Brehan Law - The History - Everything Celtic

BREHAN LAW
(Brehon)

EVERYTHING CELTIC
THE DRUIDS

THE DREAM AND THE REALITY

4-17-2001

by Dee Finney

A man I was with took me outside to another building. We went in the door and up some stairs. He opened up a door and took me into a room that looked like a library. There were books all around in bookcases. In the center of one end of the room was a big grand piano and there was an older man behind it. He wasn't playing the piano, just sitting there.

On top of the piano, was about 100 boxes or books with a witchcraft symbol on it. (After I woke up I realized the doctor wasn't a doctor, he was a witchdoctor) I said kiddingly, "Oh! Reading material!" and giggled a little. The boxes were about 1/2 inch high and were 6 x 6 inches square. I was trying to think if they were Ouija boards or books of Shadows, but the gold symbol on the top was very outstanding.

4-17-01 - DREAM - I don't know where I was, but I was helping some people clean up a house. There was stuff laying all over the floors. I started at one end and cleaned as I went until I got to the other end, putting the clothing or keepable stuff on the couch, and throwing the rest away.

I then got the broom out and swept the floor until it was clean. There was an area like a hallway that was made out of redwood, and the more one swept, the more wood came off the beam, so I had to stop sweeping finally or there would have been no floor.

The men went outside and were cleaning rocks and stones and edging the property which had rather a moat-like corridor between us and the next property, held back with a stone wall.

On the other side of the property was a tiny summer-like cottage with screens for walls, and the people were complaining that they had told the person they could build a house on the property, but that wasn't what they had in mind.

I went back into the house and saw some stones in a pattern, which seems to me was like a 5 x 5 square. However, a small Irish man who couldn't have been more than 2 feet tall, picked up the stones because he heard someone say there would be no child. He took the stones outside and kept saying, "I'll call the child Brehan, Brehan, Brehan, Brehan, I'll call the child Brehan." That so disturbed me, that he was taking the child, I grabbed either the stones or the man who was now thimble size and held him between my fingers. He became as a child, a live person, whose name was going to be Brehan, and as I touched his little clothing, it kept changing and finally he was wearing a little soldier coat and hat and I heard a voice say, "and he shall have a little soldier smile."

Prehistoric religion, superstition and ritual evolved into the pagan religion and social laws developed by the Celtic Druids known as the Brehon Laws. This pagan religion was heavily entwined with nature, i.e. water, wind and the seasons.
When Christianity came to Ireland c450, the religious part of the Brehon laws were gradually replaced by Christian belief and the ritual was adopted to some Christian ceremony. The laws were written and interpreted by the druids and were the law of the land under the clan system. The land was held equally by all clan members under a hereditary clan chieftain who held the land from a larger clan chieftain who in turn held the land from the largest clan leader who had the name Mór or Rí before his name. The first Munster Rí was Connel Corr who built a fortress on the rock of Cashel in 450 and founded the McCarthy Mór clan [who dominated Munster for 1200 years]. They accepted the authority of the High King of Tara in 859 and remained undisputed kings of Munster until 944. Throughout the centuries this clan had intimate association with the church of Rome and at least four of their kings were bishops: Olchobar 796, Feidlimid 847, Cormac Mc Cuilenain 908, Flaithbertach 944. Some of these King Bishops were married. The authority of these bishops was felt in Castlemagner.
By nearly all accounts much of the European continental laws have a common origin traceable to early Irish law, or Brehon Laws. Owing to its geographical isolation throughout much of early history, these laws can be studied for their uninfluenced qualities, practically free from change by the Roman laws that spread throughout Europe during the rule of the Roman Empire.

In Ireland a judge was called a brehon, whence the native Irish law is commonly known as the "Brehon Law": but its proper designation is Fénechas, i.e. the law of the Féine or Féne, or free land-tillers. The brehons had absolutely in their hands the interpretation of the laws and the application of them to individual cases. They were therefore a very influential class of men and those attached to chiefs had free lands for their maintenance, which, like the profession itself, remained in the same family for generations. Those not so attached lived simply on the fees of their profession, and many eminent brehons became wealthy. The legal rules, as set forth in the Law Books, were commonly very complicated and mixed up with a variety of' technical terms; and many forms had to be gone through and many circumstances taken into account, all legally essential: so that no outsider could hope to master their intricacies. The brehon had to be very careful; for he was himself liable for damages, besides forfeiting his fee, if he delivered a false or unjust judgement.

