I am a polytheist druid. This means I believe in many Gods. The ones I have most experience of were reverenced in these lands some 2000 and more years ago by the local tribes. Their academic and priestly caste was called the druids, and I feel that I am drawn to serve those Gods in the same way as the old druids were.

One of my flaith (a deity taking a special interest in me) is Ogma. He encourages me to get involved with teaching (both about druids and pagan things in general), writing articles for magazines, giving talks at pagan gatherings, writing poetry in Irish and Welsh metres, storytelling, and related activities. Mercifully he has never yet asked me to sing.

In thinking about the Dagda (another god) I was drawn to buy a Celtic lap harp, though have yet to learn to play it. When the time is right, I'll find a music teacher.

In following Fionn I have become reasonably good at archery, make annual pilgrimage to a wolf sanctuary, and raise money to help support the sanctuary.

The Gods speak in dercard (meditation) and through the medium of ogham, an alphabet that can be used in magic and divination.

Shape-shifting has a profound and uplifting psychological impact that cannot be denied.

The hand of the Gods is obvious through endless synchronous acts (weird co-incidences that always work in my favour.)

It chose me. I started out exploring Wicca, but it never quite "clicked". Eventually I was drawn more and more to Celtic myth, until finally I took the plunge into druidry.

I love the beauty of the language, the myths, the importance of honour, the sexual freedom, the centrality of tribe, the focus on the natural world and humanity's place within it.

The Gods talk, as suggested in a previous answer.

Bocain (house spirits) frequently make their presences known.

With my flaith, they are like the heads of my household. We are a family. With other gods and spirits, they are also family but sometimes more like distant relatives who occasionally pop in.

It affects everything ~ the types of job I would consider ethical, the places I want to go on holiday, the type of people I associate with (or decide to avoid).

Death is a stage on an endless cycle. Loss of this body leads to gaining a new (and not necessarily human) one in the Otherworld. Death over there returns the spirit to this world, and so on. the cycle is about experiencing the universe from amny aspects, growing in wisdom, relishing sensory pleasures etc.

At a pragmatic level it is linear, but also subjective. Time is not the passage of the clock, but the experience ~ the slowness of boredom, the speed of excitement, the sudden freezing of terror etc.

Time passes quite differently in the Otherworld. A day there could be a century here. Or vice versa.

Reincarnation need not happen in what we think of as chronological order.

Those terms are irrelevant. Attitudes are so much hot air until they lead to behaviour. Actions can be honourable or dishonourable, depending on the circumstances and the intentions (in that a person could be trying to do something quite awful and accidentally bring about a noble act, or vice versa.)

Life should be lived with passion, not in timidity of fear of what the neighbours might say.

As a druid I strive to only accept things from people if I feel I can can and want to return the favour; I aim to only help those who look as if they one day might be able/willing to help themselves; I aim to speak honestly, but diplomatically where possible; silence can often be taken for consent, so I try hard to speak out on matters (which is not easy for me); there is no honour in sadism, so I avoid doing/saying things that are intnentionally cruel as much as possible.

We work in a nemeton ~ a sacred space. This has no specific shape and can be indoors or out. it is important that the place exude an appropriate natural "vibe" for the purpose of the ritual, and that the resident spirits of the place welcome the ritual and human participants.

Everything which exists has a spirit, including plastic or other artificial substances. No object/material is specifically excluded from ritual unless the deity being honoured has stated they do not want it there.

An object used in ritual to honour a particular deity should not later be emplyed for some activitiy that the deity would disapprove of. So a mead-horn should not be used to piss in just because there is a long queue at the toilet!

As a polytheist I believe in many gods, and allow that far more gods exist than I have met.

I have never met Hephaestus, Allah or Tuaret ~ but they probably exist (lots of people say they have met them.) So it would be ridiculous for me to object to someone else reverencing a god just because I've never met him/her.

As to those religions that claim their deity is the One and Only ~ I tend to assume this is due to the delusion of the worshippers, not any claim made by the deity itself. So long as another religion does not try to harass me, or engage in acts that I find morally reprehensible, then lett hem get on with it.

I have participated in Heathen, Hellenic, Wiccan and Kemetic rituals quite happily.

Science is a technique, not a thing in and of itself.

It is a means of developing a type of knowledge based on repeated experimentation and measuring the data gleaned.

Not all experiences can be measured, not all truths can be proven through controlled, repeatable experiments.

There is no conflict between gaining knowledge through scientific methods and other methods, such as the religious approach. Unnecessary conflicts sometimes arise because an exclusive adherent of one type of knowledge tries to claim that only their type of knowledge is valid. What a waste of time and energy.

Some attempt to continue where the old left off.

Some make no attempt to understand the old, and substitute a knowledge of the past for a romantic fiction.

It is quite possible for a person on a desert island, with absolutely no access to any historical data, to have valid, worthwhile relationships with the Gods.

It is equally possible for someone with a profound knowledge of history to have no spiritual connection at all, but just to repeat soulless rituals as a matter of rote.