HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE RE-BIRTH DOCTRINE

Among ourselves the doctrine may seem a strange one, though among the great nations of antiquity--the Egyptians, Indians, Greeks, and Celts--it was taught in the Mysteries and Priest-Schools, and formed the corner-stone of the most important philosophical systems like those of Buddha, Pythagoras, Plato, the Neo-Platonists, and the Druids. The Alexandrian Jews, also, were familiar with the doctrine, as implied in the _Wisdom of Solomon_ (viii. 19, 20), and in the writings of Philo. It was one of the teachings in the Schools of Alexandria, and thus directly shaped the thoughts of some of the early Church Fathers--for example, Tertullian of Carthage (circa A. D. 160-240), and Origen of Alexandria (circa A. D. 185-254). It is of considerable historical importance for us at this point to consider at some length if Christians in the first centuries held or were greatly influenced by the re-birth doctrine, because, as we shall presently observe, the probable influence of Christian on pagan Celtic beliefs may have been at a certain period very deep and even the most important reshaping influence.

As an examination of Origen's _De Principiis_ proves, Origen himself believed in the doctrine.[359] But the theologians who created the Greek canons of the Fifth Council disagreed with Origen's views, and condemned Origen for believing, among other things called by them heresies, that Jesus Christ will be reincarnated and suffer on earth a second time to save the daemons,[360] an order of spiritual beings regarded by some ancient philosophers as destined to evolve into human souls. Tertullian, contemporary with Origen, in his _De Anima_ considers whether or not the doctrine of re-birth can be regarded as Christian in view of the declaration by Jesus Christ that John the Baptist was Elias (or Elijah), the old Jewish prophet, come again:--'And if ye are willing to receive it (or him), this (John the Baptist) is Elijah, which is to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.'[361] Tertullian concludes, and modern Christian theologians frequently echo him (upon comparing Malachi iv. 5), that all the New Testament writers mean to convey is that John the Baptist possessed or acted in 'the spirit and power' of Elias, but was not actually a reincarnation of Elias, since he did not possess 'the soul and body' of Elias.[362] Had Tertullian been a mystic and not merely a theologian with a personal bias against the mystery teachings, which bias he shows throughout his _De Anima_, it is quite evident that he would have been on this doctrinal matter in agreement with Origen, who was both a mystic and a theologian,[363] and, then, probably with such an agreement of these two eminent Church Fathers on record before the time when Christian councils met to determine canonical and orthodox beliefs, the doctrine of re-birth would never have been expurgated from Christianity.[364]

In the _Pistis Sophia_,[365] an ancient Gnostic-Christian work, which contains what are alleged to be some of Jesus Christ's esoteric teachings to his disciples, it is clearly stated (contrary to Tertullian's argument, but in accord with what we may a.s.sume Origen's view would have been) that John the Baptist was the reincarnation of Elias.[366] The same work further expounds the doctrine of re-birth as a teaching of Jesus Christ which applies not to particular personages only, like Elias, but as a universal law governing the lives of all mankind.[367]

As our discussion has made evident, during the first centuries the re-birth doctrine was undoubtedly well known to Alexandrian Christians.

Among other early Christian theologians and philosophers who held some form of a re-birth doctrine, were Synesius, Bishop of Ptolemais (circa 375-414), Boethius, a Roman (circa 475-525), and Psellus, a native of Andros (second half of ninth century). In addition to the many Gnostic-Christian sects, the Manichaeans, who comprised more than seventy sects connected with the primitive Church, also promulgated the re-birth doctrine.[368] Along with the condemnation of the Gnostics and Manichaeans as heretical, the doctrine of re-birth was likewise condemned by various ecclesiastical bodies and councils. This was the declaration by the Council of Constantinople in 553:--'Whosoever shall support the mythical doctrine of the pre-existence of the Soul, and the consequent wonderful opinion of its return, let him be anathema.' And so, after centuries of controversy, the ancient doctrine ceased to be regarded as Christian.[369] It is very likely, however, as will be shown in due order, that a few of the early Celtic missionaries, always famous for their Celtic independence even in questions touching Christian theology and government, did not feel themselves bound by the decisions of continental Church Councils with respect to this particular doctrine.

