We get a lot of people identifying as "druids" when they apply for membership in this guild. The threads discussing the subject have disappeared into subforums and archives so it's time to set things out clearly on the subject.
This guild does not consider the word "druid" to be a valid term or title for identifying oneself. This does not invalidate the paths themselves that use this word (such as various "druidic" orders and the religions they teach), but we feel that the use of the word "druid" by these paths is inappropriate, incorrect and unnecessary.
Note that if you have come here calling yourself a "Druid" we hold you no ill will; many people aren't aware that it is a misappropriated title or of the reasons it is considered inappropriate to use it, in the same way many people are mistaken about the word "Wicca". However, the guild's standpoint is laid out here and we ask you to read it, to understand it, to ask questions if necessary and to refrain from using the title within this guild. We'd rather you understood our viewpoint than simply bowed to our whim.
What is a Druid?
The Druids were a caste of people in Celtic cultures. They played various roles within these cultures: clerk, priest, law-man, doctor, teacher and so forth. They were the learned class, so to speak.
The Druids were more or less exterminated by the Romans, and their teachings lost even within their own cultures. Since then, their roles have been taken over by the modern, "universal" equivalents; a Celtic person need not go to a Druid for legal aid as they can go to a lawyer, policeman or judge. Their roles have been ursurped, and as such, even if one had access to the teachings of the Druids (which they don't, and if they claim to have they're probably telling fibs)
Who can call themselves a Druid?
Essentially? No one. If you're an active, participating member in a living, active Celtic cultue (and if you are, you'll know, and if you're wondering whether you are, you're probably not) you'd have something of a right to the term, although if you adopted it you'd probably have to do some fast talking to a few people to explain your right to use it. If you're not, then you have no right to it whatsoever. It's a title belonging to particular cultures, and a role in those cultures - if you're not a part of those cultures, there's no way you can fulfill that role.
Adopting the title is viewed within this guild as a form of Cultural Misappropriation.
What is a "Celt"?
The word "Celt" is a bit inappropriate in itself, cooked up as it was during the romanticisation of the Celtic peoples back in the 19th century by the English. There were quite a few Celtic cultures back before the Romans decided they wanted to take over the world. Now, there are six Celtic nations, those of Brittany, Wales, Isle of Man, Cornwall, Ireland and Scotland.
The Celtic peoples are so identified because they share linguistic and cultural similarities. To identify as "Celtic", one must be speaking the language and participating in a living Celtic culture. Blood, that is inheritance, is one element of identification also, but if you don't have the other two it doesn't count for much. Being a Gael (Irish Celtic person) is not the same as being Irish (although I wouldn't identify as Irish either unless you are actually from Ireland).
So why does this Order I'm researching use the word "Druid"?
Back in the 1800s, the English decided to impose the whole "noble savage" thing on the Celtic peoples. They'd been rather cruel to them in the past, keeping them from speaking their languages and practising their cultures and so forth. (Don't mention Oliver Cromwell in Ireland.) They decided to be racist in a whole new way (although probably didn't think of it like that) and idolised the Druids as some sort of mystical Merlin figures.
The English were, at the time, quite into their ceremonial Orders such as Freemasonry, and also quite into the idea of getting "back to nature" so long as it didn't actually involve dirt or anything, and some people got it into their heads to start playing pretend at being Druids. How seriously they took it I don't know, but they started it off then and it filtered down through the decades. Some Orders now have their origins in Orders then. As such there's some merit to claims they are the earliest Neo-Pagan religions, however, that in no way makes them actual Druids.
Others, like ADF, apparently adopted the term for no reason whatsoever (I have heard, incidentally, that Bonewits regretted the use of the word, but he's dead now so we can't really ask him).
So I can't even use the term "Modern Druid" or "Neo-Druid"?
No. Proponents of these terms tend to suggest there's some sort of link between what the Druids did once upon a time and what these Orders do now. There isn't, really. No link that isn't essentially the link between Palaeo-Pagans and Neo-Pagans, which is a word that doesn't involve culture-plundering, and is actually accurate. We don't know the teachings of the Druids (if you believe you do, please contact historians and archaeologists who are keen to know). We don't, therefore, know in which ways whatever path or religion would be similar to Druid teachings.
One of my biggest issues with the term "Druid" is that no one has actually been able to give me a definition of the word. Definitions tend to go along the lines of "Pagan who likes research and also trees", which is ridiculously general and applies to a great number of Pagans who do not and would not identify as a "Druid".
I am always open to new ideas, however, so if you have a definition of the word "Druid" that applies to all people who call themselves "Druids" please share it.
Didn't this guild used to be called "The Druid's Grove"?
Yep. It was quite some time ago now, when the guild was under old management. There are still a few threads from that time period floating around. At that time the guild was devoted primarily to ADF students and a few OBOD students. The name of the guild has changed, as has the slant; it's now a pan-Pagan guild.
ADF and other members of "Druid" guilds are still quite welcome here, but use of the term within the guild will result in a warning.
But I disagree!
Alright. First read a couple of other threads where this has been discussed...
Here
Here
Here
Then, go and post your questions or complaints in the thread set aside for these things, here.
