A: With the Reformed Druids of North America: In 1963 students at Carleton College in Northfield, MN USA objected to the college's requirement of mandatory attendance at religious services, so they protested by making up their own religion. The requirement was thus mocked and was withdrawn. Members found it groovy and continued to participate in the group in order to explore world faiths and personal paths in an open and honest way. As they graduated, they started groups in other states. By the 1980s there were about 10 groves scattered across the country. Then Isaac Bonewits left to form Ar nDraiocht Fein (ADF) Druidism, which later splintered and soon Henge of Keltria Druidism, and other groups appeared as well.

In July of 2006 one of those groups, the Order of the Mithril Star, decided that it was apparent that the Reform had outgrown "North America" and in fact (mostly through the OMS' efforts) now spanned the globe, with Reformed Druids and or Groves appearing in 11 countries. To meet this new paradigm, Arch-Druid Ceridwen Seren-Ddaear of OMS proclaimed a new epoch of Reformed Druidism, and a new entity to address it: The Reformed Druids of Gaia. ~INDEX~

A: No. "Schisms" typically have hard feelings toward the group they broke away from. We harbor no hard feelings toward the RDNA, and in fact we honor them for the ground breaking work they did in the evolution of the Reform. Likewise, we have not broken away from anyone. We are something new alltogether.

Does a daughter "schism" from her parents? Isn't a daughter a more evolved version of her parents? That is what the RDG is all about. ~INDEX~

A: Several reasons: 1) To post an announcement like this to a Druid group is basically "preaching to the choir" - most folk on those groups are already Druids. 2) A Wiccan, Witch, Ceremonialist, or generic Pagan can also become a Reformed Druid - there's never been any rule in the 40+ years of the Reform that excludes this. Likewise, Catholics, Jews, Moslems, Buddhists etc., may also become Druids. We're a totally equal opportunity. The underlying philosophy of Reformed Druidism is compatible with most other belief systems. Most members practice one or more other spiritualities besides Druidism. 3) Traditionally, the Reform has never had a problem with proselytizing and we don't either. 4) Our educational branch has been doing Usenet announcements for the past 10 years, so it's somewhat of a tradition as it were, and there's no real reason to stop now.

Recently we started doing announcements on the Druid groups as well. That is because these groups have become dominated by a kind of "fundamentalist" Druid, and we realised that a lot of people on those groups might like to know that there are alternatives to what has been presented to them. ~INDEX~

* A: We don't really know, as they left no written records (and frankly, if anyone says they know, you should view them with great suspicion). Druidism was passed on as an oral tradition. But we can surmise. The poetic tradition in Druidism comes from the method the Celts used to trace their lineage and history. Written records were distrusted for the most part, and though a runic writing system called Ogham did exist, it wasn't used for much beyond burial markers and landmarks. Druids in training had to learn all the Bardic poetry , in a manner we would call sensory deprivation. Poetic inspiration was an important spiritual practice, which the Welsh have focused on in their Eisteddfod. In Irish myth there was a deity of poetry - Brigid).

Oak was the most important symbol in druidic lore, as it is strong, tall, and very long-lived.

Mistletoe was said to have healing qualities. Other important trees were the yew, for its offspring grew from the dead stump of its parent, representing perpetually-regenerating life.

The Ogham alphabet was a list of tree names. Trees are important because they are bridges between the realms of Land and Sky - they communicate Water between these realms. When the Realms of Land, Sea and Sky meet, as within a tree or at a seashore for example, great power could manifest, and such places were best for poetic composition or spell-casting. Stones could channel, store, and direct earth-energy, and thus were used for markers, set in circles, and libations were poured over them in sacrifice.

Fire-worship is strong as well, but doesn't fit the Greek four-element picture. Fire is a thing unto itself, with the dual qualities of destructiveness and cleansing power. It is a spiritual principle, because it is always reaching up to the sky. This may be why they built those hilltop fires. Poetic inspiration is said to be a fire in the head, so Brigid is a fire deity as well. ~INDEX~

* A: Much of what we think we know is based on conjecture and educated guesses at best, and wishful thinking at worst. The original Druids were killed or forced to convert or leave their homes a long time ago. The main thing that can be said about the Druids is that they were members of a professional class in their culture, the Celtic Nations of Western Europe and the British Isles. (The Druids were not an ethnic group; their culture, the Celtic culture, was.) Druids were the learned class of the Celts. They filled the roles of judge, doctor, diviner, mage, mystic, and clerical scholar. The Romans later used the same term for leaders of the Britons. It's not certain if all Celtic cultures used a word similar to Druid or if their social structures were the same.

