Today, we were invited to visit the home of one of our mother’s colleagues who happens to be a practicing Druid. She was willing to show us her worship space and some of the items used in her practice. As Druids generally worship outside, we were not surprised to see an outdoor circle raked in the leaves. We entered the circle from the west, facing the sunrise. Inside the circle, there was an altar and four mounds of stones in each of the four directions (north, south, east, and west). On the stones were objects symbolizing the four elements, one in each direction. There was earth for North, feathers for air for the East, fire for South, and water for West. She showed us her Grove opening ceremony. During the opening, she invoked a circle of protection to protect the circle and make it sacred. She said the Druid prayer of peace, purified the sacred circle, performed a chant and said another prayer.
At that point, it was pretty cold outside, so we went inside her house. Inside her house, there were symbols of Druidism, such as an orange candle, which she explained stood for Fire and Air mixed together. She lights it when she wants to be inspired, since Fire and Air are elements she identifies with. She also explained and showed us that she had an Earth room, since the qualities of Earth were the ones she most lacked. Inside the Earth room, which was painted brown with trees, there was a small altar, a closet with some of her beautiful Druid robes, and many, many books. She invited us to take a look at the items.
We were soon joined by another member of her grove. We are going to identify them by initials—our host is D, her grove member is T. At that point, we were able to interview them both. They gave thoughtful and extended answers to our questions, and we really learned a lot from their responses.
Interview
Q. Do you believe in an after life?
A. Not all Druids believe in an after life but if they do, they see it in a different way then most people. Many Druids believe in reincarnation, and they also believe that not only humans have souls—trees and animals can all have spirits, so we can communicate with trees or animals.
Q. Do Druids have to make a pilgrimage?
A. Druids do not have to make a pilgrimage, but ruins are a source of inspiration and some Druids like to visit ruins, especially in the UK—Stonehenge and Glastonbury Tor are some of the most popular places to visit.
Q. Do you have a celebration every week?
A. Not every week, but there are 8 main celebrations during the year that almost all Druids celebrate (see the drawing of the Druid calendar in our previous post).
Q. Why did you choose Druidism?
D: I was raised in a fundamental evangelical Christian faith. I always loved nature as a child and when I discovered Druidism I said, "That’s what I am.” I felt like I had come home when I discovered Druidism.
T: I grew up in a conservative Jewish home, but my father encouraged me to ask questions, and I did have a lot of questions as I was growing up. As an adult, I was introduced to Native American theology, which shares a lot of similarities with Druidism. My husband was studying Druidism, and had lots of books on the subject, so I first learned a lot about Druidism from all those books. Later on, I traveled to England, and stayed there for about a year, and explored Druidism there as ll.
We also asked them both questions about being open about practicing Druidism, and how people react when they learn that a person is practicing Druidism. We also wanted to know about children raised as Druids. These questions will be in the next post, and we will also be posting the rest of the interview from our Universal Unitarian friends.
As always, we would love to hear from people who practice the religions we are studying. If you would like to leave a comment that adds to our explorations, please do so!
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