The Solitary Practitioner's Basic DRUIDISM FAQ
- version 3 August 1995
-
- compiled by CATHBAD
Thanks be to Raven, Jaguar, JJ Kane, Kami Landy, Iarwain,
Branwen Heartfire, Erynn, and everyone at Nemeton-L. Special
thanks to The Gods!
This document is distributed on the net as a public service.
It may be copied at will, provided the authorship, version, and
date remains intact. This document is not an authoritative scholarly
reference on the Druids, nor on Celtic society, though it uses
such references. It is a pointer, a guide, an introduction. TABLE
OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
- Why Druidism in the 20th Century?
- Who were the Druids?
- What are the Celtic Nations?
- What are the sources by which we can know the Druids?
- Did the Druids practice human sacrifice?
- Why haven't you called them "priests" yet?
- What are the Druidic holy days?
- What did the ancient Druids believe?
- Earth, Air, Fire, Water; Isn't that Celtic?
- What Gods did the Druids worship?
- What is the difference between Wicca and Druidism?
- Were the Druids Shamen?
- Was Stonehenge a Druidic temple?
- What about Glastonbury?
- Are there any other Druidic sites?
- What is Arthurian Druidism?
- What modern Druid organisations exist?
- Internet Contacts
1. INTRODUCTION
I am a solitary practicing Druid, or Celtic Pagan, or what-have-you;
labelling myself I thought to be unnecessary. I don't belong
to an order or coven, not because I feel these groups do not
have merit, but because they do not always agree, and because
at the moment I prefer solitary practice. I have Celtic ancestors.
I like learning about the ancient Celts, specifically their beliefs
and practices, and I have a desire to emulate them in a manner
valid for myself and for this century. If you agree with one
or more of these statements, you are probably drawn to Druidism,
and this FAQ is for you. This third edition includes a few new
questions, and attempts to remove some value-judgements that
crept into its predecessor.
2. WHY DRUIDISM IN THE 20TH CENTURY?
Why not? :) Actually, there are a number of good reasons for
modern people to consider Druidism. Some see it as a way to reconnect,
or "ground" themselves in history, or to improve their
relationship with their ancestors (if they are of Celtic descent).
Some are attracted by the relationship with the natural world
that a Druid cultivates, or by the artistic, creative methods
used to build that relationship. There are those who choose Druidism
over other forms of neopaganism. Perhaps a reason for that is
because Druidism is not only a branch of neopaganism, but also
the subject of academic study. Druidism is often of interest
to archaeologists, historians, and mythographers who don't necissarily
consider themselves Druids, or even remotely pagan. Thus, there
is a wealth of serious academic material available concerning
the Druids, and many discover Druidism through it. Finally, there
are those who choose Druidism over more conventional religions
that are more accepted and widespread, such as Christianity.
Christianity belongs to a middle-eastern language, culture, and
mythology-set; Druidism belongs to the Indo-European set from
which we in the West inherit virtually all our other cultural
practices, including our languages. An exploration of Druidism
is for many people a resurgence in Western Europe's indigenous
spirituality. Many seek Asatru to revive Northern Europe's spirituality
for much of the same reason. If mainstream religions cannot provide
answers to those "deep", spiritual, and philosophical
questions, Druidism or another form of neopaganism often provides
them.
3. WHO WERE THE DRUIDS?
I suppose the main thing that can be said about the Druids
is that they were members of a professional class in their culture,
the Celtic Nations of Western Europe and the British Isles. (The
Druids were not an ethnic group; their culture, the Celtic culture,
was.) They filled the roles of judge, doctor, diviner, mage,
mystic, and clerical scholar. Many Druids were women; the Celtic
woman enjoyed more freedom and rights than women in any other
contemporary culture, including the rights to enter battle, and
divorce her husband. Though through history we have lost much
information about them, though this will be discussed later.
