Preface to La Via Della Querce by Ossian D’Ambrosio
Why pick up a book on Druidism? How strange it might seem to be interested in an ancient faith in a twenty-first century world, and yet thousands of people every year read books on Druidism, or go online to browse the websites of the many Druid groups that now exist.
Why is this? Are they trying to escape the modern world and retreat into fantasies about the past? This may be the case for some, but my experience over the last twenty-five years shows me that the majority of people who turn to Druidry today do so because they are concerned about the future, and they are following a deep intuition that it is in the roots of their spiritual and cultural heritage that they will find the answer to life’s problems. And so a movement apparently backwards is in reality a movement forward. Just as a salmon swims and jumps upstream, going against the current to return to the spawning grounds of its birth, so perhaps we too need to swim against the current to return again to the sources of our spiritual history. And just as a new generation of salmon are born once again in these spawning grounds, so it is possible for us to find a spiritual rebirth in such a quest.
And so Druidry is, in reality, a fresh force that can give meaning to our lives, precisely because it is so connected to our deep past.
Every spirituality has its origin in Space as well as Time, and for Druidry this was in north-western Europe – from the west coast of Ireland to the west of Gaul. But from this area of origin, Druidry is now followed throughout the world, just as most religions and spiritual paths have begun in a particular location, only to reach every continent.
It is heart-warming to see Druidry starting to blossom in Italy. Although the numbers are small, they are growing, and there are now books, groups, an internet radio station, a distance-learning programme and festivals – all in Italy and in the Italian language for those who wish to discover more about the Druid path.
If you choose to explore Druidry, you will be taking an exciting journey, not only into the past, but into the Now too. More people are following Druidry as a spiritual way than at any time in human history – that is an extraordinary thought!
And there is no better place to start your journey of exploration than in Ossian’s comprehensive and wide-ranging survey of Druidism, which will reveal to you much of the richness of this way that is as deep as the ocean, as inspiring as the night sky.
Philip Carr-Gomm