Druid Predictions

This is a mix of observation and aspiration, thinking about where Druidry might be going, and the kinds of things others are talking about. If you’ve spotted something, or want to see something happening that isn’t mentioned here, then please do pile in.

Druidry is a growing tradition in terms of numbers, but also I think in terms of its complexity. A few years back I was watching the proliferation of paths, the new voices for atheist druidry especially, and seeing how adrift many druids felt. There was an expression of lost direction, that in all the plurality and non-dogmaticness, we’d lost any sense of what druidry meant. I think that’s starting to change – and not through a loss of plurality but through it being embraced. There is never going to be an overarching body dictating what druidry is and does and who can call themselves a druid. Most of us wouldn’t recognise the authority of one if it did set up.

I think going forward we should see less of the titles, costumes and looking like a tit for the media. I think drunken and delinquent ‘druidry’ is going out of fashion, replaced by something quieter, and more soulful. I think we’re all a lot more sceptical about people who announce they are the archdruid of some large landmass, or the world. That may be part of a wider social scepticism around leadership, and a general desire to be more self determining. Paganism is supposed to be all about taking responsibility for your path. We are getting more confident as individuals, and less inclined to be towed round by the bloke with the biggest staff, the loudest voice and the shiniest self appointed role.

I think druidry has become and will continue to be less Celtic-centric. This may seem like a nonsense as it was the Celts who gave us the druids in the first place. As druidry grows internationally there are an increasing number of druids who are neither geographically nor ancestrally connected to the Celts. Where they draw on their own land and ancestry as part of their druidry, they are inevitably going to find things that are different from the white, English druidry model, and rightly so. For druidry to make sense internationally, it has to belong to where it is being practiced. I think the essence of druidry can be found anywhere, and that it can be found from scratch without needing necessarily to read up on the Celts. As Helgaleena has commented here before, it’s about listening to the trees.

My next prediction is that druidry is going to become a lot deeper and more specific. Part of my thinking this comes from knowing about some of the books in the offing. Rather than talking in broad, general terms about trends in druidry, I think we’re going to see a lot more books that focus on an aspect of druid experience, or life, or ways of working, and rather than reflecting on what druids do, these books are going to give us the means to explore doing things ourselves, in our own way, in our own place and culture. This, I am very excited about. We’re going to spend less time telling people what druids do, loosely speaking, and start talking to each other more about what we are going to do, and get on with doing it, more.

The more we talk about doing, and the more we do, the more room there is for inherently druidic ideas to flow beyond our groves and aspirations and become part of the mainstream. Ethical living, responsible choices, mindful action, deliberate acts of creativity and generosity. The world is hungry for change. What we’ve got is falling apart and there is a desperate need for an alternative. Whether the pagan community as a whole can step up to this and start providing people with new ways of thinking and being, remains to be seen. But we could. The opening is there, it just depends on whether we manage to take it, and how far we manage to go. We could be standing on the brink of huge and peaceful revolution as people awaken to themselves and the world they inhabit. Or we could just bodge everything that isn’t working along by pretending its ok, and wait for the next time it all starts leaking round the joints. Interesting times!