Hopeful Candidate

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Continuing the discussion from Welcome to the AODA Forums:

Hello from Virginia!

I would love to connect with some other new members, as I hope to be initiated soon as well :green_heart:

I first joined the AODA 4 years ago…I can barely believe that it has been so long…

Since then, I have worked to build my solitary practice & discovered a UU WomenSpirit Circle to celebrate the Sabbats & perform Sabbat rituals with. I even co-lead our Litha ritual this year & it was beautiful!

I’ve been a good old-fashioned solitary pagan since I was about 14, although I grew up in a very prohibitive Southern US Christian family. I’m originally from the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia & in that beautiful setting the Earth, the Sun, & the Moon have called to me for as long as I have memory.

Over the course of the past 4 years, I’ve made a few changes in my life & my lifestyle such that I will be able to join AODA & GCC meetings, begin activity on the forum, & continue to practice the Sun, Moon, & Earth paths.

I would absolutely love to be initiated & begin work on my candidate curriculum in earnest :pray:

I’m currently reading & studying John Michael Green’s “The Druidry Handbook” & have designated a bookshelf for all of the druidry path materials that I will collect to sit amongst all of my favorite pagan books, collected over the past 20 years.

(25 years ago, my momma & grandma were destroying my secret copies of books like Scott Cunningham’s “Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner” & praying earnestly for me…) :sweat_smile:

I would also love to begin attending study group meetings & plan to look for one here on the forum :four_leaf_clover:

If anyone here has any “leads” on any of these things, will be willing to direct me to the info re: initiation, or would be willing to welcome me to a group, I will appreciate it greatly!

Some of my interests include gardening, tending & propagating my indoor succulents, hiking & being anywhere on or near water alone with my partner, crafting (crochet, cross-stitch, Celtic wire-wrapping, etc, etc), and loving my 3 spoiled doggies. We have a deerhead chihuahua, an applehead chihuahua, and a chiweenie (a chihuahua/dachshund mix).

I am preparing to sew my own druid tunic & crochet a woolen robe. I am also an avid reader & aside from paganism, buddhism, druidry, & gnosticism, I love history (I’m oddly obsessed with the Midieval & Tudor/Renaissance periods in England- my family knows more stories about the Plantagenets than they ever wanted to). I also have a guilty true crime genre habit… but that’s enough about me.

I can’t wait to connect with some of you! :herb:

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Here’s a proper hello and welcome to the forum and the AODA, @RomanthaU :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: :hugs: I dare say you share quite a few interests with most of the group here :wink:

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I hope you can find someone (an Apprentice or higher) who lives nearby who can initiate you!

BTW, if you live nearby, are an Apprentice or higher, and could do the initiation but you don’t have the solo initiator script to initiate a Candidate, PM me and I will email it to you.

We might have a Zoom Candidate initiation this fall; we’ve done this twice before and it has worked well. Watch the autumn equinox issue of the newsletter and the autumn events announcement here for details if we do schedule one.

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Thank you! I reached out to info@aoda.org to ask whether there is someone local who could help. If not then I was thinking that I would self-initiate on the Autumn Equinox, but the Zoom initiation would be wonderful as well.

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Sometime after the autumn equinox, we’ll email Candidates who have opted-in to receive emails from AODA an offer to set up a Member account in our Breeze organizational management software. From the Member account, you will be able to opt-in to receiving contact info from other people near you who have a group or who want to set up a group. The only reason Candidates don’t have that ability now is because we are testing it on the degreed members first, in case there are any glitches we need to address.

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Hi there! I’m a new member in Virginia as well! I’ve only just started my studies, but it would be great to connect to more Virginia people! I’m currently in nova.

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I too am in Virginia, near Richmond. I have been very inactive on this forum for a while but I am trying to become more active as I am winding down finishing my associates degree this Fall. I am excited to see a couple of other Virginians here.

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