Druids In Cars, Going To Festivals

We're back, and we think the festival season is too! Our first episode was recorded at the end of last year's (super short) festival season, on our way out to Harvest Nights in October... so when we talk about the fall color, this is why. Trillium didn't end up happening this year (it's usually where we start our season), but we're starting our season around the time of Trillium anyway for tradition's sake, in the hopes that we'll have that event again soon. We decided to start with this episode because, with the new year and new festivals coming, we thought some insight into how we prepare our workshops might help you, our listeners, create your own workshops. One of the joys of the festival season for us is being able to go and teach, and we think everyone (including you) has something of value to offer our community. So please, as you listen, think about what you could share with your community, and with us. Are you looking for a festival to present at? Our Grove's Summerland Gathering is accepting presenter applications! We cannot express how amazing it would be to meet you in person! Resources we mention during the discussion include: Writing Evocations Workshop: You can watch the video on how to write evocations on YouTube and check out their page for the workshop as well. Rev. Avende's Workshop on Crafting Workshops: we may not have video of the workshop, but we do have the handout! You can find it on Rev. Avende's website, under "Five Lights of *Ghosti: The Gifts You Bring" Rev. Dangler's Healing Workshop video You can find full-color, full-sized versions of Rev. Dangler's cheat sheets for divination systems here: Elder Futhark Runes | Ogham | Greek Alphabet Workshop tiers for our Patreons: both of us have a similar $5/month tier for workshops and learning. You can sign up for either of our items here: Rev. Avende | Rev. Dangler The Rev. Avende-led Pan-Pagan Theology Panel If you'd like to see questions and answers from a college class presentation, Rev. Dangler posted a recent one to his Patreon, if you're a subscriber. Finally, if you'd like to see Rev. Avende and Rev. Dangler on a recent Zoom panel, you can find a Clergy Tea Time panel on the ADF YouTube page. We're so excited to be back! Theme by Mike Bierschenk. Check out his Bandcamp for more awesome music! Find us on Facebook, check us out at threecranes.org/podcast, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

How is a magical working like a baking show? Our Star Magicians delve into the questions around "follow the recipe" magic, and how they substitute ingredients and work in old spells. We cover simple rules on how to identify ways to substitute for hard-to-find (or impossible-to-find) magical components. Find us on Facebook, check us out at threecranes.org/podcast, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

We take an autumn detour to the Brushwood Folklore Center, a spur-of-the-moment change in plans that brought back memories and reminded us that yeah, sometimes we give ourselves good advice. We'll describe a lot of the space, but sometimes it helps to see pictures. Check out images of the icons in the space, the Taranis Altar, and the Blue Boat Shrine we mention. If your podcast app doesn't let you see embedded photos in the show notes, hit up our main page at druidsincars.podbean.com, or pop into the Google Photos album of the side-trip for the full view. Reminisce with us as we enjoy our memories of years of camping, ritual, and experience in western New York State, returning to an old friend and sacred site.

This week, we chat about a commonly-requested topic: how we live our lives as Pagans, and what the lifestyle looks like to us. Part of that is just how we live our lives, and the decisions that we make that seem quite mundane: how we speak to and rear our children, how we interact with the world around us, and even how we travel. We talk about our visits to the Nashville Parthenon, and about a map of publicly accessible Pagan statues all throughout the US that resides on the Three Cranes Google account. Also, get a load of us, practicing our own advice when a surprise thought leads us down a different road than expected, quite literally... making this Part One of a two-part episode all of a sudden. Tune in next week for our escapade on our detour! Find us on Facebook, check us out at Threecranes.org/Podcast, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

We're back on the road, going to a festival, meaning that your friendly, chatty Druids are back in the full swing of the work. We recorded enough episodes to finish out the rest of the season on our way to Harvest Nights, and to provide a head start into next season as well, so get ready for regular episodes to return starting this week until the break! This week, we're talking about what it's been like to do hybrid rituals (partially private and in-person, partially public and over web conferencing software). Back in Episode 70, we described what we thought it would be like, and this seemed an opportune time to think about the experience and reflect a bit together on it. So many thanks to Charter Oak Grove, ADF, in Connecticut for putting together such a wonderful weekend in person. It was amazing. Find us on Facebook, check us out on threecranes.org/podcast, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

