Modern Druidry
After the near complete domination of the Celtic realm by Christianity, the druids faded into obscurity. They remained nearly forgotten, mere historic curiosities, until sixteenth century authors began to speculate about the nature of druidry. Because of the lack of concrete information in the historical records, these would-be historians found themselves free to speculate, and they eventually wove an enchanting, romantic fantasy of their druid ancestors as noble savages, impossibly educated, virtuous, and lacking nothing in spiritual depth. These romantics touched off a furious interest in druidry which eventually led to attempts to resurrect druidry as a living religion.
The Romantic Druid
The seeds of modern druidry were planted in the sixteenth century, when several authors began to speculate on the nature of the druid religion. This sentiment flowered in the following century, when an English antiquarian by the name of John Aubrey made detailed notes on the measurements, position, and placement of the Avebury stones and other monuments, which he theorized were druid ancient temples.
A somewhat later scholar, another antiquarian, Dr. William Stukeley, picked up Aubrey's notions of noble druid builders and created a history of Britain's druids. Stukeley theorized a massive layout of temples, all part of a larger pattern of earthworks centering on the stone circles at Stonehenge and Avebury, which he supposed were arrayed in a pattern of large serpents or dragons. He painted a romantic picture of druids as romantic and wise, and it is from his work that we get the popular image of the bearded, white robed druid.
William Stukeley reconciled his Christianity and his interest in druidry by constructing an elaborate theory of origin for the ancient druids. He hypothesized that the ancient druids were in fact the ancient Hebrew descendants of Abraham, who, after journeying to Europe, began to practice a form of “natural religion” not unlike Christianity which showed particular reverence for the trinity. It was of course a complete fantasy.
Stukeley visited one Neolithic burial site after another, and declared them all to be druidic. Stukeley's interest in druidry went beyond curiosity into outright enthusiasm; although he was a vicar of the church, he began to fancy he was a druid himself. He christened himself “Chyndonax,” after a Greek inscription taken from a druid's tomb, and constructed his own interpretation of a druid grove in his own backyard, where he even conducted his own versions of ancient rituals.
Neodruid Orders
Stukeley's enthusiasm proved contagious, and all this romanticism about druidry inevitably led to the formation of several neodruid orders. In 1781, an Englishman named Henry Hurle founded the first neodruid order, which he called the Ancient Order of Druids (AOD). The order was based largely on a Masonic style infrastructure, and admitted only men. The AOD had members with distinctly different motivations. One group was composed of mystics who encouraged spiritual exploration, while the other preferred a nonreligious, “benevolent society” not unlike today's Rotarians. The group splintered, with one becoming the United Ancient Order of Druids and the other the Albion Lodge of United Ancient Order of Druids of Oxford. The latter group claimed descent from a mythical ancient druid order, Mount Haemus Grove, and its initiates included Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The former group continued much unchanged and still operates today.
The Mount Haemus Grove, according to the Albion Lodge, was supposedly formed by the last remnant of the ancient druids in 1245. In reality, the reference comes from a brief mention of the area by Stukeley, and it is heavily embroidered upon by later groups looking to add a gloss of historical legitimacy.
This neodruidry continued to be popular, and even influenced the founding fathers of the United States. Revolutionary Thomas Paine was one of several Freemasons who assumed (wrongly, of course) that Freemasonry had originated in the druid grove.
