By Brendan Cathbad Myers‹one of 12 original founding members.

In the year 1996 Ellen Evert Hopman, an author of books on Druidic tree and herb lore, had the impetus to create an internet discussion group to debate the state of ethics in the Druidic community and to promote a higher standard. Several events had prompted her initiative here: one of which was the discovery that a certain author of a very popular book on Druidism, published by Llewelyn, was a four-time convicted pederast in the US state of Conneticuit. Another was a past treasurer of ADF who embezzled money from the organisation to feed a gambling habit. Hopman sent invitations to a number of people in the Druidic community, mostly choosing people who, in various ways, were knowledgeable and/or outspoken. The mailing list was called White Oak. It still exists, and remains an excellent debating arena. Membership in this mailing list remains invitation-only.

In the spring of 1997 a number of people including myself thought that the need to promote a higher standard of ethics was sufficiently important that an order of some kind should be created. And so the members of the mailing list proceeded to draw up a kind of constitution. The task fell to me, partly because I wanted to do it, partly because no one else wanted to do it, to write drafts of the groupıs constitution and post then to the mailing list, where they were debated and discussed. I would study the debate, and then a few weeks later produce another draft. The main constitutional document, which was called the "Litany", was created this way through seven drafts and re-writes. I should also give credit to my friend NaTasha Bertrand who visited me at home and helped study the suggestions for improvement and write successive drafts. In this way the founding documents were a group effort, although I acted as a kind of scribe who organised the group effort.

One major portion of the debate at that time concerned how much of the Orderıs internal documents should remain a secret. After much negotiation, it was generally agreed that the first of the nine major sections of the Litany could be opened to non-members, in order to offer a kind of "try before you buy" look at what the Order of the White Oak stands for, while at the same time ensuring that there were some things of a private nature which people would have to commit to the Order to learn. This first section reads as follows:

1.1 The Order of the White Oak, Ord na Darach Gile, is our name.
1.2 The Old Pagan Religion of the Celtic Nations inspires our religion.
1.3 The history, poetry, and mysteries of of the Celts will also be ours.
1.4 Our Dearbhaig oath will be our affirmation of faith.
1.5 Our initiated members will be called Dedicants.
1.6 The standards of the Litany we expect only from ourselves, for no others have agreed to invest authority in this Litany.
1.7 The business and economic commerce of a corporation will be abstained by the Order, though individual dedicants not acting on behalf of the Order may do so.
1.8 The ministry of a public church will be abstained by the Order, though individual dedicants not acting on behalf of the Order may do so.
1.9 The work of a political party will be abstained by the Order, though individual dedicants not acting on behalf of the Order may do so.
1.10 Let our Dearbhaig, our Primary Liturgy, and this Litany bind us together as an Order.
1.11 For our purpose is to determine with reason, and then to demonstrate by example, the highest and most noble standard of conduct for modern Druids.
1.12 And our purpose is to share spiritual knowledge and so enrich each of our lives.

As you can see, the idea behind the Order of the White Oak was ambitious. We believed, at that time, that we could become sufficiently influential in the Pagan community at large to prevent the kind of ethical dilemmas posed by the events which gave Hopman the initial impetus to create the mailing list. On the night of Midwinter, 1997, twelve of the members of the mailing list who were involved in the group effort to write the Litany performed a private ceremony involving an all-night vigil, the creation of several ceremonial items, and the swearing of an oath with oneıs hand on a stone "from a sacred place", and so the Order was officially born.

I must admit that at the time, I felt extraordinary personal pride. A few years previously, I had been forced to resign from the Imbas Steering Committee. I had suggested that Imbas should be like what White Oak eventually became, and subsequently I received a number of anonymous hate messages from someone who was also on the steering committee. I left Imbas, and when the White Oak order was suggested, I saw it as an opportunity to propose again a semi-monastic, semi-tribal, and semi-philosophical social experiment. At the time of the first swearing of the Oath, I believed the experiment was successful.

The Oath of membership, incidently, was also a group effort although Hopman should be credited with insisting that the list of character-virtues which appears in the 7th century Irish text, the Testament of Morann, should be a part of it. The text exhorted future tribal rulers to be "merciful, just, impartial, conscientious, firm, generous, hospitable, honourable, stable, beneficient, capable, honest, well-spoken, steady, true-judging" (§55, Testament of Morann). Other parts were paraphrased from prayers in the Carmina Gadelica. In this, we may take the general ethical stance that White Oak was founded to promote.

In several ways, the Order of the White Oak is unique among modern Druid orders. No one is in charge-‹what keeps the group together is nothing more than a shared literature and a shared group of customs and practices, and a shared commitment to the goal of promoting a higher standard of ethics. There is no central leadership, no Archdruid, no council of elders, and indeed no one selected for administrative responsibility. No money is involved, and there is no teaching course either, although there is a system of 'fosterage' by which people can be apprenticed to existing members before being admitted as a full member. A further unique addition was that the Oath did not bind someone for life. It bound someone only for one year, at which time the Oath would be re-affirmed again. The idea is that people are forced to take the commitment seriously, but if at the end of the year they find they are not being benefitted by the Orderıs practices, they can simply refrain from renewing the Oath, and they are released.

