Sunday, September 23, 2012

One Year In

The ADF journey came full circle with Mabon, celebrated on the night of Sept. 22 at CedarLight. Mabon last year was the first one we attended together, and the first one for me since Imbolc of 2008. As I've chronicled here, we missed the two previous high rites due to other commitments, and it felt good to be back.

The event was marked by a heavy rain that started to fall just a few minutes after the ritual got started. We all retreated to the sheltered pavilion, though, and picked up right where we had left off.

The rite was based in the Norse pantheon, so we invited the ancestors to serve as gatekeepers and honored Heimdall as the deity of the occasion. I hope he welcomed being in the place of honor rather than working the door, as he is usually asked to do.

They invited us to bring our own divniatory tools and cast our own personal reading in addition to the group omen. I borrowed Lynda's Druidcraft tarot and while I planned to draw only one card, ended up pulling two by accident. They were the seven of wands and the Hermit, which I interpreted to mean I'm resisting too hard the Hermit's quest for wisdom -- in other words, I need to become diligent about the mental discipline training, my main nemesis in the DP study.