British Druid Order
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The British Druid Order (BDO) is an international
druid A druid was a member of the high-ranking priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures. The druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no wr ...
order, founded in 1979 as a religious and educational organisation. Its constitution defines it as a not-for-profit unincorporated association. It is commonly regarded as being one of the first, if not the first, explicitly
neo-pagan Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, spans a range of new religious movements variously influenced by the beliefs of pre-modern peoples across Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Despite some common simila ...
Druid Orders. The order draws on medieval Welsh texts such as the
Mabinogion The ''Mabinogion'' () is a collection of the earliest Welsh prose stories, compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, created –1410, as well as a few earlier frag ...
and other early British/Celtic texts for inspiration and to re-connect with the pre-Christian, indigenous religious and spiritual practices of Britain which it believes to be
shamanic Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spiri ...
in nature.


History

Founded in 1979 with the creation of the original Mother Grove, The Grove of the Badger, in Hastings, Sussex, England, by
Philip Shallcrass Philip Shallcrass (born 1953), often known by his Druid name, Greywolf, is Chief of the British Druid Order. He is an English artist, writer, poet, musician and singer-songwriter who pioneered a "shamanic" Druidism. Background Philip Shallcras ...
, the current Chief of the Order. By 1992, the BDO was publishing and disseminating pagan literature focused on the shamanic traditions of the Islands of Britain. The Gorsedd of Bards of Caer Abiri was co-founded at Avebury in 1993 by the BDO with ritual designed by Shallcrass In 1995, Shallcrass was joined by Emma Restall Orr as joint chief of the order. The first US Gorsedd, Caer Pugetia, was founded in Seattle during a visit to America by the joint chiefs of the Order in 1997 and the Gorsedd of Bards of Cor Gawr founded at Stonehenge as part of the BDO's work to extend ritual access to the site. In 2002, Restall Orr stepped down as joint chief of the order in order to set up
The Druid Network The Druid Network is a British druidic (neo-pagan) organisation providing a source of information and inspiration about modern Druidic traditions, practices and their histories. It was founded in February 2003 by Emma Restall Orr, and approved as ...
, following which in 2003 the BDO Circle of Elders was formed. By 2010, the BDO had completed construction of an Iron Age style roundhouse which has since been the focus of training, workshops and ritual for the order. 2011 saw the launch of the BDO's Bardic training, with its first Bards graduating in 2013. 2013 also saw the launch of the Druid Hedge Schools initiative, a loose network of pagan Druid trainings intended to promote Druidry as a spiritual practice in the modern world.


Principal beliefs

The British Druid Order follows the contemporary tradition of
neo-druidry Druidry, sometimes termed Druidism, is a modern spiritual or religious movement that promotes the cultivation of honorable relationships with the physical landscapes, flora, fauna, and diverse peoples of the world, as well as with nature de ...
with its threefold division of the Order membership into Bards, Ovates and Druids. BDO Druidry * is
animistic Animism (from meaning 'breath, Soul, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct Spirituality, spiritual essence. Animism perceives all things—animals, plants, Rock (geology), rocks, rivers, Weather, ...
, seeing all things as imbued with spirit, * is
polytheistic Polytheism is the belief in or worship of more than one Deity, god. According to Oxford Reference, it is not easy to count gods, and so not always obvious whether an apparently polytheistic religion, such as Chinese folk religions, is really so, ...
, recognising many gods and goddesses, * venerates ancestors of blood (our direct physical forebears) and of spirit (those who have walked similar spiritual paths before us) and * venerates
Spirit of place Spirit of place (or soul) refers to the unique, distinctive and cherished aspects of a place; often those celebrated by artists and writers, but also those cherished in folk tales, festivals and celebrations. It is thus as much in the invisible w ...
. The order believes that the pre-Christian, indigenous religious and spiritual practices of the original Druids were
shamanic Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spiri ...
in nature, and works to reconstruct such practices in a form as a spiritual system answering to the needs of the 21st century where possible and to reconnect with the spirit of them where not, a process referred to by the BDO as 'rekindling the sacred fire.' Practically, the British Druid Order seeks to understand and work with the spirit of inspiration and creativity known in the British Druid tradition as '
awen ''Awen'' is a Welsh language, Welsh, Cornish language, Cornish and Breton language, Breton word for "Artistic inspiration, inspiration" (and typically poetic inspiration). In Welsh mythology, is the inspiration of the poets, or bards; its pers ...
' through study, ritual, folklore, healing and many other practices to facilitate connections to sources of knowledge, inspiration and wisdom beyond the confines of the human psyche and rooted in the natural world. It also sees political and practical activism, in the areas of ecology, as a spiritual obligation.


Publications

The following is a list of publications that the BDO have produced. ''Tooth and Claw'' is still published on an occasional basis. * ''The Druid's Voice: The Magazine of Contemporary Druidry'' * ''Tooth and Claw: The Journal of the British Druid Order'' * ''Gorseddau: Newsletter of the Gorsedd of Bards of the Isles of Britain''


See also

*
Magical organization A magical organization or magical order is an organization or secret society created for the practice of initiation into ceremonial or other forms of occult magic or to further the knowledge of magic among its members. Magical organizations ca ...


References


Works cited

* *


External links

* {{Neo-druidism Modern pagan organisations based in the United Kingdom Modern pagan organizations established in 1979 Neo-druidism in Britain Neo-druid orders