Third Degree Curriculum

The following curriculum has been established by the AODA Grand Grove for advancement to the Third Degree, the degree of Druid Adept. Under ordinary circumstances members who have received the Second Degree initiation must perform the following steps and wait a minimum of three years before receiving the Third Degree. The Grand Grove may waive some or all of these requirements in special circumstances.

The First Degree teaches the Druid Apprentice the elements of Druidry as a personal spiritual path, and the Second Degree teaches the Druid Companion how to share that path with others. The Third Degree is for the Druid who wishes to go further and create a uniquely personal path as a Druid Adept. It has no fixed curriculum in the normal sense, as each aspirant to this Degree must go beyond the ordinary and blaze a new trail through the Druid forest.

There are three ways to accomplish this demanding and profoundly transformative process. The Druid Companion will choose one of these three options:

1. Design and carry out a challenging course of Druid study and practice which will take you at least three years of hard work to complete. By AODA tradition it should include seven Paths or basic elements, and it should include the work done for previous Degrees as its foundation. Propose it in advance to the Grand Grove for approval. The Grand Grove may accept it as presented, or may request that certain things be added or changed. Once your personal curriculum is approved by the Grand Grove, follow it, keeping detailed records of your practices and experiences in your Druid journal. When you are finished, contact the Grand Grove.

2. Design a single grand project, one that expresses Druid values and your personal vision of Druidry, and will take you at least three years of hard work to bring off. Propose it in advance to the Grand Grove for approval. The Grand Grove may accept it as presented, or may request that certain things be added or changed. Once it's approved, do it. When it's done, contact the Grand Grove.

3. Wow us. Do something else so amazing that it convinces the Grand Grove that you're a Druid Adept already, and the conferring of the Third Degree is merely a formality. The AODA Grand Grove has the right to confer the Third Degree on any person who has accomplished the work and demonstrated the qualities that the AODA training program is meant to elicit.

Members of the AODA who complete the Third Degree training program in any of these ways, and receive the Druid Adept initiation, are eligible to receive consecration as a bishop in the Universal Gnostic Church at no additional charge. The AODA and the UGC share important historical links and this benefit is made available to AODA members because of these longtime connections.

First Defgee Curriculum

Second Degree Curriculum

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