Appalachian Granny Magic

The Appalachian Granny Magic Tradition of Witchcraft is one that is only recently being heard of. Though the tradition is a very old one, dating all the way back to the first settlers of the magical Appalachian Mountains who came over from Scotland and Ireland in the 1700’s. They brought along their even older Irish and Scottish Magical Traditions with them. Those two ‘old world’ Traditions were then blended with a dash of the local tradition of the Tsalagi (Now, called the Cherokee Indians.) The recipe for the Appalachian Granny Magic Tradition was then complete, though this potion simmered on a low boil for many generations before anyone dubbed it with the name, ‘Appalachian Granny Magic.’

The Witches of the Appalachian Mountains called themselves ‘Water Witches’ and/or ‘Witch Doctors’ depending upon whether they were personally more gifted in healing, midwifery and such realms of magic, or if they were more in tune with dowsing for water, ley lines, energy vortexes and the making of charms and potions. Often a Practitioner called themselves by both titles if they were so diverse in their Magical practices.

The Appalachian Granny Magic Tradition, like many of the older ones, was passed on from parents to their children for many generations, and generally was not ‘taught’ outside of the individual family structures. Because of the rural and secluded nature of the Appalachian community, the old customs, wisdom, and practices were not as often lost, forgotten, or ‘modernized’ as the ‘old world’ traditions that came over to other, more urban areas of the ‘new world.’ Therefore, one will often find that ancient Irish or Scottish songs, rhymes, dances, recipes, crafts, and ‘The Craft,’ are more accurately preserved in Appalachia than even in Ireland or Scotland.

Many of these old Scot/Irish traditions, as well as the Tsalagi traditions, both magical and mundane, were carried on in Appalachia until modern times. Some songs, spells, and such have been passed down for many years that way, though sadly, sometimes only by rote, with the original meanings beings lost in the shifting sands of time.

In the secluded mountains of Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, the Virginias and the Carolinas, this denomination of the ancient religion of Witchcraft continued right on through the decades of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and the early twentieth centuries; a time when Witchcraft elsewhere was being nearly forgotten and abandoned by the increasingly modern and monotheistic world. The people of the mountains still relied upon Mother Nature in a way, that ‘city folk’ did not anymore. The fertility of the crops, the livestock, and of the people themselves was as paramount to the Appalachians of 1900 as it was to the early American colonists in the 1600’s. Therefore, fertility, and the worship of Mother Nature, Jack frost, Father Winter, Chloe, Spider Grandmother, Demeter, and such varied deities continued in the Appalachian region, staying a current part of the people’s faith, rather than becoming a mythic memory as such ‘nature worship’ did elsewhere. In fact, we still see “Lady Plenty and Lady Liberty” Goddess of the harvest, with cornucopia in hand, and Goddess of freedom, on the official North Carolina State seal.

Amazingly, even the terms “Witch””, “Witchcraft”, “spells”, “charms” and such never became taboo in the modern Appalachian culture. Nearly every mountain top and ‘holler’ community had their local ‘Witch’ who was openly called such, as a title of honor, not as a insult or a charge of crime, as the term came to be used in other more urban American cultures of the seventeen, eighteen and nineteen hundreds.

The “Witch Doctors” were still called upon to heal a sick child, or deliver a baby, or tend to the dying, as Witches had been so charged with doing in Europe during ancient times. Since often a mountain community had no medical doctor to call upon, the local Witches continued to work as the only healers, well up until the early twentieth century.

The local ‘Witch’ was also called upon to dowse for water, ley lines, and energy vortexes when one was digging a well, planting a new garden, burying a loved one, or doing any other work with the Earth. Thereby, the term ‘Water Witch’ arose, though, it is misleading, as these Witches dowsed for more than just water, and one did not have to be a Witch to dowse, though most dowsers of that era and location were, indeed, Witches.

The fairy folk, leprechauns, and other ‘wee people,’ followed the Scots and Irishmen to Appalachia, it seems, as the Witches of this tradition continue to work closely with these beings. Of course, the Tsalagi people had their own such beings, here when the Scots and Irishmen arrived. The Tsalagi called their magical being neighbors; ‘Yunwi Tsunsdi,’ which translates to ‘The Little People.’ Offerings are still commonly given to the wee people daily in Appalachia. To this day, you will find a granny woman leaving a bowl of cream on her back door step, or throwing a bite of her cornbread cake out a window, before placing it upon her families’ table.

The spirits of the dead are often worked with as well, a lot of ancestral spirit guide workings are passed down through our Tradition, those practices trace back to not only Scotland and Ireland, but the Tsalagi Nation as well. ‘Haints’ are widely feared as ‘angry’ ancestral spirits, and many spells, charms, and rituals are practiced to keep these troublemakers at bay. One of the most interesting and common haint related spells requires that the doors of a home be painted ‘haint blue.’ Haint Blue is a bright baby blue with a periwinkle tinge, very close to but about one shade darker than the Carolina Tarheels’ Blue color. This color is believed to repel the spirits and keep them out of the home.

Music is a large part of the Appalachian Granny Magic Tradition. Many of the oldest spells are sung and danced. Clogging, as Irish Step-dancing came to be called in Appalachia, as well as reels, gigs, lullabies, and chants sung in rounds are all very common magical ingredients in Appalachian spells. For example, a traditional Earth Blessing to be sung while planting and harvesting goes; (Broken into syllables for easier pronunciation of the ancient Tsalagi language, English translation follows)

A da we hi a ne he ne ha
Do hi u a iu ni
O lo hi a li ga lu lo hi u nah ta
Ga li e li ga O sa da du
Wise Protectors, they are so giving
Serenity, it resounds
Mother Earth and Father Sky are so giving
I am thankful, it is good

Another example of the old world musical roots of Appalachian musical magic is the locally common use of the song ‘Auld Lang Syne’ for Samhain and Funerals, as well as the secular new year.

