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Author Topic: Honoring gods/goddesses in a Neo-Druid context  (Read 5458 times)

beith

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Honoring gods/goddesses in a Neo-Druid context
« on: February 17, 2014, 02:28:25 pm »
As I'm working through the early stages of my neo-Druidry path, I'd like to add in honoring the gods/goddesses.  I'm not sure if it's just a holdover from my previous religion (Christianity), but I feel like I'm missing something from my practice by not incorporating deity.

To that end, I'm reading up on three pantheons/cultures/lore that interest me (Insular Celts, Kemetic, and Ojibwe), but I'd also like to learn what other Neo-Druids practice.  I'm not really seeking advice so much as I'd just like to hear you talk about what your own practice looks like.  A few questions I have are:

1) Which pantheon(s) do you honor?  Do you incorporate more than one?  An eclectic mix?  Something else?
2) Do you incorporate any elements of more recon-based practice for honoring your deities?
3) Do you honor your deities in ways that are distinctly neo-Druid?
4) Have you had any struggle in merging the way you honor deity with your neo-Druid practice?  How did you overcome it?

Rayne

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Re: Honoring gods/goddesses in a Neo-Druid context
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2014, 02:40:53 pm »
Quote from: beith;140126
As I'm working through the early stages of my neo-Druidry path, I'd like to add in honoring the gods/goddesses.  I'm not sure if it's just a holdover from my previous religion (Christianity), but I feel like I'm missing something from my practice by not incorporating deity.

To that end, I'm reading up on three pantheons/cultures/lore that interest me (Insular Celts, Kemetic, and Ojibwe), but I'd also like to learn what other Neo-Druids practice.  I'm not really seeking advice so much as I'd just like to hear you talk about what your own practice looks like.  A few questions I have are:

1) Which pantheon(s) do you honor?  Do you incorporate more than one?  An eclectic mix?  Something else?
2) Do you incorporate any elements of more recon-based practice for honoring your deities?
3) Do you honor your deities in ways that are distinctly neo-Druid?
4) Have you had any struggle in merging the way you honor deity with your neo-Druid practice?  How did you overcome it?

 
1- I have a slightly eclectic mix. There is my perception of a few Celtic deities, and one (not sure if it is deity or guide or something else quite yet...) that currently has no name.

2-Nope

3-Nope

4- Those in my Grove all have their own perceptions of deity and the divine. We range from Pantheists to Hard Polytheists and every niche in between. In group rituals, there is a portion where each of us speaks (if we choose) and honor/thank as we wish (offerings/prayer/etc). Our individual relationships with the divine in whichever form calls to us is held with the same sacristy as our workings as a group.
For All That I Am..For All That I See
For All I\'m A Part Of..For All That Sees Me

Keri

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Re: Honoring gods/goddesses in a Neo-Druid context
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2014, 05:17:56 pm »
Quote from: beith;140126
I'm not really seeking advice so much as I'd just like to hear you talk about what your own practice looks like.

 
I started out with a Druid path that emphasized honoring deities. And I tried. But something just didn't click. The path I was on had rites which involved gifting the deities with offerings, and asking what blessings they bestowed in return. I could never get beyond the feeling this was groveling and extortion.

I left that path and adopted another which allowed me to work more with spirits of nature. The difference is this---on a High Day instead of making an offering to a named deity, I instead honor something like the Father of the Four Winds, or the Spirits of the North which bring forth stability, or the spirits of the tree which sing their songs from the treetops. I may throw out some birdseed to nourish their messengers on earth, or plant a tree in their honor. Something I feel is destructive and not exploitive. What I don't do anymore is throw silver into a river as a bribe to a deity --or pull an omen to see if I've gifted a deity enough, or need to offer them even more. And this has made all the difference in the world to my practice.

Sisu

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Re: Honoring gods/goddesses in a Neo-Druid context
« Reply #3 on: April 05, 2014, 12:00:41 pm »
Quote from: beith;140126

1) Which pantheon(s) do you honor?  Do you incorporate more than one?  An eclectic mix?  Something else?
2) Do you incorporate any elements of more recon-based practice for honoring your deities?
3) Do you honor your deities in ways that are distinctly neo-Druid?
4) Have you had any struggle in merging the way you honor deity with your neo-Druid practice?  How did you overcome it?

