atermis@ptialaska.net Re: questions about druidism Jenny jenny@panix.com Sat Feb 23 10:58:32 2002 Hi Atermis!*p*"Pagan" and "Neo-pagan" are general terms for non-Christian religions. "Wicca" and "Druidism" are two specific Pagan religions. It's sort of like "Christian" vs "Baptist" and "Catholic." Wiccans and Druids are both Pagans, just as Baptists and Catholics are both Christian. But Wicca and Druidism are different (if similar) faiths.*p*Some people call all non-Christian religions "Pagan". Some people use "Neo-Pagan" to distinguish modern Pagan faiths from ancient ones. A lot of people just treat the two words as synonyms.*p*Many Neo-Pagan religions are either inspired by or based on ancient Pagan faiths. For instance, Druidism is based on the religion of the ancient Celts, Asatru on the religion of the Norse, Wicca on... well, other myths. (The history of Wicca is a very, very thorny problem! :-) )*p*That difference -- "based on" vs "inspired by" -- causes 99.99% of all the arguments about "right" and "wrong" types of Druidry/Wicca/etc.*p*Here's the problem: we don't know exactly what ancient Pagans believed. We have evidence. More for some religions (like Asatru and Greek/Roman religion). Less for others (like Druidism). But we can't just revive the religions of our ancestors. To some extent, we have to "reconstruct" them. We have to fill the gaps in our knowledge with our own inspiration.*p*And there's no one right way to do this. *p*Some people care a great deal about historical accuracy. They study the evidence and add as little as possible. They want to revive the Old Religions, not create new ones. They tend to feel that our ancestors were wise, and that there are things they can teach us. Therefore it's important to learn as much as possible about what our ancestors truly believed.*p*Other Neo-Pagans don't get fixated about the past. Ancient Pagan faiths inspire them, but they're happy to create a new spirituality based on those dreams. Sure, our ancestors knew things -- but so do we. We can touch the Divine as well as they can. We don't need to resurrect ancient religions. This type of Pagan knows that she does things differently from the ancients Celts... but she doesn't much care.*p*Unfortunately, there's a third camp: people who want to practice their ancestors' faiths... but don't do good historical research. As a result they make things up -- and then pretend that their inventions are actually ancient.*p*So one of the first questions I'd encourage you to ask yourself is, does historical accuracy matter to you? Do you care if your religion is different from an ancient Druid's? Or do you just want to find a faith that inspires you?*p*If inspiration is what you seek, the Web is a great place to find it. Surf Pagan sites, see which ones call to your soul... and don't worry about all the "One True Right Way" arguments.*p*However if you care about accuracy... if you want to practice a type of Druidry that actually resembles ancient Druidry... then I'd encourage you to go back to the Source: ancient writings. Read the evidence. Then the next time someone tells you what the Druids "really" did, you'll have the knowledge you need to judge their claims.*p*Sources can be daunting for a beginner, however. So if you'd like, I'm sure people here can recommend Druidic groups/sites that do solid research. (You're at one of them now, so you're off to a good start. :-) ) They'll help you learn the basics and get your feet off the ground.*p*Jenny*br* questions about druidism atermis 807 Thu - Feb 7 - 01:20am 12.255.128.25