A talk given by Geoff Boswell at the Druidcon
Conference in Glasgow
24th August 2003
In this talk I’ll be telling you of my thoughts of how we can add to the
role of the modern druid outside of ritual and celebration, outside of learning and teaching, and
other than history and religion. I believe in and take action in community druidry, which means
working out there with people who may not even have heard of druids. I don’t advertise my
druidry but neither do I hide it, so that when I’ve done something regarded as
‘good’ in society and folk discover I’m a druid, then perhaps it helps give
druidry a good press, sometimes turning archetypes and stereotypes on their head.
Setting the Scene
Allow me to set the scene for the rest of my presentation on Community Druidry by
indulging in some quotations of relevance:
Philip Carr-Gomm has said that:
“Until recently, those of us in the Druid community have concentrated on building a sense
of community, creating structures and ways of teaching that focus primarily on our own spiritual and
personal development – helping ourselves take charge of our reality and develop it in positive
creative ways. Now, I believe it is time to expand our focus to include more than just ourselves.
This means accepting that we have an influence in the world, that we can change things for the
better, that we don’t have to be passive consumers, and that being a spiritual being on earth
doesn’t involve simply working on our own spiritual development. In short it means dipping our
toes into the wider sea, and engaging those two contentious areas of politics and
beliefs.”
In his ‘Instruction For Life’, King Arthur Pendragon states:
“Live a good, honourable life. Then, when you get older and think back, you’ll be
able to enjoy it a second time.”
“Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.”
Mohandas K Gandhi, who combined political and social work with spiritual and
religious practices said:
“Religion is not religion if it does not help to solve the problems of this world, here
and now. If religion takes a person away from this life and this society, then it is escapism. The
search for truth is a continuous daily experience.”
Vinoba, a near contemporary of Gandhi believed that:
“one should not turn ones back on society, but that the most spiritual way to serve the
divine was to serve the society.”
Satish Kumar, editor of ‘Resurgence’ magazine feels that his
enterprises with Schumacher College are:
“The culmination of my life’s work. Here it is possible to bring together the
spiritual foundation of the monk’s life, the social concerns of the Bhoodan movement, the
ideals of peace, which I pursued during my walk around the world, and the ecological concerns of
‘Resurgence’. This is a convergence of the values and aspirations by which I have been
guided throughout my life”.
Jesus of Nazareth:
“Suffer not the little ones to come unto me”
“Be as the Good Samaritan and not pass by on the other side of the street”
“Do unto others as you would have done unto you”
Mohammed, Guru Nanak and The Buddha similarly all held the beliefs of sharing and
caring for ones community. Many of the Christian movements of the nineteenth century were founded in
an attempt to serve the people. Even Marx and Engels with Dialectical Materialism set out to help
and support the proletariat.
All the great spiritual traditions speak of help and work in the community, and
support for the weak, and dynamics in the areas of need. Our own druid tradition harks back to who I
believe were the original community workers of these isles, the druids. Caesar, Tacitus, Strabo and
others all paint a picture of healers, teachers, advisors, and helpers who served their communities,
but it is just these many aspects of ancient druidry that we so often overlook when recreating our
own modern druidry.
So why does modern druidry seemingly fail so miserably in its contract to serve?
Are we too good for such things? Don’t we have the time? Is going to our rituals eight times a
year really enough to salve the spirit? Isn’t subscribing to all the right journals and orders
what druidry is all about?
I think not. Nor do Philip Carr-Gomm, Arthur Pendragon, Emma Restall Orr and many
others in modern druidry today.
Becoming Active
So, how can we be more active in society? How can we serve the community, (however
we define ‘community’), and what do we get out of it? Never be afraid of asking what
your return is. As folk who believe in the natural order remember there is balance in everything, so
when you give, you can receive. Education, skills, experience, a sense of achievement,
qualifications as reward, and a full time post after volunteering, all these are possible and
fairly yours. Remember “As within, so without, as above, so below”. There is also the
famous druidic motto “There aint no such thing as a free lunch”.
But isn’t talking about charity work, or voluntary work or being in a job
that is ‘part of the solution not part of the problem’ something of a mundane subject?
“I came into druidry for other reasons,” you may say. Where is the mysticism? Where is
the adventure? Where is the magic?
I will paraphrase Aleister Crowley by saying that community druidry can be looked
at as “the art of causing changes in conformity with the will, and if willing something to
happen is an indirect cause of such changes then community work is magic per se”.