 

1) I am currently working with the Celtic pantheon but still pretty loosely and in a limited capacity. I've never been particularly attracted to worshipping or honoring deities, but it's an aspect I'm trying to become more comfortable with in my practice just to see if there is something to be gained in the long term. I prefer to venerate forces of nature/natural spirits.
2) Ain't nobody got time for that
3) No
4) I second what was mentioned above about not throwing silver into bodies of water. I see this as polluting the environment so I don't do it. Nor do I pull omens to see whether an offer is accepted. I really use the ADF core ritual as more of a framework that I adhere to only occasionally.

Sophia C

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Re: Honoring gods/goddesses in a Neo-Druid context
« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2014, 01:18:24 pm »
Quote from: beith;140126
As I'm working through the early stages of my neo-Druidry path, I'd like to add in honoring the gods/goddesses.  I'm not sure if it's just a holdover from my previous religion (Christianity), but I feel like I'm missing something from my practice by not incorporating deity.

To that end, I'm reading up on three pantheons/cultures/lore that interest me (Insular Celts, Kemetic, and Ojibwe), but I'd also like to learn what other Neo-Druids practice.  I'm not really seeking advice so much as I'd just like to hear you talk about what your own practice looks like.  A few questions I have are:

1) Which pantheon(s) do you honor?  Do you incorporate more than one?  An eclectic mix?  Something else?
2) Do you incorporate any elements of more recon-based practice for honoring your deities?
3) Do you honor your deities in ways that are distinctly neo-Druid?
4) Have you had any struggle in merging the way you honor deity with your neo-Druid practice?  How did you overcome it?

 
I'm in ADF (well, that's where my primary practice is focused), and they have a strong emphasis on gods, spirits and ancestors. But I was focused on deities before I started following a neo-druidic path. That's why I initially thought I'd better off attempting a reconstructionist approach - although in the end I'm just not interested in the texts enough for that.

1. My deities are primarily Irish Gaelic, but I also honour some deities of the land and local area where I live.

2. Yes, I've done a lot of work of merging neo-druid and reconstructionist practices. ADF is very good at this, as it does a lot of scholarly study and has formed a modern path based on that scholarship. Other neo-druid orders are less interested in reconstructionism. It's entirely possible to mix the two - although I personally believe that reconstructionist druidry would be a lot more problematic than reconstructionist Gaelic hearth religion. We don't know enough about ancient druidry, by any means, to try it.

3. Well, it all depends what type of neo-druidry you're referring to - given the various distinct flavours. My OBOD practices are mainly for community and general spiritual practice, rather than for honouring the gods, if you see what I mean. But I do use the ADF frameworks for worship. More often, though, I use simple offerings and meditations as my framework for honouring the gods.

4. No, not really. There are various streams to my practice, and various things influence them. I'm attempting to see it all as more seamless - but I think that, in the end, it always was. (Does that make ANY sense at all??) Hope that helps a bit.
"We're all stories, in the end. Make it a good one, eh?"
- Doctor Who

beith

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Re: Honoring gods/goddesses in a Neo-Druid context
« Reply #5 on: April 06, 2014, 10:59:02 am »
Quote from: Naomi J;144482
I'm in ADF (well, that's where my primary practice is focused), and they have a strong emphasis on gods, spirits and ancestors. But I was focused on deities before I started following a neo-druidic path. That's why I initially thought I'd better off attempting a reconstructionist approach - although in the end I'm just not interested in the texts enough for that.

1. My deities are primarily Irish Gaelic, but I also honour some deities of the land and local area where I live.



4. No, not really. There are various streams to my practice, and various things influence them. I'm attempting to see it all as more seamless - but I think that, in the end, it always was. (Does that make ANY sense at all??) Hope that helps a bit.

 
Yes, it did make sense, thank you!  My current struggle is that it seems most neo-Druids honor some form of Celtic (be that insular, Brythonic, Gaulish, etc.) deities, which makes sense from the perspective of that is the area and the ancient practice on which neo-Druidry is based.  However, despite my interest in Gaelic culture and how "right" the Druid path has seemed so far, I'm really not feeling connection with the Celtic deities.  I plan to do more research on some of them, but I'm feeling more drawn to Egyptian deities at the moment.  I also plan on studying Ojibwe lore, because the Ojibwe are the native people of where I was born and I have always had a lot of respect for and interest in their culture.  Where that might lead, I can't predict.

