Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings.   This week’s Femme Fatale Friday is going to focus on the Female Druids.   Druid Priestesses are called Bandorai, or some other form of the word which I will explain a bit below.   They are considered to be the Priestesses of the Celts which were often forgotten about because the male Druids are much more commonly remembered.    It is known that Druid is a term meaning “wise oak” or “true oak”.    Druids were known as expert spiritual advisors and practitioners who had to undergo a vast amount of experience before being initiated. 

It took a Druid nineteen years of study to gain the necessary knowledge and skills in order to become fully initiated into the class of Druids!   That is a massive amount of commitment to be able to become a member of this very respected class of spiritual teachers.    Now, as I have mentioned we know very little about female Druids in general.   This is because a vast amount of information about the female class of Druids was not well recorded.   Much of the information we have about Druids is from the Roman accounts of Celtic society during the Roman occupation of Britain.     The Romans very commonly ignored female figures in their accounts, which makes it very understandable that there is so little record of female Druids.

All that being said, there actually were Roman historians who discussed female magickal practitioners and their problems with female Druids.    This serves as confirmation that female Druids were known to Celtic society!   It is confirmed by Tacitus that there were women known as Banduri who defended their island from attack by the Romans, this is where we get the more modern term Bandorai for female Druid.    These female Druids, or Druidesses, were very hated by Romans because they held power and influence in their society which was not known for Roman women.    In these accounts, it seems that Druidesses were just as respected by their Celtic society as their male counterparts!    I find this to be utterly fascinating, as with so few references to female Druids, we are still being told that in Celtic society women are given more respect than in other cultures of the time period.

In Ireland, there are records of two names for female Druids, Baduri and the Banfilid, which are said to mean female poets.   Although there are very few records of Druidesses, there is one important named female Druid, Fedelma who is called a Banfili and lived in the Court of Queen Medb of Connacht.   This is an intriguing facet of historical and legendary overlap in Ireland.    Queen Medb is a historical Queen who lived in the tenth century AD in Ireland.   However, she is also the Irish Faery Queen Goddess Medb, meaning that she is an example of a Goddess who also is stated to have lived a life as a human.   This is actually a quite common occurrence in Celtic folklore, as Brigid is also known to have lived a human life.   Many spiritual seekers on Celtic Paths believe that the occurrence of Goddesses incarnating as human Queens and Priestesses is something that can happen, and I personally believe this to be the case.   In other words, I do believe that Brigid is the same as Brigid of Kildare and Medb the Goddess is the same as Medb of Connacht.   The Goddess in question simply chose to live a life in human form.   Now, I am also fascinated by the fact that one of the few named Druidesses was a magickal practitioner at the Court of Medb!

The last thing I want to mention is that the famous Queen of the Iceni, Boudicca was the daughter of a female Druid.    That means that she was raised by a very respected and intelligent woman.   In many ways, I think we can deduce that female Druids were such a respected class of women that they could leverage their power to make sure that their children could make good marriages, given that in the case of Boudicca a daughter of a Druidess became a Queen through marriage!    It is such an interesting view of ancient Celtic culture when we look at how female Druids were seen by the Celtic society they lived in.

I hope you have enjoyed learning a bit about the Bandorai, the female Druids.   What do you find to be the most interesting thing about female Druids?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!    

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a female Druid.   I found the image on https://www.northernway.org/mysteryschool/female-druids-celtic-priestesses/.

Tarot Note: I have a page offering tarot and oracle readings for those interested in these services!    I am very happy to be offering these readings to my treasured readers at White Rose of Avalon!  Link to page: https://whiteroseofavalon.life/tarot-and-oracle-readings/

Further Reading

• The Awen Alone: Walking the Path of the Solitary Druid by Joanna van der Hoeven
• https://www.northernway.org/mysteryschool/female-druids-celtic-priestesses/
• https://www.thisiskatemurphy.com/post/who-were-the-bandorai
• https://covenlife.wordpress.com/2019/06/14/female-druids-the-forgotten-priestesses-of-the-celts/