4. WHAT ARE THE CELTIC NATIONS?
Alba (Scotland), Breizh (Brittany), Cymru (Wales), Eire (Ireland),
Kernow (Cornwall), and Mannin (Man).
5. WHAT ARE THE SOURCES BY WHICH WE CAN KNOW THE DRUIDS?
The main sources we have on what they did are Roman historians,
who wrote on them as they were in the process of conquering Gaul
(what is now France; a variant of gaelic is still spoken in Brittany)
so there is that political problem, and they equated Celtic deities
with Roman ones as well. The main authors are Julius Caesar,
Pliny, Tacitus, Strabo, and Diodorus Siculus. One Roman author,
Diogenes, placed the Druids on a list of the ancient world's
wisest philosophers; a list which included the Magi of Persia
and the Brahmin of India. But in my point of view, the best sources
are the mythologies. There we can read of what the Druids did,
how they behaved, what some of them said, and though the medieval
manuscripts that preserved them were written by Christian monks,
much wisdom yet remains there. In Ireland the chief myth cycles
are the Ulster Cycle, the Fionn Cycle, and the Invasion Races.
In Wales, the major myths are contained in a book called The
Mabinogion. In this century, a number of folklore collections
were made of remaining oral-tradition stories.
If you were to expand your search to include historical and
archeological records, you might have more luck, and may arouse
less suspicion if your area is not very pagan friendly. In fact
what you will be doing is precisely what the Druids did, for
they had to study so many academic, legal, and spiritual subjects
they became walking encyclopaedias. The problem is that the Druids
were the subject of a number of persecutions and conquests, not
only by the Romans, but also by later Christians. Some Druidic
wisdom was censored, evolved into something unrecognisable, or
just plain lost. A modern person seeking the Druid's path must
attempt to reconstruct the wisdom based on the sources discussed
above. The Romans never invaded Ireland, so that country became
a haven for Druidic learning for a while. After St. Patrick and
St. Columcille, Ireland evolved an unique and beautiful blend
of Christianity and Druidism, called Culdee Christianity, headquartered
on the Isle of Iona, which was later to be eradicated by the
invading English. Catholicism eventually became a point of national
identity in Ireland (and without it they may never have become
independant).
6. DID THE DRUIDS PRACTICE HUMAN SACRIFICE?
The Romans recorded that they sacrificed humans, specifically
condemned criminals. Judicial executions were no different elsewhere
in Europe, including Saxony. The Romans wrote that such victims
were tied into huge wicker man-shaped effigies and burned alive.
The archeological record does reveal a number of sacrificial
deaths, such as "triple-deaths" where the victim was
drowned, stoned, and impaled on a spear simultaneously. Some
mythologies describe one person's life being sacrificed so that
a terminally ill VIP would survive, thus indicating a belief
in a cosmic balance of forces.
However, there is some debate over this; it may have been
anti-Druid propaganda. Julius Caesar had good reason to make
the Druids look bad, because, after all, he was trying to conquer
them. It would fuel interest in his campaign back home if he
could prove that the Celts engaged in such barbaric practices.
Yet the Romans would kill people in gladitorial games, for the
entertainment of the people. The Druids, if they did sacrifice
people, could claim religious sanction. The archeological record
is ambiguous if such sacrifice was judicial or ceremonial, or
even if it ocurred at all.
Rest assured that modern Druids do not sacrifice anything
at all.
7. WHY HAVEN'T YOU CALLED THEM "PRIESTS" YET?
The best word for them would seem to be "priests",
yet I am reluctant to use it for two reasons: The Romans never
used it, and because Druids didn't preach to congregations as
priests do. Rather, they had a clientele, like a mystic or a
shaman would have. Caesar and his historians never referred to
them as priests, but perhaps they could not recognise them as
such; the Roman priesthood, officiating over an essentially political
religion, were primarily teachers and judges, with less emphasis
on being seers or diviners.
