Splice

I have never been a child, to believe in happy endingsKnowing the grim truth of faery tales too well and too earlyKnowing that the dragon that most needs killing is sometimes yourselfI know not what to make of thisI know not what I amTrudging along in stubborn futility or venturing bravely forth into a new … Continue reading Splice →

Diagnosis

In the teeth of the storm I stand, gutted It is as though some monstrous hand reached in and scraped me clean, meticulous Impersonal Licking each delicious drop with a smile, wetly red and charming I am bereft The winds play me like some melancholy chime Whistling through the new crevasses of my shattering There … Continue reading Diagnosis →

Enkindled

There is a fireClean burning in the fuel of myself, the songs of scorching nerves and sizzling skin tantalizingSiren-like the smoke stirs, embracingThe flavors intoxicating as I inhale the earthy tang and musk of living breathing realityThe cool breezes of clarity and salt sea blood of life and birth and deathThe skin peels back from … Continue reading Enkindled →

Oath Rite

11. The text of the Dedicant's Oath Rite and a self-evaluation of the Dedicant's performance of the rite. (500 word min.) My Dedicant Oath ritual was completed with Nine Waves Grove on March 29th, 2019, exactly 358 days after attending my first Grove meeting and immediately joining ADF national, so strong was my internal yes … Continue reading Oath Rite →

Passage

The door is but a doorIt could transform its shape a thousand, thousand timesAnd still be just as uninformativeIts locks change as you do though its keys do notKnocking, even as your hands grow raw and bloody, will not open it Pleas and cries will not bring you succor in even the harshest stormFor on the … Continue reading Passage →

The Chiding

How ungentle you are with yourself, childWanting to be what you want to be, right now and thoroughlyThe deep loam seems to you a swallowing darkYou do not understand that sometimes the hottest of fires is needed to nurture the mightiest of treesPatienceFor my urgency is not yoursAnd becoming is a process with no true … Continue reading The Chiding →

Personal Religion Essay

10. A brief account of the efforts of the Dedicant to develop and explore a personal (or Grove-centered) spiritual practice, drawn from a specific culture or combination of cultures. (600 words min.) PERSONAL RELIGION ESSAY My personal Druidry is animistic, oracular, ancestral, devotional, and polytheistic. I would say that primary among these things is devotional … Continue reading Personal Religion Essay →

Three Kindreds Essay

9. ONE essay describing the Dedicants understanding of and relationship to EACH of the Three Kindred (300 words min. for each Kindred and 1000 words total) THREE KINDREDS ESSAY The three Kindreds fit for me within the tripartite patterns that repeat throughout ADF’s Indo-European practices. There are three worlds- Underworld, Midworld, and Upperworld-, three realms- … Continue reading Three Kindreds Essay →

High Day Write-ups

8. A year of High Day rituals. (100 words min. each) BELTANE WRITE UP Beltane 2018 was celebrated solitary on May 1st on land between the lake and bayou at the University where I go to connect with the nature spirits. Manannan mac Lir, psychopomp, god of the Otherworld and the sea, was gatekeeper and … Continue reading High Day Write-ups →

Nature Awareness Essay

7. Efforts to work with nature, honor the Earth, and understand the impacts and effects on a local level. (500 word min) NATURE AWARENESS ESSAY/PROJECT I am not quite through one year of Dedicant practice and I have found the Nature Awareness aspect of the path deeply engaging. I have always had a connection to … Continue reading Nature Awareness Essay →