Brendan Howlin - The Handbook of Urban Druidry: Modern Druidry for All

First published by Moon Books, 2014
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Text copyright: Brendan Howlin 2013

ISBN: 978 1 78279 376 2

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CONTENTS

An excellent down-to-earth and witty introduction to how Druidry can help us in the 21st century.
Philip Carr-Gomm

For Gillian, my wife and my light, love and inspiration.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are owing to many people for this book. Principally, to my Bardic and Ovate tutees over the years whose questions have formed my ideas, many of whom are now firm friends, particularly Anthony and Rosemary, Ray Stirton and Jan Nolan. Thanks to my friends in OBOD for their unstinting friendship and support, particularly Fiona Ware, Karen James, Marion Sibbons, Shaun Hayes, Anne MacDonald Coleman, Susan Jones and Penny Billington. My colleagues in my real life who make lunchtime and coffee enjoyable, particularly Anna Tanczos, Michael Pounds and Ian Hamerton. My special thanks to my family for providing support by just being there and finally to Philip Carr-Gomm who put us all on this path in the first place. Lastly, a special mention to Stuart Lythgoe for starting this idea off many years ago.

Incidentally, if you enjoy this book and practise some of the ideas or have ideas of your own then please let me know on . I will collect the best ideas and promote them on my website.

Introduction

Have you ever thought that there must be a better way to live than the way you do now? Do you feel that you are a helpless pawn in your own life, a life that is increasingly out of your control? Do you feel stressed and tired all the time trying to cope with the demands of your life and never having enough time for yourself?

If you do then you are not alone, these feelings are extremely common and there is a way out. In this book I will tell you about a way that works, it is called Urban Druidry. What, I hear you ask, is Urban Druidry? Arent Druids funny old men and women who dress up in white robes and hang around Stonehenge at the summer solstice? How on earth can that be relevant to me and my life? The answer is Druidry is not about wearing a white robe, the underlying philosophy can be practised by anyone, of any religious persuasion and great benefits can accrue in anyones life.

If you have heard anything about Druidry you will know that is a nature-based way of life, so how is this relevant to people who live in cities? Read on and you will learn about living Druidry in the heart of a modern city without a requirement for a single grove of Oak trees to be present. The best part of Druidry is that there is no dogma, there is no requirement to follow any of the precepts or ideals; you make up your own mind and do things your way. Hence it is a most adaptable way of life and is able to satisfy a wide variety of people and their lifestyles. So read on and find out what works for you. In essence even if you just recognise the problems that you have in your life you will have succeeded.

The beauty of Druidry is that it does not stipulate a religious belief. You are free to frame your concept of Deity in whatever way suits you. Hence I know of Christian Druids, Buddhist Druids, Pagan Druids, Secular Druids and even one Sufi Druid. In this confused modern age, a way of life that respects difference is most important. Druids share a common practice not a common set of beliefs, so the Druid who stands next to me may believe entirely different things to me but we can still stand together in tolerance and understanding.

This book is organised in sections, it works best if you follow the structure and do each section in turn because you are trying to change your preconceptions and expectations about life, and each section will build on the next. is basically a self-help course designed to be followed for a year and a day that will introduce you experientially to the basics of Urban Druidry. The second part will relate what you have learned to real Druidry.

Part 1
First Things First

Chapter 1

Learning to See

We will start with the single most important aspect of this book and it will be unexpected. If you do this first section, your life will change beyond your expectations and it is easily within everyones power. The first section is the seemingly trivial advice to learn to see. This might sound crazy to you, as most people can already see quite well, otherwise they would have difficulty in getting about, but believe me most people are hardly aware of their environment and what is going on around them.

I have stood at the window of my flat and looked out at the car park. It was about 5:30 on an autumn afternoon and people were coming and going to their cars. Standing in the car park as bold a brass was a large fox and everyone walked by it as if it wasnt there. The people were so wrapped up in their own thoughts and concerns that they just didnt see. You would be surprised to learn that this situation happens all the time in most peoples lives. Obviously, it is not a fox that they miss all the time otherwise the country would be overrun with foxes, but there are many, many examples of people not seeing what is in front of their noses because they wont see. Not because they cant but because they wont.

If we take another example, most people can remember their childhood. Some cant, so if you are one of these then dont worry, we are in the same boat. When you are a child the world is a magical place, everything is a delight. The world is magical because you havent much experience of it, but also because you are in the moment. You arent beset with worries and cares that take your attention away from what is happening right now in front of you. Most people will also say that being a child was a happy carefree time but you lose that feeling when you become an adult.

Obviously you cant go back to the freedom of childhood, where you can run about as much as you like knowing that if you get tired your father or mother will pick you up, feed you and put you to bed. We really dont appreciate how well off we were when we were kids. This is because we have no sense of personal responsibility; the responsibility is all given over to your parents. So how do we go about recapturing some of this magic? The answer is to learn to see.

You will probably say that you dont have time to spend staring at things in your busy day and this is probably true, but even the busiest of us can learn to see more during our days. If you go to work by car, you have the time that you walk to the car and from the car to work to see. This may be only a few minutes, but if you learn to see in this time you will already have accomplished something. You will probably also say what can I see? I live in a housing estate with concrete all around me, what is there to see that I havent seen before? Strangely enough even the most urban of environments is teeming with life, which I will expand on later but even without this there is still the sky. The sky, you say, Ive seen that, I see it every day. I know that, but have you looked! Whenever I travel by train I always sit by a window and look out. I have noticed on a busy commuter train from London in the evening that when I am looking out and seeing a truly remarkable glorious red sunset everyone else has their noses in books, newspapers or laptops and isnt seeing it. Why not? It is wonderful and it is free. There cant be one person who isnt moved by a spectacular sunset and there are many of these every year. This is just one example of what we can see if we actually look.