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I came to Druidism for the reasons of exploring my Celtic past and finding a spirituality that truly speaks to me. I am new to Paganism and was not sure what I would find. I am thankful for the opportunity to expand my spiritual horizons and share them with others.

I started my education with an historical overview of ancient Druidism and its social context. Druidism was a Celtic religion and interpreted the cosmos in ways that Celtic peoples could understand. The myths interpreted the cosmos and the sacred rights influenced the cosmos. We may find some of the rites, such as human sacrifice, to be repulsive, but the Celts believed that they were necessary. The course gives a balanced account of the ancient druids without modern judgment.

In ancient Druidism, there is an exhaustive list of the Celtic deities with explanations. The list includes Irish, Welsh, Scottish and Gallic deities with cross-references and comparisons to the other deities. This was the most intriguing to me, because it gave real insight into the culture of the ancient Celts.

I spent a lot of time working on the calendar, sabbats and the Ogham alphabet. Druidism is a heart a nature religion. As such, Druidism seeks balance and harmony with nature. The identifying thread of Druidism is that nature is particularly identified with trees. The Druids named both the calendar months and the alphabet after the same set of trees. Furthermore, the sabbats, or festivals, celebrate the yearly cycle of plant growth and death, which was connected by the druids to the larger cosmological cycle of life, death and rebirth. The key to understanding Druidism both ancient and modern is in understanding the wealth of relationships that each tree represents. As a modern druid, I put most of my effort into learning this part of Druidism.

The remaining portions of the Druidism which I studied are concerned with the practices of modern druids. These practices include liturgies, druid magic and geomancy. Learning about liturgy provides the basic rites of a druid. The more interesting information about druid magic brought me to some very helpful links to other sources of information on druid magic. Learning about geomancy requires hands-on practice to fully understand, and I still find it a little confusing. (I suspect that divination is not my best subject.) Thus, the beginning druid has the tools needed to begin a druidic ministry and links to continue the study of druidism.

My Celtic ancestors and love of nature drew me to the path of druidism. The Masters of Druidism study through the Universal Life Church has given me the foundation to be a druid minister. – Rev. Joseph Rielinger