General attributes assigned to Druids: they passed their teachings along orally, not by writings; becoming a Druid required a long period of study; they were excused from military service but could enter battle if they chose; they were members of an elite class which included various occupations.

Through history we have lost much, if not most, information about them - since there was no written documents of the history or lives of the Celts other than what their oppressors wrote. We study their mythology, culture as well as archaeology and paleontology pertaining to them, and strive to piece the puzzle together, and mostly we fail.

"Most of what you see in newspapers, the internet, and around Stonehenge is based upon a recreation of Druidry...... I don't think it has much reality in archaeology." -- Dr. Francis Pryor - Dept. of Archaeology - University of Nottingham

Today, Druids are Neo-Druids.

Neo-Druids play  fast and loose  with a lot of Celtic symbols and ideas, and celebrate the Celtic high days. We also attempt to correspond Celtic deities  with non-Celtic ones and create whole new pantheons as well.

Some scholars of the Celtic peoples believe that since very little is known about what the ancient Druids actually did, and since those same ancient Druids wrote nothing down about what they did, that modern day neo-Druid movements are just so much hog wash. Frankly, we tend to agree with that assessment. Therefore we do not emulate any other neo-Druidic movements but rather, 'we're doing religion the old fashioned way -- we're making it up as we go!"

Today the term is used variously, with some opinion that it shouldn't be used at all because the ancient Celts no longer exist. Currently people using the term "Druid" can be: 1)-Members of a modern Druid organization, some of whom will only call themselves Druids after a period of study. 2)-Self-recognized "traditional" Druids, who claim to have received the knowledge in a family descended from Druids but who won't describe their beliefs much as they must be taught face to face.

Druid Revivalry is generally regarding to have been started by Edward Williams, who under the name of lolo Morganwg gave the world the book called the "Barddas" which he claimed was based on authentic beliefs of the ancient Druids, although the jury is still out about how much of that is fact. Most Druid Revival groups can trace their beginnings to 1717 and remain close to their fraternal lodge roots. Alternatively Druidism is a label often used by those following what they believe as a polytheistic religion pre-dating Christianity. However, in the end most Neo Druids are following a path that combines many elements of both groups.

Reformed Druidism is one of many Druidic traditions as well as one of the oldest of the North American ones. It is a little hard to categorize the Druid organizations as they tend to overlap in interests and attitude. They were all founded fairly recently, although some were founded by members of previous Druid organizations. They have been influenced by similar cultural threads. Even nationalist influences have been reduced by migration and the Internet. The following are some broad categories, maybe stereotypes, of types found in Druid groups.

Traditional or organized Traditional - These derive from folk history in the British Isles and from the Celtic Renaissance/Revival of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They consider that they come from an unbroken line. The European ones have the benefit of living near modern Celtic communities and/or historical Celtic and Neolithic sites. Others complain that their traditions are the result of nineteenth century invention and occultism. Celtic historicists accuse them of being fluffy bunnies.

Neo-Pagan Druids - This group concedes that they're not sure what the Ancient Druids did but they want to create/recreate a modern version. They study the ancient Celts and Neolithic peoples throughout Europe and also modern interests such as psychology and comparative religion. They are seriously trying to establish a religion. Some others, especially British Traditionalists, accuse them of being fluffy bunnies.

"Historically Accurate" Druids - They limit their research to Celts only. If, there's no text or no archaeological site to back up an idea, they won't consider it. They may be disdainful of modern society and want to recreate something better. Some seem to express little spirituality or sense of humor. They would eat fluffy bunnies, if properly roasted on a historically accurate Celtic hearth, but fear it might give them indigestion. These are also known as "Orthodox," "Traditionalist," "Revivalist" and "Reconstructionist" Druids.

Eclectic verging on New-Age - They trip through dewy pastures seeking influences from the world round. Choices of ritual or myth are made on an intuitive basis: does it feel right, not, is it related to reality. Some are making serious attempts. Others would be if they could just find the right necklace to match their cape. Some are out and out fluffy bunnies and are loving every minute.

Reformed Druids generally believe that if you say you are a Druid then you are one. ~INDEX~

Q: What do you do?

A: Druids follow the Celtic wheel of the year. There are four 'main' sabbats, and four 'minor' ones. The Celtic New Year begins with Samhain (pronounced Soween - Welsh, Saven - Scottish, Sowin- Irish) on 31st October (also known as halloween).

