Druids In Cars, Going To Festivals

You may have heard by now that most of the early season festivals have been cancelled, including the Trillium Gathering , where we usually start our season. Well, it turns out that even though we can't actually go to festivals, we recorded a large number of episodes on the way to Harvest Nights Gathering late last year. So, we have a back catalog from a simpler time that we can all enjoy listening...

If you've never been to a festival, it's the time of year to start planning your season out. Whether you make it to just one festival, or you make it to a bunch like we do, it's good to know what you're getting into. This year, Three Cranes Grove, ADF , is picking up the mantle and hosting the Summerland Gathering near Yellow Springs, Ohio, on August 13-16, 2020. If you've been riding along with u...

What is it about talking about technology in ritual that makes us do weird things? I dunno, but come and (literally) ride along with us this time! While we're usually audio-only, on our way to Harvest Nights Gathering in Connecticut, we decided to try something new. With a 360 camera in our back seat, we experimented to see what it might be like to sit and listen in. With the topic of tech in ritu...

Here's a slightly special bonus feature: you can watch the conversation from a camera on our dash as we drive out to the Harvest Nights Gathering in Connecticut in October 2019. Check out the video on the 3CG YouTube page ... and maybe consider subscribing, because there's another video we're also working on to release shortly! In this episode we talk about the similarities and the differences of...

We're at the end of Season 2, but we have plans for hiatus and Season 3! We'll tell you all about them, and give you an idea of what it's been like for us to do this podcast for the past two seasons. If you have ideas for future episodes, please send them to us, either via our Facebook page or via email . We really want to hear about what you're interested in, and we'll try and hit as many as we c...

One of our big things in Three Cranes Grove, ADF , is that we love to create. After Rev. Crystal Groves ' discussion of marketing and social media strategies at Trillium 2019 , we had a discussion about the creative process, what it means to connect people to others, and what it's like to produce the words for the really hard things that happen in our lives. We also talk about ensuring that people...

What is toning? How do you do it? What's it good for? What's the lamest joke you've heard all day? We have the answers to all these questions and more in this episode! This episode was recorded at Trillium 2019, on the way home (we very much recommend Trillium if you're looking for a festival early next year). We're closing in on the end of our season, and running out of recorded material. But tha...

Sometimes, Druids flying to festivals get picked up by Druids in cars, and that's where this conversation comes from: Rev. Avende was picking up people on their way to Summerland 2019, and took  Melitta Stafford with her, which led to this conversation about creating family traditions in a multifaith household. There's a wide-ranging conversation covering different ways we come to Paganism, how ou...

We had the pleasure of interviewing Arthur at Trillium 2019 about his experiences with starting, and then disbanding, a Grove that never took firm root. Hemlock Vales Protogrove, ADF, lasted for about three years in State College, PA, before it was disbanded. This interview is a sort of post-mortem on what happened several years ago. Too often, we talk about what works for getting a group off the...

On the way home from the 2019 Summerland Festival, Rev. Dangler spoke with Jacque of The Pagan Peddler about the weekend and what went well, ranging from ritual to the setting of god post in the nearby woods. The festival was great, and we really enjoyed ourselves. You might remember Jacque from our interview after Wellspring 2019 ( Episode 26 ). We're happy to have her back! We're starting to wra...

Our Grove is known for our video work and presenting Pagan ritual, and Rev. Avende and Rev. Dangler talk about what it's like to pull all these videos together. What's it like to take an omen for a recorded ritual that will later be edited? What's it like to record rituals in disparate parts while geographically dispersed? What's it like to livestream a rite? We talk about Rev. Davin's solitary ri...

What does the journey to Paganism look like? It's different for us all, and Rev. Avende and Rev. Dangler compare their journeys, talking about their experiences with religion, the things that led them to this path, and how it affected (and eventually entwined) their lives in unexpected ways. Everyone comes to their spirituality in a different way, walking their own path. Know that it's valid, howe...

Each year, Three Cranes Grove, ADF , does a Sunday Morning Druid Service for the Dublin Irish Festival . The attendance ranges from about 200 to 350 people each year, depending on weather and a few other factors. This year, we drew 248 to the service, and the attendees come from all walks of life: this is a truly mainstream event and a diverse crowd of folks. We decided to record our experience in...

