It is said that the druids were masters of memory, retaining the entire body of Celtic lore and wisdom in superbly trained minds. While the druids were, in fact, literate, it seems they felt that truly important things were too important to write down. Consider the phrase “to know by heart.” It is saying that one has devoted so much of themselves to the importance of a memorized item that it is no longer just in their mind, but in their heart as well. If something is truly important to you, you will know it by heart.

Commonly, it is the secretiveness of the druids that is given as the reason for their refusal to record their wisdom in writing. I think that is a valid point, but I think there was a practical reason, too: books are not very portable and have a considerable amount of upkeep.

The Celts were a people on the move. They couldn’t very well haul libraries around with them. The highly literate cultures are also very stationary ones. They build large buildings and stay in one place with their buildings full of books. Memorization is the ultimate in portability. Once something is properly memorized, it can never be lost or taken away. Additionally, what is memorized is always “at one’s fingertips.” One doesn’t have to spend hours in researching a question. When the king wants a piece of information, the bard is right there with the answer.

I consider memorization as part of my druid training — one, I must admit, I haven’t really developed yet. There are many things that are worth memorizing and are suitably “Druidic.” By memorizing them, you are making a statement that they are truly important to you.

Rituals are an obvious choice. It’s a lot smoother to hold a ritual with all the words and actions memorized instead of reading along. Legends and Lore such as knowing every detail of every god your entire pantheon; or being able to recite from memory the Great Stories of the gods that can then be told as part of offering or other part of a high day ceremony. Your own family tree as far back as we have records is also a good choice. It’s good to honor one’s ancestors by being able to recite who they are and how they are related. Memorization for omen taking is an obviously worthwhile endeavor. A good seer will know by heart the symbols they use, their meanings, and their interrelationships.

I would think the druids were masters of mnemonics, and I’ve seen many theories about the kinds of techniques they might have mastered. This section of the Mind Tools website has a great deal of advice and techniques to use for memorizing lists or large bodies of information, and I highly recommend it to those who want to delve in to this under-appreciated aspect of druidic training.

In rituals both formal and informal, we make offerings to the gods, to the spirits, and to the ancestors. I usually use rice, cornmeal, fruit, bread, oil, incense, and alcohol (preferably wine or good Irish whiskey). Different entities like different things. Sometimes I offer money, especially to give thanks for a good business month. That money gets anonymously donated to a local women’s shelter. I recently offered a silver bracelet to Ixchel during my travels. But why do we do this? I think making offerings benefit us on two levels.

First is the “religious” or literal level: the gods like it. We know this because our ancient ancestors knew it. We also know it because we can feel it in our bones when we make our offerings — the fact that gods have wants and maybe even needs; likes and dislikes. When we see the world as the ancients saw it, we realize the importance of exchanges in our relationships. They are about reciprocity; give and take. Even though we can’t truly repay our debts to the ancients we offer to, we feel they appreciate the jesture, at least, and it strenthens our relationship to them.

But I think it helps us on a psychological level as well. Performing the physical acts of ritual has a way of driving home philosophical messages to the deepest parts of our psyche. Its a way of talking to our deeper self in a language it can understand. We understand more deeply by doing rather than just by thinking about abstract concepts. Performing offering in ritual expresses, and at the same time, develops our sense of gratitude.

To realize how blessed we are (no matter who you think is doing the blessing), how much we have to be thankful for, and how indebted we are to those around us and who have come before us to make our very existence possible is an important spiritual experience. One of my favorite triads says there are three debts which can never be fully paid: to our parents, to a good teacher, and to the Shining Ones. That sense of indebtedness is one of the strongest motivators we have to live honorably and do what is right out of respect for those we are indebted to.

While I am relatively new to neo-paganism, I am no stranger to meditative disciplines. I’ve come to realize that, though there is a great deal of information available about various mental techniques of different styles of meditation, I’ve have found practically nothing about the physical aspects. In twenty years of practicing Zen, I’ve gathered a lot of information that is useful for any sitting style of meditation, which I would like to share. Done properly, one can sit still in meditation easily for half an hour or more with no physical discomfort. When done improperly, the alignment of the back can be thrown out of wack, causing pain and possibly even injury.

