Celtic Sacrifices

I wanted to bring this topic back to the top.... Since we are begining a discussion on the druids.. I thought this might be of interest as well

I just read a german report about bog bodies and they believe the Lindow man to be a High Priest

REALLY!!!!!?????

Can you post a link that?

can you read german? I'll get the link in a moment

found one http://www.freenet.de/freenet/wissenschaft...rleiche/03.html

This part says that new evidence says that the man seems to be a high ranking priest. Scientists still think he was sacrificed.

I actually have just been doing some reading in this area of interest....

The Lindow man is believed to be celtic. At this time the Picts were almost exclusively in Scotland. The (Roman) Britons were still dealing with these Pictish neighbors and would be warring with them up until the building of Hadrian's wall in 122 AD.

His death is pretty much secured as sacrificial because of a few key points of forensic evidence.
1)They found no defensive wounds or anything indicitive of a struggle. Even if they had bound him with either shackles or rope, marks would have remained on his wrists which scientists have analyzed closely.
2)Despite his face being slightly distorted by the weight of the peat bog, forensic scientists have been able to discern his facial features circa death. No traces or shock or pain have been found....in fact his expression was that of complete peace at the time of death.

Hope this helps...

Cheers

Here is something I stumbled on... Interesting...Gordion, Turkey celtic sacrifices

Here is a small bit I found on the wicker man-


looking for more....

Every year at Beltane, before the crops were planted and the weather was just turning to Spring, the Celts - and before them the pagans - would turn their thoughts to preparing the ground for the year's crop. Today, farmers use chemical fertilizers to promote plant growth, but hundreds of years ago they used natural fertilizers such as manure or potash.

The Wickerman was an important part of the Beltane fertility ritual, but for reasons that will become evident, it was not very well publicized. As a result, the Wickerman ritual has become steeped in speculation and myth fuelled in part by the now famous movie of the same name.

The Wickerman consisted of an effigy built from waddle (twigs, debris, corn husks, dried plant matter or anything flammable) supported by the frame of a wooden cross. At Beltane, the Celts would burn the Wickerman in an elaborate night ceremony, gather up the potash it left behind and spread the fertilizer( pot ash) on their fields.

According to folklorist MacIain MacDonald, in olden times the Wickerman ritual was accompanied by human sacrifice.

In those days, the community or the chief would arbitrarily decide who was going to be the sacrificial Wickerman for that year. Usually it would be outcasts, criminals, the so called "village idiot", or any other undesirable whom they felt they could lose without cost. Then the villagers would get together and build a large Wickerman effigy, lure the person into the frame - because the victim had to come willingly - and set it on fire. The larger the effigy, the more potash it would create and the greater the intended benefits for all.

The ancient Celts didn't always burn human beings inside the Wickerman, but for the ritual to be done properly a living thing should be sacrificed. The practise of using humans for Beltane Wickerman rituals died out centuries ago, but smaller Wickermans are still burned in a few Celtic enclaves where its practitioners may sacrifice a small animal such as a chicken.





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