| The 'Druid's egg' or 'serpent's egg' or 'snake stone', was an object which had magic properties. The tales about it resemble those of the Philosopher's Stone sought by the alchemists; and the Grail sought by the Chivalric knights. It may also remind Greek scholars of the Zeus egg (a meteoritic stone) which was kept at Delphi. The possessor of the druid's egg was said to gain immense magical power, and the powers named were those of the high bard or chief druid or high wizard. The druid's egg could be found on St Johns Eve (an important night on the goddess lunar calendar), when snakes were supposed to gather in a ball and create a 'glain', another name for this magic egg. Many species of snake do in fact gather and form such a ball in the cold months, but the few species of snake native to Britain are not egg-layers, having live young. A snake which does lay eggs is the python, not found in Britain, but which was kept in the goddess temples of the Aegean, and this appears to be further evidence of an association between the Druids (or their predecessors) and the Mediterranean temples. While we are in this speculative mood, we might consider that actual pythons were taken from the Mediterranean to Ireland, and that the conversion of the Druids by St Patrick accounts for the story of his having driven the snakes out of Ireland, for the geological record shows that there were no snakes native to Ireland in Patrick's day, or for that matter, in recent geological times. |
