Did female druids really exist? While the ancient Druids of Britain, Ireland and Gaul are often imagined as bearded men in white robes, history and mythology tell a very different story—one where women played a significant role in Celtic spirituality. A female druid was known as a Ban Draoi (pronounced “bahn dree”) in Ireland: ‘Ban’ meaning “female” and ‘Draoi’ meaning “druid”. Or in the Latinised form found in Roman texts, the term ‘Bandurai’ was used. These mystical women were priestesses, seers, healers, and warriors, who shaped the fate of their people through prophecy, ritual, and magic.
From the druidesses of Anglesey who resisted the Roman invasion, to the seeress Fedelm of Irish legend, the Ban Draoithe were far more than forgotten figures — they were the lifeblood of Celtic wisdom and mysticism. But why did history erase them? And what can we learn from their legacy today? Read on to find out.
The Role of the Ban Draoi in Celtic Society
The druidic tradition is thought to have begun in the first millennium BCE and reached its apogee in the third century BCE. In ancient Celtic societies, druids were the spiritual and intellectual elite, serving as advisors, teachers, judges, and healers. Women, too, held these roles, though historical records are scarce because the druids left no documents behind, Celtic culture relied on the oral tradition and later Christian influences attempted to erase pagan practices. However, through Roman sources and Irish mythology, we can piece together parts of Ban Draoi story.
1. Seers & Prophets
One of the most famous female druids in Irish mythology is Fedelm, a powerful seeress (Ban fáidh) who appears in the epic Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley) when Queen Medb of Connacht seeks a prophecy about her impending battle.
Medb asked: “Seeress, how do you see our host?”
Fedelm answered: “I see it crimson, I see it red.”
Medb replied: “You do not tell a fair prophecy.”
Fedelm’s prophecy foretells the bloody fate of Medb’s army in the war against Ulster. This chilling prophecy foreshadows the bloodshed to come, showcasing female druids in their respected role as visionaries.
Ammianus Marcellinus, a Roman historian, in Res Gestae, Book XV.9 describes Gaulish druidesses, who acted as prophets and advisors:
“The Druids of the Gauls, and their wives, the Banduriæ, profess to know the future and by their incantations predict the fate of men.”
This is one of the few Roman references that explicitly mentions female druids alongside their male counterparts.
2. Priestesses & Ritual Leaders
Roman geographer Pomponius Mela (1st century AD) recorded the existence of nine druid priestesses on the Isle of Sein (off Brittany) who could predict the future, control the weather, and shape-shift. Known as the Gallisenae, their sacred role suggests that female druids performed important spiritual functions, including divination, sacrifice and ritual magic. In De Chorographia, Book III.6, he writes:
“On an island in the British Sea, off the coast of the Osismii, there are nine priestesses of a sacred race who are dedicated to the service of a god. They are said to know the future and to be skilled in magic. They can raise storms by their incantations, turn into animals, cure incurable diseases, and foretell the future.”
3. Warriors & Defenders of the Sacred
One of the most striking descriptions of female druids comes from Tacitus (1st century AD), who recounts the Roman attack on the druidic stronghold of Anglesey (‘Mona’ in Wales):
“On the shore stood a dense array of armed warriors, interspersed with women in black attire like the Furies, with disheveled hair, brandishing torches. All around them, druids, raising their hands to heaven, poured forth dreadful imprecations, which, by their novelty, struck the soldiers with such awe that they stood motionless, as if paralyzed. Then, urged by their general’s rebukes, and urging each other not to fear a horde of fanatical women, they bore the standards onward, cut down all who opposed them, and wrapped the enemy in their own fire.”
(Annals, Book XIV.30)
These women, likely Ban Draoithe, performed ritual curses against the Roman invaders, using magic and psychological warfare to terrify their enemies.
Archaeological Evidence of Ban Draoi
Though we cannot know conclusively that the remains in the Vix Grave in Burgundy, France, belonged to a Ban Draoi, many experts believe this to be the case due to grave goods discovered at the site. The grave contained the remains of a wealthy Celtic woman who died around age 35. Her high status was suggested by the goods she was buried within, including “a large torc, two armlets of gold and lignite and a bronze anklet. She also wore necklaces of amber, diorite and serpentine beads and a 24-carat gold necklace weighing 480g.”
A series of similar graves exist, spread over the Rhine and Moselle, which also house Celtic women, buried with items suggesting their high status.
Could these women buried in such staggering finery be female druids?
The Christianisation & Suppression of Female Druids
As Christianity spread across Celtic lands, druidic traditions were suppressed and female spiritual figures were increasingly demonised. In medieval Irish texts, Ban Draoi are often recast as witches or sorceresses, their powers portrayed as deceptive and evil. For example, a 9th-century text about St. Brigid Bethu Brigte (The Life of Brigid) tells of a Ban Draoi opposing the saint, only to be defeated by Christian miracles.
While the original text is in Old Irish, a translated excerpt describes the encounter as follows:
“Brigid went to the house of a certain druidess to demand her submission to the law of God. But the druidess refused and mocked the holy virgin. Then, by the power of God, Brigid performed a miracle, and the druidess saw the error of her ways and believed.”
Despite this, remnants of female druidic traditions survived in folklore, particularly in the roles of wise women, healers, and fairy doctors in Irish and Scottish culture.
The Legacy of the Ban Draoi in Modern Spirituality
Today, the Ban Draoithe are being reclaimed by modern women as symbols of female power, earth wisdom and prophetic gifts.
They were leaders, healers and warriors of the spirit, who shaped the Celtic world in ways that are only now being remembered. Their wisdom, magick and power continue to inspire those seeking a deeper connection to the lands of Britain, Ireland and Europe and the mysteries contained within their ancient earth.
The Ban Draoi
What do you think about the role of women in Druidry? Do you feel a connection to them?
For women with ancestral roots in the British Isles and Europe, it is so important to know that there were female spiritual leaders in our lineage. No matter how far back we have to go to find them.
Many of us brought up on these lands have been raised under Christianity as the dominant religion – one in which priestesses are an afterthought. How powerful then to know that long before the Christian priests, the Druidic priestesses walked our green hills, swam in our waters and worked with our sacred plants.
Would you like to be a feminine wisdom keeper re-weaving women into Europe’s lost Wise Woman tradition? Apply for my facilitator training The Cosmic Feminine here.
Or if you’d like a taste of this work, join me for The Last Priestess: Fall of the Temples on Sunday February 23rd 13-1600 GMT by signing up here.
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