
  the wise ones of the community.
  The History of the Druids
  While Druids are mentioned frequently in
  ancient scripts, little is truly known of their way
  of life because their traditions were principally
  oral and yet secret. In their society they were
  accepted as the teachers of moral philosophy and science; public and private disputes were
  referred to them for arbitration. Their authority
  was as much social as religious and they enjoyed many privileges, including in Gaul –
  though not in Ireland – exemption from
  military service and the payment of taxes.
  Many received great honors.
  There were three principal classes of Druids:
  bards, prophets, and priests, although religious
  teachers, judges, and civil administrators would
  often also be Druids. They were adept at
  understanding the movement of the planets,
  the mysterious powers of plants and animals
  , and the art of natural magic. It is for this last
  reason that they could be considered the wise ones – that is, knowing nature
  herself. They regarded the oak tree and the
  mistletoe, especially when the latter grew on oak trees, with great awe, and usually held
  their rituals in oak forests. These rituals seem
  also to have been associated with stone circles
  and other natural groves. The Druids were
  often assisted by female prophets or sorcerers
  who did not always enjoy the same powers and privileges.
  From evidence unearthed in modern times, it
  is thought that Celtic Druids may have been the linear descendants of the megalithic builders of
  the late Neolithic and Bronze Age periods in Europe. The Druids were also educators, particularly of the nobility, and it is almost
  certain that Merlin in the story of King Arthur, rather than being just a magician, was also a
  Druid. Their instruction was very wide-ranging
  and far-reaching. One component was the
  learning by heart of a large quantity of verse,
  which presumably meant that their memories
  were honed at the same time as they learned the traditions of their calling and their community. When the Druidic tradition died
  out in approximately the 1st to 3rd centuries
  CE, largely as a result of ferocious Roman
  oppression, their store of bardic sacred songs, prayers, rules of divination, and magic was lost.
  Much of the information we have today comes
  from translations made at a much later date,
  often as late as the 13th century.
  Julius Caesar noted that the Gauls held a
  tradition that Druids were of British origin. He
  had made as extensive a study as he could of the latters’ doctrine and concluded that the principal point was that the soul did not die
  and that after death it passed from one body into another. Some Greek writers are said to have believed that the Druids had borrowed
  this idea from the philosopher Pythagoras or one of his disciples.
  Certainly, the Druids had a philosophy, but it
  is more than likely that the belief in the
  continuation of life arose as much from observation of the cyclical pattern of nature as
  from anything else. They do not appear to have
  feared death, regarding it simply as a transition
  stage in the immortality of the soul. Indeed,
  they sometimes seemed to have welcomed
  death – particularly if it was a courageous one
  – to the puzzlement of those who struggled to