8. WHAT ARE THE DRUIDIC HOLY DAYS?
There was a series of fire-festivals, occurring at 12-week
intervals, and spaced between the seasonal festivals of solstices
and equinoxi (thus, a festival every six weeks.) These fire-festivals
would last three days, beginning at sunset on the first day,
and would be the best time for sacrifices and divinations. They
are:
Samhain (Nov. 1) Feast of the Dead, and beginning of the new
year. Death came before Life in the Druidic cycle, because before
new growth can occur, there must be room for it. On this day
the boundry between this world and the Otherworld is thinnest,
and so it is a time to remember all those who died during the
year.
Imbolc (Feb 1) The Return of Light. The ewes begin lactating
around this time of year, and it is a sign that winter is coming
to an end. Perhaps divinations were cast to determine when spring
would come (from this practice we might have got Groundhog Day.)
Beltaine (May 1) The Fires of Bel. Spring has arrived, and
the people give thanks. This was a day of fertility and life,
often the choice day for marriages.
Lughnasad (Aug 1) The Feast of Lugh. The essential harvest
festival, to give thanks to the Earth for Her bounty. The name
is a reference to the Irish god Lugh of the Long Hand, son of
the Sun.
I have heard that Australians who practice these festivals
do it in reverse order, because these dates are for northern-hemisphere
seasons. It would make sense for them to celebrate Beltaine on
Nov.1, for example.
In Wales, there was an annual festival called the Eisteddfod,
which was a bardic musical and poetry competition. It still exists,
alternating between North and South Wales.
Great bonfires were built on hilltops and kept burning throughout
the whole of the fire festivals. By day, there would be carnival-like
celebrations, and by night, serious rituals. Cattle were driven
between bonfires to purify them, and couples would run and leap
over the flames, often completely naked, also for purification
(and it was fun!) Some sites were centers for the "perpetual
chant", where Druids in rotation would chant incantations
without stop; during festivals the entire community would join
the chant.
Astronomical celebrations (the solstices and equinoxi) have
only passing reference in the source literature (i.e. the myths,
Caesar, etc.), but astronomical lines are found everywhere in
the archaeology. There are hundreds of stone circles, round barrows,
menhirs, etc. with solar, lunar, and/or stellar alignments. Perhaps
the most impressive is New Grange, Ireland, where direct sunlight
penetrates the inner chamber only on Midsummer morning.
9. WHAT DID THE ANCIENT DRUIDS BELIEVE?
The poetic tradition in Druidism comes from the method the
Celts used to trace their lineage and history. Written records
were distrusted for the most part, and though a runic writing
system called Ogham did exist, it wasn't used for much beyond
burial markers and landmarks. To write things down is to weaken
the power of edidic memory, whic the Druids cultivated carefully,
and to dishonour the thing written down. Druids in training had
to learn all the Bardic poetry, in a manner we would call sensory
deprivation. Poetic inspiration was an important spiritual practice,
which the Welsh have focused on in their eisteddfod. In Irish
myth there was a deity of poetry (Brigid).
The Druids taught reincarnation, and the omnipresence of a
spiritual Otherworld, that is sometimes accessible to us, and
particularly close at certain times of the year, like at Samhain.
Oak was the most important symbol in druidic lore, as it is strong,
tall, and very long-lived. Mistletoe was said to have healing
qualities. Other important trees were the Yew, for its offspring
grew from the dead stump of its parent, representing perpetually-regenerating
life. The Ogham alphabet was a list of tree-names. Trees are
important because they are bridges between the realms of Land
and Sky, they communicate Water between these realms. When the
Realms of Land, Sea and Sky meet, as within a tree or at a seashore
for example, great power could manifest, and such places were
best for poetic composition or spellcasting. Stones could channel,
store, and direct earth-energy, and thus were used for markers,
set in circles, and libations were poured over them in sacrifice.
