What does it mean to be a Druid? I have been looking around for places for Nature Magic but have only been given a site with basic info on it and nowhere to learn. Any of you guys point me the right way?
The practices of Druidry today are extremely diverse as it incorporates people practicing faiths from the more traditionalist Celtic pantheons through many other deities and some that do not worship any at all. At the core of Neo-Druidry and potentially Druidry as well (although that's difficult to say as we don't have any proper references or the original practices) is the veneration of the natural world. So as thus many druids today would also consider themselves environmentalists.
Druidry itself is a spiritual path and is not necessarily connected to any form of magical practice although many Druids are well versed in various herbal properties simply from an interest in the subject.
I'm not certain exactly what it is you mean by "Nature Magic" though. If you mean the herbal approach to things then that information is littering both the internet and occult books.
I'm aware that Druids have been documented as using both the natural world and nature spirits in the process of divining the future which is another potential. If this is the case then I'm afraid whilst I don't have any references for it specifically it's a skill that comes simply from working with nature over time and is woven through quite a lot of neo-druid beliefs.
If you want to learn about Neo-Druidry I can recommend this website which contains some information on the general beliefs and practices as well as some of the rituals. http://www.adf.org/core/
As a religious path Druidry is about being at peace with the world around you and learning all you can from that which we come from. It is about the wisdom that the earth and the trees can teach you. Yes the pantheon of the path is mostly Celtic in nature but you can use any deities and what not that you prefer. The Druids did see the difference in the polarites of male and female energy. The males followed the more masculine aspects of the Sun and the days of the year since those were so closely related to that side of the divine. The females aparently had there own path that was a part of the whole yet apart. So they were more in tune with the cycles of the moon and the female aspects of energy.
As far as magick is concerned the practices of the Druids appear to be much the same as that normally found in witchcraft. They held festivles and rituals on the quarter and the cross quarter days of the year. They learned herbalism and the different aspects of what you can do with herbs and droughts that are derviced from nature. They use trees as tools of learning giving a special place to certain ones and useing them in their teaching. They had a degree system through wich they built their knowledge and they came together in logical groups like covens to practice and learn. And they used things like meditative trances to contact spirits and to delve deeply within themselves to better their connection with the world.
Actually Druids nowadays are very differnt than the real druids. A Druid School inj old times lasted 20 years, and untill today, almost everything about them was lost, all the chants and the spells, and everything. That everything was rewriten, but it is still not the same thing:) sorry for bad english:d
There are many Druids out there, i'm a fellow Druid myself even though i go down many roads, just because you may not see or hear of them don't mean they'er not out there....
I am not quite decided yet if I want to be a druid due to sufficient lack of study on the subject but this is a topic I would like to discuss. My father is a long practicing druid and might be able to lend me his understanding of being a druid.
I've been studying Druidry for about a year now. I wouldn't consider myself even nearly an expert, but I would consider myself interested at the very least. :P
