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El Arseneau
A
Reformed Druid is one who simply believes that “Nature
is good.” Now, we get in to trouble as soon as
we use the word “believes.” Other words
or phrases like, “adheres to the idea of”
or “leans in the direction of the idea that”
or “subscribes to the ideal that,”
may well be more accurate, but the bottom line is basically
the idea that ones spirituality can be found and based upon
the manifestations of nature.
“Nature
is good,” therefore, is the first characteristic
of the Reformed Druid. Beyond that anything goes. No, really,
anything goes. This is because of the whole history of the
movement. The first Reformed Druids came together because
of a rule at Carelton College in Minnesota that required
attendance at religious services. The rule was broad enough
that this group of precocious students decided to bend the
rule for their own purposes. In that bending, the Reformed
Druid movement was born.
So,
the second characteristic of Reformed Druids is that “they
bend, or remake the rules to suit themselves.”
Historically,
Reformed Druids have avoided a lot of formal organization.
The vast majority of them are solitary practitioners. A
few hundred are gathered in small congregations, called
Groves, of three or more individuals. The original group,
the Reformed Druids of North America, has no central headquarters,
no national organizational structure, no one to legislate
rules. In fact, local Groves make up their own rules and
traditions as they go along. To be sure, there are some
traditions, an order of worship, and other loose rules,
that many Groves abide by, but it’s all optional –
there is no central body (anymore anyway) around to assure
that every organization within the RDNA follows exactly
the same path.
A
few larger groups within the Reform have a more pronounced
structure, but even these larger more organized groups are
self-defined, and they pretty much do what they want to,
or just simply “make it up as they go.”
That’s
the third characteristic of a Reformed Druid: one who makes
it up as he goes – and decides for himself what traditions,
or none, he will follow.
Now
to be sure, there are a few groups out there who attempt
to define a Reformed Druid based upon their own agenda.
Usually these definitions crop up in attempts to point out
how this group or that group isn’t of the Reform,
but such exercises are anti-Druidic, since they violate
the very principles the Reform was founded upon. Even this
essay I am writing now, violates those principles, so I
am attempting to thread carefully here, knowing that I walk
upon a steep, slippery, winding, twisting, road with deep
chasms on either side.
The
best that can be said then, for Reformed Druids collectively
is that they are largely, “a non-prophet, ir-religious,
dis-organization.”
Anyone
can be a Reformed Druid. “How do I join?”
“You just did!” affirms Michael Scharding
on his popular website
that explores all things Reformed Druidic. The simple matter
of affirming that “Nature is good,”
allows you to enter into the fellowship of Reformed Druidry.
After that, you have a lot of choices, or none, depending
on your own desires and comfort level. Groups also can join
the Reform en masse – there’s no rule against
it anywhere in A
Reformed Druid Anthology (ARDA) (a collection of Reformed
Druid documents, traditions essays, etc., some of which
are mutually exclusive and or contradictory, maintained
by Druid Scharding). Schisms are aplenty within the Reform,
usually precipitated by arguments over the ARDA (and some
Druids just love to argue). The best way to avoid such fights
is to simply not participate. Since there’s no authority,
no “Council of Dalon ap Landou”, such arguments
carry no real weight anyway. Ignore your detractors and
do whatever the hell you want – your word is as good
as anyones.
No
one can kick you out of the Reform. Leaving is your decision
and yours alone. Likewise you are free to form any group
you wish, no one can stop you. So long as “Nature
is good” (or groovy, or wonderful, or some other
adjective for goodness) you can do whatever you want –
you are still a Reformed Druid. You don’t have to
be Celtic, you don’t have to be Neo-Pagan (the RDNA
traditionally allows you to be a practicing Catholic, Buddhist,
Jew, Fundy, anything, and maintain your status as a Druid).
(Note: Other groups within the Reform do have some “have
to’s” and “can’t be’s”,
but traditional Reformed Druidism eschews all that).
I
believe that there are a lot of Reformed Druids who do not
even know they are Reformed Druids. I would be a good example.
Since the late ‘60s, my own personal spirituality
has been nature oriented. At first I thought I was simply,
a witch, but in actually researching Witchcraft and Wicca,
found the pieces didn’t all fit. There were too many
requirements. Rosicrucianism likewise was too cumbersome,
and neo-Paganism was too broad an umbrella. I briefly belonged
to the Church of All Worlds (CAW), but found they had their
own issues, and they were bogged down in over organization.
I likened a lot of these groups to tables: very beautiful
and ingeniously designed and organized, but, unlike the
tree they were crafted from, they were dead. It’s
better to have organism (and multiple orgasms!) then to
have organization. It was in the late summer of 1995 that
I met my first Reformed Druid, at the unlikely venue of
a “New Age Renaissance Faire” in San Jose CA.
He kind of gave me a brief overview of what Reformed Druidism
was all about. That and subsequent research into the Reform,
eventually led me to declare myself a Reformed Druid.
I’m
a people person. I don’t personally function well
as a solitary, so after searching locally (at the time I
was living in Santa Cruz CA) and not finding anyone a CAW
friend of mine and I dreamed up the Order
of the Mithril Star, and loosely based it on a melding
of CAW and Reformed
Druids of North America (RDNA). To be sure much of it
is our own interpretation, and that interpretation has itself
evolved and morphed over the years, but OMS is still an
accurate reflection of what Reformed Druidry is all about.
I think probably more so than even some of the other RDNA
schisms.
This
later has got us into trouble with both CAW people and NRDNA
(New Reformed Druids of North America– a schism group).
In the case of CAW, they find us objectionable as competition
(a point now moot – as CAW has ceased to exist in
an organized way at all). In the case of the NRDNA folks,
they find us objectionable because of the CAW stuff.
Well,
you can’t please everyone can you?
And,
why do you have to?
Most
of us left our parents religions (in my case the two most
guilt ridden of the major faiths) because we wanted to get
beyond all the rules: the mores, the dietary laws, the have
to’s and can’t do’s. Reformed Druidry
promises a better way – a spirituality defined by
your own ideals, and elastic enough to adapt as your ideals
morph and evolve.
If
we wanted a lot of “have to’s,” “can’t
do’s”, and “this is the way it HAS to
be done’s,” we could have all saved ourselves
a lot of trouble and we would have been better off staying
in our parents religions.
So,
the spirit of Reformed Druidism is best defined by this
phrase: “We’re doing religion the old fashioned
way: we’re making it up as we go!”
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