Requirement #8: Rites Attended/Performed--complete draft

[brandondedicant]

I'm in a bit of a quandary.  The evaluation criteria list "not all 8 high days" as inadequate.  The requirement as printed in the dp manual says nothing about needing to cover all eight.  Regardless, I've tried to comply.  But I've come up one short: I didn't do anything for the May Feast part of the year.

Hmm...  what to do?

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Comments

[dqg_neal]

I keep failing in that I don't tend to celebrate all 8 high holidays for some reason. No matter what things always seem to come up and I don't really do much for all the holidays.

Imbolc, Lammas, Mabon, Samhain, Yule get celebrasted every year. Beltane should, but seems to get left off. And the other 2, I can't figure out why I don't do anything. At least I started to do more when I kept a garden going in my back yard.

[brandondedicant]

Yeah, I don't know why there is an insistence on dp students doing every single high day. I think it is very important for groves to provide rites for all 8, because that is the avowed mission of ADF groves, but for individual students and esp. solitaries, I think it's unnatural and cumbersome. There are times and seasons when the best way to honor the gods is by doing what they want for your life: doing your work, loving your spouse, raising you children, fighting for your country, etc., and the time and energy required to do a proper high day rite may actually be detrimental to the goals of the respective deities, if doing so takes crucial energy away from those activities

[brandondedicant]

>You know, Brandon, I think it's about piety. As an orthopraxic religion, piety is about doing, and all we really have in common are the 8 High Days

Yes, it is about piety, and we absolutely should encourage all ADFers to celebrate all 8 high days. But for dp purposes, it is impractical and counter-productive. Because if a person misses just one, for whatever reason, they are quite simply screwed, and must wait a whole year for that high day to come around again. In the meantime, students are quite likely to "give up" the dp.

I think it is more reasonable to ask for 7 out of 8 high days to be covered. That gets the point across while also not penalizing those who temporarily fall off the wagon and get back on.

>this May, which is not far off at all, get in that last missing Beltane and you're done!

Which is exactly what I plan to do. I'm lucky it is so soon.

[dqg_neal]

It suddenly occurs to me that folks might think that they have to do the High Day rite on the actual day, and if they miss it, they're stuck. I can understand that.

But the Constitution says, "For ceremonial purposes, local congregations shall celebrate each of the eight High Days within one week prior to or after the aforementioned dates, or at some other time determined by Board-established policy", so with a two week period in which to complete a rite, I really don't think insisting on all 8 High Days is that onerous.

[brandondedicant]

No, as you say, there is no "actual day."

I think it's onerous because things happen: relatives die, you change jobs, change houses, get pregnant, and before you know it, even that seemingly large window of a month is gone.

Or it may be less virtuous of an excuse. Someone says something bad on the lists, you get pissed off at ADF and have to take a break for a while, maybe even swearing off the dp. But you come to your senses and get back on track, but oops--its too late, you have to wait a year now. Well, the hell with it. I'm quitting.

See what I mean? It encourages people who mess up only a little to give up the whole enterprise.