Early Gaul, the Epicenter of it all

Before Christianity reached Gaul, the region was inhabited by Celtic tribes guided by Druids, a professional class serving as religious, political, legal, and medical authorities. The Druids, active during the time of ancient Greece and Rome, taught the immortality and transmigration of the soul, a belief linked to Pythagorean doctrines, as noted by Alexander Polyhistor and Julius Caesar in De Bello Gallico. Caesar described their education as focused on fostering courage through this belief, alongside studies in astronomy, geography, natural philosophy, and religion. The Druids shared mystical and philosophical ties with Pythagoras – whose influences spanned Egyptian geometry, Phoenician arithmetic, Chaldean astronomy, and Magi religious principles – and groups like the Rosicrucians, Knights Templar, and Masons. A key symbol, the Pythagorean Pentacle (Hugieia), originally a protective emblem from Egypt or Babylon, was used as an alchemical calculator representing elements, planets, and the soul’s transmigration, though it later gained a negative connotation with the rise of Roman Christianity.

The Pythagorean Pentacle (Hugieia)

The Roman conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar between 55 BC and 50 BC, with 55,000 soldiers overpowering 250,000 Celts, led to the annexation of Gaul, Germania, and Britannia, introducing Greco-Roman gods like Mercury (akin to Hermes) that paralleled existing Celtic deities. Christianity emerged in Gaul under Roman rule by the second century AD, gaining traction by the third century amid a harsh world of vassals and slaves, offering a monotheistic faith centered on love, equality, and redemption – appealing to the oppressed despite Roman persecution. Early Christianity coexisted with tolerated pagan faiths like Mithraism, Manichaeism, and the cult of Isis, while exhibiting diverse interpretations such as Arianism (Jesus as subordinate to God), Priscillianism (Gnostic-Manichaean roots), and Pelagianism (human will capable of earning salvation). These variations reflected Christianity’s unstandardized early dogma, contrasting with the polytheistic traditions it eventually supplanted.

Druids in an oak grove