Background

Emma was born on the 15th of November, 1965 in London, United Kingdom; the daughter of Robin, an ornithologist, and Judy Restall, a botanist.

Education

Emma Restall studied Druidry from the mid-1980s.

Career

In the 1980s, Emma began to work for the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. In 1989, she served as a priestess and counselor for the British Druid Order in St Leonards-on-Sea. In 1994, she accepted the post of joint chief of the order, where she worked for nearly ten years until 2002 alongside Philip Shallcrass. After that, she founded the international The Druid Network which, by gaining status as a religious charity in 2010, changed the legal definition of religion in Britain.

In 2004, Emma Restall Orr founded Honouring the Ancient Dead, an advocacy group working for the respectful treatment of ancestral material, 'human remains,' particularly those of pre-Christian past. Working for twenty years in Druid groups and organizations, in 2008 she stepped away to focus instead on her own deep spiritual work, practical ethics, and care. Presently, she acts as a media spokesperson for Druidry, presenting a reasoned and intelligent response to a broad spectrum of issues and current affairs.

As the author, Emma Restall Orr wrote her first book, Spirits of the Sacred Grove, in 1998. Since that time, she has written a number of books. Her most recent book, Steel Bars, Sacred Waters: Celtic Paganism for Prisoners, was written in collaboration with others and came out in 2018. Moreover, she is a contributor to print journals and Internet periodicals. Some of her writings appear under the pseudonym Bobcat.

Achievements

• Emma Restall Orr is one of the best-known names in British Druidry. She is a well-known spiritual teacher and priestess, as well as a prolific author of books on Druidry and Paganism. She appeared in a wide variety of TV programs, including Pagan's Progress, Secrets of the Stones, Lost Civilizations, The Unexplained, and The Real Merlin, among others.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Thorsons Principles of Druidry

    (This introductory guide includes the story of Druidry, fr...)

    1999
  • Kissing the Hag: The Dark Goddess and the Unacceptable Nature of Women

    (Kissing the Hag by Emma Restall Orr is based upon the old...)

    2008
  • Steel Bars, Sacred Waters: Celtic Paganism for Prisoners

    (An all-in-one pan-Celtic polytheist resource of cosmology...)

    2018
  • Living With Honour: A Pagan Ethics

    (A provocative, articulate, and uncompromising exploration...)

    2008
  • Living Druidry: Magical Spirituality for the Wild Soul

    (Grounded in everyday life and experience this book guides...)

    2004
  • Pagan Visions for a Sustainable Future

    (Representing diverse arenas of Paganism, eleven establish...)

    2005
  • Ritual: A Guide to Life Love and Inspiration

    (A highly readable and beautifully designed exploration of...)

    2000
  • The Wakeful World: Animism, Mind and the Self in Nature

    (Over the past few hundred years, animism has been dismiss...)

    2012
  • Spirits of the Sacred Grove

    (For many, the word Druidry conjures up images of white-ro...)

    1998
  • Druid Priestess: An Intimate Journey Through the Pagan Year

    (A compelling picture of the spiritual life of one of the ...)

    2001
  • The Apple and the Thorn

    (This story is not true in the sense that most people use ...)

    2007
  • Druidry

    (Interest in druidry is growing at an extraordinary rate. ...)

    2000

Views

Emma Restall Orr's philosophy can be described as the perception and understanding of sanctity in nature - human and nonhuman nature. As an environmentalist, deep ecologist, a vegan believing in minimal consumerism, her politics favor personal responsibility, and co-operative community. Albeit a provocative word, she sees this as true anarchy - authority being found only in the validity of the sustainable, equitable, and equable relationship. She believes, that creativity, peace, and harmony are achieved through consideration, care, consultation, and dialogue, where there is wakeful respect, without prejudice or assumption. In Emma's opinion, a valuable life is one lived in service to one's land and community. Her aim to live in such a way that her ancestors would be proud of.

According to Orr, animism is much more than a philosophy, but rather a way of life, something which she has most definitely put into practice herself. Evidence of that is her project, Sun Rising Natural Burial Ground. She is celebrated for her uncompromising views on ethics, environmentalism, and personal responsibility, challenging the Druid and Pagan community with her writings, talks, and other public appearances.

Quotations: "The important element is the way in which all things are connected. Every thought and action sends shivers of energy into the world around us, which affects all creation. Perceiving the world as a web of connectedness helps us to overcome the feelings of separation that hold us back and cloud our vision. This connection with all life increases our sense of responsibility for every move, every attitude, allowing us to see clearly that each soul does indeed make a difference to the whole."

