Druids ? in this day and age

Nevyn

OK well I will start by first admitting that I dont know any one who is a druid. I know there are gatherings of druids here in Ireland so we so have some

I know what duirds were ment to have done in the past.
The duirds with the bards were na Filleach (SP )

They cast omens , read signs and spoke with the gods on the behalf of people. But what i'd like to know is what do duirds do nowa days ?

In the past they were researcher ect but with society being so differnet where to they fit in.

Ok i know enough to know that it isnt all tree hugging and protecting. But I am ciurious about What Druids Do ?

azezil

"my mommy wouldn't buy me a transformer dolly, i'm gonna get her back by becomeing a social outcast" ... my opinion of such ppl

what they do, well i'd imagine they still practice, their interpretation, of ancient rituals and the like.

Talliesin

Thank you azezil for that well-researched and though-provoking post.

During your detailed research, did you actually find out how Druids are "social outcasts"? It seems strange to me that they could be social outcasts if most people don't have a clue that they are Druids.

I only know a few Druids, and I've only met a couple of dozen, so obviously my post will be nowhere near as well-informed as azezil's, but for what it's worth:

Druidry is loosely defined to a degree that makes "Wicca" seem like a narrow and precise term!

Certainly when we are talking about the practices of the Celtic tribes of Ireland, Britain and Gaul we can talk in much more precise terms, however most of the information there once was on such Druidry is lost, and much of what we have is of questionable authenticity.

To some Druidry is entirely, or almost entirely, a cultural matter. Many of the Druids that are involved with the eisteddfod's (Welsh festivals with poetry and music competitions, comparable to a feis ceol but with more popularity) would be examples of such. The National Eisteddfod of Wales has around 6,000 competitors and 170,000 visitors and, along with other such events, is a pretty big event in Wales and normally broadcast on BBC television.

Amongst the religious Druids there is still a great deal of diversity including some people who are pretty much 100% Christian, but with a strong interest in their history and an attitude to nature similar to that of Christain Transcendentalists like Henry David Thoreau.

Others are Pagans, and in is a point of overlap between Druidry and Wicca where the only difference is the Craft practiced, rather than the religious beliefs held.

Ironically enough given the stronger link to the Celts the Druids seem, on average, to put slightly more emphasis on Yule and the birth of the Sun-God than on Samhain and the death of the God. However that's just an impression I have gotten, and it would seem a bit weird if that was true (Samhain being a Celtic feast, were Yule was both pre-Celtic and Saxon, but not Celtic).

Emma Restall Orr's book Spirits of the Sacred Grove is a good read, and well worth a look if you have any interest. It deals with the difficulties of describing an oral tradition that is loosely defined faith by for the most part following the novelist's advice "show, don't tell".

Evil Phil

I met a druid once, can't tell you much about him other than his was an oral tradition, that he was introduced to the tradition at 7 years of age and fought in the spanish civil war. I met him in Clonegal Castle about 10 years ago at a Fellowship of Isis festival (Samhain I think).