Druidry In An Uncommon Place…

Begs the question, “What did they do to earn the town’s name in “Lynchburg”?”
My guess is that they used to have their Druid problem under control…
:^)

I had a brief flirtation with Wicca. I had my little altar, and my cauldron, and my bell, book, and two candles–green for the Goddess and red for the God, or was it the other way around? I can’t begin to describe how silly I felt, even in the privacy of my own home. I can’t imagine that I would have felt any better as a Druid.

I must say I think those Druids are really not as…. exhausting as members of other religions. You can actually talk to them and they accept that you don’t believe. With that I can deal so much better than with ‘But God said so!’

It’s a conspiracy; they’re rich businessmen in disguise trying to evade taxes.

Or they’re just ignorant dolts.

Occam’s Razor.

Damn.

First…@Sven: I believe you mean raises the question, not begs the question.
Two…I’ve always wondered why more people in England didn’t adopt Druidism. If I weren’t an atheist, it would be my religion of choice since it’s the religion of my ancestors…not that silly Jesus religion that the Roman conquerors forced on my forebears.

I used to be a pagan. Pretty harmless IMO. I think most people have some silly belief or other. We just don’t have the perspective to know what it is.

Why are druids adopting a street anyway? Shouldn’t they be doing something with more nature and less concrete?

And druids in D&D 3.5E were the most over-powered class imaginable.

I’ve always wondered why more people in England didn’t adopt Druidism. If I weren’t an atheist, it would be my religion of choice since it’s the religion of my ancestors…not that silly Jesus religion that the Roman conquerors forced on my forebears.

I know people that have become ancient religion followers (i.e. Celtic or Hellenistic), and go on and on about the evils of the contemporary world…blah blah blah….but why? Why is an ANCIENT religion any better than contemporary religions? I just don’t get it. The pre-Christians sliced up animals and read their fortunes in their entrails. They sacrificed virgins and basically did all sorts of nasty controlling things in the name of their “gods.” So why embrace the religion simply because it’s pre-Christian?

Also, these same people still worship the consumer gods of Wal-Mart and the mall. They still use modern conveniences like cell phones and automobiles. All the while going on and on about how humanity needs to be erased so we can start over. Meh.

A small correction Hemant. “Druidry is now an official religion in Britain” for charitable purposes. The Charity Commission has recognised them and the Druid Network’s charitable status entitles it to tax breaks in UK law. Shame they don’t get enough of an income to pay tax. 😉

It does make me wonder what criteria there are for recognising a religion though. I mean we have an official state religion so Protestant Christianity is in but surely that excludes all the others. Sadly not. Perhaps one day all religions will be given equal status in the eyes of the law. i.e. none.

All things considered, these guys make up a tolerable subsection of society. They don’t protest military funerals, they don’t say nature hates LGBT people, and they don’t stop you to demand you pray to a tree.

Our constitution gives free reign to practice any fairytale that they wish, and honestly I would rather the evangelicals switch to this generally passive way of being.. on second thought, that might not be that great of an idea; Trees soon would hate the gays.

I heard about this on BBC radio, and I think it’s great. It was funny to hear a frightened Christian lady (I think she held an official position in some sort of Christian organisation) complaining about it and talking the religion down.

As has been noted, the guy didn’t call Satan silly. I’d imagine pagans and druids are generally far more tolerant of others’ (non)beliefs than Christians are.

“The form of druidry that is practised by the Druid Network fulfils the four criteria for a religion in charity law and therefore is a religion. However, that isn’t to say that every form of druidry would meet those four criteria.” So it’s not all Druidic practice that’s recogniesed, though if you look at the Druid Network’s FAQs, there fairly loose with what it means to be a Druid.

http://furtherthoughtsfortheday.blogspot.com/2010/10/on-druidry-being-officially-recognised.html

Good for them. It’s like the atheist billboards that say, “We’re here…and we’re people just like you. We just aren’t christian.”

Gotta love that placement.

Naw, just got to love America where two such opposites get to exist side by side. Freedom!

Wicca/Pagan/whatever-you’re-calling-your-pathetic-attempt-to-go-back-in-time-this-week is so far pretty harmless but I’ve got to agree with April. It wasn’t truly benign and the modern people who call themselves such are just silly gooses playing at something because they don’t have the balls to rebel against Christianity without some other silly nonsense. It’s no coincidence that it’s something that fundy Christians will consider witchcraft whether they recognize Satan or not.

