the Pagans tea-room

[Storm]

Hello again.

 

[Iti oj]

Hello again.

speaking of tea you every have fresh lemmon grass and ginger tea with honey?

 

[Storm]

Ew. Ginger lemon, or go home.

Although my favorite is white-pear-melon.

 

[Iti oj]

I'm curing fuyu skin to make tea out of.

 

[Quintessence]

Well, I didn't want to make an entire thread out of this, so here it is.

I officially heaved some pounds at OBOD to join as a member after sitting down and doing some thinking about which Druidic organization I wanted to affiliate myself with initially. We'll see how it goes. If nothing else, it's a worthy donation considering the service that the organization provides. If any of you aren't listening to Druidcast, you should be. It'll also give me a better reason for taking a trip to the UK in the future.

 

[The Hammer]

Well, I didn't want to make an entire thread out of this, so here it is.

I officially heaved some pounds at OBOD to join as a member after sitting down and doing some thinking about which Druidic organization I wanted to affiliate myself with initially. We'll see how it goes. If nothing else, it's a worthy donation considering the service that the organization provides. If any of you aren't listening to Druidcast, you should be. It'll also give me a better reason for taking a trip to the UK in the future.

Really? Congrats. I think I may do the same in the future. I can't justify the money at the moment. Let me know how the content is

 

[Quintessence]

Really? Congrats. I think I may do the same in the future. I can't justify the money at the moment. Let me know how the content is

There are reasons to affiliate with an organization beyond training courses. That was something of a secondary consideration.

My number one consideration was that the organization would support my path to continue as it is. I'm patently uninterested in joining an organization that would require me to make fundamental changes to the nature of my path to conform to them. At the same time, I do have interest in further developing and expanding my path through new sources of information and knowledge. The other major consideration was community: presence/absence of online support, proximity of local groves to my area, character, professionalism, and so on. Overall, OBOD fit my criteria best.

I do like AODA as well, but when you draw a card like the Caged Bird during your divination about the three options you're considering, it tends to knock it out of the running. I agree with what the card said - I wouldn't really gain anything by affiliating with them and I'd continue thinking inside the same box I always think in. Which isn't bad, per se, but isn't really what I was aiming for. OBOD should take me out of my comfort zone just enough... and in a good way. ADF would probably have taken me too far out of my comfort zone. If there comes a time when I do more with the Hellenic pantheon, they'd be a logical choice, but right now, they wouldn't particularly like my non-Indo-European "pantheon" of the Four Elements and various local nature spirits/gods.

 

[The Hammer]

There are reasons to affiliate with an organization beyond training courses. That was something of a secondary consideration.

My number one consideration was that the organization would support my path to continue as it is. I'm patently uninterested in joining an organization that would require me to make fundamental changes to the nature of my path to conform to them. At the same time, I do have interest in further developing and expanding my path through new sources of information and knowledge. The other major consideration was community: presence/absence of online support, proximity of local groves to my area, character, professionalism, and so on. Overall, OBOD fit my criteria best.

I do like AODA as well, but when you draw a card like the Caged Bird during your divination about the three options you're considering, it tends to knock it out of the running. I agree with what the card said - I wouldn't really gain anything by affiliating with them and I'd continue thinking inside the same box I always think in. Which isn't bad, per se, but isn't really what I was aiming for. OBOD should take me out of my comfort zone just enough... and in a good way. ADF would probably have taken me too far out of my comfort zone. If there comes a time when I do more with the Hellenic pantheon, they'd be a logical choice, but right now, they wouldn't particularly like my non-Indo-European "pantheon" of the Four Elements and various local nature spirits/gods.

I agree that there are more reasons to join a group other then the training courses. I was just interested in the material since it isn't discussed much on the website, and it was one of the reasons I didn't shell over the 400 for their membership.

The community is definitely an added bonus. I currently have issues with the AODA curriculum as it does not fit my lifestyle at the moment. I am a very active person, who moves a lot, so keeping up with everything I need in order to complete my introductory year has been difficult. There are also no proto-groves near me.

I am leaning towards the ADF possibly, because there are groves near me, but not quite near enough. Anyways, I am sort of rambling lol.

EDIT: Or maybe my time management just sucks. Very possible it's this one.

 

[Quintessence]

I find myself wondering what currency you've got, because I know with the exchange rates as they were, the OBOD bardic course was ~$330 U.S. dollars for me. I was originally going to pay it month-to-month, until I realized that doing that costed more than just doing the whole thing at once. Overall, I wish there was a way to affiliate without doing the course at all. That would have been my preference, but that's not how their structure is set up. It's basically a lifetime membership fee, unlike ADF, which charges yearly dues no matter what.

 

[The Hammer]

I find myself wondering what currency you've got, because I know with the exchange rates as they were, the OBOD bardic course was ~$330 U.S. dollars for me. I was originally going to pay it month-to-month, until I realized that doing that costed more than just doing the whole thing at once. Overall, I wish there was a way to affiliate without doing the course at all. That would have been my preference, but that's not how their structure is set up. It's basically a lifetime membership fee, unlike ADF, which charges yearly dues no matter what.

Well I have US $. I hadn't looked at the OBOD site in a while so I just rounded up from what the cost was in my head (300-something), rather then looking it up lol.
The AODA is lifetime too. Didn't realize that ADF was yearly no matter what. I haven't really shopped around much in a while.

