There’s been a lot of talk this week about Teo Bishop’s new project, the Solitary Druid Fellowship. It’s designed not to be an online community, but more of a spiritual resource for solitary Druids. There will be posted liturgies to use for each of the High Days, as well as blog posts – but no comments except on certain occasions (namely High Days).
I’m not sure what I think about their reluctance to become an online community. I understand that a threaded forum or email list isn’t everyone’s idea of a way to stay connected, but I’m also not sure there will feel like much of a connection simply through using a pre-created liturgy, especially since the liturgies will need to be customized to an individual’s hearth culture. (I also understand that the desire to avoid a community avoids the need for staff to moderate threads and forums and comments, which is a very real thing and isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.)
On the other hand, having resources for working as a solitary is a good thing. I struggle with working in a vacuum, and it’s been the connection to other Druids, through the DP and the Discuss and Dedicants lists, as well as email, that have kept me thinking about my own Druidry past the initial period of interest.
Having a shared liturgy, one that uses the CooR, is an interesting idea as well. It brings to mind that idea of the Sacred Center, and of being in a shared “sacred space” when we’re all participating in ritual at a Hallows. I definitely like the idea of a shared practice, but then I haven’t seen the liturgy yet either.
I guess the part that makes me wonder how this will work as a shared path is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of opportunity for actual sharing. Yes we would all be doing the same liturgy (or variations on a theme, as it were), but without the chance to talk about it, unless they’re expecting us all to become bloggers, I don’t know that it will feel much like a community.
I definitely think it will be a good resource, and I’m looking forward to the various blog posts. I especially liked the recent post about how a community fire is fed by individual fires, and the importance of a solitary practice even for Druids who have access to a Grove. Cultivating a strong individual practice is something that’s important to me, and has been for several years.
Grove work is an odd subject for me at the moment. I’ve had trouble getting responses from my local Grove about much of anything, and I’d rather not have my first meeting with them at someone’s house (for safety and comfort reasons, call me paranoid). So while I have the ability to access a Grove, for now I’m essentially solitary. And I’m OK with that, though I do think having a community is important as well. I think best in conversation, and it’s important to me to have people to discuss my ideas with. (This is part of why I blog as well.) I’m also paranoid, extremely uneasy in groups of people I don’t know, and reluctant to really settle into a group, for fear that it will not work out again. So I go back and forth about the Grove thing. Fortunately there’s no requirement to join one, even if there is one nearby.
Hopefully the SDF will become another resource to me as a solitary and will inform and guide my practice in a meaningful way. I have my doubts about it’s ability to feel like a fellowship, but I can see how it could become a very useful place and starting point for solitaries.
Little Druid on the Prairie 
Haven’t finished reading the post but I have one thing to say: The Solitaries’ SIG still exists. The mailing list is required to be used for official business through ADF to remain a SIG, not to mention it provides a way for all of us to talk to each other. We are not cutting ourselves off from communication.
Blessings,
Victoria
Victoria – I’m sure the Solitaries SIG will still exist. I don’t hear much on that list though, and it seems like it will function separately from the SDF. This post is about the SDF, not about the Solitaries SIG, which I honestly haven’t seen much from other than the recent new nominations. So we’ll see how much community there is from there. Regardless, this post is about the SDF.
Interesting comment about the notion of community without community. I like the idea of being a solitary druid and sharing with others, though it seems there will be limited ways of doing that, at least in a way that is dependent upon how long posts are open (and who decides!). I suppose there is always Twitter, and perhaps that is an intention to have people meet one another, only briefly, and then develop community on their own elsewhere?
Fulbert – I think we’ll just have to find other ways of sharing. Blogs and Twitter are options, but it seems counterintuitive to me to say “let’s make a community, but you have to build it somewhere other than here”. I can see why the SDF doesn’t want to become just another forum or email list (the Solitaries SIG provides that and it’s pretty much dead, or at least has been pretty dead for the 2 months I’ve been lurking there). I just am not sure how they plan to be a community without a place to share. Yes, there are lots of ways to share, but to me , at least without having seen it in action, the most sensible place for that sharing is the meeting-up place, not having to go out of my way to create an (essentially) 3rd party space for it.
Nicely stated.
Perhaps the SDF won’t be a community at all, but rather a hub for solitary tools for people who strive for commonality?
Hi there, thank you very much for this blog, i’m a solitary Northern Druid to my side, i have mine liturgy and sometimes i did a ritual with SDF Liturgy it is very awesome.
I live in France and it’s complicat to be a soolitary Druid in this country, they are a lot of sectarians Druids, and they don’t like the solitary practitioner.
I’m Breton (a French from Brittany) and i have a Scottish Ancestors, so i like practice some ritual in English.
Thank mester Bishop for your liturgy i realy like it.
Hae a Guid Samhuinn
Merci beaucoup beau travail.