But still need convincing that were they to gain the power the Christians currently hold they be as bad or worse? Heck, with books (it’s kind of like believing Anton LaVey invented Satanism in the 1960’s), rent “The Beastmaster” and “Willow” to see the bad ways these could go.

Yeah, I know fiction and fiction that plays make believe ancient magic was real. That’s kind of my point. Those are two of my favorite movies but that’s because I don’t believe the bullshit and they aren’t trying to spread it but just spin a good yarn.

What we’d have to beware of would be any wackos really taking that shit literally rather than these Christine O’Donnell types playing at magik like little kids. And what happens when they outgrow it like her and replace it with the new obsession or take it too literally instead of all this nature worship. I think it’s actually pretty scary that defunct religions are being revived.

Neo-pagans go quite a bit beyond not saying nature hates GLBTQ people. Ever heard of the Radical Faeries?

Paganism isn’t more appreciated in Europe because it can’t really be considered a cultural heritage thing any more. There was a long interruption in tradition, and frankly, we don’t even know much about what the “old people” actually believed. It’s all been forgotten, and the few surviving religious traditions have become christianized or secularized.

So if you want to be a Pagan, you basically have to accept “Ancient Wisdom” that someone quite obviously made up quite recently. That wouldn’t be much of a problem for most people, but the sheer foreignness of this wisdom is a serious obstacle for wider acceptance.

Hi there, folks. I happen to be a Pagan Druid, so I thought I’d share some details on this news, having spent the past week doing research into the details of the case and interviews with those involved.

The most impressive and interesting aspect of The Druid Network gaining religious charity status from the Charity Commission is that, in the course of establishing that Druidry could in fact be a “religion” as understood in English Charity Law, they helped to completely transform what the word “religion” means. It is no longer restricted to a belief in a supernatural or transcendent deity, for instance, but nor has it merely been expanded to included “many gods.” Many of the Druids in TDN are pantheists, animists and some are even atheists, as Finbarr mentioned above.

What that means for you folks, as atheists, is that someday an atheist organization might actually be able to qualify for “religious” charitable status under British law. As the law stands at the moment, this isn’t true yet. But the history of English Charity Law stretching back four hundred years is one of increasing expansion and inclusion of non-monotheistic, non-Abrahamic faiths. This decision by the CC is just another step in the direction of inclusivity, and it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that one day the CC will recognize secularist, humanist and atheist charities under this same law (as long as they are functioning “for public benefit”). I think that’s good news for everyone, regardless of their religion or lack thereof.

To address a few of the misperceptions about Druidry as relatively “ancient” or not – many Druids seek wisdom and inspiration in the natural world. The word “Druid” itself may come from ancient Gaelic words meaning “tree wisdom” or “oak wisdom.” If you imagine the tradition of Druidry as a huge, ancient oak tree, metaphorically, then the idea is that although the tree itself may be incredibly old, yet every spring it puts forth new leaves and is, in some ways, always new and changing, responding to the surrounding environment, changing with the seasons. What does this mean literally for people practicing Druidry today? It means that we happen to believe that our ancestors had a bit more common sense than we have today in some ways, that they were paying more careful attention to the world around us and valuing that world in all its physical, sensuous and sensory beauty, instead of worrying over imaginary gods living up in the clouds and handing out holy books. You might think of Druidry as science + awe/love for the world and the beings in it. We have no holy text, and we do not subscribe to any “ancient wisdom” handed down intact (or made up in the 1950s). Instead, we try to follow the ancient example of our ancestors by listening to the wisdom of our senses, our experiences and our minds, which are as ancient as evolution and the earth itself. It is true that some of us have gods and goddesses, although for many of us this is like having a favorite musician or a favorite character in a novel – we are inspired by stories, poetry, music and art, and can draw guidance and lessons from them, without necessarily needing to take them as literal fact.

Of course, I can only speak for myself and my approach to Druidry. Others will differ. But it’s important not to dismiss people who are different from you out of hand just because on the face of it they may seem “silly” or misguided. It’s nice to see commenters here speaking up in favor of Druidry and Paganism as “harmless.” It would be nice to hear a smidge more respect, but honestly, if “harmless” is the best we can get, I’ll take it. 😉

Umm… right. I don’t understand how anyone could call Satan silly … and then turn right around to talk to “spirits.”

I don’t think they’re calling Satan silly. It seems they’re just trying to reinforce the point that they have nothing to do with Satan or Satanism, since so many uninformed people automatically equate the two. It’s much the same way we have to frequently tell others we don’t believe in Satan any more than we believe in god(s) because some presume if we don’t worship God we must worship Satan.