With the crippling blow dealt to Druid society imposed by Saint Patrick, backed by the military support of the Romans under the Constantine dynasty, a vast and intricate structure of knowledge and spiritualist foundation was virtually destroyed. Druids of Ireland, Britain and France were virtually incapacitated.

No war had been declared upon the Druids, as war is not a very Christian concept, yet Patrick justified his efforts to "drive the snakes out", as he called Druids, and he used all means to trample and to starve the Druids, enforced with Roman military occupation. Later fairy tales, told by Christians and Roman officers, spread salacious (and false) stories about how Patrick had "single-handedly cast out many a Druid" by "vaporizing spells with prayer."

There is no confirmation, and no historical evidence, to suggest that the Druids even attempted to use spells against Patrick. Druids, in their long studies of telepathy, knew that the hardest subject of clairvoyant magic was to focus upon a closed mind, a profile of which Patrick undoubtedly fit, and Druids certainly knew the futility of arguing with an unmoving stone.

It is more likely the Druids attempted to reason with Patrick, at the very least to determine the source of conflict and to attempt a resolution. Patrick did not want a resolution; he wanted annihilation. This may be due in part to the legend that Patrick had been kidnapped into slavery at some point in his life, and supposedly escaped with the help of Divine intervention through dream-messages - something the Druids were supposed to be famous for, but Patrick apparently felt his messages were more reliable.

It is possible, as well, that Patrick somehow blamed the Druids for his capture and enslavement. Not knowing his enemies, he must have picked those who appeared the greatest threat to his belief-system, that which was probably ravaged as a consequence of being enslaved. It is also possible that Patrick was clinically, and functionally, insane.

It has been said that saints and madmen are compatible in their delusions. With the drama and internecine affairs going on in Rome at the time, it would have suited the military, and the clergy, to honor Patrick in order to effectively sanction the extermination of Druids, and quell resistance by the elite of the Learned.

One lunatic is as good as another when all one needs is a shield to present in the Light acts undertaken under cover of Darkness.

Treachery was a factor in the ruination of the great Druid culture; there were pagans not united with any clan or any culture, who acted as pirates of magic; disguised as solitaries, they would present themselves to various clans and beseech assistance, and would virtually "move in" with families for a time, would absorb whatever teaching, lore and resources were available, and then would move on to a different culture.

The true Druids who acted as solitary Wizards did not beg the assistance of other clans or cultures, but would give equal exchange of service if their Paths became entwined for a brief while. The Master Druids who chose to wander seldom spent more than three or four days with another clan or tribe, and did not seek to learn, but to teach, and to offer his/their services. These Druids would have had "references" had anyone asked, but the neo-pagans had no references, and when questioned, would demonstrate small spells of the most common (and lowest) form of Magic to prove his/their veracity.

It was the neo-pagans, disguised as Druids, who brought ruination to the entire culture, first by engaging in unholy acts such as sacrificial torture, necromancy, and demonstrations of destructive or violent magic. As Druids were well-respected by many individual tribes of various cultures, all an "outlaw" had to do was to wear a cloak, utter some mumbo-jumbo, and wave his arms and do some weird dance steps, and those not familiar with Druids would believe he was the real article.

Unfortunately, it was the Christians who were most deceived, and the honest ones would naturally have been horrified or disgusted at such acts - but were probably less offended and outraged than the real Druids would have been. Any outlaw who gained power by scaring people would have been marked by the Druids, and his activities curtailed by magic, or by physical restraint.

The vilest "punishment" the outlaw would have suffered would have been to be relentless subjugated to the teachings and attention of the Druids. An outlaw who was considered not "reformable" by Druidic patience and perseverance might find himself in the hands of a Norse clan friendly to Druids, where the outlaw might be given some education in manners, character, and respect.

Druids were not a vengeful people. They did not learn vengefulness until Patrick showed them the way. Even then, the worst thing a Druid could do to punish someone was to abandon or ignore them. The worst epitaph a Druid could summon was, "Fix it by yourself."

