Rosher.Net

There’s a thread on The Druid Network’s members’ message board “social_dot” which asks how Druids should react, should behave, should respond to Brexit, Trump, xenophobia and other world issues. I’m afraid my fingers hit the keyboard and I couldn’t stop them. And then it felt worth pushing it out from behind the safety net of a private space. So I did.

Of course, there are going to be many and varied and mutually conflicting views about what is going on in the world right now. We are a membership made up of humans, and humans make choices. No matter the choices we each make, those choices are presumed to be considered and rational ones based on each member’s location, background, upbringing and (in here) spiritual relationships with their gods and their perception of Druidry.

I think of all the memorable historic Druids and Druidries there are out there, my closest relationships are perhaps with those who peacefully protested. Peacefully, but with the strongest resistance even to the point of death. I’m thinking of those Druids who gathered bare headed beneath the eye of the mounted cavalry to recite the Druid’s Prayer. I’m thinking of the Druids who went out to Libya to peaceably defend the Senussi. I’m thinking about walking between the battle lines. I’m thinking activist Druidry.

I hear the caution about being too vocal, about mixing politics and spirituality, or being intolerant of other viewpoints. But we are not here to be hermits. The world is in crisis. Yes, the pendulum swings back and forth and we certainly appear to be at the rotten end of a swing that began in the post-war years… and wow there were some protests back then too! It wasn’t all free love and LSD, there was the Vietnam war and the Cuban Missile Crisis and all sorts of stuff going down. Would we have protested then? You betcha.

So my response is to be wakeful of the issues. Sip from as many information sources as you can, because that dilutes mis- and disinformation. Get out there and be present. Stand up for what YOU believe in. When you see something wrong, shout out for all to know you see that wrongness. Religious intolerance? Shout it out. Gender hate? Yell at it. Environmental? Racial? “Post-Truth”? Anti-Expert? Do something, even as small as writing doggerel, signing petitions and posting on Facebook. Use the media we have, even as it is part of the problem. If possible, support activism with your chequebook.

I’m spent time trying to understand how people could elect a fascist into office, or trash a working system without a plan B. I’ve no illusions that Plan A was faultless, or that the system wasn’t broken before it got busted. Understanding how people work is a large part of understanding why we are living in these times. Don’t believe anything. Even this. Take it to your gods, call it into your meditations, scream it from your hilltop and sea shores until you hear the echoes returning clarity.

The Druid response to Brexit, to Trump, and to all the wrongs that span out from where they were always hiding? Be a force for good. Be better. Be informed. But don’t be quiet. Druids do have a reputation for satire too, in case you’d forgotten… raise some boils.