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Second Degree Curriculum
The following curriculum has been established by the AODA Grand Grove for advancement to the Second Degree, the degree of Druid Companion. Under ordinary circumstances Druid Apprentices will perform the following steps and wait a minimum of two years before receiving the Second Degree and the opportunity for ordination into the Druidic priesthood. The Grand Grove may waive some or all of these requirements in special circumstances, and may also give credit for past study and experience that covers substantially the same ground.
Where the First Degree focuses on the skills and attitudes needed to practice Druidry as a personal spiritual path, the Second Degree builds on these foundations by concentrating on the skills needed to share Druidry with others as a Druid priest or priestess, working in a Druid Study Group or Grove as well as in the community as a whole. The Second Degree training consists of five Paths and three Spirals. The Earth Path comprises the disciplines of nature awareness, seasonal ritual, and meditation central to the First Degree, which are continued in the Second. The Water Path embraces the arts of spiritual guidance and instruction. The Fire Path consists of the arts of ritual design and performance. The Air Path encompasses the scholarly arts and Druid history and traditions. The Spirit Path, finally, extends into the fields of comparative religion and nature spirituality.
In addition, each aspirant must study two of the seven Spirals outlined in the First Degree curriculum, in addition to the one studied in preparation for the First Degree, and one additional art, craft, or discipline not included in the seven Spirals, gaining a basic level of competence in each of these subjects.
The Grand Grove realizes that not all Druids follow the same path, and the curriculum for the Second Degree is only one way to develop the skills needed to communicate Druidry to others. For this reason the Grand Grove also offers the option of a self-designed Second Degree program.
Candidates should continue to keep a Druid journal in which details of all Druid studies may be noted down. The Druid journal need not be shown to anyone else, including AODA officers, but will serve as a resource from which material for your Second Degree examination may be drawn. When you complete the Second Degree study program, contact the Grand Grove so that arrangements can be made for your examination.
AODA is a legally recognized church, incorporated in the State of Oregon, and its Second Degree training program serves as the seminary program for its ministers. Initiated Druid Companions of the AODA may therefore request ordination as Druid priests or priestesses. If you intend to seek ordination and wish to pursue a self-designed Second Degree program, please let us know of your interest in the ministry before proposing a self-designed program.
Self-Designed Second Degree Program
Recommended reading for the Second Degree
The element of Earth represents the material basis of existence, and in the Second Degree curriculum it refers especially to the foundations of Druid training as presented in the curriculum of the First Degree. The Druid Apprentice continues to study and practice these essential practices of Druidry in order to build a firm foundation for service to the Druid community and the Earth.
The three Paths of the First Degree are the Earth Path of nature awareness and service to the living Earth, the Sun Path of seasonal celebration, and the Moon Path of meditation. Review the First Degree curriculum and your work in Druidry to date, and proceed accordingly, designing a personal course of Druid training that will take you further in each of these Paths over the next two years. To qualify for the Second Degree this course of training must include at least the following:
1. Performance of a regular series of experiences and practices designed to increase your awareness and knowledge of the natural world, and to decrease the negative impact of your own life on the living Earth;
2. Participation in a regular series of seasonal Druid celebrations, including at least the two solstices and two equinoxes, which are traditional in the AODA;
3. Practice of a regular series of spiritual exercises including daily meditation.
Keep detailed notes on all these experiences, ceremonies, and practices in your Druid journal and be prepared to discuss them in detail at the time of your Second Degree examination.
The element of Water represents the emotions, and in the Druid tradition it also relates to growth and the development of wisdom. In the Water Path of the Second Degree curriculum, the Druid Apprentice develops the skills needed to help others pursue their own personal and spiritual development, through methods such as teaching, discussion, and mentoring.
1. Study the two required books in the reading list for this Path, and at least one other book from the recommended list. Familiarize yourself with different ways of understanding spiritual development and with ways in which one person can help foster spiritual development in others.
2. Using these and any other resources you wish, come to a personal understanding of spiritual development, and write an essay describing the process of spiritual development as you understand it. In the essay, explain what you think spiritual development is, what its goals are, what its stages are, what potential problems have to be met and overcome in the process, and what help a more experienced person can offer to others who are pursuing their own spiritual directions.
3. Compile a list of emergency and mental health resources available in your community, with full contact information for each. Along with each entry, list the situations in which you would recommend that a person you were guiding should seek help from that resource.
4. Spend at least 20 hours helping other people with their spiritual development in a Druid context. Among the activities which would qualify for this requirement are one-on-one mentoring, leading a discussion group, and teaching one or more classes or workshops on Druid spirituality or related subjects. Keep detailed notes on these experiences.
Universal Seminary, the educational branch of the Universal Gnostic Church (UGC), offers a training program in "Spiritual Coaching" which covers the art of helping others in a spiritual context. AODA has longstanding historical links with the UGC, and in recognition of these links and the quality of Universal Seminary's program, completion of the "Spiritual Coach" program will fulfill the Water Path requirement for AODA's Second Degree.
The element of Fire represents the will and the subtle energies of the cosmos, and in the Second Degree curriculum it stands particularly for the realm of subtle powers shaped and directed through ritual. In the Fire Path, the Druid Apprentice must develop the skills of designing, performing, and understanding Druid ritual, in order to serve the Druid community and the Earth through a mastery of subtle powers.
1. Study and practice the AODA Solitary Grove opening and closing ceremony. You should plan on performing this ceremony at least once a month for at least the minimum period of two years you spend preparing for the Second Degree initiation. If at all possible, commit the ceremony to memory. Explore its uses as a framework for other ceremonies and spiritual practices.
2. Study and practice the AODA Candidate initiation, until you can perform the entire ceremony for another person skillfully and with effect. If at all possible, commit the ceremony to memory.
