The Druid Network Profile Interview

Profile

Rob Wilson, Druid Priest and teacher, has been working within the tradition for the last twelve years; rooted firmly in this land, his teaching is experiential and practical with workshops often being held outdoors allowing our inner nature to touch nature itself.

He runs a year-long course, Tress, Stones and Bones, where people are guided to find their own unique expression of modern Druidry, and to awaken to the power and inspiration of the natural world and indeed their own soul truths.

Rob lives in Kent on the crest of the sweeping North Downs, where he runs the Greenwood Grove. While the majority of his teaching is carried out in this landscape that he know so well, he can often be found at festivals, conferences and giving talks to various groups of all faiths, and pagan moots.

Profile updated: 12 Jun 2005

Website: http://www.woodspirit.org.uk

Published Works

Tress, Stones and Bones - Living as a Druid in the 21st century
(To be published 2006)

On Darken Wings – Shamanic Druidry
A cycle of sacred earth pigments paintings and writings to explore our shamanic heritage of Britain 

Interview

Interviewer: Sioned Hawthorn
Interview date: 3 January 2006

You have been working within the Druid tradition for approximately 12 years now. How would you describe yourself in terms of the tradition?  Do you call yourself a Druid?  Do you use any other words to describe your own practice?  And what do all these terms mean to you?

Druidry has given me a way to express my spiritual path that reaches out with threads of connections to others, whom consider themselves Druid. So yes, I do call myself Druid. However, I don’t consider this a title or label, but more of a tangible invocation of the indigenous shaman priests and spirituality of this land that I constantly strive to awaken too and express; The spirit essence within this land, reaching back for inspiration when our ancestors knew a greater kinship and dependency on our natural world. Also by calling myself Druid, the outer world can hopefully feel and conceptualise the flow of currents that carry my life and spirituality that is rooted in this land, heritage and tradition. Sometimes I’m called and use the name ‘Shamanic Druid’; whatever that may mean? But again this is more about the world perceiving my work as a priest. Personally for me the word Shaman or indeed Shamanic has become rather devalued and watered down. So called British Shamanism or Celtic Shamanism still seems to draw its inspiration on Native American traditions and practices and while may work well for some individuals, for me its depth is not rooted deep into this land, ancestors and indeed gods of the tradition that flows through all that I do, when I strive to build and nurture my sacred relationships here and now in this world. Emma Restall Orr, coined the phrase ‘Priest of Nature’ and this sings and enlivens something within me, for this holds both my personal vision and spiritual practices as well as my work as a Priest in the wider community.

So what is my own practice as a Druid? It’s deeply pagan, rich and lush like the first breath of spring in the greening wood. It’s deep and dark and moist like the cavern of unknown limitless ‘voidness’. It’s rooted in this land, whose ancestral voices are heard in the rattle of leaves, the crash of the waves, the fierce spikes of sunlight on pale skin and the wonder of jewels in the dark, starry winter sky. It’s a practice where I seek to understand the gods of our ancestors, and strive to find and build my relationships with the gods of nature that surround me in this world. It allows me to express the wildness within my soul and feeds that craving to be free in the wilderness that is fast declining in this physical world. In some ways my private practice is untitled, and unknowable, sometimes even to myself, yet it allows me and inspires me in my public work as a Druid Pagan Priest.

What brought you to Druidry initially? Who have your teachers been? And have you seen changes in the Druid community over this period?

Firstly let me share a little of my history with you.

As a teenager living in East London, I was searching and questing for understanding of a world that I felt hard to be a part of. I discovered Witchcraft, and the life of underground, on the edge society of London. I thought I found my place. Teaching was offered through a coven and with chance encounters and workshops with authors on the London Witchcraft scene.

Druidry came to me at a period in my life when everything I thought I valued was taken away from me or had broken down. My soul cried out in such pain and terror that I felt that I could no longer live on the edge of this world and the release of the next was but a dream that I wanted. That sounds dramatic I know, but at that time for me, it was!

