Druids In Cars, Going To Festivals

Jan's an external processor, and Michael had a question come up in his brain while listening to an episode of Enchanted: The History of Magic and Witchcraft , specifically the episode on the Oracle of Delphi, " The Opulent Shrine ." Springing the question of, "What is it like to speak for a spirit?" on Jan, we launch into a discussion of the process, the feelings, and the general experience of see...

Back in Season 6, in Episode 121 , we talked about one of Three Cranes Grove, ADF 's, main traditions, the Ancestor Box. Today, we're talking about another 3CG tradition, the Grove Healing Blanket. We start off by discussing how we view ritual traditions, and a bit about how we build them... intentionally and not, and then talk a bit about the general characteristics of our quilt, how it was desig...

Rev. Avende had a chance to discuss with Rev. C. Oleg Wildridge in the car when he came into town to visit Columbus back in late February. We start out with a discussion of Svetovit and Perun and Veles; we move into a discussion of Svarog and the (potentially) non-binary or genderfluid nature of Łado or Łada; this gives us a chance to look to other notions of genderfluidity in other pantheons as w...

Rev. Avende has finished their chaplain training, and has been working as a chaplain professionally recently. As we work as a community toward creating paths that allow us to live our faith experiences, Rev. Avende is forging a new path for all of us. We talk a bit about the place a Pagan might find in the work of chaplaincy, our unique gifts as polytheists, and the challenges and experiences we h...

Suggested by David from Brooklyn at ConVocation 2026, we talk a bit about what protection magic looks like for us as modern Druids. Jan discusses the creation of a Kathiskos (you can see Rev. Avende's slideshow from their workshop on how to make a Kathiskos ). Rev. Dangler talks a bit about his Ada Spirit drawing to Cloacina, the Roman goddess of the sewers, which you can see below (and see more A...

We're trying something new this time (and the following two episodes), to get us into the car at the same time, though we were in different cars for this drive; while Rev. Dangler was returning to Columbus from ConVocation 2026, and Rev. Avende was returning from blessing houses during the Anagantios rite our Grove does. Zoom cuts out a lot of the background noise, which is mostly fine, but also c...

Taking off of our last episode, Rev. Avende dives into the last statement and we discuss the anxieties around our spirit relationships, setting boundaries, and how our biases around people and spirits impact our relationships on each plane of experience. One of the things that comes out of this discussion is the change in ADF 's Dedicant Path work between when Rev. Dangler joined and Rev. Avende j...

Rev. Avende has a new stole (well, new since our last season, so like, two years old). Jan explains the process of making it, where the idea came from, and discusses with Rev. Dangler the process of what that means in relationship to our spirit allies. You can see what the various stoles we mention look like below (or on the episode page , if your podcast app doesn't support photos in the descript...

Rev. Avende and Mike Bierschenk were traveling home from Trillium 2024, and started discussing that tried-and-true experiential lore: Unverified Personal Gnosis, or "UPG" for short.  Mike's general point is that we should re-evaluate how we think about religious knowledge that individuals discover on their own. If we are going to suggest that talking to deities and spirits is normal, how do we dea...

How do we take the ancient lore in context of our modern lives? This week again, Rev. Avende and Mike Bierschenk travel home from Trillium 2024 (after a mid-drive coffee pick-me-up), and they talk about squaring their practice with the lore that's out there, leaving things behind, and moving forward from those experiences. Where else will you find a consideration of questionable necromancy, temper...

Traveling home from Trillium 2024, Rev. Avende and Mike Bierschenk discuss how the omen reading went at the main rite. Inspired by the Spirits, they tried a new omen process, which has since become a new casting cloth in the two years since (you can see a picture of it, as well as the original omen inscribed in the sand, in the linear notes on our Podbean page, if you are reading this description...

Today, we talk about one of the administrative tasks required of us as priest: the reporting aspect of maintaining our credentials is a time-intensive process that brings up a lot of feelings for us, yet it reveals a lot about our work. It rolls back around to the idea of journaling as a practice, which is a different way of looking at these reports than we often experience. We talk a bit about un...

Today, Jacque and Rev. Dangler discuss their relationships with Nehalennia , a Belgic goddess who is known from a series of votive altars, and a modern working temple at Colijnsplaat , which you can visit! The other one mentioned is in Archaeon , an archaeological park in The Netherlands. You can also see a picture of the elephant on the ceiling of the church at Lucerne . We mention the Crane Brev...

Recorded in May 2025, right after Wellspring , we have a returning guest, Jacque, who is along for the ride to talk about "Druidry at a Distance." Jacque introduces us to the Virtual Fire Protogrove , which meets virtually via Zoom a couple of times a month to be social and do ritual. This Grove is a way to find conneciton and work together even though they may not be physically close to each othe...

This is the episode that would have kicked off Season 7 if we'd released it in 2024. We recorded this one in February of 2024, when we were blessing houses at our annual Anagantios rite. We discuss what we love about Trillium as a festival as we prep for the festival season. If we sound excited, it's because we definitely were, and that excitement was well-founded! We talk a lot about what it's li...

Are we back? We're definitely back. After a couple of years of changing experiences, Rev. Avende and Rev. Dangler are making a run at a new season. This episode, recorded in January 2026, was recorded after a few of the ones you'll hear after this one, because this is our real "Back in the Saddle" episode. Rev. Dangler has been writing, and dealing with health stuff over the last year, and has pic...

While headed home from a Dedicant Oath rite, we started talking about what it was like to move on from our current roles in modern Paganism, whether those moves were due to life changes, vocational changes, or just coming to a place where it was time to move on. Mike Bierschenk joins Revs. Avende and Dangler on this discussion again, and we our conversation goes a bit everywhere, but it was a good...

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 navig...

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 bi...

On our way out to a Druid Moon rite, we took a moment to chat about a festival Rev. Avende had been to recently: Harvest Nights ! Long one of our favorite festivals, Rev. Avende had made the trip without Rev. Dangler this year, and so you can listen along as he hears all about what he missed. Find us on Facebook , check us out at Threecranes.org , and learn more about Druidry at ADF.org .

Today, Rev. Avende and our Grove Bard, Mike Bierschenk, travel out to Harvest Nights and bring you along in the car with them, as they discuss the role of the Bard in Three Cranes Grove, ADF, and in ritual in general. Both have served in the role for our Grove, and both have brought their own magical touch to the work. Find us on Facebook , check us out at threecranes.org , and learn more about Dr...

We continue our conversation from our previous episode with how we do magic for others: how we decide what sort of magical work to do, who to do it for or with, and how we divide out our magic by audience and type of work. We also talk about magical work for hire, and the boundaries we set around that. Find us on Facebook , check out our Grove at ThreeCranes. Org , and learn more about Druidry at...

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 m...

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 Sun...

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 h...