The Five-Minute Druid Connection Made Easy
By: Sarah-Beth Watkins - Moon Books - $10.95
Overview: The Five-Minute Druid is written for those who are new to Druidry, struggling with their path, or looking to find ways to connect or re-engage in small, easy ways.
From daily observations to five-minute meditations, there is something for everyone struggling to include Druidry in their daily lives.
Verdict: You could be flat out at work with not a minute to spare, have a new baby in the house and many sleepless nights, or you could be housebound or recovering from an illness. Whatever the reasons, life sometimes throws up challenges that sway us from our path.
Thus, this guide gives suggestions for how to support your practice and your self in short manageable bursts, helping you to reconnect in just five minutes.
For those unaware, Druidry is a thriving, nature-based spirituality that has its roots in ancient times. The ancient druids were wise sages, historians, astronomers, diviners, and bards. While their traditions died out over two millennia ago, today’s druids draw upon the wisdom and surviving lore of the ancient druids for inspiration.
As modern Druidry honors ancient ancestors, it also focuses on creating a responsive, nature-based spiritual tradition that helps people cultivate their own creative gifts, find healing with and through nature, and explore metaphysical aspects of the spirit of the earth.
Inspired by the ancient druids and their three-fold system, the modern druid path has three distinct expressions: that of the ovate, bard, and druid. Some people focus on one path, but many who take up Druidry elect to work within all three branches as they all build upon each other.
The ovate path focuses on deep nature connection, a critical part of every druid’s path. Ovate practices connect us back to our ancient human ancestors who understood the world of spirit, who had intimate knowledge of nature, and who depended on nature directly to provide their needs. In modern Druidry, the path of the ovate includes both physical and metaphysical aspects.
Within Druidry, a core concept from the Welsh language is Awen (pronounced ah-wen), which refers to flowing or divine inspiration. Druids connect with the creative spirit of the divine, found in nature, and channel that creativity into expressive works of all kinds.
The Awen symbol, which depicts three rays of light, is one of the core symbols of the druid tradition. Awen can include the spark of inspiration when an amazing idea comes to you, and it can also include getting deeply into the flow of a creative practice.
In ancient times, the bard was a storyteller and historian, traveling the countryside collecting tales and weaving songs. In the modern druid tradition, the bardic arts refer to all creative practices that we can cultivate. These include literary arts such as poetry, storytelling, and writing; fine arts, such as painting, sculpture, or drawing; fine crafts such as woodworking, blacksmithing, or bookbinding; and performing arts such as dance, theater, or music.
For Druidry beginners, it may be confusing that the path of the druid is just one aspect of the larger druid tradition. This is because “druid” refers to the metaphysical and spiritual aspects of the path, which is where the tradition gets its name. By contrast, the ovate and bard expressions are more concrete.
The path of the druid puts us in connection with the broader metaphysical world and our own spirits. One thing that separates Druidry from many other religious traditions is that druids do not all share the same belief system. All druids do believe that nature is sacred and nature is good. Beyond that, druids hold diverse beliefs and can be monotheists, animists, polytheists, or agnostics; they may align themselves with any of the world’s religious traditions.
Now that has all been said, what author Sarah-Beth Watkins does here in The Five-Minute Druid Connection Made Easy, is bring forth a fabulous simplicity that not only guides us in by the hand along its paths, but also manages to enlighten, teach and therein entice us - all ages and abilities - to come experience a dutiful connectivity to Druidry.
Chock full of sage advice along with definitive musings and explanations, all told within a layman prose that I myself found very embracing, everything is to the point and as astutely insightful, nay inspiring as you could ever hope them to be.
About the Author - Sarah-Beth Watkins has been a freelance writer for over 20 years, writing for magazines and websites on a wide range of topics. More commonly known for her history books, Sarah is also passionate about Druidry and nature spirituality. She lives in County Wexford, Ireland.
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