Moving to Kent I had rediscovered quite by chance a Neolithic Long Barrow, which I first encountered as a young child on a school trip. At this point of total surrender I found and awoken something within me, something that I describe as an ancestral memory today. Druidry seemed to flood in to my life; I had come home, my roots where finding deep nourishment. I enrolled on the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids correspondence course and a year later I became the Pagan Federations Regional Co-ordinator for Kent. At the same time I met a lady, old in years and wisdom, in the Kentish valley of my childhood holidays and retreats. Soon as I offered her help with the garden and transporting her about, she taught me how to truly see, how to listen to the trees, the stream and birds. She taught me how to craft with herbs, to understand the spirit to soul connection. We held rituals in her wild garden, in the woods, fields and hop gardens. I was taught how to sing the songs of the land, of my own story and finding wildness within me. I continued with O.B.O.D’s course out of shear curiosity! But it gave me a link to the story of the tradition. My Druidry was seeking something wilder, something raw and pagan. When I first met Emma Restall Orr and Philip Shallcrass, joint chiefs of what was then, the British Druid Order, at one of the Pagan Federation’s Conference workshops, I discovered a host of other Druids who worked and practiced in similar ways to my own. The Witch is a distant inspirational memory to me and the Druid is alive and vibrant, rich and still learning, sharing, learning, sharing ..

It is amazing to see, what is a relatively short space of time, just how much Druidry has changed, no sorry evolved! In my early days, Orders were elusive and finding one that was open and not too stifling was hard. Not many books beyond the history and metaphysical perception of Druids were available. Then as members of the tradition began to stand up, and get their voices herd, shared their vision, as the wilder, Pagan Druids began to be seen in open rituals, Modern Druidry readdressed the balance of perception, from the white robed men of Stonehenge to deep green-blackened, muddied Pagan, Shamanic Druids of this land. For me I feel that Druidry today has evolved, into a tradition that is both honoured and respected. People like Emma Restall Orr have done and continues to do a great deal of good work, opening this inspiration, this raw flow of Druidry through the media, books, groups and events. The community of Modern Druids is vibrant, strong and firmly established as a sound and mature tradition that the wider world is beginning to listen too, from the road builders and contractors to the government itself.

What does it mean to you to be a modern Druid in these times?  For example, I know you work in London.  Were you in London during the recent bombings?  How do you think Druidry works in an urban environment?  Life and community are both very transitory, but society is supposed to be freer: does this help Druidry or hinder it?

As I attempt to answer this question relatively soon after the events in London I may struggle to find the words I need to express myself, but I’ll have a go.

Firstly, Druidry allows me to live in a world that I would not be able to live in without it. It helps me to live in these times which look like humanity is collapsing in on humanity. However, these events in London have strengthened my resolve in holding my ethics and to find my voice in the process for a lasting peace. I was in London, and just walked passed Aldgate tube station as the first bomb exploded. Instinctively I offered the first survivors first aid help, until we were evacuated. The hardest task was dealing with people’s fear of death and the dying. People were aimlessly looking for comfort and understanding as to what happened, trying to make sense of it all. I too am still looking for the very same thing, yet my Druidry gave me the strength, the ‘tools’ to help, to process, to see beyond and find a stillness and peace in what had happened. Sometimes we simply can’t understand what has happened, but to see how this event has touched, changed and flowed through us can be deeply awakening of hidden depths within ourselves.

Society freer? Well, Druidry is about finding connection, understanding and being free to express the inspiration of that connection, so yes, a free society allows us to do that in some way, it also asks us to accept certain aspects of society that are perhaps alien or even offensive to my Druidry. So while supporting this notion of a free society, we find that we can have a voice that we can make a difference whether its through spiritual activism or being compassionate to others of other faiths, cultures etc.

Generally I see no reason why Druidry can not work in an urban environment. Indeed I know of many Druids living in towns and cities, finding their connections through the bricks and mortar, the trees in parks and avenues. Those with an animistic practice seeking to know and the connection to the spirit of all things, in our modern urban environment, we can gain a ‘different’ type of inspiration. For me personally, I find it hard in urban environments, and probably would not be able to function properly working in London, without the knowing that I return to the woodlands of my home, in rural Kent.

However, my appreciation, my awareness of just how fragile our wilderness is in today’s society, especially here in the south-east as the urban sprawl of London eats slowly away at first the green belt then into the rural landscape, is heightened, fuelling my passion and compassion to help preserve, safe guard this wilderness. So the tension that I find working in London actually is just another source of my inspiration for my Druidry.
 
You are based in Kent (in the South East of England) - how important is this to you? I think that you are not originally from Kent - was it difficult to form connections with a place that you were not necessarily ancestrally connected to? Do you think that an ancestral connection to where you live is useful or necessary?

Kent is home! I’ve found my place to dwell upon this earth. As much as I enjoy travelling around this beautiful, diverse island, indeed world, coming back home to Kent, my soul sits, settles and loosens it boundaries, I can breathe more deeply here. The sweeping North Downs, the orchards and hop gardens, the beech and yew woodlands is such deep relationship for me.

