I've been checking out druidry sites and they seem to say that druids can be monotheistic, duotheistic, polytheistic (or if you don't believe in deities at all like myself), pantheist or animist - I just thought they believed in the awen and no deities.
I am interested in the views of druids on this site and would like to know if this is a true picture of druidry, or do most druids tend to lean towards just one of these???

This is one of the oldest of the modern Druidic books. Well established, good introduction

Best wishes,

Marion.

Thanks for that, will get a copy - have you by any chance read "Living Druidry" by Emma Restall-Orr??? (just wondering if it was worth getting?)

Also, a good way of finding out is to head to one of the open circles. Druidic groups are very open about their practices. There's a lot of events held at Avebury and Stone Henge.

Check out this and this. Both organised by the Druid Network and the British Druid Order.

Another good bunch who hold a few get togethers is OBOD - I like these guys quite a bit.

I've interpreted for both OBOD and Avebury/Stonehenge events and they're a welcoming enough bunch - OBOD perticularly.

Go along, check them out, ask some questions

Best wishes,

Marion.

Oooh, I interpreted for Emma too - she is a phenomenal speaker. Haven't read her work though.

Good luck with your explorations. It's an interesting area I'm not a druid but I’ve met a few. Tend to be quite open to talking about it.

I am currenlty reading Living Druidry - it is pretty good, but quite different from what I expected. I am a christian, so believe in a sopreme deity, Emma Restall Orr doesn't seem to.

I would just like to say many thanks to both of you - you've been very useful!

I've got Living Druidry and I really like it. It's not to everyone's taste, and she can be a bit... poetic. But it's very much her perception of her path and so that's fair enough, it's not a "how to be a Druid manual". Which actually I quite like as I think that everyone has to find their own path.

I like the fact that she's a hard Polytheist as well, it makes a nice change from all those books about one divinity etc as it's something I can more personally relate to and ties in more closely with my own experiences.

Are there any 'how to be a druid' books that you would recommend?
I have read Druid Mysteries by Carr Gomm and a book on celtic spirituality by soemone MacKinnon whihc was a bit woolt. Am really enjoying Living Druidry but am left with the question of 'where do I fit in here?' I s'pose coming from a background of dogma and black and white spirituality part of me is finding the' find your own path, make your own way' message hard to get a hold on - I want someone to say 'this is what druids belive, do and this is how you can fit it in with your christian faith and experinece' Pipe dreams I know but hey! All advice and wisdom welcome!

There are quite a few Christian Druids, it's one of the few largely pagan faiths that seem to sit with that. I saw Emma interviewed on TV about five years ago saying that both Christians and pagans could be Druids. Which I found to be an interesting statement.

Churchill was purportedly a Druid and, if I had to guess, more of a Christian than he was a pagan

With all due respect mate, gerrof yer arse and go to some of the events. Might be a way for you to travel but treat it as a pilgrimage or a journey of learning. Go and meet some of the people practicing it today, take part in/observe a ritual or three, make some contacts, ask some questions, start some arguments and see what you think.

The bible set the standard on 'how to be a....' books, it's a dangerous world to slip in to. Full of people who are more than willing to tell you how you should, and all with convincing theories and citations to back it up.



Druidry is a highly animistic worldview. That's one of the primary tenets. However, all soul originates from somewhere and as with most modern heathen beliefs and pretty much all tribal religions, that somewhere is one life energy.

If you do like the idea of Druidry though, get used to singing. They do a lot of it under the name of 'awening'. All of the above sites can give you some information on awen. It's an interesting idea which is very prominent in modern Druidry but not featured in any of the other modern pagan belief systems to the same extent.

Do read, but get out there and talk to people too. Or go stand outside for a bit and talk to the world. Going about looking for the holy grail of Druidic instruction pamphlets isn't going to develop your soul in quite the same way

Besides, you might think they're all a bunch of prats when you meet them Give up on the whole idea...or wonder what they're doing wrong in implimenting the books. Y'never know, you might not want to fit in there. Always a possibility.

Best wishes,

Marion.

With all due respect mate, gerrof yer arse and go to some of the events. Might be a way for you to travel but treat it as a pilgrimage or a journey of learning. Go and meet some of the people practicing it today, take part in/observe a ritual or three, make some contacts, ask some questions, start some arguments and see what you think.

Easier said than done when you're a teacher and father of two wee ones!!
At least I'm seeking!

Take a squiz at these guys, they also run DruidCon. Closer to home.

Best wishes,

Marion.

Thanks - appreciate your help - sorry fi last reply was a bit sniffy, blame it on lack of sleep!

No worries, sorry if I sounded like an arrogant twat

If you can make it daan saaf to Avebury some time, it's well worth it - largest circle in Europe I think, got a village in the middle and a nice pub. Plus a museum, so educational

It's also in the Valley of the White Horses, so you can play games spotting them on the drive.

