Urban Druid: Who Is An Urban Druid?
At present time it is estimated that around three billion of the earth's 6.6 billion population live in cities. That's almost half of the people on the planet clustered together in relatively small urban dwellings, separated from the countryside and the wilds, many dwelling in brightly lit interiors, losing themselves in the realities of a concrete and digital world, almost entirely sheltered and hidden from the nature that bore them. Yet still, no matter how small the apartment, no matter how large the city, the human animal is still just that, part of the great wild world, though like animals in captivity those who live in cities may have forgotten this truth and believe that they are separate from the world and acting on it, rather than forever being an integral part of it.
Those who study spiritual traditions will already know that separation is always an illusion. No matter how high man builds his towers, how thick his dams are, how many miles of cement and steel separate him from the raw regions of earth, each and every human on this planet is forever part of it, as much as those other creatures which we attempt to linguistically separate ourselves from by calling 'animal'.
This reality might be frightening to some, but there are others that embrace it. Those who find comfort in knowing that despite all man's intrigues and power plays and petty dramas that go into making a society and making a world, at our most simple and most base, we are products of the world in which we live, children of nature.
The urban druid is someone who knows that even though they may live in a concrete jungle, they are inextricably linked to every element in nature, that they cannot be separated from it, and that their every action affects not only other people on the earth, but every living creature.
The urban druid takes responsibility for themselves and their place in the world. They operate from a place of power, realizing that they cannot control the world, but they can control themselves, and that the power of one was not simply a title of a book and movie franchise that did rather well in the early 1990's, but a living reality.
In myth, a druid is a figure who harnesses the powers of nature, who is in tune with the rhythms and balance of the world. They speak to elemental spirits and sprites, cast spells, heal the sick and the wounded. Druidic religions still exist to this day, however these are not the type of Druids spoken of when the term 'Urban Druid' is used.
The modern urban druid may not relate to magical or mythological archetypes (though a moss green cloak is a stylish addition to any wardrobe), but they seek to find balance in their lives, to live simply within the nest of chaos which our human world is to become, to exist happy and free in societies where both happiness and freedom seem to be under more threat than ever before. The urban druid may be a Wiccan, a hippy, a tree hugger, a Buddhist, a Taoist, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian, a banker, a waiter, a designer, a cleaner, a teacher, a student, a politician, a republican, a democrat, a communist, anyone can be an urban druid, all it takes is the embracing of the awareness of this great planet, and our place on it.
