by
Sybok
Pendderwydd
(links
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A
Reformed Druid is one who simply believes that “Nature
is good.” Now, we get into trouble as soon as we
use the word “believes.” Other words
or phrases like, “adheres to the idea of”
or “leans in the direction of the idea that”
or “subscribes to the ideal that,” may
well be more accurate, but the bottom line is basically the
idea that one's spirituality can be found and based upon the
manifestations of nature.
“Nature
is good,” therefore, is the first characteristic
of the Reformed Druid. Beyond that anything goes. No, really,
anything goes. This is because of the whole history of the
movement. The first Reformed Druids came together because
of a rule at Carelton College in Minnesota that required attendance
at religious services. The rule was broad enough that this
group of precocious students decided to bend the rule for
their own purposes. In that bending, the Reformed Druid movement
was born.
So,
the second characteristic of Reformed Druids is that “they
bend or remake the rules to suit themselves.”
Historically,
Reformed Druids have avoided a lot of formal organization.
The vast majority of them are solitary practitioners. A few
hundred are gathered in small congregations, called Groves,
of three or more individuals. The original group, the Reformed
Druids of North America, has no central headquarters, no national
organizational structure, no one to legislate rules. In fact,
local Groves make up their own rules and traditions as they
go along. To be sure, there are some traditions, an order
of worship, and other loose rules, that many Groves abide
by, but it’s all optional – there is no central
body (anymore anyway) around to assure that every
organization within the Reformed Druid movement follows exactly
the same path.
A
few larger groups within the Reform have a more pronounced
structure, but even these larger more organized groups are
self-defined, and they pretty much do what they want to, or
just simply “make it up as they go.”
That’s
the third characteristic of a Reformed Druid: one who makes
it up as s/he goes – and decides for himself what traditions,
or none, s/he will follow.
Now
to be sure, there are a few groups out there who attempt to
define a Reformed Druid based upon their own agenda. Usually
these definitions crop up in attempts to point out how this
group or that group isn’t of the Reform, but such exercises
are anti-Druidic, since they violate the very principles the
Reform was founded upon. Even this essay I am writing now,
violates those principles, so I am attempting to thread carefully
here, knowing that I walk upon a steep, slippery, winding,
twisting, road with deep chasms on either side.
The
best that can be said then, for Reformed Druids collectively,
is that they are largely, “a non-prophet, ir-religious,
dis-organization.”
Anyone
can be a Reformed Druid. “How do I join?”
“You just did!” affirms Michael Scharding
on his popular website
that explores all things Reformed Druidic. The simple matter
of affirming that “Nature is good,” allows
you to enter into the fellowship of Reformed Druidry. After
that, you have a lot of choices, or none, depending on your
own desires and comfort level. Groups can also join the Reform
en masse – there’s no rule against it anywhere
in A
Reformed Druid Anthology (ARDA) (a collection of Reformed
Druid documents, traditions essays, etc. - some of which are
mutually exclusive and/or contradictory - maintained by Druid
Scharding). Schisms are aplenty within the Reform, usually
precipitated by arguments over the ARDA (and some Druids just
love to argue). The best way to avoid such fights is to simply
not participate. Since there’s no authority, no “Council
of Dalon ap Landou”, such arguments carry no real weight
anyway. Ignore your detractors and do whatever the hell you
want – your word is as good as anyone's.
No
one can kick you out of the Reform. Leaving is your decision
and yours alone. Likewise you are free to form any group you
wish, no one can stop you. So long as “Nature is
good” (or groovy, or wonderful, or some other
adjective for goodness) you can do whatever you want
– you are still a Reformed Druid. You don’t have
to be Celtic, you don’t have to be Neo-Pagan (the
RDNA traditionally allows you to be a practicing Catholic,
Buddhist, Jew, Fundy, anything, and maintain your status as
a Druid). (Note: Other groups within the Reform do
have some “have to’s” and “can’t
be’s”, but traditional Reformed Druidism eschews
all that).
I
believe that there are a lot of Reformed Druids who do not
even know they are Reformed Druids. I would be a good example.
Since the late ‘60s, my own personal spirituality has
been nature oriented. At first I thought I was simply, a witch,
but in actually researching Witchcraft and Wicca, found the
pieces didn’t all fit. There were too many requirements.
Rosicrucianism likewise was too cumbersome, and neo-Paganism
was too broad an umbrella. I briefly belonged to the Church
of All Worlds (CAW), but found they had their own issues,
and they were bogged down in over-organization. I likened
a lot of these groups to tables: very beautiful and ingeniously
designed and organized, but, unlike the tree they were crafted
from, they were dead. It’s better to have organism (and
multiple orgasms!) then to have organization. It was in the
late summer of 1995 that I met my first Reformed Druid, at
the unlikely venue of a “New Age Renaissance Faire”
in San Jose CA. He kind of gave me a brief overview of what
Reformed Druidism was all about. That and subsequent research
into the Reform, eventually led me to declare myself a Reformed
Druid.
I’m
a people person. I don’t personally function well as
a solitary, so after searching locally (at the time I
was living in Santa Cruz CA) and not finding anyone,
a CAW friend of mine and I dreamed up the Order
of the Mithril Star, and loosely based it on a melding
of CAW and Reformed
Druids of North America (RDNA). To be sure much of it
is our own interpretation, and that interpretation has itself
evolved and morphed over the years, but OMS is still an accurate
reflection of what Reformed Druidry is all about. I think
probably more so than even some of the other RDNA schisms.
This
later has got us into trouble with both CAW people and NRDNA
(New Reformed Druids of Gaia – a schism group).
In the case of CAW, they find us objectionable as competition
(a point now moot – as CAW has ceased to exist in
an organized way at all). In the case of the NRDNA folks,
they find us objectionable because of the CAW stuff.
Well,
you can’t please everyone can you?
And,
why do you have to?
Most
of us left our parents' religions (in my case the two
most guilt-ridden of the major faiths) because we wanted
to get beyond all the rules: the mores, the dietary laws,
the have to’s and can’t do’s. Reformed Druidry
promises a better way – a spirituality defined by your
own ideals, and elastic enough to adapt as your ideals morph
and evolve.
If
we wanted a lot of “have to’s,” “can’t
do’s”, and “this is the way it HAS to be
done’s,” we could have all saved ourselves a lot
of trouble and we would have been better off staying in our
parents' religions.
So,
the spirit of Reformed Druidism is best defined by this phrase:
“We’re doing religion the old fashioned way:
we’re making it up as we go!”
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