[caption id="attachment_6188" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Rev. Rob Henderson"]<a href="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/rob-henderson_stand.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-6188" src="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/rob-henderson_stand-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a>[/caption]

The sun was out in Downtown Plymouth. The town was full of people bearing possibility and happiness. It was late Saturday afternoon the day before the Christian holiday, Easter. The park in the center of town was full of dogs, families, and people climbing in trees and the restaurants had their sidewalk tables out. The sun warmed the skin on my face as I walked down the street to Starbucks.

I found Rev. Rob Henderson, Senior Druid of <a href="http://www.shininglakes.org/">Shining Lakes Grove, ADF</a> sitting to one side of the store on his laptop. He has lived in Michigan as long as he can remember. He grew up in the Ann Arbor area and studied Computer Science at the University of Michigan.

Shining Lakes Grove was founded in 1993 and it was well established by the time Rob joined the group in 1996. They currently have about fifteen members spread across lower Michigan. He was raised Catholic but his family “had pretty much exited the faith by the time I was ten or eleven, and then I wandered around aimlessly for a bit,” he told me.

Rob first became interested in Druidism when he met some pagans in his teen years. They told him about paganism and explained the beliefs. “It seemed to be who I was, and I thought ‘Well, they seem like nice, stable, well-adjusted people,’” Rob chuckled. “You know, I think I’ve reached the point where I’ve been a Druid for half my lifetime.” He also dabbled in occultist/ceremonial magic for a while, but quickly realized it wasn’t for him before moving completely into Neopagan Druidism.

“So, what exactly do you believe?” I asked him.
“Well, we are a orthopraxis belief system, so it’s more about right worship and practice than right belief.”
<h3>About Shining Lakes Grove</h3>
Shining Lakes Grove is a part of the ADF, which stands for A Druid Fellowship, the largest Neopagan Druidism organization in the world. According to <a href="http://www.adf.org/">their website</a> ADF is “a completely independent Druid tradition” with over 4500 cumulative and 1100 current members across the globe.

On their website, <a href="http://www.adf.org/about/basics/beliefs.html">ADF says</a> that “We believe in a multiplicity of gods and goddesses, as well as lesser beings, many of whom are worthy of respect, love and worship. […] While some of us believe in a ‘Supreme Being,’ Neopagan Druidism is emphatically polytheistic.”
<h3>Neopagan Druid Beliefs</h3>
Rob explained to me that there are three types of entities that he and his fellow Druids worship, which are collectively referred to as “the Kindreds”: nature spirits, ancestors (direct, inspired, local, etc.), and deities, the latter of which includes Indo-European gods of the Celtic, Norse, Hellenic, Roman, Vedic and Slavic traditions.

Druids have home worship on a weekly—or in Rob’s case, daily—basis by doing things like burning incense or lighting and candle and praying or meditation. They don’t gather as a group on a weekly basis because distance is an obstacle, so they gather for eight High Days throughout the year.

Three Cranes Grove, another ADF Grove located in Columbus, Ohio explains what the eight High Days celebrate:
<ul>
	<li><a href="http://www.threecranes.org/hhd.html#samhain">Samhain</a> (November 1<sup>st</sup>) – The New Year celebration related to Halloween, The Festival of the Dead, and in the Greek tradition the beginning of Demeter’s mourning during her daughter’s six month spell in Hades</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.threecranes.org/hhd.html#wisolstice">Winter Solstice</a> (around December 22<sup>nd</sup>) – The celebration of the return from darkness and rituals are performed to bring back the sun that has been hidden, and God was conceived on the Winter Solstice</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.threecranes.org/hhd.html#imbolc">Imbolc</a> (February 1<sup>st</sup>) – This celebration focused on the fact that the first signs of life are starting to come back into the world, and it’s important to join with friends to warm your heart even if the Earth will remain cold for a while.</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.threecranes.org/hhd.html#spequinox">Spring Equinox</a> (around March 21<sup>st</sup>) – This is the celebration of the start of the light half of the year, gardening and planting is commenced, and according to some traditions, the God begins to court the Goddess.</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.threecranes.org/hhd.html#beltaine">Beltaine</a> (May 1<sup>st</sup>) – This holiday focuses around fertility and the joining of new life (which is said to be the marriage date of God and Goddess and is chosen to be the wedding day of many Neopagans), many times includes a maypole dance.</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.threecranes.org/hhd.html#susolstice">Summer Solstice</a> (June 22<sup>nd</sup>) – Height of the year, celebration of the middle of the year and the hill downward toward Autumn and Samhain</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.threecranes.org/hhd.html#lughnassad">Lughnassad</a> (August 1<sup>st</sup>) - Beginning of the harvest, is associated with the god Laugh, and the continuing marriage of the God and Goddess</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.threecranes.org/hhd.html#auequinox">Autumnal Equinox</a> (around September 22<sup>nd</sup>) – The beginning of the dark half of the year, the approach and the beauty of Fall, and preparations for the chill that is coming.</li>
</ul>
Shining Lakes Grove is about to celebrate Beltaine in a few weeks. “We just celebrated Spring Equinox a couple of weeks ago, so my friends and I remark that we were confused when grocery stores still had egg dying kits around. ‘Why are these still here? We already celebrated! Oh, that’s right, Easter!’”

