I just noticed that this got posted as an October 13 post - which is the day I sarted a draft copy, to make this an ongoing list. I didn't finish this until October 29th, which is the actual day it was posted. Not sure how to change this in blogger - anyone?
Here's a summary of what I've been up to in Druidry practice for the month of October. I've arranged it as though I'm working on the second degree curriculum - I appealed to JMG to "skip ahead," and I've yet to hear the results of that appeal. Over the course of the month, I've realized that it wouldn't be such a bad thing to do Candidate work for a year - there's always more to learn down that path. So this could all get reorganized into a "first degree" format. Either way is becoming OK with me.
The Earth Path
-Gathered dandelion root, burdock root, chamomile and rosehips in the park; brought several students to show how to find and gather wild plants in an urban setting
-Bought and started using a kitchen compost pail, in order to become more conscientious about composting kitchen waste - I compost already but sporadically, as often I was just too lazy/busy to walk the scraps all the way down to the heap. Now with this bucket, I can fill it in the kitchen and empty it once a week.
-Wrote a short essay on foraging as a Druid practice
-Meditated daily, did Sphere of Protection daily.
-Planned, designed and carried out three completely different Samhain rituals: the one from the Handbook (solitary), one for my Witch circle, and one for my magic group.
Books read:
Theodore Roszak, Where the Wasteland Ends
Mother Earth News Yes, it's not on the reading list, but I have a subscription and read it every month. It counts.
Water Path
-Took three students on an herb walk; explained spiritual importance of gathering and using herbal medicine.
Books read:
Judy Harrow, Spiritual Mentoring: A Pagan Guide
Fire path
-Memorized opening of Druid Grove ritual
-Created and conducted Samhain ceremony
-Performed Candidate initiation on myself
Books read:
Pauline Campanelli, Wheel of the Year: Living the Magical Life
John Michael Greer, Inside a Magical Lodge
Air path
Books read:
Sir Thomas Malory, Mort d'Arthur - still in progress, actually
Ross Nichols, Book of Druidry - also still in progress - this book will take me a decade or so to get through, and then I'll find things I missed and need to start over. I'm including it on the Air path because I see it as Revival scholarship, but it could go anywhere. There's a whole lifetime worth of work in this one book.
Spirit path
Found and pledged myself to Lugh as my patron deity (saying this is very quick but wow is this a huge deal for me).
Books read:
John Michael Greer, A World Full of Gods (again, not on the list but I think it belongs here)
Healing Spiral:
-Collected herbs, selected (or was selected by) Dandelion as my green ally for the coming year.
Books:
Ellen Evert Hopman, A Druid's Herbal for the Sacred Earth Year
Divination Spiral
-Started ogham notebook, began working with ogham sticks as divination tool
-Memorized the first aicme - symbol, names, meaning, elemental associations and divinatory meanings for each one.
Books:
Caitlin Matthews, Celtic Wisdom Sticks: An Ogam Oracle
John Michael Greer, The Druidry Handbook - so far this is my main source for Ogham information.
Music path:
Started practicing the tin whistle regularly. I'm finally starting to figure out ornamentation, however slightly.
Books: The Clarke Tin Whistle Book (a how-to book)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Hi Nettle!
If I might throw a comment in here in regards to a conversation I had with a very dear and wise friend of mine when we were discussing the posibility of "challenging" the First Order in the AODA.
The Druid Path isn't about the destination, for there isn't a "destination" persey at the end of the Path. The Path of Druidry is about learning, so if you find an end to the path, you've ceased learning. Who knows what sights you might just miss if you hurry along the path too fast?
I've been a self-taught, solitary practicing Druid for almost twenty years now. There are plenty of things that I know I could "breeze through" in quite a few of the spirals and the paths of the AODA, but I'm not going to. I want to learn it step-by-step, bit-by-bit the AODA way. It was almost identical when I was in High school. My dad had a TV repair shop while I was growing up. I knew quite a fair bit about a variety of electronic components before I was a teen. When I attended high school, I took the electronics class offered. Even with the knowledge I had of electronics, the classes did me wonders, even with having to start with the basics all over again.
The journey IS the destination, enjoy every moment along the path.
Tully
Oh...and a side note about the Ogham question I was going to bring up to JMG. I won't tell you all fo what I've found, but I'll give you a clue so you can discern it for yourself...
Plot out the first Aicme by the standard four directions with the elements, then look at the pattern caused by the Number Ogham...and then e-mail me....
Tully
Hi Tully!
I've had some of the same thoughts. There's much to be said for the step-by-step path, and I've always found that no matter how good I am at something I always learn something new when I go back to the basics.
I didn't really think of my request as "challenging" anything. One of the reasons I decided to join the AODA was that when I read the requirements for the Candidate year, I kept nodding my head and saying, "yup, I do that... and that... and that... mmhm, I read that book... and that one..." So I wrote to JMG breaking down every requirement and explaining how I'd already fulfilled it - not so much as a challenge but to say, "here, what do you think?" Turns out he agreed - he was late in replying because one of my references got his address wrong. So right after I decided that it was OK either way, he emailed me to welcome me to the first degree.
So it's not that I'm skipping ahead or breezing through anything - I did the work already. I was already a Candidate, I just didn't know it yet. There would be value in doing it again, but I feel like time is short and there are people out there who need me to move on - I can't quite explain the sense of urgency that I feel, but I have this feeling that there's lots of work for me to do and little time for me to do it in. So I do feel like I have a "destination" - no doubt when I get there I will see another destination, off in the distance, that I can head off to. I don't really know what that feeling is about, but I trust it.
Anyway, this turned into a super-long comment. I appreciate what you said - I'm leaving this as a comment rather than emailing you because I don't want to come across as trying to do a rebuttal or an argument or anything - I actually agree with you on most of what you said, but as you can see I've put some thought into this and feel that my situation warrants it.
With all that said, I'm going to hold off doing the next initiation until at least Alban Arthuan - the time doesn't feel right yet.
Post a Comment