3. Familiarize yourself with traditions of seasonal ritual, and design an original set of ceremonies for a yearly cycle of Druid holy days, drawing symbolism and themes from any appropriate source; the ecology and natural history of the area in which you live are particularly recommended. In the AODA the following holy days are traditionally kept:
Alban Arthuan, the Winter Solstice, approximately December 21;
Alban Eiler, the Spring Equinox, approximately March 20;
Alban Heruin, the Summer Solstice, approximately June 21;
Alban Elued, the Autumn Equinox, approximately September 22.
To qualify for the Second Degree, your cycle of holy days should include the solstices and equinoxes, and may contain any other days you feel are appropriate to your Druid path. Once you have designed your yearly cycle, perform each of the ceremonies, either by yourself or with the help of others. If others are involved, you should take the primary role in at least four of the holy day ceremonies. Be prepared, at the time of your Second Degree examination, to explain the symbolism and structure of your ceremonies in detail.
The element of Air represents the intellect, the dawn ray of illumination that brings clarity and insight to the mind. The Second Degree's Air Path requires the Druid Apprentice to learn the basic skills of scholarship, to gather useful information and present it in an accessible form, in order to serve the Druid community and the Earth as a teacher and an information resource. This Path also directs attention to the history of the modern Druid tradition, and to several of the major sources of that tradition, so that the Apprentice's Druidry may be informed by a clearer sense of the past and its legacies.
1. Study the ancient Celtic Druids and the mythology and traditions of at least one Celtic people. Choose a topic of interest to you from among this material and write a paper on the topic.
2. Study the legends of King Arthur and the knights and ladies of the Round Table. Again, choose a topic of interest to you from among this material and write a paper on the topic.
3. Study the history of the Druid Revival and the growth of modern Druidry. Once again, choose a topic of interest to you from among this material and write a paper on the topic.
Each of these papers should include a discussion of the relevance of the subject to people following a Druid path in the modern world. Include a bibiliography with all the sources used in your paper. If a different subject would be more relevant to your personal Druid path than one of the above, contact the Grand Grove in advance for a dispensation, describing the subject you would prefer to research and explaining why it is relevant to Druidry. Any request for a dispensation that makes a reasonable case for relevance will be approved as a matter of course.
The element of Spirit represents the hub of the turning wheel of the elements, the transcendent dimension around which all else takes shape. In the Second Degree curriculum the Spirit Path explores the spiritual and philosophical dimensions of Druidry, using comparative religion and the history and theory of nature spirituality as tools to help you understand your own personal Druid path.
1. Study another living or extinct religion of your choice, preferably one about which you know little or nothing to start with. Read its scriptures or traditional texts, study its history and doctrines, and learn about its art, music, and rituals. If possible, attend one or more of its ceremonies. Having done so, write a paper comparing this religion to Druidry. Among the points of comparison you may wish to explore in this paper are attitudes toward divinity; attitudes toward the world of Nature; attitudes toward the human soul and its destiny; traditions of organization; seasonal and other ceremonies; and methods of spiritual practice.
2. Read at least five books from the recommended reading list on nature spirituality and use ideas from these books as themes for meditation. Through this and any other methods meaningful to you, come to your own understanding of Druidry as a path of nature spirituality, and express that understanding in some form that can be experienced by others. This may take the form of a written essay; it may take the form of an artwork, such as a story, drama, cycle of poems, or the like, on the same scale; or it may take some other form appropriate to your talents and your personal Druid path. It should be a summing-up of all your experiences as a Druid so far. The Grand Grove will not attempt to judge the quality or content of your work, but it will look for effort and originality in the work, and may not accept projects that show little evidence of these. Please contact the Grand Grove in advance with details of your project if you have questions.
Aspirants for the First Degree selected one of the seven Spirals - the arts of poetry, music, divination, healing, magic, sacred geometry, and Earth mysteries, which have long been traditional in modern Druid circles - and gain a basic level of skill in the chosen Spiral. In the Second Degree curriculum the same principle guides the study of three additional arts, crafts, or disciplines.
1. Choose two more of the seven Spirals from the First Degree curriculum, other than the one you studied in your First Degree training, and fulfill all the requirements given.
2. Choose an art, craft, or discipline that is not one of the seven Spirals, and do a comparable amount of work with it. The subject you choose need not have any historical connection with Druidry at all, but you should be prepared at the time of your Second Degree examination to explain what studying and practicing it has contributed to your personal Druid path. If you have questions about what would qualify as an appropriate amount of work contact the Grand Grove.
During AODA's history, the order has developed close working relationships with several other orders and esoteric traditions, and in recognition of these the Grand Grove has authorized members who reach certain levels of advancement in these other orders and traditions to use these achievements as the "extra spiral" for advancement to the Second Degree, as follows.
Order of Spiritual Alchemy: attainment of the rank of 8/8 in the Octagon Society
Universal Gnostic Church: completion of the Minor Orders training program
Freemasonry: attainment of the degree of Master Mason in any branch of Freemasonry
Self-Designed Second Degree Program
As an alternative to the Second Degree curriculum given here, aspirants to the Second Degree may design a personal curriculum of study and practice in Druidry involving at least two years of steady work. This curriculum should include some means by which the Grand Grove can assess the aspirant's achievements. Druid Apprentices who choose this option must present their proposed self-designed curriculum in advance to the Grand Grove, which may accept it as given or request changes. Once the curriculum is approved by the Grand Grove, the aspirant needs only complete its requirements to qualify for the Second Degree. Please contact the Grand Grove if you need more information or assistance putting together a self-designed curriculum of this sort. If you intend to seek ordination as a Druid Priest or Priestess from AODA on the completion of a self-designed Second Degree program, please let us know in advance so that we can help you craft a program that will prepare you for Druid ministry.