Druidry Q & A What is a druid? Today Druids are Neo-Druids. The original Druids were killed or forced to convert or leave their homes a long time ago. Druids were the learned class of the Celts. They were the teachers, bards, lawyers, judges , doctors, etc.... Today Druids are or at least for my group are Celtic reconstructionalists. We try to recreate the ways of the ancient druids and believe in their way of life as we know it. Since there was no written documents of the history or lives of the Celts other than what their oppressors wrote. We study their mythology, culture as well as archaeology and paleontology pertaining to them, and strive to piece the puzzle together. Is it true that only men were druids? Can women be druids? No, both women and men were druids. Women were treated as equals in the ancient Celtic society and were able to own and inherit land etc.. There is archeological evidence to support this. Women are still able to be druids today and anybody that says otherwise should do more studying. Is Druidry like Wicca? No, I can't speak for all types of Wicca however of the wiccan people and types of Wicca I know of they are not even close to being the same. Even the basic cosmology and ethics systems are different. We do not believe in an ye harm none as that rarely if ever works even if your intentions are good you may unintentionally harm another without realizing it. For example say you do a spell or ritual to bring your family food, it works and it's a good thing, however it took food from another family. The Celts had a complex set of ethics which I will have to do a different page on to explain it all. The Celts only use 3 elements, land, sea and sky. Where wiccan's use four or five depending on the person or tradition, the four being air, earth, water and fire along with spirit as the fifth for some people. Wicca is Duotheistic where as Druidry is Polytheistic. Wiccan's use the sun as a symbol for the male god and moon as female. Druidry has 3 planets which correspond to the 3 triads. There are 3 realms, Otherworld, sky as it's element, where the gods live and Sun as it's planet the sun is female and the rays are male. Middle world where we are and the sidhe, land as it's element and earth as it's planet. Underworld, Sea as it's element, where the ancestors reside, Moon as it's planet the moon is female and it's rays male. There are many other differences but I think this section is already long enough. You can find a link to an essay about the differences between Druidry and Wicca on my links page. What gods/goddess's do you believe in? There are well over 300 deities in the Celtic pantheon depending on the area and tribe. The main ones my group uses are The Dagdha, Morrighan, Brighit, and Lugh for the high days. What are high days? High days are the days that we celebrate with ritual, the turning of the seasons and we celebrate different deities for different times. For example we honor Lugh and his stepmother at Lughnassadh, Brighit at Imbolc etc... Most groups have their own deities and rituals for their group that they celebrate. Our grove only uses the solstices where some groups use both solstices and equinox's. Do druids sacrifice people? In ancient times they did, often sacrificed prisoners or volunteers. A lot of cultures at that time performed human sacrifice. We don't believe that this type of sacrifice is nessicary. We hold all life to be sacred, the only acceptable sacrifice in our group are plant material (herbs etc..) foods, grains, oils, incense , gems, precious metals etc... Do you cast a circle? No we don't cast a circle we consider all of nature to be sacred and don't need to create sacred space. However we do often times consecrate a space before ritual to clear out any negativity. Do you use magic(k)? Yes in ritual we only use magic to open a gateway with the assistance of Mannan Mac Lir to allow the ancestors, sidhe and gods to join us. We also do meditation during the ritual to raise energy and to raise awareness to a different level. Most people within our group use magic but in their personal lives rather than as part of the grove. Where do I start? Read and study study and read :) I will be putting up a reading list ASAP. Do you worship Satan? No, We don't believe in Satan and therefore don't worship him nor do we have an equivalent to Satan. I believe that the concept of Satan was brought about through Zoastrianism then to Judaism and then to Christianity. http://www.paganpaths.org/~kat/faq.htm