Joining the Order & Taking the Course

If you don’t want to join the Order and start the training course right away, you can request an introductory package which contains a CD, 2 Introductory Gwersi (lessons), 2 booklets – Wild Wisdom and The Sacred Grove, a mini-poster, and an invitation to join the Order, all shown in this photo:

If you find this introduction answers an inner call, then you will be welcome to start the full course, join the Order, and begin a journey we hope you will find exciting and rewarding. Just click on the enrol button to order the Introductory pack. NOTE: This Introductory Pack is also included if you enrol on the full course.

Not at all. Many members find a year is sufficient time for them to follow the course, but many also take longer – 18 months to two years or more. There is no pressure to complete the course, and each student is encouraged to follow the course at their own pace.

You can either enrol on the course right away or you can start off by sending for an introductory package, which gives the first month’s work of the course, together with details of the Order’s Sacred Grove Planting Programme and Campaign for Ecological Responsibility. This costs £18 in the UK. Higher fees apply in other countries to cover airmail postage and currency conversion costs. You also receive the first CD of the audio version of the course in this package, to help you choose whether you would like to follow the audio + text version, or whether you would like to receive just the text only. An online edition of the course is in preparation and should be available in 2021.

After sampling all this material, if you feel it isn’t right for you, you can either keep the materials, or send them back to us and we will refund your money. But if you decide you would like to enrol on the course, we will send you a package each month for the next twelve months. Each package contains four Gwersi to study (in audio or text format or both), and a copy of Touchstone – a monthly magazine which contains articles and poetry, and gives details of Groves and Seed-Groups, Members’ Notices and news of forthcoming events, workshops and other items of interest.

In addition to the monthly Gwersi, through the year we also send you the Bardic Companion, a CD of the Sacred Grove and Light-Body exercises, and of Gaelic Pronunciation, and the Book of Ritual plus the full ceremonies for each of the eight seasonal festivals. Supplementary Gwersi deal with such topics as the Art of Storytelling, and the Relationship of Druidry to Wicca, Shamanism and Magic.

In addition to the material that you receive, you may correspond about your experiences with the course with a tutor who is personally allocated to you, and we provide you with the passwords to gain access to the private members’ discussion forums.

If you’re in the UK the cost of the text course works out at £4.13 a week. Higher fees apply in other countries to cover airmail postage and currency conversion costs. But Paypal and staged payment plans are available to help you, and if you enrol on the full course online now, we include the Introductory package for free. Click on the ‘Enrol on the course’ button to view details of fees.

We do not want financial hardship to prevent people following the course, so if you really find that even with the easier payment methods, you still cannot afford the fees, please write to us explaining your circumstances. Concessions are also often available for camps, retreats and workshops in the event of financial difficulties.

Although we do send you quite a lot of material, we believe you will find it easy to work with. Over the years we have received hundreds of emails and letters from members saying how they have found following the course feels like ‘coming home’ to them, and how it has changed their lives. They find the Gwersi simple and yet at the same time profound and inspiring. Even with a busy life, most people find the time to work with all the material we send them. And your mentor is always available to help you. You do not need to write essays to follow the course – it is not a conventional ‘correspondence course’.

In ancient times it took nineteen years to become a Druid, but this course of training included many of those subjects that we learn today at school. And nineteen years is also a symbolic length of time: it represents a Metonic cycle: a calculation of the time between two almost identical eclipses, and a calculation which also succeeded in uniting the solar and lunar calendars. And so nineteen years symbolises the time it might take for someone to unite the sun and moon, the Masculine and the Feminine, within their beings.

Today it still takes a long time to achieve this union in the depths of our souls, and the study of Druidry is a lifetime pursuit for many. But we no longer need to train for nineteen years before we can call ourselves a Druid. In fact the term Druid has now come to denote, for many, the type of spirituality they follow. And as for training, we have found that most members taking the course reach the Druid level of training in about three years, although it is possible to achieve this in just over two years.