Despite growing up in London, I knew Kent extremely well. Indeed, my mum nearly gave birth to me in a tent while camping in Dymchurch! Seriously, most of my childhood holidays were spent in a Kentish valley where my family owned some land, every opportunity to be in the countryside was exploited, sometimes even when I should have been at school, yet for me I learnt more here than I ever did at school. It was purely economic reasons that my family had to live in London. When finally we had the opportunity to live fully in Kent, I knew I had come home. However, that is not the say that I did not have to work to build my connections. As I said earlier, when I came to live permanently in Kent it was at a time when I was on the edge of a mental and physical brake down. At this time I was lost to myself, my insanity and so I surrendered totally to the spirits of this chalky landscape, and through this surrender my connection grew, but not easily, moments of ecstasy through spirit soul connections were pierced by moment of deep pain and fear.

I do not necessarily believe that a blood ancestry is necessary to connect you to a place, I know of people who have found their home, in places far from the land of their blood ancestry. However, I do feel it’s important to connect and know the stories of the ancestry of the land upon which you live. As a Druid, I strive to be inspired, understand, honour and connect to the ancestors of the land, as well as my own blood ancestry. For me, here in Kent, that has given me stories of battles from ancient past to more recent times, to know the landscape; its shape, form and energy and how the ancestors moved, changed and lived with the land. This for me is vital and a major source of inspiration for my expression of Druidry.

Do you consider that Kent has its own particular energy? If you do, how does this affect the way you teach and practice?

Yes I do believe Kent has its own particular energy. The energy is often perceived to be multi faceted, as the urbanisation and the dense population carve up the landscape since prehistoric times. When the energy is ringing out loudly in one of the pockets of untamed wilderness, I can feel the lush, rich fertile energy of this land, yet when we seek deeper, we find the edgy, murky, dark energy of the wild thorny wood that filled the valleys and parched sun baked slopes of the chalk downs. In the past Kent has been host to invading peoples, and in recent times of war, hosted the warriors willing to fight for their land and peoples. This shifting energy, fuelled by two major rivers of the Thames and the Medway, lead to an energy that is serene and gentle, yet edgy and wild.

To a great extent this also reflects by practices, for my public work as priest is very much of the lush, greenwood of a springs new day, yet my private practice is found deeper, at the greenwoods heart, where its wilder, deeper and full of insane expression of chalky, grey clay covered body of the wild men of the woods. Whenever two meets the chaos of change that it imitates carries further on my path of understanding, and sacred connection – and today I’m still finding the courage for the two to meet as one man!

You run the Greenwood Grove, which is also based in Kent. Could you tell us something of the Grove's history and about what it does?  What are your hopes for its future?

Greenwood Grove – where do I start!

I never once sat down and said ‘I want to run a grove’ - it seemed to happen, the spirit of the greenwood haunted me, until I was ready to awake to her presence and understand what the spirit wanted of me. Many nights I spent alone in the physical grove that held me as I trundled through the undergrowth of seeking the greenwood spirit.

At the same time I was in a local group Rhiannon’s Wheel, as this group dissolved and I grew (both in age and understanding) the greenwood become more and more all-consuming. As is the way with my path, situations erupted around me, and the safety of this tree lined temple became my soul focus. As a young lad looking for inspiration in a world that was rapidly slipping away from him, I retreated to the bare armed tree, mud sodden woodlands that surround my home. As Samhain striped me bare to the bone and soul, and winter froze my spirit, a presence was felt strong, bold, rich energy and dark upon the edge of the grove boundary. Lying, shaking upon the ground she approached in a dark green cloak, her slender hand resting upon my chest, the warmth, her love, her power span me deep into the earth, deep into the mud and stone of the north downs. Imbolc came and I began to see the dawn as a new day again, spring, I awoke to the vision of a Grove. This lady, this ancestral spirit of the greenwood, shaped, inspired and rewove my connection through Druid community.

Leaving many other commitments behind I knew the time and energy was right to pour my intention into physically creating a group of liked minded people. On talking with Emma Restall Orr and Philip Shallcrass at a PF Conference, I spoke of my intention and the North-West Kent Grove emerged and affiliated to the BDO. Interest grew, some people from other groups I was involved with was drawn to this new gathering of peoples. Yet, it still was not fulfilling the deep, raw vital energy that I had experienced alone; with hindsight it was never to be that way back then.

