Last week, I provided an overview of AODA’s seven-element system. I have worked with this system as my primary magical and energetic practice for almost 15 years and have found it to be an extraordinarily flexible and engaging approach to …
Rituals
Land Healing: Ritual for Putting the Land to Sleep
As I shared a few weeks ago in my land healing framework post, the forest that I grew up in is having a big chunk cut out of it to make way for a septic line, a 40-60′ cut that …
A Framework for Land Healing
In the next few months, the forest that I grew up in is going be cut and torn up to put in a septic line. A 40-60 feet path, at minimum, will rip a tear through the heart of it. …
Rituals for Extinction and Honoring Extinct Species
In the Anthropocene, many things are dying at a rate unprecedented to human history. Currently, 75 % of the world’s life is endangered, and 50% of life in the world has disappeared since 1970 due to human activity. I’m not …
Using an Oracle or Tarot Deck to Establish Sacred Space
As some of you may know from my posts on Facebook and Instagram, in early 2020, I’ll be releasing the Plant Spirit Oracle as my second self-published divination deck (if you want to support the project, see link in the …
Web of Life Ritual for Interconnectivity and Awareness
Last week, we delved deeply into a critical aspect of land healing with two related concepts; thinking about the world in terms of (eco) systems and the interconnectivity of those ecosystems for all life. Last week was practical, full of …
Working with and Honoring the Sun at the Solstice
The sun’s rays come over the horizon, on the solstice, the most sacred of days. The solstice goes by many names, the day of high light, midsummer, Alban Hefin. Across the globe and through time, it has been celebrated since …
A Fire and Smoke Ritual for Land Healing and Blessing
A few years ago, I led a smoke cleansing (smudge) stick making workshop at the OBOD’s East Coast Gathering event. As that event often has upwards of 100 attendees, I spent months growing and harvesting materials for the event so …
The Druid’s Crane Bag
A druid’s crane bag is a special bag, a magical bag, that many druids carry with them. Often full of shells, rocks, magical objects, feathers, stones, Ogham staves, representations of the elements, ritual tools, and much more, a crane bag …
Working Deeply with Water: A River Healing Ritual
One of the incredible things about the hydrologic (water) cycle on our great planet is how connected these cycles are and how a single drop of water may continually travel the globe over a period of time. The waters that …
Spring Equinox Rituals: Rituals of Looking Back and Looking Forward
Sometimes, when we are hiking on a trail, we are in a hurry to get somewhere–that far-off vantage point, that mile marker on the map, or just seeing what is over the next horizon. I remember hiking with some friends …
Druidry for the 21st Century: Psychopomping the Anthropocene
As an animist druid, I recognize the spirit of all beings. I honor and interact with the spirits in the land, in the trees, in the animals and birds, in the insects, in the rivers, in the mountains. Animals die, …
Druidry for the 21st Century: Druidry in the Anthropocene
Druidry is rooted in relationship and connection with the living earth: the physical landscape and all her plants and creatures, the spirits of nature, the allies of hoof and claw, fin and feather. The land and her spirits are our …
Collaborative and Community Created Rituals without Set Scripts
One of the questions that many druids face, particularly if they are working in a group of any size, is how to plan a good ritual. A ritual that is meaningful, powerful, moving and engaging to all participants. I’m sure …
An American Ley Line Network: A Ritual of Creation
This past weekend, we had a delightful time at the 2nd OBOD Mid Atlantic Gathering of US(or MAGUS). It was a wonderful weekend full of positive energy, community, and celebration of the land. I was involved heavily in the ritual …
A Bardic Storytelling Ritual for Empowerment
Everyone has a story to tell, and some stories are worth their weight in gold. How we retell past events, through the bardic art of storytelling, can help shape our present understanding. Thinking about stories as acts of empowerment in …
The Moon’s Sunbeams, or, Reflections on the Solar Eclipse
In the druid tradition, we recognize that the solar currents, those currents of energy coming from the sun, are extremely powerful. And so, when the sun in the noon-day sky suddenly darkens, ancient peoples saw it as an incredibly bad …
A Celtic Galdr Ritual for Land Healing
The following is a land healing ritual that we did at the OBOD’s Mid-Atlantic (MAGUS) gathering last weekend (May 2017). (For a wonderful review of this gathering, please see Dean Easton’s A Druid’s Way Blog!) This ritual was done by …
Druid Tree Workings: January Tree Blessings and Wassail for Abundance
Deep, in the darkest months of winter, a variety of cultures offered blessings to the trees for abundant harvests. A few years ago on this blog, I wrote about Wassailing at a friend’s orchard; since then, I’ve done wassailings each …
Spiraling at Samhain: Building a Classic Seven Circuit Labyrinth
In many sacred spaces throughout the world, we see the labyrinth. It is reflected in the spiral, the pattern in nature that repeats often, and asks us to engage. It offers us the ability to slow down, to wind around, …
The Druid Retreat for Spiritual Work and Healing, Part I: Why We Go on Retreat, Preparation, and Herbal Allies
Each of is like a light bulb. No, not one of those new-fangled compact fluorescents, but rather, one of the old style standard bulbs with the firmament and all. When we go out into the world and do good, through …