When I joined OBOD, they sent me the intro package in addition to the first 4 gwersi. I barely glanced at the intro package, thinking those gwersi were just truncated versions of the first two “official” gwersi. Good thing I spent some time getting more granular last night, as they are totally NOT truncated, but different foundational info.

At first I wanted to rush through the packets (gwersi = Welsh for ‘lessons,’ gwers is the singular), but last night I decided to slow down and really give each packet the week it deserves. This actually dovetails nicely with my plan to do the initiation on the new moon. The packets consist of a lesson with a triad, a practical exercise and an eisteddfod, which is basically a poem for contemplation. (Eisteddfod is more Welsh, meaning roughly ‘festival of poem and song.’) I’ll be using the triads and eisteddfod as meditative foci, and working to memorize the triads as I go. I usually suck at memorization, so we’ll see how that goes.

I’m looking at the ritual structure and really loving the emphasis on peace and balance with nature. Looking forward to what comes next, and planning to post here.

I’m also thinking of ways to incorporate the DP into this. Not sure if that will be too busy, but I suspect they may actually be quite complementary. If I do the DP, I’ll use Michael Dangler‘s plan, which breaks everything down into weekly assignments for a year.

I’d love company on this journey, but at the moment, it seems I’m kind of on my own in my desire to focus on the Irish. That’s ok. When the time is right, the right people will find me.