II8 SYMBOLS OF CYCLIC MANIFESTATION

regards the respective parts played by the two currents that contributed to the formation of the Celtic tradition: at the beginning the spiritual authority and the temporal power were not separated as two differentiated functions, but were united in their common principle; and a vestige of this is still to be found in the very name of the Druids (dru-vid, 'strength-wisdom', these two terms being symbolised by the oak and the mistletoe).^[21] In this respect, and also insofar as they represented more particularly the spiritual authority which has sole charge of the higher part of the doctrine, they were the true heirs of the Primordial Tradition; and the essentially 'borean' symbol, that of the wild boar, pertained to them in their own right. As for the Knights, whose symbol was the bear (or the she-bear of Atalanta), it would seem that the part of the tradition more especially destined for them comprised above all elements proceeding from the Atlantean tradition; and this distinction might even help to explain certain more or less enigmatic points of the later history of the Western traditions.