The holidays are as follows. SAMHAIN, Yule, IMBOLC, Spring Equinox, BELTANE, Summer Solstice, LUGHNASADH, Autumn equinox. ~INDEX~

* A:This depends on the nation you look at. Ireland had different gods than Wales, who had further different gods than Gaul. Another point to consider is not only were gods known by different names, but many of the names were deemed too holy to pronounce aloud. (thus the common oath: "I swear by the god my tribe swears by".) Here is a brief, by no means authoritative, list of deities.

Ireland: The Tuatha de Danann (Tribe of the Goddess Danu) was the name of the pantheon, for the Sidhe (faeries) were descended from Her. Some names you may recognize: Lugh of the Long Handed, Son of the Sun. Dagda the Good (good not by his moral disposition but by the diversity of his skills) Morrigu, Babd, and Macha (a triple goddess of War.) Brigid (a triple goddess of Fire, Poetry, and the Forge) Diancecht, god of healing Manannan mac Lir, god of the sea and master of magic

Wales: Welsh mythology tends to focus on the actions of heroes, and their interaction with gods. Arawn , lord of the Annwyn (the underworld) Math ap Mathonwy, the quintessential wizard Pwyll, lord of Davyd Rhiannon, (wife of Pwyll) Goddess associated with horses and the Underworld, Gwydion, the magician and trickster, and his sister Arianrhod, Lyr, god of the sea, Manawyddan

Gaul: Gaulish deities are the focus of Caesar's records. He drew analogies between his own Roman gods and those he discovered in Gaul. Herne the Hunter Taranus, Teutates Esus, Hu'Hesu, the Dying God Cernunnos, Master of the Wild Hunt, or the Animal Lord/Green Man, Epona, The Horse Goddess.

Not all modern Druids worship the gods by name.

There is some evidence that the Druids of old believed in a kind of universal Life Force, flowing from a central place (such as the Irish Well of Wisdom or the Welsh Spiral of Annwyn), to and from all living things. Perhaps the best modern description is Obi-Wan's description of the "Force", from the famous Star Wars films. :)

Neo Druids may worship any or all of the above. Reformed Druids lean towards Dalon ap Landu, Be'al, and "the Earth Mother."

It should be noted that, like all religionists of the ancient past, the Druids invented their Gods, their ceremonies and the tenets of their religion. ~INDEX~

A: In fact we did. How do you think the other Gods and Goddesses came to be? They were made up. The difference is that Lugh and Danu et .al. were made up centuries ago. Dalon, Sequoia and Cywarch were made up practically yesterday.

This is a symple fact: All the religions and spiritualties, and all the deities of the world were invented by human beings. None of them exist on their own, or existed prior to their being imagined by humans, no matter how ancient they may be. ~INDEX~

* A: Prof. Ronald Hutton, a historian at Bristol Univ. (UK), once wrote: "All that we know about the Druids is that they were the most highly respected magical practitioners and spiritual experts of the tribes of northwest Europe. The trouble is that we don't have a single word of writing left by a Druid, and we don't have a single archeological artifact that everyone agrees is associated with the Druids. We know so little about them in fact that they are almost legendary characters."

Again, the main sources we do have on what they did are Roman historians, who wrote on them as they were in the process of conquering Gaul (what is now France; a variant of Welsh is still spoken in Brittany) so there is that political problem, and they equated Celtic deities with Roman ones as well. The main authors are Julius Caesar, Pliny, Tacitus, Strabo, and Diodorus Siculus.

But in my point of view, the best sources are the mythologies. There we can read of what the Druids did, how they behaved, what some of them said, and though the medieval manuscripts that preserved them were written by Christian monks, much wisdom yet remains there.

In Ireland the chief myth cycles are the Ulster Cycle, the Fionn Cycle, and the Invasion Races. In Wales, the major myths are contained in a book called The Mabinogion - as well as in the Red Book of Hergest, and the Black Book of Carmarthen. In this century, a number of folklore collections were made of remaining oral-tradition stories, the best of which are W.B.Yeats' "Mythologies" and Lady Gregory's "Gods and Fighting Men".

If you were to expand your search to include historical and archaeological records, you might have more luck, and may arouse less suspicion if your area is not very pagan friendly. In fact what you will be doing is precisely what the Druids did, for they had to study so many academic, legal, and spiritual subjects they became walking encyclopedias. The problem is that the Druids were the subject of a number of persecutions and conquests, not only by the Romans, but also by later Christians. Some Druidic wisdom was censored, evolved into something unrecognizable, or just plain lost.