During the mediaeval period in Europe, the re-birth doctrine continued to live on in secret among many of the alchemists and mystical philosophers, and among such Druids as survived religious persecution; and it has come down from that period to this through Orders like the Rosicrucian Order--an Order which seems to have had an unbroken existence from the Middle Ages or earlier--and likewise through the unbroken traditions of modern Druidism. In our own times there is what may be called a renaissance of the ancient doctrine in Europe and America--especially in England, Germany, France, and the United States--through various philosophical or religious societies; some of them founding their teachings and literature on the ancient and mediaeval mystical philosophers, while others stand as the representatives in the West of the mystical schools of modern India, which, like modern Druidism, claim to have existed from what we call prehistoric times.[370] To-day in the Roman Church eminent theologians have called the doctrine of Purgatory the Christian counterpart of the philosophical doctrine of re-birth;[371] and the real significance of this opinion will appear in our later study of St. Patrick's Purgatory which, as we hold, is connected more or less definitely with the pagan-Irish doctrines of the underworld of the _Sidhe_-folk and spirits, as well as shades of the dead, and with the Celtic-Druidic Doctrine of Reincarnation.

Scientifically speaking, as shown in the Welsh Triads of Bardism, the ancient Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth represented for the priestly and bardic initiates an exposition of the complete cycle of human evolution; that is to say, it included what we now call Darwinism--which explains only the purely physical evolution of the body which man inhabits as an inheritance from the brute kingdom--and also besides Darwinism, a comprehensive theory of man's own evolution as a spiritual being both apart from and in a physical body, on his road to the perfection which comes from knowing completely the earth-plane of existence. And in time, judging from the rapid advance of the present age, our own science through psychical research may work back to the old mystery teachings and declare them scientific. (See chap. xii.)

ACCORDING TO THE BARDDAS MSS.

With this preliminary survey of the subject we may now proceed to show how in the Celtic scheme of evolution the Otherworld with all its G.o.ds, fairies, and invisible beings, and this world with all its visible beings, form the two poles of life or conscious existence. Let us begin with purely philosophical conceptions, going first to the Welsh _Barddas_,[372] where it is said 'There are three circles of existence: the circle of Ceugant (the circle of Infinity), where there is neither animate nor inanimate save G.o.d, and G.o.d only can traverse it; the circle of Abred (the circle of Re-birth), where the dead is stronger than the living, and where every princ.i.p.al existence is derived from the dead, and man has traversed it; and the circle of Gwynvyd (the circle of the white, i. e. the circle of Perfection), where the living is stronger than the dead, and where every princ.i.p.al existence is derived from the living and life, that is, from G.o.d, and man shall traverse it; nor will man attain to perfect knowledge, until he shall have fully traversed the circle of Gwynvyd, for no absolute knowledge can be obtained but by the experience of the senses, from having borne and suffered every condition and incident'.[373] ... 'The three stabilities of knowledge: to have traversed every state of life; to remember every state and its incidents; and to be able to traverse every state, as one would wish, for the sake of experience and judgement; and this will be obtained in the circle of Gwynvyd.'[374]

Thus _Barddas_ expounds the complete Bardic scheme of evolution as one in which the monad or soul, as a knowledge of physical existence is gradually unfolded to it, pa.s.ses through every phase of material embodiment before it enters the human kingdom, where, for the first time exercising freewill in a physical body, it becomes responsible for all its acts. The Bardic doctrine as otherwise stated is 'that the soul commenced its course in the lowest water-animalcule, and pa.s.sed at death to other bodies of a superior order, successively, and in regular gradation, until it entered that of man. Humanity is a state of liberty, where man can attach himself to either good or evil, as he pleases'.[375] Once in the human kingdom the soul begins a second period of growth altogether different from that preceding--a period of growth toward divinity; and with this, in our study, we are chiefly concerned.

It seems clear that the circle of Gwynvyd finds its parallel in the Nirvana of Buddhism, being, like it, a state of absolute knowledge and felicity in which man becomes a divine being, a veritable G.o.d.[376] We see in all this the intimate relation which there was thought to be between what we call the state of life and the state of death, between the world of men and the world of G.o.ds, fairies, demons, spirits, and shades. Our next step must be to show, first, what some other authorities have had to say about this relation, and then, second, and fundamentally, that G.o.ds or fairy-folk like the _Sidhe_ or Tuatha De Danann could come to this world not only as we have been seeing them come as fairy women, fairy men, and G.o.ds, at will visible or invisible to mortals, but also through submitting to human birth.

