Religion/Spritial beliefs in bushcraft??

[andyn]

I know that religion can be a sensitive subject and can cause a lot of arguments/debates etc and i know that similar posts have been made before...BUT...my boss at work is a druid and she was speaking to me today about the stuff they do at their druids meetups and she asked me if i knew if there were any druids that are on here and how their felt their beliefs fitted in with their interests in bushcraft.

So here is my very simple question....Are you a druid, or believe in other less mainstream (I didn't know what word to use, so please don't take offence to that) religions and do you feel your religion supplements your interest in bushcraft. Or do you feel that you approach bushcraft from a totally different spirital angle? Or do you feel that a your approach bushcraft is on a level that is just personal to you.

What are your views on it?

Please try not to pass judgement on other peoples beliefs/opinions on this one as this is a personal question that i would like to be able to get an answer from without it being drawn out into anargument that then ends up having to be deleted.

Thanks in advance, and i look forward to hearing your views.

 

[bambodoggy]

Sorry Mate, I don't "do" religion so I can't help you.

I am, however, "interested" in religion and so am also looking forward to hearing others answers too

Good question Andy.

Bam.

 

[Goose]

I am with Bam on this, good question!
I read a thread a while ago about fire by friction, the poster said something along the lines of " before you start you can give a little prayer to whichever god or spirit you wish, if you believe or not it gives you a couple of seconds meditation in which time you get your position right" I wonder if this is the origin of prayer?
I suppose my "prayer" would be Stuarts cup of tea in a survival situation, that couple of minutes reflection whilst you stop and think.

 

[AlbeoLupus]

I'm a Witch have been for nearly 25 years.

I celebrate all nature, so how does this sit with bushcraft I heard you ask.

well

For me anything I take/use from nature I give thanks for.

Yes I know this sounds all hippyfied, but let me give you an example.

I had seen a branch I wanted to use to make something (can't remember what now it was years ago ) to say thankyou i gave the tree an offering in this case it was whiskey and I also planted the trees seed into the surrounding area.

hope this helps.

Andy

 

[RovingArcher]

I don't do religion either. But, I am a very spiritual man and without my spiritual beliefs and understandings, I would be much less the man.

I can't walk on the Earth, without knowing that all things that are part of the Creation, are part of me and vice versa, as we are all related, right down to the very essence of our makeup.

I find our CREATOR in everything, giving all things spirit, so all things have life. It may not be life as we understand from our own lives, but it is life all the same. Kind of like those prions that cause mad cow and several other conditions in animals and humans. They don't fit any definition of life as we understand it. Yet, they exist and they consume.

All things, seen and unseen, have spirit and have life. Therefore, all things earn respect from me. I do not worship them, as I worship our CREATOR, but I do honor them in my prayers, in my ceremonies and in my life. When I take, I give in return. That is the way of Nature and that is my way as I walk my lifes journey.

 

[wolf]

My views on this subject is,that an unseen force call it the great spirit, god,the creator,whatever is all around us,every living thing has spirit so everything should be honoured,including ourselves,we cannot honour anything unless we first honour ourselves,so every living thing must be shown respect and yes that does include fire.It is sad to see that these days we must question what religion we are etc and how this fits into nature when many tribes exist in harmony with nature.It is therefore said it is not what they believe it is what they know....WOLF...

 

[useless]

I'm a druid (of sorts), and am with AlbeoLupus on this one.

On another take, I've always been in awe of nature, and in love with her. I've always liked camping, sining songs around the fire, stuff like that. As I grew I wondered about how to make fire, and was (and still am) always impressed at the whole "fire by friction" thing. It shows fire as an alive thing. The collection of water through, for example, placing bags over branches shows how these things are alive, with stuff going on we can't see. And standing on the top of a big hill watching the sunset, well WOW!!! Exploring and learning about bushcraft offers me a pragmatic way of understanding my beliefs and feelings.

And yes, there are loads of druids doing bushcraft, and I suspect many bushcraft people would REALLY enjoy a druid camp. They are great fun. It helps if you like beer. Or cider.

But druidry is also about community. Chatting with others who are so willing to offer advice and information is the best bit, and that's the best bit about here too!

 

[JohnC]

I'm a Christian and certainly agree that there is a spiritual aspect to being among nature. I agree that all things should be treated properly and that this must extend to our enviroment.
Whether saying thankyou to a tree or a rock is seen by some as too treehuggy isnt the point, it's an attitude of respect for everything around you thats good to develop.

