Cosmology
In religion, cosmology is, essentially, the study of the universe – how it is structured and how the various parts interact with each other to create a cohesive whole. In ADF, we have studied the ideas and beliefs of the Ancient Indo-Europeans and have found similarities which seem to occur across many of these cultures. These common ideas can be assembled into a coherent system that reflects the ideas of the ancients while providing us with the structure needed to create our Core Order of Ritual. While we cannot claim that all IE cultures shared all these ideas, we have found that they do fit in well in most IE Pagan cultural contexts.
The Druid Cosmos
ADF Druids view the Cosmos similarly to the way many of our Indo-European ancestors did. To summarize, the Cosmos contains elements of order and chaos, is divided into realms of Land, Sky, and Sea, and is populated with humans, animals, plants, and supernatural beings. You can read more about the ADF view of the Cosmos in Our Own Druidry: An Introduction to Ar nDraiocht Fein and the Druid Path. In the meantime, here’s a more detailed overview.
What is cosmology?
In religion, cosmology is, essentially, the study of the universe–how it is structured and how the various parts interact with each other to create a cohesive whole. In ADF, we have studied the ideas and beliefs of the ancient Indo-Europeans, and have found similarities which seem to occur across many of these cultures. These common ideas can be assembled into a coherent system that reflects the ideas of the ancients while providing us with the structure needed to create our Core Order of Ritual.
While we cannot claim that all IE cultures shared all these ideas, we have found that they do fit in well in most IE Pagan cultural contexts.
Chaos and Cosmos
To the ancient Proto-Indo-Europeans, the only part of their world that they could reasonably control was their own encampment, and perhaps the fields immediately around it where they kept their cattle. But out beyond those fields were unknown steppes or forested lands populated by wild animals, ghosts and hostile tribes.
This outer, terrifying land they called chaos. Cosmos, on the other hand, means order, and the cosmos of these early tribes consisted of those things they could rely on–such as their encampments, their warriors’ prowess, their cattle, the seasons and the great, annual dance of the stars across the sky as they circle the Pole Star.
Chaos is not always negative, for from outside the boundaries of Order come resources, and mysteries, and some of the inspiration and wisdom of the Gods.
In looking at the world around them, the ancients saw the tension between chaos and cosmos, and the opportunities and risks it offered. They created ritual to manage the relationship between the tribe and the ‘Other’ (those things outside the tribe), between the village and the wildwood, and between chaos and cosmos.
The Creation of the Universe
We do not know of one, single IE myth used by the ancients to explain the creation of the Universe. As the Indo-Europeans migrated across Asia and Europe, many of them were influenced by neighboring cultures, and these influences may have changed their original mythic beliefs. However, some diverse IE cultures share a similar creation myth that many scholars believe may reflect the original myth from Proto-Indo-European times.
In these ancient IE myths, first there were two beings, Man and his Twin (sometimes accompanied by a cow). Man sacrificed or slew Twin and used the parts of his body to create the universe as we know it. In some myths, Twin colonized the Underworld and became the first God of the Dead. Thus, the cosmos was established out of chaos, and the sacred was manifested there. This first sacrifice shows that, since the Worlds are all made of one being, there must be a basic kinship between all beings, and communication must be possible between the Worlds.
The Three Worlds
In general terms, the ancients saw the universe divided up into three Worlds that we use in ADF.
The Heavens (or Upperworld) is the place of order, where the Shining Ones dwell. The predictable dance of the stars around the Pole Star shows great order, and the bright, shining sky forever exists above the storms and clouds of the Midworld.
The Midworld is the world in which we live, the place of the Spirits of the Land and of life as we know it. And here also are the Otherworlds, the mythic/spiritual counterparts to our common world, existing unseen all around us. These are the homes of the greater land spirits, such as the Sidhe, the Tylwyth Teg, the Wights, and the Dryads, etc.
The Underworld is the shadowy land of the Dead and of the chthonic deities. Here, below the surface of the Midworld, the dead, or at least their bones, are buried, and this is where their spirits dwell. Death is a reminder that the wonderful order of life soon ends in the chaos of dissolution. But the Underworld is also a source of wonderful fertility, and especially of the inspiration that arises from the wisdom of the Dead. In some cultures, the Underworld is also seen as being islands across the western sea.
The Sacred Center of the Worlds
In ritual, we do as the Gods did by re-creating the creation of Cosmos and of the universe. In doing so, we also re-create the time and place of that first creation.
The Sacred Center is that place created in ritual where all the Worlds meet, and where a “portal” can be opened, allowing communication between these cosmic planes. In this place, we can be in all Worlds at once and in all times at once. Here, anything is possible.
In ADF worship, we do not seek to transport worshippers between the Worlds to celebrate our rites, rather we open a Gate between the Worlds.
The Triple Hallows
In order to re-create the sacred center of the Worlds, we need first to connect to those Worlds. In ritual, we bless the symbols of the Well, Fire & Tree (the Triple Hallows) in our ritual spaces to create gateways to these spiritual places. While the symbols of Well, Fire & Tree are the ones most commonly used in ADF (and Fire is required), there are some accepted cultural variations such as Pit/Fire/Portal, three Fires, etc.
Fire. The Fire is the ancient focus of ritual. It is the transmuter and transformer, which can take something, like oil or butter, and change it into something else, something possibly more accessible to the Gods. The Fire corresponds with the Shining Ones and Order, and serves as a connection to the world of the Heavens. The Fire is common to all IE cultures.
