Lugodoc's official history of the thirteen years
of
IOD
the Insular Order of Druids
The Insular Order of Druids came into being because of the
British government's prohibition on worship or celebration at Stonehenge
between 1985 and 1999.
1993
During
this period at every Summer solstice the arch-druid and road protestor King
Arthur Uthur Pendragon would be at Stonehenge, quietly and
peacefully asking to be allowed in, so that he could worship there. The
nearest he usually got was the chainlink fence at the Hele stone by the
A344 road that passes the monument. It was there awaiting the dawn in 1993
that he met a young shaman from Portsmouth called Dylan Blight.
The photograph that appeared in the Portsmouth Evening News
recording the event is presented on the right.
The two became lifelong friends, and inspired by King Arthur Dylan
returned home to create The Insular Order of Druids,
or IOD. He didn't call it the Portsmouth
Order of Druids because POD sounds silly. Then he adopted the pagan
name Dylan Ap Thuin.
Lugodoc is the official historian of IOD, assigned by
his arch-druid Dylan, and this page is its official history.
A few days after the solstice, on Thursday June 24th, King Arthur
visited Dylan in Portsmouth and met several of his friends, including
Roger Palmer and this author, Lugodoc. This was where Dylan began to
assemble his new grove.
At noon on Sunday 5th September
Dylan, Lugodoc and Spacey of the fledgling IOD grove attended the Council
Of British Druid Orders (COBDO) meeting. This was chaired by Rollo
Maughling of G.O.D. and scribed by Alex Cunningham. Also present were
Roger Hudson of A.O.D., Philip Shalcrass of The Druid's Voice, Arthur
Pendragon and Lugan of L.A.W., Liz Murran (liaison between druid
orders) and Douglas Lye (Anglo-Welsh liaison). At the meeting it was
agreed that IOD be admitted to COBDO.
These are my sketches of Arthur and Rollo from the meeting.
Dylan formed his new
neo-druid grove from his friends in Portsmouth, which included many
pagans, wiccans, shamans and iron-age Celtic re-enactors, including
this author. The first meeting of the Insular Order
of Druids
was held at The Druids Arms public house in Binstead
Road, Portsmouth, on Sunday evening the 12th of December, 1993.
The first meetings were held there once a month, and members would tell
stories, recite poems and discuss philosophy and the history of
druidry. The grove was finding its shape.
1994
In the evening of Sunday 30th January IOD held its first ritual,
to mark the ancient Celtic festival of Imbolc - the first of
the eightfold year feast days. This was held in the large back garden
at Dylan's house in Elizabeth Gardens, in Southsea, where he
lived with his Nan. This first ritual was very ”Wiccan” in format, but
soon the rituals underwent a transformation as more Druidic elements
were added. Also the rituals gradually got larger and more elaborate
and tended to be worked in daylight hours, “in the eye of the
sun.” After much thought Dylan wrote an IOD Manifesto to help define the
spiritual shape of the grove.
On Monday 14th February Dylan was interviewed about the new
grove on Radio 4.
For reasons of privacy and convenience it was decided to no longer hold
meetings at The Druids Arms, but instead to hold future IOD moots at
Elizabeth Gardens, and the first IOD moot was held there on Sunday
6th March.
A second ritual was held at Elizabeth Gardens on Sunday 20th March to
mark the vernal equinox, and many more followed.
Stonehenge was still closed to druids in 1994, and so the Council of
British Druid Orders held its Summer Solstice
ritual on Parliament Hill, and IOD was invited to take part. At
noon Dylan Ap Thuin blew the herald's horn to
start the ceremony.
On July 21st Dylan was interviewed for national television.
On Sunday 6th November a national Paganfest was held in
London. Dylan, Steve & Lugodoc attended in robes. Steve was later
to adopt the pagan name of Orc and join The Loyal Arthurian
Warband where he stood beside Arthur fearlessly for many years. He
is mentioned many times in Arthur's autobiography - The Trials of
Arthur (The Life
and Times of a Modern-Day King) by Arthur Pendragon and Christopher
James Stone (Element press, ISBN 0-00-712114-8).
