A Druid of European Descent in North America

[Oona]

Greetings. I listen to Druidcast voraciously and often hear guests and Damh the Bard speak of Albion, and the deep connection of British, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, and Continental Europeans to Druid mythology and the land it arose from. And I wonder, where does that leave us American Druids of European descent? I feel sometimes like I am in a land that is not my own - countless Eurasian invasive plant species notwithstanding Does anyone else experience this feeling or have any ways to come to terms with it?

[StephenThomas]

Yep, been there, done that. I am of Scot descent. My ancestors have lived on US soil for several generations. I feel a longing to Scotland, but I certainly have never been. The spirituality of this land is Native American, but I'm certainly not of any Indian tribe. Where do I belong?

I belong in this universe. I belong on this world. Sure I have Scot blood in me, but I don't have to go to Scotland to feel connected. I only need to touch the earth and I'm connected. The earth is my home. The latitude and longitude don't matter so much anymore.

[DaRC]

Oona this type of disconnect within Druidry can also affect those of us living in Albion... Druidry is rooted in Celtic-ness (whatever Celt may be) and for those of us that are English this can cause an issue as well. Within Albion there's long been a struggle between the Celtic nations (Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall) with England. This can make the English feel caught between their Germanic cultural roots and the Celtic roots of Druidry.

One path through this problem is to use the patterns of Druidry to help you focus on the music of the landscape that you live in. By using Druidic methods you can focus on discovering that deep connection within the Americas. In that way you can feel that you belong to the land where you live.

Just as a point of observation I've long noticed that Americans I've met from the East Coast States often suffix the American with their (preferred?) European origin. Whilst those from the Southern States tend to identify with their state (e.g. Texan, New Mexican...) and less so with their European origin. I've not been to the West Coast (nor met many people from there) so I can't comment upon them.

Just some points for consideration

[DJ Droood]

Greetings. I listen to Druidcast voraciously and often hear guests and Damh the Bard speak of Albion, and the deep connection of British, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, and Continental Europeans to Druid mythology and the land it arose from. And I wonder, where does that leave us American Druids of European descent? I feel sometimes like I am in a land that is not my own - countless Eurasian invasive plant species notwithstanding Does anyone else experience this feeling or have any ways to come to terms with it?

I see North America as my spiritual homeland...my ancestors have been here for almost 400 years, and it was a haven from religious persecution back in the Old Country. They even seem to have invented the family name when they got here...I have no idea from exactly where they originated. Northmen who became British and then became Americans. And biologically speaking, we regenerate all our body cells every 8 years or so (you might want to google that), so we are physically made up of the land we live in. A new immigrant who has been here for a few years is just as much a part of the land as someone who has been here for a thousand years.

[katie bridgewater]

I think it is all too easy to fixate on one line of our family tree and feel that one is somehow 'missing out' on something. I happen to be British by nationality. But I have grandparents and great grandparents from Australia, Scotland, Belgium, Ireland, London, and Cornwall.There is no such thing as being 'English' except culturally and regionally (and such things are not fixed) - Scottish people and Welsh people all have British passports. So even I can myself longing for some place I can't live in, because of the choices (or enforced circumstances) of my ancestors. We could all long to be back in Africa, hunting and gathering, if we follow the longing to its natural conclusion...

We are all descended from invaders, whether peaceful or aggressive. Much the same as any US citizen. The First Nations tribes from Britain, called 'Picts', were all but exterminated (so that nothing remains of their language, culture or history that we can be sure of).

So just because I am culturally 'English' doesn't make me more 'complete' or connected than a US citizen with some European ancestry. We English are a mix of multi-racial post Commonwealth immigrants, Hugenot immigrants, mainland European refugees, Normans, Saxons, Vikings, Danes, Romans, and before that, who knows? The Scots and Irish are as Norse (the Vikings founded Dublin and Norn was a Norse language) as they are 'Celtic' (a term which is used very ignorantly most of the time). In fact, the Norse and the Saxons were also 'Celtic' by some archaological definitions. The people of Britain were trading with people from Ancient Greece, and no doubt shagging them, and our coast line has welcomed Africans, Turks, Italians, Jews, and Spaniards for many many centuries. If the English appear to have less of a tie to their land than the Scots or Irish then it is probably because it was mostly seized from them 1000 years ago, and the rest enclosed a few hundred years ago and then the industrial revolution pretty much displaced everyone left.

