Learning Druidry

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Reblog: Druidry, Animism and The Meaning of Life

This post is a reblog extract from my channel at SageWoman. To read the full article, click HERE.

For many people, myself included, Druidry and Animism go hand in hand. Since the Age of Enlightenment and perhaps even further back in history (perhaps with coming of Christianity) Animism has gotten the reputation of being somehow backward, a superstitious and childish view of the world wherein everything is “alive”. This belief is completely biased in that it is totally from a human-centric point of view; those who believe it to be silly would say that believing a stone has a soul is absolutely ridiculous. This point of view is a projection of our human perspective, of what is alive and what isn’t, what is ensouled and what isn’t. It doesn’t take into consideration differences in the metaphysical. This perspective is often derogatory of Animism, yet it fails to actually understand just what Animism actually means, and what living with an Animistic perspective can bring to human consciousness.

In my opinion, we are in great debt to author Emma Restall Orr for exploring Animism in her two books, Living With Honour and The Wakeful World. In both, she goes into just what it means to be an Animist, putting aside the childish perspective and engaging with the concept in a very rational and yet spiritual manner. I remember when I first saw her speak at Witchfest in Croydon many years ago, when she shouted from the stage that the moon was “just a big f*cking rock in the sky!” (which it is). Believing that the moon is deity is perhaps a childish view of the moon, however, seeing the deity within the rock is closer to the mark, dependent upon your concept of deity. In her two latest books, defining the often used words in Animism of soul and spirit, she shows the interconnectedness of all things in contexts of philosophy, spirituality and science.

This interconnectedness is reflected in many, if not most religions and spiritualities throughout the world. Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh uses the term “interbeing”, even founding The Order of Interbeing, a way to live your life fully aware of the interconnections of all things. We cannot exist without each other – we are fully co-existing together. In a piece of paper, there is the sun, the tree, the rain, the wind, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, stars, clouds, loggers, factory workers, their ancestors, the ancestors of place, the foods that they ate – the list goes on forever. Since the beginning of time, if there ever was a beginning, we all come from the same source, if there is a source. We are all star-stuff.

Continued… to read the full article, click HERE.

 

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Happy New Year!

The end of another calendar year, and a time to reflect. What a fabulous year it has been. The ups as well as the downs, all of it has been a great experience. Life certainly is the best teacher.

So, what are the plans for next year? Well, I shall be continuing to write, a much longer book than those of the Pagan Portals series for Moon Books. This new project is called “Hedge Druidry”, and is basically an extension of The Awen Alone: Walking the Path of the Solitary Druid.

I also plan to start a much bigger vegetable garden next year, and go on a mushrooming course so that I am able to identify more mushrooms than just the parasol ones we munch on here that grow in the beautiful sandy soil.

I also have a wonderful new project that will hopefully start up in the autumn of 2015, but I can’t tell you about that just yet – I will hopefully have news for you very shortly! Hint – it’s about learning Druidry…

Lastly, I aim to simplify even more. This year I already reduced the time spent on social media, cleared the clutter in my house and spent even more time in meditation. I hope to continue on this path, making more time for the people that I love, the places that I love and the things that I really love doing.

In this time of reflection, don’t feel bad about the things you didn’t accomplish. Instead, reaffirm your resolve to try again, and persevere with a good heart and a pure mind. Make resolutions for the New Year, but for yourself and not for anyone else. If you want to lose weight, that’s great – but do it for your own health, with a doctor’s or nutritionist’s advice. Don’t do it to make yourself more beautiful – you already are beautiful. Likewise, quitting bad habits such as smoking or drinking are equally good resolutions to make, as long as you are truly willing to go the distance, for your own health and well-being. If we can do such things for ourselves, then we see that we can serve others as well. We have to take care of ourselves as well as each other.

And so I wish you a very Happy New Year. May you love one another, may peace fill your hearts. Love and peace are there, seeds waiting to be nourished by you and only you, not anyone else. Give them the attention that they need, and watch them bloom. Only you can do this.

With peace and love, and many thanks for following me down the forest path,

Jo. x

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The Awen Alone Book Trailer

The Awen Alone: Walking the Path of the Solitary Druid is out now in all good bookstores. Kindle version available as well. Part of the Pagan Portals introductory series from Moon Books.

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My favourite movie for the season…

This is a new tradition that I am starting – to watch the absolutely gorgeous and stunning artwork of The Secret of Kells every year at this tide. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it, not just for the beautiful animation but the story as well.  My favourite animation film by far.

Blessings of the season,

Jo. x

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Kindle version of The Awen Alone: Walking the Path of the Solitary Druid is now available!

The Awen Alone Joanna van der Hoeven

 

The Kindle version of The Awen Alone is now available! Download your own copy for only £1.85.  Through the magic that is Druidry, build deep and abiding relationships with the natural world and walk a path of truth, honour, service and commitment.

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Wow!