The essence of proper sitting posture is balance. The goal is to balance the body in such a way that the muscles can relax. When your sitting posture is off balance, muscles have to be tensed to hold the posture, which quickly becomes distracting, painful, and possibly damaging. All sitting postures involve sitting with the spine straight. There are two natural curves in the spine: one at the neck and shoulders, and one in the lower back. These must both be pulled fairly straight. This kind of upright posture is best exemplified by a small baby just able to sit up for the first time. The back is in a properly relaxed state because the baby’s muscles are too weak to hold itself any other way.

The curve of the neck is straightened by tucking the chin in. It helps to imagine a string attached to the very top of the back of the head, directly above the spine, gently pulling up. The mouth should be fully closed, teeth touching, tongue touching the top of the pallette, with breathing through the nose.

The lower curve is a bit trickier and is very individual. Generally, you should use a small pillow or rolled up towel placed at the back edge of your seat so that you are just barely sitting on it, and it is supporting the tailbone This allows the pelvis to rotate slightly. This rotation is such that the belly is pulled lower and buttocks upward, but it’s a very slight movement. You should be able to sit without your back resting on anything, yet be able to completely relax your back.

Once you have the basic posture, take a deep breath, and rock back and forth, then side to side, gradually reducing the amount of rocking until you come to a stop in the center. This allows you to find the proper center of balance, with the vertebrae stacked on top of each other like toy blocks. Once you find the right balance, let the breath out forcibly, allowing your body to settle into place.

In the proper posture, it should be easy to breathe deeply. Pull the air in deeply, allowing your belly to expand forward, filling your torso with your breath from bottom to top. Then exhale, feeling the breath empty from top to bottom. Your breath should be so slow and steady, that you cannot hear or feel it entering and exiting your nose.

When sitting on the floor with a pillow, fold your legs in whatever way is comfortable. Ideally, the knees should be touching the ground to give a firm base. The legs can be folded into the ‘lotus,’ ‘half lotus’ or ‘burmese’ positions. The only important thing to keep in mind is to switch which leg is forward or on top on some regular basis. Otherwise, there is an uneven torque put on the lower back causing possible lower back problems.

There are many ways to hold your hands and arms. The most important point is that they are placed in a way that does not pull on the shoulders or pull your body out of balance. Palms down on the thighs or palms up in the lap, thumbs touching, are two popular styles.

Whether your eyes should be open or closed depends on the nature of the meditation you are engaging in. In Zen meditation, in which one is developing awareness of one’s mind and surroundings, the eyes should be open. With meditation that employs visualization techniques or other means of visiting alternate realities, the eyes are probably better closed. Admittedly, there is debate on this point and some meditation practitioners even in Zen do close their eyes. My opinion, based on my own experience and researching the teachings of various masters, is that it is better to have the eyes open. The eyes are only slightly open, though, and your gaze directed to a point on a wall or the floor that is at the right distance so the eyes can focus without strain. That point is normally about 18″ to two feet away.

One last caveat about sitting meditation: don’t sit for more than about 45 minutes in a row. Even in Zen traditions where long sitting periods are normal, practitioners do not normally go longer than about 45 minutes at a time. Practitioners may get up after 45 minutes and conduct some kind of moving meditation, such as slow walking, for about 15 minutes between 45 minute sitting periods, thus going on for several hours in a row but not sitting for too long at a stretch. Remember: it’s all about being comfortable and relaxed. If anything hurts, you need to adjust something about what you are doing.

Mind mapping is a technique that is useful for brainstorming, note-taking, study, creativity, and planning. Another use for the technique is spiritual introspection. I find it particularly suited to druidism because of it’s non-linear and “organic” approach to information.

Mind maps start by making a circle with a key word in the center of the page, then linking other key words from that one, creating a webwork of inter-related ideas. This technique is useful in engaging all parts of your brain.

For spiritual reflection, instead of “mundane” subjects as the center element, you can create a mindmap concerning your thoughts and insights into a spiritual topic just as easily. By drawing a mind map of a spiritual topic you are contemplating, you will probably find surprising insights. I recommend working mind mapping into whatever spiritual study rituals you may have.

This site has good information on the how’s and why’s of mind mapping. I tend to believe writing out mind maps on paper is best. Nothing beats the reality and concreteness of pencil or pen to paper. But there is also a great deal of software out there that has advantages, too.