Things were Much Better Before They Allowed the Muggles into Hogwarts By Charlton Hall I started studying Druidry in 1978 and committed myself to the Druid path through initiation in 1979. Back then there was no Ár nDraíocht Féin or Henge of Keltria in the United States. The only Druid organizations in the U.S. at the time were the Reformed Druids of North America and the Ancient Order of Druids in America. In the days before the Internet, the only way to contact either of these groups was by U.S. mail. This was a long and tedious process, so it was usually better and easier to learn on your own. In those times, there were precious few books on Druidry. Most were historical works or works of semi-fiction like the Barddas by Iolo Morganwyg, who was known for inventing things outright. The only things we had to guide us were the early Irish and Welsh works like the Mabinogion, The Taking of Ireland, and the Cattle Raid of Cooley. These were also occasionally supplemented by the Scottish Carmina Gadelica, which is thought by many to be a Christianized version of earlier Pagan songs and incantations. Other than these works, and the things written about the Druids secondhand by classic authors like Julius Caesar, Pliny, Strabo and Diodorus, we only had our own personal experiences in nature to guide us. At that time in my life I was living in Pensacola, Florida. Although Pensacola is and was an extremely conservative town, it was also a melting pot of people from all around the world, due to being a port city. Several of these well-traveled and open-minded people came together to form the Emerald Coast Grove. We met on the beach of Escambia Bay, just outside a forest that surrounded the bluffs off of Scenic Highway. It was a magical place, there where the sea met the land. When the moon arose, it illuminated our meeting place as it reflected off the water. The woods nearby were full of night creatures whose music provided the soundtrack for our gatherings. In those days there were no streetlights to scatter light pollution into the night sky, so the view of the stars was fantastic. In short, it was a great place for experiencing all the beauty and power nature had to offer. Because we were reconstructing Druidry from personal experience and from tomes written a thousand years after the Druids existed in the world, we learned to focus intensely on what nature had to teach us. It wasn’t about sitting at the feet of some ‘Druid Master’ to learn our lessons. It was about going out into the woods and finding out for ourselves what nature had to offer. It was about using nature as a teacher and as a metaphor. It was about using the cycles of nature as guides for our lives. It was about using the Wheel of the Year as a symbol of balance so that we could find balance in our own lives. Fast forward about 35 years. Now we have the Internet, and hundreds if not thousands of books on Druidry and other types of Paganism. Self-proclaimed ‘experts’ pop up on every corner and expect a herd of followers to fall at their feet. But if you ask them to name three medicinal uses for elderberries, or to name the season in which the hawthorn blooms, they give you a blank stare. If you ask them to recite the tale of Cerridwen and Taliesin, they look as if you asked them to name all the members of British Parliament since the reign of Queen Elizabeth. J. K. Rowling had a name for this sort of person. She called them ‘muggles.’ I don’t want to sound like a crotchety old Pagan elder, but perhaps that’s what I am…or at least what I’ve become. Nowadays we have a lot of Druid ‘experts;’ i.e., muggles, who have never taken the time in nature to learn her ways. They love to sit and pontificate on what our ancient ancestors may have practiced, but they can’t name ten native species in their own local forests. They want all the glory without having to do the hard work (ancient Druids did twenty years of hard work before they could even begin to call themselves ‘Druids’ and feel worthy of the title). A part of me longs for the old days when we actually went out into the woods and tried to learn from nature. I know that not all modern Druids are ‘book wise’ while ignorant of nature. There are many who actually try to do the work and learn. I salute them. I just wish that as Druidry has risen in popularity in recent years we could have been spared the inevitable birth pangs and the charlatans that come along with them. I miss the days when the muggles weren’t allowed at Hogwart’s.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 20:03:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015