Week 2 - First Oath

Candle, dish of water, tree, cup of drink

Earth Mother, I stand upon you today and recognize that we begin with you and we will end with you. Uphold me now as I give praise, and support me as I receive blessing.

A child of the Earth, I come before the Gods, the Spirits of Nature, and the Ancestors to offer praise. I seek to establish ties, to offer to them and open to them in return.

The waters support and surround me.

The land extends about me.

The sky stretches out above me.

At the center burns a living flame.

I call out to the keeper of the Gates.

Though I walk on uncertain paths,

Though I travel on unmapped ground,

Guide me, ward me, and relay my voice

As I offer prayers and praise.

(envision door opening)

I call out to my ancestors, those who came before me, you of my blood and you of my heart. I seek to give you praise, to remember you now, and to honor you.

I call out to the spirits of this place, the spirits of nature who are the soul of this land. I seek to give you praise, to call out to you now, and to honor you.

I call out to the deities, first children, eldest and wisest. It is you to whom we look for guidance, and you who grant the greatest blessings. I seek to give you praise, to honor you now, to give you due worship.

Lady of Life, Death, and Rebirth, Bountiful One by your many names, please be with me now as I embark on this new journey.

Today, I have given of my praise and myself.

With love in my heart and devotion on my tongue

I call out now, with all my soul:

Accept my praises!

As I have given praise to the Powers, I open to them. If there are blessings to be had, what might the nature of those blessings be?

(draw 3 runes)

Indeed, the powers offer me blessings. Now I seek the manifestation of those blessings, the outpouring from the Powers that offer them. To those who enter this exchange, pour forth your blessings into my cup!

(envision power of runes pouring into the cup you're holding)

This in my hands is a sacred cup, the great blessings offered to me as joyful return of my praises to the Kindreds. Here are the deep waters that flow within the earth and that rain from the sky. These are the waters of life!

I accept this blessing, and I drink it with love and knowledge of the Powers!

(drink)

Filled with the blessings of the Kindreds, I now call out to the powers here gathered to hear me as I give my First Oath as a traveler upon the Dedicant Path in ADF. Hear my words as they arise on the fire, and hear my voice as it resounds in the well.

I declare myself to be a seeker of the Old Ways. With this oath I set my foot upon the path and I vow to make my devotion plain. I vow to seek virtue in my life, to do right by my kin, my friends and my community, I vow to make my beliefs real, by keeping the rites and works that call to me. I vow to deepen my understanding of the Ways through studying and experiencing to fill my mind with the truth and my heart with connection.

These things I swear to the Gods, with those gathered here as my witnesses.

Now, with joy in my heart, I give thanks:

Lady of Life, Death, and Rebirth, Bountiful One by your many names, thank you for being with me and for your many gifts.

My thanks to the Deities, thank you for your blessings. To the Nature Spirits, thank you for your blessings. To the Ancestors, thank you for your blessings. To all those Powers who have aided me, thank you for your blessings.

To the Keeper of the Gates

For guiding me and warding me

Thank you for your protection.

(envision gate closing)

Mother of all, to you I will return all things I have left unused. For supporting and upholding me in this rite, I thank you!

This rite is ended.

Deities T Tiwaz Success, Honor, Justice, Self Sacrifice

Nature E Ehwaz Change for the better, slow but steady progress, trust

Ancestors G Gebo gifts in balance, personal relationships, giving and getting

I think I can do it, and do it well, but I'll get out of it what I put into it.

Week 1 - Study Guide and Why

There is a study guide to the DP that walks you through all the requirements and adds a bit so it's more like a class instead of a shopping list of stuff to get done.  It's organized into weeks, so here's the format for those.  I'll be putting in other stuff than just the ADF stuff here, but the Study Guide stuff will be marked out by week.

This is a cut and paste from my notes for what I did in Week 1.  So it happened a few weeks back.  I'm going to copy my notes up in order so that they read correctly, even if they're all posted here in the next little bit.

Week 1

 Why have you chosen to take the first steps on the Dedicant Path? - Because Mara and Steph did and I'm about to graduate from Cailin's class and I need more study and I have been going to PIE stuff anyway, so it seemed to hit on multiple levels.

 Is this a step on your path, or will this become the Path itself? - Not sure yet. Probably just a step, but I'm open to change.

 What do you expect to learn? - About how PIE worship was done, possibly a better understanding of my Lady, possibly how to make it work in a more formal structure.

 What would you like to get out of this journey? – a better understanding of ritual technique and depth of devotion

 Do you know where this path will take you? - heck no. If I said I did, I'd be lying. I've got hopes, but the proverbial way to make God laugh is to tell him your plans, and I find that much to be true.

 If you have just joined ADF, why have you chosen to work on this

immediately? - Because this is the reason I joined the ADF.

 If you have been in ADF for a long time, why are you starting only now? - N/a

 Does it look hard or easy? Hard, but not because it's beyond me, but because I'll have to focus on myself and my growth and not just put crap on paper like in school.

 Which requirements appear to be difficult to you now, and which appear to

be easy? The timeframe looks interesting, but a good challenge. I've been celebrating all the Sabbats each year for a few years now, so it's do-able. But thinking something is easy is the way to make it hard, so I'm just going to do my best at all of it.

 Do you have doubts, questions, or concerns that you need to ask about? Maybe. I'll see what crops up as I go along, talk it out with Mara and Steph, seek further guidance if necessary.

ADF and other Paths

It was advised to make a record of my ADF Dedicant's Path in a place where it couldn't be destroyed by a hard drive going or a notebook getting wet. 

Three of us here in town have been Pagans for a while, but we've started the ADF DP, and one of the others is using a blog, so here I am, copycat.  My wife has said that I'm creative, but she's wrong.  I see the best ideas, and I copy them with whatever tweaks suit my situation.  I do not have to re-invent the wheel.

So, here's the blog.  I may make it more public one day, but in the meantime, here it is.  Ups, downs, and side-trips.  I'm still uncertain if the ADF path as a whole is the best fit for me, as I've been happily Eclectic Pagan for a while, but you don't learn except by doing, so here goes.