As our video call struggles to find a connection, I see that John King’s profile picture is Gandalf; his wife’s sons called him that when they first met, he says. As a long-haired, white-bearded trainee druid, it probably comes with the territory.
It was actually Lynn, King’s wife, who started him on the druidry path. They met at a yoga class that King was teaching, aged 61 (he had worked as an architect, retiring early). Smarting from a recent, painful divorce, he had no interest in a new relationship (“I didn’t want anything to do with women; I’d had enough”). There was an attraction, though, and they started dating and talking about Lynn’s interest in nature-based spirituality. King had had “a connection to the spirit” throughout his life, discovering Buddhism in his 30s, but was sceptical when Lynn mentioned druidry.
