Finding Druidry

Finding Druidry

2012 has been a very spiritual journey for me, not only have I been learning the craft of the Kitchen Witch, but through attending rituals with the Dorset Grove and learning more about Druidry, I have come to realise that in many ways I have naturally been following the path of a Druid, without knowing it.  It would appear that many people start their Druid path this way, and Nimue Brown has kindly written the following article about how she came to Druidry, and some advise on starting out on this path.

Nimue has written two books on Druidry, the first Druidry and Meditation and her new book (due out at the end of November) Druidry and the Ancestors.

Thank you, Nimue for taking the time to write this article for me.  Blessings xx

Finding Druidry

By Nimue Brown

I started down the Druid path about ten years ago, and what struck me almost at once was that I’d been doing it all along, in essence. I just didn’t know the conventional forms, or the word for it. What I know from other Druids suggests this was in no way unusual. Druidry is something we are, it’s something intrinsic about how we see the world, how we feel and respond to it, that is hard to pin down in words, but fairly easy to recognise in others. For many people, all learning Druidry means, is learning how to do the formal stuff that enables shared rituals, and finding prompts to go deeper and further with what was already there.

How do you know, if Druidry is where you belong? I think the short answer is ‘resonance’. Druidry isn’t overtly glamorous and eye-catching in the same way as Wicca, and there isn’t the allure of spells, but there is magic. The iconic image of the beardy old guy in a white nightdress, is not a great lure. But the nightdress and beard are not Druidry, any more than the gothic dress is really what it takes to be a witch.

An attraction to the Celts, both the historical people and modern Celtic nations, often draws people in. A fondness for trees and a desire to practice your spirituality outside, is a good indicator. If the idea of standing in your living room calling to Gods of the land feels wrong, while the idea of going out in all weathers and being with the land feels right, you could well be a Druid. Do you want to summon spirits? Or would you feel more at ease greeting them, asking if you can spend some time with them, honouring them and not seeking to control or command? If this is you, then again it speaks of Druidry.

I came in through harps and folklore, a love of live performance and a passion for the natural world that made the bard path immediately resonant for me. But there are many paths calling to different people. Healers, teachers, creatives, activists and warrior can all find a place within the Druid tradition.

I think a lot of people imagine Druidry as a very structured, hierarchical outfit. When I used to volunteer for The Druid Network, we’d get queries from people who thought we were like the Druid Police, able to bestow and remove titles, to rein in the unruly, to enforce conformity. This is simply not the way of it. There are many orders, and many people who choose to work alone or in less formal networks. Some orders are more structured and logical than others. The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids for example www.druidry.org does formal teaching by post. ADF and Henge of Keltria are also big orders, with lots of members, formal teaching methods, affiliated groves and the such. Other ‘orders’ sometimes turn out to be a handful of people, some more credible and enlightened than others, inevitably. In practice, anyone can call themselves a Druid, found an order, run a grove, or anything else they fancy. You could wake up tomorrow, declare yourself to be the great archdruid of the known universe and take your life forward from there. No other Druid has the power to prevent this. What we can do is satire though, and a good Druid satire, traditionally, would raise boils on the face of the recipient.

There are many ways in to Druidry – through larger orders and teaching groups, through whatever happens to be local, or by solitary, personal study. There is something inherently social about Druidry though. Service to community is a big part of what we do, and it helps to have a community in the first place. Druid rituals are as much about celebration and community as anything else, and again this calls for people. There are solitary Druids though, but many of them find people to connect with socially even if they prefer lone spiritual practice. There is no one single, fixed way of following the path.

My main advice for someone starting out, is to follow your heart. Do what calls to you. Look for that feeling of recognition, that sense of belonging, of knowing, of resonating. These feelings are the ones that tell you the path is a good one. It doesn’t matter how much you embrace the surfaces, or learn the forms, if you don’t feel it, what you do will never be real or meaningful to you. The soul of what you do is far more important than the surface of it. Once a person decides to make a spiritual journey, if your heart is open and you follow what resonates, thing will find you. Teachers will find you. Books will turn up. The right word, at the right moment sets things in motion.

For me, it was a guy at my folk club who said ‘sing us one of your druid songs’. I didn’t think I knew any druid songs, then. But within a week of that request, I met my first ‘proper’ druid, and I asked what druids sing. It all went from there. (Damh the Bard’s stuff, turned out to be the answer to my question, along with all kinds of other lovely material, contemporary and historical, and anything that feels right at the time.) On that fateful night of being asked for a druid song, I answered the request with Kipling’s Oak, Ash and Thorn. I already had the right sort of material. I’d been doing it all along. I just didn’t know what the word was.

The journey for me has taken me through several working groups, through the entire OBOD course, volunteer work, teaching, workshops, and now writing books. I’ve learned at least as much from being a teacher as I have from being a student. At the moment I’m not taking on formal students, but anyone who wants company for the journey and a brain to pick, is welcome at my website – www.druidlife.wordpress.com

Neither of my books are introductions to Druidry, but there are plenty of those out there. I recommend Robin Herne’s Old Gods New Druids as being a good place to start. Graham Talboys’ The Druid Way made Easy is another excellent first book that pins down all the core concepts. Mine are Druidry and Meditation, and Druidry and the Ancestors, available online in the usual places.

The main qualification for being a Druid, is wanting to be a Druid. If the word itself seems too big right now, too grand and overpowering, then try saying ‘I am a student of Druidry’ ‘I aspire to be a Druid’ and see if that sits more easily. It took me some years to feel at all comfortable claiming the word, and it is a title that really speaking, needs to be earned to feel meaningful.