 It's so important that druids do inner grove work, but what does that grove actually look like? Hey, there's saplings. Welcome back to esoteric moment today. I'm going to dive into the topic of inner grove work and what that means and looks like in my druid practice and potentially yours way back. I did a couple of videos where I talk about like inner and outer grove work and I will include a link in the information tab and down below. If you would like to check those videos out, that might be a good primer if this is a new concept for you. The outer grove for a druid is really about this like external mundane world and the group or like people that you practice with or are in community with. The inner grove work is about that self-development, reflection, meditation, connection to the other world. We pack a ton of things into inner grove work. It is important to talk about what the inner grove actually looks like and functions as, as we're diving into druidry and our own practices. Before we get started on this topic, I would love to know whether your inner grove is an actual place that is a grove of trees in your inner mind. So I'm going to put a poll up in the information tab and you should select the option that fits your experience best. I am very curious. So when I first started druidry, I was practicing on my own. I was not in an order and my inner grove was not a grove. It was a cave. When I kind of went to that core spot that was me deep down in my subconscious, I was in this cave that was the opening was like behind a waterfall. And I had such amazing experiences and kind of like cultivation in that space as my inner grove work. But as my druidry changed and I changed where I first went to, to kind of tune into whatever further ritual or inner grove work I was doing changed with me. And I found myself exploring the inner landscape more and more venturing further away, finding other spots that were really useful and meeting new guides and spirits who could help me on my journey. You can look at this as like a really super paranormal, extra sensory experience, or you can look at it as a way of my subconscious, just creating metaphors and ideas and symbols that help me communicate better with who I am at myself. Inner grove work, like whichever way of explaining it or somewhere in between on the spectrum is up to you. So keep that in mind as we continue on this conversation about what this all means. So as I was exploring the inner grove, I did eventually come to a place that looked like a grove of trees. That was about the point where I started working with the order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. In their courses, their meditations, they use the word inner grove and often the imagery that they use to get you started on whatever practicum or experiences that they're leading you through will often talk about an actual circle of trees. As I worked with the order, my inner grove changed and shifted slightly. There were different trees, different stones, different guides, but it has pretty much stayed the same since I started that process. So for the last three or four years now, it has been this grove that has grown and changed slightly, but I'm still, that is still where I like set down first and get started in my inner work. I think in many ways I have not, I think the inner grove being an actual grove for me is very useful still because there is lots to learn and grow here and I can still easily venture off into the rest of the inner landscape. Some places I've explored before and some places I haven't. It is a very like central location for me, but there was a great value in kind of recognizing the points at which my inner grove changed significantly, like from the cave to this meadow for a while and then to this grove, because those were points where my practice shifted pretty substantially, sometimes because of like life things and sometimes because of just inner growth and development, I hope. Clearly if you include inner grove work in your practice, documenting what that space looks like and feels like can be useful as you go down your path because going back and reflecting on that can help show where your path has changed significantly or insights have been gained or elements maybe where you need to go back and get something that you left behind that maybe was really important to you in your inner work. I think it's so useful to have a place in your inner landscape that is central to your work that feels like home that grounds you, that really helps you transition from mundane life to meditation, to inner work. However, I also think it's so important that we don't allow ourselves to become stagnant or stuck. I love change. And I think maybe we don't embrace it as much as we could. And Druidry provides an outlet that allows us to explore our inner world and all of its changes in such a really vibrant way. I hope to talk a little bit more about inner grove work in the future. So if there are particular comments or questions that you have about Druidry and inner grove work, I would love to know. So please leave a comment and hopefully I can talk about it in another video or we can all as saplings talk about it in this online grove we have together. This week's sapling shout out goes out to Alexander Krumlisch. They wrote a comment on an earlier video. I think it was the what is Druidry video that it's Druidism, not Druidry. I laugh because this is such a like non point. So Druidrism and Druidry are both right. I prefer the word Druidry because just flows off my tongue easier than Druidism. Language is an interesting tool that we use to communicate and Druidism and Druidry are used interchangeably to describe the type of practices we're having. So you are not right or wrong if you use either or both of them. I often use the tags for both of them in my videos because some people call themselves the path that they do Druidism and some people call them the path they use Druidry. I think Druidry is just easier to say and more commonly known and and utilize. So that's the tool that I use to communicate what I'm doing because it helps me reach a larger group and it flows off my tongue a little bit easier. But like whatever word you use, that's cool and you should not feel like you have to use one or the other. They are both right. If you want to be the sapling shout out and in a future video, definitely talk to me in the comments or over at Instagram and you might be next. Thanks for watching. And as always, may you find peace in the sacred grove.