Druidcraft: The Magic of Wicca and Druidry

Although we can find traces and records of ancient practices and folklore associated with these special times, we cannot be sure that any particular community in ancient times celebrated all eight.

Piles of heated stones with traces of post holes have been found by archaeologists at a number of prehistoric sites in Britain, and up until the nineteenth century the Irish used sweathouses fuelled by peat, which they called Tigh n’Alluis.

Oaths were also sworn on these elements, as is shown in this ‘Pledge of the Elements’ from Ireland: ‘If I break faith with you, may the sky fall on me, may the sea drown me, may the earth rise up and swallow me.’

Wiccans call their tradition ‘The Craft of the Wise’, and the historic figures with whom many people identify most strongly are those in a community who were called upon to offer cures, help deliver babies and assist those dying, find people or objects with psychic sight, and to help in times of individual or communal difficulty.

‘Both Witches and Druids believe in reincarnation – that we enter into and out of our lives on Earth many times.

‘Who says we’re trying to live like exactly like them? What we’re doing here is living with the inspiration and the ethos of our spiritual ancestors, but in every age we must create the spirituality that answers to the needs and Spirit of the times.

The worlds that are brought together in this book are those of Witchcraft and Druidry, and I have called the path that they create together Druidcraft, from the Irish word Druidecht, and from the inspiration of the Irish poet W.B. Yeats who uses this term in his poetry.

In Yoga this force is called “prana”, in Sufism “baraka”. Some people simply call it “life force”.

Within New Grange, each year at the Winter Solstice, the Great Rite is performed – a stream of sunlight penetrates to the heart of the temple, through a specially constructed shaft, oriented exactly to the midwinter sunrise. Love, sexuality, creation, birth and the indissoluble relationship between Heaven and Earth, is portrayed in a way that succe