Well. The Well is an ancient place of offering. The ancient Celts used to offer weapons, precious objects and even household goods to water. The Well connects with the earth power beneath us, and with the fresh, ordered waters of the Earth. It corresponds with the Sacred Dead and with the chthonic deities, and is our connection to the Underworld. The Well can also be seen as a shaft, pit or chasm.
Tree. The Tree is the axis mundi or axis of the world. It is the cosmic pillar that holds up the sky and connects, through its roots, with the lands below our feet. Thus the Tree, while existing in the Midworld, connects all the Worlds above and below. It can be a tree, a mountain, an omphalos or even a pillar or boundary stone. But the Tree always stands at the center of ‘our’ world.
The Three Kindreds
All beings are the Children of the Mother, descended through the lines of countless Mothers and Fathers. As well as the many mortal kindreds, there are the countless tribes of Otherworld beings. The Druid will deal with, and make offerings to, many kinds of Spirits.
The Shining Ones
The Shining Ones are the eldest, mightiest and wisest of the beings in the Great Weaving. The First Mother and First Father, the Triple Kingship and the Goddesses of Sovereignty, Inspiration and Bounty; the powers of Love, Artisanry and Healing; the Child of light and Shadow; all are reflected in the many cultural pantheons of the Celtic peoples.
The Mighty Ones
The Mighty Ones are the Ancestors, those of our folk who are presently resting in the Land of the Dead. They watch over their descendants and lend their power to aid us. It is proper for every Druidic worshipper to honor her immediate ancestors, her Grandmothers and Grandfathers, as well as the Heroes, those great women and men who are honored by her folk.
The Noble Ones
The Noble Ones are the Spirits of non-human evolutions, both mortal and never-born. They are of a multitude of kinds. from small spirits of stone and herb and beast to the very Queen Under the Hill and Her Consort. Each has their own power and should be approached with respect, whether a simple herb-spirit or a mighty mountain.
Thus are the Three Kindreds. It is best to remember that these are not hard and fast categories. The greatest spirits may be reckoned God/desses, even though they come from other kins, while one folk’s Deity can be the Ancestor of another, etc. So let the Wise do honor to all the Spirits.
There are Nine Ways of the Druidic Cosmos. The Fire, the Well and the Tree define the Sacred Center, the vertical axis of Underworld, Middle World and the Heavens. Around this axis turn the Three Realms of Land, Sea and Sky and the Otherworlds of each.
Within these Realms the Three Kindreds follow their Fates.
Liminal Gods and Psychopomps
In ADF ritual, once we have re-created the Center of the Worlds and consecrated the Hallows, we call upon a special, liminal God or Goddess to ” join their magic with ours” so that we might open those gateways to the Three worlds that have taken form in our Hallows. We call these deities Gatekeepers.
Liminality is the condition of being neither one thing nor another. In the physical world, liminal objects can be boundaries of all kinds, such as walls, hedges, and sea shores or even a place like a crossroads, that is neither one road nor another, or both at once. Liminal times include dawn and dusk (neither day nor night) or even, for the Celts at least, the hinge days of Beltane and Samhain (neither summer nor winter). The veils between the Worlds are thinnest at liminal times and places.
Certain deities are particularly known for crossing the boundaries between the Worlds. Some carry folks into Faery, while others carry the dead to the Underworld or the Isles of the Blest. These latter deities are also called psychopomps.
*ghosti
This word, *ghosti, is a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European word that refers to “someone with whom one has reciprocal duties of hospitality.” The English words ‘guest’ and ‘host’ both come from *ghosti. Another way of putting this would be the saying, “I give that You may give,” and this concept underlies our entire religion. We give offerings to the Kindreds to form relationships with them, just as we would give of ourselves to our friends and family, to maintain close ties. In ancient days, folks would build friendship by the ritual exchange of gifts, and these ties could bind families for generations. And so we give to the Kindreds in expectation that They will give to us in return.
Sacrifice
Solar Cycles
In our time, the word ‘sacrifice’ has a negative connotation to some people, due to its use by the dominant religion to refer to its founder’s agonizing death by execution.
But the word comes from the Latin words sacer (sacred; to set apart) and facere (to make or to do). Thus its true meaning is “to make sacred, to set apart.” And this is just what we do when we make our offerings to the Kindreds. And when we make these offerings, we are ‘setting them apart’ from the profane world, making them appropriate for the Kindreds.
There are a number of reasons for making sacrifice:
- Reciprocity – I give so that You may give. This is one of the most common forms of sacrifice in ADF. We make offerings to the Kindreds in order to receive blessings or wisdom in return.
- Apotropaic offerings – Averting evil or bad luck. Here, the sacrificer makes an offering to say, in effect, “Take this and go”, rather than to form a relationship with that Power. The removal of any ritual pollution would also come under this heading.
- The Shared Meal – Here we take food and eat some while giving the rest to the Kindreds. This act enhances the unity of the People through celebration, and allows communion with the Kindreds.
- Maintaining the Cosmic Order – When we give offerings that the unity of the people be enhanced, or the earth may be healed and strengthened, we are re-affirming the cosmic order.
- Chaos Mitigates Cosmos – Too much order can cause brittleness.
Think of a tree that cannot bend in the wind, and therefore breaks. In our rites, we have Praise Offerings, which cannot be totally controlled. Spontaneity in prayers, actions and praise can keep a ritual from becoming lifeless.
