What should I call in and what about drawing a circle?

There are lots of answers to this question and none of them wrong. There are a multitude of books on this subject and OBOD explains a way of doing this in their Bardic course. I am going to suggest, that maybe you give yourself a little time to discover and experiment with this. Try not to go rushing headlong into doing it this way or that way because someone else says so.

There is a temptation, especially when we are beginners to want to get all these things nailed down and fixed. Well, that is precisely the problem. If we do that, we don't allow ourselves to develop intuitively or give our guides, if we believe they exist, a chance to speak.  We can end up becoming rigid very quickly. If you must go out and learn a specific way of doing things, at least allow yourself to stay open enough to experiment with other ways as well.

Let me give you some examples:

If I call in the Elements and Directions, which I often do not, I attribute the North to Winter and I place the Element of Earth in the North.  Many, many people in paganism do this as well. However, there are many people who don't. My partner, simply feels this is the wrong way round for her and so organises things differently.

Very early on in my druidry, before reading anything beyond my first book, I found that, naturally and of my own volition, I called upon the Earth, Sky and Sea. To this day, this is my preferred method and I also call upon them to help with other areas of my life.

When I did start reading more about what others did, I couldn't find this written anywhere and I started to worry, I had got it wrong. However, when I tried to do it other ways, it didn't feel the same, it didn't feel right for Me.

I first heard the Earth, Sky and Sea used, some few years later, in a song by Damh the Bard.  At one of the Anderida camps I saw that he, Damh, called upon the Earth and Sea and Sky as well as the Elements.

I later discovered through a book that I was reading, that the early Celts used to call upon these three, Earth, Sea and Sky . So I was glad that in the first couple of years I had no one but my guides and intuition to rely upon.

What I did read, I read as someone not knowing a subject enough to decide whether what I was reading was something I should take as 'gospel' or not. I decided, and I would suggest it is helpful for to do the same, if you are entirely new to the whole pagan and/or druid thing, that you read widely. 

Your interest may rests in Druidry, but read up about Wicca, read about Heathens, read up about Paganism in general. Read about different eras in history and places you are drawn to. You might find, like me that you are drawn to the British Isles. However, you might have a stirring of an interest towards Brittany or you may have a desire to find out about Iceland or Norse tribes or Saxons. You may feel a pull towards Ireland or towards learning Celtic languages. You might feel compelled to learn about the Saxons. Allow yourself to go with the flow. Let your instincts guide you as opposed to the specifics in a book or advice from a frient. Obviously, sometimes your friends will help you with good advice but sometimes you can end up cloning yourself on the way your friends do things. This path is yours, and only you can journey it.

Ultimately, what I feel is fantastic in Druidry, is also what makes it scary. There are no hard and fast rules. It is your journey through the forest. There may be people who can guide and advise but when all is said and done, it is your choice, your journey.

More about what to call in and how later.



Drawing a circle:

This is a somewhat contentious area amongst certain pagans. To me, and this again is only my opinion/experience, I am no authority beyond that, there are different circles for different needs. In the first place, for me everything in nature is sacred. I look at it through an animistic eye - that is to say - I believe all things have spirit,  whether rocks, trees, herbs etc. As such, if I am working in a place where I have worked with the spirits before or I feel safe enough and have agreed with the spirits of place that I can do a piece of work, I may just ask the spirits of three trees to hold the space for me. What I mean by that is, I may ask, for instance, the spirit of the Oak, the spirit of the Birch and the spirit of the Yew to keep me safe in this place and guard my working from prying eyes. I have been gifted during my druidry with items from the Otherworld/the Goddess who is my primary teacher. This will happen to you as you work with and develop your own journey. I may use one of these for protection if I feel it necessary.

A note about the trees, I have asked here the Bardic Birch, The Ovate Oak and the Druid Yew. However, I want to stress, again, that I will ask for guidance as to what / who I should call in for a particular working. It might be the Goddess I work with. It might be the Earth, Sky and Sea plus the Four Winds. Or it may be the spirit of the Hazel and Hawthorn and the spirit of Yarrow herb and Broom. What I am saying here, is the more you develop and trust your own intuition and listen to the guides who will help you if you ask them,the more your will trust what you know to be right for you personally. I feel a stamping up and down safety call coming on:

When I say this I do not mean that you follow blindly every guide who turns up from the Otherworld. There are those who will lead you a merry dance! Develop your own discernment using the same skills you use in life. If you went out for the day, you wouldn't take on every bit of advice that was given to you throughout the day would you? Its the proverbial 'If I told you to put your head in the over would you do it?'

That said, it is a sad fact, wherever there are people, that there are those who simply want to be lead like 'Sheep!' I have a saying, 'Sheep we're up against.' I think it is a sad side effect of many centuries of christianity where we have been asked to follow leaders, often blindly. Leaders, usually men, who have been appointed by God.' Usually not God who came down and spoke to them personally but an organisation that had supreme authority in this area.

Hopefully though, Druidry/Paganism will help you with this and to establish faith in your own truths and values and intuition as they develop.

Back to drawing a circle:

I might delineate a circle within a wider sacred space by using items gathered from around that space. E.g a feather, a stone, a twig etc. This is just to give a sense of being within a given space for a peice of working - I might use this when working with a tree for an Ogham stave or when making a tool for working, like a wand or a staff.