ACCORDING TO ANCIENT AND MODERN AUTHORITIES

First, therefore, for opinions; and we may go to the ancients and then to the moderns. Here are a few from Julius Caesar:--'In particular they (the Druids) wish to inculcate this idea, that souls do not die, but pa.s.s from one body to another.'[377] 'The Gauls declare that they have all sprung from their father Dis (or Pluto), and this they say was delivered to them by the Druids.'[377] And the testimony of Caesar is confirmed by Diodorus Siculus,[378] and by Pomponius Mela.[379] Lucan, in the _Pharsalia_,[380] addressing the Druids on their doctrine of re-birth says:--'If you know what you sing, death is the centre of a long life.' And again in the same pa.s.sage he observes:--'Happy the folk upon whom the Bear looks down, happy in this error, whom of fears the greatest moves not, the dread of death. Hence their warrior's heart hurls them against the steel, hence their ready welcome of death, and the thought that it were a coward's part to grudge a life sure of its return.'[381] Dr. Douglas Hyde, in his _Literary History of Ireland_ (p.

95), speaking for the Irish people, says of the re-birth doctrine:--'...

the idea of re-birth which forms part of half a dozen existing Irish sagas, was perfectly familiar to the Irish Gael....' According to another modern Celtic authority, D'Arbois de Jubainville, two chief Celtic doctrines or beliefs were the return of the ghosts of the dead and the re-birth of the same individuality in a new human body here on this planet.[382]

REINCARNATION OF THE TUATHA DE DANANN

We proceed now directly to show that there was also a belief, probably widespread, among the ancient Irish that divine personages, national heroes who are members of the Tuatha De Danann or _Sidhe_ race, and great men, can be reincarnated, that is to say, can descend to this plane of existence and be as mortals more than once. This aspect of the Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth has been clearly set forth by the publications of such eminent Celtic folk-lorists as Alfred Nutt and Miss Eleanor Hull. Miss Hull, in her study of _Old Irish Tabus, or Gesa_,[383] referring to the Cuchulainn Cycle of Irish literature and mythology, writes thus:--'There is no doubt that all the chief personages of this cycle were regarded as the direct descendants, or it would be more correct to say, as avatars or reincarnations of the early G.o.ds. Not only are their pedigrees traced up to the Tuatha De Danann, but there are indications in the birth-stories of nearly all the princ.i.p.al personages that they are looked upon simply as divine beings reborn on the human plane of life. These indications are mysterious, and most of the tales which deal with them show signs of having been altered, perhaps intentionally, by the Christian transcribers. The doctrine of re-birth was naturally not one acceptable to them.... The G.o.ddess Etain becomes the mortal wife of a king of Ireland....

Conchobhar, moreover, is spoken of as a terrestrial G.o.d;[384] and Dechtire, his sister, and the mother of Cuchulainn, is called a G.o.ddess.[385] In the case of Cuchulainn himself, it is distinctly noted that he is the avatar of Lugh lamhfada (long-hand), the sun-deity[386]

of the earliest cycle. Lugh appears to Dechtire, the mother of Cuchulainn, and tells her that he himself is her little child, i. e.

that the child is a reincarnation of himself; and Cuchulainn, when inquired of as to his birth, points proudly to his descent from Lugh.

When, too, it is proposed to find a wife for the hero, the reason a.s.signed is, that they knew "that his re-birth would be of himself" (i.

e. that only from himself could another such as he have origin).'[387]

We have in this last a clue to the popular Irish belief regarding the re-birth of beings of a G.o.d-like nature. D'Arbois de Jubainville has shown,[388] also, that the grandfather of Cuchulainn, son of Sualtaim, was from the country of the _Sidhe_, and so was Ethne Ingube, the sister of Sualtaim. And Dechtire, the mother of Cuchulainn, was the daughter of the Druid Cathba and the brother of King Conchobhar. Thus the ancestry of the great hero of the Red Branch Knights of Ulster is both royal and divine. And Conall Cernach, Cuchulainn's comrade and avenger, apparently from a tale in the _Coir Anmann_ (Fitness of Names), composed probably during the twelfth century, was also a reincarnated Tuatha De Danann hero.[389]

