The second 4 were presented at the Medieval Hall, Salisbury, in August 2008. The next Mt Haemus Day will be at the Medieval Hall again in 2012.

Musicians 2008

Speakers 2008

The Origins of Modern Druidry
Ronald Hutton, Professor of History at Bristol University is leading a five-year research project on the history of Druidism, funded by the government's Arts and Humanities Research Board. This project involves major research endeavours, an academic conference and the publication of two books. More details.

Druidry: Exported Possibilities and Manifestations
Gordon Cooper, co-founder of the Inis Glas Hedge School, is researching, amongst a variety of topics, the relationship between modern Druidry and the Woodcraft movement. In addition, Gordon has now been appointed the Order’s Archivist, and is busy cataloguing, preserving and scanning all the archives into CD rom format. More details.

Phallic Religion in the Druid Revival
John Michael Greer, an established author who specialises in Western Magical traditions, is researching, again amongst a variety of topics, the connections between contemporary Druidry and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. More details.

Question, Answer and the Transmission of Wisdom in Celtic and Druidic Tradition
Caitlin & John Matthews have dedicated their lives to researching and presenting material on Celtic spirituality and Druidism. They are the authors of numerous books and are past presiders of the Order and frequent speakers at Order events. More details.

Universal Majesty, Verity and Love Infinite
Dr. Adam Stout, gaining his doctorate in Archaeology at Lampeter University, has specialised in a study of George Watson Mac-Gregor Reid, the flamboyant and eccentric Chief of the Ancient Druid Order. More details.

Working With Animals
Professor Roland Rotheram was the senior lecturer in Myths and Legends and Comparative Religious Studies for 12 years at the University of Staffordshire. In this study he develops a new theory on the relationship between humans and animals in a shamanic and spiritual context, exploring the symbolism of animal figures in early faiths and examining the links between various priesthoods and the animals they invoke in their rituals. Surviving traces of early nature beliefs in modern world religions are examined as well as those in use by those following the shamanic and druid paths. More details.

'I would know my Shadow and my Light' - An exploration of Michael Tippet’s The Midsummer Marriage and its relevance to a study of Druidism
Philip Carr-Gomm is the author of a number of books on Druidry and here he explores Tippett's work in depth, comparing the lives of Tippett and Ross Nichols, and the relevance of his opera to modern Druidry and the Bardic training of the Order. More details.

Entering Faerie: Elves, Sidhe-folk and the Ancestors
Dr James Maertens (Alferian) explores the world of Faerie and its value for us today.
Elves and Faerie folk are alive and well in modern culture, especially among the culture of magical folk and those pursuing a nature spirituality, but also most obviously in children's literature. Fictional representations of the Hidden People are drawing more and more
on the study of folklore and actual present-day accounts of "meeting the Other Crowd." Rejecting the term "supernatural" and the dichotomy between subjectivity and objectivity, I consider the reality of the Sidhe as something that is part of Nature and part of the human psyche at the same time. Modern Druids must walk a fine line between the study of old folklore and the creation of new folklore. How do we live in a culture of scientific materialism and yet challenge the dominant knowledge paradigm? More details.

Druid Ethics

Dr Brendan Myers

In Druidry, both ancient and modern, ethical ideas are presented not in the form of rules and laws, nor in the form of a utilitarian calculus of benefits and harms, but rather in the form of character-values. This way of thinking about ethics is known in contemporary philosophy as 'Areteology', or 'Virtue'. Furthermore, many of the most important Druidic virtues, such as honour, integrity, inspiration, strength, courage, and so on, are not only categories of ethics. They are also categories of aesthetics. We value them not just because they are right and good; we also value them because they are beautiful. I shall therefore also explore this overlap between the aesthetic and the ethical, and show how Celtic spirituality is particularly well positoined to embody a meeting place between the ethical and the aesthetic, the beautiful and the good. Read the Paper

What is a Bard?

Dr Andy Letcher

Druidry is currently undergoing a process of reflection and self-examination. Given that it professes to be a timely and necessary worldview, to offer practical solutions to some of the world’s problems, why isn’t it more widely recognised and appreciated? One possibility is that it has yet to adjust fully to life in a post-Hutton world. Much of what we assumed to be true about Druidry has been revealed as the wishful thinking of Romantic laudanum addicts, Edwardian anthropologists and other fantasists. If we are drawn to call ourselves Druids or Bards, how do we answer the challenge thrown to us by the new historicity? Upon what principles can we base our practice? Read the Paper

 

"Some people think history isn’t important. After all, why dwell on the past when it’s over and done with?
The future and the present seem much more exciting because they are happening or are about to happen. But the Druid, and the Bard in particular, knows that the pleasure of memory can be equal to that of anticipation.
In addition, history offers us not only the possibility of understanding the causes of present-day situations, but also a gift which at first may seem nebulous, but which is in fact essential for a truly satisfactory experience of being alive in the world: and that is a sense of context. Without context we are lost – doomed to misunderstanding and superficiality.
When we hear of the actions or decisions of a friend, a group or a country, we need to understand the context in which these decisions or actions were taken. Without knowing this we cannot hope to understand their significance. This is why gossip is so worthless when it is not harmful: without knowing a person’s history we stand ignorant and helpless before the facts presented to us. And so if we want a truly meaningful and deep relationship with another we need to learn their history, to understand the world that they live in, and how they came to be there. This is one of the most interesting experiences of being a psychotherapist: an individual about whom you have no knowledge, visits you once a week, say, for several months, and slowly tells their story, revealing their history as someone might show you their garden or their house. And slowly someone who was simply a body, a face, a voice, becomes multi-dimensional and leads you, like a storyteller, into the past and across the country, or the world.
Travel and history, then, become the two great teachers of Space and of Time, that give our lives context: breadth and depth, substance and roots.
And this explains why history is of such importance to Druids who seek to deepen their understanding of life. Recognising the vital part that history plays within Druidry, we have decided to establish an award for important historical research that relates to Druidism."
Philip Carr-Gomm

Note: Although originally the award confined itself to historical perspectives we have now broadened its remit to include any approach that seems relevant to a study or application of Druidry.