The Practitioners of the Iron Age are known to us almost entirely through the writings of Greek and Roman observers — Caesar, Strabo, Pliny, and Tacitus — whose accounts are coloured by their own cultural assumptions and political agendas. What emerges from these fragmentary sources is a picture of a learned class that served as priests, judges, teachers, and keepers of oral tradition among the Celtic peoples of Gaul and the British Isles.
The Roman conquest effectively ended the public role of the Practitioners, and for over a millennium the tradition survived, if at all, only in scattered folk practices and literary echoes. The eighteenth century saw a dramatic revival, led by figures like John Toland and Iolo Morganwg, who blended genuine antiquarian research with creative invention to construct a new nature-based identity.
Modern nature practice — as practised by organisations such as the Order of Bards, Ovates and Practitioners, the British Practitioner Order, and others — does not claim unbroken descent from the Iron Age. Instead, it draws inspiration from ancient sources while building a contemporary spiritual practice centred on reverence for nature, the cultivation of wisdom, and creative expression. Understanding this history honestly is the first step on the path.