Most Pagans, unless they are hard-core New Agers living permanently in
flotation tanks, will have noticed great things happening in the Pagan world
over the last few years. Interest in our traditions has never been stronger,
and those traditions themselves have been evolving in exciting ways. The
magic is growing, and even the formerly enclosed world of Druidry has not
been untouched by the huge surge of energy that is revitalising the old/new
ways.
A few years ago, when I attended my first PF Conference, I overheard a number
of conversations as I wandered around conversations that ran along the lines
of 'Well, druids are all freemasons' and 'Of course, druids aren't Pagans.'
There were other longstanding myths floating around at that time. For example,
there was a widespread belief that druids were sun-worshippers who only
performed rituals during daylight hours. Druidry was also regarded as a
patriarchal men only club.
Like all good myths, these had some truth behind them. The druid revival
groups founded in the eighteenth century did admit only men and did base
their rituals around the Sun as a symbol of divine light, the light of a
God who was essentially the same as the Christian god. And there were strong
links between early druid revivalists and freemasons. However, this is how
things used to be. It bears little resemblance to what's happening in druidry
now.
The breakdown of the old order began in 1964, when Ross Nichols led a breakaway
group from the Ancient Druid Order (the A.D.O., which most usually refers
to itself as The Druid Order). Nichols called his breakaway group The Order
of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD), after the three major subdivisions of
the Pagan Celtic druid caste. Recent research by Steve Wilson and others
has shown that Nichols was responsible for giving modern paganism the eightfold
festival that most of us now celebrate. The A.D.O. only celebrated festivals
and equinoxes. In the 1940's. Nichols recognised that the quarter days,
based on the Celtic folk festivals, fitted neatly between the solar festivals
to make a beautifully balanced mandala or wheel. He failed to sell the idea
to the ADO but it appealed greatly to his friend Gerald Gardner, who added
the eightfold cycle to the version of witchcraft he was developing at the
time. Wicca (Gardnerian) thus had eight sabbats when it first went public
in the 1950s. Druidry had to wait until the formation of OBOD before it
took up that wheel of the year.
The next great change in Druidry came as a result of the cultural explosion
that we now refer to as the Sixties.' Whatever Margaret Thatcher and her
tawdry descendants might say, that decade opened people's minds in ways
unprecedented in modern Western civilisations. It was a decade of frenetic
spiritual exploration. Some explorers found their way to our native traditions,
and did so through a number of routes. Many became witches, and through
this discovered the mystery and magic of our Celtic heritage. Some moved
from Wicca into Druidry as a result of having made these Celtic connections.
This created new fusions between the two traditions, continuing the interchange
started between Gardner and Nichols.
Druid orders founded and run by witches include my own British Druid Order
(BDO), the Portsmouth-based Insular Order of Druids (IOD), and the Glastonbury
Order of Druids (GOD). The not surprising result of these druid groups being
begun by witches is chat they are considerably more Pagan than the older-established
druid groups. They hold rituals at any time of day or night, depending on
what is appropriate to their work. Twilight is favoured by some, as it is
the time when the veils between the worlds are at their flimsiest. Some
work by the moon as much as the sun. These wiccan-originated groups have
also brought a powerful infusion of Goddess energy back into Druidry. It
is now widely recognised, partly as a result of my own work, that the Awen
(literally, 'flowing spirit') invoked during many druid rituals was originally
regarded as a gift given by the goddess Ceridwen, 'the Crooked Woman' or
'Bent White One.' She brewed the cauldron of inspiration (Awen), three drops
from which bestowed the gifts of poetic inspiration, prophesy and shape-shifting.
These three gifts equate pretty well with the functions of the three druid
grades of Bard, Ovate and Druid.
Ceridwen, of course, is also a favourite goddess of many witches, but in
medieval times Christian bards of Wales regarded her as the patroness of
their order. They invoked the Pagan Goddess and the Christian God together
in their poetry.