You, technically, don't have to do the correspondence course with OBOD. Just ignore the work they send you. It's not like they are going to cancel your membership because you haven't done the course.

 

[Quintessence]

Well I have US $. I hadn't looked at the OBOD site in a while so I just rounded up from what the cost was in my head (300-something), rather then looking it up lol.
The AODA is lifetime too. Didn't realize that ADF was yearly no matter what. I haven't really shopped around much in a while.

You, technically, don't have to do the correspondence course with OBOD. Just ignore the work they send you. It's not like they are going to cancel your membership because you haven't done the course.

Lol... that's true. I suppose I should also mention I signed up for the text-only course. I think if you do both, it does end up being more than $400. I calculated how much the CDs cost, and decided I couldn't justify that extra expense. Especially when I don't even own a CD player and the only way I could play them easily would be to stick them in my xbox 360 downstairs. Not exactly a good atmosphere for contemplation.

Yeah, ADF is annual. That doesn't particularly bother me... it was mostly the "well, I'm not really into the whole Indo-European thing at the moment" that made me steer a different direction. I have tremendous respect for their increased emphasis on scholarship and excellence, and works by Isaac Bonewitz have been quite influential in my path. But... not the spot for me now. The divination I did suggested that eventually I'll end up there, but I've got a long ways to go before that will happen, if ever.

 

[Quintessence]

The stuff arrived at some point. It might have been a couple days ago. I don't know. I don't check my mail everyday.

I am digging all the adorable pictures of animals and plants scattered everywhere. Because I'm totally not a tree-hugger or anything, so why on earth would I want a random plant picture on the pages of my literature?

Dear gods. Now I am having this urge to redo all of my currently printed Book of Shadows pages and sticking in tons and tons of plant and animal pictures everywhere.

 

[Quintessence]

Two weeks, and I'm beginning to wonder why I didn't do this sooner. I guess it wasn't the right time. You know you're on a good walk when you feel all squiggly-happy inside about something.

What is religion for, if not to bring us happiness?

 

[The Hammer]

Two weeks, and I'm beginning to wonder why I didn't do this sooner. I guess it wasn't the right time. You know you're on a good walk when you feel all squiggly-happy inside about something.

What is religion for, if not to bring us happiness?

Congrats . Maybe I will have to look into it at a later date ^_^

Glad to hear it is working out for you though. Everything I have read makes it seem like the OBOD has an awesome program to work with, with a lot of outstanding information.

 

[Draka]

*Walks through the quiet empty streets of the Pagan neighborhood of RF feeling a hollowness of loss. Approaches the dusty door to the once friendly and active Pagan Tea Room and gently nudges it open. The pillows strewn, in dire need of washing, former perches for beloved cats. Dusty tables and chairs, some even with tea cups and pastry plates left to gather layers of dust. Slowly and sadly makes her way to the corner. Her corner. Her little table with dried flowers and burnt incense ashes crumbling atop her moth eaten tablecloth. How many times had her tarot deck been spread there? How many conversations in this room? How many friends laughing and chatting and sharing? Sighing her head drops and shoulders sag as she leaves a single lily upon her old table. Perhaps, just perhaps, someone may come along and see she was here. If there is anyone else around, they will know they are not alone. She will check back later, just to see. She walks out, blue, but with a glimmer of hope.

 

[Holdasown]

Didn't know this was here. Shame it's not used more. Going on a four day weekend with eight other women to chalet in the mountains. Not husbands or kids. Good food and booze. Hot tub and fire pit. Should be lots of fall foliage. Too bad not one of them is pagan besides me. I will slip an offering to the wights on a hike or something. Can't wait.

 

[GoodbyeDave]

Perhaps, just perhaps, someone may come along and see she was here. If there is anyone else around, they will know they are not alone. She will check back later, just to see. She walks out, blue, but with a glimmer of hope.

Yes, you are not alone! But we may be an endangered species. I see you haven't posted for two years, so welcome back!

 

[Draka]

Read the first few pages of this thread, granted it was from a long time ago, but we once made a little community here. One of the first things I checked when slipping back into RF was these DIRs. What was once vibrant is now rarely used at all. Atheists and Abrahamics tend to go at it the most on this forum (always have really) and us on the sidelines, the eclectics, the pan(en)theists, the polytheists, the druids, the Pagans...our internal discussions even seem to fade away. Are there just not many of us on here now or has this neighborhood been forgotten?

 

[GoodbyeDave]

It does seem to be a case "the worst are full of passionate intensity" in much of this site.

Pagan forums, however, tend to be quiet since we're not arguing of trying to convert people. I drop in on paganforum.com now and then, and they are usally quiet too.

Mind you, there was a forum I left (I can't remember the name) that was very different. As well as giving reputation points (remember frubals?), you could also take them away. I started with the label "David is an unknown quantity" and by the time I left it was "David is rather infamous around here"!

 

[The Emperor of Mankind]

It does seem to be a case "the worst are full of passionate intensity" in much of this site.

Pagan forums, however, tend to be quiet since we're not arguing of trying to convert people. I drop in on paganforum.com now and then, and they are usally quiet too.

Mind you, there was a forum I left (I can't remember the name) that was very different. As well as giving reputation points (remember frubals?), you could also take them away. I started with the label "David is an unknown quantity" and by the time I left it was "David is rather infamous around here"!

Is that The Cauldron or The Valley you're thinking of?