Our Covenant -Who We Are

We are a community of Druids walking personal paths. We have a vital relationship with the Earth, our mother. We celebrate the Sun and its sacred days. We hear the call to the inner life, and we are weaving a wisdom that is both personal and communal. We each have special work that we do, for ourselves, for others, for our community. We find our balance in the three: the sky, the earth and the sea.

Druidry in the modern world keeps evolving. Druidry has its roots in ancient Celtic traditions, much of which are lost to us; and yet some of which are so powerful, that they speak to us even from the glimpses that we have recovered. Some of us even believe that the spirituality of indigenous Celts may somehow still speak through our DNA!

Modern Revival Druidry affirms both the value of what we can know about ancient Druids and the necessity of crafting our own modern path. The more recent history of Revival Druidry has been largely the product of the British Isles and Ireland as well as male fraternal lodge societies. It has been influenced by the Hermetic tradition and Jewish Kaballah. It has taken on some aspects of Buddhist philosophy and Asian martial arts. And many Druids acknowledge the strong similarities between Celtic Druid traditions and Native American and other Indigenous People’s traditions.

This coming together of indigenous, earth-centered spiritual practices in a modern Druid Order is appropriate and should be cultivated. It is also very clear that the structure and organization of such an order needs to be freed from the patriarchy that still runs fraternal lodges and druid orders that have historic ties to monotheistic religions. We think that we have found resources within Celtic history that will allow us to organize ourselves around something that is energizing and life-giving, stable, and open to creative change. And, that statement in itself is a hint! Keep reading.

Who We Are
The Mother Grove of this new Order is located in the metro-Atlanta area of Georgia. We are individuals with a variety of backgrounds, professionally, religiously, and educationally. We share in common, a love for the earth and for a spirituality centered in an intimate connection with the earth. We belong to other Druid orders, as well as other religious and spiritual traditions. We are women and men. We welcome people of all ethnic backgrounds. We are a welcoming group irrespective of sexual orientation. Our most basic requirement is this: respect for integrity. That integrity begins with one’s own self, extends to other human beings, to all beings, to the earth itself.

What We Value
Our most basic value is respect for integrity (wholeness). All by itself, learning how to reclaim our own integrity as a primal basic aspect of one’s spiritual path is a lifetime’s work. The remainder of our values as a new Druid Order flow from this respect for integrity, and finds voice in some pieces of ancient Druidry. They are the Three Elements and the Bond of Druids.

We use the Three Elements from ancient Celtic expression, Nwyfre (life force), Calas (solidity and stability) and Gwyar (fluidity, flexibility and change), as a tool for discernment for any important decision and for the basics of our ritual work. We value creative energy, stability and flexibility. We recognize an essential energy in all things and that we interact with at all times, with every breath. As human beings, we require safety and security, and the stability and solidity in which we can root the realities of our lives. We recognize that life is always changing and that the cycle of the year and the cycles of life and death and life again are essential to who we are and what this earth is. Any decision, any organization, any step that omits one of these ceases to respect basic integrity.

We value: (based on the Bond of Druids, or Gorsedd)
o Protection (i.e. safety and security for all members. The grove is a safe place)
o Strength
o Understanding
o Knowledge
o Knowledge of Justice (Justice—where all beings get what they need to survive and thrive)
o The Love of Justice
o The Love of all existences
o The Love of Earth our Mother and all goodness

We commend these elements of the Bond of Druids to regular use in our rituals, and to individual druids for regular meditation and reflection. Each is rooted in a basic respect for integrity.

Order Organization
This New Order is organized around the elements of energy, stability, and fluidity. The Druid Order of the Three Realms is based on the Grove Circle and therefore is non-hierarchical. This is fundamental to respect of integrity. All members of the Order are known as Druids. Those interested in our order are welcomed as guests and to take up our ritual and practices until they are ready for initiation. Each initiated person is known as a Druid of the Order of the Three Realms, and continues to study and work the Paths and Spirals that are appropriate for his/her life.

The Druid Order of the Three Realms elects as its leaders three Custodian Druids at varying cycles, so that there is always a new Custodian and experienced Custodians on the job at all times. The Custodians plan, organize, facilitate and tend the ongoing activities of the Order. It is the call of all Druids in the order to provide care and concern for one another.

Druids within the order have two other personal choices that they may make for themselves. Druids who want or need clergy status, and who have training that facilitates this status, may ask the order to recognize them as Druid Priests, giving them legal status as Priest functionaries of the Order. Training that facilitates the status of Druid Priest may be varied, and the Order is free to recognize that variety. It is the responsibility of the Druid asking for this status as Priest to demonstrate how the training has prepared him/her to be a Druid Priest. Status as a Priest in no way elevates one Druid over another, but recognizes a particular kind of work that the Druid Priest does on her or his path. This work is not more important than any other kind of Druid work.

