Week 6: First Book Started: Indo-European Studies

"One of the reasons many people come to ADF is because they are looking for a religion or organization that is interested in both piety and study."-Rev. Michael J Dangler, the Dedicant Path through the Wheel of the Year


Yes. that statement above fully describes me. I am an academic person who thrives on learning about cultures around the world. The history of mankind, the origins of mythologies and so forth. This is what drew me into ADF. I also thrive on the encouragement to look outside my own personal interests and learn on a broad scale. At this time I gravitate and work strongly with the Irish Celtic hearth but there are many other Indo-European hearth cultures to learn, explore and gain wisdom on. ADF encourages a well-roundedness that I admire. 

Week 6 is all about picking out our first review/report book. Despite many groans and against the caution of others, I decided to read In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth by J.P. Mallory. 

After reading the first 10 pages I fully understand why others had cautioned me against this title. This book reads like a college textbook, it is scientific, it is linguistic and honestly, a bit dry. BUT, that is the sort of book I want to learn from. As challenging as this book may be, its exactly what I am looking for. 

Now that summer break is alive for me and I am no longer reading other College level textbooks, I have time to focus on my book choice and I am very excited for it. As I read I will post little notes and such in my Dedicant Journal so that I can reflect on it later when I write my review. 

As of right now, if I am 100% caught up to my grove study group topics I should be on week 18 currently. Clearly I am not in terms of documentation. But there are a lot of High Day explanations and recaps in there and other topics that mentally I have completed even if I have not written them down yet. Over the next couple weeks I plan to be back on track. 

Our first book report/review is "due" on week 25 which is over a month from now. I see no reason why It would take me over a month to read this book so that is my new challenge. Read, learn, grow.