National Geographic : Druids Committed Human Sacrifice and Canabalism?

[jmdrake]

I'm posting this in response to the idea recently being pushed on this subforum that somehow there's no such thing as ritualistic killing among pagan nature worshipping religious and that all the crazy stuff must come from African Christians or other groups. Note I'm not saying that most modern Druids are like this, though given the law of averages you'll probably find at least one bat guano crazy nutjob in the group. But the archeological evidence is clear. The Druids were in general pretty brutal. It's bad when your savagery is shocking to someone like Julius Caesar.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...nnibalism.html
Druids Committed Human Sacrifice, Cannibalism?
James Owen in London
for National Geographic News
March 20, 2009
ON TV Secrets of the Druids airs Saturday, March 28, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel. Details >>

Recent evidence that Druids possibly committed cannibalism and ritual human sacrifice—perhaps on a massive scale—add weight to ancient Roman accounts of Druidic savagery, archaeologists say.

Picture of Lindow Man, a possible Celtic sacrifice of the Druids
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PHOTOS: Modern Celts (From National Geographic Magazine)
After a first century B.C. visit to Britain, the Romans came back with horrific stories about these high-ranking priests of the Celts, who had spread throughout much of Europe over a roughly 2,000-year period.

Julius Caesar, who led the first Roman landing in 55 B.C., said the native Celts "believe that the gods delight in the slaughter of prisoners and criminals, and when the supply of captives runs short, they sacrifice even the innocent."

First-century historian Pliny the Elder went further, suggesting the Celts practiced ritual cannibalism, eating their enemies' flesh as a source of spiritual and physical strength.

But with only the Romans' word to go on—the ancient Celts left no written record of their own—it's been easy for historians to dismiss such tales as wartime propaganda.

Until now, that is.

Gruesome Druid Discoveries

Recent gruesome finds appear to confirm the Romans' accounts, according to Secrets of the Druids, a new documentary airing Saturday on the U.S. National Geographic Channel.

[moostraks]

Yep, some of that history on Druids from what I have seen is very dark. If you think that the point I was making with my posts has to do with ritualistic killings not existing in any faith path, you are mistaken. Look at the backgrounds of the people involved in my posts. Witch hunts are just another form of ritualistic murder. Psychopaths exist in each age, and care not what banner they use, and will drag the good people down with them when they choose to associate under a title pushing selective portions of the beliefs for their personal agenda.

The article on the 80s was very interesting to me because it shows just how recently psychology and police were used in much the same manner as Salem. We fancy ourselves so much more enlightened now.

The term witch or witchcraft is just the catch all term used for he who is outside the group, and does not follow that the person is a follower of a pagan or nature faith. They may be Hindu, or children, or mentally ill, or ex spouses, the neighbor one despises, a previous employer, the rich, the poor, they can be anyone one can seize the dark side of our humanity to plant seeds about being "different" and thus possessed and when someone can properly incite a few good "friends", well history shows up just what happens.

[pcosmar]

Yep, some of that history on Druids from what I have seen is very dark. If you think that the point I was making with my posts has to do with ritualistic killings not existing in any faith path, you are mistaken. Look at the backgrounds of the people involved in my posts. Witch hunts are just another form of ritualistic murder. Psychopaths exist in each age, and care not what banner they use, and will drag the good people down with them when they choose to associate under a title pushing selective portions of the beliefs for their personal agenda.

The article on the 80s was very interesting to me because it shows just how recently psychology and police were used in much the same manner as Salem. We fancy ourselves so much more enlightened now.

The term witch or witchcraft is just the catch all term used for he who is outside the group, and does not follow that the person is a follower of a pagan or nature faith. They may be Hindu, or children, or mentally ill, or ex spouses, the neighbor one despises, a previous employer, the rich, the poor, they can be anyone one can seize the dark side of our humanity to plant seeds about being "different" and thus possessed and when someone can properly incite a few good "friends", well history shows up just what happens.

Very interesting when you look at the State as a religion.

Almost nothing is known about druids. Almost all is conjecture.
And the druids in Warcraft are quite nice. till you cross them..

[moostraks]

Very interesting when you look at the State as a religion.

Almost nothing is known about druids. Almost all is conjecture.
And the druids in Warcraft are quite nice. till you cross them..

And that is a good point to make regarding how much conjecture goes on with such small data available from some societies. Yet, we often find as new historical finds become available history gets rewritten but long after the damage of earlier "facts" which have been ingrained as truth.

[Working Poor]

[fisharmor]

Almost nothing is known about druids. Almost all is conjecture.

Exactly. This is the $#@!tiest of the $#@!ty archaeology out there.

What we DO know about celtic societies from all around the surrounding areas, and also the local customs in Brittain after it was Christianized, is that they had legal systems which were not dependent on rulers. They were systems that valued property rights and even protected women's legal equality at a time when no other cultures really did.

Our concepts of individual rights don't come from Roman roots. They survived Rome's attemt to take them away and put mankind in the gilded cages we are so familiar with.

So when these dipshits show up and talk about ONE bog body and ONE cracked bone, and ignore all the other conflicting bog bodies and bones, I gotta wonder what the ulterior motive is here.

It's equally likely (moreso, I would argue) that Lindow man was caught collaborating with the Romans, and the locals decided to mess him up good.

[erowe1]

..