 you will dive much deeper into topics. There is more personal exploration and just more in this course. Hey, there Safflings. My name is Danny and welcome to esoteric moment. A couple of years ago, I did a video where I reviewed the orders of bard, obates and druids. They're barred course. This video has gotten tons of comments and I've met so many members of obad through this video and those of you who are thinking about studying druidry through this order and that has been fantastic. I've loved all the comments and conversations on that video. And now that I am finishing up my Ovate grade, I thought I would do a video to review the Ovate course through obad. Once you complete your bard review and your mentor sends that off to the obad office, you'll get an introductory packet for the Ovate grade. And that'll have a few materials, examples of the gorsi and really give you a feel for whether the topics covered in the Ovate grade are right for you. After this, you'll have the chance to go online and choose whether you want the course in text version, audio version, or both. So basically the same that the bard courses set up for. This course does cost money. The time that I signed up for this course, it was about 40 or 50 euros cheaper than the bard course, but that really depends on which version you choose and what time you take the course and all of that. I found, frankly, that the cost of the Ovate course was more than fair for the material that you're getting. You will dive much deeper into topics. There is more personal exploration and just more in this course. I really, really thought the exchange of financial money for the material I was getting was more than worth it. So the Ovate course is set up very similar to the bard course. Every month you'll get a packet from Oba. In this packet, you will get four green gorsis or lessons. You might also get a supplemental gorsi. You'll also receive the monthly magazine Touchstone, which we all know my feelings about Touchstone, but they have improved the design slightly. It is a little easier to read. They are making progress still not my favorite part, but definitely better than when I first started in Oba. And the Touchstone magazine, of course, is just submitted entries from members, news and events, contact information. There's some cool stuff in it. In each lesson or gorsi, you're going to start off with a letter from Philip Kargon or the chief druid of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Then you'll dive right into the topic and topics range in Ovate grade from Nuit Frey, which is kind of the energy flow through your body and magic. It's a it's a big concept. Healing, herbs, alum or the tree alphabet. You'll talk about sacred sites, journey, the gates of time, shamanic healing. Far too many topics for me to cover. In each core meat of the gorsi in that topic, there might be meditations, there might be historical resources or there might be a prompt for you to go out and make or do something physical, more mundane. And then, of course, the gorsi ends with Astadfad, which is a poem or song, some artistic interpretation that connects to the lesson, but is a is a real kind of praise and joyful moment and expression of the bardic arts. OK, truth time. The bard course is kind of your pagan basics in many way, put together beautifully and left with such open endedness that you can really interpret and make your own. It's great for formulating your own seasonal rituals, your own personal daily or regular practice, but it is foundational. So people who are coming from other interpretations of paganism might find that course a little slow going or just not quite as exciting as you thought it might be. But Ovate is very different. Ovate is going to ask you to really do a lot of self-reflection and to get messier and just explore more. And it's not so much about the material that's in each gorsi. It's about what you do with it and like where you go next. So this is where druidry becomes even clearer that even through the order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, this is not an armchair practice. This is a get going, get messy, really live in that flame of druidry. There are some order secrets that are revealed and explored. And if that's your thing, awesome, there will be some of that with it. And at the end of this course, you're going to be asked to do a few different things and it's set up differently from the end of the Bard course. But generally it's going to be about, you know, how do you incorporate all the things you learned and what you're going to do with it next. I enjoyed this grade. It was harder. It took me two years to complete. And there were parts of it that made me angry and feel feels. But it was good. Like I needed that in my practice and it made me confront things that I wasn't entirely comfortable with confronting. And that's what you want out of your spiritual practice is to be confronted with hard truths and realness. So the next question would be, am I going on to the druid grade? And the answer is no. There is more for me to explore in the Ovate grade. And I'm fully prepared that there's more uncomfortableness and just deeper breadth of material that I need to go through before jumping into that next step. And please, as just a final reminder, I've said this in other places and other ways, but you can be a druid without being a member of OBOD. You can be a druid if you don't have Celtic background. Druidry really encompasses a lot of different interpretations and people. What matters to Druidry is your connection to the natural world, your ability to form relationships, to work for peace and justice and to really explore and seek wisdom and knowledge. Eventually bind all of these through Grim Bindery, like I did my Bard course, but I'm just kind of waiting a few months until I financially can do that and make sure I have it figured out the way that I want it to be. The pages on the side are not numbered like they were in the Bard course and there is no cumulative index. So it's not quite as nice to bind altogether, but I still think it'll be really useful and I want to protect these because there's a lot in it that I think I will re-explore at different time. So with a recap, Ovate Review, deeper, more material covered, it's really going to push you, at least I hope it really pushes you. You are still a Druid if you do not do the Ovate course. You are still a Druid if you're not a part of Obam, but I really have loved this experience and I think it was well worth my money and time, most importantly, well worth my time. And if you are looking for deeper mystery and more expansive topics for your Druidry practice, this is the place to be. For today's shout out, I want to shout out tiny and dangerous. They left a comment on my book of Alan update video, which you haven't seen. It's pretty fun. We're talking about how she presses leaves and flowers in her book of shadows type book, and it's a really detailed comment. So thank you for sharing. That was exactly what I was looking for. And if you have any questions about the Ovate grade or, you know, the difference between Bard and Ovate and all of that, definitely talk to me in the comments. I hope this can be another great conversation place. Of course, if you're interested in the Bard course or the Ovate course, we're just figuring out more about this obad stuff. Head over to druidry.org. They have so many resources for free and just lots of wisdom and learning and connection on their website. And definitely a great place to start. Thanks for watching. And as always, may you find peace in the sacred grove.