Llygedyn Grove Traditions

The Nine Virtues

WISDOM - críonnacht : Good judgement, the ability to perceive people and situations correctly, deliberate about and decide on the correct response.

INTEGRITY - onóir : Honor; being trustworthy to oneself and to others, involving oath-keeping, honesty, fairness, respect and self confidence.

COURAGE - misneach : The ability to act appropriately in the face of adversity

VISION - sellaim : The ability to broaden one's perspective, to have a greater understanding of our place/role in the cosmos, relating to the past, present and future.

PERSEVERANCE - beayn-hassooaght : Drive; the motivation to pursue goals even when that pursuit becomes difficult.

HOSPITALITY - aoigheachd : Acting as both gracious host and an appreciative guest, involving benevolence, friendliness, humor, and the honoring of "a gift for a gift".

MODERATION - stuamachd : Cultivating one's appetites so that one is neither a slave to them nor driven to ill health, (mental or physical), through excess or deficiency.

PIETY - cràbhadh : Correct observance of ritual and social traditions; the maintenance of the agreements, (both personal and societal), we humans have with the Gods and Spirits. Keeping the Old Ways, through ceremony and duty.

FERTILITY - troaraght : Bounty of mind, body and spirit, involving creativity, production of objects, food, works of art, etc.. an appreciation of the physical, sensual and nurturing.

The Three Kindreds

The Shining Ones - The eldest, mightiest and wisest of the beings in the Great Weaving. The First Mother and First Father, the Triple Kingship and the Goddesses of Sovereignty, Inspiration and Bounty; the powers of Love, Artisanry and Healing, the Child of light and shadow; all are reflected in the many cultural pantheons of the Celtic peoples.

The Mighty Ones - The Honored Dead - The Ancestors, those of our folk who are personally resting in the Land of the Dead. They watch over their descendants and lend their power to aid us. It is proper for every follower of Druidry to honor their immediate ancestors, their Grandparents, as well as their Heroes, those great women and men who are honored by their folk.

The Noble Ones - The Spirits of non human evolutions, both mortal and never born. They are of a multitude of kinds. From small spirits of stone, herb and beast to the very Queen under the Hill and her Consort. Each has their own power and should be approached with respect, whether a simple herb-spirit or a mighty mountain.

The Three Realms

The Land - The home of our human kindreds and of our closest allies. The land is our common world where most of us live out our lives. When we look for our part in the great weaving of thing it is the patterns of the land that are our first teachers. Fresh water that wells up in the earth can also be part of the realm of the land.

The Sea - The wild waste that lies outside our common land. The sea is the home of a vast and teeming life, different from our own. It is also the place of the Otherworld Isles, the home of the Sidhe heroes and the Land of the young. Thus, the sea is connected with the Otherworld as a place of concealed potential.

The Sky - The source of Light and Shadow, the place of the Shining Ones. The Sky overarches the Land and Sea, as the sight of the Gods and oddesses watches over all. The turning and waxing of the Three lights of Sun. Moon and Stars, and the wheeling of the stars around the Pole display the Order of the Deities and their blessing us.

The Sacred Triune

The Well - "Uisge Beatha" or water of life is drawn from The Well. The Well symbolically represents universal unity with one another and with all. Within us all is a well of experience, some of us see this as our own personal connection with Brigid, others see it as a personal connection with a deeper level of cosmic consciousness. Whatever it means to each individual, within our worship it is our acknowledgement that All Is One.

The Fire - What began as a spark of thought within the etheric, caught sustenance upon the realm of possibility and became the flame of spirit within us all. The inspiration of "what could be" lives here, the drive to go beyond what our ancestors dreamt of ever being possible, the hope that our children carry. When we light the Sacred Fire within our ritual space, we are symbolically illuminating our dreams and connecting to the spark of Divine Fire within those gathered to make the observance and carry on our histories, our legacy.

The Tree - "As above, so below" - this is the symbolic reference of The Tree, specifically, the Oak Tree. It is said that the branches of the oak reflect the roots hidden below the soil, thus the reflective quality of soul, of our world, our community, our Deities. The bile' brought within the henge during ritual observance is to remind us of our connectivity to the Gods, to the Ancestors, to the Sidhe and the Fey. Thinking on it a bit further, a tree would not quite be as lovely without all of its' branches, neither would our cosmology without all the mythos handed to us by our ancestors.

Last Update: December 10, 2006

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