Jesus and the Druids
in 1996 an essay ‘And Did Those feet?’ by Dr Gordon Strachan was published in a collection of essays on Druidic topics that I edited for Thorsons/HarperCollins entitled ‘The Druid Renaissance’. (The book was re-published, with additions, as ‘The Rebirth of Druidry’ in 2003). In his essay, Gordon explored the idea that Jesus may have visited Britain and trained with the Druids. He then developed this idea in a book ‘Jesus the Master Builder: Druid Mysteries and the Dawn of Christianity’ (Floris 2000).
Now, thirteen years after publishing his original essay, a film on the subject is due to be released entitled ‘And Did Those Feet?’ It premieres tomorrow at the British Film Institute. This is how the BBC announced it on their website:
Could Jesus Christ have visited Glastonbury?
|
Jesus Christ could have come to Britain to further his education, according to a Scottish academic.
Church of Scotland minister Dr Gordon Strachan makes the claim in a new film entitled And Did Those Feet.
The film examines the story of Jesus’ supposed visit, which survives in the popular hymn Jerusalem.
Dr Strachan believes it is “plausible” Jesus came to England for his studies, as it was the forefront of learning 2,000 years ago.
“Coming this far wasn’t in fact that far in the olden days,” Dr Strachan told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One. “The Romans came here at the same time and they found it quite easy.”
Dr Strachan added that Jesus had “plenty of time” to do the journey, as little was known about his life before the age of 30.
The legend that Jesus Christ came to Britain was popularised in a poem written by William Blake in the early 19th Century and made famous as a hymn 100 years later.
William Blake’s “Jerusalem” spread the idea Jesus came to England
|
Now the first words of the hymn – “And did those feet” – are the title of a new film based on a book researched by Dr Strachan, who lectures on the history of architecture at Edinburgh University.
“It is generally suggested that he came to the west of England with his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, who was here for tin,” said the academic.
Dr Strachan claimed Jesus Christ could have come to England to further his education.
“He needed to go around to learn to learn bits and pieces about ancient wisdom, and the druids in Britain went back hundreds if not thousands of years. He probably came here to meet the druids, to share his wisdom and gain theirs.”
Among the places Jesus is said to have visited are Penzance, Falmouth, St-Just-in-Roseland and Looe, which are all in Cornwall, as well as Glastonbury in Somerset – which has particular legends about Jesus.
“St Augustine wrote to the Pope to say he’d discovered a church in Glastonbury built by followers of Jesus. But St Gildas (a 6th-Century British cleric) said it was built by Jesus himself. It’s a very very ancient church which went back perhaps to AD37.”
The film And Did Those Feet is launched at the British Film Institute on Friday 26 November.
11 Responses to “Jesus and the Druids”
I found your piece on Jesus and the Druids, also Gordon Strachans book which I am now trying to obtain, very interesting and relevant to our research. In our book, see attachment, we trace the ancestry of the Druids back to the Neolithic. Based on our archaeological evidence we had come to the conclusion that Druidism had evolved into Chrisianity. We could not say that Jesus came to Britain but the archaeolgical evidence points to Jesus either being a Druid or having very extensive knowledge of Druidism. The latest archaeology shows that a number of events in the biblical account of Jesus are taken from Druidic ceremnany and practice. I am trying to make contact with Dr. Strachan to see if he might be interested in linking forensic archaeological evidence with legend. The book can be obtained from Amazon or through a book shop.
G W Crockford
Press Release
The Secret of the Stones by Geoffrey Crockford and Nigel Hughes ISBN 978-0-9562921-0-0
The authors describe an extensive archaeological study of the pre-history period prior to the arrival of the Romans in the British Isles. The study was made possible by the author’s development of new archaeological techniques based on the dowsing of magnetic fields from chemicals in the soil. This enabled the application of forensic science to the study of the Henge Age, its temples and the role of the Druids. The earliest temples studied date from the Neolithic with the most recent one being Stone Henge which has been shown to have been rebuilt in its present form in the late Iron Age. The book follows the project over a period of about ten years. It is written to show the reasoning and the mistakes that slowly revealed a considerable amount of new knowledge about the period referred to as pre-history. The design of temples, the origin of their design, funeral rituals, energy engineering, spirit paintings, the origin of Christianity, the use made of the cursi. The pre-history period is brought to life by powerful new investigative techniques and methods. The sacred landscape of the British Isles starts to make sense. It is proposed that the Henge society was very advanced in many ways and could have been based on a form of socialism and a realisation that the population had to be in balance with resources.
