Dedicants Oath

Dedicants Oath

A child of Earth comes to the sacred grove to make an oath to the powers of the worlds. I come by
the road of seeking, through the door of new learning, to the fire of inspiration, to the well of wisdom, to the gates between the worlds. Hear me, O powers, as I offer up these sacrifices. I give you
these gifts, I give you my oath as an offering in your honor. O mighty, noble and shining ones,
hear me, I pray.
I am Jason of the family of Wills, and it is my will to walk the Pagan way. So
I swear by the gods and by the dead and by all the spirits. I swear to live by the virtues given by
tradition, to strive to live well and do good.
I swear to keep the feasts and observances of the Druid way as far as I understand them, keeping the wheel of the year. I swear
to seek the truth of the elder ways, to learn the lore and meaning of our ancestors’ wisdom. These
things I swear by the well that flows in me, by the fire that shines in me, by the tree that roots and
crowns my soul.
I swear by Odin and Hel, to honor their names, to walk the path of the brave and true, so that they may grant me strength in battle, wisdom in council and honor in death.
Before all the powers, and especially before my gods Odin and Hel I swear it. May the
three worlds rise against me if I am forsworn. So be it!
Now let my voice arise on the fire, let my voice resound in the well, let my words pass the boundary to the spirits. Mighty, noble and shining ones, accept my sacrifice and my oath!

The Ritual for my Dedicant Oath was done for the High day Ostara on March 19th, 2023. The Ostara Ritual was held in front of my Alter at home, and was recorded so I can look back on this day in the Future. This would be a little over a year since I started on my Dedicant path in November of 2021. The Dedicant Oath is important to me because I believe it strengthens my path I am taking in Life. When I first started Ár nDraíocht Féin, probably era 2003 the Dedicant Book had me doing an oath in the First few chapters of the book as I can remember, Odin was the deity then and has been with me ever since, Hel was added over the years as I feel a connection to her and felt I needed a Goddess as well as a God. I cannot remember that Oath, but I am thinking it was just read from the book, so this one will be more special as I complete my Dedicant Path.
For the Ritual, my offerings at hand were: Silver, Corn Meal, Olive Oil, Brown Ale, honey, and Incense. Since I was doing my Oath during a high day, I used the Ritual for Ostara, Which I did last year as well, which was a Norse Template written for Ostara I got from the Ár nDraíocht Féin website. The oath was written in a large part with the Oath in the Dedicant Path workbook as I felt that it resonated with what I wanted in an Oath; I added my own Personal Touch for my Patron Gods, Odin and Hel. A couple hours before I did my oath, I had a strong feeling to return the Silver in the well on my Altar to the river, those silver beads have been in my altar for a whole year, and I just have not had the time to return them back to Nature. So, I drove out to the Elk River which is a river in the middle of the town I live in, walked over to the river with trees all around me and the river flowing and threw them back into the river thus completing my circle essentially. In the future, I need to be more diligent in returning my offerings back to nature, as I do with the offering bowl after every ritual.
The Ritual itself went well, I believe, since I performed it last year as well. I essentially already practiced it, so knew the flow of it well. There were a few mistakes on my part, such as while doing an offering, I poured the olive oil into the Cornmeal holding bowl instead of the central offering bowl, thus causing my fingers to be an oily mess in the middle of the ritual. But I am sure everyone had a good laugh at my expense. What went right, well, for the most part much of it did. My German is getting better, so I am not stumbling as much. There are a lot of Chants, and Songs with this Ritual and most of them played okay on my Tablet to Sing along to. The Two Powers Mediation allowed me a chance to Calm my Nerves so that made me a little more grounded and better prepared to do the Oath. The runes I drew for my blessings were: Mannaz for Ancestors, Algiz for Nature Spirits, and Raidho for the Shining Ones.
For my Oath I felt like I was speaking to the universe as I did it, had a feeling of power over everything as I spoke the words to the Kindreds, and to my Gods. For my Omens, I was not sure if I was supposed to get separate ones until the Ritual was over, so I only drew one omen after my oath. That rune was Laguz which I took to mean: You’re starting on a new journey. This is just the beginning and not the end. Your path may become bumpy, but you will only become stronger from it.

I am proud to be on this path, and proud to be in Ár nDraíocht Féin as a whole. I feel like Ár nDraíocht Féin has a lot it can offer me, and I hope I can return what I can to it as well.