Where I'm coming from

My druid studies as such have so far been very limited, consisting mainly of reading large portions of the AODA and OBOD websites, plus reading in the Druidry Handbook, Earth Magic (which I've had for a long time), a manual on dowsing, some texts on the geology of our area, and other items related to the three paths and the Earth Spiral of AODA, all in preparation for the First Degree in the AODA.

However, I have been involved in other recent pagan traditions, including being one of the founders of a Wiccan circle some years ago. I became less active in any sort of Wiccan community after most of the members of the circle moved north to southern New Hampshire (I'm in western Massachusetts), although I continued my own private practices after that point, and have on occasion provided information and advice to those who were seeking to follow a Wiccan tradition.

At that time, when a friend pressed me on my spiritual practices and intentions, I responded that I basically was acting as a "circle of one". He suggested at that time that perhaps he should introduce me to some friends of his who were druids (probably part of the Druid Revival, but I didn't now enough to ask the question at that time), but for whatever reason, I did not make any contact with the community and missed that opportunity (this was before the Internet phenomenon made contacting such groups much simpler).

I am a Reiki Practitioner (Reiki level II), of a lineage that has somewhat of a shamanistic tradition but is still descended from Usui, and practice Qigong and Taiji Quan (standardized, Yang, and Chen).

I was raised on a large farm in western Massachusetts, the youngest of five children. Because of this, I spent a good portion of my early life in close contact with nature in both its domesticated (at various times, 3,500 chickens given free rein over two floors of a large barn, youngstock cattle, pigs, geese, dogs, cats, etc., gardening for a family of seven plus enough to sell a little at a roadside stand, 40 acres of hay field, etc.) and more wild aspects (about 200 acres of woodland and pasture, filled with a large variety of trees, plants, and small animals, as well as the occasional larger animal, such as deer and black bear). Although working on a farm involved use of tractors and other large machinery, I always felt an affinity with working with simpler hand tools, which brought me personally closer to what I was working on. I have been living in less rural areas over the past couple of decades, but have still tried to maintain some sort of contact with the natural world, and go back to the family farm regularly.

I have recently begun to work back towards my more rural upbringing, endeavoring with my wife to decrease activities that separate us from Nature, taking more time to walk or bicycle from place to place, grow more of our own vegetables (we cannot grow livestock where we currently live), reduce need for fuel to heat our house. We have also been working on developing a place in my home town that we can eventually move to, which will give us more of an opportunity to spend more time and effort to redevelop and maintain a relationship with the natural world and become more self-sufficient in our daily lives.

My spiritual connection to the natural world has always been there, sometimes strong, sometimes overshadowed by other concerns. I have hope that in studying with the AODA and the Druid Revival, I can make that connection even stronger, and look forward to stepping forward on the path that has always been before me, but has tended to meander.

In any case, I continue to read the AODA website, the AODA_Public and AODA_Crafts email lists, as well as varoius books, seeking more information and providing occasional contributions to the discussions here.

I'm also renewing my studies of the Welsh languages, but not just because there's some tie-in between ancient druidry and the celtic language family. I happen to enjoy it. ;-)