135 lines
7.7 KiB
Plaintext
135 lines
7.7 KiB
Plaintext
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The Political Implications of Reviving Druidism
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(c) 1984 P. E. I. Bonewits
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Reprinted from "The Druids' Progress" #1
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Throughout all known human history, people who had hidden
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knowledge (whether of healing, weather prediction, mathematics,
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or magic) have used their exclusive possession of that knowledge
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as a source of power, for purposes that were good, bad or weird.
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The warrior caste has always done its level best to take that
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knowledge away from the clergy and to put it to political, econo-
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mic and military use. Today, almost all the hard and soft scien-
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ces have become tools for those who wish to control their fellow
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human beings. The polluters, the exploiters, the oppressers, the
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conquerers -- whether calling themselves "capitalists" or "commu-
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nists" -- they are the ones who control nearly all the technology
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of overt power and a great deal of the tech for covert tyranny.
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One of the very few ways we have of defending ourselves and
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our fellow passengers (human and other) on this Spaceship Earth
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is through the careful and judicious use of magic. National
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governments and private enterprises are spending millions of
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dollars (and rubles and pounds and yen) trying to develop psychic
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powers into dependable tools for warfare and oppression; while
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most of us who should be learning precise techniques and careful
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timing, in order to use magic and the power of the Gods to defend
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ourselves and our Mother Earth, have been busy being misty-eyed
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romantics, not wanting to "sully our karma" by trying to do magic
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that might really work (that is to say, for which we would have
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to take personal responsibility).
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As a result, we have assisted the very forces of oppression
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which we claim to oppose. We are partly responsible for the
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poverty, hunger, pollution, disease and early deaths which domi-
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nate so much of our planet. Occultists have assisted by being
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unwilling to put their talents to the test by using them for
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"mundane" or "lowly-evolved" purposes. Ecologists, Celtic nation-
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alists, and would-be revolutionaries have assisted by being un-
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willing to use nonmaterialistic technologies to cause changes in
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the material world (after all, if Freud and Marx didn't mention
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magic as real, it can't possibly work). The creation of Neopagan
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Druidism may be able to help change those attitudes.
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Despite the efforts of liberal Christian clergymen to make us
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forget the physical and cultural genocide committed by organized
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Christianity against the peoples of Europe, there is simply no
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way to ignore the fact that monotheists in power always seek to
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silence competing voices. We cannot look to the mainstream
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churches for our physical and spiritual liberation, for they are
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the ones who took our freedom away in the first place. Marxist
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atheism is no answer either, for it is also a product of the
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monotheistic tunnel-reality, and seeks to impose its dogmas and
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holy scriptures just as strenously as ever the churches have.
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Those who want to live in a world of peace, freedom and cultural
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pluralism, must look beyond the currently available, "respect-
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able" (i.e., monistic) alternatives they have been presented with
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by the mass media, and consider new alternatives.
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Many people think of Neopaganism in general, or Druidism in
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particular (if they think of them at all), as just being "odd"
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religions, with no political implications worth investigating.
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But I believe that Neopagan Druidism has important political
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ideas which should be considered, especially by those concerned
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with the survival and revival of the Celtic peoples.
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Druidism is political because one of the primary tasks of the
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clergy has always been to ride herd on the warriors. (This may be
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one reason why barbarian warriors welcomed the Christian mission-
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aries, because they perceived (correctly) that the Christian
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priests would be far more likely to play ball with them than the
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Druids had been. After all, if the world is ending any day now,
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why bother controlling your local warriors?) Since the primary
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threat to life on this planet now comes from out-of-control
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warriors, it's time we started taking that duty seriously again.
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Druidism is political because only a Nature worshipping reli-
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gion can give people sufficient concern for the environment.
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Monotheism is a major cause of the current state of the world's
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ecology. We need a strong public religion that tells the pollut-
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ers, "No, it's not divinely sanctioned for you to rape the
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Earth."
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Druidism is political because the Druids have always been the
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preservers of the best of their traditional cultures. The Meso-
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pagan Druids of Brittany and Wales, for example, are directly
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responsible for assisting the revival of the Cornish language and
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tradition from the very edge of extinction. The various tradi-
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tional preservation and independence movements, such as the Celt-
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ic, Flemish, Baltic and other related movements in Europe, need
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religious and cultural leadership based in their own cultures.
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Druidism can help create an environment in which such leadership
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can develop.
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Druidism is political because it offers a worldview completely
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different from that of the monotheistic/monistic tyranny that now
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controls our planet. One of the many things that any religion
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does is to shape the ways in which people see the world around
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them. We need a religion that offers people a multitude of op-
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tions, rather than traditional western either/or, black/white,
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win/lose choices.
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Druidism is political, at the bedrock level, because it can
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teach people how to use their Gods-given psychic and other tal-
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ents to change the way things are. Make no mistake, magic works,
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at least as often as poetry, music or political rallies do. Magic
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is a form of power that we, the people of the Earth, have avail-
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able to use, not just for psychological "empowerment" (making
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ourselves feel better) but to actually control the individuals
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and institutions responsible for our planet's current mess. If we
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are unwilling to use magic, then we had might as well resign
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ourselves and our descendents to either a life of slavery in a
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homogenized, pasteurized world, or a quick and painful nuclear
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death. And what excuse will we give to the "Lords of Karma" then?
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*****************************************************************
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This article has been reprinted from "The Druids' Progress",
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issue #1, and is copyright 1984 by P. E. I. Bonewits. "DP" is the
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irregular journal of a Neopagan Druid group called "Ar nDraiocht
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Fein", founded by Bonewits (author of "Real Magic"). For more
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data, send an S.A.S.E. to: Box 9398, Berkeley, CA, USA 94709.
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Permission to distribute via BBS's is hereby granted, provided
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that the entire article, including this notice, is kept intact.
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*****************************************************************
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bother controlling your local warriors?) Since the primary
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threat to life on this planet now comes from out-of-contro
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