Divination is popular among Appalachian Granny Witches. Many read Tarot, and regular playing cards, tea leaves, and clouds. Scrying in bowls of water, dirt, or sand is also common. Spider webs are scrutinized for messages from the Cherokee Spider Grandmother Goddess, a Goddess of fate, magic, weaving, art and storytelling, who is said to weave magical messages into the webs of her creatures. (In Tsalagi, She was called; ‘Kanene Ski Amai Yehi.’)

The tools of the Appalachian Granny Witch vary a bit from the modern ‘Wiccan’ tools we all are so familiar with. The Wand, often instead called the ‘rod’, as it is in fact a dowsing rod, is the most important tool. This is usually a long straight rod, rather than the ‘forked stick’ type dowsing rod used by mundane dowsers. It is generally made of wood from a flowering tree such as dogwood, apple or peach, (For Water dowsing) or made from a metal, (For ley line or energy dowsing) copper conducts energy best, I personally feel. A ritual blade, such as a Athame, is only occasionally used and more often a agricultural blade like a thresher, ax or such will be used in its stead. Cauldrons are used more widely than chalices, in fact, a cauldron placed in ones front yard was a ‘open-for-business’ type Witches’ sign in times gone by, much like a barber’s pole is used today. However, that practice has become a popular decoration in the South in recent decades, and one is likely to find a person has a cauldron decorating their front yard, because they saw it in ‘Southern Homes Magazine’ and thought it was quaintly attractive, rather than it being used to advertise that the ‘Witch is in,’ so to speak. Mirrors, candles, brooms, pottery, and baskets are other common tools of the Tradition, and all of those items are still commonly made at home, by hand in the mountains of Appalachia.

As most of the Magic of the Tradition is of a healing, practical or sympathetic nature rather than “High” or Ritualistic in form, and there are some differences related to that. Ritual clothing is generally not used, and circles are not cast for every spell, only the more formal rites. An Appalachian Witch, like myself, might do a dozen or more spells in any given day, often with two or three generations of practitioners taking part, so running in to change clothes, or stopping to cast a full circle in the ‘strict’ form would be rather impractical, and in fact, neither was commonly done in the past, in our Tradition. Although some modern Appalachian Witches, being eclectic already with our Scottish, Irish, and Tsalagi roots, have started to use some other Traditions’ practices (such as wearing ritual clothing, casting a formal circle, etc.) at times, as well.

We, as a Magical Tradition, are very practical, and ‘down-to-earth.’ We are very eclectic, and informal in our approach to Witchcraft. It is our way of life, as well as our religion. And we are working to preserve both, for the future generations of Appalachian Granny Magic Tradition Witches.

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Appalachian Granny Magic

Wicca, mountain, Appalachia, magic, witches, charms

I. Abstract

This report on Appalachian magic summarizes the beliefs and practices of the mountain folk. The purposes and structures of the system are shown in detail along with various knowledge associated with the witches of the mountains. The witches of the mountains fall into three categories: witches, granny women, and water witches. Witches and granny women are categorized together here, and the terms are used interchangeably; water witches are discussed about in less detail because the tradition is passed down to men in the family and not in public view. The deities invoked are explained and certain supernatural beings are examined. The history of mountain magic, mainly Cherokee tribe and Irish witch practices, are mentioned because they are the origin of the magic used today. Even though the mountains are being modernized, the folk lore and magic are still part of the culture of the mountain community.

II. Scope and Purpose of the System

Appalachia Magic identifies itself as the basic culture of the Appalachian people. To them it is not considered magic, but it is the way of life for them handed down through the generations. There is no formal system to which it identifies itself because the magic is hard to place in its own category. This difficulty is because the magic is so deeply incorporated into the culture of the people. The folk magic is found throughout the Appalachian Mountains event though in present times it is quickly dwindling. The most concentrated area where one will find the Magic is in the southern mountains. Being available to all people, Appalachia magic still believes that some people are more apt to use magic, but the people who are able to perform the magic are not from a certain class.

Appalachia makes no official claims about itself. Some of the users make claims of the Christian God while others give credit to pagan gods, yet the magic can be used by all. No devotion to any god is given, yet references to gods to act out the wishes are used. The concern of Appalachian magic is focused on portents, omens, cures, curses, and protections (McCoy 3). Most of the magic results are intangible things such as love and health. Every aspect of life can have the Appalachian arts inserted into it. Mostly all the charms and invocations are for positive actions, so there is no “black magic” (harmful magic) in the Appalachians.

III. Authority Structure

a. Sources and Criteria of Valid Knowledge

The knowledge for the Appalachian people is a wide variety of sources.

There is no exact source of sacred scripture used by the witches. There are references to all kinds of religions and traditions in the charms and incantations, yet no devotion to a certain god is done by all the witches. They seem to be free to worship whom they want to and invoke which gods they desire to do their bidding.

The number three is very prominent in the magic. The emphasis on the number three is said to originate from Ireland and be a reference to the three goddesses of the Irish people. After a while in the Appalachian mountains, Christianity reached the people and the number three was then used to reference to the trinity, so today there is a mixture of people who invoke the Irish goddesses or the trinity. Some also make reference to the gods of the Cherokee people (McCoy 4). In many charms one will hear references to the personified deity of the moon, stars, and sun.

The most sacred part of the magic seems to be the traditions. The culture of the Appalachian people runs very deep. They are willing to defend, even to their death, their traditions which made it very hard for people to try to modernize them during the past 100 years. The sayings and incantations are passed down by word of mouth and are considered extremely sacred, but they are never written down for fear of losing their magical power which I will address later on.

b. Methods of Inquiry

The methods of Inquiry are very specific for the Appalachian people.