One particularly fine Samhain ritual held by IOD one dark night
at Elizabeth Gardens was filmed by local TV and broadcast the same
night. The voice-over was recorded in one take by Lugodoc with the
presenter Toyah Wilcox.
1995
At dawn on Sunday February 26th IOD held an initiation ritual at Stonehenge
for seven of our members, officiated over by our own Arch Druid Dylan
Ap Thuin and five initiated druids from other orders.
IOD continued to hold private rituals at Elizabeth Gardens, but at Beltayne
we held our first public ritual at dawn at 4 a.m.on Portsdown
Hill overlooking the island of Portsmouth. This was well attended
with pagans from groups all over Portsmouth, as well as curious public
and the local press. It was also very elaborate, with many complex
ritual
costumes such as the Green Man and the Horned God, and even Epona
mounted on a real horse lent to us for the occasion. During the night a
thick mist had risen, and during the ritual visibility was less than 50
yards. It was spoo-oo-ooky!!!
On Saturday 29th July IOD were invited to officially open the
two day Britannica show on the Isle Of Wight,
organised by the local iron-age Celtic re-enactment society Vectis.
King Arthur's peaceful requests to enter Stonehenge at every Summer
Solstice since 1985 had long been a thorn in the side of the
British government, and he had already been arrested several times over
the years, only to be released without charge or aquitted in court.
This year for the first time they were able to arrest him under the
brand new Criminal Justice Bill of 1994. His case came up
nearly three months later at Salisbury Magistrates Court on Wednesday
13th September at 10a.m. Several druid orders including IOD
were there in full druid robes. This author has not sat through many
court cases, but this one was interesting so I took notes, and readers
can peruse them here.
Yet again, Arthur was aquitted.
During this period Dylan also did both voluntary and paid counselling
work for
Portsmouth MIND, and organised spiritual counselling for
pagans in St James
Hospital and Kingston Prison.
1996
On the evening of Wednesday 1st February IOD performed a public Imbolc
ritual in Fox's Forest at the North end of Portsmouth
island. This was reported by the local Portsmouth News...
At dawn on Wednesday 20th March we performed an equinox ritual
at Stonehenge.
The Council Of British Druid Orders hold meetings four times a
year, but they only hold
one annual ritual ceremony, the Summer Solstice.
Stonehenge was still closed at the solstice during the nineties, so the
COBDO gathered at either Primrose or Parliament hill in London each
year, inviting one of the druid orders in their affiliation to organise
the ritual. This year
the honour went to the Insular Order of Druids, and marked the third
aniversary of their formation. Druids from around the world were
gathered to mark the event.
1997
On Sunday June 1st at noon, IOD hosted the mid-year COBDO moot.
As the Summer solstice approached the national press began to
run stories about it. This photo appeared in The Independent on
June 6th. It had been taken by Glynn Griffiths in 1994, and shows Dylan
Ap Thuin standing in the A344 by The
Hele Stone at dawn. This became The Independent's stock library photo
of a druid at Stonehenge, and has been used
by them ever since:
Photo Library Druid
On Sunday August 10th IOD organised the first Wessex
Open Eisteddfod,
in cooperation with Portsmouth council. This event invited poets,
musicians, storytellers and players to compete for the prize of a
Celtic neck torc, and took place on the green fields by Southsea beach.
It was the first English speaking Eisteddfod since the 1920s. Dave
The
Bard
won the torc.
On Friday October 31st IOD took part in a Samhain ritual at Stonehenge,
where King Arthur began his long walk to London to campaign for open
access to Stonehenge and travellers' rights.
1998
This year English Heritage proposed limited access to Stonehenge at
the Summer Solstice
by issuing just one hundred tickets. Opinion on this was divided. King
Arthur refused to take part in a limited access event, insisting on
free and open access. However, IOD sent representatives, and Dylan Ap
Thuin was blessed with ticket number 1 out of
100.