I might draw a circle using my finger, my wand or my staff or my imagination. I do this three times, you don't have to, do what feels right. I see a different colour each time. I might just see it sitting there or feel it enclose me. I might equally, walk a circle calling in the spirit of vine and ivy to twine and weave a circle, I might walk it again with my drum and chant. I might then walk it again with incense, cleansing the space and making ready for a specific ritual. Arguably nature does not need cleansing, however, I often do!

There are a myriad or ways you can use a circle or not as the case might be. These may differ depending on what you hope to do in your circle.

More on this later.

Druidry As Part of Your Life

Druidry isn't something you do on a Sunday and then go down the pub, satisfied that you have done your weekly duty. Druidry becomes part of you and as such, part of your every day life. You will find that as you go out in nature and connect with it on a deeper level,  you will become more concerned with the issues affecting the natural world. This may take various forms. You might decide to get rid of chemicals in your home and garden. You might take up some voluntary work in conservation. You might become interested in organic gardening and gardening with the cycles of the moon. You might become vegetarian. You might become more eco friendly in all areas of your life. In effect you will become more Concious.

Let me try and illustrate this with a little story:

There has always been a huge, Oak tree half way down the street. You have passed it nearly every day for the last 5 years, on your way to work. Sometimes, you may have admired it or used its broad canopy for shelter from the rain or as shade from the sun.

Now, it is as if you are seeing that Oak tree for the very first time. You notice its rough, strong bark and the breadth of its trunk. You wonder how old the Oak is and how much he has seen pass his way over the centuries. You notice that its leaves come later than other trees in Spring and the bright green, newness of them. You notice the full moon, as it shines its strange light through the branches, dancing on the trunk. You are filled with wonder and awe as the sun's rays reach down through the leafy canopy, dappling onto the mighty trunk.
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Now, you notice this great Oak every day, like an old friend that you acknowledge as you walk by. You begin to notice the turning of the seasons. How the Oak looks at night, or at dusk, with its dark shadows stretching out on the ground around the base of the trunk. The Oak's majestic beauty in Winter, the dark branches spreading overhead, silhouetted against the starry sky.  The way its stark beauty continues on, deep into the Spring. How, suddenly, the leaves are unfurling and very soon, the Oak burgeons forth with life and the branches stretch like a huge, magnificent canopy of green.

One day, you walk past and the council truck is beside it, the workers busy with their machinery. Ready to chop down the great Oak in the name of progress. Plans to widen the road, to help ease the traffic at rush hour, have been passed. Orange and white plastic blockades seals off the area. The Great Oak is due for the chop. NOW you care, and really care. This is your good friend. Over the time you have shared special moments. He has shared some of his wisdom with you. Unbidden, tears of anger, bitterness and grief, prick your eyes. You shout out for them to stop.

'Sorry mate,' a man with a yellow jacket and a clip board shouts back, 'Gov'ners orders.' With that, one of the other men, pulls the cord of his chain saw, to begin on the upper branches. As the blade bites deeply about 20 feet above the  ground where you stand, you feel a white flash of pain in your head. In panic you shout again. No one is listening. You try to break through the blockade but your stopped by a surly man, with broad rimmed glasses and a yellow hat. 'Get out!' He roars, above the sound of the chain saw. You turn away bleakly, not knowing what else to do. As you leave, you whisper your goodbyes and your apologies, for not realising and doing something about it sooner.

As you trapse, slowly along the street.  You know your going to miss that Great Oak on your way to work and back. You look at the passers by, hurrying to their destinations, not noticing the death of the Oak. You sigh heavily. You know that from now on, your going to have to do something to stop this kind of thing happening again.

Sorry, this is not an Oak, as you can see, I will exchange these pictures at a later date. The file I was looking for I can't find!

This is Druidry. You don't make it happen by brute force and will. It happens slowly and subtly as you reach out to the world about you and find connections. This is a wonderful feeling. Like an awakening after a long sleep. However, now that you have awoken, you find that you start to take responsibility for what you do. Not because of a set of rules, but from an internal change from deep within you. When you feel connected, suddenly the relationship changes and you care about the impact your having on the natural world.

Druid Grove: Ritual

Druid Grove: Ritual: I know, for me, that ritual was one of the hardest parts of druidry for me to learn. My particular brand of christianity had few rituals unl...

Short and Sweet.

As as a practising Druid, at whatever stage, you will find that you change both internally and externally. These changes might be subtle and hard to express or they might be significant changes that all who know you will notice.

You, yourself, might not notice how much you are changing at the time until you look back over time and see the changes like great beacons of light.

I will give you some examples:

Tarot, with my christian upbringing and early adulthood, was an absolutely forbidden activity, even as a bit of fun. However, when I began pagan life, I became attracted to tarot, in a variety of sets.

Another example would be the blossoming of my love of herbs. I remember when I was young, I believed whole heartedly, though my upbringing went counter to this viewpoint, that as humans we were provided with all the things we needed to sustain life. I believed that somewhere, in the world, there was a cure for everything, if you could only find the right plant. I had no idea where that idea came from as I was taught to ask god for anything I needed and that sometimes experiences were punishments or meant to happen as gods will. Compared to now, that was a tiny glimmer of what would be freed within me when I opened myself to Druidry. I love herbs and all the amazing cures a tiny, unobstrusive little plant, is capable of. I get very excited with each new discovery and find it utterly awe inspiring. Now, I grow herbs, harvest them, dry them or make oils or vinegars with them and make various tincture, ointments, cough mixture and more. I love working with herbs now and couldn't imagine my life without herbs in it, though for forty odd years I didn't work with them at all!

Sadly, I must go, as I have to go to bed, but I love writing this blog and hope that somewhere, it helps others out there.