Winston Churchill—Britain's Druid Witch Prime Minister

It is a relatively little know fact that one of Britain’s most celebrated, though far from uncontroversial, statesmen, Winston Churchill, was a Druid. In the first decade of the twentieth century the still relatively obscure Churchill dabbled with a number of esoteric organisations most notably the Freemasons and his initiation into Druidic rites appears to have been an outgrowth of this.

Churchill was born in 1874 and his father, Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill, had been a Freemason and this may well have provided Winston with his first introduction to the fraternity. However Winston Churchill did not actually join the Masons until after his father’s death in 1895. Although there are different accounts of exactly when and where Churchill became a Mason it seems that he was initiated into the Entered Apprentice degree in 1901 in Studholme Lodge (no. 1591) in London. Churchill subsequently advanced through the Fellow Craft degree and was raised to a Master Mason in March 1902 in Rosemary Lodge (no. 2851). Another version has him being initiated into a lodge in South Africa in 1903. Churchill remained a Mason until 1912.

As well as conflicting accounts of his initiation into Freemasonry there is also some confusion over Churchill’s Druidic initiation, more specifically which of the several Druidic orders did he join.

A photograph in Stuart Piggot’s book The Druids shows a young Churchill flanked by a number of men, some wearing druid robes and others in ordinary suits. According to the inscription this photograph shows Churchill’s initiation into the Albion Lodge of the Ancient Order of Druids in August 1908 at Blenheim, his family home.

Elsewhere in The Druid Tradition, Phillip Carr-Gomm describes the same photograph while stating it was Churchill’s initiation into the Ancient and Archaeological Order of Druids.

Given the tendency for Druid groups to have overlapping memberships and joint ceremonies, it is possible that Churchill was a member of both these Druid orders. As we shall see, as a Freemason he was certainly qualified for both.

The Ancient Order of Druids (also known as the Druid Order) was founded in 1781 by Henry Hurle. Although Hurle does not appear to have been a Freemason he was a builder by trade and so may have been influenced by the rituals of operative masons which provided the basis for Freemasonry (interestingly the Welsh Druid revival owes much to the writings of a stonemason called Edward Williams, also known as Iolo Morgawg). Whether Freemasonry found its way into the Ancient Order of Druids via Hurle’s occupation or not, the latter was certainly heavily imbued with Masonic-like ritual.

The year 1833 was a defining period for the order as it saw a schism over the issue of its future orientation. The majority of members sought to take the order in the direction of a fraternal and benevolent society and they departed and adopted the name United Ancient Order of Druids. The minority retained the original name and continued mixing their fraternalism with mysticism. Both sides in the dispute retained a strong Masonic element and the Ancient Order of Druids in particular had a considerable overlapping membership with Freemasonry.

The Ancient and Archaeological Order of Druids was founded in 1874 by Wentworth Little. Little was a Freemason and his druidic order was designed as an exclusively Masonic society. All of its members had to have reached the degree of Master Mason before joining. The purpose of the Ancient and Archaeological Order was to study the connections between Freemasonry and the druid tradition.

In 1866 Little founded the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, a project not dissimilar to the Ancient and Archaeological Order of Druids. SRiA members were also required to be Master Masons first and just as Little’s druid order studied Freemasonry and druidry so the S.R.i.A. also concerned itself with research.

It was three members of the S.R.i.A. William Wynn Westcott, Samuel Liddle McGregor Mathers and Dr. W. Woodman who founded the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an order which has gained a notorious reputation largely by introducing Aleister Crowley to the occult. Little’s Druid and Rosicrucian interests seem to have been brought full circle in 1916 when Nuada, a Duid society and off-shoot of the Golden Dawn tradition was founded. Nuada was based in Clapham, London and was led by G.W. MacGregor Reid. McGregor Reid was a personal friend of Crowley and was also a Chosen Chief of the Universal Druid Bond from 1909-1946 after which he was succeeded by his son Robert (Chosen Chief 1946-1964).

The connections between these orders and Freemasonry are part of a much wider relationship between the two traditions of Druidry and Masonry giving Little’s Druids much to ponder in their research.

The Appletree Tavern in Covent Garden, London was the scene of the landmark meeting in 1717 at which Freemasons decided to organise a Grand Lodge to co-ordinate Freemasonry across the capital and later throughout England. In the same public house, in the same year, the inaugural assembly of the Universal Druid Bond was held, signifying what could be called the institutionalisation of the Druid revival which had begun with the work of John Auberey.

It is said that the first Chosen Chief of the Universal Druid Bond was John Toland, a member of a Masonic organisation called the Knights Of Jubilation. Toland was chief from 1717 to 1722 when he was succeeded by William Stuckley (1722 - 1765). Stuckley was also a prominent Freemason.

Toland’s role in the Druid revival is however questioned. In 1726 he wrote History of the Druids a critical account of ancient Druidry which sits uncomfortably with the notion that Toland was a Druid himself.

Connections between Freemasonry and Druidry crossed the Atlantic. In the United States in the eighteenth century, one Masonic Lodge at Newburgh, New York transformed itself into The Druid Society using the former Masonic lodge for its meetings and adopting much Masonic ceremony too.

Churchill's own association with both Freemasonry and Druidry were short-lived however and his interest in Druidry appears to have been wholly towards its fraternal character with little or no sympathy for its spirituality. In any event Churchill’s political career took over at this point. Here, Churchill made his name in a succession of ministerial posts, first as Britain’s youngest Home Secretary, and later as Chancellor of the Exchequer and ultimately Prime Minister during most of World War II and again in the early 1950’s.

When the Antichrist comes, he will lead the world into the New Age religion of forces (male and female sides of the god force in the universe. We already hear much about this heresy today taught on TV and in books)...

Daniel 11:38, “But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.”