Druid Priestess: An intimate journey through the pagan year - Softcover

Restall Orr, Emma

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007107692 ISBN 13: 9780007107698

Publisher: Thorsons, 2001

Synopsis

A compelling picture of the spiritual life of one of the world’s leading Druids. Emma’s intimate style takes you right to the heart of the Druid tradition as she weaves her way through the changing seasons of the pagan year.

Forget the images of white-robed figures involved in esoteric ritual – modern druidry is not wrapped in a veil of secrecy but celebrated openly in the sunlight of a meadow or the shady leafiness of a forest glade. Druids are passionate about the environment, and their worship is above all focussed on Nature through the celebration of the changing seasons of the year.

This is a personal journey through the chaos and darkness of Hallowe’en into the energy and brightness of spring and summer, then back again. Druidry emerges as an accessible and compelling spiritual path that offers enormous potential for healing and personal empowerment.

About this title

Review:

What is it actually like to be a druid? Forget all the weirdly dressed bearded characters doing strange things at Stonehenge; druidism is a day-to-day spiritual path, and one of the fastest growing in Britain. Emma Restall Orr's Druid Priestess is subtitled "an intimate journey through the pagan year", and that's exactly what it is.

Orr is joint chief of the British Druid Order, so she knows what she's talking about; she's also a very poetic creative writer, which makes her book a joy to read. And this is a creative work, rather than any sort of manual on "how to be a druid". Chapter by chapter Orr steps through the eight festivals of the druid year, describing rituals with her group, and her own personal explorations. She's up front about the fact that she's merged events and characters, and the more visionary aspects of her story, including "becoming" the Bobcat of her druid name, are clearly subjective, guided visualisations. How much of this book is her imagination, then, and how much is fact? Quite honestly, it doesn't matter; Orr is a storyteller, and this book is about the experience of being a druid priestess; if she had stuck to hard objective facts, it wouldn't be the "intimate journey" it is.

This is a beautiful, warming book, which demonstrates clearly the magic in a druid's life--and also the fact that druid priestesses are real people who get headaches like the rest of us/ One warning for anyone who already has any of Emma Restall Orr's books: Druid Priestess is actually a new edition of her earlier Spirits of the Sacred Grove.--David V Barrett

Synopsis:

Forget the images of white-robed figures involved in esoteric ritual - modern druidry is not wrapped in a veil of secrecy but celebrated openly in the sunlight of a meadow or the shady leafiness of a forest glade. Druids are passionate about the environment, and their worship is above all focussed on Nature through the celebration of the changing seasons of the year. This is a personal journey through the chaos and darkness of Hallowe'en into the energy and brightness of spring and summer, then back again. Druidry emerges as an accessible and compelling spiritual path that offers enormous potential for healing and personal empowerment. A picture of the spiritual life of one of the world's Druids. Emma's intimate style takes you right to the heart of the Druid tradition as she weaves her way through the changing seasons of the pagan year.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thorsons
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0007107692
• ISBN 13: 9780007107698
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256