The thought of planning a major ritual in two hours would normally scare me beyond belief. But they left the main ritual on Saturday for the group to plan – we had about two hours to do it.
DRUID CITY RETREAT PLUS
John and Elmdea had planned rituals for opening and closing the retreat, plus an oracular ritual on Friday night. And they seemed more than a little annoyed that all these highly spiritual people from all these religious traditions were coming there, connecting to the Sacred and to their higher selves, but ignoring the spirits that make the place so special. Call them fae or vaettir or just the spirits of the place, they are the beings who were there long before the First Nations – much less the first Europeans – arrived. Those of us who are polytheists or animists or both got remarkably similar impressions from listening to the land: the land spirits have been forgotten. That isn’t what I would have done with the land, but it’s been built with such compassion that it works. It is intended to be an interfaith sanctuary and it is. There are three labyrinths and perhaps a dozen shrines and grottos honoring various aspects of the major religions of the world. About half the land has been cleared the other half is still wooded but is crisscrossed with dirt roads and trails. The Land Celebration is neither Pagan nor pagan. I did a lot of listening at the Pan Druid Retreat. Druidry is many things and one of them is the art of wild wisdom: the spirituality Nature teaches us, if only we’ll slow down, go outside, and listen. It’s a place of great natural beauty that has been treated with love and respect for many years, which made it a good meeting place for Druids. The Land Celebration is a 43-acre camp / retreat center in rural Virginia. The land and the spirits of the land were as much a part of the gathering as any of us. I should amend the previous section to say there were twenty four human participants in the Pan Druid Retreat. They also allowed for plenty of time to commune with the land and the spirits of the land.
DRUID CITY RETREAT FREE
The large blocks of free time were restful (especially important for those of us in jobs that are busy and stressful even though we like the work) and they allowed for unstructured conversations that could run five minutes or an hour and a half. Rather than following the usual multi-track conference format designed to cram the most into a short time, this retreat structure was set up to promote collegiality.
DRUID CITY RETREAT PROFESSIONAL
Everyone had something to contribute (from study, practice, religious experience or life experience) and everyone was able to relax and enjoy the gathering without having to be a Professional Pagan. Although there were two Important Druids (thanks, Jason!) in attendance – myself and Kirk Thomas – there were no celebrities. There were members of OBOD, ADF, and AODA, plus some other folks who aren’t Druids but who are experienced practitioners in their own traditions. There were twenty four participants in the Pan Druid Retreat (though not all were there the whole time). But what I had in mind was an older definition of college: a gathering of colleagues. Some readers thought I was talking about formal higher education: a Druid seminary or a Pagan university. There was some confusion when I wrote about my Dreams of a Druid College last year. I knew John and Elmdea well enough to trust it would be done right, but I really didn’t have an expectation of what “right” would look like.
I’m not sure what I was expecting: perhaps a small retreat, some presentations, some workshops, some rituals. The theme was “Approaching the Sacred” which given the nebulous nature of the Sacred didn’t really create any expectations – though it did give me an excuse to talk about the necessity of wrestling with the Big Questions of Life.
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