diaryofadruid | New Moon, New Me! (Reply)

I have just finished my initiation into the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA), and I am now officially a Candidate! I am so excited to start along my learning path and in due time earn the title of Ollave Adept.

Thus begins my work. Today I will be spending a great deal of time outdoors practicing stillness and meditating as well as beginning work on the Book of Seasons and reading at least a bit about the Trees of Tennessee (which ended up being a bit of a different sort of book than I thought it would be; it's actually rather short and contains nonnative species as well as native species, and unfortunately not the ones I need for the Book of Seasons). Today is not a non-meat-eating day but I might slip in a vegetarian meal just because I feel so whole and invigorated.

Of course, I veiled during the ceremony, which really helped my concentration as it is doing now. I wore a lovely green dress as I have reservations about wearing white robes when flame and ritual are involved, even in private, due to associations with white supremacy. I also had my candle for Oghma burning the whole time even though that wasn't technically part of the ritual just because I think I would like His presence during my workings and I see it as an invitation to come into my home.

I will admit that praying after all this time is a strange feeling. I don't usually pray as the Christian way has been engrained in me and I find it somewhat counterproductive to always be praying for things without thanking Deity or giving back, but I hadn't quite figured out how to do that (What could I possibly give a god that would be of any value?). Of course, I'd like to add the caveat that Not All Christians do that, it's just endemic to the way I was raised within my particular part of the Catholic Church.

As far as the Sphere of Protection goes that one was a lot shorter than the one in JMG's book and I think I will be using this going forward since I don't always have the time or ability to concentrate for a ten-minute full-blown ritual on the daily. I got the same feeling from this one as I did the one in the book so I think there won't be too much trouble with that.

As I'm writing this I'm noticing that I've used the word "time" quite a lot, and that's something that this is going to take a lot of. I can only hope that as I continue to grow so does my patience and ability to concentrate on things for longer periods of time (there I go again!).

Now that I'm done with my initiation I will be resetting my altar and writing up a post about my ogham pull today (my mini staves finally came in! Thanks so much to speckled wood crafts for their amazing work!) so I can begin learning the fews. I also enrolled in a course about the ogham with the Irish Pagan School run by Lora O'Brien and am considering purchasing a book she recommended in the slides so I can get the most authentic and accurate information possible about each aicme (I hope that's right).

Anyway, that's my cue to sign off for now! I had a great ritual experience and it really set the tone for the day. I can only hope to have many more great ritual experiences in the future.

Yours under the cedars,

Quill