Sublime

This kind of clubbishness seems to be especially congenial to men, who seem to enjoy the ritual aspects offered by formal speeches, songs, toasts and parades that require a level of self-discipline, attention to a master of ceremonies and willingness to be silent – especially so when these groups are all-male.

It offered social gatherings, and a type of ceremonial similar to those of fraternal societies, where a Bible was placed on the lectern at each meeting, and discussion of religion prohibited.

I was present at the very first meeting of the Society, and it was great. But as the weeks passed, I kept waiting for the elders to burst into the room some Monday night screaming, “We cannot allow this much honesty within the church!” How refreshing it was to have a safe place within my community of faith.

A convivial society would be the result of social arrangements that guarantee for each member the most ample and free access to the tools of the community and limit this freedom only in favor of another member’s equal freedom.

THE most ancient of all societies, and the only one that is natural, is the family:

I have chosen “convivial” as a technical term to designate a modern society of responsibly limited tools.

Just over a decade before Iolo’s introduction of the Gorsedd in 1792, a Druid organization had already been created, but it was a distinctly different phenomenon: its purposes were social and fraternal rather than cultural. The Ancient Order of Druids, founded by a man named Hurle in 1781 in a pub in London’s Poland Street, was formed to provide mu