Vates 

Vates is said to have been the first degree of initiation into the secrets of the Druids. A person did not become a Druid until the third, or Druid, degree.

Preparation to initiation to the level of Vates sometimes took 20 years.

Part of the ceremony consisted of placing the candidate into the pastos (chest or coffin) for 3 days, symbolic of death and then resurrection 3 days later. After he has risen from the fake death, the candidate, representing a blind man, is then introduced while a hymn to the Sun is sung. He was then placed under the command of an officer who directs him in a circumambulation of nine trips around the sanctuary in a direction from east to west by way of the south. The passage started out slow and in silence and progressed to a furious pace accompanied by a lot of noise.

An oath of secrecy was administered and the penalty for violation of the oath was death.

The candidate was then struck a violent blow on the head with a boat oar and then surrounded by darkness.

He was then brought from darkness to light.

He was then returned to darkness and brought back into light then conducted to the Archdruid who instructed the candidate in some of the mysteries of Druidisn.

Thus ended the first degree of the path to Druidism.

(See "The History of Freemasonry" by Mackey page 203-4)

  Here is another religion that has a legend of death and rebirth just like the Mystery Religions and Christianity.

Does any of this sound familiar?