Originally published in Druid’s Progress #1
Welcome to the first issue of the Druids’ Progress. Some of this Report will be familiar to a few of you, since I’m combining materials from several previously published articles with the contents of the first announcement letters about ADF. I’m doing this so I can send out this first Issue to new Inquirers and give you all the data you need at once. Please note, however, that only supporting members of ADF will be guaranteed future issues. This whole project is being run on the proverbial shoestring… and the original Druids apparently did their rites barefoot! Let’s start with the original “Open Letter” that planted the first seeds:
This is going out to all the people who have written to me wanting Neopagan Druid literature, training and/or fellow Druids with whom to worship. Copies are also going to various Neopagan publications, as well as a few folks who have indicated interest in the general topic of Druidism.
As many of you may know (perhaps from reading my book Real Magic or Margot Adler’s Drawing Down the Moon, I’ve been a priest of the Reformed Druids of North America (“RDNA”) since 1969. I’ve led groves (congregations) in Berkeley and Minneapolis, and founded others elsewhere; published newsletters (both Druidic and general Neopagan); and wrote most of, edited and produced The Druid Chronicles Evolved, (the closest thing to official scriptures the RDNA has). I’m also a priest and elder of the Craft, and I’ve been a Neopagan magician and occultist for nearly twenty years.
I’ve studied, practiced and written about many different forms of magic and religion over the years, yet always I find myself going back to Druidism. Many people have written to me to tell of similar spiritual histories, of their knowledge that they are meant to walk a Druid path. Yet what can we, who wish to worship and to grow as Neopagan Druids, do for fellowship? The Masonic Druids have much to teach us, yet they are not Neopagan. The “Druidic” traditions of Wicca are interesting, but they’re not really very Druidic. The members of the RDNA have no interest at all in being organized by anyone, nor in recruiting and training would-be Neopagan Druids. There doesn’t seem to be any organized group of people trying to reconstruct what the Paleopagan Druids actually believed and did, nor trying to apply such knowledge to creating a Neopagan religion fit for the Space Age.
What can we do? We can do it ourselves Thanks to the researches of such scholars as Dumezil, Ross, Piggott, Duran and others, we now have sizable amount of realistic data about Indo-European Paleopaganism and its clergy. But how do we apply this knowledge to creating a modern Neopagan religion? What does it mean to be a Druid in the 1980’s? Using accurate information as starting point, how do we create rituals and fellowship, art and music, polytheologies and lifestyles that will give meaning to our lives and those of others?
Well, of course, I have my own vision of Neopagan Druidism. I see Druids as artists and intellectuals, magicians and clergy, holders of the highest wisdom their cultures (or subcultures) have to offer. This is what they used to be, and what (with sufficient hard work and dedication) they could be again. A number of people have told me that they share my vision and approve of the wars in which I think it could be accomplished. So, after a great deal of soul-searching, I’ve decided to try once again to see what I can do to create a form of “reconstructionist” Neopagan Druidism.
The purpose of this letter is an announcement of, and an invitation for your participation in, the creation of: Ár nDraíocht Féin. The Irish words (pronounced “arn ree-ocht fane”) mean “Our own Druidism,” and that’s what I have in mind — a brand new form of Druidism, not just Pan-Celtic, but Pan-European. (By this latter term, I mean to include any of the European branches of the Indo-European culture and language tree — Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Baltic, even the pre-Classical Greek & Roman.) Paradoxically, this would resemble the original Paleopagan Druidism far more than any efforts of the last thousand years. It would be based on the best scholarly research available, combined with what has been learned (about art, psychology, small group politics and economics) through the theory and practice of modern Neopaganism, and my own knowledge of the polytheological and practical derails of magical and religious phenomena.
I’ve already started this project, through the organizing of my notes and the beginning of a new book. The purpose of the druid handbook will be to enable anyone who has a copy to start up their own Druidic grove, or to practice as a solitary Druid. Everything necessary will be included: history, polytheology, liturgy, legal structures, art and music, calendars and customs, etc.