So, because of my (potential) interest in deities from areas that are not Celtic and not associated with ancient or neo-Druidry, I am having to navigate whether these non-Celtic deities, should I choose to honor them, should be honored in a Druid context or that of their own religion.  For example, I have been honoring Sekhmet.  She seems pleased with offerings, from what I can tell, though there is no strong relationship or patron-ship there.  But do I need to adopt some Kemetic practice in order to honor her properly, or can I do it from a Druid perspective?  This is the question I'm seeking to answer for myself, and why I'm interested in what other neo-Druids practice.  I suppose it will all form seamlessly in the end.

Regarding your honoring of local and land deities, may I ask how you were able to connect with them?  I think this is a great idea and something I'm interested in looking into further.  But I'm not sure how to "find" them.  Did you do scholarly research or receive some sort of personal gnosis?  Something else?

Sophia C

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Re: Honoring gods/goddesses in a Neo-Druid context
« Reply #6 on: April 07, 2014, 08:48:33 am »
Quote from: beith;144534
My current struggle is that it seems most neo-Druids honor some form of Celtic (be that insular, Brythonic, Gaulish, etc.) deities, which makes sense from the perspective of that is the area and the ancient practice on which neo-Druidry is based.  However, despite my interest in Gaelic culture and how "right" the Druid path has seemed so far, I'm really not feeling connection with the Celtic deities.


You might find it interesting to look into ADF. Although many ADF neo-druids work within Celtic 'hearths', it's possible to choose any other Indo-European pantheons to work with. That does exclude Egyptian, for official ADF purposes, but you can honour any deities you like outside of the ADF context, or even within it, as long as you're not counting those as Dedicant Path training rituals or holding public rituals featuring non-IE gods.

Quote
Regarding your honoring of local and land deities, may I ask how you were able to connect with them?  I think this is a great idea and something I'm interested in looking into further.  But I'm not sure how to "find" them.  Did you do scholarly research or receive some sort of personal gnosis?  Something else?

 
Local deities as distinct from land spirits? With local deities, I mostly start with research - I'm lucky enough to have lived in various places where some archeology and some other research has turned up some deities. With land spirits, it's more instinctive. ADF focuses on three kinds of spirits: gods, land spirits and ancestors, which it calls the Three Kindreds. You'll find a lot of support for researching and connecting with all these spirits as part of the ADF Dedicant Path.
"We're all stories, in the end. Make it a good one, eh?"
- Doctor Who

Materialist

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Re: Honoring gods/goddesses in a Neo-Druid context
« Reply #7 on: April 07, 2014, 09:32:49 pm »
Quote from: beith;144534

So, because of my (potential) interest in deities from areas that are not Celtic and not associated with ancient or neo-Druidry, I am having to navigate whether these non-Celtic deities, should I choose to honor them, should be honored in a Druid context or that of their own religion.

Regarding your honoring of local and land deities, may I ask how you were able to connect with them?  I think this is a great idea and something I'm interested in looking into further.  But I'm not sure how to "find" them.  Did you do scholarly research or receive some sort of personal gnosis?  Something else?


I'm not a Druid, but I've dealt with some of the issues you are encountering.

For mixed pantheons: eventually the rituals will sort themselves out. There are only so many ways to make an altar, or to make an offering. Practicing culturally accurate Egyptian and Druidic rituals initially will allow you to see areas where they can fuse and where they cannot.

I commend you your interest in Ojibwa lore, because in my opinion, taking European lore and pasting it on America, is another form of cultural appropriation. The thing to keep in mind is that Native American mythology is very dense; it's the product of 20,000 years of continuous interaction with this country's land spirits. So adopting it wholesale is unlikely do to the multiple layers of each spirit's function, what I did was take the idea of a tree spirit, or a manitou and work from there.

I connect with land spirits through the paradigm of my ancestors' culture-making food and water offerings, while using the native word for the being, if I can find it. "Finding" land spirits and local deities...well, reading Ojibwa stuff is a good start. Urban legends is another place to look. Another thing is to be observant of your environment-a nature-based religion is one based in nature, whether that be a forest or a city. Libraries, roads, trains, fast food restaurants, the office where one works, and even an entire town, has their own spirit. So take your time getting a feel for a place and something might just want to say hello.