 

[bushwacker bob]

Hmmmm. I realised some time ago that 'Heaven' is actually being alive. when you die (I believe I will be organic compost) is the time we exit from 'Heaven' as we no longer have control of what we do.
I think most bushcrafters have a sense of spiritualism about them,hence the respect given to, and the pleasure derived from the other living organisms on the planet(exept mosquitos)
I was raised as a christian,but most 'religeons' seem to offer a similar set of rules for living in commmunities.
Now I'm just an ageing conformist tree-hugging hippy.

 

[Rhapsody]

So here is my very simple question....Are you a druid

Haha, quote of the week, surely!

Anyway, I'm a committed atheist in every way. To me, life is wonderfully rich and diverse enough insofar as I can experience it from day to day, without the need to add to it any spiritual stuff that I can't.

 

[Abbe Osram]

I know that religion can be a sensitive subject and can cause a lot of arguments/debates etc and i know that similar posts have been made before...BUT...my boss at work is a druid and she was speaking to me today about the stuff they do at their druids meetups and she asked me if i knew if there were any druids that are on here and how their felt their beliefs fitted in with their interests in bushcraft.

So here is my very simple question....Are you a druid, or believe in other less mainstream (I didn't know what word to use, so please don't take offence to that) religions and do you feel your religion supplements your interest in bushcraft. Or do you feel that you approach bushcraft from a totally different spirital angle? Or do you feel that a your approach bushcraft is on a level that is just personal to you.

What are your views on it?

Please try not to pass judgement on other peoples beliefs/opinions on this one as this is a personal question that i would like to be able to get an answer from without it being drawn out into anargument that then ends up having to be deleted.

Thanks in advance, and i look forward to hearing your views.

I am not a Druid in that sense that you could tell her that you found a Druid on BCUK but I am a spiritual person. Some of my thinking you can find on my web page in the spiritual section.
Bushcraft could be a door into the unknown if you choose too. Civilization is overloaded with noise, words, thoughts etc etc. In that heavy mass of words and thoughts even religion fits, politics and preconceptions. Bushcraft has the chance to get you back to the roots. The most powerful stuff you will experience while being alone. Don’t rush into it but that should be everyone’s goal. Having less and less stuff with and that means as well being free of the need of company.

Its easy being in a gang in the forest, sitting around a fire making noise, telling stories, having opinions but I found it a real challenge to start with the adventures journey on the side of your heart when you are alone in the woods, no friends, nothing to do anymore, watching the fire, hearing the sounds of the woods. Watching your thoughts, feelings, the loneliness coming and going, and the light of freedom breaking thru filling the emptiness of your heart with a warm feeling of peace. Then again after a short while thoughts are floating in fighting this freedom in you…its like a war on the inside..... And then there…. it is coming.....you finally broke through the wall of fear, the need off having company, the need of being occupied with some activity. In that peace, in that coming home we might find a voice of truth. Movies, Musik, images, Money, Jobs or Positions are only illusions. If people loose them they are often getting depressed and lost. Bushcraft has a nice teaching of less is more. I like that, I want to find it as well in my inside. Less wishes, less hopes, less opinions, less worries makes me traveling lighter and lighter in this life.

There is a secret out there to be found, not in the noise and money making, all that stuff are only illusions, there is a reality which is sharper than a knife. That is what I am looking for and part of me fears that road ahead, but I need to walk the walk.
Here I am walking and its fun to meet now and than a soul with the same spirit, walking for a short while with me and then going his way when the time has come for it. Then I don’t want to miss him, don’t want to hold him but give freedom to him and to me. Walking my path.

Tell me if I am a Druid, I don’t know, I believe the question is irrelevant. Its more important if you hear my voice in your heart. Its more important to find out that we are all together on the same road.

Cheers
Abbe

 

[beachlover]

Abbe, Whatever was asked at the start of this thread you have answered in spades! :You_Rock_

I am not a Druid in that sense that you could tell her that you found a Druid on BCUK but I am a spiritual person. Some of my thinking you can find on my web page in the spiritual section.
Bushcraft could be a door into the unknown if you choose too. Civilization is overloaded with noise, words, thoughts etc etc. In that heavy mass of words and thoughts even religion fits, politics and preconceptions. Bushcraft has the chance to get you back to the roots. The most powerful stuff you will experience while being alone. Don’t rush into it but that should be everyone’s goal. Having less and less stuff with and that means as well being free of the need of company.

