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The King is Dead – Long Live the King!

February 3rd, 2016
LtoR: John Michael Greer, Dwina Murphy-Gibb, Gordon Cooper at the Prebendal, Oxfordshire, June 2003

LtoR: John Michael Greer, Dwina Murphy-Gibb, Gordon Cooper at the Prebendal, Oxfordshire, June 2003

John Michael Greer, the prolific author on magical subjects, Druidry and the environment (see his magnificent Archdruid Report) has announced that he will no longer be leading the Ancient Druid Order in America. He wrote at the Winter Solstice: “Yes, I’ve resigned as Grand Archdruid of AODA, effective today. I’m staying a member of the order, of course, with the slightly less fanciful title of archdruid emeritus, but the big chair and the funny hat are going to my sucessor, former Archdruid of the West Gordon Cooper. Why? Partly it’s because the order these days has no shortage of people who are at least as capable of guiding it as I am, and someone else ought to have the fun for a change. Partly it’s because I’m tolerably familiar with my own strengths and weaknesses as a leader, and my judgment is that the order will benefit more at this point in its history from another hand on the tiller. Partly, though, it’s a personal matter….” Read more here.

John Michael wants to focus on his writing, various new projects and on leading the other Druid group he started, the Druidical Order of the Golden Dawn.

John Michael will be sorely missed at AODA I’m sure, but I’m sure we’ll still be hearing plenty more from him. I love his wide-ranging knowledge and his sense of humour. To get an idea of these qualities see his book Collapse Now and Avoid the Rush: The Best of the Archdruid Report.

And with a toast to John Michael as the outgoing Chief, let us raise our glasses again, but this time to toast the new Chief: Gordon Cooper, a member like JM of OBOD, our one-time archivist and author of one of the most popular essays in the OBOD library: Wildcrafting the Modern Druid.

Gordon Cooper is a wonderfully erudite scholar and life-time student of the magical. His current interests sound fascinating, and you can read about them here on his blog.

Gordon and JM both received Mt Haemus awards which you can access here and I’ll paste into this post a photo I took of John Michael and Gordon with Dwina Murphy-Gibb, our Patroness, at her home in Oxfordshire. Congratulations to John Michael for having led the AODA so successfully and congratulations to Gordon for taking on the role!

6 Responses to “The King is Dead – Long Live the King!”

  1. …and who, pray what is that wonderful canine that’s ‘stealing the show’? (“Never work with children or animals” comes to mind!) Thanks once again for a fascinating post – now off to check up on all those intriguing references!

  2. Thank you for your acts of service to our community John Michael Greer.
    Welcome Gordon Cooper. Bendithion

  3. Gosh. That will be a loss – as you say, Philip, he has such depth of knowledge and insight. But yes, old stag/young stag – we can’t stop the cycles.

    I echo thanks to JMG, and blessings on the new incumbent.

  4. John Michael Greer got me into Druidry with his excellent “Druidry Handbook”, a text I still refer to regularly. He is one of the most thoughtful, rational and clear-headed thinkers out there, and I wish him luck in his future endeavours. I’m intrigued to see how AODA will develop with a new Grand Archdruid, I’m sure it will be an exciting time ahead for Gordon!

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