Druidry

And like I say, I've taken them to court as much as they've taken to me.

But going back to sort of Druidry and nature, I mean, I find a misconception.

A lot of the Americans and the Christians are of the belief that we as pagans worship nature.

We don't actually worship nature.

The lack of archaeological signs of sacrificial graves in Celtic sites argues against routine bloodletting.

Modern Neo-Druidry and the Romanticism of the 18th century have reinvented Druids as guardians of nature and ancient knowledge, projecting contemporary concerns onto an undefined past.

This reimagining is useful for cultural identity, but it also blurs what scholars can say about the Iron Age priesthood from a purely historical standpoint.

Political power structures of Celtic Britain suggest that Druids held roles beyond religious duties, possibly as judges and teachers of law within tribal societies.

Water may be ritually represented by the cup, chalice, cauldron, or bowl.

Within Druidry, water becomes and forms the other half of the fire and water ceremony.

Water is associated with love.

feeling sensitivity, receptivity, and passivity.

Bearded, white-robed priests practicing mystical arts in sacred groves or places like Stonehenge.

These are romantic stereotypes dating back to 18th century English writers and are the same stereotypes that have inspired Druid revival groups, sometimes called Neo-Druidism.

But setting aside these stereotypes, what do we actually know about the Druids? For you druid fans, you won't be happy to hear that we know very little.

We're relying almost entirely on biased secondhand sources from Greek and Roman authors and some ambiguous archaeological evidence.

Well, I'm not an advocate for worshiping trees.

I would not push you towards Druidism.

I don't want you to worship on the winter solstice.

I do believe that the entry of the Son of God into the world that the incarnation, that God sending his son into the world is something that is worthy of our acknowledgement.

Talk about that in

Druidism as well.

You know, you mentioned it in Druidism.

There's so much because it was all...

Yeah, me too.

Because everything was passed, as you were talking about as well, it's all really passed down.

So much is lost.

So you have this new wave of Druidism coming in.

So think of all the things that you've gotten to learn and grow from that you only became aware of because of something perhaps that you might see as less than veritable.

in the beginning you know when I got into Celtic Druidry and Wicca I thought it was real as I thought it was pretty real witchcraft and pretty real Druidry but that was just the early nineties and Llewellyn having very loose standards at the time that allowed authors to say that stuff and say this is the modern incarnation of historical witchcraft or this is the Druidry which has never gone away because it has been kept by and passed on generation after generation and is now being shared by DJ Conway.

today in the 1990s but but those fantastical approaches to those things led me to where I'm at today so even videos like this that don't really help you decipher what the text is actually saying or penetrate its mysteries it does inspire us it does encourage us just like books like the gallery of magic and all kinds of other things do and that's not a bad thing I mean I just finally for the first time ever finally got a copy of this book Some of you know this book.

Finally got a copy of this.

And they kind of drew me in.

And so and for me, that was kind of my thing as well is a big part of it was as I was first studying in paganism, I started with Druidry as well.

Yeah.

was learning from Obad.

You know, even when she was called out by Loki about certain things, she's just like, really? Nobody else cares.

Yeah.

So what do you think are, I think we kind of touched about it in this just recent thing, but what do you think are some other misconceptions about heathenry that may be? someone just stepping in might be concerned about, or they're more like, yeah, I'm not sure, or maybe just perceived from either other aspects of paganism, Druidry or Wiccans or in general.

I suppose one of the misconceptions is the idea that the connection with Vikings, I suppose you could say, because I mean, obviously the Viking age was an actual thing that happened and And there's obviously the TV show Vikings as well, which is a brilliant series and I really loved it.

But at one point was the norm the regular, right? We've been so ingrained and homogenized as a society, as a world, that we've let certain things become this taboo, bad thing.

So if it's not witchcraft, it's voodoo, and it's Santeria, and it's paganism, and Druidry, and all of these things that... because we don't understand and because it's other, suddenly it's bad or it's not to be touched or messed with or not to be interacted or even like, it's so bizarre.

I don't know why.

And again, if it's not that, it's something else.