The creation of a parallel "Red Oak" order, for Warriors, and a parallel "Green Oak" order for craftspeople and artisans, was discussed, and the whole thing was to be called the "Meeting of Oaks", but nothing came of it.

This blissful little debating society was quickly to change. Within a short amount of time, Pope John Paul 2 was preparing his Church to apologise to the people of the world for some of its historical crimes and wrongdoings. A group of Pagans decided to take the opportunity to request that the Pope should apologise to the Pagans as well, for all the deaths of witches during the Inquisition, for all the sword-point religious conversions of the more distant past, and so on.

On this occasion, Hopman thought it would be a useful idea to create a kind of leading council for the Order, so that "letters of importance" (basically protest letters) could be written on behalf of the whole group and sent to politicians and/or circulated in the Pagan community at large. If such a council were to endorse the bid to ask the Pope to apoligise the pagans, that might look more impressive than if one person were to endorse it at a time. Since my voice and Hopmanıs voice were among the most well respected on the mailing list, it looked like the council would be a triumvirate including myself, Hopman, and some as-yet-unselected third party, probably Topaz Owl (a prominent member of the Henge of Keltria). However, for a variety of reasons I came to change my mind. I came to believe that the Order did not need a ruling council, for this or for any purpose. I thought that the de-centralised coherence of the group was unique and should be preserved. I also saw a sign that the council would be used as a vehicle for someone's ego. As it turned out later, even without a Council, it was vulnerable to being hijacked by certain individuals seeking social prestige for themselves. For these and other reasons, I quickly changed my mind and began to outspokenly oppose the creation of a White Oak Council. During the debate, those who sided with me against the creation of a council felt themselves bullied and intimidated by one of the idea's supporters-‹seven people resigned in two months.

It happens that at the same time, Hopman had invited me to join the group organising to write to the Pope and request his apology to the Pagans for the Burning Times. This group was headed by Oberon Zell. They wanted as much international representation as possible, and I was one of two Canadians invited to participate. Once again, I found myself compelled by reason to change my opinion. On the private discussion group for the Papal Apology Letter initiative, I argued that the letter should not go ahead, for a variety of reasons. One was that witch-burnings were mainly the responsibility of secular authorities, and the Churchıs role was just to provide the theological justification. A second reason was that in my view the cause was a lost cause. No Pope would acknowledge modern Paganism as a spiritual tradition and path on par with his own, deserving of an apology. Oberon asked me to leave. He was probably right to do so.

I have no idea what became of the letter, although I learned that some of the people in the group eventually became the "Grey Council" and published a Grimoire (a spell book). I can confirm, however, that my opposition to the creation of a Council was successful, and White Oak remains a happy little debating society. Indeed it has authored several letters outlining ethical positions and recommending them to the community at large, including one on the topic of sexual harassment, and several critiques of the War Of Terrorism (pardon me, the war against terrorism). May I add, it has been able to do so without a Council to write and authorise them. Hopman has done the most since then to promote and to recruit for the order, and so to most people she is seen as its main figurehead and spokesperson. Since the 2000 United States presidential election, the focus of the debate has remained almost exclusively on American politics, rather than on matters internal to the Druidic community.

I can add on a personal note that as a result of my two changes of opinion, my friendship with her has been spoiled, and the two of us lock antlers over various issues rather frequently.

It is worth adding that the White Oak mailing list and order gave birth to a new initiative called the Druid Coalitions. In one discussion, I made an offhand remark that since America is so geographically huge, it might be worthwhile to organise within the territorial boundaries of natural bioregions. I also described how a body called "An Conradh Draoithe na h-Éireann" is organised: a meeting and sharing group for Druids living in Ireland, which like White Oak is de-centrally organised (although in the case of CDE, there are officers elected to fulfil several administrative responsibilities). A subscriber named Jan Graham-McMillan took this to heart, and spread the word across America by way of various channels of internet communication, while creating a Druid Coalition for her own "south-east" region. Hopman created one for the "north-east". The idea was that Druids within a certain natural area could get to know one another, whatever their other affiliations and memberships are, and thereby create more friendship and unity in the community.

I must apologise to the reader that this history of the White Oak is also a history of my own small involvement in it. As the group is so small, and the only real 'history' of the group that can be written is an eyewitness account, there is really no way to avoid this. It remains to be seen what will become of the Order of the White Oak in the future, whether its experiment will succeed or fail, whether it will become prominent or remain obscure. In a way, this story is the story of a hundred modern Druid orders like it: beginning with high aspirations, threatened with dissent and controversy over leadership issues, and then settling into a more comfortable and sustainable community or else fading into obscurity to be replaced by the next one. Such Pagan communities are legion. Since they are desperately important to some of their members, utterly insignificant to nearly everyone else, they serve as excellent laboratories for the study of the dynamics of identity, power, group relationship, and shared purposes.

Brendan "Cathbad" Myers Galway City, Ireland 25 September 2004.
Annotated version: 10 January 2005