How I finally chose OBOD - how about you?

[Dawnaly]

Greetings! A pm-er from another board asked how I ended up choosing to join OBOD. I find myself wondering about how others came to join too and so am answering publically. Short version: I was trying to decide between a few druidic groups when a package arrived in the mail. "Out of the blue" my former mother-in-law (23 years former) sent me a beautiful silk shawl that was a gift to my father-in-law's mother from a great uncle (we're getting back there in years now!) His name was Robert Duncan. In the same post I received the intro information from OBOD and opened it immediately. The first lines that met my eyes were: "We have come so far that all the old stories whisper once more" ..... quoting Robert Duncan. That was enough for me.

[Loosh]

Hi Dawnaly! I don't remember now, how I came to OBOD. It has been barely a year since I started the Bardic course. I am still on track. I have had many small instances of syncronicity like you describe with OBOD, too. But actually, none quite so dramatic as a silk shawl!

[Kat Lady]

I had a similar but less dramatic experience than that of Dawnaly.

I also was looking to join a group and was researching on the Web to see what was available. I typed in the same search each time and of course seemed to get the same responses. While all of the groups were interesting, none of them felt "right" for me.

Then one evening the search response was different for some reason and OBOD was the first "hit". I went to the website, read a little and within a few days ordered the course. It feels like home to me.

KL

[Lorraine]

I had been looking in the possibility to joining some kind of group or order, I'd never been keen on the idea in the past but the whole solitary thing just wasn't working for me any more. I'd noticed that quite a few of the writers of books which I'd found interesting or helpful happened to be OBOD members, so that was one of the groups I was considering, but I wasn't in any particular hurry to do anything about it. If procrastination was an Olympic sport I'd be in line for gold.

Then I went on a long weekend in August 2002 around the Cotswolds and ended up going out of my way to find the Rollright Stones. It had been so long since I'd celebrated any of the festivals I didn't make the connection that it was Lughnasadh at the time. I'd never been to Rollright before. I felt this immensely strong sense of longing in myself, and I also had a rather more earthy sense that it was time to stop piddling around and just get on with it, so I sent off for my intro package when I returned. So it was the stones what made me do it!

Lorraine

[Tenhaven]

I have always been interested, drawn to, however you wish to phrase it, the 'things' of druidry. I just didn't know that it had a name and growing up in the bible-belt tends to retard ones exposure to ... well .. alot, heh. At any rate, i was doing a little routine research for my own edification and came upon the OBOD web site.

After reading through some of the information I popped into this board. As I read through some of the postings I began to realize a very strong feeling of 'comfort'. I eventually moved on to other sites and then later, while alone, my mind wandered back to some of the things I had read in the forums. Again I had a sense of comfort and I decided to dig a little deeper as to 'why' it felt so comfortable. The answer didn't take long to discover. For me at least, it was the first time i actually witnessed such a diverse group of people treating each other respectfully, with a genuine sense of caring. Time and again i saw positive examples to the extreme of kindness, tolerence, compassion, sympathy, respect, wit, humor, friendlyness and lastly love. A genuine love of the common bond that each of these people share.

For me that was the clencher. So why was I drawn to the OBOD? Easy, the people.

Peace to all

[eilidh]

I know this sounds really gushy, but here goes. My husband was working as a DBA with a database that needed very little administering. He had entirely too much time on his hands at work, so he surfed the net. He found the OBOD website. Spiritully, he knows me better than I know myself. He insisted that I check out the website and order the introductory packet. Even though I didn't consider myself to be pagan at the time, everything resonated. Doors opened, issues dissolved, lights flashed, gongs sounded (whoops - getting a little carried away). Seriously, as so many people have said in the past, I knew that I had come home.

[Dawnaly]

I'm so enjoying all the replies! This was my first posting of this type, and I'll confess that I was a little nervous and embarrassed when I saw half a dozen views and no replies! Eek. Talk about gushy propensities. Eilidh: did you see my new avatar? I enjoyed sharing yours for a time. Many thanks to Tenhaven the Courteous for providing it.

[eilidh]

I love the new avatar. Great work, Tenhaven.

[Tenhaven]

Well thank you very much.

Like I said, I do enjoy my work, so if anyone else has an idea for a new avater and simply can't find that perfect image, shoot me a PM or e-mail. I'm only too happy to do it. When you love what you do, it's not work. Plus, its a wonderful way for me to meet you guys and gals.

Peace to all

[Selene]

I had been feeling the call to Druidry for over 20 years without knowing what to do about it, when, in December 2002, the need to do something became overwhelming. I went to the Internet and started looking around--and I will never understand why it took me so long to do so, because those who know me will tell you that I do a lot of Internet research and can usually find what I am looking for. Be that as it may, I had not thought to look there; I can only assume that the time had not been right beforehand.

Anyway, I found quite a few Druid groups with web sites and started reading through them. Several gave off what I have to call "weird vibes" and I dismissed them as possibilities. But when I found the OBOD site, I felt differently; as others have noted, it felt like home. So I sent for the Bardic course and had just gotten started with it when this message board came into being.

