I've had a lot of false starts on my path with ADF. I have grand ideas about what my practice and study should look like, and I jump in with full enthusiasm only to fail and lose commitment. Recently I've been maintaining a sporadic private devotion to Cernunnos, and celebrating High Days with an ADF ritual (when I remember, feel up to it etc.)
I would love to complete study programs with ADF, beginning of course with the Dedicant Program. I'm not ready for that yet, I think. While I don't struggle to understand and apply the information in even advanced level books and papers on the relevant topics, writing structured answers to a prompt has always been a struggle for me and my frustration with the study program has often been a factor in my abandonment of the practice.
So I'm starting small. I've simplified the Cernunnos devotional I've been using, and blended it with the Hearth Keeper's daily devotional script to make it into something I can do every day. I've committed to performing the daily devotional to Cernunnos and my other Spirit Allies and taking a daily omen, which I am writing about in my divination journal. I hope to add a period of meditation, and eventually trance work, but I'm not worrying about that for now.
I have plans for the High Days too, but I just want to get a month of continuous daily practice under my belt before I think about anything else. While celebrating the High Days is the core of ADF's practice, a big complex ritual every six weeks is much more difficult to maintain that a simple ritual daily. Once I'm grounded in my daily practice, I'll take stock and see how I feel about the High Days, Hearth Keeper's Way (another thing I would love to do but have failed to actually commit to) and/or writing some DP essays.
