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The Elements of the Druid Tradition
By: Philip Carr-Gomm

"It is often said - usually by those who have not studied the subject - that the world-view and philosophy of the old Druids is lost beyond recall...... [but] it is by no means impossible to regain in the present age the spirit of original Druid philosophy. It is essential indeed to do so; for a revival of the old Druidic way of thought, acknowledging the sanctity of the living earth and all its creatures, seems the only alternative to planetary dissolution."
-John Michell, Stonehenge

Foreword
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.

What does the word 'Druid' mean?

"Among the Celts and Gauls there are people called Druids or Holy Ones."
~Diogenes Laertius

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.

Afterword
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.


http://druidry.org