#druidpath

[thesylvanpath]

Initiation Incoming

I can feel it building.

Like thunder behind the clouds, or the way the air stills right before the storm breaks—my Druidic initiation is near. And let me tell you, the anticipation is excruciating in the most delicious way.

I've been gathering what I need slowly, reverently—candlestick holders that felt like they chose me, ritual cloths I've charged with care, incense and flame, breath and intention. Each item has its own quiet story, its own whisper of magic.

Home, though sacred in its own right, doesn't feel like the place. So I went walking—listening to the wind, the water, the trees—and I found it. A quiet spot in the park, tucked away like it had been waiting for me. Not mine by ownership, but by invitation. Earth, Sea, and Sky gave a nod.

The date is picked. The moon will be watching. And I? I’m ready to step across this threshold. Not into something new, exactly—but into something ancient. Something remembered.

Soon, I will speak the words that make it real.

And I will become.

[philosophyofkrow]

Nature is my sanctuary

The wilderness my home

Dwelling here in solitude

The earth is in my bones

[druidenwerk]

Die Hände sind montiert, das Gerüst lässt nur schwer erahnen wie der Wächter nach Fertigstellung seine Gestalt offenbart /|\ Die Vorfreude steigert sich täglich 🤣🙏 #wächter #gewandung #druid #druidpath #germandruid #statue #betonfigur #druidsofinstagram #druidenwerk #weserbergland (hier: Brökeln, Niedersachsen, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/CiiQcK8oU_Q/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[mxdmagic]

The New Year comes with a level of expectation and urgency to revamp, refresh, purge, and so on. Why does it feel so heavy for some? The reality is that many of us have just experienced emotionally and energetically draining holidays, on top of a year(s) filled with uncertainty and strain. Many have started new jobs, moved, experienced loved ones transitioning to the spirit world and a multitude of other challenges. We all desire a fresh start, a new day to look forward to and all are 10000% deserving. It shouldn't come at the cost of feeling the need to push and pull yourself towards rituals and resolutions if you still need or want space to heal and/or plan. If the energy feels good and right, feel free as a bird. 🐦 If the energy isn't aligned for you just yet give yourself permission to create your own New Year timeline in which you design your own rituals and resolutions. I feel that 2022 is a big year for healing on a collective level. Patterns and molds will continue to be broken all in the name of alchemizing a better experience for all of us here on 🌎. Here's to wishing you a peaceful and healing day leading into 2022. 🖤 #newyear #mxdmagic #ritualcandle #ritualmagic #candlemagic #witchescircle #peaceofmind #peaceandlove #healingjourney #witchlife #witchyvibes #witchythings #paganlife #celtic #druidpath #divination #magickisyourbirthright #mxdmagick (at Matthews, North Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/mxdmagic/p/CYKfZJHO4BX/?utm_medium=tumblr

[indigomermaidllc]

Our last class for the year will be with Rachel ! She will be teaching us how to take care of our vital organs with crystals, herbs and diet. Class is 10.00 which includes handouts. We will have the other book and a variety of stones available as well for the class ! Can’t wait to see you! #crystalhealing #healingcrystals #healingvitalorgans #chinesemedicine #crystalmedicine #herbalmedicine #indigomermaidllc #crystals #selfhealing #crystalslascruces #metaphysical #oldways #druidpath #lascruces #everythinglascruces #purelascruces #elpaso #healthyliving (at Indigo Mermaid LLC) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5qwsgPnZNo/?igshid=a59shy2rltyv

[theaccidentaldruid]

A dying dragonfly found me today. I held it and shielded it from the wind and found a sunny little plant for it to sit on by the water. It wanted to be up high but it's wings were shriveled and wouldn't function anymore. I don't know if dragonflies feel happy, but it seemed to want to be up high (it kept climbing as high up on my hand as it could) and the plant seemed to be what it wanted. I cried over it. Adult dragonflies have very short lifespans and I know that, and I'm sure it had just reached the end of its natural life (and getting old and dying without being eaten is a privilege not many wild things get). But I felt like it had found me and it was a life ending and I felt like that life needed to be honored. So I held it and recognized its existence and looked into its eyes and mourned its passing. I feel like a part of learning to honor all existences is things like this... not looking past the ant on the sidewalk or a dying dragonfly or the earthworm I rescued from a gravel path and placed back in leaf litter. Not focusing on the glamorous animals such as white rhinos and great apes at the expense of the mundane animals... squirrels and sparrows and dragonflies. We can't save everything and death is not bad. But each existence should be honored as one that has been, is, and will be, and touched the earth while it was here.

