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.