history. Legends among the Druids connected their order with the ancient
Aryan creeds and teachings, and there seems to have been a very close
connection between these priests and those of Ancient Greece, for there
are tales of offerings being sent to the temples of Greece from the
priests of Gaul. And it is also related that on the island of Delphos
there was once a Druidic tomb in the shape of a monument, believed to
have been erected over the remains of Druid priestesses. Herodotus and
others speak of a secret alliance between the priests of Greece and
those of the Druids. Some of the ancient legends hold that Pythagoras
was the instructor of the Druidic priests, and that Pythagoras himself
was in close communication with the Brahmins of India, and the
Hermetists of Egypt. Other legends have it that the Druids received
their first instruction from Zamolais, who had been a slave and student
of Pythagoras. At any rate, the correspondence between the two schools
of philosophy is remarkable.

Much of the Druidic teachings has been lost, and it is difficult to
piece together the fragments. But enough is known to indicate the above
mentioned relationship to the Pythagorean school, and of the firm hold
of the doctrine of Reincarnation upon the Druids. The preserved
fragments show that the Druids taught that there was in man an
immaterial, spiritual part, called "Awen," which proceeded from an
Universal Spiritual Principle of Life. They taught that this "Awen" had
animated the lower forms of life, mineral, vegetable and animal, before
incarnating as man. In those conditions it was entangled and imprisoned
in the state of "abysmal circling," called "Anufu," from which it
finally escaped and entered into the "circle of freedom," called
"Abred," or human incarnation and beyond. This state of "Abred" includes
life in the various human races on this and other planets, until finally
there is a further liberation of the "Awen," which then passes on to the
"Circle of Bliss," or "Gwynfid," where it abides for aeons in a state of
ecstatic being. But, beyond even this transcendent state, there is
another, which is called the "Circle of the Infinite," or "Ceugant,"
which is identical with the "Union with God" of the Persians and Greek
Mystics, or the "Nirvana" of the Hindus. Rather an advanced form of
philosophy for "barbarians," is it not? Particularly when contrasted
with the crude mythology of the Roman conquerors!

The Gauls were