Its easy being in a gang in the forest, sitting around a fire making noise, telling stories, having opinions but I found it a real challenge to start with the adventures journey on the side of your heart when you are alone in the woods, no friends, nothing to do anymore, watching the fire, hearing the sounds of the woods. Watching your thoughts, feelings, the loneliness coming and going, and the light of freedom breaking thru filling the emptiness of your heart with a warm feeling of peace. Then again after a short while thoughts are floating in fighting this freedom in you…its like a war on the inside..... And then there…. it is coming.....you finally broke through the wall of fear, the need off having company, the need of being occupied with some activity. In that peace, in that coming home we might find a voice of truth. Movies, Musik, images, Money, Jobs or Positions are only illusions. If people loose them they are often getting depressed and lost. Bushcraft has a nice teaching of less is more. I like that, I want to find it as well in my inside. Less wishes, less hopes, less opinions, less worries makes me traveling lighter and lighter in this life.

There is a secret out there to be found, not in the noise and money making, all that stuff are only illusions, there is a reality which is sharper than a knife. That is what I am looking for and part of me fears that road ahead, but I need to walk the walk.
Here I am walking and its fun to meet now and than a soul with the same spirit, walking for a short while with me and then going his way when the time has come for it. Then I don’t want to miss him, don’t want to hold him but give freedom to him and to me. Walking my path.

Tell me if I am a Druid, I don’t know, I believe the question is irrelevant. Its more important if you hear my voice in your heart. Its more important to find out that we are all together on the same road.

Cheers
Abbe

 

[demographic]

Scott dons his Nomex undercrackers and....

I am a devout athiest
I try and find the simplest answers and usually they turn out to be the best explanation so...

I find it far simpler to believe that we evolved from the primordial soup that something as powerfull as a god that could create us could have evolved.
If god made us then who made god?

I know that you can't prove that god doesn't exist anymore than you can prove any negative but for me it comes down to, Prove that he does exist as I don't do faith, need to see proof otherwise it's all just a made up story.

Don't think I would describe myself as being "spiritual" either but I regard the natural world (and the sciences) as being wonderous enough without having to staple other stuff onto that just to make it sound better.

All that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate sitting at the top of a mountain just thinking, or staying out under the stars looking at places that I will never get the chance of visiting because they are light years away.
For me theres far too many interesting things in the physical world to believe in things that someone made up when mankind knew less about how it all worked.

Errrrrrr, thats it.

 

[JonnyP]

Scott dons his Nomex undercrackers and....

I am a devout athiest
I try and find the simplest answers and usually they turn out to be the best explanation so...

I find it far simpler to believe that we evolved from the primordial soup that something as powerfull as a god that could create us could have evolved.
If god made us then who made god?

I know that you can't prove that god doesn't exist anymore than you can prove any negative but for me it comes down to, Prove that he does exist as I don't do faith, need to see proof otherwise it's all just a made up story.

Don't think I would describe myself as being "spiritual" either but I regard the natural world (and the sciences) as being wonderous enough without having to staple other stuff onto that just to make it sound better.

All that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate sitting at the top of a mountain just thinking, or staying out under the stars looking at places that I will never get the chance of visiting because they are light years away.
For me theres far too many interesting things in the physical world to believe in things that someone made up when mankind knew less about how it all worked.

Errrrrrr, thats it.

Sorry mate I totally disagree with you...............I believe in God, I believe we were created and I believe that the Earth was created by him too. I look upon the intricate beauty that is around us and the wonder of nature and the things of this earth, I just cannot reason that this world was formed by a big bang or anything other than God himself. I am not really a spiritual person or anything like that, I just see it as common sence. I believe that God is there and has always been. Also I believe that we are just human and cannot comprehend all that is God.
You say we evolved from the primordial soup, who, tell me made the soup in the first place. Also Who is that someone that you mention at the end of your thread.
Andy..........You have opened a can of worms here mate................Jon

 

[RovingArcher]

I am not a Druid in that sense that you could tell her that you found a Druid on BCUK but I am a spiritual person. Some of my thinking you can find on my web page in the spiritual section.
Bushcraft could be a door into the unknown if you choose too. Civilization is overloaded with noise, words, thoughts etc etc. In that heavy mass of words and thoughts even religion fits, politics and preconceptions. Bushcraft has the chance to get you back to the roots. The most powerful stuff you will experience while being alone. Don’t rush into it but that should be everyone’s goal. Having less and less stuff with and that means as well being free of the need of company.

