Toward a Creation Spirituality Qabalah of Druidry

The Evolution and Metamorphosis of Religion

The wisdom of the One Life flows into this world and clothes itself in the garb those who receive it hand it. From each of these wellsprings, a mighty river flows, carving paths for compassion, strength, and beauty to flow forth.

For most of my life, I have gathered water from many of these streams to cleanse, heal, and restore my soul. I've sculpted basins to mix and mingle these waters, but I have always had to run between the streams to collect fresh water so that in the basin did not go stagnant or dry up all together. The time has come to build aqueducts to a new reservoir with the faintest hope that it might give birth to a fresh stream.

I am so tired of listing all the streams I have drawn the waters of life from. I want, need a tradition to call my own. That tradition is a Druidry rooted in Creation Spirituality and Qabalah. Its holy language is Hebrew, Welsh, Irish, English, and every other language of this precious earth.

I've struggled against the prospect of this work. Who am I to speak with authority on such matters? I have found no golden tablets, received no grand vision ordaining me to such a task. I am little more than a servant in the Holy Temple who has dedicated decades of their life to the Great Work. This is, more than anything, the work of a scribe. All I can do is collect my thoughts and the thoughts of others in a manner I hope will be a blessing to others.

Why a CS Qabalah of Druidry?

These three streams are in and of themselves collectors of many streams that came before them.

Creation Spirituality, as named and presented by Matthew Fox, is a synthesis of the Jewish Wisdom Tradition, the Christian Mystics, Hindu and Buddhist Philosophy, Indigenous Wisdom, and Science. It collects the water and wisdom of these many wells into a fresh stream of its own.

Qabalah gathers the wisdom, practice, and insight of the originating Jewish Kabbalah, Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, and other occult schools into a single system that Dion Fortune called, "The Yoga of the West."

A Tangent on the Occult

Occult is a dirty word, making many use the sister word of Esoterica. It is a label, like pagan, that pins a target on those who adopt it so they are easier to persecute and expel from 'polite' society.

The word Occult means “Hidden” and Esoteric means “Inner Teachings” The secretive work of these groups and their esoteric nature was necessary to continue the work under the threat of torture and death if they were discovered. Even after they started coming out publically, they still kept much of the work hidden to save the work from the mockery of the outside world.

The mystical and magical Qabalah they handed down to us is a stream of life and a healing balm for the soul. The occult or esoteric is not necessarily sinister in it, even though the words are all too often used interchangeably. Like all ideas pushed into the underground, it is prone to abuse and the formation of high control groups. Openness and honesty are the cure to these problems.

The Druid Revival

Druidry rose again in the 1700s in what we now call the Druid Revival. It wove together and continues to weave together many threads from the past with a focused attention on the Celtic myths, practices, and folk beliefs.

I am not a reconstructionist Druid. We know so little about the original Druids, I don't believe we will ever be able to reconstruct their practice, but, like Dion Fortune, believe we need to choose a path.

No student will ever make any progress in spiritual development who flits from system to system; first using some New Thought affirmations, then some Yoga breathing exercises and meditation-postures, and following these by an attempt at the mystical methods of prayer. Each of these systems has its value, but that value can only be realised if the system is carried out in its entirety.

Dion Fortune, The Mystical Qabalah, p8

The Evolution and Metamorphosis of Spiritualty

Over the years, I have always tried to build my faith and practice in the most systematic ways I can. I have written and rewritten numerous manuals of discipline, liturgies, and catechisms over the years. Each one builds on what came before it and maintained unitive practice as new ideas were incorporated.

This is a synthesis, an ecumenical and syncretistic process with the hopes of evolving on living practice and maintaining a consistent worldview. From time to time, this practice has involved more of a metamorphosis, where everything is melted down and reformed into a new state. This chrysalis period is hard and a moment of deep psychic disturbance.

The last time this happened was when I encountered Matthew Fox's Creation Spirituality and Rabbi Rami Shapiro's Minyan at the same time. This confluence sent me into the cocoon to reform my thought and practice.

This current work came about with my embrace of Christopaganism and Druidry, as well as Rabbi Shapiro's Judaism without Tribalism. These three streams resonated so strongly with my current practice that it took me back into the cocoon.

To make matters worse, prior to this, I decided to share my studies publically, which transforms this personal, private process into something that I am now doing in view of others. Now, I am required to explain these ideas in a way that people other than myself can understand.

The result is that I am going all the way back to the beginning. I am rewriting all of my notes on WisdomsCry.com into a more publically accessible form. I have thousands of notes and essays to revisit, and I am doing all of that while in the cocoon of reshaping. This feels like a much larger process than it did in the past. None of that is true. It is actually an all-embracing synthesis that will bring all of this into a stronger system in and of itself.

The Problem of Language.

Syncretism is a difficult thing. When I use words like Qabalah, Judaism, Christianity, Christopaganism, Creation Spirituality, or Druidry, I do not own them, and I do not want to own them. My interpretations and instantiation of these ideas and systems is idiosyncratic and is more like a fork or merge procedure is software development than how religious and spiritual teachers generally operate.

In most Western, read American, religious discourse, a dispensational or supersedence model is generally assumed. Since religious discussions deal with ultimates, it is presumed that such discussions provide ultimate or final answers.

Religion and spirituality are evolutionary fields providing more and less derived expressions that compete with each other. Ideas rise and fall, but that does not indicate superiority or inferiority.

Often, the success or failure of a religious or spiritual idea has more to do with the ability of those ideas to propagate and the level of suppression placed upon a group.

For example, Hadewijch's ideas did not fail to take hold in Europe because of any flaw in her writing, but because her writings were not shared. It had nothing to do with whether they were better or worse than any other ideas.

So, in using words like Qabalah, Creation Spirituality, Christopaganism, or Druidry, it may be assumed that any difference between my understanding and that of others is a refutation of the other opinion. It makes me want to coin new language to prevent this, but that is just so much linguistic clutter.

I don't need a new word or spelling for Qabalah. I use the spelling I do to show my main source is the Hermetic Qabalah even though I have studied the original Jewish Kabbalah or the Christian Cabala that followed it. I don't have to be clearer than that.

The system of Creation Spirituality Druidic Qabalah is a synthesis of these and other paths into a unitive practice for me and anyone else who wants to try it.

The results will be posted on CreationsPaths.com and WisdomsCry.com The latter will contain more raw theory and notions that will evolve over time.

If you are interested in joining me on this path, sign up at Creations Paths and bookwork Wisdom's Cry. Follow @creationspaths on Threads and/or Bluesky and share your ideas with me.