Teaching Druidry

We all do this, every time we speak or act in ritual, whenever we blog, or exchange ideas. The scope to learn from one another exists in every interaction. It’s also there, continually, in our experience of all facets of life, but for today I want to focus on the human.
When I started learning about Druidry, I looked for teachers. Not because I wanted a guru who could make everything miraculously easy, but because I wanted pointing in the right direction and some confirmation that I wasn’t talking out of my bottom! Experience of others starting out inclines me to think that’s all very normal. I found some people who were helpful and some people who wanted to tell me what to do. As a student, I’ve never been responsive to orders. I resent authority, I always want to pull the other way, this seems intrinsic to my nature. My favourite teachers have suggested, fed back, encouraged, counter-argued. They have given me space to be myself, whilst sharing what they know.
When I started teaching, I was terribly organised about it. Not least because I hadn’t sought it. Someone came to me, and there was no one else I could realistically have sent him to. I accepted the challenge, and put in a lot of hours and effort. At that point my own lack of confidence and certainty, my own newness reduced the risk of me being too much like an authority figure. However, the further I go, the more of a question it becomes. Lots of people blog, I like this space because its open, egalitarian, anyone can comment or do their own thing. Being here does not confer authority. There is something about printed books that does have more of a sense of authority to it. The whole process of being published suggests it, and really, what’s the point of writing if not to assert something? I try to walk the lines between sharing what I know, and not actually telling anyone else what to do with that. Sometimes it feels a bit like juggling cats.
I’ve settled on a new way of teaching, lately. I’m just here for people to ask questions (email is good). No set frequency, no set topics, just that I will do what I can with questions that people send me. I love the informality, it takes the pressure off me in ways that are helpful. It puts the direction into the hands of the student. Sometimes it means I write lists of people, books, websites who know far more about it than I do. Teaching can mean sending people somewhere else, and that’s fine.
You never know what another person is going to do with the thing you taught them. It will change as soon as it leaves your hands. Trying to control it mostly doesn’t work, and can make life miserable. Letting things go, trusting other people to find their own way, not needing to hold authority… I learn a lot from teaching.

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