Constructing an Eight-Fold Observance Plan.

Once I had the basic four-fold structure of daily observances relating to the Solstices and Equinoxes in place this then brought up the subject of, what have come to be called, the ‘cross-quarter festivals’; Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, and Samhuinn. Observances corresponding to these festivals could be fitted in between the four main Observances each day. In order to keep things manageable I decided to keep these extra Observances to set times; the Early-Morning Observance I added on to the end of the Midnight Observance, mainly to allow for a sensible amount of sleep; the Late-Morning Observance I set for 9am; the Afternoon Observance at 3pm; and the Late-Evening Observance at 9pm. These would correspond with the cross-quarter festivals Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, and Samhuinn respectively. The extra Observances would perhaps correspond with what Christian monastics may call their ‘little Offices’.

 

I didn’t do the silent meditation period for the extra Observances. Instead I did a meditation/prayer with prayer-beads for the Early-Morning Observance, study periods for the Late-Morning and Afternoon Observances, and the Late-Evening Observance was mainly just an acknowledgement of the stopping of activity and preparation for sleep. As with the four main Observances, I also put together lists of correspondences for the extra Observances. I didn’t have lists from the OBOD Bardic Grade Workbook to work from in these cases but made the lists using the same sorts of themes. For example, the list for the Late-Morning Observance was;

South-East,
Beltane,
Burgeoning growth and greenery,
The Green Man,
The Lovers – Union of Polarities,
Opening to Sensuality,
Vibrant green,
Early youth – 14-21 years,
Sacral/Belly chakra,
the Full Moon,
Fire.

I tried to keep the same sorts of themes of direction, Element, festival, life-stage, chakra, etc. With the extra Observances I also added the relevant Moon phase which was to come in useful later on in my work with the OSN. The themes were taken from the work I had done in the Bardic Grade and also from having worked with the eight seasonal festivals for about four years by that time so my guiding inspiration was still very much from my Druid studies.

I now had an eight-fold daily Observance pattern. At this stage I tended to stick to set times for the Observances; Midnight Observance at Midnight, Early-Morning Observance- straight after the Midnight Observance (1am), Dawn Observance at 6am, Late-Morning Observance at 9am, Midday Observance at Midday, Afternoon Observance at 3pm, Dusk Observance at 6pm and Late-Evening Observance at 9pm.

This worked well for a good number of years, during which I developed the Observances further along with other aspects of my monastic practice.