Fire-worship is strong as well, but doesn't fit the Greek
four-element picture. Fire is a thing unto itself, with the dual
qualties of destructiveness and cleansing power. It is a spiritual
principle, because it is always reaching up to the sky. This
may be why they built those hilltop fires. Poetic inspiration
is said to be a fire in the head, so Brigid is a fire-deity as
well.
Druidic philosophy points to knowledge as the key to self
awareness, else certain mythological holy-places of greatest
import would not be associated with wisdom, ex. the Well of Wisdom
(auspiciously located at the center of the world), the Spiral
of Annwyn, the Cauldron of Cerridwen, and the 4 Wise Men of the
4 Cities in the North. Mythic places are inaccessible but also
not inaccessible, for it requires a leap of faith to find them;
the Well of Wisdom is at the bottom of the ocean, but to Sea
Gods like Manannan, the ocean is as the sky.
The Druidic pursuit of knowledge would seem to suggest that
ethical action is action that brings you closer to Wisdom. I
would not seek to define wisdom at this point in the manner that
the Celts may have known it, yet here the correlation between
druidic wisdom and Eastern mysticism is striking; one considers
the bhuddist Eightfold Path as a perscription of right actions
designed to bring one closer to Nirvana. Wisdom becomes a kind
of knowledge above ordinary knowledge (like facts), a form of
total-awareness, or even a state of mind. Archeological evidence
of "beehive" huts, secluded mountian shelters, etc.
suggest the Druids used them to achieve higher states of consiousness
in pursuit of this mythic wisdom. It is said that the pillars
of the awen, /|\ stand for truth, knowledge, and justice; the
triskele (which looks something like a spiral with three arms)
also demonstrates the number three as spiritually signifigant,
and may stand for any triad though usually understood to stand
for the realms of Earth, Sea, and Sky.
The warrior-hero Oisin gives us this in a mythic way, a statement
I shall arbitrarily name Oisin's Answer because it is how he
answered St. Patrick's question of what kept the Fianna (a band
of outlaw-warriors) together:
"It is what sustained us though our days, the truth that
was in our hearts, and strength in our arms, and fulfillment
in our tounges."
10. EARTH, AIR, FIRE, WATER; ISN'T THAT CELTIC?
Yes and no. The Druidic elemental cosmology may have had eight
or nine individual elements, of environmental rather than physical
nature (such as clouds, stars, oceans, etc.) The Four Elements
is the invention of Pythagoras, (father of western occult numerology,
among other things) and exploring Greeks and Romans may have
identified his thought with the Celtic metaphysics they encountered.
It is known, however, that Pythagoras was aware of Druidic thought,
and may have travelled to the Celtic nations. The number Three
was usually more signifigant than others.
11. WHAT GODS DID THE DRUIDS WORSHIP?
This depends on the nation you look at. Ireland had different
gods than Wales, who had further different gods than Gaul. Another
point to consider is not only were gods known by different names,
but many of the names were deemed too holy to pronounce aloud.
(thus the common oath: "I swear by the god my tribe swears
by".) Here is a brief, by no means authoritative, list of
deities.
The Tuatha de Danann (Tribe of the Goddess Danu) was the name
of the Irish pantheon, for the Sidhe (faeries) were descended
from Her. Ironicly, Danu herself never makes a personal appearance
in the myths, but perhaps she is already everywhere, like the
land. Certainly, some European rivers are named after her like
the Danube and Dneiper. Some names you may recognise:
- Lugh Lamh-fada (Long Handed), Son of the Sun.
- Dagda the Good (good not by his moral disposition but by
the
- diversity of his skills)
- Nuada Argat-lamh (Silver Hand) a two-time king of the Dannans.
- Morrigu, Babd, and Macha (a triple goddess of War.)
- Brigid (a triple goddess of Fire, Poetry, and the Forge)
- Diancecht, god of healing
- Manannan mac Lir, god of the sea and master of magic
Welsh mythology tends to focus on the actions of heroes, and
their interaction with gods. The primary source is the Mabinogion,
a compendium of legends from Wales' mythic time.
