So, you're a Druid.....ehhh...??

[wolf560]

As promised, the thread starts anew....

Druids needed 20 years of formal education (as the stories go) before they were "well-versed" enough to go out into the Celtic world and be the center of advice for whatever their specialty was. They were Magicians, Sorcerors, Educators, Lawyers, Judges, Astronomers, Psychics, Priests, Healers, Doctors, and so much more...

In modern times with our less-than-perfect education system and the plethora of information online we are still far and away more educated than perhaps many of the people 2000 years ago. This of course centers around the ABILITY to obtain these degrees and to research and retain that knowledge.

I believe that people CAN call themselves a Druid and that they don't need 20 years.
I believe that people CAN do good things and learn from others around them.
I believe that it is time to step out and become the Druids we all feel that we can be.

What I am tired of is the constant ambiguity inherent in the system we now labor with.
Everyone has an idea of what a Druid is (or was, or should be) and sometimes it interferes with the rest of us as we simply try to live our lives the best way we know how to.


Can we start a thread where we start talking about how good it feels to watch the sun rise, or a stream run past us, or maybe the sight of a student learning how to apply some book knowledge to a circle of stones out in the wilderness....?


I want to be part of a group of people that want to learn from each other....

[Badger Bob]

Can we start a thread where we start talking about how good it feels to watch the sun rise, or a stream run past us, or maybe the sight of a student learning how to apply some book knowledge to a circle of stones out in the wilderness....?

So this isn't a thread for Canadian Druids?

I want to be part of a group of people that want to learn from each other....

And not just each other but everything around us. My best teacher has been a small, unremarkable patch of swamp, formerly the clay pit for a brick-kiln but now just a couple of acres fenced off from the surrounding woodland. The diversity of flora and fauna that have made their home there over the last century has been a real life example of magic for me and I sometimes act as "ranger" (although someone else has the job at the moment) to make sure it doesn't become a dumping ground for old fridges. That patch of near-stagnant water, reeds and trees shows me the fragility and tenacity of life and how it changes subtly through the year. I see the migrant birds coming in spring and going in autumn, the catkins, flowers, fruit and nuts, the frogspawn and the butterflies. For me, this is the bit that rounds out my Druidic education, everything else I can read up from a comfy seat in the pub nearby.

[Frog]

Hello Mark
It's quite an interesting proposition!
I agree that with the available education, it is possible to have specific knowledge about medicine, law - and the progression of knowledge in these areas has required people to specialise.

I think there are three aspects to Druidry that we should be looking to connect with (and yes, I realise there's an overlap):
1. A greater connectedness to the world around us
2. A greater connectedness to the people around us.
3. A greater connectedness to ourselves.

The first part, nature, is technically easier. We just need to turn away from the TV and look out to the green (to paraphrase a certain OBOD bard) or better still, step out into the green if we are able and fit enough.

The second part is more challenging. As a druid, I feel that I have an opportunity to inspire others and open their eyes to learn more about themselves and the world around them. This (in a way) harks back to the Druid of old - the teacher, the mentor. Of course, with teachers already around we may have to find more imaginative ways to connect - I think Philip's lead with a greater inclusion of philosophy and psychology will play its part. I recognise in myself that I am a calmer, more centred person and that from that I am more able to think rationally and fairly about issues that I may be asked to look into. This also means that we need to recognise that we won't see the same as someone else - and if we are to call ourselves DRUID (in any form of capitalisation or not) we need to accept that our opinion may not be the only one... and may not be the right one, just (perhaps) the right one for us.

the third part is probably our greatest challenge - especially as we should not ignore the other two aspects as we turn into ourselves and discover more about what we think. To some extent, this is one reason I (almost) welcome the troll comments, deliberately set to barb and antagonise. As I read in a martial arts magazine recently, it is easier to train for the fair fight than the one when our opponent will use tricks and illegal moves; however it is those battles when we truly train in our art.



Blessings
Frog

[Huathe]

Thumbs up to you, Frog!

[athelia143]

As promised, the thread starts anew....

In modern times with our less-than-perfect education system and the plethora of information online we are still far and away more educated than perhaps many of the people 2000 years ago. This of course centers around the ABILITY to obtain these degrees and to research and retain that knowledge.

We definitely are more educated than our ancestors, that's for sure! Not all of us can afford the "higher education" because of money, etc. There are many other sources of learning: other people, nature, situations, etc. When one opens up the mind to the lessons everything around has to teach, one is truly "educated". I've worked with scores of people with university degrees and I find that, for the most part, they are very good at knowing the subject of their degree, but real life seems to be a bit of a challenge. (At least with the people I worked with!)

I've always found that when I'm "stuck" for an answer to something, I can go for a long walk in my favourite natural area, sit on one of the glacial boulders and just allow awen to strike me. I almost always walk away with an answer! It's not always the case with books or even other people.