Likewise, Druids in the Order may elect a temporary or permanent designation as a Druid of a particular element. If a Druid, for instance, works primarily on his/her path with sustainability and permaculture, he/she may ask the order to recognize him/her as a Druid of the Earth. Our Ceremonies contain rituals for these designations.

Four times a year, at or near the celebration of the Celtic seasons of Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasad, the Druid Order of the Three Realms will sit in review of itself with three questions: what have we been doing that helps? What have we been doing that doesn’t help? If we could change one thing so that it would help, what would it be? This becomes our process of ongoing renewal and revival. This is a function of Gywar held in place by Calas and energized by Nwyfre. This is not business. This is one of the most important sacred works of the Order. Solitary members will commit to the same three questions and share their responses with the mother Grove.

Membership and Crafting the Druid Path
An individual may join the Druid Order of the Three Realms when he/she discerns that this path is one they wish to commit to with this community. A one time new member fee helps defray ongoing costs of the Order. No one involved in the Order leadership takes any payment or receives monetary profit from the Order. A new member has several options in joining A New Druid Order:
1) joining as a member of the Mother Grove
2) joining as a solitary Druid who wishes to work the path alone but with a mentor Druid in the Grove.
With this option, the solitary Druid may work face to face with the mentor Druid, or by email for members outside the Atlanta area.

The Druid Order of the Three Realms will recognize sister Groves within the Order outside of Atlanta when there are at least four initiated Druids in that area requesting to establish a Grove. A representative of the Custodian Druids of sister groves would be included in decision-making about the Order by phone and email conferences.

Ritual and the Druid Path
The Druid Order of the Three Realms has a growing collection of Grove rituals that are provided for member Druids as a starting place. They are the stability of the Order, but it is expected that Awen inspiration, in conjunction with the life force, will constantly lead Druids of the Order both in private and in community to variations on these basic rituals and to create new ones to add to the collection.

The basic rituals have certain common features: the grove circle, oriented to the seven directions, the invocation of the Three Elements and the central Working through the Sphere of Protection, and the recognition of the Druid/Druids celebrants as the center from which this work happens, a center shared with the Earth, the Sun, and the Universe.

While the Druid Order of the Three Realms does not make use of the traditional “degrees” system found in other forms of Druidry and Wicca or Fraternal Orders, we do find the work of John Michael Greer in his Druidry Handbook and Druid Magic Handbook and Brendan Myers in his Mysteries of Druidry very helpful to the individual Druid in crafting his/her path. In short, we commit ourselves to working with the Solar Path of seasons and festivals of the Wheel of the Year, to the Telluric Path work of manifestation, personal calling, the arts, and earth projects, and to the Mystic Path of meditation, reflection and creativity.

Druids of the Three Realms
• Cultivate a personal druidic practice that shapes their own lives and out of which each contributes to the life of the Grove and the Order.
• Cultivate Druidic practices in the Telluric path, the Solar path, and the Mystic path.
• Practice the Telluric Path working with the Earth in any of many, many ways, but singularly in ways that allow one to say that one is in a vital relationship with “Earth, our mother”.
• Practice the Solar Path keeping the festivals and days of the Celtic year: Samhain, Alban Arthuan, Imbolc, Alban Eiler, Beltane, Alban Heruin, Lughnasad, and Alban Elued as well as individual ritual work that one cultivates on one’s own path.
• Practice forms of meditation that allow them to weave together and integrate what they are learning, experiencing and envisioning on their paths.
• Take on specialized work and study, sometimes called spirals or tools or callings that become a means by which the Druid shares his/her life with the grove, the order and the world. These may include but are not limited to: poetry or writing, music, divination, healing arts, magic, sacred geometry, working with the earth in varied ways (e.g. sustainability projects, recycling, etc) or earth-mysteries and sacred sites, justice work, spiritual direction or spiritual counseling. Each of these specialized works, studies or even “callings” necessarily relate to and incorporate many aspects of the Telluric, Solar and Mystic paths, and find their balance in the Three: Nwyfre (Nem), Calas (Talam) and Gwar (Muir).

If the description of our Order resonates with you, calls to you, or somehow describes your way in the world, we invite you to consider joining our Order. Contact us at custodians@druid3realms.org and we will send you additional detail outlining:
1) our Grove “Basics” document
2) our Grove Community Ritual
3) Cultivating a Druid Path
4) our Covenant

After reading these documents carefully and meditating, then consider the two options below for joining the Order.

For Those With an Established Druid Path and who can give an affirmative answer that they have established practices, then you may choose to join our Order as a Druid with an established practice.

