Orders of Magnitude: The Socio-cultural Significance of Druidry for the English Landscape

The countryside plays a key role in British society, with concerns about and affection for the natural world exerting a steady, subtle influence over British public life. Contemporary Druidry—as a form of earth spirituality, rooted in the natural and cultural heritage of Britain—is closely intertwined with this ever-evolving relationship. This chapter explores how Druids relate to nature, and—through utilising the concept of cosmopolitics—establishes how within Druidic cosmology, trees and rocks, gods and goddesses, the spirits and the dead are all political agents. This political agency extends beyond the groves and circles in which Druids reflect and pray, influencing broader environmental attitudes in British society. Such politicised animism runs contrary to other cosmological attitudes active within British culture, such as treating “anthropomorphism” as a dubious and superstitious reaction to a mechanistic non-human environment by scientists and conservationists. This chapter concludes by tracing the effects and limitations of these conflicting cosmologies, arguing that while scientific naturalism has the power to address global risks that Druidic cosmology lacks, Druidry’s intimate affection for place provides a far more powerful motivation for pro-ecological behaviours.