Druids In Cars, Going To Festivals

Episode 40 - (In)toning For Ritual

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 that's okay! We're developing an off-season plan so that you get more episodes and different content, plus new guests. And, we're headed to Harvest Nights in a few weeks, which is about 12 hours up and 12 hours back, so we'll have a lot of time to record and get new topics in.

If you have topic suggestions, we'd love to hear them. Send us email or shoot us a message on our Facebook page. As always, find us at threecranes.org/podcast and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

Episode 39 - Multifaith Household Religion

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 our virtues interact with householding, different family structures, and the ways that polytheism and Paganism lend themselves to creating structures that aren't traditional but are still amazing.

Find more of Melitta's work at Druid in the Grove.

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

Episode 38 - Founding and Disbanding a Druid Grove

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 ground, but we don't always remember to talk about when it's time to close that group down and move on.

This conversation is about reflecting on what went right, what didn't go right, and what lessons we can take from those experiences, years on. The creation, maintenance, and disbanding of Hemlock Vales can help us all as we look at where our own Groves and groups are going... and help us decide if they are thriving or if we're just being overly hopeful.

If you want to dive deeper into the discussion, we recommend his blog: One Pagan Group - Some Assembly Required.

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

Episode 37 - Summerland 2019 Review

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 wrap up this season, but we hope that you're enjoying these episodes. If you do, consider rating our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or whatever service you listen on.

Learn more about Druidry at adf.org, check us out on Facebook, and learn more about our podcast at threecranes.org/podcast. Thanks for riding with us!

Episode 36 - Recording Ritual

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 ritual work (example video linked), the work of Rev. Amber Doty with the ADF Clergy Council videos (example video linked), and of course, a lot of the fun things that we create.

If you're interested in our Grove's video work, check out our YouTube page, 3CGVideos. You can find the Woodland Blessing video from the ADFDruidry channel, too. If you're interested in videos that show a really wide variety of ADF-style Druidry, check out the 3CG Favorites playlist on YouTube, which gathers many videos from Grove, personal, and group accounts across YouTube; you'll find some really neat stuff there.

We of course encourage you to subscribe to the ADF Druidry YouTube channels like ours.

Headed to Beyond the Gates festival today? Travel safely!

Episode 35 - Becoming Pagan

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, however you came to your place in the cosmos.

Find us on Facebook, check us out at threecranes.org/podcast, and consider supporting us at threecranes.org/donate.

Episode 34 - Dublin Irish Festival 2019 (In Three Parts)

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 three parts for you to get an idea of what it's like to put on a ritual of this sort. We recorded after our dress rehearsal on Thursday, then in the car on the way to the rite (twice, thanks to a forgetful bard who forgot her coffee... among other important things), and finally on the way home from the rite.

You can watch our archived livecast from this year on the Three Cranes Facebook page (Like & Subscribe while there, if you'd like).

You can watch past DIF rites on our YouTube page, 3CGVideos (and an edited 2019 will eventually appear there, too, or you can watch a playlist of pre-DIF music). You can, of course, subscribe to our YouTube channel to get updates when we post new content there, too!

If you want to join us for one of these, consider attending the Dublin Irish Festival next year. It was certainly a joyful time for us!

Episode 33 - The Dark Night Of the Soul In Polytheism

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 cultures (Poseidon and Manannan) and how they impact those experiences.

This episode is recorded outside at Wellspring 2019, so there's no road noise, but please excuse the airplane that flies by: the background birdsongs will return once it goes by.

Episode 32 - Divination Practice: Private and Public

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 as we drive home from Trillium 2019, chatting about our symbol sets and how we work with them.

Find us at threecranes.org/podcast, like us on Facebook, and find out more about Druidry at adf.org.

Episode 31 - Raising Pagan Kids On Faerie Stories

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 for a changeling.

Check out the video, "Kids & Fairies" on YouTube, and read a bit more about the "Changeling Banes" that we mention.

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