Druid Mysteries

by Philip Carr-Gomm

  Ross sometimes held grove meetings in an empty classroom or in the staff common room at Jimmy’s, when the building had emptied for the evening. He made no secret of his connection with Druidry. His secretary seemed to spend most of her time typing Order correspondence or teaching material. Occasionally a member of staff or student would be intrigued enough to come to one of the public lectures he organised, or to attend one of the public ceremonies.

  His work as a college principal had accustomed him to teaching and to coaching individual pupils – and this is really what he did with me. We hardly ever talked personally – each time we met we got straight down to business. And our business was Druidry and a study of the occult. I would arrive at his house several times a week after school and he would just say hello, put the kettle on, and perhaps offer a sandwich left over from lunchtime. Occasionally he would cook something – he once taught me how to make a nut rissole. The kettle would boil, he would make two cups of tea, and we would move from the kitchen to an adjacent room which was used for ceremonies and as an overflow classroom for the college a mile away.

  He would then take one of the teaching discourses of the Order and read it out to me. Having done this, he would begin again at the beginning, picking out the important points and expanding on related themes. He might then scribble a diagram to clarify the subject, and conclude by talking about the Order in one way or another. I would then leave, having been mostly silent except to question anything I didn’t understand.

  What I didn’t realise at the time was that this man, who was exactly fifty years older than me, would come to be seen long after his death as one of the two founding figures of modern paganism, alongside his friend Gerald Gardner.

  INITIATION

  * * *

  After several years I asked if I could join the Order, and at the age of eighteen was initiated on Glastonbury Tor at Beltane to the accompaniment of music by the Third Ear Band.

  Once a fortnight Nuinn held an open meditation group, to which half a dozen or so people would come. Some were members of the Order, some were not. After giving a guided meditation, he would meticulously note down the experience of each member of the group and make remarks when he felt they would be helpful or when he saw connections between the different experiences. He was particularly interested in the way experiences in a group meditation are often related to the position in which one sits in a circle, and the way related positions reflect similar experiences. Often he would ask his secretary to type out the notes he made and would distribute them at the next meeting. He would sometimes draw lines between those positions in the circle which seemed to have connections.

  Nuinn wasn’t a guru and made no effort to be considered as one. His failings and his humanity were as clearly visible as his capacities and talents. He had the breadth of knowledge of a man who had spent his life in academic and esoteric work, free from the constraints of rearing a family. But freedom and independence had left their mark, and there was a certain loneliness about him. He had no television, but instead busied himself with study and research. Occasionally he displayed the sort of crotchety ill-humour that is characteristic of the elderly who live on their own, but on the whole he was accessible and friendly to everyone he met, and one of his warmest characteristics was the way in which he praised, and in my opinion grossly over-estimated, everybody’s talents and abilities. Everyone he knew was accomplished at something – either he was immensely naive or he was applying one of the prime tenets of the positive thought movement, and seeing people for what they could be rather than simply for what they were.

  In his time he had had a fair number of knocks. He suffered from asthma, his schooldays were unhappy, his brother was killed by friendly fire during the war and Jimmy’s always appeared to be going through some crisis or another – of either money or staff or students. In the occult realm he had brushes with several malevolent magicians, and we talked at length about these. Despite these difficulties he was able to travel extensively: he visited Egypt and Morocco, Greece and Bulgaria, Malta and France, Ireland and the Outer Hebrides. On each of these visits he made sketches, took photographs, and made endless notes – some of which he turned into witty and scholarly journals.

  THE OCCULT ESTABLISHMENT AND PUBLICATIONS

  * * *

  Ross had met many of the famous figures in the occult establishment of his day – Aleister Crowley and Alex Sanders, J. G. Bennett and Idries Shah among others. But he always kept his own counsel. He enjoyed meeting people, and bringing them together. Nowadays we would call him a ‘networker’. He held parties in his house, often before a ceremony such as Imbolc or Samhuinn, which were private, invitation-only celebrations.

  Besides leading the Order, Ross managed to pursue a career as a poet. Three books of his poetry were published, and a new selection of his work chosen and introduced by the contemporary poet Jay Ramsay was published in 2001.26 He also contributed many articles on Druidry, the occult and exoteric history to such journals as Man Myth and Magic, The Ley Hunter and my father’s magazine, Past and Future. He was also assistant editor and contributor to The Occult Observer in 1949 and 1950.

  In 1952 he published a twin-volume edition of Paul Christian’s eighteenth-century French work The History and Practice of Magic, which he had edited and combined with articles by friends on astrology and palmistry. He also edited his friend Gerald Gardner’s book Witchcraft Today, which appeared in 1954 and which marked the beginning of the popularisation of Wicca in modern times. In addition, Ross wrote two books of his own: the manuscript of one, The Land of the White Bull, has been lost but the second, The Book of Druidry, which he completed just before his death, was published posthumously in 1990. And as if this were not enough for one lifetime, Nuinn was also an accomplished water-colourist, with some of his work being exhibited at the Royal Institute gallery in London.