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Re: Honoring gods/goddesses in a Neo-Druid context
« Reply #8 on: April 17, 2014, 09:10:07 am »
Quote from: beith;140126

1) Which pantheon(s) do you honor?  Do you incorporate more than one?  An eclectic mix?  Something else?
2) Do you incorporate any elements of more recon-based practice for honoring your deities?
3) Do you honor your deities in ways that are distinctly neo-Druid?
4) Have you had any struggle in merging the way you honor deity with your neo-Druid practice?  How did you overcome it?


1) I stick to mostly Celtic personally. I'm still working it all out, but I think I've settled on a primary goddess to focus on, Aine. Everything about her speaks to me and I find her by far and away the most relatable. On a more minor scale I also worship Lir, Danu, and Cernunnos, but I also look to Abnoba and Artio on occasion even if they are more Germanic deities. I chose them because each speaks to at least a part of me in some significant way and this list is subject to change as I do.
2) Not really
3) Not that I know of, I just kinda go with what feels right. I grew up in Christianity, so just sorta being in a significant place and praying/speaking to the deity is often enough.
4) I've struggled with finding a group of deities that speak to me, but I don't feel pressured to conform to a particular ritual or anything like that. All of neo-druidry seems pretty open to the idea of following your instincts when it comes to things like this.

dragonfaerie

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Re: Honoring gods/goddesses in a Neo-Druid context
« Reply #9 on: April 17, 2014, 08:52:49 pm »
Quote from: beith;140126
1) Which pantheon(s) do you honor?  Do you incorporate more than one?  An eclectic mix?  Something else?


In my Druid work, I work with the Irish pantheon. I've considered exploring the Welsh, from time to time, and Cernunnos is always around (are we considering him Gaulish?). I've also been flirting with starting to honor the Lady Chesapeake as an Earth Mother.

In my Wiccan work, I also work with Bast, Loki has wormed his way in there (don't ask), and I'll occasionally call "generic" deities into my work, such as the Spring Maiden.

Quote
2) Do you incorporate any elements of more recon-based practice for honoring your deities?


Not... really. I'm studying ADF druidry, so that's where I go with that. My Wicca is eclectic, but based in the Trad Wicca-influenced eclecticism of the early/mid-90s (and not so much the eclectic of the 21st century).

Quote
3) Do you honor your deities in ways that are distinctly neo-Druid?


You know, probably not. Other than using the ADF liturgy. Giving offerings to deities is not a practice that is distinctly neo-Druidic, after all.

Quote
4) Have you had any struggle in merging the way you honor deity with your neo-Druid practice?  How did you overcome it?


Not really. I've had some difficulty trying to merge the list of deities I'd like to make friendships with into an ADF liturgical framework, but that's more a matter of time than anything else. I can only work with so many Gods at once, really.

Karen

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Re: Honoring gods/goddesses in a Neo-Druid context
« Reply #10 on: December 27, 2014, 09:24:51 am »
Quote from: beith;140126

1) Which pantheon(s) do you honor?  Do you incorporate more than one?  An eclectic mix?  Something else?
2) Do you incorporate any elements of more recon-based practice for honoring your deities?
3) Do you honor your deities in ways that are distinctly neo-Druid?
4) Have you had any struggle in merging the way you honor deity with your neo-Druid practice?  How did you overcome it?

 
1) In my own personal hearth, I honor solely Germanic/Heathen deities.  If I am with a Druid group, I will honor whatever deities are being honored at the time (with Druids, that usually means Celtic gods).

2) How I approach the deities, ancestors and landwights is heavily influenced by my readings of historic practice.  So, yes.

3) I'm ADF.  They have this ritual structure where you recreate the ritual cosmos (something they got out of the theories of Mircia Eliade).  Then they do this Gatekeeper thing  (which Bonewits seems to have stolen from Afro-Carribean religions ... so why it is in an "Indo-European" group I have no idea).  An ADF ritual, if done right, works well.  But Heathen rituals are generally a lot simpler and more direct .. and if done right, they work just as well.    

4) When I am with Heathens, I worship Heathen style.  When I am with Druids, I worship Druid style.  When I am by myself I tend to use a mix.  It has never been a major problem for me.

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