Course XXVIII - Teaching 13: The Gauls

The Celts gave rise to the Greeks, Macedonians and Carthaginians; these peoples were beautiful, strong, warlike, versatile and lovers of Nature.
The origin of the Romans is very obscure because the Etruscans, ancient remnants of the Iranians, and the Sabinians, inhabitants of the Latium, were of Aryan-Semite origin; but in Sicily and throughout the coast of Calabria Italic people lived, of pure Celtic race, who eventually make their lands thrive and, mixed with other peoples, founded the Roman caste.
The Celts extended throughout the Atlantic coast of Spain, invaded Gaul and went through the British Islands.
The Gauls were a pure Celtic race, and their lands extended from northern to the Ocean and Rhin.
It was very difficult the arrival of other peoples because of thick forests, virgin jungles, torrential rivers, impervious ways through, long winters and numerous wild beasts.
Even the Gauls, devoid of any contact and forced to fight fiercely for their survival and preservation, remained in a half-savage state.
A clan was supreme authority or, rather, the family concept and the experience of the elders.
Since they lived by the product of hunting and fishing, their worship consisted of images of those animals, which they wore like amulets, and also feathers, bones, et cetera.
Pliny describes them properly: of fierce aspect and grim gaze, they defended themselves with stones and gross spears. Their savage and guttural cries frightened and drove the enemy army away.
The priestly or druidic caste was the most representative of the Gauls. Since their childhood they were devoted to the goddess of war. They lived detached from their parents, reared by priests, and prepared in the art of war and manipulation of weapons.
When they were grown-ups, the entire people served and revered them. In the beginning of spring – when the snow melted or, more exactly, after the first Full Moon of March– was time to fight.
They guided heir people like gods-warriors. Their wars were among their own tribes, or all together against the barbarians from the other shore of the Rhin.
Without any mythology, they revered Nature, trees, mountains, rivers and, over all, their ancestors. They had a caste of virgins devoted to serve in the temple; these virgins worshipped the Moon, and paid perennial homage to the Moon.
In Full Moon, they went out in long rows, in white, singing hymns to the Moon and imploring its help. The oldest and more expert woman became a pythoness and by means of palpitating entrails of newly-sacrificed bird she foretold the time to come of tribes, destiny of peoples, hours to combat and signs of blessing or curse.
The Germans were a people brother of the Gauls.
A Celtic people lived as if they were lost in the immense snowy steppes of Nordic countries, now Scandinavia.
They were red-haired men, of sharp and metallic gaze, tall and handsome; their shrill cries, like the wind, resounded in the vastness of glacial deserts.
They inherited from their Aryan parents the worship of divine Nature, which they embellished through legends and poems.
Brothers of these peoples are the Germans of northern Europe, who preserve the type, worship and warlike tradition.
The epic of these peoples is written down on the Scandinavian Edda –their holy book. This books should not be mistaken for the Eddas, written about 1200 by Snorri Sturlesson.
Alphadur is the only god, born of the boreal light on the luminous skies. Thor or Donar is the god of power; Odin is the god of wisdom; and Freyr is the god of kindness. They are the Scandinavian Trinity. Eventually, Odin is over the rest of gods and becomes the powerful Wotan, god and lord of heaven and earth, another Jupiter that steadily rules over destinies of gods, men and demons.
His enemy is Sartur, the black Satan of earth and abysses. A cold and implacable space exists between them.
Friga, wife of Wotan, is symbol of fertilization, of holy home and of worthy conjugal life.
Her sons are the shining Azas, thirty-two brave warriors that defend the Walhalla. They fight against Imes and his people –the giants of ice.
There is a great war between earth and heaven, between giants and gods. Thor, the god of lightning, firstborn of Odin, and Bera, the god of courage, fight in the Great War and destroy those immense figures of ice.
Earth becomes a river of blood, and a new race appears upon it. >From the cut head of Imes, the first human mate emerges –Aske and Embla.
Nine shining virgins, the far-sighted Walkyries have come into being from the powerful thought of Wotan; they usher the combat and lead on their white horses the dead victor, the fallen soldier toward the happy abode of the Walhalla. They see the destiny of men and always lead them to victory.
Combat was the highest religious worship among savage peoples of those gelid jungles. With unstoppable impetus they rushed in fight because they knew that after death they would be taken away to paradise on a white and winged steed by those warlike goddesses.
Worship was held in the jungle, under an ilex or holy ash trees; ilex was devoted to the ancestors and ash tree to the gods.
There that savage pythoness in white, on moonlight, evoked the gods and decided day and hour of the combat. She was over chiefs of clan, and her word was absolute and sacred.
Sometimes Furni, the fierce wolf, tied by the gods to a frightful chain, howled among thunders and lightning, claiming for human blood; then they sacrificed human victims to placate the wrath of this terrible wolf.
Upon the altar of white stone, the priestess opened the chest of young people chosen for the martyrdom. But this people had to perish, this religion has to end, driven away by the Roman eagle and the Christian cross.
This had been foretold by their holy books when they prophesized that the wicked Lake would destroy and defeat the gods and that the Walhalla would collapse in flames, and everything would be again in ruins.