Did you know that one of our co-hosts, Rev. Avende, has published a children's education book? They did! It's called Kindling Sparks: A Religious Education Program for Young Pagans, and it's been available for a bit now through Rev. Avende's Patreon, and it's now been released as a book! Today, we interview Rev. Avende and talk about the process of bringing this program to life; it's development in early 2020 through today, and the path it's taken through testing and community work. You can pick up a copy of Kindling Sparks through Garanus Publishing on Lulu, at The Magical Druid, or wherever fine books are sold! You can also find their first book, The Spiraling Sun: A Winter Solstice Liturgy at The Magical Druid. Find us on Facebook, check us out at ThreeCranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org!

Finally on our way to and from a festival, even it it was virtual, Revs. Avende and Dangler are on their way out to the site of our broadcasted Summerland Unity Rite for a Druid Moon, and they spend some time discussing how they balance the religious and magical lives they lead with their mundane lives. They also get stuck in traffic at a tomato festival, because, well, what's life without a little unplanned weirdness. Summerland was great, though all online. If you're interested in a great online festival experience, we'll recommend Beyond the Gates, a festival happening over Labor Day weekend, and you can still register and see their presenters! Our next in-person festival, if everything works out, will be Charter Oak's Harvest Nights. It would be really great if we could see you there, probably masked, but we're anxious to have it be in person again. Check us out on Facebook, find us at ThreeCranes.org/Podcast, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

We sit down to discuss the sorts of things we seek out when we travel: the weird religious sites, the haunted tunnels, and the wonderful hospitality of our friends. And, of course, there's an off-the-cuff prayer to the Spirit of Couch Surfing, a solid contestant for patron of this podcast. We recorded this not in cars, but during a local, non-Pagan travel event we were both involved in. But there's way more to come. So, find us on Facebook, check us out at Threecranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org. --- For those curious, Rev. Avende's prayer, "Upon Encountering the Murder Ghost" from the #PrayerADay Project, Nov. 9, 2018: Hermes Diactorus, Guide of Souls, As we traveled tonight through the dark, Sleet bouncing off the windshield, Reflectors marking the road few and far between, I thank you for traveling alongside us. Hermes Diactorus, Guide of Souls, For holding the ghosts at bay as the fog rose about us, For keeping the shades back as we sped beneath the underpass, For maintaining the boundary and keeping us safe from those spirits who wish us harm, I thank you for traveling alongside us. Hermes Diactorus, Guide of Souls, Carry those spirits onward to peace, Remove them and their malevolent intentions from this world. Hermes, I thank you for your important work.

Today, we took a listener question from an OBOD listener who wanted to know our take on the differences between spirituality and religion. We start with some dictionary definitions and work our way through our own experiences. This discussion sort of takes off from some of the ideas about orthopraxy in our previous episode, so you might be interested to tune in there as well, though this episode certainly stands alone. If you want to hear more about this idea that "Practice Begets Belief," you can find a 2012 podcast MJD did with BT Newberg over at Naturalistic Paganism. (Fun historical note: this was MJD's first experience on a podcast.) Find us on Facebook, check us out at threecranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

Today, we get a new vocabulary word in "orthoskhesis," a word meaning "right relationship" (versus "right belief" with orthodoxy, or "right practice" with orthopraxy). We talk a bit about how we might use this in the way we think about Druidry and Paganism in general, and about how we can be not only in a right relationship, but also in a wrong relationship (spoiler alert: it's mostly "can I set healthy boundaries?"). If you're interested in the Greekies mentioned toward the end of the discussion, you can get a look at them at The Magical Druid. Find us on Facebook, check us out at Threecranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org!