The easiest way to learn the supernatural arts is to be born around them. If a person is native to the Appalachians and lives in a place where it is practiced, he will grow up hearing stories of the magical practices and this is the beginning of his knowledge. The most common way to easily receive the powers of a witch is to be given them by someone. Most likely, the powers are given to a family member. Traditionally it is give to one female per generation. For the less powerful magic, one can learn it through a type of “apprenticeship.” One belief is that the magical power of a woman is increased during her menstrual cycle; thus, during a woman’s period is the best time for her to learn the magical arts from a granny woman (a witch who above all possesses the power to make potions). To possess the powers of a water witch, the ability to find underground water through the use of two pieces of wood or metal, you must be male. In most instances the powers were inherited through his father or grandfather. There is one more way to receive the knowledge of magic: to be given the powers through god/nature. The most spectacular natural phenomena in the mountains are lightning. Lightning is believed to be a rip or portal between the world of humans and supernatural beings (McCoy 74). Often places struck by lightning are avoided because of the belief the area is haunted, yet if a person is struck by lightning, he is considered to be given very special powers. After he is struck, he is observed for changes physically and mentally. The powers can range from receiving second sight (being able to make predictions and see into people’s souls) to a scar, indicating the area of the body in which his magic is most powerful. If you are not from the mountains, there is a very slim possibility of you learning their ways of magic because of the suspicion mountain people have of outsiders.

c. Institutions and Professional Structure

The preservation and practices are not kept in an organized manner.

As mentioned above, the traditions are handed down orally. The stories are kept by storytellers telling them to children, and the magic practices are kept alive through the people using and teaching them. With the quick modernization which is currently happening in the Appalachians, the culture is somewhat dying. There is no central authority of witches in the mountains to control who is a witch and set rules. Even though there is no official hierarchy, some witches are looked to above others. Granny women, the term used for the medicinal witches, are usually elder women in the community, and they are the ones people come to with their problems or the desire to learn magic (McCoy 11). Water witches have no hierarchy because the secrets are deeply rooted in family ties, so if a person needs to find water, they just ask the diviner, another term for water witches, to do it (McCoy 12).

The Granny women are recognized through out the community by their actions. They do not where any special garb or have any physical attributes, except being elderly, that a person can identify them by. The witches are held to a set of standards such as they are never paid for their services. They are also expected to be ethical, and never do harm to another human being. Yet the biggest rule of the witches is to keep silent about their magical art. Because of their silence, most witches learned their ways from their parents. The vow of silence was thought to originate from England’s witch hunters, yet there is another, more mystical reason behind the vow (McCoy 15). If a witch teaches her ways to someone, it is thought to take power away from her, so witches do not reveal their secrets to everyone. Even though Granny women do teach their students, most of the teachings consist of potions from herbs and not the magic which lies behind them. Because the women do not practice harmful magic, the witches of the community do not hold an oppressive control over the people. Instead, they are looked at for their wisdom and asked for help.

IV. History

The history of Appalachian magic is very old. It has been carried on in the mountains since they have first been settling by pioneers. The pioneers brought their magical ways with them from Ireland and incorporated them with Cherokee beliefs when marriages between the two races started. The people had to flee their homes because of persecution, yet they believed magic was good and natural. Because of certain practices and sayings in mountain magic, researchers were able to prove the magic came from Europe. Many practices suggest European influence, but the belief in the three goddesses and the Christian devil eliminate any doubt of the origin. The three goddesses, from Celtic mythology, are called upon in many incantations to give power to the user or to carry out actions. Also the devil is called upon, but not worshipped, in many of the rituals. The spirits which believe to haunt the woods are also indications of the roots of this magic. The jackro, known in Ireland as a jackaroo, is believed to be in the mountains of Ireland (McCoy 37). In the southern mountains, a leprechaun-like creature is said to be in the mountains. Even though the origin of the name is unknown, most likely from the Indians or Irish, the Oogle is said to be race of little people roaming the hills searching for people to bestow good luck upon. There is said to even be a loch-ness like creature in “Lake Tallulah” Georgia (McCoy 35).

The sources used for this paper are the next generation witches. Edaina McCoy, writer of Mountain Magick, believes the supernatural arts of the mountain people are very useful. She first learned of them from stories told by her grandparents, yet the magic somewhat died within her family. She does practice the arts today to some extent, mostly the usage of potions and herbal remedies. The other primary source is me. Within my family from the mountains of Georgia, magic is very prominent. My grandmother and aunt are both witches to some extent and are very secretive about their practices. One of the men in my community, a dear friend of mine, is also what some call a “water witch.” Even though I have not witnessed him “divining” for water, I do know that he was the one that found the underground spring which today gives water to my house. Also the many practices, stories, and superstitions which have been passed down to me have secrets and mythology of Appalachian magic in them. I believe in the magic because it has had effects on my family. My house has water and my grandmother has healed warts and taken the “burn out of fire” (the sting from a burn) for my father and mother. Although the magic of the mountains is becoming harder to find, it is by no means obsolete. I often find myself doing traditions that were taught to me, yet I had no idea of the magical aspects incorporated into them. The traditions of carrying a buckeye in your pocket and eating black eyed peas on New Year’s Day are charms which I have been taught to practice (McCoy 47).

V. Representative Examples of Argumentation

The users of magic, performed in the mountains, are very secretive and suspicious of outsiders, so no explanation of their practices is given. Yet when asked they will simply tell the person it is they way they were raised. They find no need to defend their arts because they are not trying to “convert” people, nor do they feel the need to defend their beliefs against skeptics. At first view, it does seem that the arts are in conflict with Christianity, because the witches do invoke gods and nature, yet upon research they are not “worshiping the deities”. Even though they invoke gods, they pledge allegiance to the god of their choosing or to none at all. Many Granny women are very fundamentalist Christians and are looked to as religious leaders in their communities.

VI. Suggested Position in Comparative Scales

a. Relative emphasis on traditional authority—or testimony of experience.

The emphasis on traditional authority and testimony of experience are divided equally. The Granny women have always been in the Appalachian Mountains, and people who have not heard testimonies or experiences still hold reverence for them. Yet the witches are so deeply incorporated into the tradition and culture of the mountains, stories of their works and results are always heard; therefore, both the authority given to the Granny woman and tales of experiences are important.

b. Relative centralization of authority—or decentralization.

