Philip Shallcrass

The closing ceremony of the 2012 Paralympics included text from a 1997 Gorsedd ritual written by Philip Shallcrass and Emma Restall Orr.

In 1994, following what he described as a powerful vision in a sweat lodge, he adopted the Druid name, Greywolf. In 1995, he began to work regularly with Emma Restall Orr, who became joint chief of the BDO. Together, they lectured, hosted workshops and rituals, wrote new material for the Order, and appeared on TV and Radio in the UK and elsewhere.

In 1993, at the invitation of Tim Sebastion, founder of the Secular Order of Druids, Shallcrass composed a ritual to be performed at a multi-faith conference Tim had organised among the old stone circles of Avebury in Wiltshire. This resulted in the formation of the Gorsedd of Bards of Caer Abiri, which grew over the next few years to become what Ronald Hutton described as the "central event" of the New Druidry, initiating many people into the Bardic grade. A detailed account of the first event was published in The Gorsedd of Bards of Caer Abiri Newsletter No. 1, where Shallcrass took the role of Chief Druid (equivalent to Master of Ceremonies) with the assistance of Philip Carr Gomm of the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids. Another detailed account of the Gorsedd was later provided in the Pagan Federation's journal Pagan Dawn.

In 1992, he became editor of The Druids' Voice: the Magazine of Contemporary Druidry.

Over the years that followed, the material written for the Grove of the Badger was revised and added to. At the end of the 1980s it began to be published and bring the BDO to wider attention. He married Eleanor Kilpatrick, an Occupational Therapist with the NHS, in 1985. In the early 1990s, Kilpatrick and Shallcrass met and began a continuing friendship with Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, chiefs of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Philip Shallcrass began to lecture on Druidry at a series of conferences on New Religious Movements.

In 1978, Shallcrass joined an Alexandrian Wiccan coven, being initiated a High Priest the following year. During the course of that year, he had been writing seasonal festival rites for the coven. These were heavily influenced by his studies in Druidry. By the time the festival cycle was complete, the coven's celebrations had become so Druidic in flavour that the members agreed to stop calling themselves a coven and become instead a Grove; the Grove of the Badger. This is now seen as the Mother Grove of the British Druid Order (BDO).

Philip Shallcrass (born 1953), often known by his Druid name, Greywolf, is Chief of the British Druid Order. He is an artist, writer, poet, musician and singer-songwriter who pioneered a "shamanic" Druidism.

He was born in Sussex, England in 1953. His first visit to Avebury occurred in the 1970s. In 1974 he discovered Druidry through reading Robert Graves' The White Goddess. In the same year, he read Mircea Eliade's Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. Eliade's book contained descriptions of the visionary experiences of shamans that mirrored events in Shallcrass's own life. Further studies convinced him that Druidry was the earliest recorded form of native European shamanism. Philip Shallcrass has provided an account of his life, beliefs and inspirations for the BDO's YouTube channel, including Stuart Piggott's work on the history of Druidry. As a child he was familiar with the Christian church; later, he would be inspired by the Welsh medieval text The Mabinogion and its stories. Shallcrass went on to run an occult bookshop in St. Leonards before being asked to join Alex Sander's coven, an offer which he would turn down. After working on Wicca with a different group Shallcrass went on to form the Grove of the Badger, a group based on Druidic principles. As a result of running a Druid group he decided that he was running a religious house as a response to Margaret Thatcher and the poll tax, providing proof of this to the relevant authorities which would propel him further along the course of Druidry. Meetings with Philip Carr Gomm and his wife Stephanie led to Shallcrass joining The Council of British Druid Orders and running a stall at a Pagan Federation national conference. During a sweat lodge at an OBOD camp in 1994, Shallcrass made contact with a wolf spirit who would become his spiritual guide and guardian.