What Do Druids Believe? (What Do We Believe)

Some believe the term ‘Druid’ comes from the Celtic word for oak – dru – combined with the Indo-European root wid – to know – making the Druid a ‘knower of the oak’, in other words a ‘forest sage’. Others believe the word comes from the pre-Indo-European roots deru, meaning ‘strong’, and weid, meaning ‘to see’, making a Druid a ‘strong seer’.

They don’t feel the necessity to ‘have’ a religion, or they share John Lennon’s vision when he sang, in ‘Imagine’, of an ideal world with no religion.

Fidelma – the Irish Druid

Many people have had experiences of ‘extrasensory perception’ – even if only fleetingly, perhaps just once or twice in their lives.

I had known and studied with Ross Nichols, had trained in psychology and psychotherapy, and in 1988 was asked to lead the Order he had founded twenty-four years previously. The Order published the course that I had created with the help of a number of writers, including Ross Nichols and John and Caitlín Matthews.

There is yet one more way in which Druidry can be pursued – as a path of magic.

Druidism as a spiritual path appeals to all kinds of people, all over the world, because it directly concerns itself with the three most pressing problems of our age: the destruction of the environment, the alienation of the individual, and the commercialization and mass production of culture.

But it also takes into consideration the view that we are meant to be here, that we are destined to be active, creative participants in life, and that our thoughts, feelings, words and actions all have an effect which obeys the Law of the Harvest.

These lodges proliferated throughout England, and then abroad in most corners of the British Empire and in parts of Europe.