Stone Henge is nice but not quite the same as it's closed off to the public. If you go to one of the Druid Network open circles they open it up so the public can stand in the middle. It's quite an impressive experience at Winter Solstice Only problem is the main road right next to it, slightly surreal atmosphere.

Let us know how you get on up there. You might have some interesting sites of your own nearby. Check this map out for inspiration

Best wishes,

Marion.

Apologies to Dark Rose, I think this is going way off topic.

Perhaps all this (thread) can be best summed up by saying that Druids honour and revere nature. And that their beliefs are manifestations of that reverence. In which case, everyone's experience of nature is different, affects them in different ways, and makes them feel like expressing their beliefs in different ways. So it's likely that there will be polytheist, duotheist and monotheist Druids in the same way that there are polytheist, duotheist and monotheist pagans of other persuasion.

Eagledance, from that, you've probably gathered that the best advice really is to consider what nature means to YOU, and that can be achieved by just getting out there and being among it - even if it's just for 10 mins at a time

Yes, but do be careful though, it's toxic in large doses until you build up an immunity

Marion x

toxic? Explain....

No need to apologise - it's all very interesting!
Thanks for your advice, Pomona, it sounds like "Living Druidry" will be ideal, as I'm not looking for a 'how to be a druid' manual - I'm used to finding my own way!

With regards to awen, I was going to ask if the gods some druids believe in are viewed simply as manifestations of awen because my impression of Christianity was that they viewed the supreme being as separate from the Earth???? Or have I got it terribly wrong????

I was just ripping pish, sorry Some people have an allurgic reaction to nature - or being outdoors. P said about staying outside for 'just 10 minutes at a time' and it made me think about building up an immunity.

N're mind Best just to ignore me hon.

Best wishes,

Marion.

Annwn or Gwraged Annwwn are welsh fairies of the water and also there is a druidic Goddess and christianity fits in nicely with druidery as some groups sing hymns

I'm sure I've probably posted this before, 'tis the Millenium Centre in Cardiff Bay:



awen [-au, f.]
(n.) poetic gift, muse, genius; rein
Possible translations: poetic gift, a poetic gift, muse, a muse, genius, a genius, rein, a rein
(genius) Awen is the quality of genius, especially in arts.

(from: http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/fun/welsh/LexiconForms.html )

Best wishes,

Marion.

intriguingly enough if you translate in the opposite direction the word ceases to exsist said pink sheep holmes language dedector lovinging and puckishly beaming lol

It's an interesting one. Asked my aunt (a Welsh teacher) what it meant and she didn't know. I asked a couple of friends and they weren't so sure. I will now ask a couple more, including my house mates who are both bi-lingual and my friend who is first-language Welsh and see what they say. It doesn't appear to be a commonly known word. May just be one of those things that doesn't translate well.

I'd always understood "awen" in the Druid sense to mean "all" - as in spirit; connection; cosmos etc.

It is a Welsh word though. Awen, as I’d had it described, had the same meaning as above - it posed an interesting question when interpreting because it was used both as a noun and a verb, i.e.: 'to awen', which was to sing in rounds to raise the energy of inspiration. The energy of divine/creative inspiration is also bestowed in Bardic initiations at Avebury & Stone Henge.

Hmmm...

Maybe these will help, or make it more confusing:

Awen and writing

Awen as a 'complicated concept'

Awen, the holy spirit of Druidry

Best wishes,

Marion.

What about an afterlife - is the Summerlands a Druid belief?

A universally pagan belief is reincarnation, the 'summer lands' are usually a bridging gap or a place reserved for special heroes/warriors. What Christian Druids believe I have no idea.

A central part of Druidry and all pagan beliefs is that of cycles, such as the cycle of the year. If you look at what people practice, you usually get a sense of what they feel happens after death - the cycle of life, death and rebirth mimics that of the story of the year (or vice versa).

Best wishes,

Marion.

Christian Druid mates believe the same

How can you be a Christian, follow the teachings of the bible and believe that your soul is reincarnated after death. Doesn't it pose a slight conundrum in that it makes heaven and hell obsolete?

I know this sounds really dim, but i cant see or make the connection between Druidry and Christianity. Are todays Druids just a total bastardization of what they once were?

I'm new to this but feel that there must be a path that can combine the best of both christianity and druidry - I belive in one god, manifested in many forms (avatars?) and have a deep reverence and awe for nature and the presence of the divine in it...is this druidry>?

It's not necessarily druidry Eagledance, there're many pagan paths/beliefs which hold those tenents as true.

There are wiccans who believe this to be the case, and many non-path-specific pagans too.

I have to admit I personally can't get my head round combining Christianity with any paganism either, the fundamental beliefs of Christianity being that they preclude any other belief system - the acceptance of Jesus as the only way to God, rejection of all other gods and beliefs as being incompatible with "true" Christianity.

Well basically any neo-pagan 'religion' is a reinvention of what it once was. Druidry today is largely an accumulation of what the Romans and other cultures wrote about it (because it had no written records of it's own, it was an oral tradition), what historians say and largely what people want to do now and what will fit in to modern life.

