The trouble with Druids
(Nimue)
‘Druid’ is a wonderful term – mysterious, powerful and alluring, the word itself is often what first attracts people to the path. It conjures up images of wise old sages, able to speak with kings and stride onto battlefields to stop the fighting. For many it conjures up Merlin, archetypal wizards, Celtic nationalism, a sense of connection with the past and more. But, it is also practically quite problematic.
You can’t reconstruct a priesthood without the social context is belonged to. A modern person cannot do anything like what an ancient Druid might have done, because everything around us is so different. If you want to do some of that work, you’d have a better shot at it as a Christian bishop. As soon as you pull something out of its context, it doesn’t work in the same way – this is an issue for anyone trying to work with ancient Pagan religions.
Not everyone wants to be a priest, or be full time. We are short of modern language for people who are attracted to Druidry but don’t want to be Druids. Clearly back in the day, Druids were the priesthood for a population that honoured Gods, showed up for rituals, believed in broadly the same things and acted on that at least some of the time. I think it was a major mistake in 20th Century Paganism to think that everyone wanted to be their own priest or priestess. Not everyone does, and even the people who do will have times when they don’t want to be that either. Everyone needs time off, and someone else to turn to for guidance now and then.
To effectively work with inspiration from ancient Druidry, we’ve got to adapt it to the times we live in and the lives we lead. Nothing else makes any sense. Your daily life is probably not as focused on keeping your livestock well and happy as was the case for most of our ancestors. You do not deal with anything like as much darkness as they did, and so on. Religions adapt and change all the time – to stay relevant. There’s always an interesting tension between people feeling like they need to get back to some more authentic, earlier version of the religion, and people who feel the need to modernise. You can see this in all of the world’s religions.
Ancient Druidry would not have been one static thing, either. It will have changed in response to circumstances. We don’t have much evidence to work with around that. However, consider pre-historic monuments and the way long barrows we often built over the top of pre-existing structures. Religions and practices evolve to meet the needs of people at the time. Religions are human-centric, and exist primarily to meet human needs. We get into trouble when we lose track of that and start imagining that older practices have authority and relevance when they no longer make any actual sense to us.
