RETURNING TO THE SOURCE

The songs of our ancestors are also the songs of our children

Studying and practising Druidry can be a puzzling affair. Look at it one day and it seems as if there's nothing there: a few second or third-hand accounts from biased Greek or Roman observers, a few inferences to be drawn from linguistic or archaeological research, and a mass of later material, mainly from the seventeenth century onwards, that is replete with speculation, fantasy, or downright trickery. Look at it another day and a treasure chest is opened: the sacred geometry of the megalithic sites built by the protoDruids reveals an awesome cosmological understanding, early Irish and Welsh literature inspires us with tales filled with references to Druidry and paganism, the classical references reveal tantalizing glimpses of a highly developed spiritual tradition, and folklore studies show how even today many of our customs and traditions derive from our Druidic and Celtic heritage. Even the writings of more recent commentators, however confused with their own desires to justify their yet theories, and however (as in the case particularly of Iolo Morganwg) fraudulent their claims to authenticity might be, reveal insights into Druid philosophy and practice, culled perhaps from historical sources and elaborated through the workings of their unconscious minds, connected to the collective and archetypal levels where Druidry exists as an every-present reality.

How are we to approach this wealth of intriguing, yet often confusing, information, much of which John Matthews has skillfully gathered together in this volume? Our approach to a subject conditions the way in which we understand it, and the way in which we are then able to use that understanding in our research or spiritual practice. The biggest mistake that we can make when we approach literary source material about Druidry is to believe that this material is the primary source of the Druid tradition, when in fact it is secondary. The primary source can never be presented in literature, because it can only be found in places where we must set books aside - in places where both this world and the Otherworld are strongly present - by sacred springs and holy wells, by the seashore or in stone circles,. beside great trees or strong mountains. When we open ourselves to these places, to the beauty and the splendour of the natural world, we discover the true source of inspiration for Druidry. It has always been said that the Druid tradition was an oral one, but a more accurate term would be aural, since we learn the most by iistening: to our hearts, to others and to the natural world - to the sound of the rivers and the trees, the stars and the night sky. A Druid maxim, therefore, might be: Listen first, read second!

Treating literary sources as secondary rather than primary frees us from the need to treat anything written as sacred, as dogma. The fact that writers have expressed themselves poorly, have confused or misinterpreted facts, have slipped their hidden agendas consciously or unconsciously into their writings, have been overly influenced by contemporary thinking, or have invented material and claimed it to be authentic, rather than disturbing our connection to the primary source, instead becomes a matter for intellectual challenge and discernment.

Most people think that Druidry is something that existed in the distant past, and that some people have tried to recreate it in more recent times from the scattered remnants that we have inherited. But this way of thinking is only meaningful to those who choose to deny the reality of the Spirit. If we believe that the spiritual world exists, then we will also believe that the source of any spiritual tradition lies in that world, rather than in the physical world of effects.

If Druidry exists in the spiritual, archetypal world, and if it exists as potential and ideal in this realm, then each generation must attempt to connect with and express this ideal, potential or archetype as best it can. This is a tremendously exciting idea, because it means that rather than the sources of Druidry moving ever further from us as we move forward in time, the reverse is actually the case - as we move forward in time our increased knowledge of the world and the psyche can enable us to more adequately reflect and express the ideals and images of Druidry that exist so potently in the spiritual realm.

This understanding can help us to make sense of much of the source material presented here We can see how each generation has been intrigued by the ideas associated with Druidry, and how it has attempted to research and articulate its findings. And as we read, we can sense the outlines forming of a landscape, a Being, a tapestry, that is our heritage, a heritage of spiritual tradition that has existed for millennia and which is now being reclaimed so that the gift of its past can meet the potential of its future in the magic of this present time.

Philip Carr-Gomm
Lughnasadh 1995