What started your journeys?

Do you keep a Dream Journal? It can be helpful to have it as a reference to look back on later.

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I do not. I have written a few down in one way or another but I do remember the most vivid ones better than most real memories. I should probably write those down somewhere in an organized way some time…

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You really should do a dream journal. I had 12 years built up. I was born with night terrors that moved into nightmares the older I got. I had nightmares all the way up to my late 30’s. I wrote down everything. Do not worry about organization of it. Just keep a notepad and pen or pencil beside where you sleep, so when you wake up, you can write down every single little thing you can remember. Just jot them down as fast as possible because the smaller bits tend to fade from memory much faster than the emotionally compelling bits. I found that even just writing key words down immediately helped me have a point of reference for later when trying to recall the dream in my mind’s eye. Be sure to include every aspect … feelings, smells, sounds, how it felt, as well as everything that happened in it. Who was in it, what was in it, what was everyone or thing doing?! Even if you were walking down the street in your dream and just happened to notice a blade of grass was longer than the rest right before someone ran into you, write it down. You never know what might be important and it is so very helpful.

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Yeaaah… I have quite a few notebooks and journals on and in the nightstand but it will never happen. It never does. I wake and it’s off and running. I do tell my husband about them when we’re in the kitchen and then often post them somewhere online but never in one place. I’ll try harder.

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I am sorry. I was once up and running myself. :wink: I totally get it. I hope that you get to do whatever helps you on your path. Maybe journaling won’t be your thing, but it’s wonderful you can discuss your dreams with your husband. Maybe you can download your history on various platforms and piece together your dreams. That’s a long and daunting process as I’ve done it once before when switching accounts. Still, you have memories, vivid ones of your dreams and support of your husband, which is so very important. :smiley:

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@FaeryGiggle
You might get on this mailing list.

His work is fantastic. I studied with him 20 years ago now. Lately, He has been doing free lunch demo’s on Facebook, and some shorter half day workshops on journeying into the imagination matrix. Those are broadcast on the email list. He will identify what skills he’s using as he leads you through the work. The longer trainings require a bit of extra pocket change, although if it’s affordable, it’s worth the cost IMO. He is a fantastic facilitator. His books are easy reads if you are interested in that route. Just one option to deepen the skill set, although there are others as well.

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Thank you! I’ll check it out :slight_smile:

I just put all my dreams in my Druid journal. At this early stage of my Druid specific journey, it’s working for me since I mostly dream about my studies anyway. :wink:

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I have already put a dream or two in my druid journal. The most recent dreams involved tech that’s not here yet that allows us to switch from one brain to another. I think one was the natural brain and the other is a chip and the helm worn that also contained a cool display screen would give a readout of the power or signal strength and it probably either worked as a plug in to an implanted jack of sorts or more probable it was wireless and interfaced with our neural network directly…which might also mean that the information not need be implanted but could be stored off-body. Ok see… I need to journal cuz here I am thinking out loud at ya…

In the another dream, only a few days or a week ago or something, I was sitting next to George Segal, who was waiting to be seated at a restaurant for the dead. He was showing me his socks and making jokes about them. I told my husband about it and the next day George Segal passed while having heart surgery. I guess that explains the socks (compression).

I dream of people that are about to pass or have actually passed that day or night when I didn’t know it so often that all my friends know that if I dream of them, they’re getting a check up call the next day.

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My journey began with a video game.

It was Diablo 2. One of the characters was a druid, with powers of controlling natural forces and transforming into animals. Sure, it was used to fight off hordes of demons, but it was my first taste of druids, a way of fighting back the darkness with nature.

From there, I spent a lot of time wandering the woods of my childhood home. old mossy oaks and pecans were my friends and teachers (southern Texas). I didn’t learn much in the detail of the environment, but I did learn how to quiet myself, to look with open eyes and hear with open ears.

Then I hit puberty and I was lost in the chaos of adolescence.

Still, the call came to me from time to time and I would find myself in nature, either camping or sauntering about, and suddenly would stop and gaze beyond the static world and into the flow of energy around me. The pulse of sap in trees, the tumbling mist of clouds, and the flow of streams across soil, sand, and stone. It was as though I was slipping between worlds, catching glimpses of divine currents around me. Then, crash back into myself and continue in the flow of time.

I studied Geology in college (because it got me time outside) and delved deeper into my gaelic roots, as well as spending summers as a canoe guide in the boundary waters of Canada/US. Those were good times spent connecting with the environment and spirits that dwelled there (the memegwesi and mishipeshu respectively). Its also where I developed a genuine love for storytelling and ceremonial rituals.

After that I moved to WA and went to school for wilderness survival and permaculture design, thats where I earned the name “Crow” and have since been seeking a more structured method of developing my belief system, hence, the aoda.

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I suppose when I was a kid, my mother made me go to catechism. As I was working through the First Communion workbook, there was a page that said, draw a picture of your best friend. I drew a picture of my favorite Sugar Maple and a bird. The priest at class told me, you can’t have a tree as a best friend. Here I am 45 years later, after many years of solitary Earth Spirituality practice (mostly Classical Shamanism), still talking to tree and looking for a decent community of like-minded people. It was either Druidry or Taoism, which I feel strongly compliment one another anyway.

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I was raised Catholic but never believed any of it so I eventually became an atheist, but I always felt like something was missing.

Decades later I began studying Irish, and three of the months are named Bealtaine, Lunasa, and Samhna. In Irish mythology, invaders often arrive on the island on Beltaine. As I read about the origin of these names, I encountered modern druidry.

Then my dad, who has always been interested in Celtic history, asked me if I knew anything about the druids, so I read up on the original druids and found modern druidry again from another angle.

