INTRoDucTIONS: How old are you and where do you live...?

[Tuar_Ceatha]

Thanks! that helped a lot!

Tuar Ceatha

[Snægl]

Hello All!

I've been an OBODie since 2006, but I've only just now made my way over to Ye Olde Electronik Pub. I've been slowly working my way through the Bardic grade and hope to have it finished by this time next year.

I've also just moved to Concord, MA and would be delighted to meet others in the Boston area.

Grin,
Cat

[Dryadia2]

Greetings and Welcome Aichmetes!
Pick a comfy seat, prop your feet up, relax, and enjoy your stay!

Peace and Blessings,
/|\

[Feileacan]

Greetings, everyone! I am among those that joined OBOD some time ago, but allowed myself to sit and stare blankly at my path. It took until now for life to kick me squarely back into action. I have an even balance of wonderful and tragic currently and hope to take this time to look within (and to my ancestors) for answers. Some new friends will certainly help! I am 32 and in Northeast Ohio, USA.
I look forward to getting to know all of you!

Feileacan

[Aylyn]

Welcome to the board, it is always great to meet new people

[Earthwoman]

Hail and welcome, Aichmetes and Feileacan: I hope you enjoy your stay here.

Blessings,

Earthwoman

[Dryadia2]

Greetings and Welcome Feileacan!

May you find here, that which you seek!
Sit back, relax, and enjoy your stay!

Peace and Blessings,
/|\

[Steven Pitman]

Time for a formal introduction,
My name is Steven Pitman. I am 35 years old. I live in an Australian rural town. Not the kind of desert, parched, hot, dry, Australia that you are probably imagining, but an hour north of alpine mountains and snow country….yes snow in Australia.

I am married with two children, two beautiful girls, both under 2 years.
I work as a nurse, a palliative care nurse to be specific. I have only been at it for 3 years and do not regret my choice thus far. Palliative care is an amazing field and you enter a very sacred place in people’s lives. I am amazed at the trust they invest in us and the inner truths that people divulge to relative strangers. A very humbling place to be in.
Spiritually, I grew up within a Christian Church and became so involved that I candidated for ministry. 6 months into a theology degree, I packed it all in and haven’t been back to church since (about 10 years now). While respecting others Christian beliefs, I personally found that while Jesus was an interesting archetype, I could not see him as God’s only son who saved us from our sins. It felt too contrived for me.
Over the last decade I have hedged myself into my own personal beliefs and way of looking at the universe, in which I totally relied upon my own sensations and experiences for. That’s when I stumbled onto druidry, which I felt has a strong inclination towards responding to our experience and the world around us. It feels to me like a spirituality fed from the ecology of our outer experience and not just an intellectual response to existential issues of god. One thing I do miss about the christian experience is the idea of community and shared spirituality. I am looking forward to hopefully tapping into community again through OBOD. I have contemplated this for about three years, in amongst palliative studies and starting a family. But I have finally enrolled for the bardic course this month and looking forward to sharing with you all. And looking forward to the first package! I bought a new guitar last month to rekindle the old inner bard!
My avatar is a very old snow gum from the alpine mountains I spoke of early. Snow gums twist and turn with the weight of each years snow and display wonderful contrasts of color in their bark. 2003 and 2005 saw many of these trees die in massive bush fires. I walked for three days across a moonlike landscape looking for survivors. It was heartening to see new shoots already poking their faces up through the dead trees to greet the sun. Finally, I came across 1 grove of surviving old and established snow gums, of which my avatar is one. I am so happy that I can take my daughters to see these trees at their oldest and finest.
So that is a bit about me. A bit of a thesus I know! But at least you will be able to put a story to the name!
Kind Regards,
Steven Pitman

[Earthwoman]

Greetings and welcome, Steven: I hope you enjoy the board and the course. Please feel free to ask questions if you wish.

You are a guitarist, eh? Here at OBOD, we have a quarterly competition--the Eisteddfod. Our next one coincides with Imbolc/Lughnassadh (around Feb. 2). The Eisteddfod celebrates the creative spirit through song, crafts, and other endeavors--something for you to mull over, if you'd like.

Blessings,

Earthwoman

[Dryadia2]

Greetings and Welcome, Steven!
Pull up a log, come warm yourself by the fire , and enjoy your stay!