This is where you come in, I’d like to make sure that what I’m creating will fulfill genuine needs in other Neopagans. So I’m going to need feedback, advice and research help from many people in order to make this project work. Unfortunately, I’m also going to need some sort of minimal financing in order to devote the time necessary to do this right (I’m talking about 10-20 hours week for 2-3 years). Otherwise I simply can’t do the huge job of coordinating the research and writing the book in anything less than 5-10 years.
What I have in mind is this: despite my experiences with Pagan publishing in the past, I’m willing to produce a highly irregular, nonscheduled Druid publication (that’s what you’re reading now). This will come out three or four times per year, and will simply consist of xeroxed sheets of dot matrix type. (I’m deliberately going to keep the format as simple as possible, so as to avoid falling into the common Neopagan pit of spending increasing amounts of time and money on improving the physical appearance of the publication, when I should be concentrating on content). Issues will include selections from the work in progress; research materials (advice, requests and reports for and from the readers); scholarly, liturgical and polytheological debates; Druidic rituals and guided meditations; and anything else that looked interesting and Druidic around publication time. (And since more and more people are wanting ADF to turn into an active Neopagan religion as soon as possible, I’ll be including organizational materials and advice as well.)
Now Druidism is not everyone’s cup of tea, so I’m not expecting a large response to this announcement. Professional journals for specialized interest groups charge as much as $850 per year, but I’m willing to mail out this stuff to people donating $20 or more per year (depending upon what each supporting subscriber honestly feels they can afford to contribute to the project). That won’t be enough for me to “earn a living from my religion,” but it could enable me to devote the time and energy needed (not to mention the expense of paper, postage, computer disks, printer ribbons, phone bills, etc.) without my actually losing, money on the project.
If you’re interested, send your donation to me with a clearly printed or typed name, mailing address, zip or postal code, home and work phones (optional, with hours you can be reached at each), areas of expertise (European languages you can read and write, artistic skills, research background and resources, Neopagan training already received, etc.) and areas of special interest (what you would most like to learn and what you think would be most useful to publish). Make our your check or money order to “P. E. I. Bonewits”, and enclose a large (manila 9″x11″ or 6″x9″) self-addressed stamped envelope. If there aren’t enough people who are enthusiastic about the project, the envelopes will be used to return the money of those who have responded. Otherwise, I’ll use them to mail out the first issue sometime this Spring. (Obviously, the response, though small, was enough to encourage me to go ahead. If you’re receiving this issue in response to one of ADF’s ads, then you don’t really need to send in envelopes with your donation, unless you want to help out with the mailing costs on your future issues.)
With a little bit of luck, the blessings of the Gods and a great deal of hard work, we can create an authentically Druidic Neopagan religion our ancestors would be proud of.
ADF is an idea I have been wrestling with for years: a Neopagan Druid Order whose members would not be ashamed to honestly compare themselves with the original Druids. This requires mature, dedicated and talented people who are willing to invest both time and energy over a long period (remember, the original Druids took up to twenty years each to be fully trained, and they had an intact tradition).
The response to a rather small mailing of the Open Letter has been remarkable. About ten percent of the recipients have replied, and among them are a dozen linguists (who speak/read/write French, Spanish, German, Irish, Welsh, Russian, Czech, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Anglo-Saxon, Gothic, etc.). Several people who come from families that have always considered themselves Druidic have written, as have a few folks who are already students of Indo-European and/or Celtic studies. I expected a high proportion of Ph.D.’s and self-taught scholars, since they are common in the Neopagan community, but the actual proportion is amazing! Many have written to say how unsatisfied they have been with the scholarship and technical skills of other Neopagan traditions, and of how they have been looking for a group that rook these matters seriously.
I’ve also had contact from poets, healers, and people who just talk to trees — and ADF will need these types just as much as we will need scholars (though there is a large overlap, of course). I haven’t heard from very many traditional musicians, singers or dancers yet, but I hope we’ll able to recruit some. We also need participation from folks who are active in various ecology and conservation groups; therapists willing to help train Neopagan clergy in pastoral counseling techniques; people from Celtic and other cultural revival movements, and so on.
At this point in the birthing process, details are in short supply, but the general outlines are becoming increasingly clear. I can at least give you some specific ideas as to…
