Bards, Ovates, and Druids

Hello all!

I've been practicing an eclectic breed of Wicca for roughly 10 years. Recently I've been doing alot of research into Druidry and I came across The Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids. I've been considering signing up for their classes and initiating into the Order.

I was wondering if any of you have done so or know anyone that has? I'm trying to learn more about them before I make my final decision.

=] . Blessed Be.

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I've been wanting to sign up with them sometime this year, too! From what I've heard, the classes seem expensive but they're worth it after the Bardic grade because of the information that they provide. The worst thing I've heard about them is that the community discriminates against people with mental illness even though a lot of times spirituality can be mistaken for a diagnosable mental illness (to be fair, at least as often as a mental illness can be mistaken for something spiritual). Maybe that's changed, though.

But I'm also weighing that with ADF, which seems to have a more Irish-Celtic Reconstructionist focus whereas OBOD seems to be more Welsh traditional? (There was another grove option that I bookmarked and decided that I'd look into later but it is later and got buried in the digital slush pile of my bookmarks because I forgot, whoops.)

Yeah, they are kind of pricey. The bardic grade is really the reason why I'm skeptic. I've heard it's all about poetry and songwriting and all that deal. Which I mean, should be expected being that it's the bardic grade. I don't know....so many conflicting feelings. There is also The New Order of Druids that offers classes through the three grades trough their online college called the Grove of Dana or something along those lines. I think I might go through their free material, and then decide if I want to fork out the doe for OBOD.

I've also discovered the The Druid Network. They don't seem to over classes as much as some generic info on their site and a social media to connect with others.