King Arthur's niece, sister to Gawain and daughter of King Loth, the devoutly Christian Princess Thanea was born to a life of high privilege. But her fortunes took a turn for the worse when she first objected to the druidical practice of human sacrifice and then refused to marry the man her pagan father had picked out for her. Cast adrift in an oarless coracle as a sacrifice to the sea-god, Thanea managed to survive, washed up on the Fife coast and rescued by the monks of St Serf.

Ancient Classical authors have painted the Druids in a bad light, defining them as a barbaric priesthood, who 2,000 years ago perpetrated savage and blood rites in ancient Britain and Gaul in the name of their gods. Archaeology tells a different and more complicated story of this enigmatic priesthood, a theocracy with immense political and sacred power. This book explores the tangible ‘footprint’ the Druids have left behind: in sacred spaces, art, ritual equipment, images of the gods, strange burial rites and human sacrifice. Their material culture indicates how close was the relationship between Druids and the spirit-world, which evidence suggests they accessed through drug-induced trance.

Someone is killing the nuns of Ireland.The grisly discovery of an elderly sister of Saint Brigid’s monastery strangled, bled dry, and thrown into a bog is just the beginning. Soon a beautiful young nun is found decapitated and hung from a barren tree. It doesn’t take long before the members of the struggling monastic community of Kildare realize that not only are the nuns being hunted by a serial killer, but the murderer is preforming the gruesome slayings in the manner of the ancient druid sacrifices.Set in the turmoil of sixth-century Ireland, where ruthless tribal kings wage constant war for survival and the powerful religious order of the druids is threatened by the newly-arrived Christian church, the desperate task of finding the killer falls to Sister Deirdre, a young women torn between the world of the monastery and her own druidic heritage. Unless Deirdre can find the killer before the cycle of sacrifices is complete, more of her friends will die, the monastery will face destruction, and the whole of Ireland may be plunged into civil war.

The Druid tradition lies at the heart of Western spirituality and today it is experiencing a renaissance unprecedented in its long history. The Druids, like the Native Americans and Aborigines, revere and respect the earth. They see Nature as their teacher and mother. Today, Druidry offers a spiritual way that includes an understanding of healing, creativity and the need to place our love for the land at the centre of our lives. Drawn together in this collection are contributions from Druid Chiefs from Britain, France and America together with writers and mystics, healers and psychologists, professors and historians, which express the excitement and breadth of the modern Druid renaissance. This book is a celebration of the flowering of a tradition that is ancient yet ever-new.