Although I had no doubts about the rightness of the fit between OBOD and me, finding so many others who shared the same outlook as I have has really cemented the bond. I am very grateful to Kernos and all the others who created and maintain the main OBOD site, and to him and all those who post here at the Druid's Head for such a special place to hang out.

Blessings,
Selene

[Badger Bob]

Well, back in the mists of time (before 1984 at least) I started a Druidry course run by Kaledon Naddair but I really didn't get along with his "ranting" style so I went my own way for several years. I needed to learn how to meditate properly so I became a novice monk in a Buddhist centre for about a year (neatly avoiding paying any poll-tax in the process) and carried on in a general Buddhist-Pagan mode for many more years. I contacted OBOD in about 1993/4 but the course didn't sound very exciting so I didn't take it. More years of bimbling about and then last year I was struck by a need to get off my backside and do something - by now the info on the web was making the course look more inviting than it was previously. Studying medieval history caused a slight wobble away from OBOD and into Christianity for a while this year but I was soon restored to my Pagan self and back on the Bardic course.

[ronandundermann]

Well,

This woman I really liked gave me a copy of Druid Mysteries by PHILLIP CARR-GOMM. I read and enjoyed it so much... I joined. That is about it.

WOW!

[Kaya-Nita]

i was deep into research on a project when i kept running into the Druids in ancient Great Britian. The research was on Great Britian During the periods of 200 BCE and up to 1400 ACE. And well i got curious about who was these Druids and then my research changed to Druidry the more i learned the more i found my self and my place in the world. i was babtised as prodistant(not sure the spelling LOL!) and being 3/4 Indian. As an adult i started looking more into my roots of the Red Road and as the research was developing i noticed there was quite a few simularities, then found Druidry still existed and wanted to know more. i found some information on the internet and some from our library. And as i said before i found "ME" in all the research. So i joined and have been SO glag i did.

[Piastra]

many of the old timers here know this story, but i will share it once again for those who do not.

i was raised by three old aunties who studied and practiced their own version of what some call mountain magik. they just considered it living in harmony with the great mother. our family made jokes about having a druid skeleton in the mouldy closet of our past, so i was not unfamiliar with that term, though he was not spoken of with any respect. just a joke.

at a halloween party in alaska, i made a joke about this relative, supposing he lived on nuts and berries and such. i offended a person at that party who considered himself a druid. so, embarrassed, i left and went for a walk in the rainforest. i sat to rest on a stone and leaned against a tree. both began emanating strongly. i jumped up, thinking we were having an earthquake. the earth was still, only the tree and the stones emanated. and only when i touched them. i mmediately made an appointment with my physician, and a threapist frind of mine. after much testing, they told me to take a long bath and forget it.

i contacted the host of the party and found out who that druid person was, and we became very close friends. after he had taught me much, i had to move back here to the lower forty eight. i made another friend, the owner of another druid website. he taught me what he could. he then suggested joining an order. after searching for a bit i found the site for the henge of keltria. i was not particularly enamored by them, however, i had noticed a link from their site to a wandmaker. my aunties had used wands, and my grandfather too, for water divining. i contacted him.

that is how my close friendship with alferian began. eventually, he convinced me to order the intro packet for obod, and i did. it's all about synchronicity.

and now, in a few short days, i will return to that same island in alaska, and i will seek the same tree and stone for guidance, as they are truly the ones who called me to my path...

carragh
of the stones

[colm]

Greetings all, I hesitated at first to answer, but I see how the rest of you were willing to open up and I feel that I can share my experience as well.
I will try to keep this as short as I can.

I have always loved nature, and believed in the living spirit of all things. My mother was very supportive, but she was a very closed off person and usually did not discuss spirituality. As a child when I lived with my mother I would wander the desert for hours enjoying the company of the many be-ings that lived there. I have always been far more comfortable with animals and children than with other people. And now as an adult I again spend many hours out doors with my many friends that come to visit.

I had researched many different faiths and religions only to find that although many of them meant well they all seemed to be missing something for me. I also found I hated being told what to believe. So, much to my father's dismay, (he was part of the priesthood of his church)I stopped going to church. A friend of mine suggested I look into Wicca, but when I did I never really felt comfortable.

My husband grew up on a farm and also loved nature and the outdoors. We had many of the same beliefs and feelings. One year for Christmas my husband knowing how I liked animals and knowing that I had experimented with a few different forms of divinations bought me the Druid Animal Oracle. I loved it! I felt comfortable using it and always found inspiration within them. Wanting to see more things from the author and creators I looked them up on line and eventually came to the OBOD. I was skeptical at first, but I orderd the introductory pack and felt that I had finally found a place that I belonged. That regardless of my views I was welcome and that most of what I had come to believe was shared by others. My husband and I both meditated on it and got the most wonderful feeling. We both signed up for the course immediately.

Colm

[Nineflowers]

I was trying to buy some tree saplings for my garden, and chanced on the main OBOD website. When I read about the introductory package, I had to have it.