Its easy being in a gang in the forest, sitting around a fire making noise, telling stories, having opinions but I found it a real challenge to start with the adventures journey on the side of your heart when you are alone in the woods, no friends, nothing to do anymore, watching the fire, hearing the sounds of the woods. Watching your thoughts, feelings, the loneliness coming and going, and the light of freedom breaking thru filling the emptiness of your heart with a warm feeling of peace. Then again after a short while thoughts are floating in fighting this freedom in you…its like a war on the inside..... And then there…. it is coming.....you finally broke through the wall of fear, the need off having company, the need of being occupied with some activity. In that peace, in that coming home we might find a voice of truth. Movies, Musik, images, Money, Jobs or Positions are only illusions. If people loose them they are often getting depressed and lost. Bushcraft has a nice teaching of less is more. I like that, I want to find it as well in my inside. Less wishes, less hopes, less opinions, less worries makes me traveling lighter and lighter in this life.

There is a secret out there to be found, not in the noise and money making, all that stuff are only illusions, there is a reality which is sharper than a knife. That is what I am looking for and part of me fears that road ahead, but I need to walk the walk.
Here I am walking and its fun to meet now and than a soul with the same spirit, walking for a short while with me and then going his way when the time has come for it. Then I don’t want to miss him, don’t want to hold him but give freedom to him and to me. Walking my path.

Tell me if I am a Druid, I don’t know, I believe the question is irrelevant. Its more important if you hear my voice in your heart. Its more important to find out that we are all together on the same road.

Cheers
Abbe

Well said Abbe.

 

[RovingArcher]

Sorry mate I totally disagree with you...............I believe in God, I believe we were created and I believe that the Earth was created by him too. I look upon the intricate beauty that is around us and the wonder of nature and the things of this earth, I just cannot reason that this world was formed by a big bang or anything other than God himself. I am not really a spiritual person or anything like that, I just see it as common sence. I believe that God is there and has always been. Also I believe that we are just human and cannot comprehend all that is God.
You say we evolved from the primordial soup, who, tell me made the soup in the first place. Also Who is that someone that you mention at the end of your thread.
Andy..........You have opened a can of worms here mate................Jon

No can of worms, no religeous discussions. This isn't the place for it. If you feel the need, pray on it. It's about all you can do in any situation that you are not in control of.

 

[Neil1]

Well I'm agnostic, believe what you want!
I've worked with folks from a wide range of religiuos backgrounds and all have one thing in common - a code /way of living to be a better human being -not a bad thing at all
Is there a spiritual side to bushcraft? well there is nothing like sitting round a fire with a group of like minded-people, staring into the flames,talking -but perhaps this more primeval than spiritual.
Sitting among the trees or on a high hill or mountain has always been my escape in times of personal crisis, nature puts things in a cold/clear light, seeing creatures/brothers who arenot so bound up in themselves and instead get on with living without the "advances" we supposedly have and make a very fine job of it - often puts my life in perspective.
Is finding solace in these special places/experiences new? No - its been happening for thousands of years (some call it paganism but I think it goes way beyond that).
The spirit of the greenwood is as old as we are and will always be with us - celts had specials places they worshiped(hills, mountains , clearings, etc), christianity replaced this with churches and a life code, great for some, but when things got tough there is evidence that we turned back to the natural world - hidden in christian churches, where simple craftsmen worked they would add the "green-man", the spirit of the greenwood nad he has stayed with us in every generation as - jack in the green - or Robin Hood - Catweazel - Lofty Wiseman _ Les Hiddens - Ray Mears - there is always a character in green who takes us back into the natural world to reflect and heal.
Neil

 

[Tony]

You Guys are impressive and I’m grateful for that.

When Andyn started the thread I thought ‘Oh No’ and had to sit for a minute to work out if I should leave it or not, it has such potential to go off track and become something that would ruin the essence of the question.
However, you’ve all made me leaving it something I’m glad I did (I often regret it) this is a fantastic thread where you’ve all stayed to the spirit of the forum and expressed yourselves wonderfully with no provocation to others, thank you. :You_Rock_

 

[pumbaa]

My personal beliefs are probably more Shamanic than anything . I say probably because in truth i have not really looked deeply enough into any of the "religons" to say thats the one for me . Shamanism just seems to go with what i belive more than any of the other religons from the small amount of information that i have understood on all the religons .
Pumbaa

 

[AlbeoLupus]

Cor we’re a diversified bunch.

But, we all have one thing (maybe more) in common. We ALL have a love of nature.

Andy