On Sunday I attended a multi-faith ceremonial tree-blessing, with an Anglican woman-priest, or priestess. She wore a bright red and white outfit, with gold symbols on the front and back. She fetched a bucket of sea water to bless and sprinkle very lightly on the trees. She was followed by a Buddhist monk, a Franciscan friar, and the rest of the participants. Then the priestess painted a symbol on everyone's right hand and we all circled the tree and joined hands, imprinting the symbol on each other's left hand. It was a really lovely little ceremony and it made me really think about the role of priestessing in today's society. There’s no real standard definition (and each person may define it differently), of a priestess. Her domain may include healing, magic, foresight, connection to the divine, and raising consciousness. A priestess may be a channel of wisdom and spiritual energy to others, harnessing her innate power to influence the course of reality. A priestess may fe...

A British Druid by William Stukeley I am always intrigued by the mysterious, which is why I'm so interested in ancient history. The further back we go, the more mysterious it gets! The ancient Druids are one of the mysteries of history. They left no written records themselves, to explain who they were or what they believed. All we have to go by is the accounts of foreign visitors and Christian converts. Both of these commentators are biased toward their own religion and culture, and therefore unlikely to paint an accurate picture. What we can do however, is compare the Druids to other priestly castes around the world. The Celtic culture was a parallel development to the Vedic culture, from their common Indo-European roots which began to branch out some five thousand years ago. It has only been in recent decades that Celtic scholars have begun to reveal the full extent of the parallels and cognates between the Celtic and Vedic cultures. Peter Berresford Ellis, one of Europ...