skylark913

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Reflections on My Installation as Archdruid

There are rites of passage that happen throughout our lives, and sometimes they pass without much fanfare, but other times they are spiritually significant and marked as such through ritual and community engagement. At Wellspring this year I was installed at the 7th Archdruid of ADF at the main rite.  I planned most of the rite and scripted portions of it, but there was also a very real sense of…

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ADF Elects a New Archdruid: Rev. Jan Avende To Focus On Empowerment and Connection

Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship (ADF), has elected a new Archdruid by popular vote: Rev. Jan Avende (they/them). Also elected to serve on ADF’s governing body, the ADF Mother Grove, are Rovena Windsor (Chief of the Council of Senior Druids), Matthias Dolgner-Trampnau (Non-Officer Director), Tami Olsen (re-elected Non-Officer Director) and Mike Bierschenk (ADF Secretary, elected to a full…

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Annual Clergy Report for 2024

This report is designed to illustrate how each individual priest has chosen to fulfill their oath to love the land, honor the deities, serve the folk, and continue in their studies as best suits their individual vocations.  Time covered: January 1 2024 – December 31, 2024 Continue reading Annual Clergy Report for 2024

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Gender Diversity is Welcomed in ADF

For our US Druids, especially those who are gender diverse, I know the past few days have been a lot.  I want to assure you that ADF is a place where you are explicitly welcome.  You are valid.  You belong here. Your presence brightens our community and adds vibrance to our practice.   Our system of practice and belief is centered around *ghosti.  Hospitality.  Building reciprocal…

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Queer Grief and Ancestor Veneration

Queer Grief and Ancestor Veneration originally published for Oak Leaves Winter 2024 “As our ancestors did before, so we do now, so our descendants may do in the future.” This is what we say in every ritual, in every statement of purpose and precedent.  But how do we live it? [cw: this article will touch on themes of death, grief, transphobia, homophobia, epidemics, and suicide] This summer I…

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New Job, New Work-Life Balance

I’m delighted to announce that I’ve accepted a full-time position as a Resident Chaplain at OhioHealth’s Grant Hospital. I’ll be getting all four units of CPE (clinical pastoral education) as well as working rotations across all areas on a variable shift schedule. (I’m also still continuing my once a week work at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, though that schedule is shifting too) Continue…

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Perseverance is Making Sure You’re a Success Story, Not a Statistic

As I continue working as a prison chaplain, I’ve found not only is it a deeply fulfilling part of my vocation, it is also allowing me to re-examine my own spirituality and add depth and subtlety to my understandings of the cosmos.  I teach weekly using Rev. Dangler’s Dedicant Path Through the Wheel of the Year as a base, and recently we were discussing the virtue of perseverance.  Beyond…

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Beltane Behind Bars

Yesterday was amazing. I had coordinated to bring three of my Grovemates, Joe, Jeff, and Mike to ORW as volunteers for Beltane. I wanted to make it kind of like a mini-festival day for the inmates. So we had a morning of workshops and then an afternoon ritual. Continue reading Beltane Behind Bars

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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…

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Upcoming Workshops (Apr-June '24)

Since partnering more regularly with a local pagan shop, The Magical Druid (Rev. Dangler is one of the co-owners, and you can shop online), I’ve been teaching on the 4th Saturday of the month, and occasionally other one-off classes.  It’s been going great. Here’s my classes for April through June 2024, and I’ll release my notes and such for over on Patreon as I create them.  I’m bringing my…

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The Importance of Team Building

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…

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Annual Clergy Report for 2023

I’ve gotten away from posting these on a monthly basis, but we’re still required by ADF to compile our report for the year, and I shockingly find it fulfilling.   I tend to suffer from imposter syndrome, and one of the best ways I’ve found for me to fight that is to list out all the things I’ve done and reflect on them.  So, this report, in the way that I fill it out, helps me combat the feeling…

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A Winter Solstice Reflection: Passing the Light

I wrote this brief reflection/working for the Winter Solstice Rite I’m running at ORW this year. I really like the imagery of passing the light. It gives us time to honor the holy dark, but also look to finding hope. If you’d like to do this working, you’ll need a candle (or electric candle) for each person present, and the overhead lights turned off.  Continue reading Untitled

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Upcoming Workshops

I've been partnering with The Magical Druid more to teach classes. Here's what's coming up!

I’ve started partnering more regularly with a local pagan shop, The Magical Druid (Rev. Dangleris one of the co-owners, and you can shop online), in order to teach classes.  I teach on the 4th Saturday of the month, and occasionally other one-off classes.  Here’s my schedule for the first quarter, and I’ll release my notes and such for over on Patreon as I create them.  Stuff that goes well I may…

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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…

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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…

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Appalachian Summer Solstice 2023 Festival Review