To become a brehon a person had to go through a regular, well-defined course of study and training. It would appear that the same course qualified for any branch of the legal profession, and that once a man had mastered the course he set up as a brehon or judge proper, a consulting lawyer, an advocate, or a law-agent. In very early times the brehon was regarded as a mysterious, half-inspired person, and a divine power kept watch over his pronouncements to punish him for unjust judgements : "When the brehons deviated from the truth, there appeared blotches upon their cheeks." The great brehon, Morann, son of Carbery Kinncat (king of Ireland in the first century), wore a sín [sheen] or collar round his neck, which tightened when he delivered a false judgement, and expanded again when he delivered the true one. All this agrees with the whole tenor of Irish literature, whether legendary, legal, or historical, which shows the great respect the Irish entertained for justice pure and simple according to law, and their horror of unjust decisions. It was the same at the most ancient period as it was in the beginning of the seventeenth century, when Sir John Davies -an Englishman- the Irish attorney-general of James I., testified :-"For there is no nation of people under the sunne that doth love equall and indifferent [i.e. impartial] justice better then the Irish; or will rest better satisfied with the execution thereof, although it bee against themselves so as they may have the protection and benefit of the law, when uppon just cause they do desire it." But later on the Penal Laws changed all that, and turned the Irish natural love of justice into hatred and distrust of law, which in many ways continues to manifest itself to this day.
The Senchus Mor and other Books of Law
The brehons had collections of laws in volumes or tracts, all in the Irish language, by which they regulated their judgements, and which those of them who kept law-schools expounded to their scholars ; each tract treating of one subject or one group of subjects. Many of these have been preserved, and of late years the most important have been published, with translations, forming five printed volumes (with a sixth consisting of a valuable Glossary to the preceding five).
Of the tracts contained in these volumes, the two largest and most important are the Senchus Mór [Shanahus More] and the Book of Acaill [Ack'ill]. In the ancient Introduction to the Senchus Mor the following account is given of its original compilation. In the year 438 A.D. a collection of the pagan laws was made at the request of St. Patrick; and Laegaire [Laery] King of Ireland, appointed a committee of nine learned and eminent persons, including himself and St. Patrick, to revise them. At the end of three years these nine produced a new code, from which everything that clashed with the Christian doctrine had been carefully excluded. This was the Senchus Mór.

The laws were written in the oldest dialect of the Irish language, called Bérla Féini [Bairla-faina] which even at the time was so difficult that persons about to become brehons had to be specially instructed in it. Even the authors of the Commentaries and Glosses who wrote hundreds of years ago, and were themselves learned brehons, were often quite at fault in their attempts to explain the archaic text: and their words show that they were fully conscious of the difficulty. It will then be readily understood that the task of translating these laws was a very difficult one, rendered all the more so by the number of technical terms and phrases, many of which are to this day obscure, as well as by the peculiar style, which is very elliptical and abrupt-often incomplete sentences, or mere catch-words of rules not written down in full, but held in memory by the experts of the time. Another circumstance that greatly adds to the difficulty of deciphering these mss. is the confused way in which the Commentaries and glosses are written in, mainly with the object of economising the expensive vellum.

Ireland was possibly the most advanced of all European cultures: it had an Iron Age culture which included bards, historians, judges and a set of laws that governed all aspects of life. This voluminous set of laws covered everything from hurting a chained dog to behavior while drinking. The set of laws was known as the Law of the Commoner or Freemen, or the Brehon Law.

So balanced and just was the ancient Law that it was adopted by the majority of the Norman conquerors and held sway among the populace until ruthlessly put down by Cromwellian forces in the 17th century.

Many suppose that the Brehons served as judges. Actually, the Brehon was but the legal expert. His primary function was arbitration. In the event that judgement must be forced, it was the Righ (ruler) who, in consort with his Law Givers, gave judgement. However, even the Righ was not the final authority. A Righ who became unpopular could be summarily voted from office. . Ultimate control was the moral power of public opinion. Every individual felt it his or her bound duty to ensure that their venerated Brehon Law was upheld.

Although the age of these laws is unknown, they appear to be at least four thousand years old, as they date back at least to the time of the Tuatha de Danann in Ireland. They are perhaps even older, as there is mention among the history of Ireland that the Tuatha and the Fir Bolg people made agreements under a law of the time. This agreement gave one side the right to even the odds by reducing the opposing force and allowing time to prepare weapons. Whether this agreement was based on actual Brehon Law or just a current (at that time) common law of nations is unknown.

The practitioners of these laws were called Brehons. They were not judges or lawyers although many consider them so. In actuality, they were arbitrators whose responsibility it was to settle disagreements. The Brehons had to study the laws for years before they were allowed to practice their art and this is due in part to the size or volume of the laws that were enforced. It was an oral code to the greatest extent, and was only written down around the 3rd Century and in later times.