The urban battleground, the concrete jungle, the rural deprivation are all here,
now, in this day and in this age and therefore cry more powerfully to us than tales of ancient times
and of myths and legends we cannot change or improve. Arguably the aim of modern druids is to create
our own stories, our own legends, and to instil our own magic into the pages of social history. So,
Community Druidry is magical then. And where does all good magic start? In the circle.
The East
Hail to the east, power of air, of clarity of mind of vision. Those of us with
clarity of mind thank you air for support and guidance, but you have not yet reached everyone, oh
mighty air, and it is our service to you that we will help in that cause. Mental health is the
largest and fastest growing sector of the health industry…
If you have ever suffered with a mental illness or you know someone who has then
you will know at first hand the value of the compassion that we as druids can share.
Osho said of it “Only compassion is therapeutic, because all that is ill in
human beings arises because of a lack of love. All that is wrong with man is associated somewhere
with love… Those wounds can surface in many ways – they can become physical illness,
they can become mental illness- but deep down people are suffering from lack of love. Just as food
is needed for the body, so love is needed for the soul.”
Can I ask you, the audience of any comments about mental health issues, do you
have experiences? Do you know of some of the conditions? How do you feel that mental health
corresponds to the east, to the power of air?
The traditional supplier of health support in the UK is obviously the NHS. But how
often can you open a newspaper or turn on the TV news without some tale of lack of funds and
resources affecting service and treatment. The NHS has formed Mental Health Trusts around the UK,
but that’s a little like a bankrupt business starting satellite branches. So who picks up the
fall out in mental health? Like in most other areas of community life it is the charitable and
voluntary sector that sweeps up.
Community Mental Health is the business of invaluable organisations like
Rethink (who were formerly the National
Schizophrenia Fellowship) and Mind, both that
will have branches near you. Training is available in many forms and I myself have been undertaking
the City & Guilds Certificate In Community Mental Health. As in all areas of voluntary work
there will be positions to match your qualities and skills. Don’t look at the stigma attached
to mental health problems, its druids like you who need to redress the balance of stigma promulgated
by the media and the public and suffered by those who have the stigma thrust upon them when they can
least deal with it. If you are healthy and hale in mind and spirit give thanks to the powers of the
east and be passionate in using that wellness within your druidry. Which brings us to…
The South
Hail to the south, power of fire, of vitality and passion and courage. Give us the
courage to fight for and with those things we are passionate about. The injustices of the modern
world that lead so many people to economic disadvantage, to poor housing and health, to lack of
education, to an extreme dearth of community empowerment. Community development is the art of
empowering the community from the bottom up, often referred to as the ‘bottom up
approach’. It is currently believed (and quite rightly in my opinion) to be the better way to
instigate change in society. I view it as ‘for the people, by the people’. Palpably
better to druidic tastes, community development is the reverse of social planning or policy whereby
schemes, plans and ideas are forced onto communities from ‘above’ as those instigators
of pressure know what the problems are and what the best ways of dealing with them may be. History
has found that they often do not.
Isaac Bonewits, one of Americas leading exponents of druidry, says this as one of
his list of necessary beliefs for modern druids in the USA.
“We believe that human interdependence implies community service. Some of us are active in
political, social, ecological and charitable organisations, while others prefer to work for the
public good primarily through spiritual means (and many insist of doing both).
Community development is a wide-ranging subject and community workers are a
diverse bunch. Of course the generic youth worker is famous, followed closely by the neighbourhood
officer or the probation worker but there are many roles that volunteers can fill.
I work closely with the community empowerment network for the Dudley Borough that
is called ‘Dosti’ (a pan-Asian word meaning friendship). I started by becoming a grants
assessor for the community chest and community learning chest funds, which are available in 88 of
the most deprived areas of the UK; there is probably one near you, as most local authorities have an
organisation that acts as its Community Empowerment Network following on from the governments
Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy. These funds are meant to help empower the community to help
themselves and the money available is between £50 and £5000. It is these small amounts
that community groups and individuals have found in the past it is difficult to access. I’ve
since gone on to help in an advisory and support capacity, in helping out with publications
distribution, with the development work of the organisation, and with outreach work and
facilitation.
There are many areas you can become involved in community development as long as
you are flexible and fluid in outlook. Fluidity and a sense of navigation are qualities that can
help when dealing directly with individuals in need and these abilities come from…
The West
Hail to the west, power of water, of flexibility and fluidity. How many of us in
these times need your strengths to be able to navigate through the emotional and practical
fortitudes that life throws to us. As individuals we are not always that strong, and it is often as
individuals we first find the pangs of failure, of hurt, of regret, and doubt and of calamity.
