Druidcraft: The Magic of Wicca and Druidry

Druidcraft: The Magic of Wicca and Druidry
Philip Carr-Gomm

Druidry and Wicca, also known as "the Craft", are the two great streams of the Western Pagan tradition. Both traditions originated in the British Isles, and both are now experiencing a renaissance all over the world, as more and more people seek a spirituality rooted in a love of nature.In the ancient past Druidry and Wicca probably weren't separate. Today, the ways of Druidry and Wicca are starting to merge again, as contemporary readers combine ideas and techniques from both traditions to build their spiritual practice.In this down to earth yet inspiring book, Philip Carr-Gomm offers a name for this Path that draws on the common beliefs and practices of both Druidry and Wicca: Druidcraft. Then, in a series of six lessons, he empowers the reader to follow this practice by showing how anyone can work with its ways:The Way of Blessing• The Way of the Hearth• The ways of Love• The Ways of Healing• The way of the Earth and Her seasons• The Ways of Magic and SpellcraftDruidcraft draws on the traditions of scholarship, storytelling, magical craft and seasonal celebration of both Druids and Wiccans, to offer inspiration, teachings, rituals, and magical techniques that can help you access your innate powers of creativity and healing, intuition and seership.

To Stephanie, my muse and my love, who has offered the inspiration for so many of the ideas given here and in my other books

Contents

Cover (#ucc511f66-6a92-54be-939d-73a769eea0a8)

Title Page (#u9187b7e7-56c3-517a-b7bb-b6124c0913cc)

Dedication (#ulink_4b277d62-aac1-5afb-9d6e-d88b01218a17)

Acknowledgements

Foreword

CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_1c8f35f8-8972-5ed0-ae55-086f39b8ef1e)

A Hidden Valley – The Worlds of the Witch & Druid (#ulink_1c8f35f8-8972-5ed0-ae55-086f39b8ef1e)

CHAPTER TWO (#ulink_b2b5a7cd-fb0e-5747-8241-96b5b59f674e)

The Secret of the Returning Tide – The Ways of Blessing (#ulink_b2b5a7cd-fb0e-5747-8241-96b5b59f674e)

CHAPTER THREE (#litres_trial_promo)

The Cave of Dreams – The Ways of Love (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)

The Grove of the Summer Stars – The Ways of the Earth and Her Seasons (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)

The Garden of Herbs and Healing – The Ways of Health and Rejuvenation (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)

The Circle of Stones – The Ways of Magic and Spellcraft (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)

The Waters of the Well – Druidry, Wicca and Druidcraft as Ways of Freedom (#litres_trial_promo)

Resources

Bibliography

Index

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#ub1c453de-5c14-5202-b150-7ba3c36ea91a)

For years I have wanted to write this book – the subject of the relationship between Wicca and Druidry has intrigued me from the moment I began to study Druidry over 30 years ago with my teacher, Ross Nichols. I would like to thank Ross for all the encouragement he gave his young student – I had no idea at the time how important his encouragement would be, and how much it would mean to me today.

My wife Stephanie’s constant encouragement and her perceptive insights throughout the writing of this book have also proved invaluable and are deeply appreciated.

I would also like to thank Susan Henssler, who commented in detail on the draft manuscript, and whose inspired wording I have used for much of the ritual passages. My deep gratitude also goes to Ronald Hutton who, with great attention and characteristic enthusiasm, commented in depth on the manuscript. His eye for detail and his considerable knowledge of the history of Witchcraft and Wicca gave me the confidence to tread in this barely charted territory. My thanks go to Ellen Evert Hopman who inspired me with her account of a candle-boat ceremony, and who helped me track down elusive information, and also to Carole Nielsen for her herbal wisom, and to Erynn Laurie for her elucidation of the Irish versions of the term ‘Druidcraft’. My thanks also go to Cairisthea Worthington for inspiring me with her vision of the four faces of the Goddess, and to Vivianne Crowley for her contribution to this book and for the inspiration I have gained from her writing. And a big thank you to Matthew Cory, editor of this book, for his sensitivity and persistence in dealing with such a stubborn author.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the inspiration I have gained from the camps held by The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids in the vale of the White Horse over the last eight years. There we have explored the practice of a new kind of ‘Wild Druidry’ – a ‘Druidcraft’ that is earthy and spirited in a way that allows us to go beyond the labels of ‘Druid’, ‘Wiccan’or ‘Pagan’, bringing us closer to the Way which is Nameless, the Old Way which is ever new and ever-changing.

Foreword (#ub1c453de-5c14-5202-b150-7ba3c36ea91a)

Philip’s beautiful and eloquent book is a new but ancient vision that will be a source of inspiration to Druids, Wiccans and all those drawn to nature spirituality and magic. In Druidcraft we see Druidry restoring its persecuted and suppressed tradition of magic and seership and moving closer to Wicca. The gap is increasingly small, as both traditions seek to reawaken contemporary culture to what we might call ‘natural religion’, our instinctive reaching out to venerate the planet that is our home, to celebrate the Divine within one another and within all creation, and to honour the ever-changing seasons and cycles of nature and human life.

Druidry and Wicca share a love and veneration for the natural world and have an important role to play in restoring aspects of spiritual tradition too long neglected, to our own cost. This includes the vision of the Divine as immanent and present all around us in the glorious wonder of the natural world of our own planet and that of the cosmos. It includes too the vision of the Divine not as God, but as Goddess and God. These images of the Divine interconnect in mutual harmony to create an interchange of energies that gives birth to new life; for the sum of the whole is truly greater than that of the parts. Druidcraft reflects this synthesis, integrating in a refreshingly new and unique way nature spirituality and magical vision, veneration for the Divine as Goddess and God, and the integration of body and spirit – engagement with and joy in this world, as well as the journey to unification with Ultimate Reality that is at the heart of human existence.

My own path is Wicca, but Druidry also had a strong attraction. I visited Ross Nichols, Philip’s predecessor as Chosen Chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, thirty years ago. A wise and kindly man, he took time in his busy schedule to explain Druidry to a teenage spiritual seeker trying to find the right path. Druidry offered much, but the Goddess orientation, greater female leadership, and the focus on the development of those powers of the human psyche that we call magic in Wicca proved the stronger pull. Since then, much has changed. Druidry has developed greater interest in the traditional magical skills and gifts of its Druid ancestors, and the role of women in Druidry now equals that of men. Wicca has grown closer to Druidry in its provision for family participation and openness as a path for the many rather than the few. Both traditions have evolved to see themselves as part of a growing contemporary spirituality that is concerned with social engagement, planetary responsibility, and providing meaningful philosophy and ethics by which people may live in our increasingly complex multi-cultural world.

Druidcraft reflects a growing trend in contemporary Paganism, a strengthening of each of the Pagan traditions as they learn from one another, and the cross-fertilization that is the fruit of those who have explored both traditions to draw them together in their own unique synthesis.

Vivianne Crowley

Chapter One (#ub1c453de-5c14-5202-b150-7ba3c36ea91a)

A Hidden Valley (#ub1c453de-5c14-5202-b150-7ba3c36ea91a)

The Worlds of the Witch & Druid (#ub1c453de-5c14-5202-b150-7ba3c36ea91a)

Earth and Her stones, shining stars of the night sky,

tumbling rivers, cauldrons, magic, ancient wisdom, strange

hidden beauty, inner knowing, seeing beyond the veil of

Time, knowing that I will return again to Earth after death,

loving my fellow humans, my body and all animals, flying

like a bird to the sun, like a bat to the moon, kissing the

standing stone, drinking from the grail.

Oh that I could see to the Other Realm -