Please don't ask questions in this thread, as more information and info-dumps may be added here later. Thank you.
This guild does not consider the word "druid" to be a valid term or title for identifying oneself. This does not invalidate the paths themselves that use this word (such as various "druidic" orders and the religions they teach), but we feel that the use of the word "druid" by these paths is inappropriate, incorrect and unnecessary.
Note that if you have come here calling yourself a "Druid" we hold you no ill will; many people aren't aware that it is a misappropriated title or of the reasons it is considered inappropriate to use it, in the same way many people are mistaken about the word "Wicca". However, the guild's standpoint is laid out here and we ask you to read it, to understand it, to ask questions if necessary and to refrain from using the title within this guild. We'd rather you understood our viewpoint than simply bowed to our whim.
What is a Druid?
The Druids were a caste of people in Celtic cultures. They played various roles within these cultures: clerk, priest, law-man, doctor, teacher and so forth. They were the learned class, so to speak.
The Druids were more or less exterminated by the Romans, and their teachings lost even within their own cultures. Since then, their roles have been taken over by the modern, "universal" equivalents; a Celtic person need not go to a Druid for legal aid as they can go to a lawyer, policeman or judge. Their roles have been ursurped, and as such, even if one had access to the teachings of the Druids (which they don't, and if they claim to have they're probably telling fibs)
Who can call themselves a Druid?
Essentially? No one. If you're an active, participating member in a living, active Celtic cultue (and if you are, you'll know, and if you're wondering whether you are, you're probably not) you'd have something of a right to the term, although if you adopted it you'd probably have to do some fast talking to a few people to explain your right to use it. If you're not, then you have no right to it whatsoever. It's a title belonging to particular cultures, and a role in those cultures - if you're not a part of those cultures, there's no way you can fulfill that role.
Adopting the title is viewed within this guild as a form of Cultural Misappropriation.
What is a "Celt"?
The word "Celt" is a bit inappropriate in itself, cooked up as it was during the romanticisation of the Celtic peoples back in the 19th century by the English. There were quite a few Celtic cultures back before the Romans decided they wanted to take over the world. Now, there are six Celtic nations, those of Brittany, Wales, Isle of Man, Cornwall, Ireland and Scotland.
The Celtic peoples are so identified because they share linguistic and cultural similarities. To identify as "Celtic", one must be speaking the language and participating in a living Celtic culture. Blood, that is inheritance, is one element of identification also, but if you don't have the other two it doesn't count for much. Being a Gael (Irish Celtic person) is not the same as being Irish (although I wouldn't identify as Irish either unless you are actually from Ireland).
So why does this Order I'm researching use the word "Druid"?
Back in the 1800s, the English decided to impose the whole "noble savage" thing on the Celtic peoples. They'd been rather cruel to them in the past, keeping them from speaking their languages and practising their cultures and so forth. (Don't mention Oliver Cromwell in Ireland.) They decided to be racist in a whole new way (although probably didn't think of it like that) and idolised the Druids as some sort of mystical Merlin figures.
The English were, at the time, quite into their ceremonial Orders such as Freemasonry, and also quite into the idea of getting "back to nature" so long as it didn't actually involve dirt or anything, and some people got it into their heads to start playing pretend at being Druids. How seriously they took it I don't know, but they started it off then and it filtered down through the decades. Some Orders now have their origins in Orders then. As such there's some merit to claims they are the earliest Neo-Pagan religions, however, that in no way makes them actual Druids.
Others, like ADF, apparently adopted the term for no reason whatsoever (I have heard, incidentally, that Bonewits regretted the use of the word, but he's dead now so we can't really ask him).
So I can't even use the term "Modern Druid" or "Neo-Druid"?
No. Proponents of these terms tend to suggest there's some sort of link between what the Druids did once upon a time and what these Orders do now. There isn't, really. No link that isn't essentially the link between Palaeo-Pagans and Neo-Pagans, which is a word that doesn't involve culture-plundering, and is actually accurate. We don't know the teachings of the Druids (if you believe you do, please contact historians and archaeologists who are keen to know). We don't, therefore, know in which ways whatever path or religion would be similar to Druid teachings.
One of my biggest issues with the term "Druid" is that no one has actually been able to give me a definition of the word. Definitions tend to go along the lines of "Pagan who likes research and also trees", which is ridiculously general and applies to a great number of Pagans who do not and would not identify as a "Druid".
I am always open to new ideas, however, so if you have a definition of the word "Druid" that applies to all people who call themselves "Druids" please share it.
Didn't this guild used to be called "The Druid's Grove"?
Yep. It was quite some time ago now, when the guild was under old management. There are still a few threads from that time period floating around. At that time the guild was devoted primarily to ADF students and a few OBOD students. The name of the guild has changed, as has the slant; it's now a pan-Pagan guild.
ADF and other members of "Druid" guilds are still quite welcome here, but use of the term within the guild will result in a warning.
But I disagree!
Alright. First read a couple of other threads where this has been discussed...
Here
Here
Here
Then, go and post your questions or complaints in the thread set aside for these things, here.
Please don't ask questions in this thread, as more information and info-dumps may be added here later. Thank you.