Look who is at Number 1 – AND Number 5!  Thank you all so much for your support. There just aren’t any words right now, my heart is so full. Big love to you all. xoxo

Awen Alone at number one

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Recommended Reading: Thich Nhat Hanh, Love Letter to the Earth

TNH LLtoE

The wisdom of compassion allows us to see that we are part of a great cycle, that there is no separation. The earth is us, and we are the earth.

In this book, Love Letter to the Earth, Vietnemese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, talks about the stress we humans are putting upon the planet, and what we can do to live more harmoniously with the rest of the natural world.

I read this with the eyes of a human, the mind of a Zen Buddhist and the heart of a Druid.  In my opinion, this book needs to be on every Pagan’s bookshelf, let alone read by everyone regardless of faith, spiritual path, economic circumstance, political party, etc.

It is animism, and how to live it.

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What Druidry Is Not…

abbeyFor me, Druidry is not a white-robed affair. Crawling under low scrub pines and getting inside secret places of gorse bushes where only the deer trod, or standing on the seashore in the howling rain, or in the heart of the forest with the badgers and mosquitos – it just doesn’t work.

Druidry is not clean. It’s not an exercise only for the mind. It requires experience to turn what you have learned into real wisdom. It’s not just book-learning. Until you get out there and commune with the landscape, it’s not felt in the soul. It cannot live in the head. It will get you dirty, wet, hot, sweating, cold, scratched, bitten. It is dirty fingernails and peering under bushes. It is a return to the curiosity and wonder of the child, yet it is not child-like. It is deep learning, deep experience.

Druidry is not a male-centred religion or spirituality, nor is it female-centric. It is about equality and egality, anarchic and subject first and foremost to the teachings of nature.

It not just about standing in stone circles waving swords and reading off of sheets of paper with a group of other people, the media and tourists alike taking photographs. It is doing work in the heart of where you live, often without thanks or regard of any kind. It is giving back to the land, honouring the cycles and working for the community – and by community, I mean each and every living thing in that area wherein you live and call home, not just human. It is not about power and ego, but about communion and deep relationship. It is about dropping ideas of the self to better fit in the landscape.

It is not about writing loads of books and offering courses, achieving kudos through output, students and media. It is about the sharing of inspiration, acknowledging the inspiration of others and allowing the awen the flow through you in whatever way you see fit. One may be a teacher, or an author, or someone with whom the media interact – but they are not a spokesperson for all Druidry, nor a guru of any sort, and have no monopoly on wisdom. There is little room in deep Druidry for ego.

There are no titles, save those bestowed either by a person on him or herself, or by a group of people following a shared path and learning. These titles are not relevant to all Druids – just to the person or the group. Claiming to be an arch-druid of so and so has no bearing on those who are outside of the group. There is no central authority in Druidry.

Druidry is not about having things – it is about doing things. It is being utterly mindful of personal and global consumerism. It is about looking at everything that you do, everything that you have, everything that you take and everything that you give back. It is not about doing the bare minimum. It is about sacrifice, of time and ignorance, of ego and of desire. It is about constant re-evaluation of ethics, values and honour. It is about constant learning.

Druidry is not about attaining levels of initiation or ordination within learning, however. Courses and instruction may guide us, may open our minds and shatter pre-conceived notions, expanding awareness – but they are not there to gratify the ego through the bestowing of grade or rank. Druidry is also not about a specific point in time, where to call oneself a Druid means to have studied for twenty-some years, learned the genealogies of kings, etc. The Druidry of the past is not the Druidry of today. The Druidry of a small frame in time within the past and from a small, specific region is most certainly not the Druidry of today. Its wisdom can guide us, but it is just one window in a mansion of many halls. The Classical Druids were the Classical Druids – we are not, nor can ever be, Classical Druids.

Druidry is not just an exploration of the self. It goes beyond the self, to a life lived in service to others.

These are just a few things of what Druidy is not.

So what is Druidry?

It is allowing the wisdom of the oak to guide you in all that you do.

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OBOD 50th Anniversary Gala, Glastonbury

I’m getting ready to head over to Glastonbury this weekend, for the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids at their 50th Anniversary Gala! I’ll  be interviewed by chosen Chief, Philip Carr-Gomm  on the Friday afternoon (4pm, Avalon Room, Avalon Foundation) of the weekend event (6 – 9 June 2014). This interview will also be available at a later date on their podcast.

I’ll also be at the author’s table for the Fringe event on Sunday, between 10.30am – 1pm. Hope to see you there!

May we be the awen.

 

P.S. To read my review of the event, click HERE

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The Teenage Druid

Taken from my latest blog post at at Druid Heart on SageWoman’s channel at Witches and Pagans…

10361054_598064806967174_1548976491936707739_nWhen people think of Druids, the image that often comes to mind is not that of a young person, a teenager perhaps. And yet, how many young Druids are there out there, waiting to be recognised? How many teenagers feel the call to live in balance and harmony, with a deep love and respect for the natural world, and a great desire to live with honour and integrity based upon those very same things? Quite a few, I’m sure. I was one of them.

