ecosophia | Why You Joined, Why You Left

In the course of the ongoing conversation over on my blog, the Druid organization Ar nDraiocht Fein (ADF) came up for discussion. Quite a few people mentioned that they had been members of ADF but left the organization, most of them recently -- and one of my longtime readers and students mentioned that he's long been interested in the religious dimension of Druidry and is looking to set up an organization for people who share that interest. That got a lively response from the former ADF members, and the questions that came up immediately were:

Why did each person join ADF in the first place?

Why did they leave?

That's what this post is for: a frank discussion of what attracted people to ADF and what convinced them to quit. Full disclosure here: I'm also a former ADF member, though I left quite a while ago, and I'll be adding my own reflections to the conversation.

I'm well aware that this is a topic about which some people -- notably those who are still members of ADF -- may have strong feelings, and may not express those with the courtesy and thoughtfulness I expect from my commentariat. For that reason, any attempt at trolling, concern trolling, derailing, flamebaiting, or other bits of online gamesmanship will be deleted. This post is a place for those of us who have had experiences with a troubled Druid organization to talk about those experiences, so that a different organization can learn from them. Those who don't want to participate in that conversation are welcome to go somewhere else -- and those who might want to interfere with that conversation are welcome to go shinny up a stump. 'Nuf said.

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I was a member for 2 years. I was initially drawn by the religious/clergy elements. I struggled to relate to a lot of the stuff I read. I didn't really feel like I was progressing with a serious lack of any real training and I didn't feel much of a sense of community. It also struck me as odd that they placed such an importance on historical accuracy and how it set them apart from other orders, but adopted plenty of things that are not historic which no one seemed to talk or worry about.

What led to me eagerly letting my membership expire was the politics and attitude of a lot of people in ADF. By politics I'm referring to the ADF leadership and system. There seemed to be a lot of bickering and drama. The final nail in the coffin was when I was able to interact more with members. So many were very hostile towards any ideas or religions that they didn't agree with and even the "higher ups" participated in this attacking. If you weren't "in" with the group think, you were attacked and ridiculed. I thought the level of hostility towards anything Christian was strange for a group that very blatantly took their model from something they apparently hate so much.

Overall, it just never seemed like a healthy environment for growth, spiritual or otherwise.

Edited 2020-06-23 21:54 (UTC)

One of my very earliest memories of ADF, not long after I joined the first time, was watching a woman get dog piled on one of the e-lists for saying she would prefer not to attend a clothing optional festival. Not that such events should not occur, just that she herself wouldn't want to attend. You would've thought she called them all perverts the way they reacted. It was days of people lining up to denounce that attitude as "Christian baggage" and talk about how much more enlightened their own views were.

The really sad part is, I didn't do much more than shake my head and ignore it. And I didn't think to mention any of this in my own account even though I saw all the same things you're talking about. Because it was nothing unique to ADF, the high levels of drama, hostility and Christian bashing - it was par for the course in online NeoPaganism. The scene has gotten a lot worse lately but it has always been bad. I lost my ability to tolerate it a long time ago, and that's one reason I disappeared from the community for several years; I still think of it as a standard NeoPagan feature, well known and not worth mentioning.

It's really not a healthy environment.

Why You Joined, Why You Left

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