Druid Orders that compliment your Pagan Force Studies

Im An Arch Druidess, I am one of two that run 2 Druid Orders in the UK, the main one being The Druid Order of The Black Dragon. I have walked a Druid path for many years and am indeed started my own studies with Order of Bards, Ovates, Druids (OBOD) which is way to introduce people to Druidism. The British Druid Order (BDO) is another really good organisation to study with and New Order of Druids (NOD).

If you have a room full of Druids, you rarely have the same answer to a question, indeed, I have been in that situation many times. People ask what is Druidism, does it have a place in modern day society,and if so how? Mistakenly, people think that in the UK, Druidism is a recognised religion, it is not, it is a recognised spirituality, and it is to this, and Paganism in general that many people worldwide are turning to alternative spiritualities as mainstream religions are for what ever reason are not serving their parishioners in a way that makes them want to stay.

Beliefs and practices of the ancient Celts are being pieced together by modern Druids. Because so much information has been lost, this is not an easy task. Some findings are:

Within ancient Druidism, there were three specialties. "A general categorisation of the three different grades accords the arts to the bards, the skills of prophecy and divination to the Ovates and philosophical, teaching, counseling and judicial tasks to the Druid.
The Bards were "the keepers of tradition, of the memory of the tribe - they were the custodians of the sacredness of the Word." In Ireland, they trained for 12 years learning grammar, hundreds of stories, poems, philosophy, etc.
the Ovates worked with the processes of death and regeneration. They were the native healers of the Celts. They specialized in divination, conversing with the ancestors, and prophesising the future.

The Druids and Druidesses formed the professional class in Celtic society. They performed the functions of modern day priests, teachers, ambassadors, astronomers, genealogists, philosophers, musicians, theologians, scientists, poets and judges. They underwent lengthy training: some sources say 20 years. Druids led all public rituals, which were normally held within fenced groves of sacred trees. In their role as priests, "they acted not as mediators between God and man, but as directors of ritual, as shamans guiding and containing the rites." Most leaders mentioned in the surviving records were male. It is not known whether female Druids were considered equal to their male counterparts, or whether they were restricted to special responsibilities. References to women exercising religious power might have been deleted from the record by Christian monks during the Celtic Christian era.

Goddesses and Gods: The Celts did not form a single religious or political unity. They were organized into tribes spread across what is now several countries. As a result, of the 374 Celtic deities which have been found, over 300 occur only once in the archaeological record; they are believed to be local deities. There is some evidence that their main pantheon of Gods and Goddesses might have totalled about 3 dozen - perhaps precisely 33 (a frequently occurring magical number in Celtic literature). Some of the more famous are: Arawn, Brigid, Cernunnos, Cerridwen, Danu, Herne, Lugh, Morgan, Rhiannon and Taranis. Many Celtic deities were worshipped in triune (triple aspect) form. Triple Goddesses were often sisters.

Afterlife: They believed that the dead were transported to the Other World by the God Bile (AKA Bel, Belenus). Life continued in this location much as it had before death. The ancient Druids believed that the soul was immortal. After the person died in the Other World, their soul reincarnates and lives again in another living entity -- either in a plant or the body of a human or other animal. After a person has learned enough at this level, they move on after death to a higher realm, which has its own Other World. This continues until the individual reaches the highest realm, the "Source." A Druidic visitor to this web site wrote: "All things are created from the Source, including the Gods. We are just sparks from its flame." At every birth, the Celts mourned the death of a person in the Other World which made the new birth possible.

Creation Myth: No Druidic creation story appears to have survived, although there are numerous accounts of the supernatural creation of islands, mountains, etc.


Baptism: There is some evidence that the Celts had a baptism initiation ceremony similar to those found in Buddhist, Christian, Essene, Hindu, Islamic, and Jainist sacred texts. Other researchers dismiss baptism as a forgery by Christian scribes as they transferred Celtic material to written form.

