About the British Druid Order
The British Druid Order teaches and practices a creative, celebratory, elemental, shamanic Druidry, drawing inspiration from the past, yet deeply relevant to the needs of the present: caring for the earth, empowering the spirit, promoting peace and understanding. Inspired by the rich heritage of the British Isles, we see Druidry as a path without boundaries, open to all.
BDO Druidry is animistic, recognising all things as imbued with spirit. It is polytheistic, acknowledging many gods and goddesses. It is shamanic, knowing the reality of spirit worlds and their inhabitants. We honour our ancestors of blood and of spirit, i.e. those of our direct bloodline and those who have walked similar spiritual paths before us.
Teaching is offered through our distance learning courses (see the BDO Courses page), our other publications (see our Online Shop), and through workshops, meditational retreats, weekend gatherings and longer camps, and in local Groves (see Getting Involved).
We encourage the growth of Druid communities in towns and villages around Britain.
New Constitution
In 2011, we drew up a new constitution for the BDO, setting out our status as a not-for-profit unincorporated association along with our aims, governance, membership, etc. This is currently being revised and updated (November 2019)
Who's Who in the BDO
Meet the BDO Elders Group
Philip Shallcrass aka Greywolf
founder
Greywolf (aka Philip Shallcrass) pops up all over this website, so we shan’t waste too much time on him here 🙂 Suffice to say, the BDO stems from his realisation he was a Druid in 1974 and his simultaneous realisation that Druids were the shamanic folk of ancient Britain and much of Europe. He has been chief of the BDO since 1979, sharing the role with Bobcat (aka Emma Restall Orr) between 1995 and 2002. He is a writer, musician, singer-songwriter, artist, craftsman, roundhouse builder and thatcher. He is a widower and lives in Wiltshire with two of his three children, not far from his beloved Avebury. He is the designer and editor of the BDO distance learning courses, and also their primary writer, contributing over 65% of their content. He writes occasional articles for the Pagan press and blogs from time to time at Greywolf’s Lair.
Elaine Gregory
wildways
Elaine is an artist and potter, she also enjoys photography. Her main job is looking after an area of woodland known as Wild Ways which is her childhood home. This involves many hands-on skills such as thatching’ wattle and daubing – she likes mud and sometimes mines her own for ceramic experiments.. She regularly drives her old Fergy tractor and skid loader machines to do jobs around the place. . She is a core member of BDO since its revival some 17 years ago. She has contributed to course material and organises some ceremonies when required. The BDO shop runs from Wild Ways. She enjoys travelling and meeting people from other cultures, and has been a druid for many years.
Adam Sargant
web admin
Adam considers his primary vocation to be that of a storyteller, but is a web developer by trade with a background in mental health nursing. He has been involved in Druidry for two decades, but has been an animist with a deep rooted love of the landscape and British folklore all of his life. He first became involved with the BDO some 11 years ago when he was introduced to Greywolf by Sunnefalcon and has been instrumental in creating the original website and BDO course delivery systems. His interest in the craft of the bard and storyteller lies in its power to shape the ways we view and experience the world, and he is involved in a number of projects that relate the art of storytelling to mental well-being in one way or another.
Amanda Hart
chair
Amanda is a chemotherapy nurse currently working in the NHS. She has 20 years experience as a senior nurse and has been in the NHS for 30 years mostly in oncology and palliative care
She is a member of the BDO and has been involved with druidry for the last 19 years and is also an ovate in an other order. She is wellbeing lead for White Horse Camps, she has worked with Leo Rutherford training as a shamanic practitioner / counsellor. Also she is a fully trained member of FIOS as a spirit consultant. Currently she is training to be a transpersonal intergrative counsellor with the NCS and BACP. Amanda is an initiated witch from Sussex (Gardinarian and Sussex traditional) HPS who is currently living in Devon.
Andrew Hart
web design
Andrew is a cancer specialist nurse living on the Sussex coast. His interest in computing as a hobby goes back to his days tinkering with BASIC programming on the ZX Spectrum. His first foray into web design came in the dark dial-up days of 1997 with a fan site dedicated to the Creation Records label.
He completed the course to be a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator and has an HNC in Computing but keeps computing strictly as a hobby.
