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Post by cunedda on Nov 26, 2016 16:52:47 GMT -1
Greetings to you one and all, I have been directed here by an old (but currently inactive) member of this forum who is a new and good friend to me now. I am 66 years old, retired and married with three grown sons. I have been involved in (one way or another) Native British spirituality for more years than I care to remember, 40+ in fact, and I am told that had I joined this forum when it first came into being I would have known several of it's founding members. In spite of the years I have been involved, I am no expert and I claim no exceptional knowledge, other than to tell you I am a practicing and committed 'Pagan' or whatever name you care to call a follower of the old ways. I am here to learn, to enjoy community and to participate where I can. Anything else....please ask, I will always respond. In Faith, Cunedda
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Greetings
Nov 27, 2016 22:22:13 GMT -1
via mobile
Post by gruffudd on Nov 27, 2016 22:22:13 GMT -1
Hi Cunedda
Nice to hear from you. So what are you in to?
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Post by cunedda on Nov 28, 2016 17:07:50 GMT -1
Hi Cunedda Nice to hear from you. So what are you in to? Hi Gruffudd, Best if I give you a bit of a run-down....My search first started way back when with OBOD. I really did not know of anyone else at the time and when I started the Bardic training I began to wonder if this was really it! Things got a little better when I started the Ovate training...but I still wasn't really convinced. By the time I had completed the Druid training, as much as I liked it and the people in it, I realised it was not really for me, especially as many in OBOD were committed Christians. Now, I have nothing against Christians (at least, modern Christians) but I wanted something that would dig deeper into the Pagan element of native British spirituality, with OBOD I felt I was still back in the 60's with flowers in my hair! It was about this time that I discovered the BDO. This was more like what I had expected to find in OBOD, and I found Peter Shallcrass (Greywolf) an inspired character. The BDO gave me the Pagan dimension that I had been looking for all along, also it delved more into Shamanistic techniques, something that I have found very meaningful for many many years. However, this was going back about ten years or so,just when the 'Druid Wars' as I term them kicked off....and I stayed well away from that just keeping in touch and doing my own thing. About three years ago I enrolled for the BDO Bardic course which I liked very much and am at present embarked about half way through the Ovate course which I am finding most stimulating. However, I am now finding that the BDO is attracting the sort of people who would once have been very comfortable in OBOD, so I am looking around for something more substantial and dare I say...committed! I am very much a lone practitioner, I did once run my own Grove, but after a couple of years pulled out as it was fast turning into a Pagan teenage dating agency....so I went my own way leaving the younger members of the Grove to carry on doing their 'thing'....which they did, and it folded pretty quickly! Now, I question whether the term 'Druid' is even fitting for what I do, are Druids (in the modern sense) even valid? Surely one does not have to be a Druid in order to follow our ancestral Gods! In spite of being open and into most things esoteric, I tend to keep my distance from the 'flakier' and 'theatrical' side of things, I have been around long enough to know a poser when I see one....and anyway, I often think that most modern Druids would not know a real Druid if it bit them in the A**e! LOL. But that's just my view which I do not expect anyone else to share. I see that you are from Anglesey, a fantastically magical place which I go to as often as possible....Bryn Celli Dhu being a particular favourite of mine. Well that's more than enough from me..... Cunedda
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Post by lorna on Nov 28, 2016 19:28:30 GMT -1
Hello Cunedda and welcome Thanks for sharing a bit of your background. It's interesting to hear about your involvement with Druidry and the problems you have come across - me too! When I came to paganism I was called to the living landscape and to the deities within it. OBOD Druidry with its grades, robes, and systematic structures was just as alien to me as the Abrahamic faiths. BDO's course didn't look any different, in spite of its shamanistic angle. Phil and Lynda Ryder introduced me to The Druid Network, which has described itself as a dis-Order and is far looser and anarchic and I found my personal path fits quite well with the conception of Druidry outlined in their constitution druidnetwork.org/files/about/constitutionrevnov2009.pdf At one point I considered myself a Druid Bard but didn't feel wholly comfortable due to Druids' association with political power and hierarchy and Bards with singing sycophantic eulogies for bloodthirsty warlords and for the aristocracy. It was my experiences with the Brythonic deities within my local landscape of Lancashire that brought me to Brythonic Polytheism and to my path as an awenydd. So it seems we have quite a bit in common! Please feel to have a nosey round the forum and comment on the posts. We also have a blog that is a bit more active dunbrython.wordpress.com/ and a website www.dunbrython.org/. We're currently working on developing a Brythonic Wheel of the Year and a Brythonic Primer composed of essays on various topics such as ritual, dreams, the land, politics etc. If you'd like to get involved with this you'd be very welcome
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Post by cunedda on Nov 28, 2016 19:36:54 GMT -1
Thankyou lorna,
As you may expect, I am spending most of my time viewing the dun brython site and trying to catch up here as well. I'll do my best to join in where I can!
Cunedda
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Post by Lee on Nov 29, 2016 11:00:56 GMT -1
Hiya Cunedda!
ex-OBOD here too, largely for the same sorts of reasons you moved away from it.
welcome to Brython!
Lee
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Post by cunedda on Nov 29, 2016 14:55:31 GMT -1
Greetings Lee,
It's good to be here.
Cunedda
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Post by Heron on Nov 29, 2016 19:39:21 GMT -1
Welcome Cunedda. Many of us past and present on here have had some sort of connection with druidry over the years though the focus here is different.
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Post by cunedda on Nov 30, 2016 17:53:26 GMT -1
Welcome Cunedda. Many of us past and present on here have had some sort of connection with druidry over the years though the focus here is different. Thankyou Heron, Yes! I can see that the focus here is different....that's one of the things that attracted me here. Cunedda
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Greetings
Dec 1, 2016 22:18:51 GMT -1
via mobile
Post by gruffudd on Dec 1, 2016 22:18:51 GMT -1
I love Bryn celli ddu! My favourite site is barclodiad y gawres.
I haven't got any experience with the whole druid movement, but from what I've glimpsed, it's not really for me either.
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Post by dreamguardian on Dec 2, 2016 8:14:52 GMT -1
Welcome aboard mate.
You signed up after all! There's some great stuff here in the archives as hinted about in our previous conversations
Enjoy
Rob
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Post by cunedda on Dec 2, 2016 8:29:06 GMT -1
Thankyou Rob,
As you said....some excellent stuff here, will take a lifetime to read it all LOL, but I've started!
Take care mate!
Cunedda
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Post by potia on Dec 14, 2016 13:35:01 GMT -1
Welcome
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Post by cunedda on Dec 14, 2016 15:35:32 GMT -1
Welcome Thank you Potia. Cunedda
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