After the first year the grove spirit was once again haunting me, I had to listen again, for the true vision of the grove became to sprout shoots and emerge and so a conscious decision was made to change the name to the Greenwood Grove. It was as if overnight that people were drawn to the rich, lush, beech and yew drenched wisdom of the spirit of this grove, and suddenly I was totally responsible for holding its intention – big reasonability and indeed burden. Greenwood grove has existed in many forms and will continue to do so, probably long after I’ve gone. Many people have flowed through the grove each adding their unique expression of Druidry. I find the grove to breathe, sometime inhaling where I need to hold its boundaries tight and closed at others exhaling allowing the fresh newness of energy to rip through it with harsh, shinning new clarity.

Today Greenwood Grove is a group of people, perhaps no longer out and public in the community as in the past, yet located in the landscape of Kent that honours each person’s individual expression of Druidry. It’s a group that I’m a part of, fully and totally without the dictatorial hand that I once held it with and one which I can never imagine being without. As for the future, I’m simply finding a still centre in the grove yet holding the fragments of its boundary lightly and gently, so that is does not spin wildly out of control, yet can slip, slide and move like the mist on a frosty autumn morning .. the future's radiant, the future's Green!

What led to your becoming a member of The Druid Network? What inspires you about it and how do you hope to see it unfold?

Community lead me to initially become a member; the vision of a network that spun out creating tangible connections to those who wanted it throughout the Druid and pagan community was inspiring. After being a member of the old British Druid Order, I found the ethos, the vision and importantly the intention behind the Network’s creation something that felt so right and needed and I wanted to support that in whichever way I could. After the first year I felt more and more drawn to become actively involved and joined as a member of staff.

The Druid Network is unlike any other organisation I’ve been involved with, especially within the pagan community! It’s accepting and embracing of peoples individually and expression of Druidry regardless of gender, sexuality, and certificate or qualifications, its sense of community were nothing was asked off anyone but honour, respect and inspiration. To the way in which it runs as an organisation and the way it expresses the ebb and flow of the spirit of Druidry in these modern times. I’m deeply passionate about the Network, and the work that is does and its offered me the opportunity to give something back to the wider Druid/Pagan community for which has held and fostered me for a long time.

In the future I hope and sense that its steady growth as a sound, mature, and relevant pagan networking organisation in the 21st century will be a legacy to modern Druidry. And everyone who has and those who will pour their energy into it continues to weave this spirit web allowing old strands to fade back into the cauldron, with new vibrant strands singing out their vision held by that dark, magical heart, the yew – rich and vibrant in wisdom, honour, respect and inspiration.

You seem to be someone who considers it important to communicate with the wider pagan community- you regularly give talks at events and to other groups. What is it about this that you find valuable?

I think it’s very important that we communicate with the wider pagan community. Honouring the diversity and quirkiness of the community is important, however hard it may be sometimes! I’ve never forced my view or opinions on others, but when asked to talk about them I’m happy to do so. The value I find in giving talks and workshops as I tour the country visiting festivals, fairs, conferences and events is that we can honour this diversity and share our commonality, and how knows one day I may say something that resonates within someone who listened to a talk I gave, just as they start steeping out on the this path, and it helps them along, and to seek more and question.

I’ve always been very open about my Druidry and I made a commitment and spoke vows that I would share this path and its teachings with those who would be willing to listen, this is another driving force behind why I consider it important; I’m passionate about all that I do and all that I am, especially with my Druidry, and having the opportunity to share that with others is something I’m always thankful for. And yes I enjoy it to, I meet some interesting people along away and some who are deeply, focused and committed souls who express their journeys in way that never ceases to amaze me.

Your forthcoming book "Trees, Stones, and Bones" is to be published in 2006. What will this look at? How do you see it complementing or adding to the existing publications on Druidry?

Trees, Stones and Bones has taken me five years now to put together and to be honest its still evolving, but by the end of 2006 is should be published. Focusing on my own twisted journey through paganism/Druidry I hope it to be inspirational to those, who like me, found themselves on the edge of society not only physically and mentally but spiritually too.

As a young lad growing up in London seeking some way of understand this world and what it was doing to me, as I struggled to find my role in society, and finding the courage to honour that force of change, the gods of transformation of my journey. I was inspired to write when just before a dear friend of mine died said ‘Rob write your journey stories down, let others share that essence that you was searching for, let it inspire others as it has me’ this touched me for she was my teacher, and her life and teaching was a major source of inspiration for me – a major lesson in student/teacher relationship for me!

I hope that my book will complement existing publications on Druidry by just adding another dimension, another expression of Druidry to the mix. When I first started out there were very few good books on Druidry that were not academic/historical accounts of ‘the druids’, today we have a wonderful mix, some that I really dive into and drink of the words deeply, others hold no connection to me at all, yet the range is growing, honouring the very diversity that Druidry fosters.

Thanks for answering our questions, Rob. Many blessings!