"As dusk creeps over, the tawny owls call from the forest behind my house, drawing me out into the cool air, the scents of night, the stillness settling over the valley. As ever, it inspires me. I feel the energy of the land humming, waking me to who I am, reminding me of what is true and important. I breathe in deep. This is why I write, to share the beauty of what I see, to inspire others to experience the wonder of life. There is no other purpose but this, to live well, responsibly, joyfully."

"There is no transcendent creator in animism, no god who set the clocks ticking and decides which ones to fix when they falter, nothing exists outside of nature. In other words, my philosophy does not require that I believe in something I cannot experience directly."

"Not a squalid den of demons and indecency at the back of a beautiful great house, the mind is a vast and ancient wood, the density of its canopy allowing sunlight only now and then to reach through and touch the spiders and mushrooms in the leaf mold of the forest floor. This is who we are."

"As the incorporation of every moment of its experience, every influence of its contextual heritage and environment, a soul is the presence of its complete past."

"Pagan deity is never super-natural, existing within nature, like nature, both human and nonhuman nature, the gods are the darkness, the vibrance, the hunger, that we not only witness around us but experience within us. The gods are the cry for justice, the tug of trade, the belly-kick of loss, the bond with the land and with kin that are relayed again and again in the tales of our people and heritage, tales we daily observe in others and feel inside ourselves. The Pagan understanding of deity is therefore not wholly objective; he may acknowledge the existence of any or all gods, but each Pagan's relationship with his gods is fuelled by his own critically subjective and visceral experience of those forces."

"If you submit to the ocean, you drown. If you try to control the ocean, then you're deluded. You learn how to live with the ocean. You learn how to float, to swim, to be a part of it, to be with it. That is the nature of the Pagan's relationship with nature."

"Animism is a monist metaphysical stance, based upon the idea that mind and matter are not distinct and separate substances but an integrated reality, rooted in nature."

"The way we see the world is not actually the world in itself. What we see is our idea of it. The truth is, we have no notion of what the world is other than through the veils of our perception."

"There are no facts, only stories."

"All that is obvious detracts completely from all that is not."

"The wild is an integral part of who we are as children. Without pausing to consider what or where or how, we gather herbs and flowers, old apples and rose hips, shiny pebbles and dead spiders, poems, tears, and raindrops, putting each treasured thing into the cauldron of our souls. We stir our bucket of mud as if it were, everyone, a bucket of chocolate cake to be mixed for the baking. Little witches, hag children, we dance our wildness, not afraid of not knowing."

"But there comes a time when the kiss of acceptance is delayed until the mud is washed from our knees, the chocolate from our faces. Putting down our wooden spoon with a new uncertainty, setting aside our magical wand, we learn another system of values based on familiarity, on avoiding threat and rejection. We are told it is all in the nature of growing up. But it isn't so."

"Walking forward and facing the shadows, stumbling on fears like litter in the alleyways of our minds, we can find the confidence again. We can let go of the clutter of our creative stagnation, abandoning the chaos of misplaced and outdated assumptions that have been our protection. Then beyond the half-light and shadows, we can slip into the dark and find ourselves in a world where horizons stretch forever. Once more we can acknowledge a reality that is unlimited finding our true self, a wild spirit, free and eager to explore the extent of our potential, free to dance like fireflies, free to be the drum, free to love absolutely with every cell of our being or lie in the grass watching stars and bats and dreams wander by."

"We can live inspired, stirring the darkness of the cauldron within our souls, the source, the womb temple of our true creativity, brilliant, untamed."

Interests

• singing, dancing, photography

Connections

Emma Restall is married and has a son, Joshua.

Father:

Robin Restall

Mother:

Judy Restall

Son:

Joshua Orr

colleague:

Philip Shallcrass

Philip Shallcrass, also known as Greywolf, was born in 1953. He has been chief of the British Druid Order (BDO) from 1979, sharing the role with Bobcat (also known as Emma Restall Orr) between 1995 and 2002. He is a writer, musician, singer-songwriter, artist, craftsman, roundhouse builder, and teacher. He is the designer and editor of the BDO distance learning courses, and also the Order's primary writer, contributing over 65% of its content. He writes occasional articles for the Pagan press and blogs from time to time at Greywolf's Lair.

References

• Emma Restall Orr's Official Website