Druidry is a creative way of life, a way of being, a way of relating to life events and to the world around us.
What Druids do
It does not necessarily begin like that, of
course. When we start out on the Druid way, Druidry is very much what
we do, consciously, as we follow a course of study or work through a book,
learning how to meditate, to do ritual and to create using the concepts and
techniques of the Druid way. Indeed, a short answer to 'what is
Druidry?' is that it is simply 'what Druids do'. But as we travel
further along the path, we may well find that our take on Druidry and what
it is will change, as the practice of Druidry changes us from within.
Becoming Druid
Slowly at first, then faster, we take steps to
become Druid. Our practice expands as we follow a course of study, as
we become comfortable with meditation and ritual, and learn how to connect
with awen and call on its creative power, perhaps in making music or in
learning a craft or skill. We learn to create our own inner grove, to
walk the inner landscapes of our soul, meet our guides, guardians and power
animals.
We learn ways of divination and healing. We travel in search of our ancestors and meet and talk with them. We may find at this stage that we reach such an intensive pitch of practice, that it becomes impossible to sustain in the long-term if we do not have the luxury of being either a hermit or a recluse!
Then there may be what feels like a cooling-off, a loss of drive. Certainly there was for me, and it coincided with the years I spent working in the Druid grade, and for a while after. My Druidry began to feel learned by rote, inauthentic and derivative, not my own. It was a difficult and bewildering process when, slowly, all the previously 'essential' practices - ritual, inner journeying, even meditation - fell away. For a while I was lost, but ultimately I found myself accessing the core of my Druidry, pure, clean, solid. What I had found was a knowledge of myself as Druid and an attitude, a view and a focus on life, rooted in the Wiltshire landscape and in my relationship to it. I understood that I did not need to 'do Druidry'. I simply was Druid.
Being Druid
And now that I am
Druid, essentially, there is Druidry in all that I do. I have begun to
re-craft my practice, learning again the basics of the Druid way, letting my
doing of the Druid way come from within, from the authentic voice of my heart and
soul. The irony
is, I guess, that I am recreating a practice apparently little different
from how it was when I was studying in the Bardic and Ovate grades.
Yet it is different, because I am different, changed by Druidry. Rather than
doing Druidry, I am Druid, and what I do as Druid is my own authentic
Druidry.
So what
is Druidry?
Druidry, then, is what Druids do. Ideally, it's what they do from the
core of their being, their own honest, authentic way of reverent living.
It will probably include some form of meditation, and some form of ritual,
but it doesn't have to. It will probably involve the practice of some
craft or skill, but that is not essential. It will probably be a Pagan
or Pagan-friendly path, but it doesn't have to be. You can be
Christian, or Jewish, or Buddhist, or atheist, and still be Druid. You
can be Druid in your heart even if you are tone-deaf, cack-handed, with two
left feet and if the only thing you've ever created is a mess. And
why? Because you can still create a meaningful life for yourself and
for those around you, living reverently and lightly upon the earth, attuned
of the turning of the seasons and of the passing seasons of your life.
To live creatively, honestly, lovingly upon the sacred land - that is
Druidry.
- All that we do is Druidry - Druidry in all that we do -