Magic Spiral so far

"Memorize a ritual for opening and closing magical space, and practice it at least once each week during your Candidate year."

I have created a pantheistic Grove opening and closing ceremony that is the main framework for much of my other work in the grove. I am not sure that this is what I need to meet this requirement, but I plan to ask on the AODA list soon and find out.

"Using any preferred method, learn to summon, direct, and banish the energies of the three Druid elements until you can work with any of them at will."

This is something I need to work on still, although I have been reading up on it.

"Prepare and consecrate a wand, a cauldron, and a crane bag as Druid magical working tools using any preferred method."

This has been completed. I need to take some more pictures of the results today and post them here. My crane bag is still rather plain, but I figure I'll be adding decorations to it for the rest of this year.

"Learn to place magical intentions in stones, as a way of making simple talismans and amulets. Do this at least three times for specific purposes, using any preferred method. Keep notes in your Druid journal on the results."

This is something I have not even started. Well, if selecting the stones I want to use counts, then I guess I have begun, just not progressed any further than that. I have selected from my rather large rock collection a small piece of petrified wood that I found on a hiking trip a few years ago, a lovely small piece of iridescent volcanic cinder from an area not too far from here, and a small chunk of Preseli bluestone, the rock that was used to craft part of the Stonehenge monument.

"Read at least three books on magic during your initiatory year. From this reading, select at least thirty themes for meditation, and use them in your daily meditations."

In this area I have actually over-achieved. I have probably read around 10 books on magic in the past year, mostly while trying to find a type of magical system I can work with. The main issue is I'm an atheist - or more specifically, a scientific pantheist. That means I can't really call on "gods" during my grove or magical work because I don't believe in them. That makes it hard to use most of what has already been written on the subject - or at least to use it "as is." So I am in the process of digesting what I've been reading and trying to come up with a system that works for me. That will also make it to this blog, I suspect, as this part of my studies becomes more clear to me.

"In your Druid journal, write at least three pages on the place of magic in Druidry in general and in your personal Druid path."

I suspect those three pages (and probably quite a lot more!) will become part of this blog. Besides serving as my own record of work, perhaps it may be of use to other scientific pantheists who are looking for a way to combine Druidry with their own atheistic or deistic belief systems.