I've been an hedge witch for a number of years, and read the Tarot, and have had a life long interest in the Northern Mysteries and the Anglo Saxons in particular; yet when I came to the OBOD, I realised this was my *true* path. It's been a great source of happiness this past year.

Oddly, I never got round to buying the tree saplings and yet today I realised that hawthorn, poplar, elder and alder have self-seeded in my garden this past year.

9 F x

[Saille-Panthera]

Actually, today I incidentally bumped into the select smart religion and pagan path tests on the internet, and it came back to me when I first heard of the OBOD... I took the test months ago (got the link from one of my pagan groups, with mostly witches) and first I did the religion test: neo-pagan (no big surprise there, lol).
Then I thought, what the heck, I like these stupid tests, why not also take the pagan path selector, and there it was: druidry...
I was mildly surprised, but in a positive way, the thought about druids or druidry just never occured to me before, and starting looking for internet sites -> the OBOD site!!
Soon I met people on the net who were taking the course of the OBOD, and it all sounded just very good, it kind of clicked.

But, well, I'm not known for my fast interpretation of lifes hints, lol, so I went on with my life as it was for some months more. (Ok, I wasn't doing nothing, looking back, I got a burnout, lost my job, and realised that not all the people I counted as my friends deserved that title) Meanwhile, I bought Philip's book Druidcraft, thought it was fantastic, went to the Elf Fantasy Fair (a big fair with a lot of dressed up people which was held in the Netherlands last month), saw Philip there and heard him speak, bought another book of his (Druid's mysteries, which unfortunately, after having read it only ones, has started to fall apart ), saw to my dissappointment (and the relief of my wallet and bankaccount, lol) that the druidcraft tarot was not finished yet, came home from the fair to find out a friend of mine had ordered the intro package, and finally, I thought, well, let's do it then, before the signs run out of hand, lol. (I know myself, before I realised I better could'nt go to work for a while, it cost me a lot of money on my car, which broke down while driving to work )
So now I'm waiting anxiously for the intro package to come in the mail!
Blessings,
Quinta

[marija]

I signed up with OBOD back in late '95 - so I've been at the Bardic for a very long time

I signed up with OBOD because the philosophy intrigued me. I am not interested in Celtic Reconstructionism, and at the time ADF and Keltria were too CR for me. Things may have changed with those two orders since 95, but at the time I was interested in more of a group that complimented who I was.

I am very much involved in Baltic Paganism, and OBOD compliments this quite nicely. When I got my intro packet what I liked the most was the fact that it stated that it's possible to follow OBOD as either a spiritual path which can compliment another path (i.e. wicca etc), as an individual spiritual path or as a philosphical path. So it's the fact that OBOD compliments my spirituality and my philosphical outlook that I signed up.

There was no moment of awakening for me, saying "yes, this is me". I already knew who I was. I was looking for something to compliment what I was and OBOD was the closest. I tried Wicca, but it just doesn't do anything for me. CM, though fun, still lacked a certain depth for me.

Back in '95 the former Soviet States were still shaking off the shackles of Soviet Occupation so it was difficult to get my hands on source documents or even converse with someone with regards to Baltic Faith. OBOD came the closest to the Baltic love of nature, community, family, and especially trees

[liban]

It is really fascinating reading everyone's stories!

How I found OBOD was not that spetacular. In a meditation I was drawn to druidry. How or why that came up, I dont know. Anyway not knowing where to start I began looking on the web. There I tried to weed out what seemed to be crackpots to those that seemed serious in their approach. I checked into several groups and read through any info they posted on the web. Even emailed a few groups privately that had groves in my area. Out of all I read and all the replies I had received, OBOD, seemed to be the best fit. Since joining, I have not regretted it once. Now I still parooze through other groups but have yet to join another one. I know not exciting but I have thoroughly enjoyed all my experiences thus far.

Liban...very happy to be here.

[Alferian]

What a lot of wonderful stories! I am so enjoying reading them. My own is fairly prosaic and made the more so because of my fuzzy memory. I believe I joined OBOD in 1996 or 7 because I know it was before my daughter was born and before my wife and I visited Scotland and Ireland and spent the whole time travelling from one stone circle to the next. I believe I heard about OBOD from reading Philip's books. "The Druid Way" was one I read early on, as I recall. As most people say, it struck a chord and resonated with experiences in Nature all the way back through my childhood. I was not looking for a "neopagan religion" or any religion at all really, and I've had quite negative experiences with churches. I was looking for a disciplined study program that actually led somewhere and wasn't just an endless series of disjoined workshops on myths or the Arthurian Romances. But, you know, these things draw together so many threads from our lives when they happen -- making sense of so many odd little interests that seemed mysterious at the time. In my case, to cite just one example, when I was in college I studied for a year in York, England and while there pursued my interest in magic and medieval history. At a local metaphysical bookstore I found a catalog for a wandmaker who, I remember well, purported to sell wands that contained within them the Dryad spirit of the tree. I ordered one and it never arrived, alas, before it was time for me to go home. Never did get it, and now I suppose I'm making up for that -- Ha!

Blessings by sea and star,

Alferian