Notes and Additions to Chapter Eight
Guides, Guardians and Gods

1. Willowwind questioned the clarity of my words on this point, for although there is indeed the brutality of competition in nature, the natural world also, she says, selects for cooperation and symbiosis. Examples might be the extraordinary seeming altruism of the African wild dogs and meerkats or the relationship between nitrogen-fixing bacteria and plant roots. Would not the gods of the natural world work with these principles as well? She is, of course, right, but it is a good point, for perhaps in my original text I was perhaps too focused on wanting to shake up the sentimentality still found in Paganism, of an idealised, beautiful natural world that in some ways cares for humankind. Ten years on, the environmental crisis of global warming, with glaciers melting, ocean currents changing and increasingly ferocious storms, there is perhaps a good deal less sentimentality to be shaken.

2. John Newton has sent me a query, writing, It may be my lack of experience, but I have never come across any other reference to either the sword or the cauldron as objects receiving special attention within Druidry, except for this one. I am, however, aware of the symbolism of the dagger and chalice within Wicca, which this section appears to resemble. Is this another practice that Druids have borrowed from Wicca, or is it the other way around? This is an interesting point and one worth raising for discussion, for this was a section that I included in the original text to a large extent because of others' input.

Many Groves did and some still do have ritual sword-bearers; many Druids own sacred blades, the significance of these differing but usually resting upon the powers of nature that are force, light, knowledge and sovereignty. Many Groves have a chalice, cup or other container for water; many Druids, especially women, have their own cauldron which to them expresses the creative power of their female heritage from womb to stewpot.

Over the past ten years, I feel Druidry has become less doctrinal, individuals increasingly finding their own path, crafting their own rituals through personal relationships with gods, spirits and other creatures. As a result, if I were writing this book today, my tone here would differ. I would more likely present these symbols and tools as items individuals may use in their own religous and spiritual practice, making it clear that they are not so much ritual as mystical in their use in modern Druidry.

As for the connection with Wicca, I would suggest that the cup and blade are foundational to most Paganisms, as they are to life. In Wicca they have a ritual place far greater than they have ever had in modern Druidry.