So if here is no such thing as a single nationality, where does that leave Druidry? I think it's about having a relationship with the land, where ever we are. All land is equally ancient, through many changes of state, and all people are equally human through many wanderings across continents. People have been moving all over the planet for a very long time, and eventually specific cultures emerge from the melting pot, where people get on with the business of relating to the land they are in, and getting on with the neighbours they find themselves close to.

The grass always greener....

[craigen]

Well nows here's something intresting, I'm British, I live in England, I've always considered my self to be British, my mums dad was from Glasgow, and her mother grew up in Ireland. I don't know much about my biological father other than his name, he got off when I was a kid, but just last year my mum was sorting out some old stuff and found her old wedding photos and we got talking, turns out his mother was Native American! Unfortunately, she dose not know any more than that. So I think about this for some time, and it niggles away at me, and eventually I figure that if at some time in my future the spirits want to show my roots they will jolly well come and let me know. It added a new dimension to my samhuinn celibrations this year as I reflected on other ancestors I may have.

Also just who are our ancestors, some of us can not trace back our linage for 100s of years, I don't know the names of my mothers pairents pairents, and I was never told the stories of Ireland and Scotland (thank gods for the Celtic myth pod show) so for me, ancestors are the people of the lands around me at any given time, and the nameless faceless people that have given me my DNA

[elementalheart]

My view is that once we recognise and reconnect ourselves to the earth, it matters less which part of the land we dwell on than that we continue to strengthen our connection to the land wherever we are.

Our bodies get on with that through breathing in the dust and pollens, eating and drinking the local produce, leaving our body waste, our skin shedding into dust, our blood, sweat and tears, quite literally, and eventually our bones. We become entwined with the new land we depend on and can activate that connection consciously to deepen spiritually what we are physically already doing. Only our mind can see separation for as long as it insists that our view of the earth is like a 2D map with water between continents. Earth is earth, we perceive continents because we dwell at the surface and water separates our view, but it does not separate the land beneath.

As a tree grows new branches with air between them, it would be easy for a twig to miss that it gives to and receives from the same roots as the twigs on another branch that seems so far away now and that grow in a different direction entirely, or to mourn that it no longer feels close to the trunk from which it grew..

[Ulchabhán]

I'm British, and as I was born and continue to live in England, English. However I am the first of my entire family to be born on this island. My parents, and grandparents etc etc come from Galicia in Northwest Spain, and I am heir to that culture. However the fields, sky, seasons, weather, history, language and culture of England have shaped me and I have absolutely no doubt in my heart that this place is my home. The traditions, folklore and spirituality of these islands are my heritage, and Druidry helps me to connect to that. Galicia in the ancient world had many cultural and trade links with the British and Irish isles, some of which have survived to this day. Additionally since the 19th century there has been a resurrection of that Atlantic cultural exchange between Galicia and Ireland, and this, combined with the Irish part of my family, draws me strongly towards Irish culture past and present, which again Druidry helps me to connect with.

Druidry is for me rooted in the 'Celtic' cultures both past and present. For me its spiritual homeland is Britain and Ireland and the landscape of these places shape the form that it has. However I recognise that it is a beautiful modern nature based spirituality/philosophy and as such can be followed by people in all places, and from all cultural backgrounds. Ultimately it is the same earth beneath our feet, the same sky that encircles our world, the same sun and moon that shine their light upon us wherever we are from. I think it is wonderful that Druidry can create a shared sense of fellowship amongst people from all over the globe and yet fiercely celebrate the particulars of the lands we call home.

[treegod]

I have seen a little of my family tree, and just by seeing how much they moved around in just a few generations I see that "Ancestors" and "Spirit of Place" don't always correspond. I have ancestors from various parts of England, and none from where I was born. Then there's various from SW Scotland, Ireland, and one from Germany. Most of them seem to move around; not many generations stick around in the same place.

Edit: only my dad and grandma were born in or near Brighton, Sussex, and also I can trace one line back to Sussex, Delaware.

If we could back to before the Romans got the the British Isles my ancestors probably stretch across a lot of Europe. Probably some from Asia and Africa too from that time, but nothing can be proved. I myself live in Spain, so that's another migration. I'm probably living in a land where my ancestors have lived before (migrations within the Roman Empire or even Spaniards stranded in Ireland from the Spanish Armada).