I believe that people CAN call themselves a Druid and that they don't need 20 years.
I believe that people CAN do good things and learn from others around them.
I believe that it is time to step out and become the Druids we all feel that we can be.
What I am tired of is the constant ambiguity inherent in the system we now labor with.

I agree on all three points. The constant ambiguity seems to come from so many different viewpoints. I've heard people say that one needs all of the 20 years of training (it's not the same today as it was back then, so no... we don't.), one needs to serve a community of people (what about those who serve in other ways like planting trees or helping animals?) or any other number of things.

It's tiresome because no is really ever going to agree on any one point.

Everyone has an idea of what a Druid is (or was, or should be) and sometimes it interferes with the rest of us as we simply try to live our lives the best way we know how to.

Well put.

Can we start a thread where we start talking about how good it feels to watch the sun rise, or a stream run past us, or maybe the sight of a student learning how to apply some book knowledge to a circle of stones out in the wilderness....?

I can tell you what I did for Samhain and what an experience it was.

On November 4th, I went out to my favourite natural area after not being able to go for quite some time (I live and work in an urban setting). It was +22 degrees Celcius and felt like a Summer day, which is very unusual for the Samhain season. The sun was blazing and all was quiet. It was like being in another world away from traffic and noise. As I walked along the path, I took note of all of the plants I saw along the way: wild rose bushes with brown leaves and ripe rosehips, the various prairie grasses all dried out for Winter, the aspen trees that still had a few leaves hanging on for dear life and one plant that looked like a mistletoe (leaves and berries looked the same) but was an actual bush. I went down by the creek and sat on the brown grass for a bit, just enjoying the sound of the trickling water and thought about the blessing received this past year, as well as all of the challenges faced. (This is an activity I regularly do at Samhain)

What was foremost on my mind was a dear family friend of ours whom I had visited in a hospice the day after my birthday. She was dying of cancer and had it all through her body. She had recognized me and we talked for a bit. It was a short discussion because she fell asleep. A few days later, she told one of her children that she was "ready to go but didn't know how". I knew that on November afternoon that she was still ready to go but didn't know how.

As I walked, I picked a few rosehips here, some rowanberries there, some of those little white berries that looked like mistletoe and various other seeds and put them in my pocket. With each step, I asked the Ancestors to please let my friend join them as soon as possible because she was "ready to go but didn't know how". When I came back to my starting point, I sat down on the grass again, put my little collection of seeds into the running water and said "I have collected the bounty of the earth which I could take unto myself and be nourished, but instead I give this in payment for a friend of mine. Please let her join you soon. She is ready to go but doesn't know how. Please let me pay her passage." I sat there watching the seeds wind their way down the creek away from me and then disappear. Suddenly, I felt the feeling that my ritual was over and that it was time to go back home. I stood up and left the offering of birdseeds and water that I usually leave there when I do one of my walking rituals and went back home.

Later on that night, I lay in bed and sudenly felt a warm presence in the room. It felt like something brushed my hand and it was a happy feeling. My husband got into a bed a bit later and I said "I just felt this very warm presence for a brief second. I think our friend finally joined the ancestors and is free from her pain."

Two days later, I received a call from my mother saying that our friend had passed away on the night of November 4th at around 10:00pm... the same time that I felt th presence in my room. It was almost as if the Ancestors had taken my payment and my friend was finally able to go home. She died peacefully in her sleep, according to her family who were all there when she crossed over the veil.

I want to be part of a group of people that want to learn from each other....

Anyway, I felt that I needed to share that here for some reason. I don't know what can be learned from it, if anything, but I hope you enjoyed reading it. It was one of the more profound Samhain celebrations of my life and one of the most beautiful. The only more profound Samhain was in 1999 when I almost died of an illness and actually saw the Ancestors in my living room. I had asked them if I could go with them and they said it wasn't my time. Not long after that I recovered from my illness.

One thing that could be gleaned from this is that those two Samhain celebrations were not done as formal rituals. No robes were worn, no scripts were put together and no formal words said. There were no props or trappings whatsoever, yet I got more out of those two occasions than I ever have doing formal rituals. There is something to be said about just opening up and being in the moment.

And... Hurray for me because I did not get lost looking for this thread!

A blessed Samhain to everyone!

Athelia /|\

[wolf560]

For Samhain I decided to start anew....
I recently returned from a warzone after being there for the past eight years.

I purchased a home in a very new area, and began unpacking boxes that had been in storage since 2003. I began attending pagan/ heathen events and re-connecting to local pagan society. We went to a Pagan/ Witches Masquerade Ball that night as well. At midnight I was asked to "call in the North Quarter" for the public Samhain Druid ritual.

I have begun putting boundary stones into my yard and interconnecting them to my home wardstones for "comfort sake".

I am taking it slow and just getting used to being around other Pagans....
...and enjoying every minute of it..!!

