Modern Magic Pathing

• Many spiritual feminists, like those cited here, seem to experience this need because they have felt very ambivalent about being a woman prior to any involvement with the movement. They do not want to feel like freakish imitation women; short of expensive surgical interventions, they cannot be men. But neither do they want to be the type of women of whom society disapproves. 

References

Eller, Cynthia (1993) Living in the Lap of the Goddess, the Feminist Spirituality Movement in America. Beacon Press, Boston

(March 4, 2025)  

(July 6, 2022) Modern Druidry has several organization but this discussion will center on its earliest organization called the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids (OBOD at https://druidry.org). OBOD's path is more about nature mysticism and psychological healing that anything else.

As originally conceived by nationalist Druid revival groups, "Druids" were  the priests of the people of Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments around Europe. Stonehenge was older then the Romans and so were the Druids of Gaul and Britain mentioned by the Roman geographer Strabo (63 BCE - 21 CE) and Julius Caesar. Strabo says this: 

But the Germans were more barbaric than the Celts because they had no Druids and no zeal for sacrifices. This indicates their  Indo-European religion had not yet been corrupted by lordification in which deities as people had to be appeased and bribed. Julius Caesar says this:

Late Greek historian Diogenes Laertius (sometime between 220 and 300 CE) draws on other accounts referencing a respected book by Sotion (about 200 – 170 BC) to say this in his Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book 1, Prologue:

"Chaldaea" is a Latinization of the Greek Khaldaía (Χαλδαία)  

The founder of OBOD was Ross Nichols. He was the principal of a cramming school in London during the 1950s. He started contributing articles on Druidry and the occult to magazines in his younger years. In 1954, probably at the suggestion of his friend and fellow naturist Gerald Gardner of Wicca fame, he joined the Ancient Order of Druids. He even edited Gardner's book  Witchcraft Today. He left the Order in 1964 after three of his core friends there died including Gerald Gardiner. Ross wanted to form a more authentic Celtic spiritual practice less focused on supposed fertility witchcraft rituals. He did this by combining Celtic mythology with Occult practices. Yet Ross remained a Christian not viewing the spiritual practices of OBOD as a full replacement for Christianity despite having many personal reservations about Christian theology. He probably saw the nature spirit elements in the teachings of Jesus.

After Ross died in 1975 leadership of OBOD passed to Philip Carr-Gomm, a psychologist and long time student of Ross Nichols who started out by taking photos of their ceremonies when young. At this time OBOD was not doing well so Phillip refocused OBED on nature and emotional healing distancing it from the occult. He also developed OBOD's popular correspondence course.

References

Carr-Gomm, Philip (2002) Druid Mysteries-Ancient Wisdom for the 21st Century. Rider Publishers

(July 6, 2022) Star Wars presented a magical divine/spiritual realm not populated with people like gods but with the "Force" generated by conscious experiences. Jedi were the magic crafters and some were more talented at it than others. Yet in order to make a simple adventure story it divided that divine realm into good and evil taking the dualist religious position. Yet this simplicity shows how dualism is so seductive on the human mind. Star Wars was released on May 25, 1977.  

Quotes on the Force in Star Wars

• From Yoda: “Remember, a Jedi’s strength flows from the Force. But beware: Anger, fear, aggression – the Dark Side, are they.”
• From Obi-wan: “Well, the Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.”
• From Yoda: "For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes."

References

Quotes from: https://screenrant.com/star-wars-best-quotes-force/

(July 6, 2022) Neo-Pagan or simply Pagan became a general catch-all term for the many non-Christian groups which emerged at this time. They were unified simply by being non-Christian. This resulted in their fundamental differences being overlooked, especially those between the reconstructionists who sought to revive ancient Pagan religions by deriving authority from surviving ancient texts and the New Age approach of people who refused to be grounded in anything (feelings defined their reality).

Other Pagans started calling themselves by various names such as eclectic wiccan or kitchen wiccan (home and herbal based) leaving Gardiner's original style to be called traditional British Wicca. The more extreme feminist Wicca came to be called Dianic Wicca.  Others started calling themselves witches and claimed authority from familial traditions. Finally there were the nature based Druid groups who went looking for grounding but failed doing no better then scattered Roman era texts (see Druid Source Book by John Matthews 1997).

One of the first statements of Neo-Pagan principles occurs in the founding papers of the first Druidry group in the United States called the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA). This group was founded in 1963 at Carleton college in Northfield, Minnesota as protest against the requirement that all students attend a certain number of religious services “of one’s own religion.” Their founding statement is listed below (Adler 2006 p 337):

The Carleton religious requirement was abolished the following year but much to the chagrin of some of the original founders, the RDNA continued on as a real alternative religion. This example is paralleled throughout the Pagan movement. What started out as one thing became another as people discovered spiritual liberation in something more personal.

An early statement about grounding Wicca as a religion was made in 1984 by Janet and Stewart Ferrar. In this statement they define for Wicca a purpose as an alignment with the spiritual (divine) powers (1984, Part 2, p 146):

In 1995, the alignment with nature became the sixth recognized religious root for the Unitarian Universalist church. This root is presently represented by the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans. They stated this sixth source as follows in their source list :

In 2002 realizing the limits of magic on the physical realm, the chief of the Nature-Pagan religion of Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids, Philip Carr-Gom said this about magic:

 Pagans at the turn of the millennium did not yet have a solid intellectual foundation for their beliefs and practices. As a result, the Neo-Pagans of the time mostly defined themselves by what they were not. This is shown by this summary from Margot Adler’s book “Drawing Down the Moon”:

As a practicing Nature Pagan herself she added this insight about Pagan rituals as a means of promoting connection:​

References

Adler, Margot (2006) Drawing Down the Moon, Penguin books, U.S.A​

Carr-Gomm, Philip (2002) Druid Mysteries, Ancient Wisdom for the 21st Century. Rider: London

Ferrar Janet & Stewart (1984) A Witches’ Bible, The Complete Witches’ Handbook, Phoenix Publishing

Matthews, John (1997) The Druid Source Book. Blandford