Customer Reviews

American Druidism

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I found this book on a lonely book shelf in a bookstore in my neighborhood. I was intrigued that it concentrated on the growth and discovery of Druidry in this country, so I bought it. I was so pleasantly surprised in the content.

This book was written from the perspective of someone who knew nothing of Druidry and decided to immerse himself and find out as much as possible from the widest array of groups in this country that was available. He did a wonderful job clearly explaining the difference between Paleo, Meso, and Neo Druids. He also gave a clear description of the beginnings of the Druid Movement here in the US, and gave a good comparison of Druidism vs. Wicca (of which I am).

As being a former student of Druidic Practices myself, I found it a good resource for the different groups in the country today, both the good ones and the bad ones. I would highly recommend this book for those who would like to have a good overview of what Druidry means in America and how it has grown over time from England.

This delightful book is now out of date,(pub.1995), but at its time it was the best overview of the American forms of Druidry in its time. Used copies are still available here on Amazon. Plenty has been written about the British forms, including Phillip Carr-Gomm's "Rebirth of Druidry" (aka Druid Renaissance) in 2003. Therefore, the numerically equal numbers of Druids had been often neglected in publishing until Hansen's book came out (although Drawing Down the Moon did devote about 30 pages to the American movment).

Hansen discusses the general philsophical, ritual and historical underpinnings of how the RDNA, ADF, Keltria and other groups emerged in the 1960s from an independent birth; but later cross-pollinated in the 1980s with older British groups that developed from fraternal/masonic origins. Sadly, 11 years has made many of his weblinks, writing addresses and bibliographies out of date.

Recently in 2006, Isaac Bonewits (a prominent Neopagan Druid) has released essentially the successor update to Hansen's work. This larger volume (267pgs) is called "Bonewits Essential Guide to Druidism" (aka BEGD) with similiar essays going into greater depth on each of the topics Hansen wrote.