Lay Druids and other definitions
(Nimue)
The term ‘Druid’ suggests authority and importance. For this reason many people who are interested in Druidry do not feel able to call themselves Druids. We don’t have an agreed term for people who are interested in Druid stuff, doing Druidry, on the Druid path but do not yet feel experienced enough to use the word to describe themselves.
Lay Druid seems like a bit of a contradiction. But at the same time, if it works for you, use it. A person absolutely can be a lay Druid. That would mean studying Druidry and practicing it, perhaps in a solitary way. It could mean going along to rituals or being part of a grove. It might mean any level of commitment that seems appropriate to you, including just wanting your rites of passage handled in a Druidic way.
People who are definitely Druids may well be using other terms too, reflecting which bits of the Druid work they do. Celebrants lead rituals and perform rites of passage and I think that’s the only term that might be unfamiliar. Other Druids will call themselves teachers, writers, healers, activists etc in ways that are usually easy to make sense of. We know that the historical Druids performed a lot of different roles, and that clearly not everyone did everything.
There has tended to be an assumption in Paganism as a whole that people want to be their own authority, their own priest or priestess and that lay Paganism doesn’t make any sense. I’ve never agreed with this. Not everyone wants to make their spiritual life the centre of everything they do and that should be fine. A functioning society needs people doing all kinds of different things. Wanting someone else to be a Druid for you so that you can do Paganism in a way that works for you is totally fine. Druidry makes most sense when it includes community service, and it actually works better when there are people who want people in those roles.
If you want to be a lay Druid, you will need to give some thought to what you want from that. There will be people who can support you, however you want to do things. You might want inspiration for celebrating the wheel of the year, or a small daily prayer practice, or a source of everyday inspiration. Having a bit of Druidry in your life in a way that suits you is a totally valid way of doing things and there are plenty of resources out there.
I’m perfectly happy to support people in this way. I have taught in the past, but currently I don’t have the resources for it. However, I’m always happy to tackle topics and questions (if I can) so if you read the blog and you have queries, or thoughts, just leave me a comment and I’ll see what I can do. Drop it on any post and I’ll see it. This post was prompted by a question from Victor Sudakov, and I hope I’ve managed to answer it sufficiently.
