Oak Leaves

Reflecting on the ‘Total Eclipse of the Heartland’

This past week I had the privilege to travel to Tredara with my family and many other pagan (and pagan-adjacent) folks to experience the totality of the solar eclipse that stretched across the United States on April 8th.  “Tredara is a 22-acre facility owned and operated by druids of Stone Creed Grove. It features multiple nemetons, an Ancestor Mound, a shrine to the Nature Spirits, and many other sacred spots” (Stone Creed).  Every time I have visited Tredara has been amazing, especially because they always seem to have new shrines each year (this year was a lovely Hekate shrine), but it was especially wonderful this visit because experiencing Totality is absolutely awe-inspiring, and then to see it on sacred ground amongst my spiritual community was ineffable.   

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The Importance of Team Building

8 mother grove members sitting around a table smiling and holding up Totem cards.

At the beginning of December I spent the weekend in Toledo, OH for the Annual Mother Grove Retreat.  Once a year we come together for some intensive work that is better suited to in-person meetings, like vision brainstorming, issues with complex moving pieces, and (perhaps most important) team-building. One of our NODs, Jeffrey Keefer, reminded us that “Team building is so vital an activity that is often overlooked.  Without it, team functioning can be impacted, ultimately leading to missed opportunities.”

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“Reflections on Prison Chaplaincy”

It’s amazing how serendipitous life changes can really affect your spirituality and the ways that you interact with the world.  Since becoming ordained in 2015 I’ve had an interest in pursuing professional chaplaincy, but as a minority religion there are even more barriers in place that there would be otherwise.  Even then, I thought I’d like higher education or hospital chaplaincy, and was pretty sure that prison chaplaincy was not for me.  But then this opportunity to work at the local women’s state prison fell into my lap, and I have found myself spirituality reinvigorated and deeply humbled in this work.  

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Connections Across Traditions

A lot of my time recently has been consumed with thoughts of theology, relationships, and pan-pagan interfaith work.  I’ve been volunteering at a local prison, and attended my first pan-pagan festival in many years recently (Appalachian Summer Solstice at the Wisteria Campground in Ohio).  These experiences can be more complex by virtue of the differing traditions, but also very rewarding. By being exposed to the thoughts and teachings of others, and welcoming those differences, I have been able to better examine my own practices and beliefs.  

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The Value in Recognizing the Work of Others

The beginning of the year is a time in ADF when a lot of the administrative tasks happen.  While we have quarterly reports that are filed on a more frequent basis, by February we’re also ramping up to the compiling of the ADF Annual Report, Priests are filing their annual reports, and organizational elections are in full swing.

One of the really cool things I’ve been able to do this year as Vice Arch Druid is read a whole bunch of the reports that people have sent in. Everything from SIG, Guild, and Kin reports, to Grove and Regional Druid reports, to Priest reports. Now, I know what you might be thinking: “Reading administrative paperwork? Ew!” But honestly it has been really fulfilling and has helped me feel more deeply connected to the membership as a whole, as well as to my peers in leadership.

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Reigniting Your Devotional Practice

For many people, including me, November and December are so busy with family obligations and other social functions thanks to the over-culture, that our own personal devotional practice tends to fall by the wayside for awhile.  Devotional practices, whether they be daily or weekly prayers, meditation, or magical workings, ebb and flow.  They go in cycles like the seasons, and that’s okay.  A dormant season is necessary for a fruitful growing and harvest season.  So, as we’re coming out of the dormant season, it’s okay that our practice may have been dormant for awhile. Now is the time to reignite it.  

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Use the Fancy Art Supplies

I’ve been thinking lately about the Winning of the Waters myth.  In brief, the Winning of the Waters is when one deity hoards all of the blessings and other “good stuff” for themselves.  They are often described with imagery relating to dragons, and the hoarding of wealth.  Then another deity acts as the hero who fights on behalf of mankind to get the Waters (the blessings, good stuff, the hoard) for us.  The hero deity fights the hoarding deity, with the former ultimately winning, and thus allowing the Waters and blessings to flow once more from the realms of the gods to us.  

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