“With the merry ring, adieu the merry spring, For summer is a-come unto day, How happy is the little bird that merrily doth sing, In the merry morning of May.” Verse from the ‘Day Song’ sung on May 1st at Padstow in Cornwall. At this time of year in the UK, we’re peculiarly blessed with opportunities to publicly celebrate our Druid spirituality. May Day is one of our ancient festivals that has maintained a rich tradition of celebrations throughout the four nations, though often now celebrated on the first Monday in May, which was designated a bank holiday in 1978, rather than on May 1st. It su ..read more

[Bob Dylan, from ‘The Gates of Eden,’ on Bringing it All Back Home (1965)] Here we are then, 24 years into the 21st century and once again teetering on the brink of a Third World War. As a child during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the fear of nuclear war between America and the Soviet Union was so real that I took a spade from my father’s tool shed and dug a fall-out shelter in the sand dunes near my parents’ bungalow. I’m not sure why. There were concrete 'pillboxes' left over from the Second World War among the dunes that had walls three feet thick and would have provided more protectio ..read more

by Frank Olding Green Magic, 2024 224 pages, Paperback, £12.99 Index Buy it HERE! I love this book! Had it existed 50 years ago, it would have saved me decades of rooting around in second-hand book shops and having friends search university libraries. It is the first book to bring together clear English translations of all the existing early material by or about Taliesin, the semi-mythical 6th century poet known as the primary chief bard of Britain. The 54 poems attributed to him are all here, including such well-known, mysterious and much-debated gems as Kat Godeu, ‘The Battle of the Trees ..read more

Rishi Sunak, the UK's first Hindu Prime Minister, has warned of the dangers of polarisation and hatred in politics. This follows MP and former deputy leader of the Conservative Party, Lee Anderson's claim that “Islamists” have “got control of London” and of its Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, despite the fact that Khan has frequently spoken out against anti-Semitism and in support of Jewish communities in the UK and been praised by Jewish groups for doing so. Former Conservative Home Secretary and Buddhist, Suella Braverman, ramped up the divisive, anti-Islamic rhetoric still further when she wrote ..read more

A few years ago, a group of BDO members revived a lost ceremony of Toad blessing I’d learned about while researching for the British Druid Order’s distance learning courses. A reference to it appears in Cotton MS Claudius B VII, a manuscript in the British Library that was assembled from earlier materials for Archbishop Matthew Parker (1504 - 1575, right). Its contents include (1) legal proceedings; (2) Roger of Howden, Chronicle, (3) Pseudo-Turpin, De gestis Karoli magni; ‘Prester John,’ Epistola ad Manuelem imperatorem, etc.; (4) extracts made in the time of Matthew Parker; (5) Pseudo-Dares ..read more

How was everyone’s Calan Mai? My big news for May Day this year is the completion of the three-year-long revision of the British Druid Order’s bardic course. It took that long because there are big changes from the first version, which went online in 2011. One major improvement is that we now include brilliant new translations of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, both versions of the Story of Taliesin and many of the poems from the Book of Taliesin, including ‘The Battle of the Trees’ and ‘The Spoils of Annwn,’ plus my own new translations of some key Irish texts, along with extensive new int ..read more

I love books. It's been a dream of mine since I was a kid to see my name on the spine of a really nicely produced hardback book. Well, it took a while, but I finally made it! The first edition of Druidry: A Practical & Inspirational Guide was a modest little paperback that came out in 2000 (above left). Despite being written as an introductory book, I was delighted to hear that even old hands in the Pagan and Druid worlds had found inspiration in it. It's also been a joy to run into those for whom it was their first introduction to Druidry and who were inspired to follow it as a path ever ..read more

Writing on music for the British Druid Order's bardic course rekindled a long-standing love of medieval instruments and the enchanting sounds they create. I’ve written previously about my recreation of a ‘lost’ stringed instrument played in medieval Ireland and Wales called the timpan, or tiompan. Encouraged by that reconstruction turning out reasonably playable, thoughts turned to the type of harp that might have accompanied bardic performances of the tales that make up the Mabinogi, or recitals of the songs of Taliesin, in 12th century Wales. Here we’re on more certain ground than with the t ..read more

I published a book with the above title back in 2000. That's it on the left. The circumstances under which it was written were, to say the least, unusual. Ellie, my wife of 15 years, was suffering from Acute Myeloid Leukemia. At the time of publication, she was in a London teaching hospital, recovering from the second time her medical team told me she had less than 48 hours to live. She died some months later. Between caring for Ellie and looking after our two children, then aged 5 and 7, I had neither the time nor the inclination to do publicity for the book. It therefore failed to sell in th ..read more

(The following is extracted from the British Druid Order bardic course, booklet 17) “Harshness vanished. A sudden softness has replaced the meadows’ wintry grey. Little rivulets of water changed their singing accents. Tendernesses, hesitantly, reach toward the earth from space, and country lanes are showing these unexpected subtle risings that find expression in the empty trees.” ‘Early Spring,’ Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926). The east, elemental Air, marks the spring equinox, Welsh Alban Eilir, ‘the Birth of the Fresh (or Green) Quarter,’ which falls on or about March 21st (September 21st in ..read more