The power of the Druids came in three forms: legal, scientific, and religious.
Druids were jurists, deciding nearly all disputes-public or private-and administering their particular legal code. This code included the idea that an entire family could be held liable for the wrongdoing of only one of its members. It also included the concept of suretyship, the idea that a man who had broken a law was fined according to his ability to pay. The surety was a man who agreed to assume the debt if the accused failed to pay. So, the accused was bound to his surety-even moreso because if the accused failed to pay, then the surety could seize the accused’s property. One Celtic practice that was not part of the legal code yet still recognized as proper as a means of settling a dispute was the practice of mutual fasting: The man who was owed a debt could stand outside the offender’s door all day long and refuse to eat until his debt was paid; honor bound the offender to fast as well; this usually brought the dispute to a rapid conclusion. As a last recourse, a man who was owed money could seek to have the offender ostracized by the Druids. This, in effect, was a damning blow in the worst way, for the Druids were the law in the community and anyone put outside their responsibility was one to be shunned by the community at large.
Druids were scientists. Their main field of study was astronomy. They studied the movements of the planets, moon, and stars, to tell the future. They also invented a quite sophisticated calendar to track these events. The Celtic month was made up of nights, not days. Fifteen nights made up the bright half of the month, and 15 made up the dark half. The months made up a year, which had four seasons.
Interwined with the religious practices were the yearly festivals, which divided the seasons of the year. The first festival of the year (February 1) was Imbolc, the patron deity of which was the goddess of flocks and
