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This is the fourteenth post in the 30 days to Druidry series.
This post has been really hard to write. I’m not even sure why. However, I need to finish it in order to continue with the other prompts so.. here goes.
The balance between spirituality, work and education is one close to me.
The original reason for my consideration of further education was to stay close to my Druid Grove. It’s difficult to get from my parent’s house to the grove space in time for the ritual, and to get back, even if I left the ritual early, would not get me home before 11pm, walking 45 minutes home from the train station in the dark. And that’s with the shortcut along the passage by the railway lines; and I wouldn’t trust it.
Choosing to do an MSc was something of a rite for me because I didn’t ask my parent’s permission. And this year, I forgot to keep them updated on applying for my PhD. I’ve begun to follow my instincts and my dreams, not the wishes of those who barely know me.
For me, these are rites of passage in a way. I began to take action based on what I truly want and need, without checking for permission or asking opinions; without second guessing myself.
In June I bought my year of Gwersi of the Bardic Grade; the first of which talks you through a self-initiation ceremony. I remember my original ritual; back when I dedicated myself to the Gods on the 4th of June 2004; with a ceremony I thought up myself.
The lesson arrived in.. end of June, and then in November, I felt ready to actually perform it. Eight lessons in, I was ready to initiate myself as a Druid, within my inner grove.
Having a set procedure that allowed for my own personality in terms of alterations but also had the same structure that hundreds of people have followed; it was a really interesting space.
And that ritual has led me to this focus on compassion. I was already helping out with this Anger Management group for Right Here, but now each lesson I re-learned through helping out was related to peacemaking and the odd times I’ve covered sections of the teaching I felt this ripple of energy surge through me as I invoke that aspect of my personality; the Druid aspect, the peacemaker.
I’m still very new to this journey, and hope to have many more years of exploration of this topic; but that was a real rite for me, a real alteration in and of myself.
In Light,
Rose
Wings of Flight 
Rituals and rites of passage are critical for crossing over boundaries in our lives and pushing the envelope of our comfort zone.
Separation from family as in individual is a crucial part, mirrored in our unconsious separating from consciousness or~ chick from egg, as Jung described it. However, it is essential that the ties that bind remain to bridge the two~ unity within separation, the paradox creates energy and potential for real change nourished by that of where we came from. Sometimes immersion is necessay~ like sleep, euphoria (unconscious is all) or focused attention (consiousness is all)~ but balance requires a return to the dynamic of separation within unity.