The Roots of the Old Oak Tree:
The History of Paganism in Europe

• 35-20 thousand years ago - The beginning of Shamanism and sympathetic magic
• Indo-European invasion of Europe
  • in Greece, the Goddess in her many forms became the consort of the new gods rusulting in the Olympian Pantheon
  • in Britian the Celts incorporated many features of the Old Religion into the Druidic Mysteries
• 900 BCE - Goidelic-speaking people in England
• 700 BCE - Hallstatt Era: Rise of the Celts. First emergence of Celtic language
• 600 BCE - Goidelic-speaking Celts from Spain arrive in Ireland
• 500 BCE - Brythonic Celts reach Britain
• c.500 BCE - the concept of "Druids" as a comprehensive religious and intellectual caste emerges among the Celtic peoples
• c.500 - 450 BCE - End of Halstatt Era, Beginning of La Tène: Heroic Age Celts. Setting of most mythologies.
• c.450 - Celtic people reach Spain
• 400 BCE - Celts cross the Alps into Italy.
• 390 BCE - First encounter with the Romans
• 387 BCE - Celtic Gauls defeat Rome at Alia
• 387 BCE - Brennus' Sack of Rome
• 335 BCE - Alexander the Great encounters Celts on the Danube
• 279 BCE - Celts invade Greece, through Macedonia, and plunder the Temple of Delphi
• 270 BCE - Celts establish Galatia in Asia Minor
• 264-241 BCE - 1st Punic War
• 225 BCE - Celts advance on Rome again
• 197 BCE - First Celtiberian revolt
• 154 - 125 BCE - Celts sack Massalia, Roman armies raise the seige both times
• 113 BCE - War between Rome and Celtiberians
• 82 BCE - Romans defeat Celts in Italy
• 61 BCE - Caesar conquers Brigantium, breaks Celtiberian resistance
• 58 BCE - Caesar arrives in Gaul
• 55 BCE - Caesar crosses the Channel for first time
• 54 BCE - Caesar defeats King Casivellaunus. Death of Dumnorix
• 52 BCE - Vercingetorix' guerilla war.
• 51 BCE - Caesar pacifies Gaul
• 46 BCE - Vercingetorix is executed
• 44 BCE - Caesar is executed
• 33 AD The dawn of Christianity
• 40 AD - Caligula's attempt to conquer Britain
• c.40 AD - The Celts of Galatia, in what is now Turkey, were visited by Paul of Tarsus. These are the Galatians to whom the epistle was addressed
• 43-409 AD - Rome dominates Britain and parts of Wales
• 51 AD - Queen Cartimandua allies with Rome
• 61 AD - Druid strongold at Anglesey destroyed by Romans; Suetonius Paulinus defeats Iceni (Boudiccea's Rebellion)
• 122 AD - Hadrian's Wall erected
• 140 AD - Antoninus Pius erects another wall, north of Hadrian's
• c. 250 AD - Saxons begin raiding east coast of Britain
• 286 AD - Bacaudae rebell in Northern Gaul
• c.350 AD Christianity reaches Ireland. Cormac Mac Art rules Ireland at Tara
• 360 AD - St. Martin founds first Gallic monastery near Tours
• 367 AD - Magnus Maximus becomes a hero
• 383 AD - Magnus Maximus proclaimed emperor
• 388 AD - Magnus Maximus is beheaded
• 400 AD - Doctrine of Grace contested by Pelagius
• 410 AD - Emperor Honorius tells the British they're on their own
• 412 AD - Pelagians outlawed
• 417 AD - Constantius' legions defeat Saxons in Hallelujah Battle (According to tradition)
• 425 AD - Vortigern takes power in Britain and holds off Saxon advances
• 431 AD - Pope Celestine sends Palladius to Ireland
• 432 AD - Traditional date for the arrival of St. Patrick in Ireland
• 440 AD - Ambrosius Aurelianus comes to power in Britain (According to tradition)
• c.450 AD - Anglo-Saxon invasion; British refugees settle in Armorica and Brittany, France
• 450 AD - Saxon incursion stemmed by King Arthur in 12 battles (According to tradition)
• 450 AD - Capitol of Kings of Ulster destroyed
• 450 AD - The Uí Néill and Eóganachta form an alliance
• 454 AD - Artorius Roithamus (Arthur) succeeds Vortigern
• c.500 AD - Arthur defeats Saxons at Mount Baden
• c.500 AD - Formation of Dalriada in southwest Scotland
• c.537 AD - Arthur is killed at the Battle of Camlann.
• 500 AD - St. Patrick comes to Ireland
• 563 AD - St. Columba arrives at Isle of Iona and begins the Dál Riata
• 635 AD - St. Aidan replaces Paulinius. Celtic Church at odds with Rome
• 663 AD - Council of Whitby decides for Roman over Celtic Church
• c.790 AD - Colonisation and raiding of British Isles by Vikings begin
• 843 AD - Kenneth Mac Alpine unites the Scots of Dalriada and the Picts
• 1000 AD - Irish defeat invaders, Irish culture flourishes again.

• 1014 AD - Battle of Clontarf: Vikings expelled from Ireland by Brian Boru. They withdraw from Celtic nations everywhere soon thereafter
• 1066 AD - Battle of Hastings

• 1324 Irish Coven led by Dame Alice Kyteler tried by the Bishop of Ossory for worshipping a non-Christian God. Dame Kyteler was saved by her rank but her followers were burned
• 1484 Pope Inocent VIII's Bull against Witches
• 1486 Heinrich Institoris Cramer & Jacob Sprenger, both German monks, publish "Malleus Maleficarum" (The Witch Hammer) providing definite instructions for the prosecution of Witches. The majority of the professors at the Theological Faculty of the University of Cologne, the appointed censors at theat time, refused to have anything to do with it. The two monks went ahead with a forged approbation of the whole faculty which was not discovered until 1898.
• 1585 Two villages in the Bishopric of Trier, Germany, were left with only a single female inhabitant apiece after witch trials
• 1601 King James I passed his Witchcraft Act according to our traditions, come European Pagans came over (or were brought over as indentured servants or convict labor) to the new World, and fled to join the Native American who's traditions and beliefs wer similar to their own.
• 1736 The 1601 Wichcraft Act replaced by an act stating that there was no such thing as Witchcraft but to pretend to have occult powers was fraud
• 1921 Dr. Margaret Alice Murray "The Witch Cult in Western Europe"
• 1931 Dr. Margaret Alice Murray "The God of the Witches"
• 1951 last laws against Witchcraft repealed in England
• 1954 Dr. Gerald Brousseau Gardner "Witchcraft Today"
• 1959 Dr. Gerald Brousseau Gardner "The Meaning of Witchcraft"
• 1973 Robert Graves "The White Goddess"
• 1974 Council of American Witches adopted a set of Principle Wiccan Beliefs