Two weeks ago, in Episode 75 (s4Ep8), we spoke a bit about the sensory experiences of our work as it related directly to our stoles, sickles, and other physical items we work with; last week, we went through a Dairy Queen drive-thru and had a tasty episode. Today, we wanted to dive deeper into how we experience ritual in a very physical, sensory way. We walk through the Five Senses we learned as kids in school (touch, hearing, seeing, taste, and smell), and then we also talk about three additional senses that are less well-known: our vestibular, interoceptive, and proprioceptive senses. To help us in our discussion, Rev. Dangler's wife, Maggie, joins us as our in-house expert to help us build a language around our experiences. Tonight, we're Druids in Lawn Chairs Sitting Adjacent to a Fire (no new theme songs this week, though), with a longer-than-usual podcast episode (48 minutes!), but we really had a good time on this one, and had some great experiences coming around to new understandings on our topic. We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did. And maybe you'll hear the owl in the background, too. Find us on Facebook, check us out at threecranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

Today, we take a special break and do a special trip suggested by one of our listeners, and we talk about how we retained our sanity and practice in a global pandemic. There's a lot of chat about tech, ritual and work, and building physical connections in the absence of physical presence. We even talk about some of our favorite Patreons, like DandelionLady, Firesighted, and TheLatestKate (and of course you can also check out Rev. Avende's and Rev. Dangler's as well). We also talk about how we've navigated the reopening process as a Grove and as individuals. If you're interested in the set of Reopening Workings from MJD that he sent out, you can find them on his Patreon. You can also check out the trailer and the stream of Rev. Avende's Animal Crossing Rite and see how we managed that. Special thanks to Mike Bierschenk for our re-written theme for this specific episode. Find us on Facebook, check us out at threecranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org!

We took a week off and (virtually) attended Wellspring last weekend, and we had a good time. But we're back! Learn the secret of the Stoles of the Priests of ADF, and why we do the weird things we do with them in ritual when a new priest is ordained. Then, hear us absolutely fail to recall some prayers we speak before every right because we don't have our stoles with us. We talk a little bit about how our physical actions inform our religious work and expression, and about what it's like to work with a sickle as a Druid. You can watch Rev. Avende, Rev. Castner, and Rev. Crawford receive their stoles, along with the toning process, on our YouTube channel to get a feeling of what the ceremony looks like. Find us on Facebook, check out threecranes.org/podcast for more Druids in Cars, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

We answer some reader mail this week, discussing how we find comfort in the work we do, seek creativity, and come back around to the ways that we worked before the pandemic. How do we manage projects, what processes have we fallen out of (and back into) during the pandemic, and what ways do we see forward as things trend back toward some definition of "normal?" If you want to check out the Virtual Wellspring event this year, you can find it and register at http://stonecreed.org/wellspring Find us on Facebook, check us out at threecranes.org/podcast, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

Today, we talk about our connections to the natural world, to each other, and to the Spirits. We talk about how we build these sorts of relationships, as well as first fruit offerings, and building boundaries in those relationships. We also want to remind you that we'd love to hear from you with topics: shoot us a note at [email protected] Find us on Facebook, check out our Grove at Threecranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

Today we take another walk through the woods and speak about healing spirits and deities: how we connect with them, how we experience them, and what it's like to reach out to one. We reference a few external items, so we want to add those to the show notes as well: Episode 23 of this podcast is about "Magic That Works," and it discusses the referenced fertility cheese and teething spells. Episode 48 isn't directly referenced, but it discusses the differences between Theurgy and Thaumaturgy. Rev. Dangler's presentation on Magic and Healing at Ohio State can be found in the form of a paper on his Patreon, or you can link directly to the event to watch the video. Find us on Facebook, learn more about our Grove at threecranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

Liminal spaces are points or areas that are "betwixt and between" states. On foot today, we wandered past a bog, and it got us thinking about the sorts of places we've encountered that were "in between" different experiences, and what it's like to work through them, and visit them. There's a bit of travel remembrance and a bit of travel planning that goes on, too! A couple of worthwhile notes on this episode: At one point, one of our microphones drops out, so there's a quality change in the last half of the episode. The lyric Michael can't quite recall from Scarborough Fair is: "Tell him to find me an acre of land / between the salt water and desert strand," or some variation thereof (the traditional wording changes). For the mentioned discussion about Cryptids and other "Weird Druidry" topics, check out Episode 28 of our podcast. Find us on Facebook, learn more at threecranes.org, and find out more about Druidry at ADF.org.