Here are a few of the most interesting Brehon laws quoted from the book of Irish Traditional Law.. Many serve to illustrate the degree of civilization of the ancient Celts and show how once Irish society was ordered. Some are certainly inappropriate to the modern view of a person's status, in particular that of women.

"It is illegal to overide a horse, force a weakened ox to do excessive work or threaten an animal with angry vehemence which breaks bones."

''There are three tresspasses of a hen in a herb garden: the soft-swallowing of bees, injury to the dye plants, and attacks on the garlic. A guilty hen shall have her feet tied together, or rag boots put on."

''At the main feast of the assembly the king and the chief poet of the tribe shall be served a thigh of the roast. The young lord is served a leg. Blacksmiths and charioteers shall be served the head and queens get haunches.''

''The wife who minds the sheep shall be paid two lambs a year.''

''The chief poet of the tribe earns twenty-one cows annually, plus enough pasture lands to feed them, plus two hounds and two horses.''

''If a person who is of a higher rank than you refuses to pay his debt you may sit at his doorstep and fast until he submits to arbitration. If you die before he submits he shall be blamed for your death and shall suffer lifelong disgrace.''

''Whether the offspring of kings, warriors, poets, workers in wood or stone, or tillers of the soil, a son or daughter shall follow the career of his or her parents.''

''...the son of a king of Erin shall wear satin and red clothes...''

''The sons of the inferior classes of chieftains shall wear black, yellow, or gray clothing..."

''The sons of the lowest class of chieftain shall wear old clothes...''

''A king exercises not falsehood nor force nor oppressive might. He is righteous towards all his people, both weak and strong.''

"Three things that cause the overthrow of a king; injustice, extortion, and kin-slaying.''

''For digging in a churchyard to steal from it, for making a dam in a stream to take an excess of fish, or for stealing a hunter's tent, your cattle will be taken to the animal pound for three to ten days, depending on the circumstances.''

''If a tribesman breaks another tribesman's leg he must pay a fine and supply a horse for the victim to ride on.''

''All members of the tribe are required to offer hospitality to strangers. The only exceptions are minor children, madmen, and old people.''

''The selfish man, who thinks only of his cows and his fields, and not of his fellow human beings, may be insulted without risking a blush fine.''

''The satirist who satirises a guiltless person will grow blisters on his own face. And then he will die.''

Every third year roads must be cleared of brambles, brush, weeds, and water to make ready for the great assembly, feast/fair.

The creditor who holds your brooch, necklaces and, rings as security for your pledge must return them back to you to wear at the great assembly and prevent embarrassment.

For the best arable land the price is 24 cows. The price for dry, coarse land is 12 dry cows.

If a woman makes an assignation with a man to come to her bed or behind a bush the man is not guilty of rape even if she screams. If she has not agreed to the meeting, however, he is guilty as soon as she screams.

The groom shall pay a bride-price of cattle, land, horses, gold, silver, to the Father of the bride. Husband and wife retain individual rights to property, goods and possessions each bring to the marriage.

If a pregnant women craves a morsel of food and her husband withholds it through stinginess, meanness or neglect he must pay a fine.

A fine of 6 cows for breaking a tribesman's two front teeth; 12 heifers for maiming a homeless man. For pulling off the hairs of a virgin Bishop one yearling for each 20 hairs.

It is illegal to give someone food in which a dead weasel or mouse has been found.

If your neighbor does not repay the debt he owes you, you may prevent him from going about his daily business. A withe-tie goes around the blacksmith anvil, carpenter's axe or tree fellers hatchet. He is on his honor to do no work until the debt is settled or wrong righted. If a Bard or physician is the debtor immobilize his horse whip for both ride their circuits. The creditor may fast in front of the debtor's house to humiliate him until the debt is paid.

If a rational adult brings a simpleton into an ale house for amusement and the simpleton injures a patron the adult who brought him must make compensation.

The blacksmith must rouse all sleeping customers before he puts the iron in the fire to guard against injury from sparks. Those who fall asleep again will receive no compensation.

When a judge deviates from the truth, a blotch will appear on his cheek. Whoever comes to your door, you must feed him or care for him, with no questions asked.

The chief poet of the tribe shall sit next to the king at a banquet. Each shall be served the choicest cut of meat.

The poet who overcharges for a poem shall be stripped of half his rank in society.

The mill-owner is exempt from liability for injury to a person caught between the millstones.