Practically all the extant ma.n.u.scripts dealing with the ancient literature and mythology of the Gaels were written by Christian scribes or else copied by them from older ma.n.u.scripts, so that, as Miss Hull points out, what few Irish re-birth stories have come down to us--and they are probably but remnants of an extensive re-birth literature like that of India--have been more or less altered. Yet to these scholarly scribes of the early monastic schools, who kept alive the sacred fire of learning while their own country was being plundered by foreign invaders and the rest of mediaeval Europe plunged in warfare, the world owes a debt of grat.i.tude; for to their efforts alone, in spite of a reshaping of matter naturally to be expected, is due almost everything recorded on parchments concerning pagan Ireland.

THE RE-BIRTH STORY CONCERNING KING MONGAN

We have preserved to us a remarkable re-birth story in which the characters are known to be historical.[390] It concerns a quarrel between the king of Ulster, Mongan, son of Fiachna--who, according to the _Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters_ (i. 245), was killed in A.

D. 620 by Arthur, son of Bicor--and Forgoll, the poet of Mongan.[391]

The dispute between them was as to the place of the death of Fothad Airgdech, a king of Ireland who was killed by Cailte, one of the warriors of Find, in a battle whose date is fixed by the _Four Masters_ in A. D. 285.[392] Forgoll pretended that Fothad had been killed at Duffry, in Leinster, and Mongan a.s.serted that it was on the river Larne (anciently Ollarba) in County Antrim. Enraged at being contradicted, even though it were by the king, Forgoll threatened Mongan with terrible incantations; and it was agreed that unless Mongan proved his a.s.sertion within three days, his queen should pa.s.s under the control of Forgoll.

Mongan, however, had spoken truly and with certain secret knowledge, and felt sure of winning.

When the third day was almost expired and Forgoll had presented himself ready to claim the wager, there was heard coming in the distance the one whom Mongan awaited. It was Cailte himself, come from the Otherworld to bear testimony to the truthfulness of the king and to confound the audacious presumptions of the poet Forgoll. It was evening when he reached the palace. The king Mongan was seated on his throne, and the queen at his right full of fear about the outcome, and in front stood the poet Forgoll claiming the wager. No one knew the strange warrior as he entered the court, save the king.

Cailte, when fully informed of the quarrel and the wager, quickly announced so that all heard him distinctly, 'The poet has lied!' 'You will regret those words,' replied the poet. 'What you say does not well become you,' responded Cailte in turn, 'for I will prove what I say.'

And straightway Cailte revealed this strange secret: that he had been one of the companions in arms under the great warrior Find, who was also his teacher, and that Mongan, the king before whom he spoke, was the reincarnation of Find:--

'We were with thee,' said Cailte, addressing the king. 'We were with Find.' 'Know, however,' replied Mongan, 'that you do wrong in revealing a secret.' But the warrior continued: 'We were therefore with Find. We came from Scotland. We encountered Fothad Airgdech near here, on the sh.o.r.es of the Ollarba. We gave him furious battle. I cast my spear at him in such a manner that it pa.s.sed through his body, and the iron point, detaching itself from the staff, became fixed in the earth on the other side of Fothad. Behold here [in my hand] the shaft of that spear.

There will be found the bare rock from the top of which I let fly my weapon. There will be found a little further to the east the iron point sunken in the earth. There will be found again a little further, always to the east, the tomb of Fothad Airgdech. A coffin of stone covers his body; his two bracelets of silver, his two arm-rings, and his neck-torque of silver are in the coffin. Above the tomb rises a pillar-stone, and on the upper extremity of that stone which is planted in the earth one may read an inscription in ogam: _Here reposes Fothad Airgdech; he was fighting against Find when Cailte slew him_.'

And to the consternation of Forgoll, what this warrior who came from the Otherworld declared was true, for there were found the place indicated by him, the rock, the spear-head, the pillar-stone, the inscription, the coffin of stone, the body in it, and the jewellery. Thus Mongan gained the wager; and the secret of his life which he alone had known was revealed--he was Find re-born[393]; and Cailte, his old pupil and warrior-companion, had come from the land of the dead to aid him[393]:--'It was Cailte, Find's foster-son, that had come to them.

