The Grove
Contrary to popular belief, the main place of "worship" within Druidry, ancient and modern, has never been the stone circles. it is only recently that a renewed interest in these ancient monuments, left by the pre-Celtic people, as religious centres has occured. The Druids did undoubtedly use them, but it was more likely for the eight seasonal festivals, as well as trade and tribal council.
The main place that Druids work is in fact the Grove, or as some call it, the Nemeton, named after Nematonis, a hunter Goddess rather like Diana from the Greek pantheon.
According to the classical writers, the Druids would meet in groves of yew trees to carry out their work. Sometimes these accounts would be nice about the work of the Druids that the Greeks/Romans met, detailing them to be grand ceremonies of peaceful and natural worship, however, when Rome was trying to stamp Druidry out, they detailed the Groves as dark, forbidding places covered in sacrificial gore..... oh the joys of propaganda.
Yew groves are rare and modern Druids work in groves of all sorts of trees, in fact some of us even plant our own with trees known to possess great power, such as oak, yew, birch or pine. Perhaps Blackthorn and Hawthorn are also good trees to use, to keep out unwanted visitors.
Modern Druids often get the nickname "tree hugging hippie" because of our love for the trees. Remember that one possible translation for the word Druid is "Oak Knower" meaning that the Druid is someone with the knowledge of the Oak. But the Druids link with the trees does not stop at a place of worship. Of course we associate each of the Ogham, an ancient alphabet, with a tree. (Note: the names of the Ogham are NOT the old names for the trees, only a few such as Birch and Oak (Beith and Duir) are tree names, in fact they are more qualities, the trees are just a mnemonic). And of course in Modern Druid orders, such as OBOD (The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids) LAW (The Loyal Arthurian Warband) and others, each group of Druids is called a Grove, thus we become the trees at our meetings.
So what makes a good grove? Well, that's up to the individual/grove/order. It could be a nice quiet place far away from the urban sprawl, away from where disruptive people can come and cause problems. It could be a grove that has been planted in a garden specifically for ceremonies. Many modern Druids are nomadic and thus use the stone circles, but often retain their own special grove, that only they use.
Here in the Tribe of The Spirit Bear we have several groves across Edinburgh, in places like Ravelston, Corstophine, the Hermitage of Braid and Arthur's seat, but we also use the beaches and some places in the Pentlands. Each Grove had it's unique personality and qualities that fit certain ceremonies.
