Slide 2: Most of what we know about the ancient Celtic people in history, come from observances of classical Greek

and Roman writers, as well as from archaeological evidences such as from the possessions of dead in burial sites and from shrines found throughout central and western Europe, as well as from the British Isles.

Slide 3: In ancient Gaul, the druidical order was divided into three groups: druidae, vates or uatis, and bardi. Likewise, Ireland had similar classes, and they were called druidh, filidh and baird. However, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish one group from another, because the druids are required to learn all skills.
As a priest, the druid was responsible for performing sacrifices. Sometimes, the druids would perform human sacrifices. The druids were the priests who would communicate with the gods on behalf of the Celtic people. In the Irish and Welsh texts, the druids were seen as teachers, healers, seers and wizards, but not as priests. Unlike the Gallic druids, they didn't pray to any god nor did they ever perform sacrifice. With the Irish myths, the druids were more like sorcerers than priests.

Slide 4: According to the classical writers, these druids would butcher a man, to foretell the future. How they bled and observing their convulsions of their victim's limbs can tell them about the future, or at least read or interpret omens. Modern scholars are dubious of some of the accounts of the classical writers on ritual sacrifices, who were probably political motivated to record such events, as a mean of propaganda, to stamp out the druids. Slide 5: They were often known for their wisdom as well as for their poetry. Slide 6: The Gaullish druid was a mediator between the mortals and gods; they stand between worlds, and in the case of Irish and Welsh myths, between the otherworld and mortal planes. The druids derived part of their magic powers and their divinations from the Otherworld.

There were no temples built for the Celtic gods in the pre-Roman conquest. Shrines and sanctuaries were found outdoor at sacred groves or near sacred lakes. Sacrifices, human and animal, took places at these sacred sites. Icons made of either of wood or stone, were stored in the shrines, along with sacred, precious artefacts. Hauls of silver and gold were deposited into the holy lakes and rivers.
Slide 7: These sacrifices were performed to appease the gods, for people suffering from famine or disease. Another purpose for the sacrifice is when a tribe is engage in a war.

Usually the sacrificial victims were criminals or slaves, but the druids would sacrifice innocent, if there were shortage of criminals.

Slide9: Like shaman or medicine man, the druids made charms and talisman to ward off evil spirits.

As physicians and healers, the druids gathered herbs and poultice. Pliny the Elder (AD 29-79), philosopher and natural scientist, wrote that druids held the mistletoe and oak trees (genus Quercus) as sacred. The mistletoe were rarely found on oak trees. The druids would cultivate mistletoes with great ceremony on the sixth day of the moon. They always used golden sickle to carefully cut the mistletoes, and gathered them in white cloak. It was said that mistletoe contained special properties that would cure all illness and diseases. It was said to be antidote to all poison, and impart fecundity to barren cattle. However, in the medieval Irish literatures, it was ash trees, often called rowan and quicken trees (genus Sorbus aucuparia), and the yew trees (genusTaxus) that were sacred. They contained magical properties. Also sacred were the apple trees (genus Pyrus malus) and the hazel (genus Corylus). In ancient Gaul and Britain there are many artefacts showing strange creatures. One wondered if they are gods or human transforming into some sort of creatures, through shiftchanging or metamorphosis? Gods transformed into creatures, trees or rocks are abundance in Greek and Roman literature, but no such records are kept by the ancient Celts.

Slide10: Some of the skills were not so much as innate abilities but interpretation of the signs, such as in astrology or the flight of birds (auspices).
Some divinations, such as haruspicy, required cutting open the belly of animal and observing their entrails, similar to those performed by the Etruscan priests, which the Romans adopted. There other forms divinations. One of them called teinm lada, involved chewing and chanting. The Fenian hero Finn Mac Cumhall had the strange ability where he can gain knowledge or foresight, just by sticking his thumb in his mouth and chewing it. The third form, called dchetal do chennaib, which required incantation. Divination probably required contact or close promxity with a person or object. Part of divination come from interpretation of event.
Slide 17: Iarbonl was known as the Soothsayer or the Prophet. Slide 18: Druidesses or sorceresses. Slide 19: A druid or seer.