A lot of Druid organisations, groves and orders will not accept members under 18 years of age. This can leave the younger, aspiring Druid twisting in the wind, so to speak. Where should they turn to for information, for advice? Real life teachers are hard to come by. If they are available, many do not wish to teach the under 18s for various reasons. Younger people as well have all sorts of limitations. How can they find the right path for them with their limited means? Finances, access to resources, time – all of these can be very tight for the younger person who also has to deal with the pressures of school, clubs, family obligations and so on.

Most Druids first turn to books to learn more about Druidry. It is a great way to gain a good basic understanding of what Druids do, when they do it and how they go about it. However, they do not actually make the Druid. Books are getting more and more expensive as well, and may not be affordable to the younger person. So what can they do when they can’t afford all the lovely, shiny new books available on the market today?

My advice would be to go to the library. Research, if you have the time after your ordinary school work, to look up everything that you can about the Celts. This may sound more like a history lesson that actually learning Druidry, but the Druid worldview is based upon the Celtic worldview – they cannot be separated. Druidry grew out of Celtic culture and society, therefore to understand Celtic culture and society is to understand, to a certain extent, the world of the Druid.

Most libraries don’t have a great Pagan section. Let’s face it, even today a lot of libraries consider Paganism to still be a part of the “dark arts”, something of the occult. I remember in my local library in Canada, the only books on paganism that were available were two books, one called something like “The Occult” and the second all about Gardnerian Witchcraft. It gave me a tiny flavour of modern Paganism, but still it was far off the mark from what I practice today.

However, though the stock in the library can be scarce when it comes to Pagan, and specifically Druid books, it doesn’t hurt to try and ask them to order it in for you. Often, Druid books have very non-threatening titles which may pass under the radar of even the most vigilant anti-Pagan librarian.

Book learning is just one aspect of learning, however. Information is gained from books, wisdom is gained from doing stuff. Druidry is not a passive way of being. It asks us to be fully present in the moment, connected to nature and the world in order to better understand our place in it, and to live in balance and harmony. That is something that cannot just be thought about. So how does the young Druid go about this aspect of Druid learning?

The very first, and most important thing is just to go outside. Be in nature. Get to know nature, and let it get to know you. Watch the sun rise and set. Watch the moon rise and set. Notice the animals in your area. Record what they are doing – find out all that you can about their behaviour. Learn the names of plants and stones. Feel the rain upon your face. Sit under the light of the full moon. Walk in the forest silently, listening to nature around you. Look up to the sky and learn the names of the constellations. Some of these may be more difficult for the aspiring urban Druid, but you can still persevere.

Learn how to meditate. Again, the library will come in handy for this, and it’s free. There are loads of videos on Youtube on how to meditate – I love Zen meditation, otherwise known as mindfulness meditation. My favourite teacher is Thich Nhat Hanh

Likewise, there are videos on Youtube about Druidry. Even a Beginner’s Guide in several parts. Do a Youtube search on popular Druids, such as Emma Restall Orr or Phillip Carr-Gomm – they will turn up some great stuff. Also, Google articles by the people whose books you can’t afford or obtain – there is a LOT of info available for free on the internet. The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids have a regular podcast, called Druidcast, which has music, interviews and features every month. The American ADF also have a great podcast. The Druid Network is where I got my start in all things Druid – access to all the articles is free. There are hours upon hours of information there – waiting to be used practically, to be turned into wisdom.

As some point you may want to take some online courses, again if schoolwork allows. A lot of Druid courses cost money, and rightfully so – there are a lot of materials and time that have gone into the preparation of these. However, most teenagers cannot afford the cost of these courses, or do not meet the over 18 requirement. So what to do?

Again, head over to the Druid Network. There are free online courses available there, with no age limit. I particularly recommend Emma Restall Orr’s A Perennial Course in Living Druidry. Robin Herne’s Polytheistic Druidry course is also available. You can even read Emma Restall Orr’s first book, Principles of Druidry, online.

Another piece of advice I would give to the young, aspiring Druid is this: do not become despondent when you find that many, many people base your wisdom upon your age. Especially on internet forums, but almost equally so in real life. So many older people seem to think that wisdom and intelligence is based up on the number of years you have spent upon this planet – this is, in my opinion, complete bollocks. I have known wise children and stupid adults aplenty in my lifetime. Please, please, please do not despair, do not give up. Continue to seek out your Druidry, continue to ask questions, to learn more. If anyone makes you feel stupid for asking, or dismissed you based upon your age, well, quite frankly, they’re not worth knowing.

Keep at it, and do not become discouraged at the lack of training for under 18s. If you love nature, if you feel deep in your blood and bones the rhythms of the earth, the call of the Goddess, the pull of the land, sea and sky within your soul then nothing can stop you starting on your path. Indeed, you have already started.