Peace and Blessings,
/|\

[Frosted Forest]

Hello there, I just joined up a day or so ago and having read through many of the boards you all seem like a fantastic bunch!

My name's Andrew, I'm 20 and from the United Kingdom and I'm currently studying at university in my second year.

For a few years I've been so drawn to earth-based religions and hope that in coming here I can discover more about Druidry and develop the same passion and dedication so many of you seem to display with its teachings.

Particularly, I feel drawn to paths like Wicca, Shamanism, Egyptian traditions and, of course, Druidry. Somehow, I am still yet to discover exactly why or how I am so comfortably drawn to these but hope to find out along the way. I find myself immersed in the power of nature at times and am beginning to really get a sense of the great energy that flows through all life on this planet.

I look forward to meeting some of you in the future!

Frosted Forest

[Earthwoman]

Greetings and welcome, Frosted Forest

Blessings,

Earthwoman

[Dryadia2]

Greetings and Welcome Frosted Forest!

Kick back, relax, have a look around, and enjoy your stay!

Peace and Blessings,
/|\

[Peter]

Greetings everyone I have been an OBODie for quite some time now and I used to be on this board a fair amount. Then I didn't visit for some time and found I couldn't get back on with my old name and password. My old friend Katsu explained the situation so I'm quite happy to rejoin the board. here I am.
I'm a Welsh speaking Welshman who, by a strange set of coincidences found myself living in California, married to an Apache. We have two sons, half Welsh and half Apache. They're going to grow up to be drunken fighting fools.
We are a thouroughly pagan family. When my wife saw my old Welsh ways she was immediately drawn to the similarities between the ways of her Elders and ours and now practices the old ways.
I became drawn to OBOD by the references to the Mabinogion and the lessons there. I was raised with an appreciation of those old tales, though I heard them in Welsh.
I hope to share in many discussions here and perhaps gather round the fire with a few tales.
Blessings.

[Dryadia2]

Greetings and Welcome Peter!

How nice that you found your way back here!
Pull up a log, make yourself comfy by the fire , and enjoy your stay!

Peace and Blessings,
/|\

[katsu]

Welcome back my friend

[gittarius]

Hello everyone, my name Kyle Edward Soltanipour. Yes, a peculiar last name is it not? In truth it is Persian, now formally known as Iran. Though you might think I partially hail from that land, well I do not. Being of mixed cultures, mainly Persian and Cuban ( Cuban being on my mothers side) , I myself hail from Ireland and Italy by blood.

For you see I was adopted, not knowing from what family I came from or my families history, I contemplate on quite often. Don't get me wrong I love my adoptive parents deeply, but I share a secret passion for my blood heritage. I have always been drawn to Celtic culture, ever since my first viewing of the Disney movie "The Sword in the Stone" in my childhood. I have had a unparallel attraction to myth, magic, and in effect Druidry.

As much as I make it seem that I am a Pagan or so on don't be fooled, I am a Christian by upbringing. Since my mother being a Catholic I was automatically inducted into the Catholic tradition. As the years passed I became more and more influenced by christian teaching, though a small part of me still remembered Merlin and his magical ways. Upon my entering of middle school I was uptight to anyone who did not practice my faith. That all change when I entered High School, since this was time of great lesson learning's I found it in myself to search for an alternative spirituality. Even though I am sort of fed up with the Christians stand point on many social problems I will remain faithful to Jesus, and the Almighty.

And all of that brings to where I am today, I boy about to turn into a man ( my 18th birthday is coming soon), with a whole new outlook on life. A philosophy where everything is connected to Gods great work.

I know that this seems to have been an Autobiography I just wanted to introduce myself to great detail, I still have not gotten to some stuff I wanted to cover but that I will save for another time.

Peace

[Earthwoman]

Greetings and welcome, Peter and gittarius

[Dryadia2]

Greetings and Welcome Gittarius!

May you find here, that which you seek.
Feel free to ask questions, if you wish.

Peace and Blessings,
/|\

[Palence]

Guess I should introduce myself then. I am 15 and live in a small town in the eastren U.S. I came here because I have always been on some path or another that had to do with Paganism. I've found Druidry and it seems really interesting to me. I practiced Wicca for about the last 3 years but didn't really feel any true emotions from it,though I did feel a prescense of some kind of energy. Then I found this and I feel this may be the one for me. So any past experiances during your time as a Druid, Bard, or Ovate would really help me to get a grasp on it.

Palence