singing the ancestors, singing the land

At the end of my last article I talked about how the actions of others could be seen as dishonourable, and someone asked what I meant by honour.  Honour is a difficult concept to pin down. It is used so frequently within Druidry that the word itself passes with an assumption of mutual understanding; yet perhaps the understanding of the word needs further exploration.

In her critically acclaimed book ‘Living With Honour’ (O Books 2007) Emma Restall Orr expands themes she touches on in an earlier article published in ‘Pagan Visions for a Sustainable Future’ (Llewellyn 2005). In both she begins by exploring the definition of Pagan/pagan and Paganism before moving on to exploring Choice;  choice in the context of what is and what is not morally and ethically acceptable.  And it is those explorations of the understandings of ethics that leads us through the maze of human relationship, the web of connections that weave between us and all of nature – the human animal, non-human animals, the environment and the web beyond – exploring concepts of sanctity, power, wealth and ownership.  Only then does she move on to offer words that pull the threads together; integrity and integration.  Explored briefly in the earlier work, in Living With Honour all these thoughts, ideas, understandings and concepts are explored deeply and thoroughly.  It certainly isn’t an easy or comfortable read, making the thoughtful reader turn inwards to explore their own understanding of self and of relationship, questioning their own attitudes, assumptions and beliefs.

But what exactly is honour. To quote Emma Restall Orr from an article published on The Druid Network website:

“As a starting point, honour is about honesty and respect. As we live, increasingly wakeful within our spiritual practice, our ability to live honestly grows broader and deeper. We are increasingly willing to sacrifice that most poignant of qualities, ignorance, both about ourselves and about the world around us. So it is that, with greater awareness, our ability to forge truthful, open and respectful relationships also grows. We begin to acknowledge, to perceive and engage with the spirit of all around us: we sense the essence of life. With this vision of life, in all the exquisite beauty of the patterns of nature, it is hard to be thoughtless, selfish and destructive.”
http://druidnetwork.org/ethical/articles/druidry-choice.html

So if honour can be seen to be about honesty, respect and relationship what does that mean in practical terms?  In his book ‘The Other Side of Virtue’ (O Books 2008) Brendan Myers offers us the idea that the inscription above the entrance to the temple of the Oracle at Delphi – “Know Thyself” – is

“how the source of ethics originally appeared to ancient peoples”

and through knowing themselves the

“questions of character, selfhood, and identity took precedence over utilitarian or legalistic questions of right and wrong”

At first glance this seems to imply that a selfish attitude was more important than social awareness and caring for others. Yet the stories passed down to us from many ancient societies tell us this is not so.  Myers concludes from this that in a society such as ours, that values individualism, we would also uphold the value of self-knowledge.  And yet too often we find that individualism has turned in on itself and become a self-centredness that creates boredom, unhappiness and hopelessness; a society which expects everything to be handed to the individual and not worked for, not earned.  And through that self-centredness we disconnect from the outside world, from others, from nature.

In my earlier article I talked of how constantly moving on from one group to another, dropping friendships and connections, was dishonourable, and from the paragraph above we can see why that is.  When we disconnect, become totally self-centred, when our search to ‘know thyself’ turns in on itself so do we find we treat others, and by extension nature, as a commodity to be used and discarded as and when it suits us.  Here is the paradox, here is the challenge.  For to act and live honourably means to know who we are, to be aware of what we think, what we believe, and what we desire; and yet at the same time to ask the question of how best we can live life meaningfully and with honour, with strong relationships and connections, seeking to transform how we live our lives.

To live with honour as an individual, then, means living life fully aware, connected, working consciously with relationship, living it deeply, recognising spirit in others and respecting them as individuals, recognising spirit in the trees, animals, the entirety of existence – and recognising that all that we do reflects itself in the world around us.  For disrespect, to dishonour, others is to disrespect and dishonour ourselves.

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Now that the madness of midsummer and the solstice has finally died down, and I am able to find some clarity about feelings I’ve had over recent weeks and months, my thoughts turn to the situation in modern Paganism, and especially Druidry as I currently am experiencing it. Whilst we are all very familar with the fluffy glittery sparkly ‘Witchcraft’ and ‘Wicca’ that hopefully offers a gateway to a deeper understanding of modern Pagan practice, I do find myself questioning what exactly Druidry is, and how it is practiced. Whether called to honour the gods of our land and heritage or to honour those that impose themselves upon us through human nature or our location or perhaps simply to honour those through what we percieve as a reflection of our own tastes, we all strive to do the best we can – to live honourable respectful lives, honouring the land and nature; and yet with so many Orders and organisations claiming to represent Druidry, perhaps those on the outside are given the impression of something akin to an anarchic free for all. Actually, having written that, it does seem to have a real ring of truth to it! But I need to press on. Is there, within Druidry common ground, common understanding and a willingness to share knowldege and a mutual understanding of what others do?

