{"id":514,"date":"2009-08-03T22:26:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-03T22:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/08\/druid-gorsedd\/"},"modified":"2009-08-03T22:26:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-03T22:26:00","slug":"druid-gorsedd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/08\/druid-gorsedd.html","title":{"rendered":"Druid Gorsedd"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>I\u2019m back from the Druid Gorsedd at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.polmountainretreat.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Pema Osel Ling<\/a>, a <a href='https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/library\/buddhism' target='_blank'>Buddhist<\/a> retreat about an hour south of San Jose, California. It was a wonderful experience on so many levels, most of which I\u2019ll talk about and some of which I can\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>I met sixty-something OBOD Bards, Ovates, Druids and friends. I had a small part in the main Lughnasadh ritual, a larger part in the Ovate initiation ceremony, and a supporting role in the Bardic initiation ceremony. To my shock, I was invited to be on the panel discussion on Druid Spiritual Practice. And along with the only other person there who had begun the Druid level studies but hadn\u2019t yet completed them, I was given a Druid grade initiation (it was simple, effective, and very insightful \u2013 and that\u2019s all I\u2019m going to say about it).<\/p>\n<p>I took a few pictures with the iPhone \u2013 I\u2019ll post some of them. There were professional photographers and videographers recording the whole event. As soon <a href=\"http:\/\/www.houseofdanu.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">House of Danu<\/a> posts their stuff, I\u2019ll link to it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_cpRXT6ZSHTw\/SnerDoKMSvI\/AAAAAAAAARk\/zwpGN_tWpiE\/s1600-h\/Pema+Osel+Ling+mists.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_cpRXT6ZSHTw\/SnerDoKMSvI\/AAAAAAAAARk\/zwpGN_tWpiE\/s400\/Pema+Osel+Ling+mists.jpg\"><\/a>This is the small lake and fountain at the entrance to the retreat.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_cpRXT6ZSHTw\/Sneq7HoWYSI\/AAAAAAAAARc\/yj_N3iOJOsk\/s1600-h\/John+at+POL.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_cpRXT6ZSHTw\/Sneq7HoWYSI\/AAAAAAAAARc\/yj_N3iOJOsk\/s400\/John+at+POL.jpg\"><\/a>And this is me, waiting for the Lughnasadh procession to start.<\/p>\n<p>Much, much more later this week.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m back from the Druid Gorsedd at Pema Osel Ling, a Buddhist retreat about an hour south of San Jose, California. It was a wonderful experience on so many levels, most of which I\u2019ll talk about and some of which I can\u2019t. I met sixty-something OBOD Bards, Ovates, Druids and friends. I had a small [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Druid Gorsedd<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I&#039;m back from the Druid Gorsedd at Pema Osel Ling, a Buddhist retreat about an hour south of San Jose, California. It was a wonderful experience on so\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/08\/druid-gorsedd.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Druid Gorsedd\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#039;m back from the Druid Gorsedd at Pema Osel Ling, a Buddhist retreat about an hour south of San Jose, California. 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