There is no focus on a certain authority like most cults and religions, yet there is not a total decentralization of authority. The magic is available to all people, not a certain class, yet some people are more prone to have magical skills than others. The only people that can be looked at as an authority are the Granny women, yet they are not in control over anyone. Instead, they are just looked at as wise, good women who unselfishly help the community.

c. Relative emphasis on invisible realities—or material, earthly ones.

Most of the focus is on the spiritual, intangible realms. Witches invoke the supernatural realm to affect the material realm. The deities invoke in the charms are of the invisible realm such as the Christian god, the three goddesses, or the nature gods of the Cherokee tribe. Even the witches are said to hold powers from the invisible realm such as the power of second sight: being able to see the future. Also they are said to be able to look into people souls and to travel in spirit into people’s houses to perform their magic.

d. Mainly spiritual or moral objectives—or pragmatic aims.

Most of the charms are used for realistic aims instead of spiritual ones. In the magic, one will never see a charm for a clean soul or entrance into a heaven. On the contrary the charms call for results such as healing or the love of a person. In addition to those aims are predictions and safety from the creatures of the woods or hauntings. Most of these charms for simple things like healings originate from the daily life of the Appalachian people. Because of the hard conditions of Appalachian life, focus on the spiritual goals is usually overlooked. Instead of focusing on eternal life, people look for ways to ensure a good life and not to die quickly. With the magic steeply entrenched in a culture believing in harmful supernatural beings like the haints, one will find most of the Appalachian charms ward off evils.

e. Most power or agency reserved for a diving being—or realizable in individuals.

Although the Granny women and water witches are said to have powers, all the supernatural power give credit to a higher deity. As mentioned above the charms and incantations invoke a supernatural being, so the witches actually have minimum power because they are acting through the spirits. There is no internal power for witches to connect with, but only an ability within one’s self to invoke spiritual beings.

Resources:

Author: Ginger Strivelli, Witchvox 

Mountain Magick by Edain McCoy

Voices of Our Ancestors by Dhyani Ywahoo

Scottish Witchcraft by Raymond Buckland

Celtic Myth and Magic by McCoy

Myths of the Cherokee James Mooney

Appalachian Pagan Alliance website

McCoy, Edain. Mountain Magick. Minnesota: Llewellyn, 1997.
This was my primary source which I read very meticulously because it was the only direct information about Appalachian Magic. The information in this work gave me the most information (besides previously acquired knowledge from my family).

Underhill, Callia. The Wicca Book of Divination. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1996
This source is extremely useful in understanding the past of Appalachian Magic. Though it never talks about it directly, Wicca, the main subject of the book, is the ancestor of Appalachian Magic.

Druidry

Druidry, sometimes termed Druidism, is a spiritual or religious movement that generally promotes harmony, connection, and reverence for the natural world. This commonly is extended to include respect for all beings, including the environment itself. Many forms of modern Druidry are modern Pagan religions, although most of the earliest modern Druids identified as Christians. Originating in Britain during the 18th century, Druidry was originally a cultural movement, only gaining religious or spiritual connotations in the 19th century.

The core principle of Druidry is respect and veneration of nature, and as such it often involves participation in the environmental movement. Another prominent belief among modern Druids is the veneration of ancestors, particularly those who belonged to prehistoric societies.

Arising from the 18th century Romanticist movement in Britain, which glorified the ancient Celtic peoples of the Iron Age, the early neo-Druids aimed to imitate the Iron Age priests who were also known as druids. At the time, little accurate information was known about these ancient priests, and the modern Druidic movement has no direct connection to them, despite contrary claims made by some modern Druids.

In the late eighteenth century, modern Druids developed fraternal organizations modeled on Freemasonry that employed the romantic figure of the British Druids and Bards as symbols of indigenous British spirituality. Some of these groups were purely fraternal and cultural, creating traditions from the national imagination of Britain. Others, in the early twentieth century, merged with contemporary movements such as the physical culture movement and naturism. Since the 1980s some modern druid groups have adopted similar methodologies to those of Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism in an effort to create a more historically accurate practice. However, there is still controversy over how much resemblance modern Druidism may or may not have to the Iron Age druids.

Definition

Modern Druidry derives its name from the magico-religious specialists of Iron Age Western Europe who were known as druids. There is no real historical continuity between the druids of Iron Age Europe and the modern Druids. However, some Druids nevertheless regard modern Druidry as a genuine continuation of the practices of the Iron Age druids. The concerns of modern Druidry—which include healing the planet and seeking connections with the natural world—are likely very different from those of the Iron Age societies in which the original druids lived.

Everything presently known about the Iron Age druids derives from archaeological evidence and Greco-Roman textual sources, rather than material produced by these druids themselves. Due to the scarcity of knowledge about the Iron Age druids, their belief system cannot be accurately reconstructed. Some Druids incorporate everything that is known about Iron Age druids into their practices. However, as noted by scholar of religion Jenny Butler, the historical realities of Iron Age religion are often overlooked by Druids in favour of “a highly romanticised version”. Many Druids believe that the practices of the Iron Age druids should be revived yet modified to meet current needs. In Ireland, some Druids have claimed that because the island was never conquered by the Roman Empire, here the Iron Age druids survived and their teachings were passed down hereditarily until modern times, at which modern Druids can reclaim them. Some Druids claim that they can channel information about the Iron Age druids.

Druidry has been described as a religion, a new religious movement, a “spiritual movement”, and as a nature religion. It has been described as a form of contemporary Paganism, and on the contemporary Pagan spectrum between reconstructionism and eclecticism, Druidry sits on the latter end. Various Druidic groups also display New Age and neo-shamanic influences. The Druidic community has been characterised as a neo-tribe, for it is disembedded and its membership is elective.Druidry has been described as a form of Celtic spirituality, or “Celtic-Based Spirituality”.Scholar of religion Marion Bowman described Druidry as the “Celtic spirituality par excellence. Some practitioners regard Druidry as a form of “native spirituality”, and it displays an affinity with folk religions. In defining Druidry as a “native spirituality”, some Druids seek to draw elements from other native religions, such as the belief systems of Australian Aboriginal and Native American communities.Practitioners differ in the levels of formality and seriousness that they bring to their adherence. Some groups use the word Druid for both male and female practitioners, eschewing the term Druidess for female followers.

