Druids In Cars, Going To Festivals

Today, on the way out to a Dedicant Oath Rite, Rev. Avende and Rev. Dangler travel with Mike Bierschenk on the way out to State College, and chat on a topic we've been meaning to get to for a while: what does it mean for us when our deities are jerks? Myths and legends are full of some really awful things that the spirits do to each other, to humans, and even to animals and plants. How do we navigate those waters?

Content Note: You...

Happy Samhain, friends!

One of the great traditions we have as a Grove is that we keep an Ancestor Box. This is a simple box that has been with us for 20 years now, receiving new ancestors and bringing them into our shared community of ancestral family, and becoming a part of who we are. Today, because we were driving home from the Cantlos Druid Moon rite where we opened the box, we reflected a bit on how we interact with it, what'...

After Summerland, we're back! Today, we talk about sympathy and contagion in magic: the idea that things that are alike can provide access to each other, either through being alike or containing the essence (Greek: ousia) of a thing. We chat about them as subsets of attraction, referring to the Laws of Magic outlined in Real Magic.

We talk a little bit about joss money (AKA "hell notes" or "hell money") as an example, but the major...

Today, we're off to Summerland, and we hope you will be too! We're looking forward to more new content with new friends there!

Last week, we recorded an episode on the way to the Dublin Irish Festival for our annual Sunday Druid Service, and recorded a bit with Mike Bierschenk afterwards to review the service and our experience. If you want to watch the service, you can do so here: 2023 Druid Sunday Service.

We also talk a bit abou...

The Summerland Festival is next week, August 17-20, 2023, near Yellow Springs, Ohio! As of publication, you can still register!

This week is the final of five episodes we recoded back-to-back about "Managing the Magical," or how we do magical work in certain sections of our rituals. We'll talk about what we consider the "big magical workings" in ADF ritual, the history behind those sections, and how they came to be part of our litu...

Have you registered for the Summerland Festival August 17-20, 2023, near Yellow Springs, Ohio? You should! Come meet us!

This week is the fourth of five episodes we recoded back-to-back about "Managing the Magical," or how we do magical work in certain sections of our rituals. We'll talk about what we consider the "big magical workings" in ADF ritual, the history behind those sections, and how they came to be part of our liturgy, b...

Have you registered for the Summerland Festival August 17-20, 2023, near Yellow Springs, Ohio? You should! Come meet us!

This week is the third of five episodes we recoded back-to-back about "Managing the Magical," or how we do magical work in certain sections of our rituals. We'll talk about what we consider the "big magical workings" in ADF ritual, the history behind those sections, and how they came to be part of our liturgy, be...

We're a month out from Summerland! Consider coming out to the Summerland Festival August 17-20, 2023, in near Yellow Springs, Ohio!

This week is the second of five episodes we recoded back-to-back about "Managing the Magical," or how we do magical work in certain sections of our rituals. We'll talk about what we consider the "big magical workings" in ADF ritual, the history behind those sections, and how they came to be part of our...

Important Announcement! The Trillium Spring Gathering is back in 2024! Some more details in the episode, but check out the website, and join us early next year!

Also, you can check in with us in person sooner at the Summerland Festival in August.

This week is the first of five episodes we recoded back-to-back about "Managing the Magical," or how we do magical work in certain sections of our rituals. We'll talk about what we conside...

Today, Rev. Avende reviews their experience at the Wisteria Appalachian Summer Solstice festival in southeastern Ohio. They discuss their favorite workshops, including one on bone throwing by one of the owners of Moon Bees Apothecary and Spiritual Supply in Wisconsin, and a little about open and closed systems of divination. Then, it's on to ritual work and spaces, people that they met, and experiences with queer safe spaces and th...

A couple of weeks ago, we got to record with friends old and new in the barn at the close of the Wellspring Gathering, 2023. To our great delight, we were able to connect up with Collin from The Crone's Porch, a pagan discussion podcast much like our own, and record a small crossover episode. We also have Jacque (who has been on before) and Stephen with us, providing their perspectives as well.

As always, we have a few linear notes...

A listener question today comes in, asking, "Is there a place for me if I just want to 'show up' to ritual?" And of course, our answer will surprise nobody.

We talk a bit about what it means to "just show up," to be part of ritual without taking a part. What is the expected level of participation, and can we make space for it in our Groves and in our broader work? And, if you want to just go to ritual, what do you need to do to mak...

"Good leaders spread everything, from wealth to work."

Talking about the commitments we make as clergy and leaders in our work, we turned on the recorder so others could sit in. We spoke about how burnout impacts us, and how we avoid it (when we're able to). In particular, a lot of our discussion talks about our responsibility as current leaders to create space for new blood and how to deal with the parts of our work as leaders tha...

We're on our way to the Wellspring Gathering this week and working hard on getting new content, so you get a bonus episode! This week, it's all about roadside divinatory attractions you can find throughout the North American travel landscape, inspired by our visit with a Zoltar machine in a travel plaza in upstate New York.

Of course, there are pictures and videos worth looking at here: from each of us receiving our fortune from Zo...

On our way to the Three Cranes Grove, ADF, annual liturgical planning meeting, Rev. Dangler hit Rev. Avende with a random question when they got in the car: do you set goals for your ritual year? We talk about what we expect on the planning side of things as we get into it, ways we look for balance, and things we want to look back on and consider as we move forward. We might have gotten a little ahead of ourselves since this would ...