Druids In Cars, Going To Festivals

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 the...

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...

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,...

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 ritual...

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 experi...

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....

We set a record for how fast Rev. Dangler can break Rev. Avende's composure on this episode! But the topic was a great one, where we got to speak about unconventional tools and challenge how we thought about the physical things that aid us in the work that we do for the folk. Find us on Facebook , check us out at threecranes.org , and learn more about Druidry at adf.org .

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 ri...

"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 t...

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...

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...

Last week we talked about how Rev. Avende and Rev. Dangler were trying to plan out a trip to Greece; this week, we circle back to the trip that Rev. Dangler and his wife took, and how they managed the space between good planning and good luck to find ways to encounter the things they wanted to do on that trip. Rev. Dangler's wife joins in as a special guest to detail her perspectives on the trip a...

Early last year, Rev. Avende and Rev. Dangler discussed the process of planning a trip in the not-too-distant future to Greece to tour some sacred sites. During the chat, they also talked about other trips they've taken, and upcoming trips that are on the horizon. Some items that come up during the discussion that are worth linking include: The Nautes Pillar MJD saw in Paris' Musée de Cluny [video...

When we think about rites of passage, we usually think about how they impact the person who experiences the passage directly, rather than the community around them. In this episode, we talk a bit about what it's like to be a part of that community, and explore a bit about how we've experienced rites of passage, and the observations we have about how they've influenced others... as well as ourselve...

We're back for Season 6! At our Anagantios Druid Moon in 2022, we recorded this episode about the advice we would give to ourselves when we were our younger Pagan selves. It turns out our advice is actually still pretty relevant to us these days. We also brought advice from a special guest not in the car, which we gathered at Harvest Nights 2021. If you have advice for your younger Pagan self, we'...

One of the things about recording a podcast is that you find yourself passing milestones on the journey, and today, we managed to get in our 100th episode! We talk a bit about how rites of passage have figured into our working life as podcasters, as members of a local Grove, and as individuals, and what it feels like to move through them. Most importantly, we look forward, because what comes on th...

Druidry is not drudgery, and there is an element of joy to all of the work that we do with and for others. We speak of Rev. Dangler's initiatory experience, where joy was gifted to him as a tool of his work. Rev. Avende speaks of joy in their flow experience of ritual. We speak of the difference between joyfulness and happiness, and our aim to use the flow and the joy to bring connectivity to the...

Today we're talking about what Druidry is, and discuss the impacts of using the word "Druid" as ADF members. Spoiler alert: Rev. Avende hates it. We talk about the terms we could use instead, working both forward from our base practice, and backwards from the terms we have available. If you've ever been annoyed by the way ADF Druids use the word "Druid," this episode is for you. You may also want...

How do you find nature to put in your nature religion? We look at both the mundane and the spiritual aspects everyone has access to, consider that ancient Pagans didn't find a deep issue with lack of access to the "natural world," and talk about how we bring a bit of nature into our practice in visible and useful ways. The Vegetarian Epicure [ Amazon link ] Rev. Dangler's office "passage tomb" [ F...

Because of the way that ADF is structured as a pan-Indo-European organization, it's entirely possible to come to ritual at your local Grove and experience ritual in a culture you're unfamiliar with, or (if you're clergy or an initiate) be asked even to write a ritual for others. We'll talk a bit about how we research and write the rituals as ADF Priests first, and then talk a bit about how we, as...

Have you ever felt that you were in over your head with this whole ritual-and-magic thing? Do you feel like an "imposter" about to be found out? We all have, but it can seem like it's a lonely place to be. You might be surprised that, even with all the experience and work under their belts, Revs. Avende and Dangler both deal with it on the regular, too. We talk a little bit about what our own noti...

On the way home from Wellspring, though they were not driving together, Rev. Avende and Rev. Dangler stopped at a rest stop and caught up to remember the event. Held each Memorial Day weekend in northeast Ohio, The Wellspring Gathering is also the ADF annual meeting and this year, site of our Archdruid reinstallation and an ADF Initiation. We got to meet new people and visit with old friends, and...

Today we're chatting about the things we do with our hands and bodies during ritual, focusing on gesture and posture in particular, and how we've developed them for use in our personal and Grove-centered work. We'll also talk about how they connect with trance and prayer a bit. We're definitely back on the road (in fact, you are listening to this as you drive out to Wellspring with us, right? beca...

Today, we talk about how we've made group ritual work, including some tips about both online rituals and in-person rituals. We've had a lot of different strategies over the past 20 years here in Three Cranes Grove, ADF , and exploring what worked and what didn't as we've been planning, and what to do when things go wrong (on either a large scale, or a small one). We also talk about how to follow a...

CW: This episode discusses pet loss and grief surrounding it. One of the strange things about owning pets is that they become an integral part of our lives, our practice, and the spaces we inhabit. And, with limited exceptions, we may be with them for their entire lives, but they are only with us for a part of ours. Both Rev. Avende and Rev. Dangler have lost pets, and both have had to find ways t...