Myth-Busting the Druids
April 13th, 2013
Peter Owen-Jones talking at ‘Sundaywise’ at the Ivy Club London March 2013. Photo Charlie Carr-Gomm
I gave a talk at a London club on Easter Sunday and thought I’d focus on busting the typical stereotypes that gather around the term Druid. The club put this film of the event together really well, complete with illustrations. Peter Owen-Jones also gave a talk about what he felt were the challenges facing Christianity today, focusing on the need for reform within the church and the need for it to address environmental issues – if they make a film of his talk I’ll pop it up too.
18 Responses to “Myth-Busting the Druids”
Great talk!! Hopefully I can get started with my bardic training in the summer. Do you mind if I re-blog this??
Thanks Lucius – by all means re-blog!
Reblogged this on Vaga Silvis and commented:
Delve into the depths of Druidry… or just find out lots about it in this fantastic short video. The Cerebral Philip Carr-Gomm gives a quick talk on shooting down the misconceptions surrounding it as well as clarifies many of the important aspects of Druidry. I myself am keen to explore this wonderfully humble and virtuous spiritual path that seeks to reunite man with nature. The website http://www.druidry.org provides lots of information if you want to find out more.
Concise, comprehensible myth busting, Mr. Carr-Gomm!
Excellent! – and yes – I noticed the “meaning” bits…hehe 🙂
Very, very inspiring! Thank you.
I think this was quite wonderful. Thank you for clarifying the “religion” point as I don’t feel it is a religion for me but a way of life. You were very measured and not at all “eccentric” if you know what I mean. Good job!
just posted this to share with my friends,think this will give them a clear insight to the way i live my life,many thanks.
A reblogué ceci sur Ma tanière… My den… and commented:
I love the way he explains Druidry
Beautifully eloquent, as always! Thank you for posting this, Philip.
Excellent talk, but,you said “You have seen Druids, like old hippies at Stonehenge looking like Gandalf?
Is that fair to present that description – you do then say not to judge by appearance but already plant the seed of who goes to Stonehenge and what they look like? Also, would credit to the ADO be suitable?
Hi Raven,
I mentioned that image thinking of the kind of TV footage we see on the news at the solstice. That is the kind of stereotypical image I was trying to say does not represent all of Druidry today. I wasn’t thinking of the ADO robed ceremonies because they quite wisely never seem to get filmed! Hope that clarifies things a little! All the best, Philip
I love the videos where we get to hear you speak, Philip! We get so little opportunity to learn from you directly (face-to-face) here on the West Coast of the U.S. My druid partner and I are putting together a PowerPoint presentation for a couple of anthropology classes on alternative religions that we are guest speakers at every year, and this talk was inspiring and contained information that I think will be very useful. There’s just so much to say and I love the Druid path so much that I don’t ever know how to pack it all into 50 minutes!! Thank you!
Good luck with your presentations. It’s so hard to pack it all in – it’s such a rich subject. My talk was supposed to be just 10 mins but I over-ran by 6 mins!
Impressive to get all that into 16 minutes!
Excellent: I switched on for a couple of minutes and remained for the whole talk, of course!
Brilliant! …and w/ many good points; thank you for doing this type of presentation (& here’s to the Ivy). An impressive talk all around!
Reblogged this on Helgaleena and commented:
Philip Carr-Gomm, head of OBOD, doing a Sunday outreach, busts 3 major misconceptions about Druidry today.
1~ Druidism is not OLD! Though there are historical reconstructionists among them, the Druidry of today is necessarily its own animal, having been revived most recently in the 1960s, and also in the 18th and 19th century as a reaction to the relaxing of the power of the Christian Church in Europe. No modern Druid organization can trace its roots back more than 250 years, and most are brand new.
2~ Druidism is not FAKE ! Face it, all religions, no matter how ancient, are essentially ‘made up’, ie, the product of human cogitation. And in the course of human endeavors, there is always a natural interest in newer ideas to supplant older, which can be found in minority or ‘fringe’ experimental areas. Drudism is no more ‘fake’ than any other experiment in existing.
3~ Druidism is not only for the “WACKY” ! In terms of sheer numbers, those who identify as Druid are about equal to Zoroastrians or Baha’is . The Queen of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury are Druids! Winston Churchill was a Druid (take note, OBOD and the organizations these people are in are English) . The majority of Druids are not out doing ‘wacky’ things on television at Stonehenge.
4~ Druidism is not POINTLESS! The true enemy of our continued existence as a species is the creeping scourge of meaninglessness. If a thing is meaningless, you feel free to trash it. You feel to disregard basic morality which keeps us civil to one another. Modern Druids merely search for meaning with a focus which is GEOcentric rather than ANTHROpocentric. It is not the only religion to do so, either.
All in all, well worth a listen.
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