The third of three lessons: Joy

[chronarchy]

I learned three lessons during my journey as my mettle was tested as an ADF Initiate. These lessons were not the lessons I expected, nor are they specifically private to me alone: these are guiding lessons that I must take forward, that must draw me along as I go forth as an ADF Initiate, and by my oath I will use them in service to others. The

Comments

[anivair]

I think i like this one best. And I think it IS a lesson worth focusing on. Even internally. You are often the sort of person (I am, too) who has a hard time just being part o the celebration without also stepping back to evaluate and assess and intellectualize. I know that's stopped me from just enjoying the Grove in the past (other things, too. I am particularly bad with RPG's sometimes).

[chronarchy]

I agree. It was hard to articulate, particularly without giving much away of the whole journey's process and where I went and how I got there from here and such.

But yes: Joy is something to focus on.

I find it interesting that all three of these things were things I have become more and more involved in over the past couple of months: I've focused more, the Crane Order stuff has done a lot of the centering work, and Autumnal Equinox was an overflowing of joy in ritual.

I think that, after seeing what the lessons were and how I'd already started to work on them prior to initiation, I am more certain that the initiation is very much about a continuation on that path than an endpoint or goal.

[seamus_mcnasty]

right foot, left foot, right foot...over hills and valleys, beside streams and ponds, through deserts and the deep forest primeval...it is a journal of a thousand lifetimes and yet it ends where it begins...at the sacred center...

[chronarchy]

We will always find ourselves back at the center of all things.

[lesyoyo]

Woof, That was beautiful recap. Inspiring. Thank you for sharing!

[chronarchy]

Not a problem :)

[romandruid]

I like

[chronarchy]

I like "joy", as it represents the notion of an artful cosmos in a very tangible way :)

[smithing_chick]

A lesson not just for Initiates but for all of life- find the work that gives you joy & then do it. Some people have trouble with the finding; others have trouble believing they'll be successful.

Congratulations, by the way. :-)

how many gardeners?

[serendipity_9]

I couldn't help wondering as you said "I never met the gardener" whether there were multiple gardeners? Working together to help the trees - the trees themselves lending support to one another... I guess I'm just really wired towards polytheistic concepts.

Re: how many gardeners?

[chronarchy]

Call it a patron of the Grove, in this case. But we've never said that there is just one, or that it's the same one for all of us, even if it is just one. The gardener for each of us is going to be slightly different.

[chronarchy]

Indeed, seek the joy, and the rest is gravy :)