This past weekend, Three Cranes Grove, ADF, took our first steps toward reopening our public ritual practice: we conducted a small, semi-private hybrid ritual, where folks attended in person (masked and socially distanced) and remotely. On their way out to our Cutios (Rain Moon) ritual, Revs. Avende and Dangler discussed their preparations, and the basics of the setup for the ritual, along with what they hoped it would be like. Then, on the way back, they looked a bit critically at what worked, and what they found most interesting about the format after being away from public ritual for so long. Intercut into this episode are a few audio examples of how the rite sounded (an artifact of the recording process), which will let you hear how the priests worked in (and how the folk responded to) the immediate pandemic experience that was at the top of their minds. Our hope, as a Grove, is that as other pagan groups reopen (locally and distantly), some of our experiences might serve to help them build a plan to serve their communities in a safe, careful manner. Find us on Facebook, check our our Grove at threecranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org. We can't wait to see you again soon.

How do we start preparing for ritual, in both physical and spiritual ways? How is it different for us when we do group ritual and persona ritual? How can we simplify it and make it easier to get out the door, even in these weird pandemic times? Today, we take a walk in the woods, as there aren't quite festivals to go to yet in our cars, and go over how we prep for various ritual scenarios. It was a good conversation that has us ready for more. Find us on Facebook, check us out at threecranes.org/podcast, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

Season 4 is upon us! While there aren't festivals to go to (yet), we're planning and plotting for our coming season. At our Grove's annual Anagantios (Stay-At-Home Moon) rite, Revs. Dangler and Avende traveled out to their members with a slightly altered version of our usual rite. The discussion ranges from experiences of the pandemic year, the updates we've made to our practice, and the joy of doing the work, even in this strange time. This year's Anagantios rite had some last-minute changes thanks to some rather inclement weather (remember that blizzard that flowed through the US in mid-Feb?), but it gave us a chance to chat. There is, as always, more to come, and we expect our regular season to start up in April as usual, even if we aren't actually headed to specific festivals. It'll be lovely to ride along with you again. Follow us on Facebook, learn more about us at threecranes.org, and find out about Druidry at adf.org. See you soon!

It's been a year, hasn't it? We reflect on the past year of not being in cars, and pretty much not going to festivals, and talk about our content, where we've been, and where we're going. Mostly, though, we talk about the projects that got us through the past season, and what worked, and what didn't. There's a lot of stuff mentioned in this episode, so this description is going to be a bit of a linkbomb. If you can't click the links in your favorite podcast app, head over to http://druidsincars.podbean.com/ to find this episode's description, and click the links there. We talk about festivals that are tentatively planned for in-person work, if it's safe. You can find info on those festivals, including any updates to their plans, at their websites. Specifically called out in this episode are the following fests: ConVocation Trillium Wellspring Summerland We also talk about a few particular resources and videos we did. Most of these can be found on either Rev. Avende's Patreon or YouTube (where you'll find both the omen sermons and the Little Oaks children's religious education), or Rev. Dangler's Patreon or YouTube (where you'll find the reopening workings and a forthcoming article on the personal magical work). If you like our work, consider supporting one or both of us on Patreon: every little bit helps. There's also the Three Cranes Grove, ADF, YouTube Channel. Other projects mentioned: A "Stay-At-Home Fire Circle" for those missing festivals as much as we do, especially those late night fire drum circles The "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" rite, which was livestreamed and recorded MJD's "Reopening Workings" document A free intro to the "Little Oaks" work Also, if you need some work to do yourself, we can't recommend Rev. Avende's #PrayerADay Project highly enough: a prayer for each day in November. We've talked about it before on this podcast (check out the bonus episode for a refresher), and it's really an awesome way to get some structure and get involved, spiritually. We start November 1, but we're already gearing up for the work. Wanna submit some "listener mail?" Send it to us at [email protected]. If you want to read your letter yourself, send a link to your audio file in cloud storage (or send audio by Facebook Messenger)! As always, thanks for riding along with us. We know it's been hard, but traveling this journey with you has been amazing. Find us on Facebook, check us out at threecranes.org (where you can also find information about our upcoming rites, currently hosted via Zoom, which you can attend from anywhere), and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