A modern person might attempt to reconstruct the wisdom based on the sources discussed above. The Romans never invaded Ireland, so that country became a haven for Druidic learning for a while. After St. Patrick and St. Columcille, Ireland evolved a unique and beautiful blend of Christianity and Druidism, headquartered on the Isle of Iona, which was later to be eradicated by the invading English. Catholicism eventually became a point of national identity in Ireland (and without it they may never have become independent). ~INDEX~

* A:This is a hot topic and there are many definitions:

(1)- A culture and people defined by the archeological remains of two cultures now in Austria and Switzerland: Halstatt ( 800BC to 250BC ) and La Tene ( +/- 430BC to 1AD ). The Celts, whose language group belongs to the Indo-European family of languages, eventually occupied lands from Turkey to Spain to the British Isles. Names of a few of the tribes were: Arverni, Treveri, Helvetii, Iceni, Venetes, Silures, Caledonii. Most were conquered by the Romans by 200AD. Remnant peoples in Ireland, Scotland and Wales converted/were converted to Christianity by +/- 700AD. (N.B. This definition excludes the pre-Celtic Neolithic peoples, who built stone monuments, such as StoneHenge and Newgrange. )

(2)- The peoples living in the modern Celtic "nations" of: Brittany, Cornwall, Ireland, Mann, Scotland and Wales. While united in prehistory, they have differences in language, history and culture. (N.B. The Welsh and Scots get really annoyed if you equate "Celtic" solely with "Irish". )

(3)- Anyone, living or dead, in an area, ever occupied by the Ancient Celts.

(4)- Anyone, anywhere with a drop of *Celtic blood in their ancestry. So, roughly, the definitions run from: "The Celts as a people were extinct by 400AD and that's that!" to: "Anyone can be a Celt, if they really feel it!"

*This is merely a figure of speech. There is no Celtic bloodline. See below. ~INDEX~

A: This is a popular notion among some white supremecist hate groups, but the problem is that the word "Celt" and "Celtic" refer only to language and culture, not to race or bloodline. Most scholars maintain that if a person of, for instance, African descent were to move to a village in Scotland and adopt Scots Gaelic as his primary language, he would be in effect, a "Celt", having emersed himself in Celtic language and culture.

Even the notion that the Celts were European is suspect by modern scholars. There are hundreds of words and even phrases in Welsh and in Hindi that are very much alike. Likewise, there are deities that cross the between Hindu and various Celtic myhologies. There is mounting evidence that the ancient Celts therefore may have originated in India. But that may also be spurous. Some of a more esoteric bent have the idea that the ancient Celts may be one of the ten lost tribes of Israel, specifically that of Dan. This comes from the idea of their naming the river Danube, of their worship of Danu, all of which is circumstantial at best.

We won't even get into the idea that the Druids are descended from the ancient priesthood of Atlantis! Although this makes as much sense as the idea of there being a Celtic race. ~INDEX~

A: Not a valid question, unfortunately, because there is no one Celtic language. Ask rather about: Breton ( Brezhoneg ), Cornish ( Kernowek ), Irish ( Gaeilge ), Scots Gaelic* ( Gaidhlig ), Manx Gaelic ( Gaelg ), or Welsh ( Cymraeg ). You might also post such a request to one of the related soc.culture groups. There have been occasional naughty mis-translations.

The modern Celtic languages are in two groups:
Q-Celtic, Goidelic - Irish, Scottish and Manx Gaelic - derived from Old Irish
P-Celtic, Brythonic - Breton, Cornish and Welsh - derived from Old Welsh
* Note: Don't confuse with "Scots" a Germanic language related to English. ~INDEX~

* A: The ancient Celts seem to have been polytheists. There are many gods and goddesses identified with the Celts. After the Gauls, Belgae and Britons were conquered by the Romans, there were hybrid forms. Or, at least, there were inscriptions pairing the names of a Roman god and a Celtic god. Also the type of belief varies e.g.: are the gods real or are they metaphors?; is faith authoritative or individual?, etc. This can be a very sensitive subject. Agnostic types and true believer types can hurt each other's feelings without even meaning to. ~INDEX~

A: SHE is everything to Druids.

While people in many parts of the third world are intimately dependent on nature for their survival, few of us are. The Celts had to read the seasons so they could plant their crops; had to know where to find wild plants if the crops failed; had to know birds and their habits for divination; had to know which tree produced good wood for spears or yokes or buckets; had to know the habits of animals for hunting and fishing; had to know the earth so they could find ores for their tools and weapons and jewelry.

The modern Druid should know a lot about nature and spend time in the Wild. Nature is the true focus of Druidism. Some worship Nature. Some romanticize Nature. Some live in nature. Some mine it as a source for symbols. Some abstract it and assign it a place in their philosophy.

