…..of the flaming sword of transformation!
On the Saturday morning we all assembled in the Town Hall. We had about 45 minutes together as a group while Philip and Damh welcomed everyone, introduced all the OBOD great and good and explained what would be happening when. It is a good time for first timers to put faces to names, especially if your tutor is there. Philip always gets the ‘foreigners’ to stand up for a round of applause too, some people come, quite literally, from the other side of the world to be there. One thing that they don’t do, and which I think would be great, is to get all those people who post on The Druid’s Head to stand up and tell us their username, then we could all find each other straight away!
After this we split off into our different grades to do our workings. The Bards stay in the main hall which is the biggest room, there are generally much more of them so that probably explains it. The Ovates go into the green room (very apt!) and the Druids get even more above themselves and get elevated to the Council Room upstairs. It sounds very posh but it’s not as good as it sounds, the chairs have really bad upholstery and offer no support to the bum – it feels a bit like sitting on a commode! Plus you get stared at lots, as the walls are covered in photos of past mayors.
This year we were working with the effects of fire on the other elements. The Druids had Air and we did journeys to explore this theme. Later in groups, we exchanged our discoveries and found a phrase, which when joined together with the others, could be delivered later at the Ceremony. Most of our groups seemed to come with plenty of alchemical associations. Guess what our group came up with (hint the answer is in this post)
After lunch and a little siesta it was time to walk up to the Tor for the ritual. Quite a few of us started out early so we could dawdle up to the top. I swear it gets higher every year, I had to keep stopping to admire the view and catch my breath. The ceremony was brilliant, although I did miss the usual drunk, who normally joins in with his ‘fecking Druids’ refrain.
After the ceremony it was back down to town to change into our glad rags for the Eisteddfod. There were some marvellous acts, Keira very bravely started by singing some of the Order’s sacred words beautifully. We had poets, instrumentalists and of course Paul and Damh. They played their own version of Telling the Bee’s, ‘The Worship of Trees’ which I couldn’t get out of my head it was soo good. Luckily if you get over to Damh’s site and register for his newsletter you can hear this online. I have been playing it non stop!
