Brynhild Tudor
September 17th, 2011, 01:34 AM
From my reading on the OBOD site, I understand that modern Druidry/Druidism was split into a few different groups.
Religious Druids did not view Druidry as a spirituality until the beginning of the 20th century, and they currently view Druidism as a religion or a spiritual path (hence the term) and this includes most, if not all, groups and organizations of the modern revival. Political druids are closely intertwined with the former, and they seem to be the environmentalist, humanitarian, activist types. Fraternal druids had something to do with free masonry.
But I am looking for information on "cultural druids", that is, Druidry that has little or nothing to do with religion/spirituality but rather with Celtic language and culture, and I believe it has to do with the Welsh Eisteddfod, is practiced largely in the UK, and the Archbishop of Canterbury (Rowan Williams?) is termed a cultural druid. As this is strictly where my interest lies, I combed the internet but can find no groups that spicifically have anything to do with it. I understand Iolo Morganwg, who had a bit of an imagination and is seen as something of a fraud, invented the Gorsedd when he went to the Welsh Eisteddfod? I also understand that a huge schism was created by all these different types of Druidism, his influence diminished, and it's seen as almost exclusively as a spiritual path now, but I hear there are groups that do not view it as such, and these are the groups of which I would like more information.
It appears that religious druids have maintained it's always been a religion, while the cultural druids look at it as, well, a purely secular activity, which is why I'm drawn to the latter form of it.
Here is the article I read:
http://druidry.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=PagEd&file=index&topic_id=1&page_id=114
Here are a few paragraphs I've gleaned from my research when I typed "cultural druids" or some variation thereof into a search engine.
"Essentially, there are three types of Druid. Cultural Druids, the ones you see on the TV doing eisteddfods for the promotion of the Welsh language and in Cornwall for the Cornish language - they’ll be mostly Christian and it’s a purely cultural activity. Then you’ve got fraternal Druids who are people like Rotarians who in the 18th century were the alternative to Freemasons. (Winston Churchill became one and there’s a wonderful photograph of him surrounded by people with false beards after his induction into the ancient order of Druids.) There are still about 5000 of them in the UK and they use the idea of Druidy as an inspiration to raise money for charity and organise social events. In the third category are the Druids who treat it as a spiritual path or as a religion, and that’s the one that we, The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, fall into. Within that category there are people who might campaign for freedom to be at Stonehenge - which can have quite a wild element to it, there’s a man called King Arthur Uther Pendragon for example, who does road protests. At the other end of the spectrum, will be those with a more philosophical bent who don’t wear robes, who don’t do public festivals, but are interested in it as a spiritual way, in a contemplation. So there’s a range within the Druid movement."
"Druidism today has two strands among the Celtic people in the British Isles and Northwestern France, the cultural and the religious. Cultural Druids hold a competition of poetry, literature and music known as "the Eisteddfod" practiced amongst the Welsh, Irish, Cornish and, Bretons. Modern religious Druidry is a form of Neopaganism built largely around writings produced in the 18th century and later blended into Roman and early medieval sources about Druid beliefs and practices."
"In Britain there are really three types of Druidry: cultural, political and spiritual. Cultural Druidry is articulated by the national Eisteddfoddau of Cornwall and Wales. Members will often be Christian or of no religious persuasion. The focus of their Druidry lies in the promotion of their national language and culture. As groups, they have no interest in paganism, spiritual development, or freedom of access to monuments such as Stonehenge. Political and spiritual Druidry are more closely entwined. All these groups are concerned with revering the earth, and their membership is probably predominantly pagan. But the groups one could term political have as their main focus or aim, the gaining of freedom of access to Stonehenge. The groups one could term spiritual have as their main focus the teaching and practice of Druidry as a spiritual way, religion or way of life. In Britain, the Council of British Druid Orders has been made up of these latter two groups. The cultural groups have never been members."
"Cultural Druidry stems from the re-appropriation of cultural events such as the Welsh
Eisteddfodau as part of a nationalistic or patriotic celebration. At the end of the
eighteenth century, Iolo Morganwg’s forgeries – a combination of Welsh folk
tradition, Unitarianism and the prevailing Druidic mythos – were employed to revive
the traditional Eisteddfodau by combining the event with his own Gorsedd of Druids
whereby the Druids became the judges of the bardic competition, creating a marriage
between Druidry and Welsh culture that has lasted to the present day. Like their
fraternal cousins, cultural Druids tend not to require a pre-Christian past in which to
root their Druidic practice and so Morganwg’s writings have remained central to this
distinctly modern tradition."
"This section deals only with religious Druidry. Cultural Druidism is beyond the scope of this religious website. It is practice widely in the UK where followers merge it with their own faith -- typically Christian. You might Google cultural druid for more information on that topic." (which I did)
Thank you very much. I'm reading the history of Wales now and saw youtube clips of the Eisteddfod. It's fascinating, and the Gorsedd prayer is beautiful when sung with the harp.
