The Secret Order of Steampunk Druids

Who we are

The Secret Order of Steampunk Druids first occurred to me as an idea in 2012 because Professor Elemental publically announced that he wished to lead a cult and be Lord Summerisle. So here we are. ‘We’ from this point forth, is quite simple anyone who wants to join in. There is no formal structure. There is never going to be a formal structure. Anyone who wants a formal structure is entirely welcome to go and create one, somewhere else, and call it something. For the sake of historical reference and the maintenance of a revival-revival vibe, do consider claiming a much greater and more noble history than us, give yourself more authority and a bigger title. (More on this later).
If you’ve got this far the odds are good you either consider yourself to be a Druid, a Steampunk, or both. Realistically, if you aren’t one or the other, this might be a pile of pointless confusion for you, but feel free to join regardless. It might in fact be a pile of pointless confusion anyway, but let’s pretend we know what we’re doing. Actually, if you’re aspiring to Druidry, or Steampunk, that’s more than enough to make you perfectly qualified to join in, but please pay close attention to the section about giving yourself titles.
For clarity, your author is a longstanding practicing Druid, and quite serious about the Druidry, and an enthusiastic newcomer to the world of Steampunk. She is also totally devoted to subversion and taking the piss. And perhaps a little bit too partial to talking about herself in the third person.
The short of it is, if you wish to be a member of the Secret Order of Steampunk Druids, well done, you just joined. The rest is now up to you. Hopefully this little bundle of wordy mayhem will help you on your way. For now, initiate yourself with a nice cup of tea, or similar, and perhaps a bit of cake, feel free to contemplate what you might want to wear, and where you might take this, let me know if you are playing.

What we are doing?

Silliness, steampunkery, druidry, with things like cake, tea, mead and more cake being entirely reasonable added extras. Also, you can dress up if you want. Or you can be a Stealth Druid. It’s all good. Just no forum online, for the sake of not having a place to argue with each other about stuff.

Druidry, as I see it, is a spiritual dedication to seeking wisdom and inspiration to use for the good of your land and tribe.

What people believe is, as I see it, rather a separate issue. Druids believe all sorts of things. What we do and how we do it defines us far better than what we might believe.
What we do looks a bit like…
Promotion of Bardic skills (music, story telling, poetry etc).
Green consciousness and ecological awareness
Community
Service
Peace
Contemplation
Upholding heroic virtues
Praise
Promotion of technical creativity
Social responsibility
Playfulness
Invention
Adventurousness

There are plenty of Druid folk who are Steampunks. There are plenty of people who do not feel at home in conventional Druid orders, who are too playful, too chaotic, not predisposed to taking themselves seriously. But it’s nice to have some kind of affiliation and know there are other people out there at least as crazy as you are.
What we do not exist to do is as follows. We are not here to attempt to convert any Steampunks to the Druid path, and we are also not in the business of trying to convert Druids to the Steampunk way of doing things. If anyone wants to come to us from one side to learn about the other, that’s lovely, and if people want to play with us because it amuses them to do so, that’s fine. A person’s actual beliefs are always their own business and never anybody else’s.
Our purpose is to do good stuff and have some fun along the way.

Structure, or the absence thereof

I hereby declare that the Secret of Order of Steampunk Druids should have no formal status, be that legal or financial, at all, ever. To this end, there will be no formal membership, no paperwork, no money will change hands and no one will police it.
Obviously, if anyone decides to take the name and do something terribly organised and lucrative with it, no one will have any power to stop them. But frankly, policing people is a lot of faff and I’d rather focus on the cake and the mead if it’s all the same. I may go so far as to frown at people who do not play nicely, but that’s it.

Structure is only useful if you want to get something specific done. The rest of the time it’s an excuse to hold meetings and shunt emails around and not actually do anything. Where there is power, there are people who want power, and that just detracts from the tea and the cake at the end of the day. So, if you have an aching desire to be terribly important in some way, this is not going to help you in the slightest. You’ll only achieve important status by doing something. Run an event. Make a thing. Be amazing. We’ll all be very impressed and get on with the ‘praise’ bit of the remit. But there are no posts here, no titles that actually mean something, no anythings, except for our entirely theoretical leader, Lord of Summerisle, Professor Elemental. Rest assured in the knowledge that he is perfectly qualified for the job by dint of his total disinterest in doing anything with it. Probably.
(Also, remember that you haven’t read the section on titles yet).

It is possible to have meetings, events and Druid circles with very little structure. Do what works, and what is needed, and treat the rest as far too much hassle and not worth the bother.

Rules, such as they are

1) The Secret Order of Steampunk Druids shall be in no way actually secret, because that would mostly defeat the object.
2) Be lovely.
3) Include anyone who wants in and who doesn’t seem excessively mad/dangerous /drunk/serious.
4) Do things that are good.
5) Encourage other people to do things that are good.
6) Possibly do some Druid things and some Steampunk things.
7) Pretend, make things up, improvise, flaunt your anachronisms and have fun.

Revival revival

The revival of Druidry was a period of great energy, inventiveness and dribbling insanity, with better hats. There was so much energy, craziness and creativity in revival Druidry, it would be fun to try and reclaim that without all the fibbing about where it really came from. Much of modern Druidry is simply what came from the happy madness of the revival folk in the first place, very little is truly ancient.

Giving yourself a title

If you know a lot about Druidry and have got this far, you probably don’t much like titles anyway. We aren’t going to have hierarchy, so all titles are essentially meaningless. If, for the purposes of play, satire and silliness you wish to have a title, do award yourself one. As a general rule I suggest that the less you know about Druidry, the more impressive your title should sound.

Other things to ponder…

Real things pretending to be fake things can be a lot of fun, and seriousness masquerading as play often gets more work done than just plain old seriousness.
Secret and mysterious public rituals could be very funny, and it would be interesting to try and be both playful and meaningful at the same time.
Beards and costumes remain optional, do what makes you happy.

Our two major tenets are warmth, playfulness and comedy… our three, three major tenets are warmth, comedy, playfulness and a strange devotion to Professor Elemental, Lord Summerisle, no, four…
And if you do see Professor Elemental when you are out there, do consider it your proper business as a Steampunk Druid, to follow him round singing songs from The Wicker Man. If you don’t know any, just hum…