OBOD Course

[Mindmaster]

There are three grades with OBOD, and I've done the first of them. I'm not sure how you could embark on a journey like this and not benefit personally, but one thing that stands out about how OBOD does things is it is not merely about personal benefit as it is with some paths of contemporary Paganism. There's an emphasis placed on being of service and aiding something greater than yourself.

I just wanted to agree with you here, and add that if anything the Bardic Course is really about finding the inner you and bringing the fruits of it into the world. I think most of us are naturally helpful creatures provided that we remove the obstacles from helping us do that. Here's what the OBOD website says about the grade:

"The aim of the Bardic course is to help your life flourish and blossom - to help your Soul express itself fully in the world. It does this by helping you discover the sources of your creative power so that their gifts can flow fully in your life. In addition, it teaches the fundamental skills and techniques of Druid spirituality: the use of ritual, of sacred space, of the circle, the directions and elements. During the first year, you are taught thirteen rituals in addition to the eight Druid seasonal ceremonies. These rituals help to attune you to the natural world, to the rhythms of the earth and moon, the sun and stars. And as they do this, they help you to access your Deep Self, your Soul - that part of you which feels at one with all life." - http://www.druidry.org/join/membership-orders-training-course

This may or may not be important to you, and honestly, at the time when I started the intro, I thought I wasn't that impressed. I wasn't immediately into Druidry or anything myself -- originally I read The Druidry Handbook by John Greer and that sort of had me taking the whole thing a lot more seriously. I picked OBOD for several reasons:

1) They are more tolerant of divergent beliefs and do not have an operating dogma, and care even less what I believe personally. They are teaching in an experienced manner, so my experience matters more than what the group dictates.
2) Course work is more newbie friendly than other groups (I'll get to this later)
3) I am not expected to do a lot of academic research that I am not qualified to do. (More on this too..)
4) OBOD is ALOT larger. This means it is easier to find help when you need it, and the course has been through more students. The production value is high.

I researched AODA, and ADF as well. I found that they required a bunch of work on research which I wouldn't even understand how to begin. I also did not see that as relevant as I wouldn't be qualified to judge the information at this present time. Secondly, both of those organizations are proper churches vs being mystery schools. The difference is that churches have dogmas and there not as many things to argue about. OBOD allows my "Druidry" to change as I do and the other groups might be focused on recreating historical Druid practices, insomuch as they can, and not so much allowing me to come to these revelations myself. AODA and ADF seem to also require a ton more time and work, and maybe you don't have that extra time or want to be that deep in it yet. (I found this was a problem in my own case...)

Anyway, based on this info I can assure you that you probably won't learn anything you asked about in the first year @Faronator in OBOD. In the other groups, you have a better chance but you are also talking an exponential volume of extra work.

 

[Quintessence]

I researched AODA, and ADF as well. I found that they required a bunch of work on research which I wouldn't even understand how to begin. I also did not see that as relevant as I wouldn't be qualified to judge the information at this present time.

Hah, that sort of thing actually appeals to me as someone who has academic inclinations already, but it's not what I wanted at this time.

I didn't join AODA because I'd already done everything their first-year curriculum laid out, and probably the equivalent of their second-degree curriculum as well. It wouldn't have added anything to my path that wasn't already there. That's not to say it's a bad program - I actually really like their structure because it so closely mirrors everything my path has been over the past decade or so. But I wanted something that would help me build and develop something outside and beyond what I was already doing; AODA can't do that for me as I basically do what they do already. Still, it's an excellent setup for a nature-centered religious practice. I particularly love the emphasis placed on environmentalism.

As for ADF, I steered away from that direction for a couple of reasons that are related to each other. First, the organization caters more towards the reconstructionist crowd in the research and scholarship emphasis. I definitely respect and appreciate that as an academic at heart, but then comes the second reason. I do not want my religion to feel like a dissertation or an academic exercise. That's not what it is (or should) be about to me. And while I cringed at times reading OBOD's material when I recognized it was not very historical or academic, that isn't the point of my religion. It's more important to me that something be inspiring, meaningful, and aesthetically pleasing than historically accurate. For folks who feel a compulsion to dot the i's and cross the t's, though, ADF would definitely be a better fit than OBOD. Recons tend to (understandably) balk at OBOD for being "airy fairy" by comparison.

 

[Mindmaster]

Hah, that sort of thing actually appeals to me as someone who has academic inclinations already, but it's not what I wanted at this time.

Yea, I kinda noticed that their first year on AODA really mirrors that book I mentioned as well. I don't mind a bit of academia either, but I think that OBOD is giving me something better than a retcon and I'm not ready to be thrown out into the deep water. I rather have a path that I can work now, and then go back and use that framework to build my knowledge base. I think OBOD is avoiding these details intentionally to keep your logic circuits out of the mix. They are focusing on nature, philosophy, and inspirational points. To me, those are the most important things anyway!

The other thing is that a lot of people crash out of ADF because of the workload, so I think there are good reasons to start small.