The new methods and ideas presented will ensure that ‘The Secret of the Stones’ is a pivotal archaeological text.
In the book, JESUS AND THE ESSENES written by Dolores Cannon, there is amazing information about Jesus, taken from a person she worked with for a time through hypnotherapy who knew Jesus as a child and knew his movements as he grew older. She talks about his travels and Britain was definatly one place ( among other countries) he visited with his uncle. This is a very beautiful account of Him and I highly reccommend the book.
Gordon Strachan’s book is available here
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jesus-Master-Builder-Mysteries-Christianity/dp/0863152953
Another key book is by Alexander Thom. “Megalithic Sites in Great Britain” that shows by painstaking survey work that there was an ancient unit of measure common to all the stone circles. This work also shows that the circles were composite, complex figures containing square root and right angle thousands of years before Pythagoras.
It should be this century’s work to re-write the Kng James bible in the light of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the teachings of the essenes and their Pythagorean tradition.
Gordon Strachan is a thorough Scholar and has published excellent work on the sacred geometry of the great cathedrals.
He also, in almost mischevous hobby, delves into the Merlin Mythology, but here too is more than we bargain for. Forget the fictional Arthur and his Merlin. Now we have a real Merlin: Merlin Caledonius. This was a historically genuine figure baptized by St Mungo at Stobo.
DC
In the book ‘King Jesus’, I claim that Jesus was a prince who desired to become King of Judaea, but who lost against the Romans and was exiled to Chester in England. There, his exploits in Judaea became the foundation for Arthurian legends.
Surprisingly, there is a lot of information that points towards this conclusion.
Please see ‘King Jesus’ on iPad or on Lulu.com.
Sincerely,
Ralph Ellis
To Ralph Ellis: I should point out that in order to be witty on this subject, you’ll need to read a good bit and ponder for circa 30 years.
Otherwise you come over less than you’ll want to be when you mature.
I wouldn’t quote “Lulu.com” as one of your references. It doesn’t have a very genuine ring about it.
DC
Witty? Who was being witty?
Actually, the information in that previous book has now been updated and proven in the new book ‘Jesus, King of Edessa’.
And it is now available on iPad, Kindle, Nook and Kobo – if that makes you feel better.
Cheers,
Ralph
I posted this earlier.
I regret to inform you that Dr Strachan died last year. We all miss him.
DC
Respect to Dr Strachan, I did not know but pray that his spirit remains with us in the endeavour of truth. I am an amateur scholar of the scriptures and have been surprised at the violence, hypocrisy and underhand tactics used y the prominent figures of The old Testament. Namely Abraham, who lied easily and Jacob, Jacob a most cunning deciever who apparently won God’s blessing by deciet, a foundation of many modern faiths. Very interesing. But the lost sheep of israel are not documented at all in the Old Testament,so one must assume that they went their own way and maybe discovered the paths of righteousness in the wilderness, with no insturction or tribal customs to guide them. The pagans of the day. And maybe there was more than one God in the “revealed” faiths, one god highlighted, one God ignored. But I do not like the term “revealed faiths”, all spiritualities/faiths are revealed, some are recorded in written form and passed as a heavy concrete form from one generation to another. Other revealed faiths are sublime and change and adapt , but the core remains true. Which has more power?
With all due respect to you, Alan, your posting is in no way relevant to Gordon Strachan’s book. (Or Jesus, or Druids). I simply comment without any authority to criticise anyone. Stay positive and your quest will bear a fruitful outcome. If you see problems, recognise them and move past them.
Thanks David, I know I am invading people’s blog spaces, mainly because I have questions and insights into related topics but for reasons outside my control have been denied a voice in the appropriate places to discuss those views. My sincere apologies to all, I will take your advice, thank you for your patience.
Comments are closed.