Today, Rev. Jan Avende and Mike Bierschenk come together to discuss the idea of being left alone and adrift in the spiritual world. They talk about what it's like to experience doubt in their spiritual lives, what it's like to work through the cycle, and how they pull themselves out. As an incidental bonus, there's some interesting discussion about the nuances between sea deities in different cult...

This week we talk a little bit about what it's like to do divination for a person, and for a group. We start with a bit of information about our general notions of how divination works, including some influential ideas on our practice, and then we move into how we use divination in our own work. We even discuss what we do when someone reads the wrong symbol in a public rite. So, ride along with us...

How do we talk about our religion with our kids? What happens when you tell your children stories about faeries and the wider, magical world? It turns out that you get kids who ask great questions and come up with great ideas about how to apply the lore to their lives. We cover everything from fairy traps, to the popular notion of the "tooth fairy", to how to keep your child from being swapped out...

ComFest is one of the largest events Three Cranes Grove, ADF , does all year. It's a local music/beer/arts/hippie festival here in Columbus, Ohio, and our Grove hangs out to meet people and enjoy the summer (or roast in its heat, depending on who you talk to). There's not another generally public event where we see quite so many people who fit squarely into the "target audience" of modern Druidry....

As we took our camps down at Wellspring 2019, Rev. Avende took a moment to interview Sara Mastros , who has an upcoming book, "The Orphic Hymns Grimoire." The interview is fabulous and well worth listening to: we learned a lot just from asking the questions! Check out her site and (pre)order her book ! You can also follow the project on Facebook . You can catch up with Sara: July 27 - Hills & Rive...

Sometimes, Druidry is full of weird experiences, and we're no exception. In this episode, we talk about weird things we've seen, odd experiences, and even the occasional cryptid  story we've encountered in our lives. The natural world holds a lot of wonder for us, and things at the edge of our understanding, including the border of the supernatural are fun to talk about and discuss, especially whe...

Obstacles on the Dedicant Path The Dedicant Path (DP) is the basic study program offered by Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship (ADF), and while it's a fairly basic introduction to Druidry, it's not necessarily easy. We talk about our own experiences with the program, how the program has changed and improved, what the common stumbling blocks are, and strategies to get around them. We also talk a...

Today, we're not in a car, but we are at a festival! Rev. Dangler sat down at the 2019 Wellspring Gathering to interview The Pagan Peddler about her experiences vending at festivals, and describes some of his own in the process. At the same time, Rev. Avende sat down to do another interview, which you'll hear in early July. One of the really nice things about this episode is you can hear some of t...

Do you wonder how an ADF Priest prepares for and creates ritual prayers in a seemingly "off the cuff" sort of way? Rev. Avende and Rev. Dangler talk a bit about their process, and each also creates three extemporaneous prayers to different deities. We agreed in advance: no preparation or editing in post allowed! You get the full extent of our inspiration during the prayers. The godden we pray to a...

On the way home from Wellspring 2019 , Rev. Dangler gave a solo review of the event, providing a quick recap of the weekend along with a short preview of things to come. This is a short episode, but we wanted to get one out in a timely manner. In the early part of the review, Rev. Dangler offers his prayer to the Shining Ones from the reinstallation of Rev. Jean "Drum" Pagano as ADF Archrdruid. He...

Magical healing, magic to improve a mother's milk, cheese-magic for conception, magic for a toddler's tooth-tiger teething troubles: we've got practical experiences with magic that has worked in our lives, and we love to share those experiences! Dig through a few ancient texts for solutions to modern problems with us. You never know what you'll find! We're at Wellspring this weekend (Memorial Day...

We all sometimes have questions about our worth, whether we are new to Paganism or old hands. It doesn't really matter how long you've practiced or what you've accomplished, sometimes, you second-guess yourself. Today, we talk a bit about our experiences with not feeling like we're good enough to do the work, popularly called "imposter syndrome," and how we meet it, manage it, and experience it. S...