Many people believe that the teachings of the Druids were lost with the coming of Christianity, and that we couldn’t possibly be teaching authentic Druid wisdom. But we believe that we are. The teachings given in the course are derived from five strands:

The first, and most important, comes – surprisingly to many – from very far back in time, and almost certainly to the teachings of the Druids before the coming of Christianity. We believe these teachings were entrusted to future generations by being encoded in certain ancient stories. Within these stories we can find embedded entire programmes of Druidic training, which form the core of the teachings that we present in the training of the Order. In addition to this material, we draw on the wisdom of the Druidic triads, which were recorded by Christian clerics but which reflect much of the wisdom of their pre-Christian ancestors.

The second strand has its source in the much later period of the Druid Revival, which began over three hundred years ago, at the end of the seventeenth century. Our Order traces its lineage to this period, and from this source of teachings we have inherited certain ritual forms and teachings. Some of these we have discarded as inappropriate to the modern age, but others have been kept, not only for their beauty and relevance, but because they too might well derive from earlier sources, or draw their inspiration from them.

The third strand comes from a more recent time, about sixty years ago, when the previous Chief of the Order, Philip Ross Nichols, together with a group of fellow-druid members of the Ancient Druid Order, formed The Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids, still honouring its connections through the Ancient Druid Order back to its founding in the time of the Druid Revival, but taking the decision to incorporate more study of Celtic source material, and to include a celebration of the four Celtic fire festivals. Ross Nichols was a friend of Gerald Gardner, the founder of the modern Wicca movement, and the evidence of the intellectual cross-fertilisation that occurred between them can now be seen in both Wiccan and Druid teachings. Nichols edited Gardner’s first book on Wicca, and contributed material to his second book.

The fourth strand comes from the contribution of the recent Chief of the Order, Philip Carr-Gomm, to the teachings. Having trained with Ross Nichols, and having trained in psychology and psychotherapy, (in particular Jungian analytical therapy and Psychosynthesis) Philip was asked to lead the Order in 1988. In June 2020 he is handing on the role to Eimear Burke from Ireland.

The fifth strand comes from the contributions of many contemporary scholars and specialists in Druidry and Celtic spirituality, who have offered their insights and writings to the world, and in some cases specifically to the Order, to help build a body of teachings that are truly relevant and helpful to students of Druidry in the modern world. Their contributions are referenced in detail in the bibliographies and indexes provided at each stage in the Order’s training.

Many people go through difficult times in their life, and the course can be very helpful and supportive at such times. But you should not enrol on the course if you have been diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia or a psychotic condition. The reason for this is that while much of the course material can be instructive and helpful to anyone, the course does offer meditations, visualizations and rituals which are designed to ‘open people up’ to their unconscious states and potentially other levels of perception. For those who haven’t suffered from such a condition this process can be helpful, but if you have, these exercises have the potential to be counter-productive. If the training was undertaken in a face-to-face situation the exercises could be paced and adjusted to suit the individual, but since the course is administered from a distance, such adjustment and monitoring just isn’t possible.
Although the distance learning programme is not suitable if you have had these challenges, Druidry can still be followed as a spiritual way/philosophy/religion by making use of the many resources available on the web and in books. It is important to note that this policy refers only and specifically to a diagnosis of schizophrenia or a psychotic condition. We have found that members  who have received other diagnoses can benefit from the course. If you are thinking of enrolling for the course but are not sure if it is for you, just email us at office@druidry.org.

Yes – but we do ask that they write to advise us that they are working with your material and that they send a registration fee of £50. By registering on the course they will be entitled to their own mentor, and will be able to progress through the Grades, provided they fulfil the criteria as laid out in the course.

To join the Order and take the course you must be at least 18 years of age. In exceptional circumstances we can accept enrolments from students who are 16 or 17, but their enrolment must be accompanied by a letter from a parent or guardian confirming that they are happy for them to be taking the course. We appreciate that many younger people would like to take the course, but over the years we have found that the material presented simply cannot be assimilated by those under 16.

Yes! You start with the foundations of Druid practice at the Bardic level, then progress on to studying at the Ovate level, and then finally the Druid level. Training in each of these involves 12 monthly mailings, but you can take as long as you like to complete each one.