“Is Beltaine the one with the Maypole?” I asked. Rob said, “Yes!” He told me the Norse had a mythical concept of a World Tree, which in modern times is represented by a wooden pole, called a bilé, used in all Druid rituals including the Maypole celebrations. According to Norse traditions the bilé was made out of an Ash tree, but the members of the Shining Lakes Grove didn’t want to kill a tree to create one. Instead, they used a Quaking Aspen, which has multiple trunks, so they were able to create a bilé while leaving the tree remain intact and alive.

Rob isn’t sure whether or not his community will have a maypole dance as the owner of their sacred grove passed away and they have to relocate, “which is a shame, because I really liked the owner and we had developed good relationships with the land spirits there.”
<h3>Misconceptions</h3>
He talked about how people were kind towards him when they find out he is a pagan, but he thinks that might be part of living in Ann Arbor, a rather spiritually open city. I mentioned that the influx of college students from the nearby university probably helped, but he said, “Actually, we don’t get that many college-aged students. It seems like college-aged people want more <em>energy-</em>based types of spirituality, with stuff like Chi and combining personal energy and focusing it on something.”

Energy combining was the only concept of paganism that I really had, so I asked Rob how the energy-based types differed from Druidism. He said “We are building a modern religion based on Indo-European cultures by incorporating elements from their languages, beliefs and practices because none of them really left us a robust enough system to have a standalone religion. Druidism is based on of the concept of giving and receiving and building relationships.” Giving and receiving is exhibited through giving offerings and forms of worship (which include song, dance, group and individual praise) so the Kindreds will help the Druids in their lives. The building of relationships takes place with the Kindreds and with each other as a community.

There are several misconceptions about the Neopagan Druid community, one of which is that all Druids are men. “There is evidence in ancient texts that there were female Druids. We believe in the equality of women. They are welcome to participate equally and be clergy,” which almost half of the Shining Lakes Grove Clergy are. Druids have no prejudice as far as race, gender, or sexual orientation. “All are welcome to be a part of our community,” he told me.

The other misconception is that people think when Druids use the words “offerings” or “sacrifices” that they mean blood offerings. “The ADF specifically bans blood offerings. Any kind of blood offering: animal, human, and even cutting yourself for rituals is prohibited. One of the ADF’s main goals is to be a religion for the 21<span style="font-size: 11px">st </span>century.” ADF Druids use grains, incense, oils, and even art as offerings.
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
On <a href="http://adf.livejournal.com/151342.html">ADF’s Livejournal</a>, a member by the username <em>filiavallis</em> <a href="http://adf.livejournal.com/151342.html">said</a>:

“And the last time a couple of representatives of one of our local churches came around […] we stood and talked about Druidism for about forty-five minutes. They’d never met or talked to anyone on a Druid path before. So now, for good or ill, whatever preconceptions they had of ‘Pagan’ are at least partially superseded by the picture of a slightly grubby, cheerfully talkative, and generally rather ordinary suburban housewife-and-mom with some unusual but rational &amp; understandable ideas &amp; beliefs.”

This is what I found in Rob Henderson. While I was completely unfamiliar with the Druid path before speaking to him, I found Rob to be a very thoughtful, kind, and intelligent person. His beliefs, while very different from the traditions I grew up in, were rooted in the understanding and study of ancient cultures that allow him to appreciate nature, seasons, history and the way the world works together.

Right before we parted ways, Rob added that Shining Lakes Groves is open and welcomes visitors even if they are unfamiliar with pagan practices. “You don’t have to know how to do rituals or know how to meditate to be a part of our community. We want people to know that we welcome them and that you don’t have to be an experienced Druid to join.”

<strong>Thanks to Rob Henderson for being willing to meet with me, and for talking to be about the Druid path, ADF, and his own community, Shining Lakes Grove, ADF. I look forward to future interactions and conversations with him and his fellow Druids.</strong>

<em>Photo credit: </em>