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.
Book of Kells, Book of Durrow
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
The Burning Times
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