From a political viewpoint, all Druids are environmentalists. They might not all be in the front lines of the environmental movement, but they will at least contribute to groups like Greenpeace, The Sierra Club. EarthFirst! etc. No Druid would ever vote for a candidate known to be "soft" on the environment, nor could they support a political party which advocated the repeal of laws designed to protect the earth mother.

It goes without saying that Druids recognize that we are all one with the earth; that we are part of the whole ecosystem that is Gaia. So naturally, we Druids are compassionate, recognizing that when one person suffers, the whole of the Earth Mother suffers as well. So Druids carry a vision: a day will come when poverty, disease, pollution and inequality are wiped off the face of the earth, "when peace will guide our planet and love will steer the stars."

"We want a world where there is love for everybody -- We want a world where there is no more war -- We want a world where there is hope for everybody -- We want a world that's better than before -- Give us a world where there is food for everybody -- Water is pure the air is fresh and clean -- We want a world that is good for everybody -- We want a world where everyone is free." (Gypsy, from the CD "Enchantress")

That's Druish politics in an acorn shell. ~INDEX~

* A: There are hundreds of stone circles dotting Britain, Ireland and Northern France.The Hebrides of Scotland are famous for them. In Ireland, there are many sacred wells dedicated to St. Bridget, an obvious borrowing from the earlier goddess Brigid. There is Newgrange, a temple/tomb/center for initiation rites in Ireland, thousands of years older than the Pyramids, which is constructed to allow sunlight into the inner chamber on Midwinter sunrise only. ~INDEX~

Q: Was Merlin a Druid?                  

A: An excerpt from 'The Druid Renaissance' edited by Philip Carr-Gomm and published by Thorsons (HarperCollins) July 1996:

The two main streams of 'British' Paganism are Wicca and Druidry. Although both traditions draw their inspiration from past ages, much of their contemporary practice has evolved very recently - from the eighteenth century for Druidry, from the 1940s onwards for Wicca. The eighteenth century saw the development of Druid ceremony, much of it articulated by Iolo Morganwg, and in the twentieth century the MacGregor-Reids and Ross Nichols gave further inspiration and form to Druid ceremony and thought, while Gerald Gardner proved the catalyst for the rebirth (or birth, depending on your opinion) of Wicca.

Since Wicca and Druidry share so much in common, it is natural to wonder whether they were originally one and the same, only developing later in different directions. Gerald Gardner, in The Meaning of Witchcraft (1959) wrote "The great question is, were the witches and the Druids members of the same cult?.....Personally, I think they were not; the witch cult was the religion of the soil, as it were, and the Druids were the more aristocratic religion..." At a Pagan Federation conference and then later in The Druid Way (1993) I asked Gardner's question again, and quoted various authors' views on the subject. Christina Oakley's article continues the debate, and her conclusion tallies with Gardner's: Wicca and Druidry have different histories. They certainly 'feel' different, as Christina Oakley mentions, and I think our Paganism is all the richer for these two vital, distinct and rich traditions growing side by side.

Many people, however, are now following both paths, combining them idiosyncratically to suit their own tastes and practices, in the time-honoured slightly anarchical way of modern Paganism. There is value in this, but also, I believe, a danger. The value lies in our being able to develop our own unique path. Paganism, Wicca, Druidry, Shamanism, the Earth Religions - all avoid the problems of the Revealed Religions, which so easily develop into personality cults and dogmatic systems. The eclecticism and anarchy of the former prevent this. And so a creative meeting of Wicca and Druidry is occurring, with some people feeling that the private focus of Wicca fulfills one need, while the more public focus of Druidry fulfills another.

Christina Oakley says "At the heart of Wicca is the image of the God and Goddess joined in love as one". Whilst variants of Wicca do not make the Great Rite central, she is speaking here of Traditional British Wicca, whose focus is on the act of union, just as Druidry's focus is on the results of that act: symbolized by the Divine Child, the Mabon, and expressed through the Arts and the Bardic tradition. Thus, the emphasis on the joining of male and female energy in Wicca seems perfectly balanced with the emphasis on the results of that joining in Druidry.

So we can see that it is quite possible to follow both Wicca and Druidry, since each fulfills a different need and helps to express a different facet of the self. To return to Gerald Gardner's suggestion, we could say that now we can embrace both traditions because socially we are no longer so constrained, and the person of the soil and the person of culture both need feeding within us. Having said this, it is important to realize the limitations of this argument, since many Wiccans and Druids will quite rightly point to the completeness of their own tradition, which belies any necessity for combination with a complementary path. Even so, the mixing is undoubtedly happening. If you were to visit a nonaligned Pagan ceremony at a festival time, you would almost certainly find yourself participating in a ritual which draws its inspiration and form partly from Wic