(emerges from a dark cave, drenched in blood, chest heaving, and drops his gleaming weapon...)

That's it.  It is done.  I sent my Dedicant Program materials to the preceptor today.  They should arrive in a little over 9 days.

In the final version, I even managed to include a large number of photographs.  I was very happy with it.  The only thing was ( Read more... )

This is the very last of my dp work.  This was the most irritating one of all, mainly because of the "Neo-Pagan lore and traditions" part.  There's such a vast variety and confusion of Neo-Pagan lore on the high days, even if you interpret Neo-Pagan as just meaning Wiccan, so it was frustrating to try to pick and choose.  Anyway, it's done now.  I ( Read more... )

Rites Performed

The first ten months of ADF membership were marked by failed rituals, awkward and senseless.  It took a long time and a lot of effort to understand the Order of Ritual.  Finally, I crafted my own liturgical style designed especially for solitaries, and performed my first unequivocally successful rites.  Subsequently, I ( Read more... )

Oath Rite

Dedicant Oath

O Gaea, O Arete, Eusebia, and Philosophia, O Kindreds, O Guests, hear my oath:

In ADF, I have found friends, with sensible heads and open hearts, a structure through which I may understand the world, and a challenge to make my religion real, powerful, and holy, ever aspiring to the motto, “Why not excellence.”

In ADF I have ( Read more... )

The Home Shrine

My home shrine grew in stages.  For a long time it was a mere token thing, with no real purpose.  Later it served to focus devotions.  Finally, it became a center for piety.

Originally, my shrine had little role.  I felt the Kindreds all around me, so I had no need for an altar.  I chanted the First Oath ( Read more... )

This is quite long...

Modern Paganism study

Adler, Margot.  Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America.  New York: Penguin, 2006.

Adler says in the preface to the 2006 edition that her message is: “the spiritual world is like the natural world-only diversity will save it” (p. ix).  In this ( Read more... )

Personal Religion

My involvement in ADF developed in three stages.  First, there was the stage of sprouting: joining ADF, puzzling over the dedicant materials, and attempting my first rites.  Second was a stage of rooting and growing: re-starting the Dedicant Program, wrestling with the Order of Ritual, and creating my own liturgical ( Read more... )

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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( Read more... )

Nature Awareness

The first honors of all rites go to the earth. This reminds us of our primary responsibility toward nature. There are three main ways that I address that, following the dedicant’s First Triad: activism (Virtue), a personal relationship (Piety), and education (Study).
            My activism has made a difference locally ( Read more... )

The Three Kindred The Three Kindred are, in short, all those beings we may honor. As such the term roughly corresponds to what scholars may call “the sacred,” but the term specifically points up a polytheistic view, and allows for varying levels of divine presence and power ( Read more... )