Another trend in modern Druidry is the growth of contacts with people following
other spiritual paths. This is sometimes made easier by the old stereotype
of the patriarchal druid. Thanks to this image, even the most staunchly
Pagan among us don't frighten the Christians to the same extent chat witches
do. We are not completely immune from attack by loony fundamentalist Christians
(is anyone?) but such attacks are comparatively rare.
One manifestation of the ecumenical trend in Druidry is the Gorsedd of Bards
of Caer Abiri. 'What the Hel is that?' I hear you cry. Well, it's a multi-faith
group that meets to celebrate the eight festivals within the stone circles
of Avebury in Wiltshire . Its rituals are broadly druidic but allow plenty
of space for other traditions to take part and be recognised. For example,
we have a Christian call to the eastern quarter, a follower of a 'native'
tradition to the South, a witch to the West, and a follower of the Northern
traditions to (surprise, surprise) the North. The Gorsedd ceremonies are
open to all, as is initiation to the Gorsedd, which always forms a part
of each celebration. Among the initiated bards of the Gorsedd are members
of at least eight other druid orders, many folk from the wider Pagan community,
and a number of Christians including an ordained minister.
The Gorsedd was born in 1993 at the last series of inter-faith conferences
organised by Tim Sebastian of the Secular Order of Druids (SOD), work now
taken up by Emma Resrall Orr who, as well as being joint chief of the BDO,
is also inter-faith officer of OBOD. Emma is currency setting up a Druid-Christian
conference to take place in Oxford in February and a multi-faith "gathering
in October .
Another vibrant trend in Druidry in recent years is the growing recognition
of what it means for us as druids to be custodians of one of the native
traditions of our land. What this implies has been more fully realised as
a result of our contacts with native traditions of other lands, particularly
America. The sweat lodge of the Plains Indians has been widely adopted by
druids. Many, myself included, have gained powerful insights into our own
path through the cleansing, healing and visionary experiences of the sweat
lodge ritual. Several druids are currently at work formulating native British
sweat lodge rites.
The last few years have also seen the development of something called 'Celtic
shamanism', which is a blend of Celtic tradition and various techniques
culled from modern tribal cultures. This trend has led to the re-emergence
within Druidry of such concepts as shapeshifters, animal helpers, guides
and totems. Individual druids who have taken this path have gained power
which is feeding back into Druidry as a whole.
We are also rediscovering the role of the bard as word-magician. In the
English language the term 'bard' has come to mean simply a poet, but there
was much more than chat to the original role. Poetry itself was regarded
as one of the primary gift s of the Goddess. This is because its use was
magical rather than mundane. Poems were sung, often accompanied by a harp
or Iyre, and there were invocations, rather like those that energise the
song lines of the native Australians. A new generation of bards are now
beginning to recover the magic of these life-enhancing songs, and are returning
to ancient sacred sites to
recover sections of the great song of the land, the sacred song that revitalises
the earth and its indwelling spirits. This is already beginning to have
a healing effect on individuals, on society and on the land. We have a long
way to go in this work, but the energy is building rapidly. Through the
restoration of spirit links with the land, some bards are also involv ing
themselves in direct action against those who harm Mother Earth. Road builders
now find sacred singers, story tellers and Earth-magicians standing in their
way. Gorsedds of Bards are being formed on sites threatened with develop
ment.
So modern Druidry is becoming increasingly 'shamanic', Earth-centred and
Goddess-inspired. In short, we are rediscovering our Pagan roots and finding
that they are very strong, run very deep, and provide us with the support
and nourishment we need to grow as new Ieaves on the sacred tree.
Philip Shallcrass is a druid priest and teacher, artist, poet singer-songwriter,
storyteller, and editor of the journal The Druids' Voice. He is currently
writing a book The Way of the Bard: A Practical Guide to Celtic Bardcraft
and a history of the bardic tradition. Readers may write to him c/o British
Druid Order, PO Box 29, St-Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex TN37 7YP.
This article first appeared in Pagan Dawn Magazine