As the title suggests this is a book about Druidry. By merely reading this author’s work the reader is taken on a journey
back through a powerful and ancient spiritual discipline that provide inspiration and encouragement to create a deeper relationship with the natural world and all its inhabitants - plants, animals and human, both incarnate and disincarnate.
There is something in Emma Restall’s Orr’s Living Druidry that appeals strongly to me as a Zen
practitioner. Firstly it is the graphic dream-like descriptions of her trance-like experiences she has in her communion with
nature. And then there’s her commitment to share “to give to others what we have been given”. A vow not dissimilar to that which is uttered by a Zen practitioner before his/her zazen (Zen meditation, whose ultimate goal is enlightenment).
The opening chapter of this work is a very poignant description of her meditation in a woodland where she seems to transcend all the physical discomfort of a British winter’s day and is able to communicate with the wildlife and the soul of a long-departed man who searches for his daughter. The reader comes across many of these passages throughout the book, the reading of which really played with my imagination to such a degree that I felt a hidden yearning to get out and wallow in the mud and mire of the countryside and just “be” with natural life.
Whilst I am a sceptic by nature, there is something about the way these events are described that keeps me turning the pages. I begin to realise that it doesn’t really matter whether what she is saying is absolute truth or the produce of an over-active imagination. It is about eliciting feelings, emotions and inspiration in the reader that enriches the imagination. Everyday life continues, and as human beings of the 21st century mentally creating worlds of magic is becoming all too infrequent.
A brief outline of the nature of Druidry.
Druidry, as Zen is a “Way”. A Way for people to discover and express their unique spiritual path to enlightenment. Like Zen, Druidry is about experiencing the “art” and not fostering any belief system or acting on mere faith. As practitioners, we are inspired to experience for ourselves the outcome of its rituals and rites. And those experiences will be unique for each of us.
Where I would say that Zen is certainly not for everyone because the path to its rewards is hard, that involves stilling the mind to “no-thought”, Druidry is possibly a slightly more comfortable road. I say comfortable, because the Druid gets involved with his mind’s fascinating imagary, whereby the Zen practitioner works hard to transcend it in order to experience that state of “no-mind”. But both Zen and Druidry are about bringing the mind and spirit into the here and now and in this way both practises need discipline – if they were easy, there would be no need for discipline.
The sort or person who seeks a spiritual path, such as Druidry can be somebody who is merely curious to know more about this “paganism”, someone who has become so disillusioned by the banality of day-to-day life that he/she has a strong need for more meaning in their life, or someone who has had serious illness, shock or loss and is seeking the reason as to why things have to be the way they are in life.
This remarkable little book is well written and easy to understand, and covers many areas in life. It is not a religion as such, but a way of living that doesn’t see things in a dualistic way. It doesn’t believe in a single creator god, but
in the “spirit of being”, for everything that exists. As in Zen, the All does exist but is a context that cannot be defined because it permeates all things that exist.
For those like me, looking for something outside the ordinariness of day-to-day life, this book is a truly inspiring read.