Sincerely,
Brynhild
Religious Druids did not view Druidry as a spirituality until the beginning of the 20th century, and they currently view Druidism as a religion or a spiritual path (hence the term) and this includes most, if not all, groups and organizations of the modern revival. Political druids are closely intertwined with the former, and they seem to be the environmentalist, humanitarian, activist types. Fraternal druids had something to do with free masonry.
But I am looking for information on "cultural druids", that is, Druidry that has little or nothing to do with religion/spirituality but rather with Celtic language and culture, and I believe it has to do with the Welsh Eisteddfod, is practiced largely in the UK, and the Archbishop of Canterbury (Rowan Williams?) is termed a cultural druid. As this is strictly where my interest lies, I combed the internet but can find no groups that spicifically have anything to do with it. I understand Iolo Morganwg, who had a bit of an imagination and is seen as something of a fraud, invented the Gorsedd when he went to the Welsh Eisteddfod? I also understand that a huge schism was created by all these different types of Druidism, his influence diminished, and it's seen as almost exclusively as a spiritual path now, but I hear there are groups that do not view it as such, and these are the groups of which I would like more information.
It appears that religious druids have maintained it's always been a religion, while the cultural druids look at it as, well, a purely secular activity, which is why I'm drawn to the latter form of it.
Here is the article I read:
http://druidry.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=PagEd&file=index&topic_id=1&page_id=114
Here are a few paragraphs I've gleaned from my research when I typed "cultural druids" or some variation thereof into a search engine.
"Essentially, there are three types of Druid. Cultural Druids, the ones you see on the TV doing eisteddfods for the promotion of the Welsh language and in Cornwall for the Cornish language - they’ll be mostly Christian and it’s a purely cultural activity. Then you’ve got fraternal Druids who are people like Rotarians who in the 18th century were the alternative to Freemasons. (Winston Churchill became one and there’s a wonderful photograph of him surrounded by people with false beards after his induction into the ancient order of Druids.) There are still about 5000 of them in the UK and they use the idea of Druidy as an inspiration to raise money for charity and organise social events. In the third category are the Druids who treat it as a spiritual path or as a religion, and that’s the one that we, The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, fall into. Within that category there are people who might campaign for freedom to be at Stonehenge - which can have quite a wild element to it, there’s a man called King Arthur Uther Pendragon for example, who does road protests. At the other end of the spectrum, will be those with a more philosophical bent who don’t wear robes, who don’t do public festivals, but are interested in it as a spiritual way, in a contemplation. So there’s a range within the Druid movement."
"Druidism today has two strands among the Celtic people in the British Isles and Northwestern France, the cultural and the religious. Cultural Druids hold a competition of poetry, literature and music known as "the Eisteddfod" practiced amongst the Welsh, Irish, Cornish and, Bretons. Modern religious Druidry is a form of Neopaganism built largely around writings produced in the 18th century and later blended into Roman and early medieval sources about Druid beliefs and practices."
"In Britain there are really three types of Druidry: cultural, political and spiritual. Cultural Druidry is articulated by the national Eisteddfoddau of Cornwall and Wales. Members will often be Christian or of no religious persuasion. The focus of their Druidry lies in the promotion of their national language and culture. As groups, they have no interest in paganism, spiritual development, or freedom of access to monuments such as Stonehenge. Political and spiritual Druidry are more closely entwined. All these groups are concerned with revering the earth, and their membership is probably predominantly pagan. But the groups one could term political have as their main focus or aim, the gaining of freedom of access to Stonehenge. The groups one could term spiritual have as their main focus the teaching and practice of Druidry as a spiritual way, religion or way of life. In Britain, the Council of British Druid Orders has been made up of these latter two groups. The cultural groups have never been members."
"Cultural Druidry stems from the re-appropriation of cultural events such as the Welsh
Eisteddfodau as part of a nationalistic or patriotic celebration. At the end of the
eighteenth century, Iolo Morganwg’s forgeries – a combination of Welsh folk
tradition, Unitarianism and the prevailing Druidic mythos – were employed to revive
the traditional Eisteddfodau by combining the event with his own Gorsedd of Druids
whereby the Druids became the judges of the bardic competition, creating a marriage
between Druidry and Welsh culture that has lasted to the present day. Like their
fraternal cousins, cultural Druids tend not to require a pre-Christian past in which to
root their Druidic practice and so Morganwg’s writings have remained central to this
distinctly modern tradition."
"This section deals only with religious Druidry. Cultural Druidism is beyond the scope of this religious website. It is practice widely in the UK where followers merge it with their own faith -- typically Christian. You might Google cultural druid for more information on that topic." (which I did)
Thank you very much. I'm reading the history of Wales now and saw youtube clips of the Eisteddfod. It's fascinating, and the Gorsedd prayer is beautiful when sung with the harp.
Sincerely,
Brynhild