- Arawn, lord of the Annwyn (the underworld)
- Math ap Mathonwy, the quintessential wizard
- Pwyll, lord of Davyd
- Rhiannon, (wife of Pwyll) Goddess associated with horses
and the Underworld.
- Cerridwen, (the hag) mother of the poet Taliesson
- Lyr, god of the sea
- Manawyddan
Gaulish deities are the focus of Caesar's records. He drew
analogies between his own Roman gods and those he discovered
in Gaul.
- Herne the Hunter
- Taranus, Teutates
- Esus, Hu'Hesu, the Dying God
- Cernunnos, Master of the Wild Hunt, or the Animal Lord/Green
Man
- Epona, The Horse Goddess
Not all modern Druids worship the gods by name. There is some
evidence that the Druids of old believed in a kind of universal
Life Force, flowing from a central place (such as the Irish Well
of Wisdom or the Welsh Spiral of Annwyn), to and from all living
things. Perhaps the best modern description is Obi-Wan's description
of the "Force", from the famous Star Wars films. :)
12. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WICCA AND DRUIDISM?
The present form of wicca is less than a century old, though
it follows a tradition of wisdom that is as old as Druidism,
if not more. Wicca emphasizes the Earth, and the Earth-Mother,
Druidism has equal emphasis on the Earth, Sea, and Sky. (otherwise
known as the Three Realms.) Wicca has two deities, The Goddess
(in her triple maiden-mother-crone aspects) and The Horned God.
Druidism has many gods, who are not aligned in polarity but exist
independantly. Druidic triple godesses are not linked by matrilineal
line (like maiden-mother-crones) but by generation, as sisters:
Morrigu/Macha/Babd (war & battle goddesses), Banba/Fodla/Erin
(land & earth godesses) for example. Druids are not bound by
the Wiccan Rede; perhaps the closes thing to an ethical statement
is Ossian's Answer (see
This is not to say that versions of Celtic Wicca are inherently
nonvalid. Wicca occasionally borrows Celtic deities and themes
for its work, and no Celt I know has any problem with that. It
is to say, however, that historicly and academicly, Celtic Wicca
did not exist.
13. WERE THE DRUIDS SHAMEN?
This is an extremely hot topic of debate, mostly because Celtic
matters and Shamanistic matters are very popular right now, and
a synthesis of the two has been sought by many new-age authors
and practitioners. It is this author's opinion that a more meaningful
question is whether or not Druids were *similar* to shamen (and
the answer to that is probably yes) because the Druids did evolve
from an Indo-European culture that had shamanism. But to answer
the original question, I here defer to someone who knows more
about it than I do. From: inisglas [inisglas@inisglas.seanet.com]
[ quoted with permission ]
The Celts had some very specific words for their religious
functionaries and their visionaries. "Shaman" was not
one of those words. Is there something wrong with the terms that
our ancestors used, so that we must go off and find new words
with which to label our seers and priests and poets?
Druids are firmly a part of the noble social order and ruling
class, rather than being at the fringes of society. Poets more
often lived at the fringes, as shamans do. Druids could and did
bar people from participation in community sacrifices and rites.
I don't believe that this was a part of shamanic practice.
Formal training for many years in schools of druids or poets
does not seem to be a part of the shamanic framework, although
I could be wrong about this. Shamanism usually is taught either
under a single master with one or a very few students, or by
the spirits themselves. Druids and poets are described as gathering
in considerable numbers in "colleges" for the purpose
of instruction in many subjects, particularly in the cities of
Gaul. Druids and fili were considered very well-trained formal
speakers by the Romans, who sometimes sent their young sons to
be trained in oratory by Gaulish druids.
The Greeks and Romans thought of the druids as being Pythagorean
natural philosophers, with a firm and delicate grasp of mathematics.