Mongan, however, was Find, though he would not let it be told.'[393] But not only was Mongan an Irish king, he was also a G.o.d, the son of the Tuatha De Danann Manannan Mac Lir: 'this Mongan is a son of Manannan Mac Lir, though he is called Mongan, son of Fiachna.'[394] And so it is that long after their conquest the People of the G.o.ddess Dana ruled their conquerors, for they took upon themselves human bodies, being born as the children of the kings of Mil's Sons.

There are other episodes which show very clearly the relationship between Mongan incarnated in a human body and his divine father Manannan. Thus, 'When Mongan was three nights old, Manannan came for him and took him with him to bring up in the Land of Promise, and vowed that he would not let him back into Ireland before he were twelve years of age.' And after Mongan has become Ulster's high king, Manannan comes to him to rouse him out of human slothfulness to a consciousness of his divine nature and mission, and of the need of action: Mongan and his wife were frittering away their time playing a game, when they beheld a dark black-tufted little cleric standing at the door-post, who said:--'"This inactivity in which thou art, O Mongan, is not an inactivity becoming a king of Ulster, not to go to avenge thy father on Fiachna the Black, son of Deman, though Dubh-Lacha may think it wrong to tell thee so...." Mongan seized the kingship of Ulster, and the little cleric who had done the reason was Manannan the great and mighty.'[395]

In the ancient tale of the _Voyage of Bran_--probably composed in its present form during the eighth, possibly the seventh, century A.

D.--there is another version of the Mongan Re-birth Story, which, being later in origin and composition than the _Voyage_ itself, was undoubtedly clumsily inserted into the ma.n.u.script, as scholars think.[396] Therein, Mongan as the offspring of Manannan by the woman of Line-mag--quite after the theory of the Christian Incarnation--is described as 'a fair man in a body of white clay'. This and what follows in the introductory quatrain show how early Celtic doctrines correspond to or else were originated by those of the Christians. And the transcriber seeing the parallels, glossed and altered the text which he copied by introducing Christian phraseology so as to fit it in with his own idea--altogether improbable--that the references are to the coming of Jesus Christ. The references are to Manannan and to the woman of Line-mag, who by him was to be the mother of Mongan--as Mary the wife of Joseph was the mother of Jesus Christ by G.o.d the Father:--

A n.o.ble salvation will come From the King who has created us, A white law will come over seas, Besides being G.o.d, He will be man.

This shape, he on whom thou lookest, Will come to thy parts; 'Tis mine to journey to her house, To the woman in Line-mag.

For it is Moninnan, the son of Ler, From the chariot in the shape of a man,

He will delight the company of every fairy-knoll, He will be the darling of every goodly land, He will make known secrets--a course of wisdom-- In the world, without being feared.

To him is attributed the power of shape-shifting, which is not transmigration into animal forms, but a magical power exercised by him in a human body.

He will be throughout long ages An hundred years in fair kingship

Moninnan, the son of Ler Will be his father, his tutor.

At his death

The white host (the angels or fairies) will take him under a wheel (chariot) of clouds To the gathering where there is no sorrow.[397]

THE BIRTH OF ETAIN OF THE TUATHA DE DANANN[398]

Another clear example of one of the Tuatha De Danann being born as a mortal is recorded in the famous saga of the _Wooing of Etain_. Three fragments of this story exist in the _Book of the Dun Cow_. The first tells how Etain Echraide, daughter of Ailill and wife of Midir (a great king among the _Sidhe_ people) was driven out of Fairyland by the jealousy of her husband's other wife, and how after being wafted about on the winds of this world she fell invisibly into the drinking-cup of the wife of Etar of Inber Cichmaine, who was an Ulster chieftain. The chieftain's wife swallowed her; and, in due time, gave birth to a girl:--'It was one thousand and twelve years from the first begetting of Etain by Ailill to the last begetting by Etar.' Etain, retaining her own name, grew up thence as an Irish princess.[399]

One day an unknown man of very stately aspect suddenly appeared to Etain the princess; and as suddenly disappeared, after he had sung to her a wonderful song designed to arouse in her the subconscious memories of her past existence among the _Sidhe_:--

So is Etain here to-day....

Among little children is her lot....

It is she was gulped in the drink By Etar's wife in a heavy draught.