Druids In Cars, Going To Festivals

Revs. Avende and Dangler talk about their experiences of being priests in a variety of ways, focusing in on why they are priests, what it is that fulfills their vocation, and what it's like to have resonance between calls. It's a very late-night episode, full of weird metaphors and attempts at description, but also strangely coherent for the time it was recorded. We're approaching the end of the Festival Season That Wasn't, and are remarkably still running off of last year's recorded sessions. We want to thank you for riding along with us, and listening throughout this time. There's more to come yet this season, and we have plans to record even more episodes, but do consider sending us topics at druidsincars@threecranes.org. We've still got a long list, but we can always add to it. Find us on Facebook, donate at threecranes.org/donate, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

Continuing on from last week's discussion, we talk about what it's like to end a relationship with a spirit that has meant a great deal to you. Not every being who walks with us for a time is there for all our time, and that is okay. Hear our personal experiences with ending our patronage relationships, and what sorts of things we did to ensure that the relationships were ended in ways that allowed us to continue moving on. Find us on Facebook, learn more about us at ThreeCranes.Org, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

Summerland 2020 is here! We're still in a socially distant world that doesn't let us come together in person for festivals, but you should know that Summerland is THIS WEEKEND, August 14-15, 2020, and we're hosting it virtually. You can still register, and some of it is FREE. Check out threecranes.org/summerland and catch us for a good ritual and some workshops! As we got to the end of our long drive home from Harvest Nights, we worked through one of our most often requested topics: the patronage of deities and spirits. We spoke about our personal experiences with finding deities who became patrons, how those relationships grew and changed over time, and what it was like setting boundaries in these relationships. We also talk somewhat extensively about the process of being "claimed" by a deity, seeking one out, and even weird relationships we can't describe except to call it a "courtship." Part Two will come next week, with a tease about the topic at the end of the episode. Find us on Facebook, check out

"You cannot serve from an empty cup," and "A buried wick gives no light." Today we talk about how we manage burnout, and how we learn to recharge. It's a short conversation, but an important one about self care that we all need to have, no matter our role in the work. Find us on Facebook, visit us at threecranes.org/podcast, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

Updated Episode! There was some sort of error with the original upload: we've replaced the file and the file works now!   How do you honor ancestors you never met, and never heard stories about? How do you connect to ancestor work if you're adopted? What are some strategies for managing our connections to family we might find problematic in our history? We talk about how we build connections through story and tradition, and what has created a depth of memory and family for us.   Find us on Facebook, check us out at Threecranes.org/Podcast, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org

Last year, ADF introduced a new program for learning and building a Druidic practice at your hearth, called The Hearth Keeper's Way. Rev. Avende is one of the authors of that program, and we wanted to share some basics with you.   The best part: the program is public and you don't have to be an ADF member to access it and see if it's a good fit for you.   We talk about what the program is, who wrote it, and how it was tested during creation. You can find the Hearth Keeper's Way on the ADF website.   Find us on Facebook, check our our Grove at Threecranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org

There's a lot of difference in how different priests experience priesting. We talk about what we've learned from each other, how we interact as co-priests in a Grove, and how we build our work both together and as individuals. We also talk a lot about how we've intentionally built the culture of trust in our Grove as well. Find us on Facebook, check us out at threecranes.org/podcast, or learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

We all fall off the horse from time to time, especially when it comes to study and the "homework" portion of our "religion with homework." Today, we talk about how we get back onto the path of study when we've had issues doing the work we wanted to finish. Strategies for organization, accountability, and mutual checkins are covered, and we talk a bit about the tools we've created to help others get through. We mostly talk about ADF study programs, but you can apply a lot of this to any sort of independent study. You can email us at druidsincars@threecranes.org if you want to get ahold of that syllabus Rev. Avende mentions. Find us on Facebook, check us out at threecranes.org/podcast, or learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

Priesting has a lot of strange things, and today we're going to talk about how we slide into your DMs ("direct messages") as Priests. Weird as that may sound, a large part of our work is built around personal connections, and those connections require extra steps and deeper work than the superficial feelings of connection we obtain from social media. In our modern world of social interaction, there are a lot of ways to think we are connecting with others, but often those processes do not actually build connection with another person; they sometimes just make us feel better, instead of helping. A useful mantra for this work is, "A like is not an valid response to the pain of others." This discussion is all about how we create meaningful interaction as Priests, going beyond the simple "like and comment" interaction when people are having a hard time. We focus heavily on actions associated with prayer, particularly the lighting of candles, to deepen that connection. We talk a bit about Tending the Flame of Ho

How do you build positive cultures within a working group? We talk a bit about how Three Cranes Grove, ADF, builds consent culture. We also talk a bit about our local culture of trust, and how we apply these things to initiations and other religious events. Rev. Avende and Rev. Dangler both took a consent culture course through Cherry Hill Seminary (which all of ADF's clergy have now taken as well), and the discussion moves a bit through how we took the class and applied it to our work within the Grove. For the Tea Consent video mentioned, you can find those here: Safe For Work Version Not Safe For Work Version Find us on Facebook, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

How do you navigate your personal experiences and the lore of ancient Pagans? We'll explore the interplay of ancient lore and unverified personal gnosis (also called "UPG"). We talk a bit about how we developed some of our Grove traditions, drawing items out of the lore and iconography of Gaul and into our modern practice. We even get a bit into "Shared Personal Gnosis" and a new concept, "Singularly Attributed Gnosis," or "SAG." You can find a bit of an expansion on the concept of SAG on Rev. Dangler's YouTube page. Rev. Avende's Anahita Summer Solstice Rite can be found on their YouTube page. Also mentioned in this episode is the book, From Saga's Hall: Norse Myths From a Different Point of View by Susan C. Eaves. It's a nifty retelling of the myths. Oh! If you missed last week's Animal Crossing: New Horizons livestreamed ritual, you can catch a replay on the 3CG YouTube page. Find us on Facebook, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org or threecranes.org