Following terms devised by the Druid Philip Carr-Gomm, a distinction has been drawn between “cultural” Druids, who adopt the term as part of their Welsh and Cornish cultural activities, and “esoteric” Druids who pursue the movement as a religion. The scholar of religion Marion Bowman suggested “believing” as an alternative term to “esoteric”. There are also individuals who cross these two categories, involving themselves in cultural Druidic events while also holding to modern Pagan beliefs. Some cultural Druids nevertheless go to efforts to disassociate themselves from their esoteric and Pagan counterpart; the Cornish Gorseth for example has publicly disassociated any links to Paganism. Some Druids identify as Pagan, others as Christian. Some practitioners merge Pagan and Christian elements in their own personal practice, in at least one case identifying as a “Christodruid”. Other practitioners adopt additional elements; for instance there are self-described “Zen Druids” and “Hasidic Druids”. The Berengia Order of Druids drew upon elements from science fiction television shows like Star Trek and Babylon 5.

The earliest modern Druids aligned themselves with Christianity.In the early eighteenth-century, early Druidic writers like William Stukeley regarded the Iron Age druids as proto-Christians who were monotheists worshipping the Christian God. In a similar vein, some modern Druids believe that ancient druidic wisdom was preserved through a distinct Celtic Christianity. Over the course of the twentieth century, and particularly since the early 1960s, Druidry increasingly came to be associated with the modern Pagan movement.

Beliefs

Druidic beliefs vary widely, and there is no set dogma or belief system followed by all adherents.

Druidry also draws upon the legends surrounding King Arthur. One of the clearest links between Arthuriana and Druidry is through the Loyal Arthurian Warband, a Druidic group that employs Arthurian symbolism as part of its environmental campaigns.

Nature-centered spirituality

Druidry has been described as a nature venerating movement. Druidry conceives of the natural world as being imbued with spirit, and thus regard it as alive and dynamic.Because they view the natural world as sacred, many Druids are involved in environmentalism, thereby acting to protect areas of the natural landscape that are under threat from development or pollution.

Druids are generally critical of mainstream society, regarding it as being “governed by consumerism, environmental exploitation and the supremacy of technology.” In contrast to this, Druids seek to establish a way of living that they regard as being more “natural”. Through seeking a connection with nature, Druids pursue a sense of “cosmic belonging”.

Theology

“Grant O Goddess, thy protection
and in protection, strength
and in strength, understanding
and in understanding, knowledge
and in knowledge, the knowledge of justice
and in the knowledge of justice, the love of it
and in the love of it, the love of all existences
and in the love of all existences, the love of Goddess and all Goodness”
“The Druid’s Prayer”, after Iolo Morganwg.

By the end of the 19th century, Druidry was described as a “monotheistic philosophical tradition”. Druidry is now often described as polytheistic, although there is no set pantheon of deities to which all Druids adhere. Emphasis is however placed on the idea that these deities predate Christianity.These deities are usually regarded as being immanent rather than transcendent. Some practitioners express the view that the real existence of these deities is less important to them than the impact that said belief has on their lives.

With the increase in polytheistic Druidry, and the widespread acceptance of Goddess worship, “The Druid’s Prayer”, which had been originally written in the 18th century by Druid Iolo Morganwg and emphasises the unity of the supreme Deity, had the word “God” replaced with “Goddess” in common usage.

Some Druids regard it as possible to communicate with various spirits during ritual.Certain Druids in Ireland have for instance adopted belief in the Sí, spirits from Irish folklore, into their Druidic system, interpreting them as elementals. They have adopted the folkloric belief that such spirits are repelled by iron and thus avoid bringing iron to their rituals, so as not to scare spirits away.

Awen

Awen is a concept of spirit or divinity in Druidry, which inspires poetry and art, and is believed to be a “flowing spirit” given by the Deity, which can be invoked by the Druid. In many Druidic rituals, Awen is invoked by either chanting the word “Awen” or “A-I-O” three times, in order to shift the consciousness of the participants involved. The word “Awen” derives from the Welsh and Cornish terms for “inspiration”.

Ancestor veneration

A connection with ancestors is important in Druidry. In some recorded examples, Druids regard the “ancestors” as an amorphous group, rather than as a set of named individuals.The Druidic concept of ancestry is that of “ancestors of the land”, rather than the “ancestors of the blood” venerated by some Heathen groups; they perceive a spiritual connection, rather than a genetic one, as being important.[46] Emphasising ancestors gives practitioners a sense of an identity which has been passed down from the past over the course of many centuries.

Ancestor veneration leads many to object to the archaeological excavation of human remains and their subsequent display in museums. Many have organised campaigns for their reburial. For instance, in 2006, a neo-Druid called Paul Davies requested that the Alexander Keiller Museum in Avebury, Wiltshire rebury their human remains, and that storing and displaying them was “immoral and disrespectful”. Criticism of this view has come from the archaeological community, with statements like “no single modern ethnic group or cult should be allowed to appropriate our ancestors for their own agendas. It is for the international scientific community to curate such remains.”

Rites and practices

Druidic groups are usually known as groves. Such a term reflects the movement’s association with trees, and references the idea that Iron Age druids performed their rituals within tree groves. Larger Druidic organisations are usually termed orders, and those that lead them are often termed chosen chiefs.

Some British Druid orders divide membership into three grades, referred to as “bards”, “ovates”, and then “Druids”. This three-tier system mirrors the three degrees found in British Traditional Wicca. Other groups eschew any division into bard, ovate, and druid. OBOD primarily educates its members in its form of Druidry through a correspondence course.