Genepools aren't hermetically sealed with occasional exchanges. There's a constant flow of migrations. But no matter where we live in the world our cultural and "ethnic" heritage is still with us. Culture isn't fixed in one place, it moves, all the time. There being Druids of European Descent in North America is just another part of the movement.

And I suspect, had the Celts encountered North America like the Vikings did they would have brought their gods with them too.

And not only that but Druids can be seen archetypally, which means they represent universal human experiences (albeit in cultural specific packaging), which might resonate with anyone, from any culture and any geographical location in the world.

[Oona]

Thanks for all the awesome posts. A lot of good stuff to think on. Really, thank you all. Bright Blessings!

[Ephraim Aegir]

I am reminded of a poem when I read your story. Perhaps it may provide you with answers.

Hurricane Hits England

It took a hurricane, to bring her closer
To the landscape
Half the night she lay awake,
The howling ship of the wind,
Its gathering rage,
Like some dark ancestral spectre,
Fearful and reassuring:

Talk to me Huracan
Talk to me Oya
Talk to me Shango
And Hattie,
My sweeping, back-home cousin.

Tell me why you visit.
An English coast?
What is the meaning
Of old tongues
Reaping havoc
In new places?

The blinding illumination,
Even as you short-
Circuit us
Into further darkness?

What is the meaning of trees
Falling heavy as whales
Their crusted roots
Their cratered graves?

O Why is my heart unchained?

Tropical Oya of the Weather,
I am aligning myself to you,
I am following the movement of your winds,
I am riding the mystery of your storm.

Ah, sweet mystery;
Come to break the frozen lake in me,
Shaking the foundations of the very trees within me,
Come to let me know
That the earth is the earth is the earth.

Grace Nichols


To me, the last line says it all. "The earth is the earth is the earth." You may not be in the place you feel is your homeland, but one part of the earth is still the earth. It's all connected, joined. You are still connected to your homeland by the earth's connections.

[Ephraim Aegir]

Another, with a similar message

Search for my Tongue

You ask me what I mean
by saying I have lost my tongue.
I ask you, what would you do
if you had two tongues in your mouth,
and lost the first one, the mother tongue,
and could not really know the other,
the foreign tongue.
You could not use them both together
even if you thought that way.
And if you lived in a place you had to
speak a foreign tongue,
your mother tongue would rot,
rot and die in your mouth
until you had to spit it out.
I thought I spit it out
but overnight I dream,
(munay hutoo kay aakheejeebh aakhee bhasha)
(may thoonky nakhi chay)
(parantoo rattray svupnama man bhasha pachi aavay chay)
(foolnee jaim man bhasha man jeebh)
(modhama kheelay chay)
(fullnee jaim man bhasha man jeebh)
(modhama pakay chay)
it grows back, a stump of a shoot
grows longer, grows moist, grows strong veins,
it ties the other tongue in knots,
the bud opens, the bud opens in my mouth,
it pushes the other tongue aside.
Every time I think I've forgotten,
I think I’ve lost the mother tongue,
it blossoms in my mouth

Sujata Bhatt

GCSE english did come in useful for something after all. Took me a while to remember this one, hence appearing so much longer after the first.

[mabby]

What a great thread this is. I know what Oona means, though -- while I agree with all of you and your deeper meanings, it would still help to know where the ley lines are in the USA -- no one has really done much research on that one. I do think our connections with the Celts is buried in our family oddities. For example, my father, who was of Scot and Irish descent from many generations ago, always made us a concoction he called Prit. It was a gruel of cut oats, onion and ground pork that was then browned in a skillet. We loved it, but none of our friends had ever heard of it. My dad only made it in the dead of winter and as he rousted us out of bed he would promise us "faerie food" to keep us warm on the walk to school. Years later I read the novel Sarum and the Picts had killed a wild boar, gathered oats and onions, all of which they boiled in a sheep's bladder. So, only the container has changed! My brothers and I all still make Prit, and we still promise our kids faerie food in winter -- that is my connection to the ancient Merlin's Isle.

[Reuils]

I agree with elemental heart.
By birth my roots are celtic ,Welsh ancesters ,Welsh parents,born and educated in Wales ,but I live in France by choice .My connections are to the land and to nature and I feel them just as strongly here ,as I ever did in the UK.

[DJ Droood]

I wonder if the land cares about our genetic makeup? If Wales was somehow totally repopulated with, say, Polynesians, would the spirits of land know or care? I wonder if North American land likes us better or less than the first peoples, or if the spirits notice.