  NATURISM AND THE WOODLAND RETREAT

  * * *

  Ross was a committed naturist, joining the Utopian Spielplatz community in Hertfordshire in the 1930s and later Gerald Gardner’s Five Acres club – which he visited regularly until the end of his life. In addition, to create a place of refuge where he could be close to nature and where he could paint and write without the distractions of the city, he bought a piece of woodland in Buckinghamshire. There he installed three huts – one for himself and two for guests – furnished simply with camp beds and cooking pots. There he was able to live in utter simplicity. In the privacy of the woods he was able to feel that contact with nature which comes when we free ourselves of all trappings – both psychic and physical. He was able to gather wood, cook over an open fire and nourish himself with the power of the trees and the stars before returning to his work as Order Chief and college principal, historian, artist and poet.27

  I have painted this picture of my Druid teacher in some detail because I want to convey the qualities of a modern Druid, and he was a fine example. He was able to combine strong artistic abilities with an enquiring logical mind. He enjoyed working with ceremonial and being in close contact with nature. His viewpoint was eclectic, not limited – he was always studying, to the very end of his life – whether it was the Qabala or Wicca or Sufism. But despite his natural paganism, and his devotion to Druidry, he always remained a Christian and was a regular visitor to his local church. Even so, he struggled to accept Christianity – and one can observe this struggle in two revealing critiques he wrote of Christianity, published in In the Grove of the Druids – The Druid Teachings of Ross Nichols. During the sixties, the time of flower power, he tried his best to understand what was happening with the young in Britain. The psychedelic review The International Times published a letter of his on William Blake, and he knew and admired the work of John Michell, a leading figure in 1960s counter-culture, who popularised the concepts of ley lines and astro-archaeology with his cult bestseller A View Over Atlantis.28

  FROM THE FRINGE TO THE CENTRE

  * * *

  After the death of Ros
s in 1975 Druidry gradually moved from the fringes of alternative spirituality to its centre – alongside other spiritual movements that offered a different approach to the established religions. Over the following decades people the world over turned in their thousands to the earth religions and indigenous spiritualities, including Druidry – and steadily a plethora of books, groups and websites on Druidism began to appear. Soon there were many varieties of Druidry, as different groups were inspired to interpret it in different ways. Some groups and books were highly eclectic as they drew on multiple strands of inspiration, which included New Age thought, Wiccan practice and modern approaches to shamanism, while others concentrated their efforts on attempting to reconstruct what they believed to be authentic ancient beliefs and practices.

  Despite these differences, however, certain themes were almost universally adopted: the reverence for nature, an avoidance of dogmatism or the development of a priesthood or spiritual hierarchy, and an absence of discrimination on the basis of gender, age, race or sexual orientation. Some people find Druidry frustrating because it seems to be a spirituality that operates with very few beliefs and no particular or universally agreed theology. But others find this liberating. The success of Druidry today is living proof of the fact that we can find spiritual inspiration, support, guidance and community from an approach to life that is free of dogma and theology. How each Druid conceives of Deity is up to them – some are monists or monotheists, believing that there is just one cosmic force that encompasses all creation, others are pantheists, seeing divinity in nature, some duotheists, believing Deity to be God and Goddess, and others are polytheists, believing that there are many gods. Some will believe their god(s) and/or goddess(es) are actual beings, others will sense them as archetypes or metaphors for unfathomable cosmic forces, while others will take an agnostic approach – saying they simply do not know what to think or believe.

  One of the most remarkable attributes of contemporary Druidism is that one can find such widely different approaches within it. Despite, or perhaps because of, its refusal to be dogmatic about that which is essentially unknowable it occupies a unique position in contemporary spirituality.

  EXERCISE

  * * *

  After reading this chapter, spend a few moments forgetting all that you have read, make yourself comfortable and allow yourself to come to a sense of inner centredness and calm. Let all disturbing thoughts be laid aside. Close your eyes, and focus for a few moments on your breathing. Become aware of the sun rising. Feel yourself bathed in light and warmth. Become this light and warmth if it feels right. Now open your eyes and read this passage, allowing your creative imagination to build the images as you learn of them:

  Imagine that a friend invites you to a Druid ceremony. You are intrigued and amused. ‘Do Druids still exist?’ you ask your friend. He or she suggests you find out by coming along. You experience some anxiety as you travel to the house of a Druid in the country. You feel that you might be about to meet some very odd characters. You are relieved to find a group of people who seem in many ways unremarkable in their ordinariness – their ‘everydayness’. After chatting briefly, you leave the house to gather in a small grove in the woods near to the house. Almost imperceptibly the ‘everydayness’ of the people and the surroundings changes. One by one each person steps into the sacred circle. Now it is your turn. As you step forward, you feel its strength and its power – its sacredness and its protection. The ceremony begins and you find it inspiring, calming, moving.

