What is our Druidry?

It's not simple to answer the question "What is Druidry?" but it might be easier to answer the question "What is our Druidry?"

First a little background: Druids existed.

There's evidence from various historical sources attesting to the presence of a class of people called "Druids" across Europe and into England and Wales from before the time of the Roman conquest. In many Irish texts the Druids are mentioned even in the earliest writings. But Druids would have remained dusty relics of academia except for the Druid Revivalist movement of the 18th century and the rise of Wicca and NeoPaganism in the late 19th century into the 20th.

Out of scraps of historic evidence, a Celtic nationalism, and a growing acceptance of mysticism, modern Druid organizations arose. Initially, they were shaped more by imagination, ecology, feminism, and mysticism than by history.

Until recent years, there was little legitimate scholarship available outside of professional and academic circles, which were anyway biased against mystical inclination as well as sexist, racist, and colonialist. For some Pagan organizations this was not an impediment to their mission. For many, there was a pervading belief that "nothing could be known" about the past and therefore it was best to build without it, and they built a lot. There was even a bias, not unreasonable, against information that came out of a flawed, patriarchal, and generally Christian-leaning academia. Some practitioners, writers, and organizations made use of mystical practices of the Victorian era, or borrowed heavily from Christian mysticism, Kabbalah, Masonry, or Egyptian iconography. None of this is related to the historical practices of the pre-Christian society where we find Druidry.

But that state has changed. Pagans entered academia. The work of academia became more accessible, especially through the internet. Many modern Druids now work with the real evidence from archaeology, translations, and history in shaping their practice and identity. While the legacy of modern mysticism, ecology, and feminism remains strong and foundational in many organizations, what varies is the ratio. 

In spite of decades of research available in books and papers, there are communities, individuals, and organizations that pursue theories of Druidry mainly through conjecture, or personal gnosis, ignoring the extensive information available. That is their choice. Others work hard to reconstruct what our predecessors may have done and believed, and weed out practices that turn out to be unrelated. This requires a mix of faith and study. 

It's not simple to balance faith with study. But I believe that we see in the historical record that that's what the ancient Druids themselves did. 

So, our Druidry has an emphasis not only on the available translated texts, but an understanding of the origins of the texts, the context of the manuscript tradition, and some understanding of historical context. 

We do this in the here and now, in the present tense and in the places where we stand.

There is, for us, a difference between the culture and history that inspires our practice, and the sacredness of being fully present in the landscape in which we currently live and worship. 

We take our respect for scholarship and apply it to the place where we are. We study native plants, geology, history and more. If the landscape is sacred, then we pay respect to its unique voice by learning about it formally. 

Knowing how to identify the native plants here changes the experience of a simple walk from feeling like a party that looks fun but you don't know any other guest, to a party that looks fun were you know at least a few of the guests. It opens up the experience. It lets the individuals of the landscape get a word in edgewise. 

We use meditation to make space for that new knowledge and experience. We practice a technique that allows each of us to choose to stop the ongoing descriptive chatter of our marvelously helpful minds, and give those minds a chance to hear and take in new information and voices. 

We reach for a competence and education that helps ground our mysticism and personal gnosis. 

It takes time. 

Our Druidry respects its historical inspiration, and respects the landscape around us, and it lives in us in this day we are in. 

Also, we respect the culture from which our inspiration is drawn, the cultures of the peoples who are Indigenous to the unceded land on which we now stand, and we discuss and avoid appropriation in our ongoing unIndigenous practice.  

Of course, there is more to it than that, but it takes years to describe it, even to ourselves. 

We offer a three month course of study, a Grove, twice a year. We require that people interested attend a zoom introduction called "What is Grove" through our Meetup group. https://www.meetup.com/druidry-centered-womens-circle-events/events/

If you are interested, check it out!

Peace of the mountains to you, 

Paulie Rainbow