My Priesting report is finished for the year, and I’ll be honest, it was an interesting journey into vocation and connection that I didn’t expect.
The annual reporting is a mixed bag: the report, as it’s formatted for submission, is uninspiring, rote, and frankly numbing to contemplate. This is often the way of requirements meant to “justify your existence,” and especially for someone who is not impressed or fed by administrivia, it can be a drag on the actual work of priesting.
What I have learned in the past several years, however, is that while the “spirit of the requirement” is so mundane as to be nauseating, by taking it more seriously than intended, one can make this process feed your vocation, and remind you of why you do the work. The act of contextualizing your work into categories that have meaning to you (I did, after all, swear an oath to do these things, and I live up to that oath as best I can) provides a different window on the work than the experience of doing the work does when you’re head down in it.
Of particular note is the fact that I (once again) experienced health problems in the last half of the year that have impacted my ability to do work in the way I expect. When your work does not match expectations, especially personally-held expectations, it can be difficult to see what you actually did. I was concerned that I had done virtually nothing this year… until I did this work of reviewing with focus and intention.
It turns out that I did a fair number of the things I set out to do, some things changed, and some were left undone… but that the work I did do was valuable and new, and the novel nature of that work means I couldn’t have planned for it all, anyway.
Last year, I set a series of goals for myself; I intend to dive into those goals more explicitly and to craft a report on how I did, what changed, and what I hope my next year will look like in the next week.
In my initial assessment, it doesn’t look that terrible, but there are a few goals I didn’t get any traction on at all. More to come on that.
You can read the whole report if it interests you, either the online version, or you can download the .pdf below. But if you want the highlights, I’m here with the stats!
Quick stats for my 2023 Priesting Report:
Honoring the Land
- 6 paths toward service
- 6 nature awareness videos
- 5 connections to the land
Serving the Folk:
- 13 moons & occasion rites
- 8 service activities
- 14 events attended
- 9 videos released
- 26 audio items created/released
- 35 social media posts related to Druidry
Honoring the Spirits
- 32 Retreat Days
- 8 High Days with 9 group rites
- 13 Journeys
- 3 shrines
Continuing Study:
- 1 five-episode arc of “Druids in Cars, Going to Festivals” covering magical aspects of the Core Order of Ritual
- 4 workshops taught
- 3 workshops attended
- 22 sigils crafted and corresponded
