Feel free to leave comments on these essays with constructive criticism, thoughts, questions, etc.
September 12th, 2009
(Explain where your household water comes from; what waterway is nearest to your home, and where its source is; where it drains; if there are any large bodies of water (lakes, ocean) near your home; what you know about the quality of water in your region; and what the major concerns in your area regarding your water supply are. Minimum 300 words)
Our household water comes from a 17 foot well set at the corner of our house. There is also an unnamed creek in our back yard that feeds into Rock Creek in Gettysburg and appears to come from an underground spring (as well as road spill-off). There are several surrounding streams nearby (50 in Adams County alone), but none seem to feed directly (from above-ground) into ours, though I’m sure the waterways underground do.
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July 8th, 2009
Crystal, the Clergy Council Officers have reviewed your application to begin training to become an ADF Priest.
I would like to welcome you to the Clergy Training Program in ADF.
I cannot begin to apologize for the length of time this has taken.
It did take from December 2007 to July 2009 to get an answer, but honestly the last year I would not have had the inclination to work on it. What with losing our home to being homeless to buying a house in Gettysburg to completely focusing on my fiscal life.
But I am starting to feel the spiritual stir again. Not so much in my own Grove as of late, but always in ADF.
December 30th, 2007
I’ve decided since my Hearth Culture doesn’t exactly apply to my path in ADF since it is not indo-european, that I would explore one that I could use for the training purposes.
My original Hearth Culture being Native American, I’ve followed this particular one for some time now, really long before I ever realized it. Rediscovering my Cherokee heritage has given my spirituality a renewal, and is helping me to discover which parts of the world I come from. I intend to continue my study of the Cherokee and Lakota culture, despite my involvement with ADF.
But during my genealogy research, especially on my fathers side of the family, I also discovered a very large amount of German ancestry. I have the name of the Ship, the year, the location and everything where my great great grandfather Anton came over from Germany, but I’m still trying to find out where in Germany exactly. Since he came over in 1882 during the German Empire, the borders were entirely different than the Germany of today.
So I’ve decided to learn more about the Germanic culture (seeing as I’m fairly n00b), and pick up my roots there. This will be my ADF hearth culture so I can connect with those ancestors as I did with the Cherokee, and also have a focus for future training programs.
November 29th, 2007
Now that my DP is done and completed, I’ve decided to take a minor break until the new year before I start the Clergy Program. Honestly there’s a lot of figuring out I have to do on the differences between the Clergy Program, Generalists Program and Initiates Program. Maybe in addition to my master list of Recommended Reading that I intend to create, I’ll create a page that kinda explains these things to all us n00bs.
I’ve decided to keep all of my ADF correspondences on this blog, so I will have another category that will be for all the new stuff coming in. That should keep things separated enough.
November 7th, 2007
Please join me in congratulating
~~~Crystal ###### ~~~
of CedarLight Grove, ADF
who has successfully completed the documentation requirements of the Ár nDraíocht Féin Dedicant Path.
As Preceptor of Ár nDraíocht Féin, I’d like to welcome Crystal among those folks who’ve taken the time to learn what ADF is all about and make it a major part of their lives’ spiritual paths.
N.B. PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND DIRECTLY TO THIS EMAIL, but send your congratulations to Crystal directly.
Best wishes,
Raven Mann
ADF Preceptor
I’m #92 of the current active members to complete the program. One of the first 100!
November 5th, 2007
This essay was not approved for the DP, but I am keeping it here for my own reference.
As explained in my “about” page concerning this dedicant’s journal, I technically pull from many different hearth cultures. My patron, Athena, a Greek Goddess of war and wisdom. My Grove, CedarLight, mainly Celtic, with some dabblings in Norse. My other patron (I’m not worried about being politically correct here), I’ve been exploring Odin, also a God of War in the Nordic culture. And then there’s the lifestyle and purpose in which I choose to serve, which is strongly Native American. When it came time to write an essay about one ore two of these, it was a bit of a task choosing which one.
But the one with the most influence, is surely the Native American.
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September 4th, 2007
I picked Comparative Mythology as my final book review, at the recommendation of my friend Zalon Draconis. While in-depth and interesting, I found this book to be the most difficult read out of any of the books I chose. So much that there was very little in the first chapter that sunk in or I even understood. Which widely contradicts several reviews I’ve seen for the book, which attempt to insinuate that this is an easy and entertaining read.
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August 18th, 2007
I decided to do my Oath rite in song. Music is one thing that I’m fairly known for in my various communities, and it’s a huge part of who I am. When I was thinking of how I would even begin writing my Oath Rite, I kept comparing it to writing a song. I kept trying to decide whether it would be even more difficult than songwriting, or if they were equally difficult. Then it hit me, why not use my gift as an offering to my path.
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August 18th, 2007
I think by the time I had gotten to this book review, my second to last essay, I’ve finally started to realize the significance and importance of the dedicant’s program. I’ve learned more over the last several weeks, that it really lays to rest any doubts I might have had about my path.
My second book report was the 1994 edition “The Druids” by Peter Berresford Ellis. I had been told that this was a dry read, so I was somewhat apprehensive in reading it, as I’m not remotely a philosophical pagan.
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