  When it is over, it is your turn to step out of the circle. As you do so, you feel yourself returning to the everyday world. But somehow it is different. You look at your friend, at the others. You realise that they are, and they are not, Druids. You realise it is a label like any other, for we need words to communicate and to define.

  Gradually you become aware of holding this book in your hands, and of being fully yourself here and now, before standing up and stretching.

  CHAPTER SIX

  BARDS, OVATES AND DRUIDS

  Among all the Gallic peoples, generally speaking, there are three sets of men who are held in exceptional honour: the Bards, the Vates, and the Druids. The Bards are singers and poets; the Vates, diviners and natural philosophers; while the Druids, in addition to natural philosophy, study also moral philosophy.

  Strabo, Geographica, written at the end of the first century BC

  NOW THAT WE have briefly surveyed the history of Druidry from ancient times to the present, it is time to explore the three types of Druid that were said to exist – and to see whether they have any relevance for us today.

  The classical writers tell us that the ancient Druids organised themselves into three distinct groupings, and each group had specific functions and tasks to perform, and a specific training.

  BARDS

  * * *

  And there are among them composers of verses whom they call Bards; these singing to instruments similar to a lyre, applaud some, while they vituperate others.

  (Diodorus Siculus, Histories, 8 BC)

  The Bards were the keepers of tradition, of the memory of the tribe – they were the custodians of the sacredness of the Word. Although they probably represented the first level of training for an apprentice Druid, we should not make the mistake of thinking that a Bard was somehow in a lowly or inferior position. There were many levels of accomplishment, but the most skilled of Bards were held in high esteem and partook of many of the functions of both the Ovate and the Druid.

  The training of a Bard was intense and lasted for many years. There were variations in the curricula between Scotland, Ireland and Wales. In Ireland it is recorded that the training lasted twelve years, with students undergoing the following rigorous curriculum: In the first year, the student progressed from Principle Beginner (Ollaire) to Poet’s Attendant (Tamhan) to Apprentice Satirist (Drisac). During this time they had to learn the basics of the bardic arts: grammar, twenty stories and the Ogham tree-alphabet.

  Over the next four years, they learned a further ten stories each year, a hundred Ogham combinations, a dozen philosophy lessons, and an unspecified number of poems. They also studied diphthongal combinations,, the Law of Privileges and the uses of grammar.

  By the sixth year any student who had stayed the course was called a Pillar (Cli) and would study a further forty-eight poems and twenty more stories. Over the following three years, the Pillars were termed Noble Streams (Anruth) because ‘a stream of pleasing praise issues from him, and a stream of wealth to him’. During this time they learned a further ninety-five tales, bringing their repertoire up to 175. They studied prosody, glosses, prophetic invocation, the styles of poetic composition, specific poetic forms and the place-name stories of Ireland.

  The final three years of training brought elevation to Ollamh, or Doctor of Poetry. In the tenth year the student had to study further poetic forms and composition, in the eleventh year 100 poems and in the twelfth year 120 orations and the four arts of poetry. The student was now the master or mistress of 350 stories in all.

  As Anruth, students had carried a silver branch, and before that – since the beginning of their training – they had carried a bronze branch. An Ollamh was entitled to receive a gold branch. All these branches had bells attached to them, so that any poet striding into the hall to recite a poem or tell a tale would be accompanied by the sound of bells – warning the audience to become silent and summoning the help of the inner realms to ensoul the forthcoming poem or story.

  In Wales and Scotland the training of a Bard was similarly rigorous, although with different grades and a different curriculum.

  HOW WERE THE BARDS TRAINED?

  Bardic schools formed around a Chief Poet and their attendants. A good deal of time was spent in learning by rote, to strengthen the memory and learn the fantastic number of tales and poems required of an accomplished Bard.

  Records from both the Western Highlands and Ireland show that much work was undertaken through the technique
we would now term sensory deprivation. The accommodation was Spartan in the extreme, and much time would be spent incubating poems and seeking inspiration in total darkness. It is only comparatively recently that we have rediscovered, through the pioneering work of John Lilly, the fertile power of the darkness found in an isolation tank.29

  The curriculum shows that the students were accumulating in memory a vast store of stories and poems. But this was only half their work. They were training to become masters of both record and inspiration. It was only one of their duties to record the lore, laws and genealogy of the tribe. Just as important as this task of keeping alive tradition and heritage, they were entrusted with knowledge of the sacred power of the Word – manifest as the ability to become inspired and to inspire others. To carry the records of the tribe they needed to know the stories and poems which preserved the lineage and the lore of their people, but to be Masters or Mistresses of Inspiration they needed to compose their own poems and tales. It was for this reason that they underwent sensory deprivation and employed the arts of invocation. Such training naturally awoke inner powers. A powerful memory, and an ability to plumb the depths and roam the heights of consciousness in search of inspiration and the creative flame, developed within the Bard an ability to see into the future and influence the world around them in a way that foreshadowed the work of the Ovate and the Druid, and which allowed them to carry the spirit of Druidry through the centuries when the light of both the Ovate and the Druid could not be seen in the world.