Druidism?? (priest, rituals, America, experience, worship)

[Master Vigil]

I am a little familiar with druidism. I met a druid priestess once and we talked about spirit guides and tree spirits and such. But I still do not know much about them. If anyone has any insight please feel free to teach me.

[Runt]

I don't know about all Druids, but I know of a coven that reminded me a lot of Wicca. They practice the four greater sabbats during the year (Imbolc, Beltaine, Lughnasadh, and Samhain) as well as all 13 esbats (full moons holidays), and they follow the Mother Goddess.

[Master Vigil]

Yeah, I think wicca got alot of their ideas from druidism. I always liked the idea of them honoring trees as being sacred. I've always thought trees were special, and I like their attitude towards them. They almost remind me of native americans in that right. But of course being nature based they celebrate the nature holidays. I just am not sure of their magical ideas and such.

[Runt]

I can't tell you much. I know that this particular group blesses their herbs. I know they have rituals on sabbats and esbats, but whether these rituals include magical workings or are pure worship, I simply don't know. I know that they believe in spirits (elemental spirits, faeries, and such), but I don't know if there are any attempts to interact with them. One of them does energy healing (he did it on me), but that might be a New Age influence rather than something all neoDruids do, or it might be particular to this particular coven, which is focused on healing.

[Master Vigil]

The druid priestess I met told me they did meditations in which they hug a tree and then become one with the tree. They then are able to sense everything that the tree senses. Almost like seeing through the trees eyes. She did alot of herb medicines and stuff. She actually was able to cure herself from uterin cancer. A cancer in which she said was found too late to treat. She should have died. But she healed herself through meditation, herbs, and I think magic. She talked about the spirits but we didn't discuss them as much as I wish I would have. She was definitely an interesting person. She brought her own goblet and drank out of it at the party. Definitely intriguing.

[Runt]

I simply cannot say if all that you describe is common to every Druid. I suspect herbal magic definitely is; the ancient Druids were very into that. And the guy who tried to do energy healing on me was part of a group that sells herbal medicine; incidentally, all the people workin in that group are part of the coven.

[Druidus]

Herbal medicine is common but not universal among Druids. What you spoke of, in seeing through the trees eyes is a form of meditation. First learn heartbeat meditation, in which you can feel the pulsing of life, including your own. Then use that when near a tree. You will feel a life pulse. If left in this state you may shift into eachother and you may "become" a tree. The ancient druids also used this with birds, and then watched through their eyes to gain a bird's eye view of something, and to see vast territory in relatively small time. They couldn't control the birds however they could make suggestions in which way to go. I haven't been succesful in this, although I have felt their life pulse. They tend to fly away to soon, so I'll need more practice. I have really only shifted into trees as of yet, and only 6-7 times, although each experience was euphoric.