h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Druidry; Today and Yesterday. - A1140247
Author: Matholwch - Resident Druid of this Parish /|\. - U200813

Dear Reviewers,

I noted after some research that there was a dearth of information about modern druidry on h2g2. I have had quite a few inquiries regarding it and felt moved to write a short piece as information for the community as a whole.

Although I claim no academic authority what I have written is based, in part, upon my 20 years as an active druid. I am also proud to be a member of both the British Druid Order and the Order of the Yew, and to be associated with The Albion Conclave.

I have consulted a number of sources including the works of Emma Restall Orr (Chief of The Druid Network and well-known author on druidry), Philip Shallcrass (Chief of the British Druid Order), Professor Ronald Hutton (noted historian) and Ross Nichols.

I feel what I have written to be an open and reasonable introduction to modern druidry, though to do that subject justice would indeed take many volumes.

I commend this draft for peer review, and with your kind permission, entry into the guide.

Hope, love and purpose,
Matholwch /|\.

Well done, I think, though it occasionally seems to lapse into what is termed the first-person account category. I'm assured that those sections would have to be changed to reach edited entry status.

I wasn't aware that this much detail survived! It seems well constructed, and the details were sufficiently well defined as to their level of verifiability.

I have a couple of questions, raised by your 'bulleted' list.

[ They were a priestly caste whose roles also included teaching, healing, advising and acting as independent judges. ]

Does this mean that only adults, or adult males, who were trained as Druids were really druids? Was there no 'people' who thought of themselves as driuds?

[ They seem to have originated in Britain and spread west. Not, as is commonly thought, to have come with the Celts from their indo-european roots. ]

The term 'originated', as used here, makes their origin murky. Do you know if they were 'Britons', 'Romans', 'Saxons', 'Vikings', ...? Is anything left of the language they used that might help place their origins?

Good luck with this and future entries.

Hi Fords Towel .

Thank you for your comments I shall endeavour to answer them.

"Does this mean that only adults, or adult males, who were trained as Druids were really druids? Was there no 'people' who thought of themselves as driuds?"

As far as we can determine historically there was no bar on female druids whatsoever (they are mentioned in many stories, though there is a common Christian translator error of renaming them as sorceresses, a perfect example of overlaid societal prejudices).

Training began in childhood and progressed through the druid's entire life. The people did not think of themselves as 'druid'. Being Druid was a profession, or perhaps a calling. The people lived in a world where what we would term 'the fantastic' seemed commonplace to them. The spirits of the land, the gods and their ancestors seemed to walk through their daily lives. Note I use the word 'seemed' a lot, this is because I cannot really know what they felt and what we know has come down through poetry, story and song.

"The term 'originated', as used here, makes their origin murky. Do you know if they were 'Britons', 'Romans', 'Saxons', 'Vikings', ...? Is anything left of the language they used that might help place their origins?"

Druidry is becoming accepted as having been practiced in Britain prior to the arrival of the 'Celts'. It has taken a lot of hard scholarship on behalf of people like Prof.Ronald Hutton and Jean Markvale to throw off the romantic notions of the Victorian Classicists. Thus it is what is now termed as a "native British spirituality", that spread outwards to the rest of Northern Europe, mingling and changing to local conditions as it went.

The pre-Celtic Brythonic people are only known from their New Stone Age and Bronze Age archaeological remains (which nonetheless includes Stonehenge and numerous other sites). The last independant, unmingled remnants of that culture were the Picts of Northern Scotland.

You are right about the use of the first person and I will begin preparing an edited draft this week, though I will wait for further feedback before presenting it.

Thanks again and blessings,
Matholwch /|\.

Good to see this entry, Matholwch,

Feedback when I've had a proper look!

OK, had a better look and generally it comes across as a well constructed entry.

There are some sections which will need to be reworded as they are written in the first person (and I'm not entirely sure about fourth person references, either). Shouldn't be too difficult to do.

One thing that struck me was that there appears to be a 'break' between druidry 'as was' and 'as is'. You say that there is an unbroken lineage. Is this definitely true? I've heard that modern druidry is more or less guess-work. That's not to say that the spirit isn't the same.

Blessings!

Hi Matholwych,

What a huge amount of information you have been able to add into this entry. I found it interesting, as I did not realise that there were differences between druidry and wicca. I think that you have done a great job in explaining druidry. This idea of promoting the personal spiritual path, and the fact that many different, almost conflicting beliefs can be resolved is quite fascinating. Well done overall.

I have a few small, tiny points.

You make a comment "In their rush to assimilate the British, the Christian missionaries converted many of the old gods into saints". I might suggest a small re-wording, as there is an implication in the paragraph that the people of Ireland are British. It may seem somewhat petty, but most Irish people find this somewhat jarring, in much the same way as many Canadians dislike being called Americans etc.

You also mention that St Bridget was decanonised. Since she is one of the Irish Patron saints, this would be big news here, but I have never heard about it. I did a quick Google search and found out that the Pope honoured a St Bridget of Sweden in a speech in 1999. Can you check your source again? You are right though about the Celtic origins of Bridget.

You mention the Awen - the roots of this word are apparent to me - Abhainn, or Aven, which means "river" in Gaelic. This might be worth explaining in your entry.

"This article itself is in direct response to the many enquiries made to the author during his time on h2g2." Normally people do not add their motivations for the entry into the entry itself. Its just a style thing.

"I hope this has given you a taste of what druidry means today. If you wish to ask me questions feel free to drop into my h2g2 page, where I will do what I can to answer them or dorect you to wiser sources." Again you should probably leave this bit out for reasons of Edited Guide style. You need to keep the entry free from personal opinion as much as you can. Anybody who is interested in your entry will know who to contact!

Finally, and this really depends on whether you have the time - learning a small bit of GuideML may help you with headers and paragraphs and suchlike.

I hope this helps. Well done again, and I hope to see this as an Edited Guide entry in the near future.

Woodpigeon

Agreed! On all points.

Is there more work to be done on this Matholwch?

See F134651?thread=313054

Hi Zarquon,

As Jodan kindly linked I have updated it in line with advice from all you good people. I hope that it is now acceptable?

Blessings,
Matholwch /|\.

Hi M,

Yes - it's getting better, however I did not see any changes with reference to St Bridget. To my knowledge she has *not* been de-canonised.

Best regards,

Woodpigeon

I believe there are two different attitudes to St Bridget. One is that she was just the goddess renamed as a Saint and that no such person ever existed. The other, and I think this is the one accepted by the church, is that the name Bridget was popular because of the goddess and that an actual woman of this name converted to Christianity and became the Saint. No doubt, many of the goddess's attributes were later assigned to the saint, but the official attitude is that the saint existed. I don't believe that she was de-canonised.

Here's a link to support the fact that Bridget was decanonised.

http://www.swuuc.org/SanAntonio/CCC/Sermons/00jan30w.htm

Zarquon,

Thanks for that, I couldn't find a catholic reference to it.

Blessings,
Matholwch /|\.

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Phew! It seemed like waiting for Christmas. Congratulations, Matholwch /|\!

Ooer? Does that mean its now in the Guide, or nearly in the Guide?

I wish I had the wits to read the lovingly written Guide guides .

Blessings,
Matholwch /|\.