r/druidism

I was recently reading The Book of Druidry by Kristoffer Hughes. In chapter 8 they suggest studying one tree per year with the goal to be "oakwise" withing 20 years.

Sounds great! I love trees, yet don't know a whole lot about them. How do I study them exactly?

One step I've taken is identifying a specific tree on iNaturalist (Pin Oak) and I've collected fallen leaves of different stages/colors, fallen bark, and will collect the acorns that drop when its their time. I want to flatten the leaves and put them in my book of shadows. And who knows what I'll do yet with the bark and acorns.

I'm no botanist, and I've never been great at research, so I'm looking to see... Has anyone done this before? Where would you recommend I start?

I am curious how you stay out of your head experiencing things. It is all to easy to over analyze things happening around you. See a pattern in nature? Could be pareidolia. Doing tarot and a specific card you are thinking of is pulled? Could just be statistics. Take some sort of psychedelics and experience something profound? Could just be the psychedelics. Falling into this mindset, especially when you first allow yourself to notice things, can be extremely hard to work out of. How do you manage or frame this? Blessings

Hiya, baby druid here! To be brief; I fell into studying druidry alongside my journey through trauma therapy, it's been a great addition and has actually helped with this process at times! But I've been struggling with one thing.

With so much of my energy being put towards healing I'm having a hard time building habits it general but especially those that are important to druidry. I'm currently reading introductory druidry books ^((currently reading the Book of Druidy by kristoffer hughes since theyre also queer like me :D)) and many of them suggest routines like daily walks, meditation or journalling.

I'm finding myself not quite at the point where I'm able to do these. On a good day I can maybe go on a walk, and early on I started writing down the weather each day, but even something as simple as that has fallen to the way side.

I want to start one of the many druid courses that are available but have a hard time feeling up for such commitments yet.

All of this makes me feel very guilty or that I'm not worthy of the role. I was wondering if there is any advice for what one can do in this situation, or even small stepping stone tasks one could start that arent quite as big of a jump as daily walks or rituals?

I am excited to hear from you all and any wisdom you're able to impart <3 thank you!!

EDIT: I don't think I'll be able to get back to every reply just yet (im easily overwhelmed alas,,,) but please know I am so so grateful to everything you have all said, It's made me feel so welcome and inspired!!! You are all so wonderful and lovely and aaaa!!!! 💖💕💓💝💘💓

So I have been doing some Druid practices for a while now and been working with classic elements . I can find or logic out most of the associations but… the directions: east - air, fire - south, west - water, and earth - north, I just can’t find a reference for before it shows up in the golden dawn stuff? Does anyone know where this comes from? Also I thought maybe the colors comes from the humors but it doesn’t match well, Fire and Water are duh, and earth as green is okay (honestly orange for brown is more intuitive), but why is air yellow instead of like, purple? Who decided all this? Is there a classic reference I just seem to be missing?

Any help is appreciated because I am stumped?

I have just, in the past few days, started understanding myself as an atheist druid. I come from a Jewish background, and see many of the high holy days as part of honoring the changing of the seasons and the bounty of nature. Does anyone have any resources that may be of interest to this baby druid?