[wolf560]

Eight years ago I decided to try to stop the bickering and backbiting in the pagan community I was in.... I managed to keep those pagans together for nearly two years until finally less than ten egotistical self serving idiots tore it all apart.

I am perfectly willing to try again, but I will go a lot slower this time I think....

"Primus inter Pares".... First among equals was my watchword.
The thought was that everyone deserves to have the ability to be concerned about themselves first while still having the responsibility not to cause harm to others..

Generally the thought was that you have the right to do anything up to the point where what you are doing interferes with someone else's rights.... then you have no right to do anything beyond that point unless the other persons agrees to it.

[Explorer]

Everyone has an idea of what a Druid is (or was, or should be) and sometimes it interferes with the rest of us as we simply try to live our lives the best way we know how to.

I agree. That is why I tend to stay away from threads that try to define druidry.
The only thing that defines me as a 'druid' is that I am a member of OBOD. And the only thing that is important about that is that I can find others.

But everything else is content.
And that is the most interestng part, because we often differ so much that we can inspire each other with our differences. I've done so many things that I would have never done, or even thought of, if it was not for other 'druids'. The other side of the medal is that I also ran into a lot of things that I could have done without. But like Frog said, you learn the most from the dirty tricks.

Perhaps the best way to get a sense of 'druidry' is to compare your life now, with your life before you started this path. The difference is probably closely related to your druidry. Add it all up for everybody and you get a sense of druidry in general.

I certainly do things very different now. It is like the world has opened up and got more presence (what we call 'spirit' I guess). And I gained a language to communicate with that. Which leads to a deeper feeling of connection with it. But also to the insight that we can shape our perception of our reality almost at will, with the power of our imagination (like, I am an atheist who can talk to the gods, if you can get your mind around that then you have passed the ovate grade ). And with changing our perception, we can also change our behaviour and our world. We call this magic. And that insight holds a lot of power, a lot of empowerment, and it has gotten me through rough times in amazing ways, and certainly increased the quality of my life.

Druidry didn't bring a loving relationship with the natural world for me, because I already had that. Neither did it shape my ethics, because I already had my own ethics, and they haven't changed.
But it showed me magic and enchanted the world. And it brought me a community and friends, I even married one of them. And it brought Inspiration to write better songs, and people to play them to . Good stuff. I'm a reasonable bard, a pretty good ovate, and a lousy druid, and I'm happy with that.
So, that's my druidry.

[wolf560]

Much of what I do and call 'Druidry' comes from both an understanding of what (and perhaps why) the Ancients did what they did.

The most important things I believe in are 'Boundary Stones', 'Celtic Hospitality' and 'Ancestor Worship' and everything related to those three concepts.

My "Magic" revolves around and could probably be defined as utilizing either the concept or the background of one or more of those three things.

Hospitality can also be defined as "paying it forward" in my mind since if everything works in the balance of things the hospitality will hopefully be returned.

Boundary Stones are active Wards and are a different kind of Magic than some other Pagans understand or use.

Ancestor worship is something I believe many Pagans of all callings believe in and practice to some extent...

[Frog]

It's interesting to think how I may have come to this point and place.

Growing up, the stories of King Arthur and the Round Table and other tales of myth and legend have always interested me (although I preferred the modern english translation to the Chaucerian English!). As a Scout, it was interesting to read that one of Baden-Powell's sources for the Scout laws comes from the Knights code of chivarly. Linking "old ways" with modern society seems to be a common item.
More recently, I've recognised that my path may not be one of the soldier/warrior, but more of the teacher and philosopher; still ready with my armour but to fight another battle. I guess that brings me more in line with a spiritual warrior than a priest - but I'm happy to reconcile those aspects of my psyche.

How does this reflect my druidry? well, it's recognising that we can learn from the past, both in terms of lessons but also that the "old ways" may still be relevant today; that the "old gods" are still as young as the new ones; and that now more than ever we are dependent upon each other and everything around us to continue this thing called LIFE.

Blessings
Frog

[Branta]

I came across a fabulous quote that says so much to me (I am sorry that I can't remember the source).

"My Druidry is exactly as peaceful and definable as nature is."

It almost felt like an explosion of Awen. I felt like it gave me the freedom to stop trying to define/confine my spirituality.

I have read a million posts on how people express their Druidry and what I do love about those posts is that they can act as inspiration for how to weave this path into your day-to-day life both the mundane and the spiritual parts. What I didn’t like is when I would compare myself to the good/observant Druid (you know gets to participate in group rituals, can meditate every full moon ect.) and beat myself up over the constraints on my time, the lack of fellow Druids where I live, the fact that my kids don’t always participate in the rituals during the festivals and so on. I have given myself permission to stop the comparisons. I feel like I meet some of those lofty criteria listed at the start of this thread: I had the good fortune of going to school for many years to study nature, I am even more fortunate that I get to work every day to conserve and protect nature. I try to live with integrity and help my fellow man. These are good enough for me.

Now I am simply me, I am a Druid.