The husband who, through listlessness, does not go to his wife in her bed must pay a fine.

If a pregnant woman craves a morsel of food and her husband withholds it through stinginess or neglect, he must pay a fine.

A layman may drink six pints of ale with his dinner, but a monk may drink only three pints.

This is so he will not be intoxicated when prayer-time arrives.

If the poet or the physician is in debt, immobilize his horse-whip, for both ride their circuits on the backs of horses.

The lender of a horse must give notice of the horse's kicking habits.

Notice of the hound in heat and the mad dog must be sent to the four nearest neighbourhoods.

The harpist is the only musician who is of noble standing. Flute-players, trumpeters and timpanists, as well as jugglers, conjurers and equestrians who stand on the backs of horses at fairs, have no status of their own in the community, only that of the noble chieftain to whom they are attached.

The creditor who holds your brooch, your necklet or your earrings as a pledge against your loan must return them so you may wear them at the great assembly. Or he will be fined for your humiliation.

The time allotted to each Brehon for pleading his case is long or short according to his dignity. In determining the length of the speech he is allowed, count eighteen breathings to the minute.

On the best land everything is good. The herbs are sweet and no manure or shells are needed. There will be no plants that will stick in a horse's mane or tail: no briars, no blackthorns, no burdocks.

With the arrival of St. Patrick in Ireland, the laws were collected from all over the country and reviewed. Some of the laws were then stricken if they ran contrary to the laws of God. Those that remained were copied down for succeeding generations and continued in use until the English gained total control of Ireland in the 16th Century.

Sadly a large portion of these laws are now lost, as only a portion of the volumes can be found. Of those that remain, they sit in a limbo of sorts. They have been copied down in their original form, but much of this work is in Old Irish, and has not yet been translated. Efforts are underway to correct this by a group called Brehon Aid, which hopes to get the funding and the human resources to complete this monumental task.

The Seven Precepts Of Merlin

First: Labor diligently to acquire knowledge, for it is power.

Second: When in authority, decide reasonably, for thine authority may cease.

Third: Bear with fortitude the ills of life, remembering that no mortal sorrow is perpetual.

Fourth: Love virtue-for it bringeth peace.

Fifth: Abhor vice-for it bringeth evil upon all.

Sixth: Obey those in authority in all just things, that virtue may be exalted.

Seventh: Cultivate the social virtues, so shalt thou be beloved by all men.

Ancient Druidism

The Order of Druids is ageless, having existence in the dim mists of antiquity. The Druidic Order is perhaps the oldest fraternal organization in the world. The first traces of Druidism dates 6000 years before the birth of Christ or the Christian Era and far beyond the scope of written history. There seems to be no time era when evidences of their ancient existence cannot be found.

Students of antiquity find in the ancient ruins evidence in stone of that which we today call Druidism. That which marks them as Druidic is the pattern in which these stones are laid which show that their builders used certain stars and the sun as points of reference. Such monuments are found in Europe, Asia, South America and the United States. Everyone connects the ancient Druids with the British Isles. However, history reveals that the British Isles were only the last great stronghold of the brotherhood, particularly in Ireland and Wales. They also were numerous in Brittany and Normandy in France, where their monuments are still to be seen covering acres of land in geometric formation.

The members of the Ancient Brotherhood of Druids were the most learned men of their time. They were the physicians, astronomers, mathematicians, musicians, poets, philosophers, legislators and judges of the people as well as their educators in the matter of religion and learning. They were held in such esteem that the Kings sent their sons to be educated by them. In the matters of learning and government their authority was absolute.

Since Christian times, Druids have been identified as wizards and soothsayers. In pre- Christian Celtic Society, they were and intellectual class made up of philosophers, judges, educators, historians, doctors, seers, astronomers, and astrologers. The word 'Druid' is believed to be a combination of the Greek word 'drus', meaning "an oak" and the word 'Wid', meaning to know
or to see. In Celtic society, Druid was a title given to learned men and women possessing "oak knowledge"(or "oak wisdom").

While Wicca has had a rich and mystic history, it's also been one of the most persecuted religions on earth. When the Christian came to convert the pagans, the once great Druids were ostracized and even burned and tortured, for sorcery to the Christians was the work of the devil.

Druids were the judges and lawyers of the day, very respected and awe inspiring, and when they retreated from the people who turned on them, much, almost all of the ancient knowledge was lost.

Women also lost, much of their respect and the reverence the Celtic tribes had for women was not the same ideology that the Christians followed.