Ceremonies

Each Druidic grove conducts its rituals and ceremonies in a unique way. Druidic rituals are designed to align their participants with the spirit imbuing nature. According to the anthropologist Thorsten Gieser, Druidic rituals are best seen not as a set of formalised actions but as “a stance, an attitude, a particular mode of experience and perception which gives rise to a feeling of being-in-the-world, of being part of Nature.” The practices of modern Druids typically take place outside, in the daylight, in what is described as “the eye of the sun”, meaning around midday. In some cases, they instead perform their rites indoors, or during the night. Druidic rituals usually reflect on the time of year and the changing of the seasons.

Druidic rituals often involve the participants standing in a circle and begin with a “calling of the quarters”, in which a participant draws a circle in the air in a deosil direction to hail the north, south, east, and west, marking out the space in which the ceremony will take place. Libations may be poured onto the ground while a chalice of drink is passed around the assembled participants, again in a deosil direction. Food, often in the form of bread or cake, it also passed around the Druids and consumed. This may be followed by a period of meditation among those assembled. A form of earth energy is then visualised, with participants believing that it is sent for a designated healing purpose. This may be designed to help the victims of a particular event, such as a war or an epidemic, or it might be directed to assist individuals known to the group who are ill or requiring emotional support. After the end of the ceremony, the Druids may remain together to take part in a meal, or visit a nearby pub.

There is no specific dress code for ritual within the Druidic movement; some participants wear ordinary clothes, others wear robes. Some groups favour earth-coloured robes, believing that this links them to the natural world and that it aids them in traveling unnoticed when going about at night. “Celtish” language is often employed during ceremonies, as are quotations and material from the Carmina Gadelica. Most use some form of Morganwg’s Gorsedd Prayer.

Some Druids also involve themselves in spell-casting, although this is usually regarded as a secondary feature among their practices.

Locations for ritual

Rituals commonly take place at formations in the natural landscape or at prehistoric sites, among them megalithic constructions from the Neolithic and Bronze Age or earthworks from the Iron Age.Druids often believe that, even if the Iron Age druids did not build these monuments, they did use them for their rites. Performing rituals at said sites allows many Druids to feel that they are getting close to their ancestors. Druids regard them as sacred sites in part as recognition that prehistoric societies would have done the same. Druids in various parts of Ireland and Britain have reported such sites being home to a “Spirit of the Place” residing there. Many Druids also believe that such sites are centres of earth energy and lie along ley lines in the landscape. These are ideas that have been adopted from Earth mysteries writers like John Michell.

In the popular imagination, Druids are closely linked with Stonehenge—a Neolithic and Bronze Age site in Wiltshire, southern England. Although Stonehenge predates the Iron Age and there is no evidence that it was ever used by Iron Age druids, many modern Druids believe that their ancient namesakes did indeed use it for their ceremonies.[70] Druids also use many other prehistoric sites as spaces for their rituals, including stone circles like that at Avebury in Wiltshire. Some Druids have erected their own, modern stone circles in which to perform their ceremonies. Druidic practices have also taken place at Early Neolithic chambered long barrows such as Wayland’s Smithy in Oxfordshire, and the Coldrum Long Barrow in Kent. In Ireland, Druids perform ceremonies at one of the island’s best known prehistoric sites, the Hill of Tara. In 2000, scholar of religion Amy Hale noted that Druidic rituals at such prehistoric sites were “increasingly more common”. She regarded the stone circle as “a symbol of an imagined Celtic past” shared by both Druids and Gorseth Bards.As well as performing group rituals at sites, Druids also visit them alone to meditate, prayer, and provide offerings. Aside from Sabbat rituals, rites of passage can also take place at such sites, such as a Druidic baby-naming ceremony which took place at Kent’s Chestnuts Long Barrow.

Attitudes to land and environmental conservation are important to the Druidic world-view. In 2003, Druids performed a ritual at the Hill of Tara to heal the location after road construction took place in the adjacent landscape. Others have carried out rituals at Coldrum Long Barrow to oppose fracking in the landscape. Druids have also involved themselves in tree planting projects.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the use of a ritual based on the sweat lodge became increasingly popular among some Neo-druids in Ireland and the U.K.[81] Some Druids regard these sweat lodges as “initiatory and regenerative opportunities to rededicate oneself to honouring the Earth and the community of life.” This practice is regarded differently by different individuals. Some practitioners regard it as a “revival” of genuine pre-Christian druidic practices, others see it a creative and respectful borrowing from one “native spirituality” into another, and a third school of thought regards it as a form of cultural theft. Native Americans who preserve the sweat lodge ceremonies for their communities have protested the appropriation of the ceremony by non-Natives, increasingly so now that people have been injured, and some have died, in fraudulent sweat lodge ceremonies performed by non-Natives.

Arts and poetry

In Druidry, a specific ceremony takes place known as an Eisteddfod, which is dedicated to the recitation of poetry and musical performances. Within the Druidic community, practitioners who are particularly skilled in their recitation of poetry or their performance of music are referred to as Bards. Although bardism can also be found in other Pagan traditions such as Eco-Paganism, it is of particular importance within Druidry. Bards perform at Eisteddfod at various occasions, from formal rituals to pub get-togethers and summer camps and environmental protests.Among the Druidic community, it is often believed that bards should be divinely inspired in producing their work.

Storytelling is important within Druidry, with stories chosen often coming from the vernacular literature of linguistically Celtic countries or from Arthurian legend. Musical performances typically draw from the folk musical traditions of Ireland, Scotland, England, France, and Brittany.[89] Instruments used commonly include lap harps, mandolins, whistles, bag pipes, and guitars.[89] Bards utilise archaic words such as “t’was”, “thence”, and “deeds”, while speaking in a grandiose manner of intonation. The general purpose of bardism, according to scholar of religion and bard Andy Letcher, is to create an “ambience” of “a catchall ahistorical past; a Celtic, medieval, Tolkienesque, once-upon-a-time enchanted world”.[89] Instruments commonly used by Druidic Bards include acoustic stringed instruments like the guitar and the clarsach, as well as the bodhran, bagpipe, rattle, flute and whistle. The scholar of religion Graham Harvey believed that these specific instruments were preferred by modern Druids because many of them were Irish in origin, and therefore gave a “Celtic flavour, seemingly invoking the Iron Age”, the period during which the ancient druids lived.

