#religious training

[roibindallbhride]

Near the End of the Beginners’ Corse!

Good Gods, I can’t believe that I’m already tackling lesson eight in the beginners’ corse for Kemetic Orthodox, and don’t have too much further to go with it. Where did all the time go? I actually know the answer to that, as time slipped out of my fingers while I was worrying over the health of elderly family members, and between focusing on those two things, plus one or two other things as well, everything else just flew away while I wasn’t looking. 

I look forward to finishing this week’s lesson, and set my sights on tackling the last one when it arrives. It will be interesting to see what comes next after the last lesson. Time will tell, I suppose. 

Would it be rude of me to breathe a sigh of relief at this point? I mean, I’m not quite out of the woods just yet in my mundane life, but at least I’m approaching the end of the beginners’ corse for Kemetic Orthodoxy, and my elderly dad is finally back in a rehab center to get some more physical therapy and get back up on his feet once more. So yeah, while there are still some things going on that has me worried currently, I think I’ll go ahead and breathe that sigh of relief, be it rude or not.

[uwmspeccoll]

Tract Tuesday

Over the weekend we acquired this little book entitled Children’s Picture Book, published by the American Tract Society in the 1860s. We are adding it to our Historical Curriculum Collection, and we were drawn to it by its use of wood engravings on every page, the delightful opening initials, and the beautiful typographic presentation. The book also adds to our very modest collection of about 30 American Tract Society publications. 

We are interested not only in the graphic presentation, but also in the rhetoric used to convey evangelical Christian ideas to a very young American audience in the mid 19th century. The American Tract Society was founded in New York in 1825 to disseminate Christian literature, and is still very much in operation today. It has earlier origins in the London Religious Tract Society, the New York Tract Society, and the New England Tract Society. We hold some of these publications as well.

Almost every special collections in the U.S. holds examples of these prolific publishing enterprises. So, we thought we would start a Tuesday series highlighting some pages from these tracts, beginning with the first few pages in  Children’s Picture Book which starts off with a section called “The Nursery.” Here our child narrator introduces us to their baby brother Johnnie. The narrator describes the infant, describes their excitement for him, and how Susan (it probably would have been immediately obvious to the white, middle-class reader of that time that Susan is the nurse) will not let the child be held, because of course the narrator will certainly let him fall.

The tone dramatically changes with the addition of a random one-line paragraph: “I am glad that we do not live in India, where they throw little babies to the crocodiles.” Well, yikes! -- in all kinds of ways!

Please look out for more in our #TractTuesday series.

[roibindallbhride]

Replying to Antlering on Undertaking Kemetic Orthodoxy’s Beginner Class

@antlering said: 

good luck with the beginner's class and I'm always free if you have questions! I just started the ADF dedicant program so I feel this post a lot haha!

Thank you very much for your kind words and offer of support. I’m not entirely sure what I’m getting myself into here, but that’s alright, as it’s by no means the first time I’ve found myself in this kind of situation, and it almost always turns out for the best. I know already that if I make it past the beginner’s class, I won’t ever be going past the first kind of member within Kemetic Orthodoxy as I already hold an oath with a deity, Brighid specifically, where I put her first before any other deity, and that oath is life long. The main reason I joined Kemetic Orthodoxy, outside of community, is for the structure. I’m one of those people who need to know where the box is and it’s entire layout before I even think of coloring or drawing outside the lines, if that makes any sense.

I admit to having a couple of misgivings or feelings of not entirely sure if this will work out. For example, I’m very much a hard Polytheist kind of Pagan, and I just flat out don’t believe in the kind of Soft Polytheism or it’s flavor being discussed. I’m not sure if that will hinder my progress through the beginner’s class or not, but I guess we’ll see how it goes. 

I wish you the best of luck working through the Dedicant’s Path too! I need to finish my own work with it actually. It’s a right pain in the ass for sure, but it’s manitory to get to the rest of the training programs within ADF. My main issue at the moment is finding a replacement book for the modern Paganism essay, as I recently found out that the author of the book I wanted to read and review is most likely a TERF, which is extremely disapointing and disgusting if true.  

If you ever want to chat about the Dedicant’s Path work or have any questions, I’m more than happy to help in any way possible! 

[queentron]

So excited!!!! Starting ifa next year!!

I just have to manifest all the money to start, wich is looking good so far!! I should start early january on my journey to becoming an aborisha and receiving my elekes. Woot im so excited for next year!