Philip Carr-Gomm
Foreword
What does the word 'Druid' mean?
Afterword
I once asked the owner of an esoteric bookstore in New York why he didn't
stock any books on the Druids. His reply was immediate and categorical:
"Because nothing is known about the Druids except a few lines from
Caesar, and anyone who says that they know anything more is lying!"
Fortunately his statement is incorrect. We know a certain amount about the
ancient Druids and a good deal about Druidry, even though the information
is scattered, and often obscure or misleading.
The search for a clear understanding of Druids and Druidry is one which
is of particular relevance and value at the present time.
Prince Philip, in his speech to a Washington conference on religion and
ecology in 1990 said: "It is now apparent that the ecological pragmatism
of the so-called pagan religions...was a great deal more realistic in terms
of conservation ethics than the more intellectual monotheistic philosophies
of the revealed religions."
As we struggle to find a way of life that ceases the destruction of the
environment, and reconnects us to nature as a living Spirit, we are turning
again to those pagan religions to which Prince Philip referred. Apparently
buried for centuries and considered as anachronisms, they are now being
re-examined and revived with the understanding that our spirituality must,
in these ecologically desperate times, be reunited with the earth.
The Druid understanding of life holds the seed and root-wisdom of our forebears.
Some, like the New York bookseller, believe this wisdom was lost over a
thousand years ago. I have found this to be untrue, and hope to demonstrate
this in the coming pages.
I had the tremendous good fortune to meet my Druid teacher when I was very
young and just beginning to question the purpose and meaning of life. From
the time of that meeting to the present day each particular approach to
this questioning that I have experienced has added to my understanding,
and far from contradicting the original outlines that he gave me nearly
twenty-five years ago, have served only to confirm them.
The first four chapters of this book attempt to answer the questions: Who
were and are Druids? The second four chapters: What do they believe and
what do they do?
In the Introduction I attempt to clarify some of the issues involved in
such a study and to point to the possibility that a research into Druidry
represents a type of cultural therapy.
But before we begin our enquiry let us look at the meaning of the word Druid.
As we shall see, Druidry is a living system that has constantly evolved
and changed over time, as it has integrated certain of the influences around
it. To tease out the separate influences is difficult and we can never be
sure that we have identified these correctly. As this is true for Druidry
as a practice or set of beliefs, so is this true for the word Druid itself.
Not all scholars are able to agree about its etymology, but most modern
authorities agree with the classical authors that the most likely derivation
is from the word for oak, combined with the Indo-European root 'wid' - to
know, giving their translation of the word Druid as "One with knowledge
of the oak" or "Wise man of the oak". Support for this derivation
is substantial as we can see from the words for oak in the following four
languages:
Daur Irish Oak (Drui - druid)
Dervo Gaulish Oak
Derw Welsh Oak (Derwydd - druid)
Drus Greek Oak
Although it may at first sight seem odd that the Druids' knowledge should
have been limited to one tree, we can understand that if this is the correct
derivation, then the oak will have stood symbolically for all trees, since
it was one of the oldest, most prevalent and most revered members of the
forest. He who possessed knowledge of the oak possessed knowledge of all
the trees. Further support for the idea that the word Druid connects both
knowledge and trees is found in the fact that in Irish trees are fid and
knowledge fios, while in Welsh trees are gwydd and gwyddon is a 'knowledgeable
one': from which we can suggest that the Druid was one with 'knowledge of
the trees' or was indeed a 'wood-sage'.
Further possible sources or influences upon the term Druid are:
Draoi Gaelic Magician
Dryad Greek Tree or Wood Nymph
Druaight Manx Enchantment
Even though we cannot be sure whether these were etymologically involved
in the creation of the term, they act as intriguing associations, giving
us the image of a Druid as a 'knower of the tree-spirits, knower of magic,
knower of enchantment'.
In the postal course on Druidry run by the Order of Bards Ovates & Druids2,
the first exercise given is to ask oneself "What do the Druids and
Druidry mean to me?" Part of the appeal of Druidry lies in the fact
that the very word itself touches upon archetypes that lie deep within us.
Students find that the words are highly evocative, and that if they allow
themselves the freedom to make associations, these weave a pattern of words
and images that range from magic and mystery to wisdom, heritage, stability
and continuity. The practical reason for following the Druid way today lies
in the fact that we can contact the potencies hidden behind these words
and use them for the benefit of ourselves and others.
But why all this talk of only Druids? Where are the Druidesses? It is a
common misperception of Druidry that it is patriarchal. It is true that
with the eighteenth century revival, neo-Druid groups were dominated by
male members - as was freemasonry. Although some groups today are still
influenced by the patriarchy of the Druid revival period, it is important
to understand that this is not authentic Druid practice [if such a thing
can be established]. Both Classical and Celtic accounts show that Druidesses
as well as Druids existed, and Celtic law gave equality to women - allowing
them to choose their own husbands, divorce, own and inherit property, do
battle and ascend to chieftainship - as we know well from the story of Boadicea.
The modern Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids' membership, for example, is
composed equally of both sexes. The word Druid is used throughout this book
with the understanding that what is meant is: Druid and Druidess. Although
I agree that this decision may continue the myth of gender bias in Druidry,
it does make the text easier to read.
