What is an Ovate?
"To you alone it is given to know the truth about
the gods and deities of the sky...
The innermost groves of far-off forests
are your abodes.
And it is you who say that the shades of the
dead seek not the silent land of Erebus
and the pale halls of Pluto; rather, you tell us that the same
spirit has a body again elsewhere,
and that death, if what you sing is true, is but the
mid-point of long life."
- Lucan Pharsalia c.60 CE
These Druids are the seers in the path. They foretell of things to come. They have great knowledge in reading the future. Community services would be flower readings, rune castings, and advisors in crisis. Ovates would all be trained on how to perform the readings, castings, and would be available for advice based on Druid ways.
It is the Ovates particular connection with the Other World, with death, which makes them officiants in the rite of Samhuinn - the feast for the departed on 31st October. But it is only in the naive imagination that this concern with death is viewed as morbid, for in reality the Ovate is concerned with new life, with regeneration. They know that to be born they have to die - whether that means in the literal sense or in the figurative sense, as a death to one way of being to be reborn to a deeper experience of being alive.
In working with the processes of death and regeneration, the Ovates particular study is - fittingly - tree-lore, herbalism and healing. The plant world is a great teacher of the laws of death and rebirth, of sacrifice and transmutation, and the tree is the supreme teacher of the mysteries of time, with its roots for the most part invisible in the past and the subconscious, and its fruit and leaves likewise mostly hidden from us in the heights of the superconscious - holding the potential of the future in the seeds that will in due time fall.
We learn that prophecy was a function of the Ovate. Here the Ovate needed no outer form to help them find what was hidden. Their years of training, their ability to commune with the spirits, their refinement of their being and their attunement to the world of nature meant that at certain times they could prophesy - predicting the future or warning of possible dangers so that they could be avoided.
The ability to prophesy should be understood in its widest sense within the Ovate work. The Bard learns how to open themselves to transpersonal creative energies to provide inspiration and integration. The Ovate builds on this connection with the inner world and combines it with an ability to negotiate time-tracks, so that they can also channel transpersonal creative energies.
Request a Reading
If you seek guidance from one of these forces, from nature, choose the medium and the Druid Ovates will translate the message, and listen as only they can do. The truth will be spoken, and nothing will be hidden. It is truly, rightfully yours. That is your warning, and your guarantee.
The Druid Path provides this as a service to the community, not as a right. Please be respectful during the reading or you may find yourself denied.
Becoming an Ovate
It is very rare that a community member takes such interest in the ways of the Ovates, and with good reason. It is a long and difficult study, only suited for the most devoted of students. It is extremely rare that we take on a community Ovate student, so be prepared to convince us why we should invest so much time into you. Contact any Mystic if you believe that you are that rare community Ovate student.