I do not believe that the Altaic shamans are known for their
command of mathematics, nor do I believe that they have an understanding
of the metonic cycle of the sun and moon. The Gaulish druids
had a very complex calendar which is preserved in the Coligny
fragments. I have never seen any reference to shamans having
calendars of this complexity. I could simply be missing something
here.
Many Celtic "otherworld journey" tales are about
people who have gone there unwillingly and without any control
over the experience. The shaman is a master of control, and always
decides when and where sh/e will or will not go into the otherworlds.
Shamans can't be stolen away against their own will.
Shamanism as generally understood does not include possession
by spirits. The description of the Welsh awenyddon by Geraldus
Cambriensis says that these people acted "as if possessed,"
and had to be beaten or slapped severely to get them to come
back to themselves after giving oracles. Once again, the shaman
has complete control even in the deepest of trance states.
Celtic societies were literate societies. Although the druids
were said not to write down important things, they were able
and willing to keep other records in writing, using Greek for
many purposes. Patrick was said to have burned "hundreds
of druidic books" during his conversion of Ireland. Druids
and poets are described as writing down tales and poems on staves.
None of the shamanic societies that I know of were literate.
Many still do not have written languages. This is not to say
that all pre-literate societies are therefore shamanic societies.
In shamanism, there is a common theme of ascending to the
upper worlds or sky realms, while I know of no extant Celtic
tales about anyone ascending into the upper worlds to confront
Gods or spirits. Yes, Gods arrive from there, but what humans
go there? "Spirit flight" through the middle realms
to spy on one's enemies or flit through the tops of trees in
the forest isn't quite the same thing.
I know of only one tale that could be taken as a tale of a
shamanic crisis and illness (the Sickbed of Cu/ Chulainn), but
Cu/ sends his charioteer into the Si/dhe realm to check it out
for him before he goes there himself. The shaman in crisis cures
himself. Cu/ was cured by the same fairy women who beat him in
the first place.
While we have a number of shamanic elements appearing in Celtic
mythology, we don't usually have more than two or three themes
appearing in the same tale. It's my understanding that a majority
of the themes need to appear in the same person for them to be
seen as a shaman. This may be my own prejudice in the matter.
And again, it is entirely possible to have a spirit animal guardian,
to have visions, and to make voyages into otherworlds without
being a shaman. It happens in many tribal societies all the time.
Sleeping in a cave, eating berries and salmon and wearing fur
doesn't make a person a bear either.
Erynn
--- end quoted text ---
14. WAS STONEHENGE A DRUIDIC TEMPLE?
Perhaps. The question of who build Stonehenge is one of academic
debate. The theory that most people find acceptable is that since
carbon-14 dating places the construction of Stonehenge before
the rise of Druidism, they did not build it, however that does
not rule out the probability that they knew how to use it. The
solar and stellar alignments Stonehenge embodies would not have
been lost on an intelligensia so well versed in astronomy.
15. WHAT ABOUT GLASTONBURY?
Some folkloric traditions and mythographic examinations suggest
that Glastonbury Tor is the mythic Isle of Avalon. If, for example,
the nearby river were to flood, the Tor would be an island. A
certain thorn tree is said to be the descendant of the staff
of Joseph of Arimathea, which was changed into a thorn tree when
he set it there (the Thorn is sacred to faeries!), when he brough
the Grail to Britain. Avalon means "Isle of Apples",
and apple orchards do grow there. Some archaeologists believe
that, if one accounts for centuries of erosion, the sides of
the Tor are terraced into the shape of a Cretan Maze pattern.
Whether or not the region is Druidic, anyone who has meditated
by the nearby Chalice Well knows it is a holy place.
16. ARE THERE ANY OTHER DRUIDIC SITES?
There are hundreds of stone circles dotting Britain and Ireland.
