Despite being the dominant model of Druidry for the past few centuries, Fraternal Revivalist Druidry has taken a backseat in recent decades to other forms of Druidry including reconstructionist and other forms of neo-Pagan Druidry. Major revivalist Druid orders included the Ancient Order of Druids and the United Ancient Order of Druids. It is believed that the Order of the Stone Circle (OSC) was a split from the United Ancient Order of Druids in the 1990s with the new group merging Fraternal Revivalist Druidry and neo-Pagan Druidry. We tend to focus less on strict reconstruction.
The Order of the Stone Circle has had its ups and downs in recent years. The group's heyday seemed to be the late 1990s through the mid-2000s, but we are making slow a comeback. There are several challenges we've faced in the past few decades. For one, OSC never built up a large membership or chapter base to begin with. It's estimated that no more than a dozen chapters existed with membership in the hundreds. Out of that a few major leaders in the group have passed on from this world, and others burned out or moved on to other things. Those remaining have not always agreed on the best path for the organization and some simply don't have the time to devote to making the Order what it should be. Many of the records we had of chapters and membership have been lost as a result of major transitions within OSC over the past decade or more. This has further complicated our organizing efforts.
Despite these challenges, we believe that both Fraternal Revivalist Druidry and the Order of the Stone Circle have contributions to offer modern Druidry.
Our relatively recent open source chapter model provides both connection and autonomy to individual chapters while offering a template that can be used to create your own unique chapters based on the interests of your specific membership.
You can form a chapter and practice Druidry whether you consider it a religion or a nice life philosophy; whether you are interested in the historical, spiritual, or fantasy elements of Druidry; or whether you're simply interested the feeling of brotherhood, sisterhood, or fraternity associated with the group. While we've traditionally been a men's brotherhood with occasional women's sisterhoods, we currently open the way for brotherhoods, sisterhoods, coed groups, small triads, or whatever membership base you'd like to cultivate.
Our Order is and generally has been sexuality positive, so we welcome many diverse sexualities. We're extremely affirming of LGBT folks. A large number of our membership and leadership is and has been made up of gay and bi men, but we also have many straight members. Lesbians, transgender folks, and other sexual and gender minorities are also welcome to use our resources to model their own unique flavor of Druidry.
While many Druid organizations look exclusively to reconstruct and practice Druidry as it was practiced by the ancient Celts, OSC has always taken the stance of adapting Druidry to modern circumstances while honoring the past and looking toward the future.
We don't charge outrageous dues and fees to access our materials. If we charge dues or membership fees, they are relatively inexpensive and only act to confirm existing membership and interest. We accept individual members and also support the formation of chapters and triad groups. Members, chapters, and triads are free to access the materials in our online resources which include a number of UAOD documents, OSC rituals, a set of lessons introducing concepts related to Druidry, and our member manual. Membership is required to access the member area on our website.
Given the relatively small nature of our Order, we are also in a position to offer leadership opportunities within the organization - whether you are looking to lead on a local level or become part of OSC Chapter One (our guiding board).