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The people who introduced the Anu priesthood into Egypt are believed to have come either from north Babylon or from the race who invaded this area at the same time. Archaeologists have no explanation regarding the meteoric rise of culture among the indigenous population and it appears that this phenomenon cannot be traced to another civilization at that time. This has led some writers of ancient mysteries to believe the Anu priests were survivors of the lost world of Atlantis, but it remains a fascinating though controversial theory. However, the Sumerian civilization was the first to emerge around 4000 BC and a record of the Anu priesthood, which had found its way to Egypt, is referred to in a much earlier Sumerian creation myth.

This myth was eventually inscribed in cuneiform symbols on clay tablets and dated around 3500 BC. It refers to the arrival of great sages, ‘the Great Sons of Anu’ who had descended from the sky and instructed the Sumerians in all the arts and sciences, in agriculture, medicine and law. Sumerian omen tablets known as the ‘Enuma Anu Enlil’, dated around 1646 BC, refer to this golden age and to the god Anu and the planet Venus. They were preserved in the library of an Assyrian king and are the oldest astrological records known to exist anywhere in the world.

Druidic Eight-fold Year

The planet Venus was also associated with the Babylonian Love goddess Ishtar who overshadowed all other goddesses in the process of time as did Isis in Egypt. Ishtar was also referred to as Anu, the daughter of the sky and Nannar, the daughter of the Moon. Her eight-pointed star emblem referring to the eight-year cycle of Venus was found carved on an ancient Babylonian boundary stone and, though dated about 1120 BC, it is believed to represent a much earlier period in Babylonian history.

As an astral symbol it represents harmony and balance relating to eight points of the year that correspond to the four seasons, two equinoxes and two solstices, and it is the origin of the eight-fold year of the druids. During the Celts’ many travels around the ancient world it becomes increasingly apparent that they had absorbed a great deal of Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Greek knowledge of astronomy with its associated starlore myths. The Celts had always used a lunar calendar and zodiac similar to the early Egyptian one, but it was based on thirteen lunar months of twenty-eight days with one extra intercalary day known as ‘the Nameless Day’, making 365 days. They also knew about the extra quarter day that meant adding an extra day every four years, which they were able to accurately calculate by using the numerous old stone circles they discovered on arriving in Britain and Ireland.

Druidism, the religion of all Celtic people, began to rapidly evolve in Britain with Stonehenge representing a central crossroads of Sun and Moon worship in the northern hemisphere. Its early structure of about 3200 BC was built around the same time as the new temple buildings at Thebes in Egypt, which represented a blending of their Sun and Moon cults. Stonehenge also evolved as a solar/lunar astronomical temple for both worship and cultural reconciliation. It was known to the druids as ‘Cathoir Ghall’ or ‘Cor-Gawr’, the root word Cor being synonymous with Gorsedd or a throne, and Awr signifying a time-circle or recorder. The first priesthood associated with Stonehenge were worshippers of the ‘Cult of the Dead’, which closely resembles the ancient Egyptian cult of Osiris and Set. When the Celts arrived, while familiar with the ritual lunar year which records the birth and death of Sun kings and gods, they were perhaps somewhat in awe of this ancient priesthood.

In the Celtic myths of Pwyll and King Arawn, the newcomer Pwyll has to undergo the initiation rites of Arawn in order to become the supreme ruler of both kingdoms – the living and the dead, or the upper and lower realms. It is a parallel account of the joining of the upper and lower kingdoms situated north and south of the Nile in Egypt. As Pwyll successfully completes his initiation it would appear to suggest that the druids were accepted into the ancient megalithic priesthood, whose belief in life after death was a more primitive form of reincarnation, which formed the foundation stone in druidic beliefs.

The eight-fold druidic year was based on the two solstices and two equinoxes and the four seasons represented by four fire festivals marking the four quarter days of the Moon. The fire festivals of Brigantia, Beltane, Lammas and Samhain were celebrated on the first day of the months of February, May, August and November. The first three were identified with their triple-aspected great Mother goddess. She was the Bride or Maiden known as Brigantia or Brighid in February marking spring and the Mother Dana or Ceridwen at Beltane marking summer. Lammas or Lughnasa marked autumn, when she entered her Earth realm to be reborn in spring. Samhain marked the period of winter and was identified with Pwyll, God of the Underworld, who would regenerate the Sun god so he could be reborn at the Winter Solstice. Samhain also marked the beginning of the Celtic New Year because the Celts calculated a day from sunset to sunrise, and their New Year accordingly began at the darkest time of the year.

The thirteen lunar months marked the passage of the Sun through the cycles of the Moon, and Celtic Moon signs represent the two dimensions of light and darkness. When comparing the two zodiacs, the disadvantage of the Greek/Roman Sun zodiac is its failure to be a perpetual calendar like the Celtic lunar zodiac, which makes no attempt to relate the equinoxes and solstices to the twelve zodiac constellations. The thirteen-month lunar calendar and zodiac is more ancient than the twelve-month version and is less easy to handle with the equinoxes and solstices falling at irregular intervals. The druids, however, obviously preferred a ritual calendar and zodiac that represented an exact guide to the seasons as well as a guide to the stars and Creation itself.