The Mount Haemus Lectures

The Mount Haemus Lectures are a day's conference created by the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids, with the aim of offering a more academic and thoughtful approach to the tradition. The first day was in 2004 near Oxford, the second in 2008 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and some of those papers are published in this edition.

With the majority of books on Druidry still focusing on introductory and simple ideas, it is a pleasure to have a book that expresses a deeper perspective. The eight chapters that make up the book are by Ronald Hutton : 'The Origins of Modern Druidry', Gordon Cooper : 'Druidry: Exported Possibilities and Manifestations', John Michael Greer : 'Phallic Religion in the Druid Revival', Caitlin Matthews : 'Question, Answer and the Transmission of Wisdom in Celtic and Druidic Tradition', Adam Stout : Universal Majesty, Verity and Love Infinite', Roland Rotherham : 'Working with Animals', Philip Carr- Gomm : 'I Would Know My Shadow and My Light', and James Warren Maertens : 'Entering Faerie : Elves, Ancestors and Imagination'.

The papers written by Philip, Roland and Adam were given at the Mount Haemus conference this year (2008), which I was pleased to attend - Philip's on Michael Tippett's opera A Midsummer Marriage, Roland talking of his experience with animals in shamanic and spiritual contexts, and Adam exposing the genius and daftness of George Watson McGregor Reid. It is good to have the text now to refer too.

It is a book very much worth reading, and one hopes Volume Two is equally inspiring.