Stefan Seniuk runs the Albion Conclave, a Druid organisation
which offers a two year correspondance course connecting with Pagan Druidry
from its ancient roots. Stefan also runs the Mistletoe Foundation with Emma
Restall Orr, and he teaches druid related workshops from his cabin retreat
in Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire. You can find out more about Stefan on
the Druid Network profile pages here.
The Interview
What are your earliest memories
of paganism?
Well I suppose that would be the film called The Wicker Man, although I didn't
really make any in depth connections until many years later, but I do remember
creeping down the stairs way past my bed time and peeping over the settee
at the old black and white TV, by the gods that takes me back to another world
I can tell you...
Did you ever have any sort of moment of realisation?
My initiation into Druidry was through a near death experience from a motorbike
crash, it was the goddess who saved and indeed changed my life.
How difficult was it as a younger pagan?
You must remember that even though we are inspired by an ancient tradition,
the pagan revival is still very modern. There are probably next to no practising
pagans approaching middle age today who would have been pagans since their
childhood. My childhood spanned the late 60's, early 70's and as far as I'm
aware I don't know of anyone who was following a pagan path as a child from
that time, such things were still far too suppressed back then.
How did you find Druidry, what made you pursue
it?
As I said, from a near death experince, the goddess held me in her arms when
in all reality I should have been smashed to a pulp. After that I began to
perceive the life force in trees and flowers, nature began to speak to me,
it was quite remarkable and led to a deeply sacred relationship which is still
expanding my conciousness to this very day.
As a young pagan, did frustration or difficulty
ever make you want to give up?
Many pagans today will tell you they had extremely strange or difficult childhoods,
it comes with the territory. I suffered a lot of racial abuse living in an
isolated rural village. It was only the late 1960's but it could have been
the 1860's. Life and society have changed beyond belief in a very short space
of time. Back then we were still afraid of the dark and the gremlin who lived
under the bed, superstition still played on peoples imaginations. If someone
went abroad on holiday, everyone would question them about it for weeks afterwards,
life was far more simple. Because of the racial prejudice, being the only
foreigner in a completely Anglo Saxon village, I soon found that I didn't
fit in and would wander off for hours (it was also much safer in those days
to do that kind of thing) across the fields by myself in some kind of dream
world state, creeping under hedges and sitting in trees for ages just listening
to the wind in the leaves. Looking back I had some very mystical experiences
with tree's, I was certainly away with the fairies, whisked off to the Otherworld.
Looking back now, what would you say about
your young pagan days, how have your experiences shaped your own vision now?
As stated earlier there were no young pagans back then, but so much of how
we lived our lives shaped us into becoming pagans later in life. Certainly
the deep, deep connection with nature, playing outside through all the seasons,
skating on the ice in the Winter and building dens in the woods in the Summer,
all of that was so important. Using our imagination instead of having it all
worked out for us was also a big part of the magic, it saddens me today to
see such things as computer games stealing kids childhoods.
What would you say to any young pagan/Druid
who came to you asking for advice on 'where to go' and 'what to do'?
Climb trees, make dens, use your imaginations, that’s where the magic
is, in nature. Druidry is a spiritual path, it's not all about casting spells
and all that silly need for power. Therefore Druidry can seem very difficult
to grasp when your young, the trick is not to take it too seriously. There
is a great magic in the old myths and stories and these can also remain close
to your heart for the rest of your life when first discovered at a very early
age. Get into those and throw the computer games in the bin. Learn from the
great outdoors and the gods will start to take notice of you, the rest will
come in time.
And finally, is there anything else you'd like
to add, in general?
The first step for any Druid is a love of nature that knows no bounds, from
that first step the path will open out before you...
In Truth/|\
Stefan
