Another Druid Fracas

[ecosophia]

(With thanks to reader Lady Cutekitten for the title)

I've been asked by several readers over on the blog about the recent blowup in the Druid organization ADF (that's Ar nDraiocht Fein if you're wondering, Irish for "Our Own Druidry") and, since that's not relevant to the theme of this week's blog post, I figured I'd take the discussion over here. 

What I know about the matter is this. In a book published several years ago, a woman accused the late Neopagan leader and ADF founder Isaac Bonewits of molesting her when she was a child of six. Two weeks ago, five senior ADF members abruptly resigned, citing the lack of responsiveness to that accusation as one of a long list of reasons for their resignation. Last week the Mother Grove -- the board of directors of the organization -- announced that they were formally repudiating Bonewits, dismissing him from his posthumous role of "Beloved Ancestor." The Mother Grove claimed that they had received other accusations of misbehavior on Bonewits' part and cited these as reasons for their actions. The result has been a great deal of anger and bad feeling on all sides, with one side arguing that concern for victims of sexual abuse should be paramount,  while the other argues that condemning him without a trial on the basis of mere accusation is exactly the modality of the "Satanic ritual abuse" fraud of the 1980s, which destroyed so many innocent people's lives. 

Myself, I have no dog in this fight. I joined ADF just after the turn of the millennium, and quit shaking my head a few years later; I thought the ritual and religious aspects of the organization had a great deal of promise but the organizational structure was the most dysfunctional I'd ever seen in action -- it's no exaggeration to say that Bonewits and the other founding members came up with a scheme that combines all the downsides of hierarchy and democracy, while providing none of the advantages of either. I had several interactions with Isaac Bonewits later on, when I was head of AODA, and we were civil to each other but I won't claim that I liked the man; it was kind of hard to forget that he spent much of his career spewing insults at the kind of Druidry I love and practice.

With regard to the accusations against him, that's not something I'm qualified to assess. I do know that quite literally every time I was around him for more than a minute or so, I got to watch him trying to put the moves on some woman, and I don't recall ever seeing him take a simple "no" for an answer. The guy was frankly a creep. On the other hand, I never saw him make a play for anyone who wasn't obviously adult.

Whatever the truth of that issue, though, on a magical level ADF has probably signed its own death certificate. You don't turn somebody into a "Beloved Ancestor" and spend a decade making offerings to his spirit, then suddenly turn around and give him the bum's rush -- especially when you've made him a central figure in the ritual for ADF's attempt to create an initiatory tradition. (That's a flustered cluck all its own, but we can leave it aside for now.) That's perhaps the most effective way I can think of to create a wrathful spirit: empowered by a decade of offerings, linked closely to the egregor of your organization, and now enraged by the organization's 180-degree turn...oog. Whatever ADF's principal fissures are -- I have my guesses, but we'll see -- I'd expect to see the organization splitting wide open along those in the very near future. 

It's unfortunate. As I noted above, the ritual and religious aspects of the organization were quite good, and if they hadn't been saddled with a great deal of unhelpful organizational baggage, ADF might have been around for the long haul. As it is, with the Neopagan movement generally in a state of accelerating decline, I expect to see it added to the long list of defunct American alternative spiritual movements in the not too distant future. 

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for this. Your holding to your standards like this "With regard to the accusations against him, that's not something I'm qualified to assess." is something I expected and appreciate. I was very interested in your comments regarding the probable magical level impact.

I only ran into various writings of Mr. Bonewits online. I was underwhelmed with what I read. Early in my moving toward a Druidlike path, I investigated joining ADF. I was quickly scared off by its very organized hierarchical structure, which for me was (and is) a red flag. (But my dad got us involved in the Shepherding Movement when I was in my mid teens, and I drank that koolaid, and getting out of the cult was difficult, so my radar for that type of thing is overactive.) Seeing some of the things he said about the Druid Revival was also disconcerting. More recently, a lot was made clear when reading about his attempts to turn RDNA into what became ADF after the big schism.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the ADF. I do have a lot of sympathy for anybody whose lives have been ruined by this, and for those who now have some difficult decisions to make. I've been in esingletary's position and it is NOT a pleasant place to be.



DJSpo

[ecosophia]

"Interesting" in the sense of the apocryphal Chinese curse, no doubt!

[(Anonymous)]

Of course! That's the only good meaning of "interesting" in this situation.

DJSpo

On Bonewits - then and now

[(Anonymous)]

Way back in the day, when I was just discovering that there were pagans and magical people in the world, I read Bonewits' book Real Magi and was wowed. And later forgot it. Much, much later, weeding out my library, I reread it and was badly put off by his tone of incessant mockery. For what that's worth. I haven't thought of him in years.

We had a creep or two in the pagan community back when I was a newbie. I don't know what happened to one of them; my newbie friends and I were in a circle run by the other, and finally quit - and did a ritual amounting to "The Lord and Lady bless him and keep him far, far from here." and "May he find happiness in another state entirely."

The Albuquerque community was policing its own and posting notices, especially at Beltane, about what behavior would and would not be tolerated. I think the fact that it was heavily female-led may have helped. Most of the leaders back when I joined had been trained by Oz Anderson, who had quit teaching when I came in and is bedridden, in very poor health, now. But the elders I did know plainly took their tome from her. Now they're all in retirement or poor health, and some of us newbies have circles of their own to run. And the scene is fragmented, so you can no longer speak of "the pagan community" but seems to be quite lively. There's a late September harvest festival in an Albuquerque public park that has very good attendance, and we're as much in love with playing dress-up as ever. Just for what that's worth.

I know I've gotten off topic here, but founders and leaders of the local scenes can make a huge difference.