Interesting subject and answers. Would one consider the Druid a religion or just a practice of shall we say ancient ways<Celtic>, or otherwise.
The way many wars are today, the DRUID way tends to Nature itsself and is much more peaceful. The many revealed religions are fighting constantly and if not bash each other in/out.

The life tree stands out and can be felt in any forest if one only sets his/her mind to it.


revpo

Druidry is an earth based belief, like Wicca or Shamanism in a lot of ways. But it is also different in a few ways. Is it a religion? As a whole, no. But besides the leaders, healers, and artisans, there were also priests, so it contained a religion. I think of it like I would an Indian tribe. In a tribe, there is the chief, usually a council, healers, workers, and so forth, but they also have their own religion. I firmly believe that the Druids greatly influenced those who can in contact with them. They were also peaceful and peace loving, which was the reason the druids ended up going underground in the end, to escape persecution. But I agree that they were an enlightened society.

I realize that I speak of them both in the present tense and the past tense. True druids were wiped out long ago. The belief is gaining popularity again, but it would probably be most accurate to call them "neo-druids" now. There is a surprising amount of information about the old druids, though not always easy to find. But I doubt that we'll ever know about every facet of their lives, so druids of today have had to ad-lib in some ways.