Collectively we can be stronger, collectively we can stave off ill effects, but when we are alone,
in mind or in body, we can suffer. We need the strength of others to see us through, and mentoring
or counselling by another person can often be a lifeline that we can clutch onto….
When speaking of the druid, Emma Restall Orr says:
"He is someone who retains a distance yet stands in the centre, giving advice with no need
to fight. Obviously powerful (and empowered) the druid has no need for public wizardry, being
perfectly in tune with the cycles and flows of energy that create and sustain and destroy our
creation. He heals with his understanding of the essence of life, teaches through the example of his
own living.”
Counselling is a defined, structured and ordered type of talking therapy. Ideally
you need to be a fully qualified counsellor to be able to offer counselling to an individual.
However there are some levels at which the requirements vary and there are some instances where
qualifications may not be necessary. As with all voluntary work, your local Council of Voluntary
Services is the correct first port of call. As to training, I have gained both an introductory
qualification and a Certificate In Counselling through my local college and I suggest anyone to go
on an introductory course, as it is invaluable in your work as a druid. The
Open College Network are an invaluable provider
of courses like these.
Mentoring is less restricted than counselling, also only cursory (which varies in
intensity from organisation to organisation or for subject area) training is necessary. There are
many areas where mentoring (a cross between counselling, advice and buddying) can be given or is
necessary. This author does mentoring with 18 to 24 year old New Deal users (and now older clients
too) who is long term (over six months) unemployed but who have other issues in their life to
confront.
I do this work for an organisation called Colleges In The Black Country but there
are opportunities with places like
Victim Support and perhaps the
Samaritans who now also do some one to
one work, and many groups also employ mentors in health areas, in education (colleges and schools
have started to use both mentoring and counselling services) and other specialised fields. A
specialised form of mentoring is telephone helplines, often manned by voluntary staff. The
Samaritans is the obvious thought here, but ReThink operates mental health helplines in some
regions. Another more active form is advocacy work, where you work hands on with an individual to
help put their concerns across to another party. Your strength and support are crucial and can be
gained from…
The North
Hail to the north, power of earth, strength of foundation, of that which supports
us as Mother Earth supports all her children on this her planet. But how do we support Gaia in her
task? Do we only pay lip service to the tenets of druidry? How many of us recycle as much as we can?
How many of us actively work with the land to maintain her fruitfulness? Conservation is the
practical expression of loving and caring for nature and there are many ways that we can do
that…
In the manner of a Japanese koan King Arthur Pendragon once pondered:
“Who is the better druid? The one in the white robe consecrating the tree or the one in
the tree protecting it?” His answer was “The one wearing the white robe who is in the
tree consecrating it by protecting it”.
The environment and conservation is one of the favoured torches for the druid,
almost a cause celebre. Can we say that we have sufficiently supported Gaia by becoming a member of
‘Friends of the Earth? I don’t think so, however much I applaud the works done by the
mainline organisations such as FoE and
Greenpeace. I feel it
necessary to undertake ‘hands on’ action. Get your hands dirty, literally.
If you don’t fancy the chance of getting arrested along with Arthur then
there are less legally challenging outlets for you. The UK’s largest conservation and
environmental voluntary charity is BTCV,
formerly known as The British Trust For Conservation Volunteers. They operate offices (called
projects) in most areas of the UK so there should be one near you. For readers in the US and
Australia there are versions in your countries too, so take a look. BTCV operate with voluntary
labour (that means you) to work in all areas of conservation in the UK, but particularly in urban
areas.
BTCV train volunteers to the volunteers potential, exclude no one (excepting for
Health & Safety reasons) from volunteering, pay travelling expenses, give work and safety
clothing to volunteers, and operate a much ignored service in the community. There are many roles
for the volunteer to pursue, not just digging holes, erecting fences and planting trees, there are
office and administration jobs to do also.
You can volunteer also to suit your own commitments and many projects run weekend
groups as well as ‘in the week’ groups, the latter operating from one to five days
depending on area, call on their skills, workload etc. BTCV run Green Gyms to help augment the GP in
getting people fit.
I gained an NVQ in Environmental Conservation with BTCV and spent many happy days
with them. My druidry helped express to some of the more pragmatic volunteers how spirituality can
be viewed on a (literally) down to earth level and how regardless of our beliefs we should all share
one common love of creation which comes from Spirit at the centre of all…
The Centre
Hail to the centre, to spirit, the place where all religions become one. Where
whichever stave of the wheel we have travelled along from the cartwheel of life matters not, for
when we reach the hub at the centre we are all joined, we have all reached the same place. Inter
faith is the difficult path we can experience here and now if we wish to try to bring a little
understanding of each other’s way across the wheel to all who would listen….
