Druids In Cars, Going To Festivals

Episode 139 - Being an Oracle

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 seership for someone who speaks for the folk.

We touch on the ethics of the experience, how we suss out spirits, and how we deal with the skeptic inside to understand how to speak to folks. We also talk a bit about what makes the experience feel "complete" and "real" from the outside.

You can also check out our previous episode about the Oracular Spectacular.

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Episode 138 - 3CG Healing Blanket Traditions

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 designed, and how the quilt(s) were created. We also talk about how the blanket is recharged each year, and mention the video we did of the working in 2018, which you can watch on YouTube.

You can find the Penzeys Hug Blankets Rev. Avende mentions on the Penzeys website.

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Episode 137 - Slavic Storytime with Oleg

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 well, and how that relates to both the mythology, but also to us.

Rev. Wildridge was ordained at last year's Summerland, so they also discuss what sorts of shifts and experiences he's had since becoming a Priest, and what it's been like to enter into that role, which leads to a discussion of how both our hosts interact with the deities they work with, and then back around to a description of the Slavic godden.

The book mentioned at the end, Sources of Slavic Pre-Christian Religion by Juan Antonio Álvarez-Pedrosa is available on Amazon (though it's a bit pricy; check your local library, too).

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Episode 136 - Finding a Place in Chaplaincy for Pagans

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 have in the process of building this path for others.

Rev. Avende dives into the process it was to turn ADF into the first Druidic endorsing tradition for the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC). Until now, there has never been a path built for Druids who wanted to enter professional chaplaincy; those working Druid chaplains out there have always had to use an endorsing organization that either served many spiritual paths, or even involved another religion, in order to obtain their credentials and endorsements.

In addition, Rev. Avende has also submitted the equivalencies for the Masters of Divinity requirements, which brings us much closer to creating transferrable credits for an MDiv program.

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Episode 135 - A Druid's Perspective on Protection Magic

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 Ada Spirits at The Magical Druid). We also discuss sigilization, and recommend Laura Tempest Zakroff's Sigil Witchery book. Witch bottles come up, as do our various Druid Moon rites and the protection work that we do at them.

This is the second of three episodes Revs. Avende and Dangler recorded via Zoom in separate cars, and while the quality is a little bit better than the first attempt, it's still a bit robotic. But, we had a good conversation and we're pleased to share it with you.

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Episode 134 - What Defines Religion?

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 changes the way we sound on the podcast... so we'll probably have more experiments to do to decide whether we like this as a solution or not. You'll also hear a couple of dropped and failed connections on this episode, which is the worst-sounding of these three episodes.

We discuss the following theorists / sources in this episode:

• Thomas A. Tweed's first chapter of Religion: A Very Short Introduction
• Niniann Smart (find an overview of his Seven Dimensions of Religion on this page: Definitions of Religion) (we learned in doing background research for this episode that Smart used he/him pronouns after the episode was recorded; our apologies for the accidental misgendering of this late scholar).
• Fenggang Yang's second chapter of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Title VII, Section 12 regarding Religious Discrimination
• Isaac Bonewits' Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame (ABCDEF) can be found on Neopagan.Net.

We also discuss the oddities of colonialism and state definitions of religion, and some of the conversations that go on in academia around those topics.

Rev. Dangler's vaccine article can be read on his Patreon. 

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Episode 133 - Spirit Ally Relationships, Anxiety, and Boundaries

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 joined, particularly focusing on the patronage requirement in the old work that we no longer do.

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Episode 132 - Jan's Rainbow Stole

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 description).

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Episode 131 - Uncle Mike's Rant: Unverified Personal Gnosis (UPG)

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 deal with the information we receive when it comes to us? We talk about the pitfalls associated with those experiences, and how we manage to work through that in our communities.

This is the last episode from our previous hiatus (we think), so going forward, we're hoping to have some slightly more timely content to share :)

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Episode 130 - Dead People Don't Get To Tell You What To Do

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, tempered by considerations of how we may be useful to our descendants?

About halfway through, the discussion turns to a meditation on places where ancestral knowledge is missing, and what we can do in our experience to honor that tradition, and make it our own.

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