Of Order and Druids

I gather that for some people, the apparent orderliness of Druidry is rather off-putting. We may look a tad organised from the outside. Collecting ourselves into something called ‘Orders’, the whiter than white robes (other nature worshippers used band x…) the going around being all intellectual. For those looking in from the outside, Druidry does not suggest chaos.

And yet, Orders beget Groves. Groves of trees are not the most orderly of things. Nature offers us an interesting mixture of apparent order and apparent chaos, and it’s not always easy to tell one form the other, with all due reference to Fibonacci.

Some structure is useful. Some framework for the vine to clamber over. Soil has structure. Wood has structure. It is structure that allows life to function in all its many forms. With too much chaos, mostly what you get is a sloppy wet mess that isn’t going anywhere. But at the same time, too much structure starts to look like crystalline forms, rock strata… there’s something glacial about too much structure. If you get too organised, what results is not moving or growing, because movement and growth are invariably a wee bit chaotic.

I come back to the issue of balance a lot. I think it’s a key part of Druidry. One part of our tradition belongs very much to culture, order, law, civilization and reason. The other part belongs to the wilderness, the wildness of inspiration, the ever changing tides of growth and decay. We need both, and we need to be both. The order in our Druidry needs to be there as a sturdy frame off which to grow the gorgeous rambling roses that are the other part of our Druidry. You get the best wild roses where they have something to hold them up. You get the best icicles where they have something to grow on.

Order, discipline and structure are terms that have become anathema to the more liberal minded. The cry for freedom, ease, and chillaxing doesn’t leave a lot of desire for making a solid framework. And yet we plug ourselves in to all kinds of social frameworks and structures without a moment’s thought. The 9-5 job, school, cultural norms, fashion… these are also frames we can grow ourselves around. Do they liberate us to grow to the best of our ability, or do they restrict us? The frameworks we need are the ones that help. Like the frame of a tent, which won’t otherwise stand up. Like the bones in our body, that give us strength and enable movement.

Although I still think we’re long overdue a Druid Chaos, to balance the Orders up a bit.