The Monk

[The Monk]

Thanks for letting me in.  I found this forum while searching for more info on something I read in one of Ed McGaa's books. 

My ancestors came from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.  I grew up in Hawai'i where all my family lives, except for one errant uncle in Vegas, and me in Florida.  My sister (different father) is Kanaka Maole and my wife is a Filipina with Aeta ancestry (she can speak five languages, including Aeta. I can barely handle English).  I am the Webmaster for one of the PA'I Foundation Web sites (Hapa Haole Hula Festival) run by Aunty Vicky Holt Takamine.  My sister, daughter, and niece dance in her halau.

I'm in the middle of the OBOD Bard course.  I realize I'm paying for it, but it's not too bad.  You get a good volume of material for your money anyway.   I'm also a Mason.

I don't expect to post much but I would like to send anything posted about Hawai'i scams to my sister.

[Defend the Sacred]

Fàilte, Monk, and thank you for introducing yourself.

Just so you know, or maybe you do know, there are cultural and spiritual groups for the various European and Celtic earth-honoring cultures that are far more accurate and traditional than OBOD ("Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids"), and who don't charge money to participate in culture or ceremony.

It's not really a question of how much you get for how much you pay, it's more the issues around commodification of spiritual experience, or charging to participate in community, and what that does to people, cultures and traditions. The general belief here is that culture and spirituality is grassroots and interdependent, that access must be earned not bought, and commodifying it causes all sorts of problems. We have lots of threads on here about this issue, however, so rather than retread it all here, I recommend you read the pinned threads, and even search from the main page on issues around paying.

Are the OBODies still doing Wiccan/pretendian sweats? Last I heard, they had spawned some sellers of pretendian/faux-Celtic ceremonies with that.

[The Monk]

Thanks.  I have no idea if they are doing sweats.  I would not participate if they were.

I am aware that OBOD is not traditional, but they are interesting.  And I do not think I am going to get anything really spiritual from them based on the stuff they have sent me so far but I was curious and I do not mind spending the money to indulge my curiosity.  Similar to the Masons in that respect, after all the fuss there is not much there, although the people are nice and they (the Masons) serve a great fish dinner.

Is CAORANN one of the groups you refer to?

(edited because all my apostrophes turned into question marks)

[Defend the Sacred]

CAORANN is a political group, with members from a variety of spiritual groups. Lots of resources on the website though.

[The Monk]

Thanks.  I will look into the site more deeply.