Nine Virtues

Written discussions of the Dedicant's understanding of each of the following nine virtues: wisdom, piety, vision, courage, integrity, perseverance, hospitality, moderation and fertility. The Dedicant may also include other virtues, if desired, and compare them to these nine. (125 words min. each)

Week 1 - Food for thought

Questions to ponder

These answers will be edited as I contemplate them further. 

  1. Why have I chosen to take the first steps on the Dedicant Path?

This Path is something I started back in 2011. Many things have kept me from 'getting to it'. But for me this is the path I was chosen to be on, regardless of how long it has taken me to get to it.

   2. Is this a step on my path, or will this become the Path itself?

I feel this will become the Path. Not just a step along the path.

   3. What do I expect to learn?

This is a Path about finding oneself and I expect to do just that. Not sure the changes that will take place but look forward to them.

   4. What would I like to get out of this journey?

More knowledge about who I was, who I am now and who I will become. A closer walk with Deity and Mother Earth and all that IS.

   5. Do I know where the path will take me?

No I don't. I consider the previous four questions when I answer this. I don't know where it will lead but look forward to those steps.

   6. If I have just joined ADF, why have I chosen to work on this immediately?

Not applicable .. see questions 1 and 7.

   7. If I have been in ADF for a long time, why am I starting only now?

I firmly believe there is no right or wrong time, but that Deity is the one who leads. I am on this journey now because it is the RIGHT time for me to do so. 

   8. Does it look  hard or easy?

No journey into self reflection is easy. There are parts of all of us that we wish would remain hidden. But a journey such as this that is TRUE and HONEST will face those things and face them head on.

   9. Which requirements appear to be more difficult to me now, and which appear to be easy?

 10. Do I have doubts, questions, or concerns that I need to ask about?

Three Lights for Every Wisdom - Truth, Nature, Knowledge

Seems like a good place to begin. What do these words mean to me ....

"Your ways are not our ways" 
- the Nox (SG1)

Truth - You need to be true to yourself. To your highest ideal. Truth, for me at least, goes hand in hand with honesty. You have to be honest with yourself about your own beliefs, your own thoughts, and actions.

Nature - When I  think of this word, NATURE it takes me to the green forest, the wide open field, a rushing stream. I am more at peace when I am outside in nature. In the fresh air, not enclosed in some building somewhere. Nature is Mother Earth at her fullness. I love being barefoot in the summer, feeling the cool earth beneath my feet and getting 'dirty'.

Knowledge is Knowing. Knowing where you fit, knowing how you fit. Learning is knowledge. Applying yourself to what you learn is knowledge.

For me the path of a Druid is knowing and accepting who you are, for you. This is something I have struggled with for many years. I have had a tendency to be who others have wanted me to be. NOW is the time for me to be ME for ME. To be TRUE to myself.

Druidry is a religion of the mind, of the heart and of the flesh. (Our Own Druidry - ADF, page 12)

This applies to the above tenets as well.

Truth
- Heart -
Understand others and connect to the worlds

Nature
- Flesh -
Experience life

Knowledge
- Mind -
Learning the lore, vision, art

Today is the Day ....

Today I start on this path, one which has been there and yet not as I traveled through life the last several years. I won't say I am restarting the path, as it has been there in many shapes with many twists and turns.

This is where I find myself this morning (in my head anyway). I  can feel the soft breeze against my skin, hear the birds in the trees, the animals in the brush. I hear the water as it splashes against the rocks in the stream beside me. So peaceful .... a wonderful place to contemplate new beginnings or continuations or whatever they are. 

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."