Groups like the British Druid Order have established their own gorseddau.[58] Unlike the Welsh cultural gorseddau, these Druidic events often allow anyone to perform as a bard if they are inspired to do so.

Druids have participated in other musical genres and with more technological instruments, including the blues and rave music, and one British club, Megatripolis, opened with the performance of a Druidic ritual.

Other practices

Among many Druids, there is a system of tree lore, through which different associations are attributed to different species of tree, including particular moods, actions, phases of life, deities and ancestors. Different species of trees are often linked to the ogham alphabet, which is employed in divination by Druids. Rather than ogham, some practitioners favour coelbren—an alphabet likely devised by Iolo Morganwg—for their divinatory practices.

Many Druids engage in a range of healing therapies, with both herbalism and homeopathy being popular within the Druidic community.

Druids often revive older folk customs for use on their practices. The England-based Secular Order of Druids for instance possess a hobby horse based on that used in the ‘Obby ‘Oss festival of Padstow, Cornwall.

Festivals

Druids generally observe eight spiritual festivals annually, which are collectively known as the Wheel of the Year. These are the same festivals usually celebrated by Wiccans.[99] In some cases groups attempt to revive folkloric European festivals and their accompanying traditions. In other cases the rites are modern inventions, inspired by “the spirit of what they believe was the religious practice of pre-Roman Britain.”[100] For reasons of practicality, such celebrations are not always held on the specific date of the festival itself, but on the nearest weekend, thus maximising the number of participants who can attend.

Four of these are solar festivals, being positioned at the solstices and equinoxes; these are largely inspired by Germanic paganism. The other four are the “Celtic” festivals, the crossquarter days inspired by modern interpretations of ancient Celtic polytheism. The idea of the Wheel of the Year was introduced into Druidry by Ross Nichols, who founded the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids in 1964, and he had gained this idea from his friend Gerald Gardner, who had implemented it in his Bricket Wood coven of Gardnerian Witches in 1958.

History

The Druidic movement originated among the Romanticist ideas of the ancient druids that had begun to be developed in the 17th and 18th centuries. While many Early Mediaeval writers, particularly in Ireland, had demonised the ancient druids as barbarians who had practiced human sacrifice and tried to suppress the coming of Christianity, certain Late Mediaeval writers had begun to extol what they believed were the virtues of the druids, and reinvented them as national heroes, particularly in Germany, France and Scotland. It was also during this period that Conrad Celtis had begun to propagate the image of the druids as having been bearded, wise old men wearing white robes, something that would prove highly influential in future centuries.

The image of the Iron Age druids as national heroes would later begin to emerge in England during the Early Modern period, with the antiquarian and Anglican vicar William Stukeley (1687–1765) proclaiming himself to be a “druid” and writing a number of popular books in which he claimed that prehistoric megaliths like Stonehenge and Avebury were temples built by the druids, something now known to be incorrect. Stukeley himself, being a devout but unorthodox Christian, felt that the ancient druids had been followers of a monotheistic faith very similar to Christianity, at one point even stating that ancient druidry was “so extremely like Christianity, that in effect, it differed from it only in this; they believe in a Messiah who was to come into the world, as we believe in him that is come”.

Soon after the publication and spread of Stukeley’s writings, other people also began to self-describe themselves as “druids” and form societies: the earliest of these was the Druidic Society, founded on the Welsh island of Anglesey in 1772. Largely revolving around ensuring the continued financial success of business on the island, it attracted many of Anglesey’s wealthy inhabitants into it, and donated much of its proceeds to charity, but was disbanded in 1844. A similar Welsh group was the Society of the Druids of Cardigan, founded circa 1779, largely by a group of friends who wished to attend “literary picnics” together. The third British group to call itself Druidic was English rather than Welsh, and was known as the Ancient Order of Druids. Founded in 1781 and influenced by Freemasonry, its origins have remained somewhat unknown, but it subsequently spread in popularity from its base in London across much of Britain and even abroad, with new lodges being founded, all of which were under the control of the central Grand Lodge in London. The Order was not religious in structure, and instead acted as somewhat of a social club, particularly for men with a common interest in music. In 1833 it suffered a schism, as a large number of dissenting lodges, unhappy at the management of the Order, formed their own United Ancient Order of Druids, and both groups would go on to grow in popularity throughout the rest of the century.

Development of religious Druidry

None of the earliest modern Druidic groups had been religious in structure; however, this was to change in the late 18th century, primarily because of the work of a Welshman who took the name of Iolo Morganwg (1747–1826). Born as Edward Williams, he would take up the cause of Welsh nationalism, and was deeply opposed to the British monarchy, supporting many of the ideals of the French revolution, which had occurred in 1789. Eventually moving to London, he began perpetuating the claim that he was actually one of the last initiates of a surviving group of druids who were descended from those found in the Iron Age, centred on his home county of Glamorgan. He subsequently organised the performing of Neo-druidic rituals on Primrose Hill with some of his followers, whom he categorised as either Bards or Ovates, with he himself being the only one actually categorised as a Druid. He himself practiced a form of religion he believed the ancient druids had, which involved the worship of a singular monotheistic deity as well as the acceptance of reincarnation. In Wales, Druidry had taken on an explicitly religious formation by the 1840s.

Morganwg’s example was taken up by other Welshmen in the 19th century, who continued to promote religious forms of Druidry. The most prominent figure in this was William Price (1800–1893), a physician who held to ideas such as vegetarianism and the political Chartist movement. His promotion of cremation and open practice of it led to his arrest and trial, but he was acquitted, achieving a level of fame throughout Britain. He would declare himself to be a Druid, and would do much to promote the return of what he believed was an ancient religion in his country.

