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The Druids the priests and priestesses of the Celts. Many have thought there were no women druids, but this is very inaccurate. We can not be sure how many there were in comparison, but much literature and mythology shows significant evidence that there were many woman druids, and the Irish called them Ban-Druhai. If you know anything about Celtic Societies, it would make absolutely no sense that there would not be female clergy in this world, as they were honored by society, the Goddess was very important, sometimes more important than the God in certain tribes, etc and so forth. I would not be surprised if there were not more female druids than male, but they were just simply ignored in modern times after 1700 years of spiritual masculine domination.

The rest of Europe was Pagan, however, in different ways than the Celts. The Norse had a very highly evolved system of religious beliefs and a pantheon of Gods. The Romans and the Greek had similar philosophy and a very similar set of Gods, though there is a great deal of evidence that not everyone of these civilizations were even religious, and possibly atheist. However much of the world at this time was polytheistic, or at least had a belief in a type of animism.

When the Christians came, the Druids and the Christians worked together in harmony, with the understanding that they both worshiped and lived under one god, but many gods. They, at that time, respected each other.

In the late 3rd Century AD, Constantine converted to Christianity, which had a rippling effect throughout the remainder of the empire. Many became rigid and oppressive and began to ignore the fact that most of the land was still of the Old Religions. In Ireland, Bishop St Patrick 'drove all the serpents out", which simply meant the Druids, for the serpents were a sacred animal to them. St Patrick also caused what we call the first of the Burning Times. He stood and observed his people go to each of the men and women of Ireland and ask them if they accepted Jesus Christ as thier One Savior, and if they replied no, thier heads would be chopped of. He continued to do this in Britain, but with less harsh tactics. This was in the 5th century, and much of the land was Christianized by force.

However, one must not believe that it was all by force and domination. Many Christian priests, monks and nuns all over Europe were helping those in need. This showed the merciful side of God, and many Pagans accepted this as merely another God, and some choose to devote thier life to him and his son, Jesus Christ.

The Christian priests came to a delema. They could not convert the country people, the 'Pagans'. Many began to tell the world that the Goddess was a deamon and the God Satan himself. They began to threaten the people with damnation of hell, and so on. The people became afraid for thier souls, but did not want to give up thier old traditions, such as sabbots, celebrations, bel-fires, ect. So the Church allowed the society to emprovise. They took all of the 8 sabbots of the seasons that were celebrated, and many other traditions and slowly but surely turned them into Christian holidays.

Examples:

Yule was the winter holiday, the winter solitice, on December 21. The Christians decided to place the birth of Jesus on the 25th, even though it was originally in the summer, july. They took all the Yule traditions and merged them into Christmas, such as the Yule log, the Yule/Christmas tree, presents, and mistle toe. Yule was the "rebirth of the Sun" while Christmas was the "birth of the son". Strange how that works out doesn't it?

Summer Soltice (june 21) was changed into St Johns Day.

Lughnasahd, (Aug 2, the Grain and Bread harvest festival) was changed into Lammas.

Samhain,(October 31, the holy day of the dead) was changed into All Saints Day or Halloween.

Imbolic(Feb 2, the day of candles and honor to the goddess Brigit) was changed into Candelmas, where the Catholics bless thier candles, as well as St. Brigit's Day, or Brides Day. St. Brigit was never an actuall saint at all, but a made up woman based on the story of the Irish/Tuathan Goddess Brigit. The Irish loved her so, they would not give her up.

Ostara/Spring Equinox(March 21, a day where eggs and rabits of fertility were the main symbol) was changed into Easter, the day Jesus was risen from the dead. Ostara was a day of renewal, fertility and rebirth, and now Easter is a day of rebirth and ressurection.

Beltaine was turned into May Day. They would dance around large bale-fires, and perform fertility rites such as the "Great Rite" They would also dance around the may pole, which was a phalic symbol.

And those are only a few examples.

In time most of Europe was Christian, except a few remaining secret societies and family traditions.

In the 14th century Pope of Bull, Innocent, hired 2 Inquisitioners, to write a book called Malius Malificirum, which means in latin 'The Witches Hammer'. This book was the mark of the begining of a very dark time. It told many of the lies about the Old Religion and of witchcraft that are still thought of today. It told that witches were evil, mostly women, worshiped and had sex with the devil, turned into cats, and so on and so forth. The book told how to find the witches, by the devils mark, by certain things in thier houses, and what they acted and looked like. Obviously, these things were a gereralization of the people that they feared, and anyone could fall under this catagory. So women who lived alone, and had herbs in thier house, and some of thier neighbors didn't like them were accused of witchcraft. The book also told how to torchure the accused and force them to reveal other witches. Thus, leading to a never-ending cycle. If the 'witch' did not admit her guilt, and reveal other witches, she would be torchured in a horrible and cruel fasion, and then killed. One torchure method was Scottish Penywinks, which was a seat of hot iron spikes, heated from below, and they would pull the witch's elbows behind her back until they broke off. Another one was slowly breaking of pieces of thier shins, or the old torchure methods, burning, drowning, cutting up, ect. (By the way, men were accused too, but not as much. It was more like a women's holocost than a witches'). One of the most common ways of eventually killing the witch was hanging, burning or crushing them to death. But sometimes they had a more 'creative' way. They would throw the accused into a river or lake. If the accused drowned, they were not a witch and "God would save His own", if they floated, then obviously they were a witch, and must be killed in some other manner. They would cut the witch, if she bled to death and died, oh well, she will be saved. But if she didn't bleed, she must be a witch!

Many people claim that a million witches were killed during the 'Burning Times' but that is not very accurate. It is probably more close to 100,000 but there is no way to be sure for not many records were kept. This went on for many many years, mostly until the 18th century. But it wasn't until 1951 that the laws against witchcraft were finally repealed in England. Even in America, many 'witches' were killed, and not just in Salem. But still even in this day, hundreds are killed for witchcraft every year in South Africa.

In the late 1800's occultism became to grow into the media a bit. And then Marrgrot Murray, anthropologists of the early 20th century began to discover the truth about witchcraft and the 'Old Religion' and revealed it in many books. She talked about the worship of the Goddess mostly, and how it effected life many years ago.

In the 50's, with the help of well known occultist Aleister Clrowley, Gerald Gardener took his tradition of witchcraft, from his coven he worked in, and started the movement called "Wicca". Wicca was a modern version of old Pagan and Witchcraft ways, and from this sprung thousands of traditions all over the world. If you are interested in reading his works, I would suggest "Witchcraft Today", which I believe is out of print. However, you can also purchase a book called "The Witches' Bible" which is a collection of beliefs, theories, and rituals used by the Gardnarian Tradition.

Over time Wicca became more popular, but Wicca is only one sect of what we now consider Paganism. For a while Paganism was considered (due to stereotypes) practitioners of Satanic beliefs, or the more popular belief that Pagans did not believe in any god, and was closer to an Athiest. Now when we think of Pagan, we think of a nature based religion. This includes Wicca, Shamanism, Northern Traditions, Druidism, Native American Beliefs, Celtic Traditions, any belief or religion that focuses to reflect their life with nature.

However, I must point something out. There are many types of Satanism, and I know very little of them, but I will say that some sects of Satanism could very well be considered Nature Based or Pagan. Many Witches and Wiccans will claim that they are not Satanic and it is a god awful thing to be associated with Satanists, however most of them do not have the slightest clue what any form of Satanism is. A Witch can be Satanic, just as a Witch can be Christian, Wiccan, or Hindu. To read more about Satanism go to the Church of Satan or Lucifarianism to understand more about these very misunderstood belief systems.