For a book that I both agree with so much and have learned a nice chunk from, I find I have rather little to say in response to this. Druidry is very philosophical and Philip is a very chill guy, you know. Very tolerant, and the deep thought about life around say the seasonal holidays was very informative/enlightening: it’s a nice alternative to seeing it just about two beings, or whatever. But I don’t know. It’s not as vague as say, ‘A Course in Miracles’, but it definitely leans perhaps towards that abstract/philosophical thing…. And like, if you’re the philosopher, and everything is about everything and all in general, then everything is just kinda about…. Everything. He’s written several books about his relations with other paths, and he’s published tarot and oracles, but it seems like it must be at least half of his books are like, “It’s been a few years since I told you about everything in general: here are my updated views”, right. Sometimes more rationalist people lean towards that: less creative, more…. Subtle. Although I would probably buy at least one of his oracles if I didn’t have such a saturation of unopened card decks, right. He’s certainly not a bad guy. He has a big brain, and he’s open to things, you know. Maybe that’s what a Druid is supposed to be, right.

…. Although I should qualify that by saying that I do NOT think that Philip is ~anti~-creative the way that Many people in fact are, you know. The majority of atheist intellectuals, and also of Christian intellectuals—just the average contemporary Western brainiac, you know, is anti-creative. The average ~average~ person also lacks the confidence not to agree, to some extent. The positivists or whoever had this mountaintop moment or whatever and they came down and they realized that creativity is dead, slavish, you know: and you would be surprised, maybe, how far that, attitude, slides down, into how many valleys, right. But Philip isn’t really AGAINST it, it’s just not a huge emphasis in his life, right. With him being relatively “straight” and subtle and careful, leans more towards being a style or a stance, in the inevitable sense of the word—we all have a stance—rather than a “bias”, in the epic newsy, kinda aggressive way that some people have, right. He is the sort of guy he is, right.

…. It is a simplification to say that Druidry is more ‘philosophical’ than Wicca, but it is sorta true, and I do feel led (intentionally funny: I’m a Christian! I feel led by the Sperrit!) to be less philosophical than a vanilla Druid: to move in the direction of “Wicca”, even though I suppose I’ll always be more book-y than the average vanilla-y Wiccan (and especially in the public imagination, lol…. If the public has conceptions about this crap at all, lol.)…. Yeah, I mean, it’s obviously ~not~ true REALLY, that “Druids = the sun; Wiccans = the moon”—I mean, if you thought that “never the twain meet”, right, you’d be like…. shipping off to loony tunes land, right, and not in a good way…. Yeah, but it is KINDA true, sorta…. Druidry is for a more masculine sort of girl (or boy), more classically ‘rational’, you know, even if the average materialist wouldn’t recognize this distinction (or try to respect it, lol)…. Yeah, Druidry is less dissimilar to Buddhism or the classic monastic religions, you know, Ask not how you can get a raise: ask how you can help the children, right—all that pious shit, you know. (No offense.) (listening to the speech) “I’ll send the children to a better school…. Oh no, wait; what’d he say….” Yeah. I mean, it IS possible to be “too Wiccan/not Druid-y enough”, but I also think that these times of up until now, are MUCH more likely to SAY that that’s the case (at least, that’s what they’d say if they used magical religion terms, lol), than it is likely for that to ACTUALLY be the case, right…. And even the average person who is “too Wiccan/not Druid-y enough” (again, to put it in terms they’d reject and/or greet with mockery and/or confusion), has this problem MUCH LESS than they suppose deep down, even though they probably deny it entirely because of how afraid they are to face their self-hatred, right…. But basically, yeah, none of that matters so much: it’s just a matter of my going on this path for certain kinda distinctly Wiccan/less Druid-y things, and not for the things that I already had a lot of, but, I don’t know…. Which aren’t meant to have the soil all to themselves in my disposition.

But yeah, it works for Philip, not that he isn’t also a sort of syncretist, even if he is also distinctly and classically Druidic.

Incidentally: I haven’t read any “Druidcraft” books, but now having read this, I think I’ll label that it’s its own thing, and not one or the other. Wicca is its own thing; Druidry is its own thing; and Druidcraft is its own thing….

But yeah, anyone but an extremely exaggeratedly normal person of these times: pompously pretending to be a scientist, the smartest person in the world, to help deny their self-hatred, even though they can’t add two and three together, right.

(sigh) One day, I won’t internally other most the population, the way that most of the population others most everyone else, right. (Like in these really bad crush-criminals “true crime” books, where they mock the police for not cracking the case fast enough, just because they literally hate everyone, you know. Like an old man hates his wife, even though she’s the only one who is as cranky as he is, right. “It’s like: lemme help you. You’re the ‘law and order dog whistle’ people. You’re here to write propaganda for the ‘cop people’, right. Make them feel good. Tell them happy things!” 🧌: They shoulda cracked the case people should know things I woulda knowed it; 8.21, 7.45, 9.65, 4.56 remember these numbers; the county detective couldn’t see: remember these numbers…. ~Ok, yeah…. Well…. Just don’t forget to take your meds! ~🧌: I’m not mentally ill. I like being like this.)

Yeah…. Maybe one day, I’ll love that person as an extension of myself, right.

But maybe I’ll start with some trees, right…. Yes, start with some trees….

…. But yeah, I feel like Eckhart Tolle liked to say that there is in the world “only one spiritual teaching, though it has many forms”.

Although I know I don’t believe that when something pricks my freak-out nerve, right. 😸

Very solid intro for me. Quite dry at parts, but interesting nonetheless. Definitely makes me want to read more on this topic. ( )

Quite possibly, this is one of the most profound introductions to a belief system that I have ever read. Granted, I may have some bias in that statement, given that I am currently taking the Bardic Grade training within OBOD. However, removing that particular aspect, I found many of the insights shown throughout the book to be quite comfortable assessments of particular questions and issues I have contemplated and turned over and over in my own spiritual life of years past. If you are looking for information on classical Druidry, you're not going to find much within this book. However, if you're looking for a potential template that you can use and mold to your own life -- this may be the best introduction that you could possibly find. For me, it was an eye-opening read with many 'aha!' moments throughout. At 174 pages, its not exactly a large book - adding to that I'm not a completely fast reader either - but I find myself having to set this book down from chapter to chapter to think about what I had just finished reading. At the end of each chapter is an exercise for an individual to use towards meditative processes correlating to the chapter's materials. I highly recommend that the reader not skip those exercises, and try them. For me, it made the experience of reading this book into something that had a simplistic beauty of walking through a forest with no clear path...serene, quiet, and perfectly balanced between the here and then. Extremely highly recommended on my part! ( )