HOLDING PAGE FOR ARTICLES ON eg FRATERNAL ORDERS, WELSH EISTEDDFOD ETC
“Our Druidry” is not the only one, and perhaps you come here looking for one of the other aspects… incarnations… expressions of Druidry and of Druids. Ours is a Spiritual Druidry, and expressed in terms of a religion because that is largely how it the world expects spirituality to be expressed.
The word Druid, though, has been used and is being used for many other practices – even video-gaming! As different from one another as its could be, but we do not own the word nor seek to do so. And if you look for it, you’ll find you recognise the shared Awen within all the Druid traditions.
Every now and then, someone will point out that, eg, Winston Churchill, or Queen Elizabeth II was a Druid or took part in Druid rituals. They are of course correct, as any search engine will confirm. But they would not have sought quite the same path that we do. But, again, look for the commonalities.
Cultural Druidry is beautifully expressed in the Welsh Eisteddfod, which stands as one of if not the largest celebrations of music and poetry in Europe and which celebrates the Welsh culture and language. It’s traditions go back hundreds of years, and the bardic competitions and the stone circles that were built on the sites of this wandering festival are perhaps tributaries of the same river, seeking the same ocean of Awen.
Back before Trade Unions and State Support there were also the Fraternal Druids and Friendly Societies, such as the Ancient Order of Druids. These ‘mutual-support’ groups met an important social need, and provided aid to members, who themselves were inducted into the societies through regalia and ritual that many of us would recognise today.
work in progress…