Modern druidry looked interesting right from the start. I liked that the Irish names are used, but also that it’s not a requirement to be any certain ethnicity or anything else. I like the idea of being good to the Earth too, rather than following some program in opposition to the Earth.

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I wouldn’t call this path a journey for me. It’s more like returning to my roots. I happen to have both Nordic and Celtic heritage, besides being a WarLord coming from a line of Druids, craftsman and philosophers. I always had deep connection with environment around me and decided I want to be part of this organization in making connection with anyone who’s willfully. Druidism practice and rites may be different today from what I’m custom to, but I’m always open to learn to see what’s new and adapt.

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Well… my druidry journey is just starting! I was raised Catholic, but as a young person very quickly realized that this wasn’t for me (my experiences of sexism & heterosexism were a large part of this, but I also knew I was not a monotheist). I was firmly atheist in my early teens until my mid twenties. At the same time, I had drifted towards divination (which has run in my family) and was reading tarot, and through that exploring and learning about various traditions of witchcraft + Paganism – I never really identified with a tradition, but I came gradually to understand myself as a pantheist and as “spiritual in a nature-based way” in general terms. I inevitably made some friends who are druids, and started exploring druidry myself. I had a kind of ‘false start’ maybe five months ago when a particular druidry book really didn’t work for me (I set it aside like “nope, I definitely love some of this, but ultimately this is not for me”), I ended up coming back to it in just this last two months and reading several more books (by Carr-Gomm and Greer) as well as the OBOD + AODA websites. Coming to really understand the non-dogmatic nature of it and the incredible diversity of druid practices + paths, I was able to recognize that the problems I’d had with that first druidry book were not actually issues inherent to druidry itself at all (but rather just a particular author’s take on things) and came to see how much druidry not only aligned with my path, but would also enrich it. In many ways, finding druidry feels like coming home, or coming to a place on my path that I have been exploring towards for a very long time. :slightly_smiling_face:

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I share your love for JRR Tolkien, and there is much in his work that Druids can relate too, isn’t there? If you haven’t read “Elves, Ents, and Eriador, the Environmental Vision of JRR Tolkien,” I highly recommend it! :deciduous_tree: :evergreen_tree: :mage:

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I was raised an intellectual, pressed deeply between the pages of science and philosophy books. But I grew up on a small farm, and always felt most at home outdoors (even though I brought my books with me). I became a Christian out of momentum. It was easier to go along to get along. Yet I studied with fervor most of the world’s major religions and their origins. To make a very long story short, I ultimately came to realize that most religions aren’t about spirituality, but about power and control. It took me a very long time to put it all together. Thus I began a long period of introspection, to figure out what exactly I believed, and why. My solitude in the woods as a child is where I found the most comfort in my memories. And I came to understand that the thin spiritual threads of the major religions were but strings in a much more majestic and all-encompassing tapestry. Each thread has some truth, but my desire was to find a whole truth. So I began my search to see the big picture, openly, honestly, without the trappings of sin or guilt or eternal punishment.

In the stillness, if you are open, that which you seek will ultimately find you, even if you’re not sure what you’re seeking in the first place. I had to learn to be still and listen…and once I did that, the woods called to me. They have always called to me, I discovered…it was just that I was too busy, noisy, arrogant, and stubborn to actually listen. In setting all of that aside I found the child inside again, as he once was, sitting in the pines herding the goats and watching the birds, and in doing so I found peace. Strength. Gratitude. After doing some study about Druidry, it just clicked for me. So here I am.

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As a kid, growing up in the country, I would sit by rivers and in the dense woods and oddly, unlike all my friends, just sit and listen. I loved to just Be in the green places…which was an everyday thing for me.
There were a few things that being a child of the 70’s and 80’s gave to me: Fantasy movies, fiction, and a questioning of the Normal. I remember watching Robin of Sherwood, the BBC original series, and seeing Herne with his great horns shadowed in the forest and streaming sunlight - that series is still a special memory for me. Along with the film Excalibur around the same time those two films/series really solidified in me the idea that the land was magical and we have an undefinable relationship with it.

My Pagan life has taken many routes - but the simplicity of living compassionately, and with an understanding that “Nature is good” (to coin an RDNA motto) is always what I come back to regardless of the philosophies or histories that can clog things up sometimes.

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Welcome, Oakminder. What a great self-introduction. I think you will find a sympathetic community here. I have.

Cheers!
:deciduous_tree: :green_apple: :apple: :evergreen_tree:

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I was raised in an agnostic / atheist household, but my parents (especially my dad) definitely instilled in me a deep appreciation and sense of curiosity for the natural world and the universe at large. My childhood is filled with memories of time spent outdoors, collecting river water to look at under a microscope, learning about local plants, and watching documentaries about the solar system. Growing up without a religion, nature (and outer space) always felt like the most sacred and spiritual thing to me, even if I didn’t put those words to it for a long time.

I was also interested in magic and esotericism from a young age, which my parents were fortunately very supportive of. Having that kind of non-judgmental home environment made it easy to explore things like divination, crystals, astrology, etc. — the same fun witchy things I still enjoy :slight_smile:

However, I still identified as atheist / agnostic for most of my life and didn’t necessarily see myself as spiritual. I struggled with anxiety throughout my twenties, which led to me trying mindfulness meditation, and eventually other forms of meditation / guided visualizations, which I suppose triggered something of a spiritual awakening in me. I still remember the exact moment I fully accepted the fact that there was something “more” out there.

It wasn’t until the last several years that I began really putting things together and finally found my footing in earth-based spirituality. Like others have said, paganism absolutely felt like a homecoming to me even though I wasn’t raised in it. I came into Norse paganism first (which I am still very much involved in) and then Druidry. And here I am today :smiley: and glad for it!

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That’s a a great story, thanks for sharing your experience. I love that AODA has attracted so many people with different backgrounds.

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