1) I have established ways of working with the Earth that recognize the Earth as “our mother” and which recognizes the vital relationship between the Earth and our humanity. My way(s) of working with the Earth, my Telluric practice(s) include: (please list)
2) I practice the Solar Path keeping the festivals and days of the Celtic year either solitarily or with others in community: Samhain, Alban Arthuan, Imbolc, Alban Eiler, Beltane, Alban Heruin, Lughnasad, and Alban Elued. I am willing to learn the Grove’s Community Ritual and use it when in community with the Grove, even if I use a different or altered ritual when alone.
3) I have established some interior practice of reflection that allows me to integrate what I am learning on my path and identify what is wisdom for me. This may include meditation, journaling, divination, martial arts combined with meditation, etc. I keep a Druid journal in some form (may include computer files or blogging). Please list what your practice includes:
4) I have special interests, studies, practices or crafts that I engage in that I consider part of my Druid path, and I engage in this for my own benefit and as a benefit to the larger community. I am glad to share with the Grove community out of these practices. List your spirals of practice:
5) I agree to take on the Three (Nwyfre/Nem, Calas/Talam, Gwyar/Muir) as a personal and communal working ethos. That is: I will acknowledge the three in my path and see them as guides in decision-making, relating to others and walking my Druid path, alone and with this Order.
6) Once received as a member, I agree to be a contributing member of your Grove. I recognize that a Grove community only works when all are contributing to the “ecosystem”, and so I pledge my gifts, both personal and monetary, as established by the covenant.

The Custodians of the Order will review responses to these affirmations. If all affirmations are in order, you will be received into the Order as a full Druid member. If an area is lacking, you will be asked to clarify and establish that area for the space of one Sun festival (a quarter of a year). Upon the satisfaction of that area, you will be received as a full Druid member. The Custodians of the Order will appoint a Druid member to be your Druid Friend. If I know a Druid in full membership in the Order, I may request him/her to be my Druid Friend. This Druid Friend will simply be a support for you during your first year as a member of the Order.

For those new to Druidry than can give an affirmative answer of willingness to the following, then you may choose to join our Order as an Aspirant. As an Aspirant, you will work with a Druid member of the closest Grove who will be your Druid Mentor. This work will last for at least a year and a day. After that year and a day, when you and your mentor agree that you have an established Druid practice that is in line with our Orders documents, you will be received as a Druid member of the Order.

1) I will establish ways of working with the Earth that recognize the Earth as “our mother” and which recognizes the vital relationship between the Earth and our humanity.
My way(s) of working with the Earth, my Telluric practice(s) may include environmental concerns and practices, gardening practices, studies of my local terrain (trees, plants, wildlife, water resources) that take me beyond books into active engagement.
2) I will practice the Solar Path keeping the festivals and days of the Celtic year either with the Grove community if at all possible: Samhain, Alban Arthuan, Imbolc, Alban Eiler, Beltane, Alban Heruin, Lughnasad, and Alban Elued. I am willing to learn the Grove’s Community Ritual and use it when in community with the Grove, even if I use a different or altered ritual when alone. I will, with the help of my Druid Mentor, also establish a personal druid ritual which I will practice on a regular basis.
3) I will establish some interior practice of reflection that allows me to integrate what I am learning on my path and identify what is wisdom for me. This may include meditation, journaling, divination, martial arts combined with meditation, etc. I will create a Druid journal where I will record what I am learning in all three of these paths: the Telluric (Earth), the Solar (Sun-ritual), and the Lunar (Moon, meditation and reflection).
4) I will identify at least one special interest, study, practice or craft that I will engage in that I consider part of my Druid path, and I will engage in this for my own benefit and as a benefit to the larger community. I will be glad to share with the Grove community out of these practices. This may take time to identify, or it may be something that I am already engaged in, but by the mid-point of my year and a day, I will have settled on my “spiral” of special practice.
5) I agree to take on the Three (Nwyfre/Nem, Calas/Talam, Gwyar/Muir) as a personal and communal working ethos. That is: I will acknowledge the three in my path and see them as guides in decision-making, relating to others and walking my Druid path, alone and with my Grove.
6) For a year and a day after being received into this Grove as an Aspirant, I will work with another member of the Grove as my Druid Mentor. We will agree to meeting at monthly during this year and a day, preferably in person, but at least by email or phone (for aspirants who do not live local to a Druid member), to discuss the cultivation of my Druid path and any questions/ concerns I may have. During this year and a day, I will be an Aspirant of the Grove. After this year and a day, I will be able to enter full membership as a Druid of the Grove if my Mentor and I agree that I have established all of the necessary aspects of my Druid path.
7) Once received as a full member, I agree to be a contributing member of the Grove. I recognize that a Grove community only works when all are contributing to the “ecosystem”, and so I pledge my gifts, both personal and monetary, as established by the covenant.

Other Useful Links

Philip Carr-Gomm, chief of OBOD, on “The Druid Path”

Nine Druidic Mysteries—based on Brendan Myers’ book, The Mysteries of Druidry. This is a nice summary put together by Black Mountain Order Druidry