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angelakHere's a find which Steve has pointed out. I thought I'd public post behind LJ Cut.
Clothed with the Sky-A Spiritual Form of Naturism within Druidry
'Some say that the study of philosophy was of barbarian origin. For the Persians had their Magi, the Babylonians or the Assyrians the Chaldeans, the Indians their Gymnosophists, while the Kelts and the Galatae had seers called Druids and Semnotheoi, or so Aristotle says in the 'Magic' and Sotion in the twenty-third book of his 'Succession of Philosophers'…
Those who think that philosophy is an invention of the barbarians explain the systems prevailing among each people. They say that the Gymnosophists and Druids make their pronouncements by means of riddles and dark sayings, teaching that the gods must be worshipped, and no evil done, and manly behaviour maintained.
' Diogenes Laertius (3rd cent AD) Vitae Introduction, I, 5
Ross Nichols, founder of The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids was a Naturist, and believed that Druidry may have originated amongst the Dravidians of India. The Jain religion has Dravidian roots, and it has naked devotees amongst its followers who call themselves 'Sky-Clad'. Alexander encountered these devotees in 326 BC and called them gymnosophists (naked philosphers). As we see from the classical quotation above, in ancient times there were those who believed that the naked philosophers and the Druids offered the same teachings.
Nichols was interested in Jainism - he liked its philosophy of non-violence, vegetarianism and non-attachment, and he once wrote that 'Of the known cultural communities it is the Jains who seem most like a society from which Druidry could have originated.' He then went on to explain their two divisions: those who wear no clothes and are called Digambara, which means literally 'clothed in the quarters of the sky' usually translated as 'atmosphere-clad' or 'sky-clad'; and those known as Shvetambara, translated as 'white-clothed' or 'white-robed'.
Both Ross Nichols and Gerald Gardner (who developed Wicca from the 1950s) had discovered the joys of Naturism, and had found that freeing oneself of clothes in a natural setting also frees one's mind and spirit. While Gardner took the bold step of introducing a spirituality which took this sense of freedom into its acts of worship, making use of the Jain term and decreeing that Wicca should be practised 'skyclad', Nichols confined his Naturism to his own personal life and when meeting with Druid friends at his private woodland retreat in Buckinghamshire, or at the Naturist club that he and Gardner frequented. In his public Druidry he was 'white-robed'.
It is possible that Nichols introduced Gardner to the term 'skyclad', though it is equally possible that Gardner came across the term in his own researches.
Although the majority of Druids, and probably the majority of Wiccans, prefer to remain clothed, a number of them have discovered that working skyclad, far from encouraging salacious voyeurism, exhibitionism or sexual misconduct, actually engenders a sense of community, of closeness to Nature and the Divine, and induces feelings of humility and innocence.
Whether or not the ancient Druids, like the Jains, ever worshipped naked is debatable, but essentially immaterial. Druidry is constantly growing and evolving, and the ideals of Naturism espoused by Nichols are in complete agreement with the ideals of Druidry. These ideals include a belief in the sacredness, and a reverence for the natural world and the human body and a rejection of the idea that we should feel ashamed about our bodies.
Philip Carr-Gomm
Imbolc 2002
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note
It should be noted that although Jainism does have Dravidian roots, and in the past some scholars have seen links between the Dravidians and the Druids, both the Druidism reported by the Classical authors and its modern manifestations seem to bear little resemblance to Jainism past or present. If there is a connection it is likely to be very distant in time and will require considerable research to uncover.
Ross Nichols' writing on the Jains can be found in the following two books:
Philip Carr-Gomm In The Grove of the Druids - The Druid Teachings of Ross Nichols, Watkins 2002
Philip Carr-Gomm Druidcraft - The Magic of Wicca & Druidry, Thorsons 2002
Researchers may be interested in the following detail:
In the Ross Nichols Archive collection of The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids, there is the draft of an essay entitled 'Archaeologists and Druids'. Attached to the draft is a letter commenting on it by the archaeologist T.C.Lethbridge.
'A more freewheeling archaeologist, T.C. Lethbridge, points out the common factors in the practices of Druids, witches and the early Aryan invaders of India. In Druidry and Hinduism he finds a similar separated holy body, Brahmin or Druid, which manages the educational-religious life and is superior to the chieftain-rulers. There is in each culture wisdom conveyed in long memorised poems, not written down, or not until much later. Each reverences both moon and sun, has circular motions in worship around either single stones or stone or wood circles, and holds certain creatures tabu. In each there is a sacred nudity in some aspect. Above all, both taught reincarnation or metempsychosis. The witches share some of this - the earlier moongoddess, who in this version rather dominated the 'devil', her coven-mate; circular and frenzied dancing, and rebirth after death 'from the goddess'. He considers that these half-a-dozen features in common point to a common cultural origin perhaps about 3,000 B.C.'
This draft is accompanied by a 1961 letter from 'Tom' Lethbridge with comments and a quotation from Pliny which Ross uses in his final version of the essay, having struck out the sentence marked above in bold. In the final version, having removed the sentence, he adds a later paragraph as follows: 'If one adds to Lethbridge's links the several indications of deities in common between the ancient west and India, of which the most striking is the almost unqualified identity of Kali, the destroying aspect of Siva, with the Cailleach ('Kaliach') of Scotland, the case is greatly strengthened. One may also add the factor of sacred nudity in some form, the Celts in battle, the witches in 'working', the Aryans with the non-possessiveness of the faquir, above all the early and religious nudity of the Jains. Pliny says that British women went to their ceremonies completely unclad.'
