The Bright-Eyed Sinner's Sanctum

Recently I, a newly inducted resident of Tumblr in the year 2025 (you may laugh), ran across something that seemed fated for me. It had been a wild, rotten year, full of fumbled opportunities and self-destructive behaviors. I lacked structure, and wherever I looked for it, I found myself reinventing the wheel. But out of nowhere came a document that set all of that straight for me- The O.A.K. Path, by Wolfie Rivers.

This free book is a handbook for the aspiring druid; O.A.K. stands for the Order of the Antlered Kind, a non-dogmatic group dedicated to magical self-exploration. The curriculum it provides allows initiates to pursue three paths of wizardly skill- the artistic prowess of the Bard, the magical attunement of the Ovate, and the natural knowledge of the Druid. It’s easy to be skeptical at first, assuming that this is more of the mass-market crystals, candle, and cauldron con artistry of today. But that’s simply not the case. The Bard is encouraged to pursue amelioration in a variety of arts- from weaving, carving and pencil sketches all the way to photography and cinematography. The Ovate must learn to oversee the structure of a garden or a kitchen, create a personal definition of Divinity, and achieve quantifiable results from their rituals. The Druid becomes a student of geology, ecology, botany and biology in both a literary and experiential sense.

Each student of the OAK must complete all three paths to move onward through the curriculum, but all five levels are available in the book. The first two are the Seedling and Root Paths– and here is where my journey has begun. Much of the Bright-Eyed Sinner’s Haven will be full of the records of my path. As a seedling I was tasked with finding a single word of focus to bind my studies to, something that will eventually become my specialty. I have chosen Between as my focus, a word that evokes liminal space. My work will be completed in twilight between night and day, on storybook-pages between fact and fiction, at crossroads between magic and mundania, upon the soil between life and death– and so on. I look forward to sharing my discoveries with readers like you!

As a Bard, I will be making knitted and crocheted garments, learning to play guitar, creating poems, speeches and short stories, and sketching in all sorts of media. As an Ovate, I will use the spiritual mirror of Tarot, tasseography, and scrying alongside herbalism and ritual incantation to improve my relationship with the world around me. As a Druid, I will work to preserve my friends, the plants and animals of the Pacific Northwest, and discover their gifts through volunteer work and field research.

The OAK has provided me a way to establish roots in skills that would otherwise have been too daunting to begin; and the curriculum is wholly customizable to the needs of the individual initiate. (Better still, no artificial intelligence was used in the production of the path). I encourage you to join me! Find more information here:

@theoakpath on Tumblr

Updates on my first project soon! Soon I will earn the title of Druid in Mundania, as I have at the dream-towers of Iv! See you, sinners!