How does one become a Druid?

 This article came about as a result of the simplest question. Asked in all honesty by someone seeking a real and genuine answer. It came into the office email address of The Druid Network and it said, “Excuse me, how do you become a Druid?” How can it be that such a succinct enquiry can provoke such searching and debate in pursuit of clarity? Surely this question is so very fundamental that it is at the very top of the FAQ…?

 

https://druidnetwork.org/what-is-druidry/beliefs-and-definitions/articles/how-does-one-become-a-druid/ 

 

 

I suspect the lack of a FAQ is down to the difficulty there is in defining what exactly it is that a Druid is, what a Druid does and what makes one person a Druid and another person with so very many shared aspects something else entirely.

How did I become a Druid? Did I become a Druid? Depends very much on who you ask, I guess. And having become a Druid, does one simply continue to be a Druid, or is it a continual reassessment process? Can one, without meaning to, drop off the Druid list? Is there a Druid list? I’m sure you can think of a dozen other questions.

At its core, Druidry is one way of dealing with the spiritual and the physical world. There are many. That one choses Druidry over any other comes down to personal connection with deity or deities, perhaps to geographic location and heritage, and to a structure whose stories hold a resonance in the head and the heart. What I say now about Druidry, others may claim also as a fundamental part of their own chosen path.

Druidry is most of all a path (shorthand; for path read spirituality or religion or whatever works for you) of intimate wakeful relationship with all that you encounter. On a day-to-day basis what we most encounter is landscape, humans and non-humans… Maybe we also encounter significant ‘other things’ too. But in terms of the mundane, it is all about the mud and the blood and how and where you fit into it. One can best become a Druid, in part, by living in awareness of the way in which your life affects the balance of the Eco-system. That doesn’t necessitate puritanical rejection of the modern world, but it does cause one to seek out ways in which to live that are less damaging – a greener life.

Some Druids take the inspiration of a greener life and make a Deep Green life for themselves. Living off the Grid, growing their own food, recycling just about everything, making do and buying second hand if they can’t make it themselves, perhaps choosing not to be parents in an ever more over-populated world. Other Druids make appropriate (for them) use of technology, living within society and acting from within to attempt to make it a more honourable, more sustainable, more ethical society. The two ‘sides’ are each Druid, and yet each Druid lives a very different life.

The Deep Green Druid may be reliant upon a wood burning stove to warm and feed his or her family, while the techno-Druid may have central heating, triple glazing and a solar roof. Looking harshly at each, the one is a direct cause of localised particulate pollution and the loss of windfall wood which is home to many creatures, living an insular lifestyle which could not possibly be replicated by the entire population… the other a proponent of centralised generation and even nuclear power – carbon neutral but intimately connected with fears of radiation and long term waste problems.

One will eschew carbon-fuelled transport and rely on foot and bicycle and canal, live in a caravan or narrowboat and look only to the modern world when necessity (or illness) calls. The other will use technology in awareness of consequence but also in understanding that improvements in engineering and invention offer a solution to the ever more pressing demands of an ever more increasing population. But each one will have a wakeful, aware, personal relationship with the world, in which the full argument for one side or the other will have been and continues to be worked out.

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