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> I'm so new to Druidry every topic is interesting to me.

I'm not new to Druidry, and every topic is still interesting to me lol. I hope you find Druidry to be as passionate and enriching as I have.

> what does a typical day, week, month and year look like in their lives specifically as it relates to Druidry.

This is definitely something I'll have to address, as multiple people ask for it. Role models are so important, and they're difficult to find. But it's what a lot of newcomers really need.

> So learning about what magic really means - you know really, really means.

I highly recommend reading John Michael Greer's books, especially The Druid Magic Handbook. I also highly recommend checking out his blog about magic, The Well of Galabes. His writing is what got me past the Hollywood preconceptions about magic and made me truly understand its nature.

His order, AODA, also has information about the Sphere of Protection ritual on their website and incorporates magical study as part of its curriculum. You may be interested in joining if you want to follow a magical path.

Having said that, Greer and AODA focus on ceremonial magic that descends from Hermeticism. I have personally found it very vital and enriching. In fact, it is what turned me into a polytheist. But, although it has been Celtified, it's not historical to the Celts. We believe the druids practiced a magic that is almost entirely lost to us today, unfortunately, so many neopagan Druids fill in the gap with this style of magic. I think it has its place and purpose, but it's not the whole story. We can also try to reconstruct magical practices from history as well as adopt folk magic from the recent Celtic past.

> If a blog is well organized and has good navigation tools, like a list of topics with subtopics and perhaps topic tags, these make it so much easier to navigate to an interesting topic. Also varying degrees of depth on the articles. I mean there are times I want a quick read and other times I want to dive deeper.

All very true and insightful observations. I go nuts with tagging/categorizing (I hate people who don't use any metadata! It makes it so hard to locate relevant information), so you can definitely expect to see that in any blogging that I do :)

Thank you for your feedback and I wish you well on your spiritual journey.

>no one has offered anything new since I asked

You seem to have missed the many explanations from various members here about archelogical and historical absence of proof of yogic practices within Druidry, you missed the book recommendations to help you understand more of Druid history, and in fact it seems you've only taken interest in the posts that cater well to your own responses rather than information.

Here, let me help.

The Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids is one of the most populous Druid orders around. They're most famous for their 3-grade correspondence course. They hold international festivals and host a very entertaining, informative podcast, Druidcast. Their website will answer a lot of your questions on Druidry.

Ár nDraíocht Féin is another very popular Druid order.

Ancient Order of Druids in America is another one.

Blood and Mistletoe by Ronald Hutton is an amazing book detailing the history of Druids.

The Druidry Handbook by John Michael Greer is highly praised.

The Druid Ways by Philip Carr-Gomm is a great, short introduction to modern Druidry.

Celtic mythology is prevalent in Druidic practices.

This should mostly be new information to you, since you came here asking to learn about Druidry. Please, browse through a couple of the sites and come back with any questions. I'll be happy to help you sort through some of the admittedly jumbled info and answer any honest question.

Druid grade OBOD member here, been part of the Order for ≈9 years. I've found the group to be non-dogmatic, welcoming, and really just full of happy (and wonderfully odd) people. Everyone likes good stories, good drinks and good company. It's all very chill and the coursework itself is really a set of tools that you learn to work with in the way you feel is best. It is a universalist tradition, meaning all faiths are welcome to participate (there are Christian, Heathen, Atheist, etc. members).

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On cost: the course work is mailed to you each month from the UK, so there is a shipping consideration. It's one of the fun parts of the course that each month you get these brown parcels that you know have new info in them. The coursework itself is lengthy - it took me a year to get through it, others take longer or shorter. So consider it a year of druid-y goodness coming to you like a subscription service, if that helps. I would also point out that if someone you know like a family member or friend would like to use your course materials, the Order doesn't police it but asks you to make a small ($20-ish) donation on the honest policy. So if, say, you and a partner wanted to work through the course, there is a savings.

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As others have mentioned, check out Druidcast, the Order's podcast. If you're a fan of the mythology look for episodes with Roland Rotherham. If you want to know more about the Order itself, check out any with Philip Carr-Gomm, the current chosen chief. If you want some books to read, the Elements of Druid Tradition. Penny Billington's The Path of Druidry was mentioned and is a kind of workbook with lots of exercises, and was written by the long time editor of the Order's newsletter.

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Hope this helps.

Welcome to the sub, DM mentioned the ADF but I don't think they'd be the organization for you if you're more on the athiest/agnostic spectrum as the ADF takes a more religious, polytheistic approach. I'd look into the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids (OBOD) and the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA) if you're looking into an organization to join. Many druids are solitary though and never join an organization, though there are advantages to doing so. They're a good source of guidance.

Most people start by reading books though, I'd also suggest reading the first two links in the side bar. One is a sort of 'summary' of the modern druid movement, the second is a comprehensive history of how it came about.

Some good 'starter' books are:

The Path of Druidry by Penny Billington

The Druidry Handbook by John Michael Greer

Druidry and Meditation by Nimue Brown

A Brief History of the Druids by Peter Berresford Ellis

Several of the above authors also have blogs that a lot of people read and follow.

I tend to suggest the above because it covers a few different approaches to things, I feel like it's important as druids today to understand the past and where we get our influence from, which A Brief History of the Druids provides, both the Druidry Handbook and the Path of Druidry offer a good introduction to modern druidry, and Druidry and Meditation provides some instruction and guidance on meditation, which a lot of druids practice, and also I think does a good job of displaying the mentality and energy of many modern druids.