Moral code: Druids do not follow the Wiccan Rede which states (in modern English) one is free to do anything, as long as it harms nobody. The closest analogy are the Celtic Virtues of honour, loyalty, hospitality, honesty, justice and courage. "Daven" briefly describes the Virtues as follows:
"Briefly stated the virtue of Honour requires one to adhere to their oaths and do the right thing, even if it will ultimately hurt others or oneself in the process. A Druid is obligated to remain true to friends, family and leaders thus exhibiting the virtue of Loyalty. Hospitality demands that a Druid be a good host when guests are under one's roof. Honesty insists that one tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth to yourself, your gods and your people. Justice desires the Druid understands everyone has an inherent worth and that an assault to that worth demands recompense in one form or another. Courage for the Druid does not always wear a public face; it is standing-strong-in-the-face-of-adversity, alone or with companions. Sometimes Courage is getting up and going about a daily routine when pain has worn one down without complaint or demur.

Divination:Druids used many techniques to foretell the future: meditation, study of the flight of birds, interpreting dreams, and interpreting the pattern of sticks thrown to the ground.


The Druid Vow is this:

We swear
By peace and love to stand
Heart to Heart and Hand in Hand
Mark O Spirit, and hear us now,
confirming this, our Sacred Vow.

Thank you Blackdraco,
That's a great Post! I learnt something, especially to do with the deities.
Cheers

Thanks for this thread.

What do you think about the book Irish Origins of Civilization?

The author states that the Druids and their knowledge came from Atlantis and migrated to Egypt.

Great thread, very informative and helpful! I am a member of several Druid groups myself, but am just really starting my studies.... ADF, Henge of Keltria, OBOD, Reformed Druids of Gaia, AODA, and The Druid Network, including their Order of the Yew.

Separately, but also related, I am a member of the Correllian Nativist Tradition and their affiliated Witch School, as well as the Church of All Worlds and Fellowship of Isis. I may also become part of the faculty of the Grey School of Wizardry, although that is still being explored....

Thanks for that list of groups. I will check them out.

I'm a member of ADF....are there still any active Druid or Pagan members here?

jzen wrote: I'm a member of ADF....are there still any active Druid or Pagan members here?

I'm pagan. Not Druid though.

Ár nDraíocht Féin huh? I've heard of it but never really learned too much about it. Know what it means in Irish?

Lykeios wrote:

jzen wrote: I'm a member of ADF....are there still any active Druid or Pagan members here?

I'm pagan. Not Druid though.

Ár nDraíocht Féin huh? I've heard of it but never really learned too much about it. Know what it means in Irish?

Yeah, I think it means "Our own Druidry" or "Our own Magic," something like that lol. It was the first pagan group I ever looked into. Went to a grove get-together, liked what I heard, and continued on with it. They're really well organized, much more so than I was expecting, lol. What do you practice and how active are you with it?

jzen wrote:

Lykeios wrote:

jzen wrote: I'm a member of ADF....are there still any active Druid or Pagan members here?

I'm pagan. Not Druid though.

Ár nDraíocht Féin huh? I've heard of it but never really learned too much about it. Know what it means in Irish?

Yeah, I think it means "Our own Druidry" or "Our own Magic," something like that lol.

Yup, you're right. "Our own magic" is correct.

It was the first pagan group I ever looked into. Went to a grove get-together, liked what I heard, and continued on with it. They're really well organized, much more so than I was expecting, lol. What do you practice and how active are you with it?

Hellenic/Greek polytheism. Honestly, I'm not nearly as active with it as I'd like to be. We do have a shrine to the Gods in our house (my wife and her mother are both Hellenic polytheists as well) but we haven't done any ritual together in a very long time. My "practice" these days mostly revolves around prayers and invocations of the Gods...but I plan on becoming more active from now on.

That sounds awesome My original draw to it was the way the rituals tied into the seasons. When I developed any affinity for a particular hearth culture, (in my case, the Saxon hearth culture) I created a lot of my own. ADF offers a lot of standardized stuff, as far as ritual is concerned, but I always liked my own personal prayer life with it. I do think they have a Hellenistic/Greek hearth culture group in one of the Kins on the website.

How do you use it in yourJedi work?