On Sunday September 27th IOD took part in a Round Table
Druid Moot at Assembly Rooms in Glastonbury with King
Arthur, Rollo Maughling, Philip Carr-Gomm and many others.
2000
For the first time in fifteen years the authorities allowed open
access to Stonehenge at the Summer Solstice.
IOD were there for this historic event and conducted a ritual by the
stones. (We couldn't conduct one inside the stones because it was
jam-packed full of musicians.) Peruse Lugodoc's
account here.
On Sunday July 30th we performed a far simpler Lughnasad ritual
at Elizabeth Gardens.
2002
On Sunday July 21st Dylan Ap Thuin held his last moot with IOD,
at Elizabeth Gardens, to announce that he was leaving Portsmouth and
the grove. There were thirteen of us, including Nick Branson and Dave
Harris. Dylan is holding the drum. He appointed a high priestess and
elders and made Lugodoc the official
historian of the Insular Order of Druids
(hence this web page). The following week he moved up North to Bolton,
taking with him his frail grandmother “Nan” in order to look after her.
2003
On Sunday July 13th Dylan collapsed with a heart
attack and was taken to Bolton Hospital. Six days later on Saturday
19th he was officially declared dead, aged 38.
On Monday July 28th, he was cremated at Overdale Creamatorium,
Bolton,
On Saturday August 16th IOD held a Crossing The Bridge
ritual to mark his passing in a Yew Grove in Kingley Vale,
near Chichester. This took place through out the day and was attended
by over a hundred friends, including members of IOD past and present,
other druid orders, pagan groups
and his dad Trevor.
On Sunday September 28th IOD and representatives from many
other druidic groves met to pay their last respects to Dylan Ap
Thuin at Stonehenge. His mother and his Nan brought his
ashes down from Bolton and we scattered them there amongst the stones.
Lugodoc's own video record of this ritual can be viewed below.
Lugodoc wrote the obituary for Dylan that appeared in the local paper -
The Portsmouth News.
In many ways this was the last official IOD business. But the fun went
on....
2004
On July 9th IOD's official swordbearer Merlin (knighted
by King
Arthur at Stonehenge just after the solstice) was arrested for carrying
Dylan's old ceremonial sword in Wilkinsons supermarket in
Portsmouth, even though it was sheathed, strapped to his back and took
five minutes to remove. On August 3rd he appeared before Portsmouth
magistrates supported by other IOD members and King Arthur, and the
case was dropped.
At noon on Sunday September 26th IOD held a Crossing-The-Bridge
ritual in Victoria Park in Portsmouth for Roger Palmer, who had
died in Spain at the end of July. He was one of my six fellow initiates
at Stonehenge in 1995.
Without Dylan's leadership the IOD grove had lost its direction,
and in an attempt to save it from collapse King Arthur called a special
moot on Eastney beach at dusk at Samhain, attended by the
grove's three elders, interested members and neutral observers and fair
witnesses. Lugodoc took the minutes of this meeting, and will make them
available to any interested parties on request.
2005
Everything that has a beginning has an end. IOD was the
creation of Dylan Ap Thuin, and without his energy the grove had
withered. At 9 p.m.on Wednesday June 8th three of the oldest
members
gathered at dusk on Eastney beach - Nick Branson, Dave Harris and
myself, Karl Gallagher. All three had
all been initiated together at Stonehenge in 1995. The final IOD
ritual was
conducted (witnessed by Christie the spititual tourist, who took this
photograph for us) and according to the old law the grove disbanded,
bringing to an end the thirteen years of the Insular Order of Druids.
New groves have already appeared in Portsmouth with new philosophies
for the new century, and we observe their progress with interest and
optimism.
Druid groves are notoriously chaotic and
disorganised, and although I have done my best to present a definitive
history I know that there are many omissions from this page. If any old
member of IOD
or other interested party has a memory to share or a newspaper cutting
or photograph to add to this page, please
get in
touch with Lugodoc.
Return to Druid history page
