{"id":11257,"date":"2021-09-15T14:49:18","date_gmt":"2021-09-15T14:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/?p=11257"},"modified":"2024-03-08T21:04:11","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T21:04:11","slug":"calling-oneself-a-druid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/resources\/calling-oneself-a-druid","title":{"rendered":"Calling Oneself a Druid"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

\",by Joanna Van Der Hoeven<\/em><\/p>\r\n

A blog post about whether to call yourself \u201cDruid\u201d or not has been brewing in my mind for weeks \u2013 when do we think we can claim the title?<\/p>\r\n

Simply because in the past one could not claim to be a Druid until after 19 years training (depending upon the source you use) doesn\u2019t mean that we still have to follow that way of thinking today. The Celts did many things that we don\u2019t or wouldn\u2019t do today. For instance, the ancestors performed animal sacrifice \u2013 we don\u2019t. We have to adapt to the modern day to be able to let our path expand and fulfill our needs of today.<\/p>\r\n

To call oneself a Druid is to simplify our intention \u2013 how else would we go about it? To say \u201cI am a follower on the path of Druidry\u201d just doesn\u2019t roll off the tongue in casual conversation.\u00a0 The term is there to clarify the path, not to claim grand titles. Christians don\u2019t believe that they are Christ. Buddhists don\u2019t claim to be The Buddha (they are all Buddhas). Therefore, those that follow the path of Druidry, in my view, can call themselves Druid \u2013 what are the alternatives? Druidists? Druidans? Druidarians? Doesn\u2019t quite work.
\",If we don\u2019t adapt the Celtic worldview to ours, we are simply are creating or following dogma, which is an anathema to Druidry, in my view. We should learn all that we can from our Celtic ancestors, to inform our current worldview.\u00a0 The future is built brick by brick up on the past.\u00a0 The ancient Celtic worldview teaches us of a time in history, a specific point and that specific point only.\u00a0 What is no longer relevant to modern day society we need to address, and find new ways of making it work. We aren\u2019t changing it into a completely new religion \u2013 it must adapt and flow like the awen itself.<\/p>\r\n

Therefore, to me a beginner on the Druid path may call him or herself a Druid without fear.\u00a0 So can one who has followed the path for 7, 13, 25 years or more.\u00a0 What matters more than the amount of time you have spent on this path is what lies within your heart.<\/p>\r\n

If you love and honour nature, if you seek to learn and inform your worldview from it and feel called to the path of Druidry, then you are a Druid.\u00a0 Walk your talk, live in balance and harmony, and inform yourself \u2013 become a student of life. Learn history, language, biology, ecology and astronomy.\u00a0 Gain the intelligence and use it \u2013 experience it. That is the path to wisdom. Above all, honour your own nature as well \u2013 for in seeing the divinity within nature, we see the nature of the divine. Visit Joanna’s website<\/a>.
\",<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Joanna Van Der Hoeven A blog post about whether to call yourself \u201cDruid\u201d or not has been brewing in my mind for weeks \u2013 when do we think we can claim the title? Simply because in the past one could not claim to be a Druid until after 19 years training (depending upon the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":11260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-modern-druidry"],"acf":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/druidry.org","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17185,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11257\/revisions\/17185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}