[Oona]

Thanks again for all the responses (and poems <3 .) I remembered today hearing someone (prolly a speaker on Druidcast) dismissing someone else's assertion that the Gods don't cross water. I know the esteemed speaker thought it was a less than insightful thing to say. But I guess I'm wondering if I should be paying a bit more attention to Native American religions....I had as a college age woman worked with a Dine medicine man and even prayed in inipi and the Native American Church....and it felt wonderful, but there is this stereotype of the wannabee tribe of whites acting native....I don't know what the answers are or if I'm even really looking for answers....just kind of wondering about other people's experiences. I think about the early Northmen in North America. Surely they didn't believe they were leaving their Gods behind - or did they? Anyway, thanks for all the insights and sharing your experiences with me....hugs!

[Kris Hughes]

This is something which is troubling me quite a bit - of course I have my own personal angle on it....

I was born in Colorado. I don't actually know my heritage (adopted) but for whatever reason I was drawn to Scotland (and the British Isles in general, too) since I was quite small. I ended up living very happily in Scotland from my 20s into my 50s. It was while I lived there that my "Celtic" spirituality developed. For various reasons, I decided to move back to the US and I can only describe myself as spiritually frustrated since I returned. I feel like a diaspora of one! I honour many Celtic gods, and I don't really feel out of touch with them, but I feel very out of touch and out of sorts with the land here. I miss the British climate and plant life, and nothing here makes up for that at all. I also feel that Celtic/British culture connects to my spirituality. I mean the modern as well as that of earlier times (I'm not a reconstructionist). The Americans I meet who follow any form of Celtic spirituality are lovely people, but I don't feel like the "get" me, or "get it" somehow.

Oh, dear, this sounds like a rant! Not meant to be, and I don't mean to offend all those Americans who are perfectly happy with their Celtic religion, but to me it feels rather like they are playing at something they don't understand.

In response to an earlier comment - maybe there are no ley lines in North America. Maybe the indigenous people here just didn't work with the earth in a way that would encourage them. Sometimes I feel that the land between the Rockies and the Appalachians is kind of "dead". Maybe because it was under water in the so-called Mississippian Epoch, and then earth forces pushed the land up. I think something here is very broken, spirits perhaps have not recovered. At least that's something I've been feeling....

[Fox]

Sometimes I feel that the land between the Rockies and the Appalachians is kind of "dead". Maybe because it was under water in the so-called Mississippian Epoch, and then earth forces pushed the land up. I think something here is very broken, spirits perhaps have not recovered. At least that's something I've been feeling....

I thinks some of the Plains tribes might disagree with that - any people who have a spiritual tradition will probably have sacred places. But it's all a function of a particular human society, or the particular experiences of individuals. Other peoples or people would most likely not feel the same about any particular place.

[Kris Hughes]

Oh, I don't mean to belittle or discount the beliefs of the plains tribes, but I think their way of relating to the land and their spirituality is/was very different than the Celtic way. Naturally it's an adaptation to the land they had. This is a somewhat subjective point of view, though, so I don't want to get into defending it.

[DaRC]

the Gods don't cross water.

Hmmm try reading Neil Gaiman's American Gods for a fantasy writer's perspective on that. Personally I can't answer the question but I suspect (from my own English perspective where the Gods have crossed from the continent to this archipelago) that the landscape influences them as much as as it influences the people who live on it.
I don't think the Saxon Ingwe is quite the same as the Danish Ingvi - perhaps the difference is like people. I am not quite the same person in work as I am in the pub....

I don't actually know my heritage (adopted)

Yes you do; it's your adoptive heritage - fostering and adoption are clearly mentioned in the Northern Tribes lore from the Irish books, the Welsh Mabinoigen and on into the Icelandic Sagas. The Icelanders are an interesting mix of mostly Nordic males with mostly British & Irish females (some willing but perhaps the majority less so).
Edit - additionally DNA testing will be able to tell you; I'm hoping it will be available to the public in the next 10 years.

I think something here is very broken, spirits perhaps have not recovered.

An interesting point - perhaps the relationship of man with the land has been broken. The development of the Buffalo herds and their migration had (as far as I've read) a strong human element in encouraging it.
The plains are not managed by the modern Americans in the same way as the Native Americans, so perhaps this requires a new relationship.

Just some thoughts FWIW.