Druids In Cars, Going To Festivals

Episode 123 - Moving On, Retirement, and Other Life Changes in Paganism

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 chat.

Find us on Facebook, connect with us at Threecranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

Episode 122 - When Deities are Jerks

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've read the stories about deities and how they interact with others. This episode doesn't stray too deeply into specifics, so we aren't sure a trigger warning is necessary, but we are talking about deities behaving poorly, so be aware.

Our audio is a little odd on this episode as we figure out how to mic up three different people in the car, but we're hopeful it comes through well. Sorry if it's a little unbalanced or quiet, but we should have that fixed next episode; it was a good conversation, but we only have one source, unfortunately.

Find us on Facebook, check us out at Threecranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

Episode 121 - 3CG Ancestor Box Traditions

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's changed in two decades, and the ways we've found to keep the "stuff" in the box connected to their stories.

Check us out on Facebook, read more about us at threecranes.org, and find out more about Druidry at ADF.org.

Episode 120 - Harvest Nights 2023 Festival Review

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.

Episode 119 - The Role of the Bard

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 Druidry at adf.org.

Episode 118 - How We Do Magic For Others

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 adf.org.

Episode 117- Sympathy and Contagion; Magic as Access

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 majority of this discussion grows out of the need for Rev. Avende to provide access to religious and magical support in their new role as a prison chaplain: how can we provide services to incarcerated individuals, particularly in light of the restrictions that are imposed on them.

Rev. Dangler floats his notion of "magic as access" here, probably for the first time publicly, so what you're hearing in the last half of this episode is really an initial oral argument for that definition, and we expect there's more to come on that as it develops.

A couple of things get mentioned in this episode, including a collaborative whiteboard image of Epona that we painted in the pandemic, and the Flame of Hope experience in an airport, which we've previously mentioned.

Find us on Facebook, check us out at threecranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

Episode 116 - Dublin Irish Festival Druid Sunday Service Prep and Recap

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 about things new and old in the ritual, as well as unexpected last minute changes. Mike used a new cosmos creation script as well, which you can find on his blog.

We're also making a switch for better accessibility on this episode: we're moving to mono instead of stereo sound, which should aid both people with hearing differences between their ears, and people who just like to listen to a podcast with one earpod in. Either way, we hope this is helpful to a lot of folks, and it'll be our standard going forward. Do let us know if anything weird happens on your end!

As always, find us on Facebook, check us out at threecranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at ADF.org!

Episode 115 - Managing the Magical: The Working

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 liturgy, before diving deeply into how we actually do these ritual parts.

This week is all about "The Working," which sounds ominous and important: how we do it functionally, and why we do it in ritual.

The five episodes are:

• (Re)Creating the Cosmos (July 13)
• Opening the Gates (July 20)
• Taking the Omen (July 27)
• The Return Flow (August 2)
• The Workings (today)

Find us on Facebook, check us out at ThreeCranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at ADF.org.

Episode 114 - Managing the Magical: The Return Flow

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, before diving deeply into how we actually do these ritual parts.

This week is all about the Return Flow (in all its parts), how we do it functionally, and why we do it in ritual.

The five episodes will be:

• (Re)Creating the Cosmos (July 13)
• Opening the Gates (July 20)
• Taking the Omen (July 27)
• The Return Flow (today)
• The Workings (August 10)

Find us on Facebook, check us out at ThreeCranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at ADF.org.