Paganism was different from every other religion in that it treated women with much more respect. There were Druidesses, female rulers, such as Boadicea who ruled the Iceni. Women were warriors, like Medb of Connacht, who commanded her army and personally slew the warrior Cethren in combat. They were ambassadors, some were involved in the treaty between Hannibal and the Celtic Volcae.

The position of women in the Brehan Law system was amazingly advanced compared with the rest of the world. They were lawyers and judges and queens, while women in other parts of the world were the chattels of men. Even in some religions today women are not given the power that men have.

Druidesses were considered very powerful and wise. In fact in the Tripartite Life of Patrick, in his canons Patrick warns kings not to accept the advice of Druids and Druidesses, but especially asks god to protect him from Druidesses.

The catholic saint, Brigit, was a Druidess who converted to Christianity. Many of her festivals and traits were grafted on to the Catholic saint.

Wicca is rich in cultural history and steeped in mysticism. There is no bible, no great works to adhere to. Many of the written works of the Druids, the rods of the Fili were burnt by the Christians, the only works surviving were set in stone and not the combustible wooden rods.

The Druids believed the human soul indestructible, immortal. Death is a changing of place, and life went on in another world, a world of the dead. The Summerland, Otherworld, whatever you want to call it. When people died in that world, they were reborn in this one, so a constant exchange of souls took place between the two worlds. The Celts celebrated a birth with mourning for a death in the Otherworld, a regarded death with joy of rebirth in the Otherworld. Some believe that this is why the Celtic Warriors were so fierce in battle. There was no fear for them, only the joy of rebirth. Wiccans believe the same. When there is a death of a Wiccan we wish good journey to the departed.

In the middle ages Pagans, Witches, were routed out and destroyed. Burned, drowned, tortured, hundreds of thousands of them. Mostly women, but men and children weren't ignored either. If they tried to defend their wives, mothers, daughters, they were suspect too. In two villages in Germany the witch finders went through, at the end of their inquisition there were two women left between the villages.

It isn't over. It exists even today; this fear and hatred of Wiccans.

Beyond civil law is another body of codes that we feel necessary. They are the codes of honor and our religion. These are expressed in what is called the 13 Primary Laws.

"Honor is the Law and Love is the Bond" "So it harm none, live according to your won will" "Whatever action you take shall return to your threefold" "Judge not the path of a brother or a sister for all paths are sacred" "The wise shall give due reverence to Spirit" "The wise shall revere all life" "The sacred knowledge may not be revealed to the unworthy" "The wise shall properly observe the sacred days" "All respect is due the elders for they are our teachers" "As the wise are in spirit so shall be their reward" "All are equal according to their ability and knowledge" "None may enter the sacred space without proper leave" "None may enter the sacred space uncleansed"

Great mystery surrounds the Druids, the priestly caste of Celts in Gaul (modern day France) and Britain, who served as judges, teachers, healers and soothsayers. Greeks and Romans writing between the second century BC and the fourth century AD reported the little we know about them.

The Roman writer Pliny recorded the Druid ritual of harvesting mistletoe from the oak, their sacred tree. On the sixth day of the new moon, a white robed priest would climb an oak and cut mistletoe from it wit h a gold sickle. Caught before it touched the ground, the mistletoe was used in a fertility ritual. Echoes of this rite survive in English speaking countries in the Christmas custom of kissing under hanging sprigs of mistletoe.

Druidism was a form of nature worship, and only initiates who studied their craft for as long as 20 years knew its deepest secrets. Rites were held in sacred groves and forests, where Druids were thought to practice magic powers - changing the weather, appearing in animal form, fore telling the future and becoming invisible. By using a 'serpents egg' or crystal ball, they were said to disperse death hexes. The wizard Merlin of Arthurian legend may have been a Druid.

Julius Caesar reported that anyone suffering from a serious disease, or about to face the perils of battle, would offer, or vow to offer a human sacrifice, which would be carried out by the Druids. One method was for victims to be burned alive in huge wicker baskets. Usually criminals were chosen for sacrifice . But the Romans had long ago banned the practice of human sacrifice in their homeland, and considered it barbarous when they discovered it among the Druids. When Roman troops invaded the Druid's religious center on the Celtic island fortress of Mona (today's Anglesey), off the coast of Wales, in AD 60 they slaughtered all the Druid priests they could find and also destroyed their sacred oak groves.

The Druids New Year Feast of Samhain, when supernatural spirits were said to roam the earth, it thought to be the origin of today's Halloween. And the superstition of saying, "touch wood" for good luck may be a relic from the Druids reverence for sacred trees. Modern Druid groups, although not related to the ancient, still celebrated seasonal Pagan festivals all over the world.