racticed legal system in Europe, as it was only replacedby English administrative law towards the beginning of the seventeenth century (Lavin, 1999).The Celts had a very strong spiritual beliefs, which penetrated right to the very core of every aspect oftheir lives. They held great reverence and extraordinary respect for all elements of nature, and understood theintricate balance between nature and human existence. They constantly dwelt admits the natural world, and theirdependence on nature as a means of survival directly explains and reflects the reasons for their complex beliefsystem.The land, according to the Celts, embodied the Great Mother in all her forms. Though there werecountless and varying deities worshipped in different tribes, they were ultimately just small components of one,unified force (Eddy, 1999). All existence worked in a cyclic nature, and there is a direct correlation andcontinuation between the material world and the spiritual world. The Celts believed that the unseen world effectseverything in the visible world, and the universe subsists on many coexisting levels. Celtic religion taught that thesoul of deceased individual souls will be reincarnated, and that the divine always intercepts in daily matters of life(Pennick, 1997). It was the druids who held the most spiritual power and influence within the tribes. In addition to actingas the tribal judge, they were accomplished priests who were the direct link between the material and spiritualworld for the Celts. They were the ones who communicated with the gods, and who performed the rituals andsacrifices to maintain the balance between nature, the divine, and humanity. The druids were organized in ahierarchical system that was headed by an arch druid who, upon his death, would be succeeded by the next highestranking priest. Druids were exempt from military service, and received some benefits that other members ofsociety were excluded from, including r...