Human beings and human nature probably haven't changed all that much, so through right of birth we've still inherited certain similarities I suppose (certainly biologically) - some things are important to us today as they were then, which is probably why paganism in one form or another never fully died out to Christianity. But nobody is practicing Celtic Druidry or European Druidry now as it was back then because nobody honestly knows how it was practiced or what was believed. We have a lot of educated guesses, but we don't know for certain.

Same with Christianity. What was practiced when it first came to Britain and when it first began as a cult movement would be very different to what it is today. But reality is in the hands of those who know how to read an right

Best wishes,

Marion.

Why paganism and Christianity? If it's so important to find a middle ground between two separate belief systems and worldviews, then why not combine every religion in the world into one and do away with religion all together? Why not Christianity and Buddhism or Judaism and Islam? Why balance two when you could amalgamate the lot?

Best wishes,

Marion.

Thinair - the CHristianity you describe (very dogmatic and exclusive, one way, all others going to hell etc...) is only one aspect of christianity (given, probably the most vocal!) but there are other viewpoints within the church. I see a number of my friends developing a more holistic (and healthy) faith that incorporates an environmental awareness, an acceptance of other paths, a non literal interpretation of the bible etc.

It would be nice to think that there are different viewpoints within the church, Eagledance - usually reactions to pagans from christians go something like this, either:

i) they run off, screaming "Devil Worshippers!"

or

ii) they feel sorry for you and want to 'save' you!

(disclaimer: this is meant to be lighthearted)

Anyway, like i said before, my impression was that christians viewed god as being separate from the earth and his creations, watching over them instead, whereas awen is seen as a creative lifeforce that is in everything - this is where I'm getting confused

Indeed.

When I mentioned "Awen" earlier on, it was my understanding that the Druids perceive Awen as being a life-force present in everything. And as a consequence, everything is inter-related and part of the same Awen. And there is no separateness from their gods who are also part of the Awen.

The Druids I know (and yes, I'll admit that I don't know every single druid and so therefore there may be exceptions) tend to be animist (perceive life-force (Awen) in everything) and polytheist.

That's nice Still Christianity though.

A rose by any other name...

Best wishes,

Marion.

cynic!

I think this maybe is the case, don't know. Not sure if Awen is the name for the one energy or whether that's something different. Awen is a very modern word though and nobody seems to be pretending otherwise, which is refreshing. It's not something derived from archaeology, early anthropology or anything else that is known about the ancient practices.

Nice to see something developing on it's own two feet and not trying to claim that everything has some bona fide antiquated backbone - look, we're here, we're now, we're free thinking and, crikey, the world hasn't ended

Marion.

What's cynical about that? You yourself said that 'there are other viewpoints within the church' - by that, I assumed you were talking about the Christian church. What else would you like me to call them hon? If the word 'Christian' has negative connotations for you and you'd like me to call these free thinkers something else, that's fine also - but unless you say that, they're still Christians. There may be many different beliefs within a faith - look at the forum you're posting in

Doesn't matter what the differences are within that, Buddhism, Paganism, Judaism... it's still a label they ware

Best wishes,

Marion.

Just meant don't tar us all with the same brush!

Thanks for clearing that up, Pomona, that's just as I thought

Not tarring anyone with awt.

Why's it so important to point out to us that Christians can be free thinking and environmentally aware? No one here's likely to convert because there's a freer form of Christianity, so what is it that you feel our (collectively) stereotype of a Christian is that you need to refute that?

That's a dead open question mate, please don't feel that I’m attacking you. But I’m interested. What's your presupposition of our presupposition of a Christian? LOL Be interesting to see if you're right.

Best wishes,

Marion.

Its not your perception of christians I'm on about - its the reality of what I have seen, and that scares me as I know there are other ways of being a christian without being dogmatic

Do you mean the reality of how dogmatic some Christians can be or how anti-Christian some Pagans can be?



So you are exploring other faiths (I’m assuming paganism/buddhism/judaism/islam/other isms) as a way of becoming less dogmatic as a Christian?

Best wishes,

Marion.

Apparently Saint Columba of Iona regarded Christ as the Arch Druid and fulfillment of druidry. Pope Gregory allowed the new celtic Christians to keep their sacred wells in order to ease the 'transition'. Celtic Christiantiy and druidry got on fairly well considering.


Cheers
Finvarra

I mean how dogmatic christians can be - I feel quite scared just now becuase i am looking at paganism/druidry etc and know that some in my church would see me as a lost sheep, demonised etc. But there must be a way to be more open and accepting, undogmatic etc. I am trying to find it!!

Just looking at pagan stuff really as that's what I feel drawn to, have a real thing about the innate spirituality of the land before imperial and colonial christianity came along and tried to fit us all into one size, and in so doing put God into a box!

Celtic christianity certainly has resonated with me for a long time - initially it was becuiase it was the only brand of christianity that legitimised my environmental beliefs!