The Hebrides of Scotland are famous for them. In Ireland, there
are many sacred wells dedicated to St. Bridget, am obvious borrowing
from the earlier goddess Brigid. There is Newgrange, a temple/tomb/center
for initiation rites in Ireland, thousands of years older than
the Pyramids, which is constructed to allow sunlight into the
inner chamber on Midsummer sunrise only. There is the Hill of
Temhair (Tara) which was the high seat of Irish kings, and the
stone that stands on it is thought to be the same one called
Lia Fail, Stone of Destiny, upon which the Ard Ri was inagurated,
and if worthy the stone would cry out.
17. WHAT IS ARTHURIAN DRUIDISM?
The Arthurian legends are unique because they embody the delicate
transition period between Druidism and Christianity. Christianity
was well entrenched as the religion of the nobility, yet Druidism
remained in the form of folk-practices. Misty islands and otherworldly
hunting expeditions, which comprise much of Arthurian legend,
clearly originate from the older Celtic mythologies where such
encounters are signs of the presence of the Otherworld. The Irish
Druid Uath Mac Immoman challenged a warrior to a mutual beheading
in much the same way The Green Knight (who can be seen as Cernunnos
The Green Man) challenged Sir Gawain. The Perilous Bridge that
Lancelot has to cross is similar to the bridge at Scatha's School
for Heroes that Cu/ Chullain must cross. And perhaps all those
"wise hermits", that the Knights are always running
into, are Druids in hiding. Merlin himself is now thought to
have been a Druid, by some modern historical fiction authors
and other academic speculation, since he too was an advisor to
a king, a prophet, and a wilderness recluse. To stretch it a
bit, perhaps the Grail follows those magical cauldrons like those
posessed by Dagda, which could feed armies and raise the dead,
and by Cerridwen, which was a font of wisdom.
It is worth noting that the sword called Excaliber may have
come from legends surrounding a real sword. The Celts were Iron-workers,
ahead of most other contemporary cultures. Iron-age technology
helped the Celts defeat the Dannans (who were bronze-workers).
Around Arthurian times, it was discovered that nickel-iron from
meteorites could be used to create stainless steel, and swords
layered with this metal would never bend, scratch, break, nor
rust. Weapons like that would have been seen as magical, and
develop names and reputations independant of their owners.
18. WHAT MODERN DRUIDIC ORGANISATIONS EXIST?
In the U.K., there is the Order of Bards, Oviates, and Druids.
OBOD was founded in 1717, and has a correspondance course available
worldwide. The OBOD encourages a spiritual understanding rooted
in nature and the land, and protection of the Earth. Write to:
The Secretary, OBOD
PO box 1333
Lewes, E. Sussex, England
BN7 3ZG
In the U.S.A., there is Ar nDraiocht Fein, meaning roughly
"Our Own Druidism". ADF is the fastest growing Druid
organisation in the world. Its founder, Isaac Bonewitz, emphasizes
accountable and highly qualified clergy, with a whole Indo-European
focus. Write to:
ADF
PO box 516
E. Syracuse, NY 13057-0516
Keltria is a positive neo-pagan Druidic path focusing on the
Celtic pantheons and the triads of Ancestors, Nature Spirits,
and Gods. They offer several resources including a book of ritual,
a quarterly journal and a correspondance course for members.
Write to:
Keltria
P.O. Box 33284
Minneapolis, MN 55243
19. INTERNET CONTACTS:
ADF: kithoward@delphi.com
ftp> ftp.lysator.liu.se OBOD: oaktreepress@e-world.com
Keltria: Keltria@aol.com
Nemeton-L (a mailing list): majordomo@pentagon.io.com
Lynx> http://www.speakeasy.org/~mimir/nemeton.html
Other FAQ's, other related Celtica files, reading lists, etc.
ftp> bronze.coil.com/pub/nemeton
Lynx> http://www.ssc.org/~athomps/pagan
email> bmyers@uoguelph.ca |