The thing about modern druidry though is there really isn't a right or wrong way as long as you adhere to the very basic beliefs of respecting all life (this doesn't mean necessarily being a pacifistic) and revering nature. You can be an atheist, a pantheist, a monotheist, a polytheist, Christian, Pagan, Buddhist, whatever. Which means it can be a little intimidating to new people, since you're kind of just tossed into this big forest and told to figure out your own way through it, but you learn a lot.

I think it's also good to note that modern druidry is not an attempt at recreation, if you read a Brief History of the Druids, you'll figure out that we actually know very little about the ancient druids, so it'd be very difficult to recreate their order.

Some recommendations:

Gods and Fighting Men. This covers a lot of the Irish myths.

The Four Branches of the Mabinogi. This covers a great deal of the Welsh myths.

Celtic Gods and Heroes. This is a brief but decent overview of Gods and Goddesses of Irish, British and Gaulish origin.

The Isles of the Many Gods. I have not yet read this one, but it's on my wish list and sounds about right for you.

Celtic Myths and Legends. This covers it all, but perhaps not as directly focused on the gods as you would like. Its a decent read though.




There are some great online sources for the Welsh and Irish myths. If finances are an issue try them out. Good luck!

The two obvious sites that have plenty of useful stuff

• https://www.adf.org/
  
  
• http://www.druidry.org/
  
  OBOD's podcast is a good monthly listen, some have poor audio quality in parts when he's recording some public presentation but still worth listening to them all in my opinion http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/resources/druidcast-obod-podcast
  
  
  
  >I would also appreciate any other book recommendations any of you have.
  
  
  OBOD has book reviews and books by category over here http://www.druidry.org/library , if something catches your eye see if it has any goodreads or amazon reviews.
  
  ADF has a recommended reading list too https://www.adf.org/training/resources/reading.html
  
  
  
  --------------
  
  Now, my personal recommendations that would be western-European specific taken from another thread recently:
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Myths-Legends-British-Richard-Barber/dp/1843830396/
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Early-Irish-Myths-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140443975
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Celtic-Myths-Legends-Peter-Berresford/dp/0786711078
  
  And then I'll throw in the rest just because it's nice having a good knowledge of the myths and legends of Europe in general.
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Poetic-Edda-Lee-M-Hollander/dp/0292764995
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Edda-Everymans-Library-Snorri-Sturluson/dp/0460876163
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Bulfinchs-Mythology-Legends-Charlemagne-Chivalry/dp/0440308453
  
  
• The Iliad and the Odyssey, just search Amazon for a copies with reviews that speak to you
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/DAulaires-Greek-Myths-Ingri-dAulaire/dp/0440406943
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Pushkins-Fairy-Tales-A-Pushkin/dp/5938934176
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Folktales-Collection-Afanasyev-Dual-Language/dp/048649392X
  
  
  

Yeah, I just discovered that. Haven't finished it but I think it's pretty spot on.

And, before I dip out, I totally recommend John Michael Greer's The Druidry Handbook. Druid or not, I doubt I'll be forgetting the things I learned from it. Anyway it's a pretty solid text, I imagine it'd complement any of the OBOD stuff you've got headed your way.

Hey there! I have some recommendations, and I'm sure others do as well, but if you're looking for introductory-style books, here you go!

• The Path of Druidry: Walking the Ancient Green Way by Penny Billington (Amazon link)
  
• The Druidry Handbook by John Michael Greer (Amazon link)
  
  I'd also recommend OBOD and ADF's websites; they're chock-full of information! And of course, feel free to ask here if you have any questions.

DruidCraft Tarot. This is what I own and recommend; the presentation style is much more nature focused with iconography relevant to those walking the Druid or Wiccan paths. I highly recommend this one for someone in this sub looking for a deck. It comes with a walkthrough explaining the history and use of Tarot and includes a large manual explaining each card within the major and minor arcana as well as making sense of the suits.

There's definitely been books on practicing as a solitary druid, outside of one of those organizations, so I don't see why not. As long as you're not falsely representing yourself as a member of one of those organizations, and as long as you are studying druidry and feel like that path calls to you, I don't see how anyone could reasonably take offense at you calling yourself a druid.

I recently finished reading The Book of Hedge Druidry by Joanna van der Hoeven. Based on your description, you may also enjoy it.

The Sphere of Protection is described thoroughly in John Michael Greer's The Druid Magic Handbook. The Kindle version should be easy enough to keep private. It's also available on Scribd if you subscribe to it.

It can be used on its own, but is also a companion book to JMG's The Druidry Handbook, which is suitable to someone practicing alone but is also the AODA's primary text.

There are plenty of other druid organizations and druidry authors, with different styles, but I would suggest the books mentioned above because I think highly of JMG as an author, and because, of the other two most prominent druid organizations, ADF is very much about engaging Druidry as a polytheistic pagan religion and might not suit you, and OBOD mails you course materials that are 1) kind of expensive for a college student, and 2) difficult to keep private since you're getting physical materials mailed to you.

Ronald Hutton is always a good bet http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stations-Of-The-Sun-History/dp/0192854488

The Druidry Handbook by John Michael Greer

This might be a good start. John Michael Greer is a former Archdruid for AODA, and this was one of the first books on druidry I read, myself.

You might try reading The Druid Handbook https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007L4SUPU/