Druidism, in its purest form, was never meant to be a religion. In its social form, it was never meant to be a fashion. Yet, in the twentieth-century, we see that it has become both.

In the modern classifications of spiritual belief and expression, Druids are labeled - and label themselves - as pagans, neo pagans, alternative pagans, and even solitary witches to distinguish themselves from Christianity. All that this labeling does is to support and enforce Christianity, which could then be labeled as Christian Druidism, Christian Druid paganism, Christian Druid neo-paganism, Christian Druid alternative paganism, and solitary Christian Druid witchcraft.

In a world without hypocrisy, there would be no need for such a self-defeating label as pagan. Pagan implies "outside the norm", and also implies incompletion and lack of recognition or respect. When those humans who seek to embrace spiritualism as a method of living and expression, and also as a magnet to attract other humans of like energy, they are not practicing paganism; they are practicing Magic.

That is what Druidism is really about; Magic without dogma, and expression through Divine Intent.

The ancient Druids did not seek to limit themselves with false definitions; nor did they seek to limit other beings or forms with arbitrary standards of judgment and inflexible categorizations.

The true cornerstone of Druidic Thought is that Spirit and Matter are harmonious, yet dynamic rather than static. Druids focus on keeping the eternal and Divine energies in motion through applied Will (Consciousness) and applied Wisdom (Love). Druids believe that the continued application of Will and Wisdom was what allowed the manifestation of Harmony in the third dimension of the World.

People today are seeking alternatives to those religions embraced under the umbrella of Christianity, but are doing so without a true awareness or distinction as to the purpose or form of Christianity. People that do not like the "form" of Christianity seek alternative religions.

Any and every religion supports that which is negatively embodied in Christianity, and is exactly why Christianity - as a religion - has failed. In the world of Spirit, religion is a failure to apply Spirit to Matter.

There are those who seek alternative religions, but what they should be seeking is an alternative to religion, that embraces the Spirit that religion pretends to offer.

Many people who are attracted to "alternative religions" are attracted because of the pantheistic diversity. People who are uncomfortable with the idea of monotheism (a single all-powerful and mean God) become attracted first to the alternative monotheistic belief in a single all-powerful Goddess, who is probably equally as mean as their feminized version of God, but whom they hope exercises a little kindness upon occasion. Thus, those who rebel against the idea of kneeling before an arbitrary masculine god, kneel instead before an arbitrary feminine goddess.

That they kneel at all is a perversion of Spirit. To kneel in supplication or abasement is rejection of one's own Divinity. To stand as an equal is not a supplanting of Spirit, but is an acknowledgment of one's own partnership with Creator.

Another attractive selling point of alternative religions is their deification of a number of entities who are called upon to perform individualized services and exercise certain cosmic powers of influence within the Sphere of Humanity. Very seldom do these interactive relationships between "worshippers" and the "deities" have any more substance than a comic-book training of deital expertise, and a human's irresponsible desire to attempt to manipulate his environment through the Will of a Higher Being.

In short, those frustrated people who feel they have no clout with God, turn instead to wheedling what they consider the second-string Hierarchy, and that is how the energy of Christianity as religion contaminates the lesser, alternative religions - and also serves to keep those lesser religions in oblivion.

In the twentieth-century, Druidism is a reflection of fractured Christianity, and Wicca is a reflection of fractured Druidism. Both are correctly founded on the basis of belief that Magic and Divinity are expressed through greater and more channels than simply the Will of a despotic Higher Power, and they are correct in their departure from the conventional Christian belief that only humans have Divine Purpose or consciousness.

These ideals are correct, and those who are aligned with their Higher Selves do, and will continue to, funnel Higher Consciousness and Purpose into their groups, and those groups will begin to coalesce at a more rapid rate as they integrate Divine Will and Intent. With Will and Wisdom, those groups will be able to shed the taint of religion, and will take their true forms as Schools of Spiritual Thought, without dogma, and will be able to exercise the creation of Magic through Divine Intent, and the power that they have given to their gods, they will reclaim, as they reclaim their own Soular identities as partners of Creator.

Religion feeds itself by claiming the power of individuals. Religion, and churches, do not amass power by taking it away from people, or by dominating or overpowering them. That energy of Consciousness simply doesn't have the physical manifestation to be able to accomplish such a huge task in the third dimension. Churches are not a form of democracy; they are a form of benevolent despotism. By removing the power of the people (also known as the Will of the people), the Church encourages a surrendering of the Will to a Higher Power, with a hierarchical middle man/woman as the agent or vessel of that power. That hierarchical totem has only the power that is given to him externally, and is only the Voice and the Will of the people as the people allow him to be.

It is the same in alternative religions; by giving up power and allowing or begging to serve as a dominion of a pantheistic god, one is sacrificing his own individual purpose and partnership with Creator, and is also denying responsibility and placing it in the hands of an abstract being/s.

The ancient Druids were Magicians who knew that they were Magicians; they also knew that EVERY person has/had the same creative power and potential. The Druids were the ones who specialized in the partnership of Creation. They did this not just with the etheric beings of the third and fourth dimensions; they also acted in partnership with the incarnate realm of Humanity, and with the Plant, Animal, and Mineral kingdoms of Consciousness and form.

The "gods" that the alternative religionists tend to worship do exist, in the fourth-dimension, but they are not gods. They do not have power in the third dimension. It would be accurate to say that third dimensional beings have an easier time manifesting in the fourth dimension, rather than the other way around. Yet, those in the fourth dimension are aware of third dimension activities, and they do hear and respond to every request every time they are invoked. However, they are limited by Divine Will, as many incarnate humans are not, and sometimes the fourth-dimensional entities are asked to create or manifest realities that simply are not appropriate.

Also, the fourth-dimensionals are innately, and almost eternally, frustrated because they are stymied in their attempts to explain or project to Humanity that is the job of incarnate humans to create. Humans are the ones with the creative third-dimensional power. It is sort of like asking your dog to answer the telephone. The dog would love to help you, and he can knock the phone off the cradle, but he simply cannot process and relay the necessary information to assist the creative parties on either end of the line. The dog may have devic power, but answering a telephone is simply not his function.

So it is with the fourth-dimensional beings. They are here to assist in love and partnership. They often act as teachers and guardians. They have the power and the purpose to direct fourth dimensional consciousness, and to stabilize energy and planar awareness to some extent. But, no matter how powerful or wonderful they are, they still don't have the power to deliver pizzas to your doorstep.

Those who focus primarily on ritual magic are focusing in a consciousness of form to form. This is a talent, and has its place, but is abstract from the greater purpose of Magic, which is to manifest Spirit within Matter. This is the Essence of Magic, and it is that Essence by which Druids rightly work with, when they do so.

Ritual is appropriate within the third dimension. Those who work with the Essence of Magic are doing so in partnership with their Higher Selves (in the fourth dimension), and it is that Alignment between his third-dimensional Consciousness with his fourth-dimensional Consciousness that harnesses and purifies Divine Energy, and allows that to manifest into the World.

There is no need to worship external beings; to simply recognize ourselves and apply ourselves to the Consciousness of the One Life is the greatest Divine Power source we can ever tap into as incarnate human beings. The partnership between the third and fourth dimensions exists and will continue to do so, but it is the responsibility of the third-dimensional consciousness to shift the nature of that relationship back to a democratic, rather than dictatorial, form.

Druidism is not about religion, nor ritual, nor esoteric power and manipulation. Druidism is about alignment within the All, and the awareness that as individuals we serve as both the microcosm and the macrocosm of Humanity, Spirit, and Matter.

Love, Galadriel
10/19/2003
Druidry/essence.htm