Review of The Druidry Handbook

At the suggestion of a commenter (my only one to date!), I took a short break from my studies of Wicca and took a look at Neo-Druidry. There is a wide variety of books on the subject, though not nearly so many as on Wicca, or so it seems, but I liked the approach by John Michael Greer in his The Druidry Handbook. I do not have the time or inclination to do an in-depth review. What follows are simply my first impressions from a quick read through.

The author is the Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America. He writes pretty well, better, in fact, than almost any Neopagan literature I've read.

The book is carefully and helpfully organized into three parts. Part I, A Quest for Ancient Springs, discusses the history of the historical druids, what little we know about them, the revival of druidism beginning in the 18th century, and its history since World War II. While the author admits that modern Druidry has just about as much influence from the Anglicanism of that period in Britain's history as from any other source, he often hints that there are more ancient origins to its practices. This gets a bit annoying after a while, since he admits that he has no reason to believe such, but it doesn't detract from the overall presentation. This history was quite interesting to me as a former Anglican (Episcopalian).

Part II, Wisdom of the Stone Circle, is a presentation of Druidic theology and cosmology. It presents a few tales, drawn from or inspired by Celtic (especially Welsh and Irish) mythology and legend, as well as Arthurian lore. I learned here that the form of Druidry that Greer follows primarily has three elements, nwyvre (sky), gwyar (water), and calas (stone). He draws out several ideas and applications from this triad. Triads recur frequently in this form of Druidry, and while there are also four- and five-element systems, I had the impression they were of less importance. I will say here that I think the four-element (five with spirit) standard to Wicca seems to mesh better with other things, such as the four compass directions. Overall, I found this section quite informative and in many ways insightful, but I am reluctant to devote myself to systems of interpretation and analysis, such as was presented here. I tend to take science as my guide, and, while the author specifically states that the system he is presenting is not an "alternative" to science, I feel that it is to a degree, and I'm reluctant to try structuring my thinking around it.

Part III, The Ways of the Sacred Grove, discusses three paths for the modern Druid: the Earth Path, the Sun Path, and the Moon Path. The Earth Path is essentially a short ecological and environmentalist guide, though it also recommends contemplative activities. In many ways this was my favorite part of the book, as Greer's love of nature really shines through and inspires. He even devotes a full section to instructions on how to plant a tree!

The Sun Path is essentially a guide to the Wheel of the Year in Druidic guise. There is a long, fairly interesting section on the various correspondences of deities with the different sabbats, including Arthurian characters and Christian saints. I was surprised that Ceremonial Magic had such a large influence here, though to be fair it is probably greater in Wicca.

The Moon Path is a guide to meditation. Several beginning techniques are presented, many of which I found quite valuable and will probably at one point incorporate into my practice. This was the most interesting part of the book for me. The primary form of meditation, for which the others are largely preparation, is discursive meditation; in this, one meditates on phrases or words from the legends of Druidry, an image, some aspect of the theology or cosmology, or something similar.  I saw the influence of Anglican spirituality most clearly here. In Anglican meditation one would no doubt meditate on a biblical text.

Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who would like a thorough introduction to Neo-Druidry in a single volume, one which would give them enough material to work with for a year. In fact, that is the author's intent, to provide a handbook of self-initiation for the first year of a Druid's study. Speaking for myself, I was not sufficiently moved to switch over from a focus on Wicca, but I will incorporate some of the things I liked most about this book, particularly the very clear focus on ecology and the love of nature.