Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, two miles (3 km) west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around 13 feet (4.0 m) high, seven feet (2.1 m) wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones. Inside is a ring of smaller bluestones. Inside these are free-standing trilithons, two bulkier vertical sarsens joined by one lintel. The whole monument, now ruinous, is aligned towards the sunrise on the summer solstice and sunset on the winter solstice. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the densest complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred tumuli.
Ronald Edmund Hutton is an English historian who specialises in early modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and Contemporary Paganism. He is a professor at the University of Bristol, has written 14 books and has appeared on British television and radio. He held a fellowship at Magdalen College, Oxford, and is a Commissioner of English Heritage.
A druid was a member of the learned class in ancient Celtic cultures. Some were priests, but the title was also used for doctors, law-speakers, and other high-ranking professionals.
Earth mysteries are a wide range of spiritual, quasi-religious ideas focusing on cultural and religious beliefs about the Earth, generally with a regard for specific geographic locations of historic importance. Similar to modern druidry, prehistoric monuments are of particular spiritual importance to believers in Earth mysteries who consider certain locations to be sacred and/or containing active spiritual energies. The term "alternative archaeology" has also been used to describe the study of Earth mystery beliefs.
Emma Restall Orr is a British animist, philosopher, poet, environmentalist, and author.
Celtic neopaganism refers to any type of modern paganism or contemporary pagan movements based on the ancient Celtic religion. One approach is Celtic Reconstructionism (CR), which emphasizes historical accuracy in reviving Celtic traditions. CR practitioners rely on historical sources and archaeology for their rituals and beliefs, including offerings to spirits and deities. Language study and preservation are essential, and daily life often incorporates ritual elements. While distinct from eclectic pagan and neopagan witchcraft traditions, there is some overlap with Neo-druidism.
Modern paganism in the United States is represented by widely different movements and organizations. The largest modern pagan religious movement is Wicca, followed by Neodruidism. Both of these religions or spiritual paths were introduced during the 1950s and 1960s from Great Britain. Germanic Neopaganism and Kemetism appeared in the US in the early 1970s. Hellenic Neopaganism appeared in the 1990s.
The Modern Pagan movement in the United Kingdom is primarily represented by Wicca and Neopagan witchcraft, Druidry, and Heathenry. 74,631 people in England, Scotland and Wales identified as either as Pagan or a member of a specific Modern Pagan group in the 2021 UK Census.
Honouring the Ancient Dead (HAD) is a British Neopagan advocacy group working within Britain for the dignified treatment of human remains of British pagan provenance. It explores the issues of excavation, storage, museum display, disposal, repatriation and reburial. In particular questioning the idea of who has assumed authority over human remains, its core remit is dialogue and consultation between all relevant bodies when decisions are made about the remains of the ancient dead.
Philip Shallcrass, often known by his Druid name, Greywolf, is Chief of the British Druid Order. He is an English artist, writer, poet, musician and singer-songwriter who pioneered a "shamanic" Druidism.
Arthur Uther Pendragon is a British eco-campaigner, Neo-Druid leader, media personality, and self-declared reincarnation of King Arthur, a name by which he is also known. Pendragon was the "battle chieftain" of the Council of British Druid Orders.
Rollo Maughfling is the Archdruid of Stonehenge and Britain. He is a long-time campaigner for the restoration of traditional rights of access to druidic sites, and respect for ancient druidic rituals. He is also a founder member of the Council of British Druid Orders.
The Khalili Foundation is a UK-based charity promoting interfaith and intercultural understanding through art, culture and education. Its founder and chairman is the London-based philanthropist, art collector and scholar Sir David Khalili. A Persian Jew who grew up in Iran, he is notable for having the world's largest private collection of Islamic art. Established in 1995, the foundation has created interfaith and intercultural links through "cultural, academic, sporting and educational programmes".
Druidry, sometimes termed Druidism, is a modern spiritual or religious movement that promotes the cultivation of honorable relationships with the physical landscapes, flora, fauna, and diverse peoples of the world, as well as with nature deities, and spirits of nature and place. Theological beliefs among modern Druids are diverse; however, all modern Druids venerate the divine essence of nature.
The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy is a book of religious history and archaeology written by the English historian Ronald Hutton, first published by Blackwell in 1991. It was the first published synthesis of the entirety of pre-Christian religion in the British Isles, dealing with the subject during the Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman occupation and Anglo-Saxon period. It then proceeds to make a brief examination of their influence on folklore and contemporary Paganism.
The British Druid Order (BDO) is an international druid order, founded in 1979 as a religious and educational organisation. Its constitution defines it as a not-for-profit unincorporated association. It is commonly regarded as being one of the first, if not the first, explicitly neo-pagan Druid Orders. The order draws on medieval Welsh texts such as the Mabinogion and other early British/Celtic texts for inspiration and to re-connect with the pre-Christian, indigenous religious and spiritual practices of Britain which it believes to be shamanic in nature.
The Council of British Druid Orders is a neo-pagan group established in 1989 which was originally formed to facilitate ceremonies at Stonehenge. The council's founder, Tim Sebastion, used the title "Archdruid of Wiltshire, Chosen Chief of the Secular Order of Druids, Conservation Officer for the Council of British Druid Orders and Bard of the Gorsedd of Caer Abiri (Avebury)."
The Dun Ailline Druid Brotherhood is a pagan organization for followers of the Celtic Neopaganism based on Spain in 2010, which supports the practice of a type of Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism called Druidism, centered on the Celtic culture of Ireland, and whose principal deities are known as the Tuatha Dé Danann. Its members consider themselves practitioners of a European native religion and they call themselves creidim, a concept of Irish origin.
The Inter Faith Network, fully known as The Inter Faith Network for the United Kingdom, is a registered charity that works with its member bodies "to advance public knowledge and mutual understanding of the teachings, traditions and practices of different faith communities in Britain and to promote good relations between persons of different faiths." It was formed in 1987 and registered as a charity in 1997.
Ossian D'Ambrosio, also known simply as Ossian, is an Italian heavy metal musician, organiser within modern Druidry, artisan jeweler and writer. He is the founder and leader of the Cerchio Druidico Italiano and creator of an annual Beltane festival in Biella. He plays guitar in the symphonic black metal band Opera IX, which he founded in 1988.
