A Christopagan is someone blending Christianity and Paganism.
A Christodruid is someone blending Christianity and Druidry.
A Christodruid can also be a Christopagan, blending pagan Druidry or other Pagan beliefs with Christianity.
I’d put myself in the Christodruidry category, it’ll blend different things for me in Christianity and Druidry that’ll be very different to another blending these paths, although I do find myself at times within the Christopagan realm.
Even after what will be almost 20 years of walking this path, I still find myself learning, and blending new things, I find as I learn a new thing about Christianity it in turns leads me into a new area of Druidry or paganism and it’s a wonderful deep rich experience. For instance, a few years back when I first learned about sophia in the bible, its taken me into a whole new rich area of self-development and learning and pulls me into a new area of Druidry
Still labels can mislead, for instance, some people in Druidry, will say it is pagan only and that only certain people can be Druids, these people tend to be into Celtic Reconstruction Druidry, where OBOD is more ‘NeoDruidry’.
Celtic Reconstruction Druidry is just as a valid path as NeoDruidry, of course.
But if someone new, with Christian faith tried to join a Druid order that was into Celtic Reconstruction Druidry after hearing how diverse Druidry is, they’d get a very different welcoming to say OBOD, which has a Revivalist outlook. So the word ‘Druidry’ itself can be misleading.
The same is true of any label, especially in Christianity, two churches can have very different theologies. My niece who is a lesbian and also a Christian, can’t safely trust that every church, with others who ‘label’ themselves as Christians, will welcome her.
But with Christopagan the Label only suggests the person is someone blending Christianity and Paganism, it doesn’t push any of the details of what that is, you have no theology or dogma or any risks of a purists mentality happening, but what it does do is help create a community and bring people together who also find they don’t want to be pushed into an unnecessary limitation, with a term people can identify with.
Most labels do put unnecessary limitations on people with expectations, theology, and dogma. Where this new term ‘Christopagan’ is more to help people in breaking the Molds they feel they have been limited too, having a word that helps them identify groups of others who are also choosing to do the same is powerful in helping unite people to be able to have dialogue, with others of similar views, it can help stop people feeling so isolated and alone.
Labels can indeed also be manipulative though and have been used as tools to divide and limit people, to control people, making sure they ‘know’ their place.
But personal identity is also important for ourselves, recognising that others have different qualities is so important, it helps people understand differences in needs, it helps prevent discrimination, and respect different characters, helping recognise positive characteristics, setting valuable expectations.
Labels such as Christopagan or Christodruidry haven’t been created to confine people within a construct, although we respect other traditions, faiths and religions and the labels they choose to retain their identity, we are here because those terms are to restrictive to us, these new terms aren’t intended to put us into a new box, with dogma and theologies but instead are intended to help us be free from that, giving hopefully the fluidity that our soul needs.
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