Click here for the link it came from.
-Angela
Clothed with the Sky-A Spiritual Form of Naturism within Druidry
'Some say that the study of philosophy was of barbarian origin. For the Persians had their Magi, the Babylonians or the Assyrians the Chaldeans, the Indians their Gymnosophists, while the Kelts and the Galatae had seers called Druids and Semnotheoi, or so Aristotle says in the 'Magic' and Sotion in the twenty-third book of his 'Succession of Philosophers'…
Those who think that philosophy is an invention of the barbarians explain the systems prevailing among each people. They say that the Gymnosophists and Druids make their pronouncements by means of riddles and dark sayings, teaching that the gods must be worshipped, and no evil done, and manly behaviour maintained.
' Diogenes Laertius (3rd cent AD) Vitae Introduction, I, 5
Ross Nichols, founder of The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids was a Naturist, and believed that Druidry may have originated amongst the Dravidians of India. The Jain religion has Dravidian roots, and it has naked devotees amongst its followers who call themselves 'Sky-Clad'. Alexander encountered these devotees in 326 BC and called them gymnosophists (naked philosphers). As we see from the classical quotation above, in ancient times there were those who believed that the naked philosophers and the Druids offered the same teachings.
Nichols was interested in Jainism - he liked its philosophy of non-violence, vegetarianism and non-attachment, and he once wrote that 'Of the known cultural communities it is the Jains who seem most like a society from which Druidry could have originated.' He then went on to explain their two divisions: those who wear no clothes and are called Digambara, which means literally 'clothed in the quarters of the sky' usually translated as 'atmosphere-clad' or 'sky-clad'; and those known as Shvetambara, translated as 'white-clothed' or 'white-robed'.
Both Ross Nichols and Gerald Gardner (who developed Wicca from the 1950s) had discovered the joys of Naturism, and had found that freeing oneself of clothes in a natural setting also frees one's mind and spirit. While Gardner took the bold step of introducing a spirituality which took this sense of freedom into its acts of worship, making use of the Jain term and decreeing that Wicca should be practised 'skyclad', Nichols confined his Naturism to his own personal life and when meeting with Druid friends at his private woodland retreat in Buckinghamshire, or at the Naturist club that he and Gardner frequented. In his public Druidry he was 'white-robed'.
It is possible that Nichols introduced Gardner to the term 'skyclad', though it is equally possible that Gardner came across the term in his own researches.
Although the majority of Druids, and probably the majority of Wiccans, prefer to remain clothed, a number of them have discovered that working skyclad, far from encouraging salacious voyeurism, exhibitionism or sexual misconduct, actually engenders a sense of community, of closeness to Nature and the Divine, and induces feelings of humility and innocence.
Whether or not the ancient Druids, like the Jains, ever worshipped naked is debatable, but essentially immaterial. Druidry is constantly growing and evolving, and the ideals of Naturism espoused by Nichols are in complete agreement with the ideals of Druidry. These ideals include a belief in the sacredness, and a reverence for the natural world and the human body and a rejection of the idea that we should feel ashamed about our bodies.
Philip Carr-Gomm
Imbolc 2002
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note
It should be noted that although Jainism does have Dravidian roots, and in the past some scholars have seen links between the Dravidians and the Druids, both the Druidism reported by the Classical authors and its modern manifestations seem to bear little resemblance to Jainism past or present. If there is a connection it is likely to be very distant in time and will require considerable research to uncover.
Ross Nichols' writing on the Jains can be found in the following two books:
Philip Carr-Gomm In The Grove of the Druids - The Druid Teachings of Ross Nichols, Watkins 2002
Philip Carr-Gomm Druidcraft - The Magic of Wicca & Druidry, Thorsons 2002
Researchers may be interested in the following detail:
In the Ross Nichols Archive collection of The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids, there is the draft of an essay entitled 'Archaeologists and Druids'. Attached to the draft is a letter commenting on it by the archaeologist T.C.Lethbridge.
'A more freewheeling archaeologist, T.C. Lethbridge, points out the common factors in the practices of Druids, witches and the early Aryan invaders of India. In Druidry and Hinduism he finds a similar separated holy body, Brahmin or Druid, which manages the educational-religious life and is superior to the chieftain-rulers. There is in each culture wisdom conveyed in long memorised poems, not written down, or not until much later. Each reverences both moon and sun, has circular motions in worship around either single stones or stone or wood circles, and holds certain creatures tabu. In each there is a sacred nudity in some aspect. Above all, both taught reincarnation or metempsychosis. The witches share some of this - the earlier moongoddess, who in this version rather dominated the 'devil', her coven-mate; circular and frenzied dancing, and rebirth after death 'from the goddess'. He considers that these half-a-dozen features in common point to a common cultural origin perhaps about 3,000 B.C.'
This draft is accompanied by a 1961 letter from 'Tom' Lethbridge with comments and a quotation from Pliny which Ross uses in his final version of the essay, having struck out the sentence marked above in bold. In the final version, having removed the sentence, he adds a later paragraph as follows: 'If one adds to Lethbridge's links the several indications of deities in common between the ancient west and India, of which the most striking is the almost unqualified identity of Kali, the destroying aspect of Siva, with the Cailleach ('Kaliach') of Scotland, the case is greatly strengthened. One may also add the factor of sacred nudity in some form, the Celts in battle, the witches in 'working', the Aryans with the non-possessiveness of the faquir, above all the early and religious nudity of the Jains. Pliny says that British women went to their ceremonies completely unclad.'
Click here for the link it came from.
-Angela