Now let us gingerly begin our study of Druids and their lore by seeing how
our very approach to them determines whether we discover sages or savages.
Turning around and around in a circle,
Spiralling towards the centre,
We know that we have come to the centre of who we are.
We crouch on the earth, we touch her with our hands.
We know that we have come to be with her.
Finding ourselves we have found our connection with Nature.
We sing, we speak poetry, we chant, we make music
- finding our hearts we have found the heart of the mystery.
Finding the depths we have found the Way to be simple.
Druidry is not a complicated path. It may not even be a path. Appreciating
it involves reorienting oneself so that one can approach the mysterious,
the feminine, the Arts, both aesthetic and esoteric, in a way that allows
us to let go of our assumptions and presumptions about life and instead
carries us, as in a Druid ceremony, around the circle of our life towards
the still point at the centre of which is both our True Self and the Divine
Source.
The Call to this way is being heard again -throughout the world - because
it represents, not an eccentric, irrelevant and atavistic belief-system,
but an approach to life that can unite the spiritual and the artistic, the
environmental and the humanitarian concerns we share, the thirst for connection
with Mother Earth and with Father Sun - the need for a powerful, pure spirituality
and the need for a down-to-earth, sensual, fully human connection with our
bodies and the body of our home, the Earth.
One of the most moving moments that can occur on our spiritual and psychological
journey is the discovery that in our hearts lies a wounded child. However
careful our upbringing might have been, it seems inevitable that we first
experience this inner child as hurt and rejected. Once, however, we open
ourselves to him or her, no longer pretending or living as if s/he didn't
exist, we find that a further level peels away, to reveal that the child
within is in fact a Divine child, a radiant seed-being of God/dess. Within
a Christian framework we can say that we experience the reality and the
presence of the Christ-child within our hearts. The Druid tradition speaks
of the same mystery, but calls the child the Mabon.
In a peculiar reflection of the story of the Prodigal Son, it is we as adults
who turn to the Child to recognise him as the manifestation of Divinity
within us. And it is we as adults who come to understand that the negativity
and the destruction that we experienced and expressed came from the desperation
of the wounded child who needed to be heard. In our struggle to 'grow up'
we ignored the voice that became buried deeper and deeper in our hearts.
A similar process of burial has occurred on a collective level. Beneath
the cathedrals of St Paul's in London and Notre Dame in Paris lie stone
circles, forgotten by a culture who has denied its roots. The consequences
of this denial have made modern man act in a way that Thomas Berry suggests
is like that of the autistic child - the child who cannot face the world,
and who seems not to see or hear even though we know he can. He is emotionally
isolated from his fellow creatures but is fascinated by mechanical devices.
We, as a culture, are obsessed with mechanics - we no longer hear the voice
of the river or the sea, we can no longer let the "outer world flow
into our beings". Berry continues by suggesting:
"Perhaps nothing is more difficult for those of us who live within
the Western biblical-classical tradition. Throughout the entire course of
this tradition, the autism has deepened with our mechanism, our political
nationalism, and our economic industrialism. Presently a new interpretation
of the Western historical process seems to be indicated. Neither the liberal
progressive nor the conservative traditionalist seems to fit the situation.
The only suitable interpretation of Western history seems to be the ironic
interpretation. This irony is best expresssed, perhaps, by the observation
that our supposed progress toward an ever-improving human situation is bringing
us to wasteworld instead of wonderworld."1
Unconsciously or consciously we have despised our origins because we believed
ourselves to have been savage brutish beings. In the same way we unconsciously
despise the child who lives in our hearts because he is a whining, weak
and ignorant creature. But the stone which has been rejected shall be the
cornerstone of the temple. When we turn to the child and see him for who
he really is he becomes our saviour, and when we turn to our past and see
it for all that it really represents, it in turn has the potential to become
the saviour of humanity.
At the beginning of this book I suggested that the study of Druidry can
be considered as cultural therapy. We have seen that we can approach it
with either of two opposing premises. Our ancestors are seen either as barbarian,
primitive and ignorant, living in a world 'nasty, brutish and short' or
as wise, noble philosophers and mystics, versed in mathematics, engineering,
philosophical and astronomical surveying skills.
In the first view of Druidry, we espouse the theory of Original Stupidity
seeing man struggling from the darkness of prehistoric ignorance to the
light of present-day scientific knowledge. The second view recognises that
our foundations grew out of an age of light rather than darkness.
The way we view our origins determines the way we relate to the world.
Pelagius, born c.360 AD was a British theologian who challenged the concept
of Original Sin. Some say he was a Druid. We cannot be sure whether he was
or not, but he was certainly deeply influenced by their heritage2. He taught
the doctrine of Original Blessing, insisting that a baby is born blessed
and innocent rather than sinful. He was persecuted by the Church and chased
out of Europe, dying c.430 AD either in Africa or the Middle East, though
some say he might have found refuge in his last years in a monastery in
Wales.
In our own day the Vatican has attempted to silence the brilliant theologian
Matthew Fox who also teaches the doctrine of Original Blessing3.
The time has come for the return of the repressed. The time has come for
us to fully acknowledge that our Origins - our source and our basis - are
Divine.
Our roots are holy.