Today, we're not in cars or headed to a festival, but we're walking together in the woods, socially distanced, and discussing how we pray in a time of fear. There's a lot going on in the world today, and sometimes it's hard to keep being there for others, to pray for them and with them. We talk about some of our strategies, projects, and pain in this walk in the woods. Also, if you need a nice change of pace, on June 7, 2020, Rev. Avende will be hosting a ritual in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, that we will livestream via YouTube at 8 PM Eastern. You can find a Facebook event, or ask YouTube to notify you of the event. You can find some of the projects mentioned in the episode below: Tending the Flame of Hope Daily livestream prayers on Rev. Michael J Dangler's FB page. Find us on Facebook, donate at threecranes.org/donate, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

Today, we took a walk in the woods, and we wanted to invite you along. Join us for this entirely unscripted, shared meditation. We needed our centers today, and we know you do too, so we recorded this just hours before this was released. This is also our first bit of work with new equipment, so it might be a bit rough, but that's part of what makes it joyful. Find your center, and walk with us. Find us on Facebook, donate at threecranes.org/donate, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

This episode is all about finding the ways that your work is enough. We talk about the process of comparing your work to the work of others, what it's like to redefine "doing enough" in your own work, and the illusion of "I-have-it-together-ness" that social media can create. What everyone does in their personal practice has to be just that: personal. We bring up a number of ideas about how we keep doing the work, and how we help ourselves feel like we're doing the work, which is almost as important as actually doing the work. Find "All Things Are Sacred" on Rev. Avende's YouTube page. Find information at on Tending the Flame of Hope on the Facebook page, including the post referenced from the day in the airport. Find us on Facebook, donate at threecranes.org/donate, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

City Senses, Nature Awareness Meditation – A meditation for becoming aware of nature, either indoors or outdoors, either in or out of the city. This is especially well-suited to times when it is difficult to get away from the feel of the city. Led by Rev. Michael J Dangler, written by Nicole Egelhoff Find us on Facebook, and learn more about Druidry at threecranes.org

It's true, we did just one stupid dawn rite at Harvest Nights, and here we are, waking up a dawn again, like ya do. Occasionally, we're asked at festivals to run a dawn ritual, and we love to do it. But neither of us had been maintaining a personal practice recently for this work... but they quickly found out how quickly it can rekindle such a practice if you step back into it on accident. We both work with Uṣás in our religious work, and it surprised us in that not-so-surprising way that the Spirits surprise folks who return to devotionals how much our experience matched between us. This is a shorter-than-usual episode because we released a bonus meditation on Tuesday. As we move toward twice-weekly podcasting for a while, we thought now was a good time to put out a shorter piece. We'll be back with more full-length episodes next week. Find us on Facebook, consider a donation at threecranes.org/donate, and learn more about Druidry at threecranes.org or ADF.org. There's a lot of road ahead!

One of the things that Rev. Avende and Rev. Dangler have been talking about (not in cars, not going to festivals, but otuside of that) is the lack of connection that social distancing and stay-at-home experiences can have on folks. So, for a while, we're going to offer meditations on this podcast every Tuesday for a while, upping our content so that folks at home can seek better connections in this disconnected time. Drawn from the ADF Hearth Keeper's Way, our first meditation is a simple Two Powers. You can find the script on the ADF webiste in the Hearth Keeper's book (p. 28). This particular meditation is designed to provide a connection to other hearths within ADF, around the same central fire. Even if you're not working that path, you can still enjoy the meditation. We hope this new segment helps a little bit in the process of rebuilding connections as we move forward as humans. New theme for these bonus episodes by Mike Bierschenk. Find us on Facebook, and learn more about Druidry at threecranes.org

We all experience the same seasons and the same cycles, but we perceive them in different ways: markers are personal, special, and different depending on how we interact with those cycles and seasons, and today we talk a bit about how we mark the passage of time as Pagans. This is our 50th regular episode, and we have some new things on the horizon: look for a new segment next week, releasing on Tuesdays. Find us on Facebook, check us out at threecranes.org/podcast, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

What happens when your vision or your divination doesn't come to pass? There are a lot of things that happen in our Vision Eye, and oracles of cards and runes or of strange earthly perfumes give us many notions of what might come to pass. In today's episode, we have a wide-ranging conversation about the many ways that vision can be obtained, and talk about how to discern symbols and their meanings in the face of experience and our lives. Special in this episode, we hit a New England toll both, and there is a "Moose Aside" from about minute 14:30 to minute 17. We get slap-happy on our roadtrips, too. If you want to hear Rev. Avende sing the Moose Song mentioned, you can find a version from Summerland 7 years ago on their YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/88Y0VXlPnlw (not for kids, friends, unless you want to explain why it's funny... and you probably don't). Find us on Facebook, check us out at threecranes.org/podcast, and learn more about Druidry at threecranes.org or adf.org. Watch out for the moose in

Theurgy! We discuss how our piety and our magical work intersect, and how the relationships we build deepen and build our work. We talk a bit about the differences between Theurgy and Thaumaturgy, some of the academic reactions to theurgic magic, and the place of hierophany (and epiphany of the sacred) in our work. Also, here's a link to an article mentioned: "Why Chaos Magicians Are Such A**holes"   As always, you can find us on Facebook, donate at Threecranes.org/Donate, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org