The true "snakes" of Ireland were the psuedo-Druids who presented themselves in service to Rome, and offered to sabotage his countrymen and others by selling "secrets" to the Roman Empire. Since the Druids had few secrets, but only a great store of knowledge they willingly shared with anyone with the aptitude, character, and faculty to learn, this "secret" information was rather nebulous in its importance. The outlaws then found it more effective to paint elaborate pictures to describe the Druids as being the most heathen, law-defying, cavorting little demons known on this side of Hell.

Every now and then the little outlaw pagan would throw in a little trick of magic or illusion to make his words appear more powerful, in service to his new lord, and the lords would fall for this act, and believe that they had a secret "good luck wizard totem" to support their own grandiose ambitions for power and domination. As cut-throat as the Roman militaristic structure was, it is easy to understand why the Romans were anxious to have any assistance they could find - even in the form of a reformed heathen converted to Christianity, which by that time was the Law of the Roman Empire.

Following the destruction of the Druidic solidarity in Ireland and Britain, it remained for Druids to take drastic measures to protect themselves and their cultures, as well as their centuries-old accumulation of Knowledge and Wisdom. Certain clans of Eire, a region of Ireland, fled the country, and hitched a ride with their Viking friends and sailed for America, the dolphins leading the way.

Many Druids remained behind; some were killed, most likely those who dared to confront the Roman armies and to plead for mercy and understanding, and were beheaded, unceremoniously, for their efforts. Other Druids took it upon themselves to take to the hills, to hide materials associated with the Druids, and to bury any items that were not strictly "functional" in appearance, so that he could not be accused of insurrection or impiousness.

Other Druids, particularly those inland, chose to stick it out, and prepared to meet the Roman armies with their own magic, which tended to be most-closely associated with healing, and so gave their lives in attempts to set the Souls of the conquerors in motion, hoping their actions were not too late or futile, which they apparently were, as the Druids died trying to save the Souls of the Romans who chopped them down where they stood, or kneeled, begging for peace without weapon or defense.

Most Druids were not trained in self-defense, as they did not believe in violence; nor did they have any reason to expect it at the hands of Man, they thought. What they did know about self-defense was gleaned through survival, such as hitting a bear on the snout to get him out of your way, or throwing a stone at a wolf's hind leg to give the wolf something to think about, were as violent as Druids knew how to be. This "sticks and stones" defense system did not hold up against the Romans' swords and spears.

 

The Druids might have been able to survive if they had summoned their many friends of the Scandinavian regions. The Barbarians, so named by the Greeks because they could not read (Greek) and often went barefoot (because shoes were a luxury beyond their reach), would have been the first to aid the Druids. The Druids floundered in this respect; they were so unused, and so stymied by the very idea that Rome and its environs were accusing Druids of being heathens and anti-Christ that the Druids could barely believe what they were hearing.

The Druids, having absolutely no experience with conquest or territorial battle, did not even begin to consider their allies until it was too late. Indeed, the idea of war and conflict was so foreign to the Druids, that they preferred exile from a nation that would demand conquest, even in self-defense, that the Druids chose to abandon the land rather than fight for it.

The Druids that remained did so voluntarily; they simply could not leave the land they had loved from birth, many of whom had been raised through the Faith for generations, and knew no other heritage but that which his proud Druidic parents had instilled in him. The Druids who remained promised to keep the Faith, and to commit his efforts and vigilance to the eventual restoration of the Druidic lands, through defeat of the Roman Empire.

Before the Exile at the hands of Patrick, all Druids were One. They were not separated by magical specialty or knowledge; they were not separated through environmental locale, or distinctions of philosophy regarding the One Life. All Druids who specialized in one area of Lore rather than another might refer to Orders as specialization of scientific or spiritual exploration or experimentation. As Latin is often used to describe various families of butterflies, they might refer to a butterfly family, and the order of its subgenus or classification.

After the dispersal of the Druidic solidarity through! the British regions, solitary Druids would gather, and lacking the unity that child-rearing and socialization had provided, found they had cultural and neighborhood differences, and it became necessary for the Druids to unify categorizations simply for a point of reference. Thus, "Order of the Third Sun" might have something to do with all Druids who specialized in sun magic and consciousness, but was not a political or spiritual distinction. Druids could have established an "Order of the Third Knuckle of the Left Hand", and it would have been as equally meaningful, and meaningless, as Order of the Third Sun, since all Druids were ultimately focused on the One Truth, but labels simply helped lend clarity to distinction and purpose in a chaotic and confused land of isolated Druids.