In 1874, Robert Wentworth Little, a Freemason who achieved notoriety as the first Supreme Magus of the occult Societas Rosicruciana, allegedly founded the Ancient and Archaeological Order of Druids, which, like the Societas Rosicruciana, was an esoteric organisation. Meanwhile, at the start of the 20th century, Druidic groups began holding their ceremonies at the great megalithic monument of Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England: the historian Ronald Hutton would later remark that “it was a great, and potentially uncomfortable, irony that modern Druids had arrived at Stonehenge just as archaeologists were evicting the ancient Druids from it” as they realised that the structure dated from the Neolithic and early Bronze Age, millennia before the Iron Age, when the druids first appear in the historical record.

One member of the Ancient Order of Druids was the English Gerald Gardner, who later established Gardnerian Wicca.

Pagan Druidry in Europe

The most important figure for the rise of Neopagan Druidry in Britain was Ross Nichols. A member of The Druid Order, in 1964 he split off to found the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD). In 1988 Philip Carr-Gomm was asked to lead the Order.

Nichols drew upon ideas from the Earth mysteries movement, incorporating many of its ideas about Glastonbury into his interpretation of Druidry.

Between 1985 and 1988, the Druid Tim Sebastion campaigned for religious access to Stonehenge, forming the Secular Order of Druids (SOD) around him. In the late 1980s, SOD’s campaign was joined by another group focused on Stonehenge access, led by a Druid calling himself King Arthur Pendragon; by 1993, his group had formalised as the Loyal Arthurian Warband.[114] In 1988, a Druid order was also established in Glastonbury, Somerset, under the leadership of Rollo Maughfling. In the late 1970s, the former Alexandrian Wiccan high priest Philip Shallcrass established the British Druid Order (BDO) to create a more explicitly Pagan form of Druidry. Fellow Druid Emma Restall Orr became co-leader of the group in the mid-1990s. Feeling the system of Orders too limiting, in 2002 Orr created The Druid Network, which was officially launched in 2003.

The early 1990s were—according to the historian Ronald Hutton—”boom years” for British Druidry. In 1989, the Council of British Druid Orders was established to co-ordinate the activities of different Druid groups at the national level.[118] Further reflecting this spirit of unity, in 1992 a rite took place on London’s Primrose Hill in which various Druid orders participated. That year, two new Druidic magazines began publication Shallcrass’ Druid’s Voice and Steve Wilson’s Aisling. However, arguments between different groups persisted and in 1996, the AOD, OBOD, and BDO withdrew from the Council of British Druid Orders. In the late 1990s, English Heritage relented to pressure and agreed to allow Druidic and greater public access to Stonehenge. During the 1990s, Pagan Druidic groups were also established in Italy, with British Druids like Carr-Gomm visiting the country to give talks to the Pagan community.

Druidry in North America

The earliest American Druid organizations were fraternal orders such as the United Ancient Order of Druids and the American Order of Druids. The former was a branch of a British organization that had split from the Ancient Order of Druids, while the latter was founded in Massachusetts in 1888. Both were forms of fraternal benefit societies rather than religious or neo-pagan groups.

In 1963, the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA) was founded by students at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, a liberal arts college that required its members to attend some form of religious services. As a form of humorous protest against this rule, a group of students, who contained Christians, Jews and agnostics within their ranks, decided to create their own, non-serious religious group. Their protest was successful, and the requirement was scrapped in 1964. Nonetheless, the group continued holding services, which were not considered Neopagan by most members, but instead thought of an inter-religious nature. From its beginning, the RDNA revolved around the veneration of the natural world, personified as Mother Earth, holding that religious truth could be found through nature. They had also adopted other elements of Neopaganism into their practices, for instance celebrating the festivals of the Wheel of the Year, which they had borrowed from the Neopagan religion of Wicca.

While the RDNA had become a success, with new branches or “groves” being founded around the United States, the many Neopagan elements of the RDNA eventually rose to prominence, leading several groves to actively describe themselves as Neopagan. This was opposed by several of the group’s founders, who wanted it to retain its inter-religious origins, and certain groves actually emphasized their connection to other religions: there was a group of Zen Druids in Olympia and Hassidic Druids in St. Louis for instance. Among those largely responsible for this transition towards Neopaganism within the organisation were Isaac Bonewits and Robert Larson, who worked in a grove located in Berkeley, California. Believing that the Reformed Druidic movement would have to accept that it was essentially Neopagan in nature, Bonewits decided to found a split-off group known as the New Reformed Druids of North America (NRDNA), which he defined as an “Eclectic Reconstructionist Neo-Pagan Priestcraft, based primarily upon Gaulish and Celtic sources”.

Bonewits still felt that many in the RDNA were hostile towards him, believing that he had infiltrated their group, and so in 1985 he founded a new, explicitly Neopagan Druidic group, Ár nDraíocht Féin (Our Own Druidism; a.k.a. ADF) and began publishing a journal, The Druid’s Progress. Arguing that it should draw from pan-European sources, rather than just those that were considered “Celtic”, he placed an emphasis on academic and scholarly accuracy, taking a stand against what he perceived as the prevalent pseudo-historical ideas of many Neopagans and Druids. In 1986, several members of Ár nDraíocht Féin openly criticized Bonewits for his pan-European approach, wishing modern Druidism to be inspired purely by Celtic sources, and so they splintered off to form a group called the Henge of Keltria.

The Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA), currently headed by Pagan author and druid John Michael Greer, was founded as the Ancient Order of Masonic Druids in America in 1912 in Boston, Mass. The founder, James Manchester had obtained a charter from the Ancient Order of Masonic Druids of England (AOMD). AOMD started in 1874 as the Ancient Archaeological Order of Druids (AAOD) by Robert Wentworth Little, the founder of Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (SRIA). SRIA is the immediate predecessor organization of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (HOGD). In 1972, the Ancient Order of Masonic Druids in America changed its name to the current name the Ancient Order of Druids in America and started initiating women, which it had not done so previously because of its masonic origin. It was also at this time that AOMD denied ever having recognized AOMDA and wasn’t interested in doing so at that time.

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Reference

Wikipedia