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Eleanor C Merry – The Flaming Door

The moral effects of the contracting and expanding tendencies in the world in winter and summer could be guided by the Druids in the way in which the social life of the people was regulated. All human moods and sensibilities in connection with the changing seasons were far stronger than ours are to-day.

In summer the " frenzy " of expanding consciousness could be brought into line with the ordered beauty of the harmoniously sprouting green of the plants, by rhythmic dances, music, and processions; and in the winter the contracting and hardening effects of the cold could be modified by a more inner kind of activity -a kind of education was arranged. We still possess fragments of this idea in the old poetic riddles and conundrums.

Or, for instance, even the freezing waters could be made a means of instruction; because - human bodies being less sensitive than ours are to-day while the fine sensibility of touch was greater - the hands and limbs could be taught to feel the plastic modifications of the water in its freezing and melting, and in this way the constructive forces working in the human body could be experienced; and strange as it may appear, it was really necessary for the people of ancient times to learn to feel their bodies in connection with the Earth.