To find common ground I wonder if there is a need to define the groups that make up the whole. It’s not easy to break down modern Pagansism into clearly defined groups or segments, and even to attempt it is to probably upset some, so I am going to steer clear of such an exercise, and instead concentrate on some issues that concern me about modern Druidry and the groups that I tend to find myself mixing with. What I find particularly frustrating is that all too often there seems to be a lack of respect for alternative points of view and differing approaches. At the risk of upsetting individuals I could name names, but that would be inappropriate and probably counter-productive – and in any case if you’re wondering if I mean you then I probably do! I don’t have a simple answer to this issue, and over recent years I have quietly withdrawn more and more from the public mainstream – dropping my courses and much of the work I did for one of the major Druid organisations; but now seems the right time to step back, to take on a little more.

But here’s the key question. How do we change public perceptions of Druidry? Gatherings at Stonehenge for Cor Gawr can make a difference I am sure, if we can get the public to acknowledge that those gatherings have something to offer,showing them what we do can sing to each and every one of us irrespective of personal preference, preconceptions and even religious paths; and such gatherings can break through so many of those preconceptions some still wish to foster, offering a place where the mystique, power and mystery surrounding Stonehenge can be acknowledged safely, within a spirtual and sacred context. But this needs the support of fellow Druids, it needs to be seen as important to the community or it will simply die, replaced by the exuberance and secular celebrations of Open Access. Of course Open Access has its place, but the danger lies in finding ourselves with Open Access or ritual held only by ‘closed’ Orders as the alternatives. Cor Gawr is important as a gateway into Druidry and Druid ritual; but it also important for those experienced within the path, as an opportunity to honour the sprits of place within a reverential as well as celebratory gathering.

So much of Druidry breeds misconceptions and turning our backs on open gatherings can only make the situation worse as we can be seen as more and more secretive, working behind ‘closed doors’ away from the public gaze; and such misconceptions leads to fear and misunderstandings. As recently as last Sunday a TV programme here in the UK featured a plot where a group of ‘druids’ were to be found seeking to reclaim the 16th green of the local golf course, as a place of great power and sancitiy where two ley lines met. The golfers were upset to find these druids with a large hugely ornate altar decorated with highly ornate objects on said green and so the stand off began, not to mention a ring of stones around the green – I’m not sure if the stone circle as a permanent hazard for the golfers or had been placed there by the druids or some great magician. Add local archaeologists digging up the nearby iron age burial mound (which as the story unfolds turns out to be a medieval midden) and there is a recipe for fun and games. My initial reaction was ‘oh here we go again’, but as the storyline unfolded I couldn’t help notice that underneath all those cliches and the theatre there were nuggets of reality buried; after all, unlike Druids, golfers are notoriously unreasonable – and I should know, my father being an avid golfer for as long as I remember.

But how often do we read of a Druid gathering blessing a tree-planting, or honouring the land. The usual reports seem to moreoften consist of conflict and confrontation. All too often Druidry can be seen by the public as nothing more than a face of policical activism but, important though that may be in the right context, it needs to be seen as more than just that.

Next, I often encounter the ‘but you’re not real Druids as they haven’t existed for thousands of years so how can you possibly be real’. Now, I know there are some who claim Druidism as their hereditary right, and I certainly won’t gainsay them; perhaps they are hereditary Druids. But yes, we also know that Druidry today was born of the revivalists; yet at the same time the native gods and religion of this land are alive now through Druidry and Paganism, flowing through from that ancient past to the present day through the land on which we live. We owe the revivalists much, even those who were unmitigated, if highly talented, frauds!

Life today is so much easier for the modern Pagan and the Druid than it was 20 or even 10 years ago – those such as Philip Carr-Gomm and Emma Restall Orr have helped make it so. But as well as dialogue and understanding I firmly believe that there is a need to make Druidry even more accessible. There are those I know who seem to shift allegiance from one group to another according to the seasons or the wind; there are those who seem only prepared to accept individuals who have academic qualifications as those they are prepared to work with, practicing a sort of intellectual discrimination against others who don’t fit their own internal criteria; and there are those who dismiss the ‘poetically inspired knowing’ that some folk feel flowing through their veins, holding instead to their firmly entrenched views of a fixed invariable past as set down in the written word hundreds of years ago. Yet all these perspectives are valid.

Learning, growth, striving is important – imperative – to Druidry. But when I see folk leave groups, perhaps to move to another in order to fill some vanity built upon such prejudice as I have mentioned above – acknowledged or unacknowledged – it does them no credit; or to constantly choose when or where they will work within a group for reasons I find dishonourable then I too feel dishonoured.

And if nothing else, Druidry has to be about honour. Doesn’t it?

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