Faces of the Goddess Magazine SGC 21

refreshments, and Olivia certainly wasn’t there
to do that. (Of course, it is no longer like that
with modern druid orders.) Oliva and her
brother and his wife consecrated a goddessfocused
druid Grove in ‘the ruined abbey’, on
their land, in 1963, which they dedicated to
the Goddess Eithne. In the ‘60s, Olivia had
become a close friend of Ross Nichols, who
broke from the Ancient Druid Order to form
the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids in 1964.
She loved Ross very much as a dear friend, and
he was a frequent visitor to the Robertson’s
home taking part in their druidic rituals to
the goddess. The founders later consecrated
the outdoor space as a Temple of Dana, the
mother goddess of The Tuatha de Dannan.
Olivia was also friends with the famous druid
Colin Murray, of the Golden Section Order,
and The Golden Section teaching chimed
very much with her own ideas of cosmic
harmony that she had originally learnt
from her architect father. The Fellowship
eventually introduced its own goddess-based
Druid Order, in 1992. Named The Druid Clan
of Dana, it was independent of all other
druid orders, and with no affiliations. "The
emphasis of the Clan, based on the elemental
powers innate in every sacred spot on earth,
is to develop psychic gifts”, writes Olivia, and
this was to happen via nature – trees, plants,
animals, stars, stone – nature itself, she said,
was aiding the return of the goddess, that we
were hearing her call through nature.
Before the founding of the Fellowship, in
1975, Olivia and Derry, as priest and priestess
Hierophants of Isis, conducted two Isian
wedding ceremonies in their temple, one of
which was enacted for Irish national TV.
Soon after the founding, women were asking
how they may become priestesses of the
goddess, and just eighteen weeks after the
inauguration, at lughnasadh 1976, the first
priestesses were ordained, one to the goddess
Isis, and one to Dana, and many men and
women across the world followed over the
years to became priestesses and priests of the
goddess of their calling, via the Fellowship.
Members can be solo, or form or join
autonomous groups, called Iseums, that are
dedicated to a goddess – or even two or three
goddesses, or a goddess and a god, but not to
a god alone, as the Fellowship is a gateway to
goddess communion. In the 1980s, Lyceums
were introduced, where groups could offer
more formal courses for those wanting to join
the priesthood.
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Derry
“I started as the Church of Ireland, or as
we call Anglican, as an Anglican. Everyone is
basically interested in religion, and their first
approach is through their religion to which
they were born, and as I say I was born into
the Church of Ireland, the Anglican Church.
And then my horizon broadened and I
became interested in many other religions….
my horizon broadened, so I became a
Universalist, believing in all the religions, but
particularly of course, the fair feminine aspect,
which is now very much coming into the fore
again. Of course you get that in Christianity,
particularly in the cult of the Divine Wisdom,