(Nimue)
David's recent post on high magic struck me as significant and something I need to respond to. When most people think of Druids - contemporary or historical - what they tend to envisage is the beardy sage in a white robe, doing some involved ritual, probably at Stonehenge. For many people, Druidry conjures up an image of ceremony, formal ritual, tightly written scripts and pageantry. Unlike witchcraft, Druidry doesn't always carry those same connotations of spellwork, but may well suggest something high brow, through to pretentious.
What attracted me to the idea of Druidry wasn't that at all. It had everything to do with my own feeling that Druidry and folklore naturally relate to each other. A feeling I evidently have in common with David. I know this is a notion a lot of modern Druids find resonant. Many of us are drawn to earthier takes on Druidry, to activism, simple living, the image of the bard, to a mix of mirth and reverence, and the idea of raising boils with satires.
I know many Druids who are deeply invested in their particular landscape, history and local traditions. When you're thinking about ritual on those terms it makes little sense to go all grandiose and verbose. Talking to the dirt, the mud, the fallen leaves, the dead, the rain and other grubby things, there's no room to be 'high'. My rituals have always been low to the ground, more celebration than ceremony.
It is interesting to me that the word 'druid' has the power to conjure up such radically different ideas for people. As with anything whose truth is uncertain, there's room in the idea of Druidry for people to make it be whatever they want. So for some, Druids are awful non-Christians practicing human sacrifice and being barbarous at the edge of the Roman empire. For some, Druids are wise and noble proto-Christians. Some see power and politics, usually alongside the mighty beards and pristine white robes. Some see nature worshiping hippies. History has no definitive answers for us in this regard.
Projecting is a very human sort of activity. We bring what we know and what we feel to anything that isn't clearly defined for us. It happens with all religions. People who want justifications for violence will find that in their sacred texts. People who want to heal the sick and care for the downtrodden will find the inspiration for that in the exact same sacred texts. What we find when we come to religion is often simply a reflection of ourselves, and I have no idea if it's even possible to go beyond that.
I find my Druidry at the margins and under the sky. I'm drawn to the patches of dirt closest to me, not the idea of a massive sun cult or an ancient order. I'm not orderly by nature. How we do our Druidry is very likely an expression of who we are, and I find I am fine with that. I don't know that definitive truth does anyone much good spiritually.
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