Inter faith is the important process whereby we represent druidry to other faith
communities and allow them to do the same with us. You can do this on a minor basis, perhaps just
picking one church or temple or organisation to approach initially, or ad hoc, where you see fit.
Alternatively you can try to join your local Inter faith network.
The Inter Faith
Network for the UK works to build good relations between the communities of all the major faiths
in Britain: Baha'i; Buddhist; Christian; Hindu; Jain; Jewish; Muslim; Sikh; and Zoroastrian.
The Network links over 90 member bodies. These include representative bodies from
the major faith communities; national interfaith organisations; local interfaith groups; academic
institutions and bodies concerned with multi faith education. Its Trustees include men and women
from all the member faiths it links.
The Network works with its member bodies to help make Britain a country marked by
mutual understanding and respect between religions where all can practise their faith with
integrity.
Mark Graham of the Charnwood Order and The Druid Network and interfaith manager
for the Pagan Federation reminds us that:
“Those Pagans who do get involved in inter faith inevitably encounter hostility from some
quarters but also meet, and make friends with, some remarkable and inspiring people. Inter faith is
about working together with people of different faiths to find ways in which we can all live our
spiritual lives openly and with integrity whilst allowing others to do the same”.
And doesn’t that last sentence about ‘living our spiritual lives
openly and with integrity while allowing others to live the same’ smack of the overall tenets
of community druidry? I believe so.
Maturity in Modern Druidry
Of course I have used the symbolism of the wheel of life, the ritual wheel to
flesh out this concept of community druidry. Why not? We associate many correspondences to the wheel
and why should this subject be any less deserving? Moreover it may help to address to you further
how working for and with others actually does relate to the druidic metaphysic.
Can I fill in associations with the fire festivals? Well, yes I can if you want to
play the game? Imbolc is the time of the children and there are many ways we can help children
today. There has been a massive amount of investment in the organisation
Sure Start which aims to help pre school
children and their carers.
Beltane is the time of the lovers, and AIDS and HIV are a rising problem amongst
heterosexual couples let alone the gay community. Nor is the problem confined to the white
population as it was once thought to be. There are many HIV/AIDS organisations around the UK but one
can always start with the Terrence Higgins
Trust and take it from there.
The time of the family comes with Lughnasadh and the time of trial unions and
divorces can be corresponded to the excellent mediation work carried out by
Relate. Counselling and mentoring experience
or qualifications are useful but Relate can often give training too.
And we come to Samhain the time of recollection and the ancestors.
Age Concern and their associate
organisation Help The Aged
are often in need of additional help and support, particularly with the winter approaching.
You will have noticed my predilection to quote from the mouths of others. This
has, I hope, highlighted the universality of the path I have coloured, and yet inclusions from
exponents of modern day druidry will show how relevant and desirable this pathway is to all of us
assembled in this room. My favourite quotation is the one from Philip Carr-Gomm that I used in the
introduction to this talk. Philip’s words speak of what I believe is maturity becoming
apparent in modern druidry. He hints at a time now that many of us have seen what inclusiveness and
exclusivity really can mean, both for our own druid community and the community out there without
druids. Remember we can do what we can, for as long as we can, for a little is better than nothing,
and each of us have skills and qualities we can bring to the communities of need around us.
On that note I will close with a quotation from one of Scotland’s greatest
sons, Gordon The Toad.
In his book ‘Sacred Animals’, he says:
“We need to find our own ways of acting and to work towards the limits
of those. We need to take pride in the fact that we will act, and are acting, and not be dismayed by
people who seem to do so much more than us; they may not have families to raise as well, they may
not have full time jobs, or whatever.
“We are all needed: the battle that is engaged now, the need to protect
the richness of that growing, spreading vibrant web depends as much upon the diversity of its
warriors as upon their extremism. We need people working all over the place, recognising that the
teacher who creates a caring, supportive growing environment for her pupils, the parent who helps
his children see the world and enjoy it, the old age pensioner who keeps a bumble bee friendly back
yard in a grim inner city area are all as important as the person lying down beneath the bull
dozer”.
Finally, may there be peace on the encircling seas (the Seamen’s Mission),
on this ennobled land (in Keep Britain Tidy) and in the encompassing skies (County Air Ambulance).
Now I’m just showing off...
Geoff has published an accompanying guide containing ideas for action together
with contact details for a wide range of voluntary organisations.
For a copy, send a cheque or postal order for £2.00, payable to The
Druid Network to this address.