[druidpath-blog]

Melting Ice and Finding Imbolc

When I first joined the pagan mindset--wait this is entirely wrong. I was always this way, in love with nature (not so much bugs) but animals and plants were so cool. They still are. The problem for me was and until very recently happened to be the idea of theology. 

I'm not sure what the idea of a 'god' or 'goddess' means to me. I couldn't fully comprehend christianity due to the lack of a sacred feminine. To make matters worse and so much more complicated I was raised in a staunch LDS household, and the balance of sacred texts was so unbelievably tilted to one side. In catholisim there is still the option of female saints to provide support. As in most cult followings, to question the teaching is to blaspheme. I questioned, a lot. So much in fact that I had to walk away from the faith of my parents or sink into a whirlwind depressed and controlled life style that would look something like this:

1. go to church.

2. go on a mission for 2 years and proselytize as if your life depended on it.

3. Marry a good man (good being defined as someone who was properly ordained, still a virgin, who didn't drink/smoke/drink coffee, who also served a mission). Usually this marriage occurs in a temple, and you are expected marry young, before age twenty-one. 

4. Propagate. Make babies like a rabbit. Seriously, but only in the "missionary position" sexy times are only for the married and in the making of babies. This is expected socially by the age of twenty-five.

5. Be a house-wife and mother, with not expectations to advancement in the religion, as a mother there isn't anything more i can do but make sure my little offspring brood repeats steps 1-4 in an endless and unsatisfying cycle that encourages no thoughts other than those included in the 'teachings'. 

(not to mention all the levels of secrecy, initiation, etc. you are expected to be involved in. and if you fail at any one level, the social judgement is so bad it has led to suicide in some cases. A friend in high school was so clinically depressed she was on several different medications and I could see how the oppressive rules of her parents 'guiding' her to repeat steps 1-4 were slowly killing her soul.)

The fourteen year old girl who'd spent her summers running barefoot through the forest all summer, lived a life so very different from the prescribed version I was supposed to live. Being so free for so long in mind and soul, how could I not rebel when upon coming of age the bonds of expectation (steps 1-5) were set on my shoulders? 

The last straw was when I asked about the female leader during church meetings. Why were men so revered? Wasn't I, in my exemplary skills as a horse rider, a leader, a writer, a world traveler, as a woman, worth anything more than what my womb could produce? If I was created in god's image than either he had a vagina and breasts or there was a female running around. I had farm animals, I knew perfectly well what went on in the stud barn and then the following spring. No one could give me the answer. So I found it myself, and I also found a lot of prejudice, fear, and hate along the way. 

No one ever showed me fear, prejudice or hate. I found it in myself. Trying to break away from generations of expectation is difficult. Its like breaking glass, you get torn on the edges. You feel like everything you've ever been told is a lie. And you are right, a lot of it is. (For more information on why I left the LDS church, my reasons are very similar to those found here.

The truth is best said by Carl Sagan:

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”–Carl Sagan

I felt this pain on behalf of every person who'd been hoodwinked. For my clinically depressed friend, for leaders, for the bishop who told my mother she would never go to heaven unless she made her adult child attend church. It still hurts that my loved ones live under such, as I find it, cruel judgement. 

I was so cold. Emotionally I had very little to do with people in my area. I think if it weren't for my stubborn horse, and the wild mountains surrounding my home I would still be frozen.

