Psychedelia Britannia: Druids on Drugs

In this chapter I investigate the use of psychedelics by contemporary Druids. Drug use within Druidry remains a divisive issue and so those that do employ psychedelics are being doubly transgressive: they are breaking the laws of the land, and risking opprobrium from their peers. Here, I present the results of a series of qualitative interviews with Druids who employ psychedelics. My aims are threefold: to present a phenomenology of a little-known, underground aspect of Druidry; to ask how and why certain practices become legitimised while others do not; and to address the language that Druids use to make sense of their non-ordinary psychedelic experiences. Informants tend to see their psychedelic use as tangential to their Druidry, and rather make sense of their experiences through the language of Western shamanism. This suggests that the impetus to incorporate psychedelics into their practice comes not from Druidry per se, but the ongoing Western encounter with indigenous cultures.