First Steps

I am about to embark on my candidate year with the AODA (Ancient Order of Druids in America). I am also embarking on my Bardic year with the NDO (New Druid Order). The AODA is a revivalist organization, tracing its history back to the druid revival of the 18th century. It doesn't attempt to reconstruct what ancient druids may have done, but instead focuses on nature spirituality in the modern age. NDO is a combination of revivalist and reconstructionist, meaning that it also tries to add in historical Celtic practices along what little we know of the ancient druids. 

I am choosing to belong to both organizations and complete at least the first year training in each for several reasons.

1) To learn which path is best for me, or more likely, to follow a joint path.

2) To blend my mind, the analytical brain of a trained scientist, with the spiritual part of both myself and the world in which I live.

3) To forge a deeper connection with nature, while working to protect the natural world and walk lightly on the planet. 

I have set up a direct page to track my AODA candidate year as well as a page to track my NDO Bardic Year. My blog will be a personal journal of sorts on the blending of my daily life with by druidic studies. I will also include my NDO essay work within the blog when I feel it is appropriate. 

First Degree Tracker (AODA)

Candidate Initiation Date:

The Earth Path

1. At least once each week during your Candidate year, spend fifteen minutes or more in direct contact with the natural world.

•  10/20/20 Connelly Creek

2. Read at least nine books on the natural history of the local ecological region in which you live, learning about the living things, the natural ecosystems and biotic communities, the patterns of weather and water, and the natural transformations of the land over time. 

• book 1: Pacific NW Medicinal Plants, Scott Kloos
• book 2:
• book 3:
• book 4:
• book 5:
• book 6:
• book 7:
• book 8:
• book 9:
  

3. Make three changes in your lifestyle in order to take less from the Earth and give more back, and maintain those changes through your Candidate year.

• Become confident on my ebike and use it instead of the car for trips of less than 5 miles. 
• Switch to a primarily local, seasonal diet.
• With few exceptions, buy nothing new and instead do without, make do, or purchase second hand.
  

4. Plant at least one tree during your Candidate year, and water and tend it until it is well established. Should you be unable to plant a tree outside, please contact the Grand Grove for permission to plant and tend an indoor tree of some kind, such as a bonsai.

• Planting date:
• Tree species:
• Location:
  

The Sun Path

During your Candidate year, celebrate a cycle of Druid holy days.Write a detailed account of each celebration and ritual used in your Druid journal, and write at least nine pages on the place of seasonal celebrations in your own Druid path and in the Druid tradition in general.

• All Hallow's
• Midwinter
• Hogmannay
• Spring Equinox
• Earth Day
• Midsummer
• Fall Equinox
  

The Moon Path

Practice some form of meditation regularly during your Candidate year - daily meditation should be part of your life by the end of your Candidate year.

In addition, the Sphere of Protection ritual should be learned and practiced daily during your Candidate year.

Ovate Exploration

The work of our Order has three branches, reflecting the threefold division of the ancient Celtic Druids. Ovate work in the AODA engages with the natural and earth sciences, so that we better understand the world that we revere and the systems of the earth that we seek to strengthen.  Your Exploration should involve at least 20 hours of work on your part in a single subject, and it must be in a subject that is new to you. 

• Medicine and food foraging. 
• Begin a Materia Medica
  

Druid Notebook

During your Candidate year, you should keep a running account of the work you do in each of the three Paths and your Ovate, Bard, or Druid Exploration.  

 

(Information on First Degree Requirements is from http://aoda.org)