The reign of nihilism that Patrick and Roman supporters exercised upon Druids probably extended directly between the period of 345 A.D. until about 360 A.D. By that time, the Druids as a nation were pretty well flattened, but there were enough angry Druids who survived who were determined not to let their legacy of sacredness and honor die with their own bodies. It was some comfort to know that during this period, the Barbarians had become apprised of the atrocities committed against Druids, as well as the discovery of the true purpose not being the annihilation of the Druids, but the eradication of the Norse culture by defeating the auxiliary arms of those Norse cultures. The Norsemen, versed in warfare and military strategy, and known to revile dishonorable warfare, took it upon themselves to return "fire for fire" against the Roman Empire, and thus become a united purpose of the heretofore disjointed Norse communities.

That is a story in itself, but is proof of the relationship and kinship between the small, dark-haired Celts, and the big, blonde Norsemen who championed their "little Wizards." History does not credit the Barbarians with being loyal to anyone but themselves, a fact that - like so many others - is a direct reflection and projection of Rome's own weaknesses, and is a direct condemnation to the mealy-mouthed Christians who were so enamored of their appearance of devotion to the One God that they never thought to ask themselves if "turning a blind eye" was, in itself, a "Christian act."

For a good two hundred years after Patrick's stains upon the land, the Druids crept and snuck around what was by then the British Empire, but was not allied or unified in any coherent way.

Arthur Pendragon, son of Uther, began to develop acclaim in the British Isles, and was primarily noted (politically) for his desire, intent, and authority to unite the various factions and Orders within the Empire. His own lineage as both a Druid and a Warrior made him an acceptable contestant to mastery of the public, and was respected by both the Learned and the Strong, who were by then fairly divided cultures within the realm, thanks again to the Romans.

It was Arthur's goal to unite all the disenfranchised units of both Druidic and Warrior clans in the hopes of establishing a stable society founded on the principle "Every man an equal." In Druidic terms, this would have been stated as, "One Self, and All One", meaning that all members were responsible for themselves, but that the Group could be united for a common cause, such as invasion, or providing for all in times of duress.

 

It was not Arthur's intention to be crowned King, but it served him in his efforts to unite the commonwealth, and to serve as a focal point of harmony and ideal. The true goal of Arthur was to establish this celestial balance between the societies of the British Isles, and once established, he could return the crown, not in renunciation, but as affirmation that all men were sufficiently balanced in education, training, and spiritual motivation to sustain the country without need of a central leader.

This idealistic pursuit was not effectively established in Arthur's time, and it remains the work of Free Peoples to seek and establish this ideal in times of Peace.

King Arthur's duration on Earth did at least resolve unification in the sense that Druids and Knights (Warriors of Honor) agreed to keep peace amongst themselves, and to work more or less harmoniously through the generations to follow. Arthur was never able to affect the total dissolution and eradication of false barriers of separation between cultures, but he was at least able to unify the separate groups and get them to agree to cooperate with mutual intent of Peace and Understanding.

This is where Druidism stands today; separated, segregated, and dis-harmonized. There is dispute where there ought to be no room for dispute; Right is Right, and ought to be abundantly clear. "Techniques of magic" or other "points of interest" ought to be something that any two Druids can quibble over with the enthusiasm of two mechanics debating the virtues of a 4-carb versus 6- carb system -- yet we find that there are Druids who tend to treat Druids of opposing or differing viewpoints as savagely as if they were Romans.

There must be a better way. The separation of Druids occurred because outsiders came in and divided the culture as neatly and cleanly as a hot knife going through butter. At the time of this division, the Mental Plane, which the Druids had worked so hard to establish, had the consistency of butter, so to speak.

The Mental Plane is quite a bit stronger now, and it is time for Druids to reintroduce themselves and to consolidate their Love, Wisdom, and Spiritual Harmony within that plane, to better serve themselves, to serve Humanity, and to serve the many devic kingdoms that have relied on Druidic consciousness, since the Beginning.