The thaw was slow. I studied witchcraft, general pagan topics, and finally through finding and reaching out to my local pagan meet up (SLC Witches Meetup) I found Druidry. I also found many friends, people I sincerely did not have to hide from. I will forever be in their debt. Where I had read about the goddess, the god, and nature divine, these wonderful people brought me to the sacred groves. This has taken years, and its not over yet.

The wheel turns and Imbolc is exactly a week from today. The ice that once shielded my heart is nearly gone. It will always be there, a reminder of the utter dark that was my safe haven for so long. But for now, it is enough to feel the cold burning away and smell the scent of new growth on the canyon breeze. 

In the literal sense, Imbolc is the time of the snowdrop, the first flower of spring. Its also a feast day, usually in honor of Brigid. Its also a time of hope and when the light truly seems to become brighter. The child of light who has been nurtured during the winter is growing stronger. I can relate and I'm anxious to find myself a little warmer this spring and work toward my future goals as a homesteader who is mostly self-sufficient and is that much closer to the land. 

More important than all these things, this is a time of planning and true preparation. The work of the year begins. Also, my friend's goats are giving birth, the horses seem ever more restless, and the expectation for this year is like a great holding of breath, ready for an exhalation of laughter and joy. 

[philosophyofkrow]

Break bread and share your abundance, give thanks for all your blessings, life is short and love is precious.

[philosophyofkrow]

Sunrays and shadows dance upon our skin..

[druidenwerk]

Nur nicht hängen lassen, das ist mein Motto in vielen Lebenssituationen. Auf meinen Walnussbaum klettere ich noch immer gern, wenn auch nicht mehr ganz so fix wie früher. Im Kopf bin ich tatsächlich noch oft der kleine Junge mit Freude am Leben und dem Spaß am Klettern. Erhaltet Euch diese Freude solange es geht und ignoriert einfach die Kommentare über Eure Lebensweise /|\ Beste Grüße aus dem sonnigen Weserbergland Euer Druide Michel vom Berch. 🇬🇧🇦🇺: Just don't let yourself down, that's my motto in many life situations. I still like climbing my walnut tree, even if it's not quite as fast as it used to be. In my head, I'm actually still often the little boy who enjoys life and enjoys climbing. Keep this joy as long as you can and just ignore the comments about your way of life /|\ Best regards from the sunny Weserbergland Your druid Michel vom Berch. #druid #druidry #druidpath #germandruid #germandruid #lebensweg #lebensweisheiten #walnuss #walnussbaum #kindskopf #lebensfreude (hier: Bodenwerder) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cic8jVhoSRc/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[mxdmagic]

*Gestures at herb wall* Let's get started. 🤭😌 #herbalmagic #herbspells #herbalism #herbaltea #herbalhealing #greenwitch #kitchenwitch #mountainwitch #naturalmagick #magickalherbs #magickallife #earthmagick #herbmagick #herballife #witchcommunity #celticfolk #druidpath https://www.instagram.com/p/CXi_stdoQgc/?utm_medium=tumblr

[druidpath-blog]

I'm trying to get you addicted to this show too. Just watch it. 

[druidpath-blog]

Druid Obsessions are Annual

Every year, about this time (end of January through April) I go through a binge of obsessive topics. Its as though winter has finally broken my sanity (which people still debate the possibility that I ever was sane) and in order to cope with the continued trauma of being freezing all time I focus on stuff to do in the warmer months. 

Like today: River Cottage Youtube Fest. I've been absorbing homesteading and cooking adventure like its a drug and I'm addicted. 

This will lead into my attempts to grow plants in my bathroom, to the irritation of my roommates. Its either the bathroom or the kitchen, but its happening. My small greenhouse will become a crop of plants that get transplanted too early to my pastures, and then of course, they will get eaten by the horses, no matter how far on the other side of the fence I place them. 

I'm going to work on refraining from starting my indoor seedlings until later, so than when they do make it outside most of them don't freeze. I don't think there's much I can do about the horses, or the obsession with River Cottage. There's no cure for River Cottage. 

[druidpath-blog]

As promised, here is the link to the interview with OBOD's current chief, Phillip Carr-Gomm