At Harvest Nights 2019, Rev. Avende sat down with Rev. Pezza, offering a window into some household practices including kids, and the impact of multifaith relationships on how we raise our kids. They also touch briefly on how ritual connects with kids coming into Deaf culture. Find us on Facebook, visit us at threecranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

What is "Orange?" Sometime after midnight, on the dark roads of Ohio in October 2019 returning from the Harvest Nights Gathering, we recorded a fairly slap-happy episode to keep ourselves awake. Our topic? Trancework. Our conversation? Wide-ranging and unfiltered. Our advice? Sometimes questionable. But we talk a lot about what works for us in trancework and what doesn't, and how we manage to achieve and understand our experiences. This is the last recording we did going to (or from) a festival in 2019 (don't worry, we have a bit more content coming this season). This episode also covers a lot of the practical work that we learned in Trance 1 and Trance 2 in ADF's study programs, so if you're working through the ADF Initiate or Clergy study, this might be an interesting discussion. Find us on Facebook, donate at threecranes.org/donate, and learn more about Druidry at ADF.org.

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 [email protected]. 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 Summerland, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

"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 [email protected] 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 Hope work, and you can find that on Facebook. Find us on Facebook, check us out at threecranes.org, and learn more about Druidry at ADF.org

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 and adf.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 the water.

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

Do you need to have tools to do our work? What kinds of tools should you have? What kinds of tools have we always heard we'd need, and never found a use for? We discuss making tools, trading tools, and the types of tools that we work with. We talk about how we choose how to create tools, and our processes for that creation. Of particular interest in this discussion is the co-creation of our bell branches at Summerland 2019. [If you can't see the image of the sickle and bell branch discussed in this episode, visit us on Podbean to see this description with the image.] If you're looking for tools of your own, you can always swing by The Magical Druid's new online shop. Check out more from us out on Facebook, drop by our website, and for more information about Druidry, check out ADF.Org.

Another content warning this week, where we talk about the process of working funerals, including some discussion of funerals for pets, children, and miscarriages. It's not the bulk of the episode, but it's not insignificant. How we wish we were going to Trillium this year, but we're not, alas. This is another episode from recording on our way to Harvest Nights Gathering last year. We often say, "Priestwork is marrying and burying people," so today's episode is the other side of the coin from last week. We talk about the planning process, the variety of types of people we have to manage these passages for, and how we navigate the experience. It's worth noting that this episode is a lot about how we have experienced our role as Priests, rather than about the functional aspects of writing funerals, though those come up as well. We also talk about options for what you can do if you're away from the funeral, or if the funeral for your loved one was problematic for you. Melissa Hill did the ritual work that is mentioned around Rev. Avende's cat. She does amazing and powerful ritual and artwork, and you should find her on Patreon. Find us on Podbean, at threecranes.org/podcast, or on Facebook; consider donating in support, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

First, a quick warning: we know a lot of folks have had to postpone weddings in our current situation; this episode is very much about the joy of creating, planning, and working weddings, so we want you to know about this episode's content, since it can be pretty fresh for some folks. That said, though this was recorded before our current Stay-At-Home life, we did talk about how to manage people who cannot be present at a wedding, whether because they are ancestors, or perhaps they are unable to come (around the 29:30 mark). We hope you're able to join us for the full podcast now, or in the future. Informal weddings where things are decided 10 minutes before the ceremony, Welcome to Night Vale-themed weddings, and traditional white weddings: these are all things we've done! We talk about what it was like to do some of the fun weddings we've done, how we manage to come up with a script, and how we manage some of the archaic customs that have been given to us over the years. We talk about ways to make handfasting cords (and people to buy them from: check out The Pagan Peddler or The Magical Druid) and how to "block" a handfasting, plus other modules that you can add to your own weddings and handfastings. Blessing cups, omens, destroying and retrieving rings, and many more ideas come up from our experiences. We also talk about how to manage patriarchy and women-as-property traditions, as well as how to take lore and pull it into a wedding ritual (speaking specifically of Beowulf and Enright's exploration in his book "Lady With a Mead Cup"). This is a bit longer than our usual podcast (we have a lot to say on this subject, it seems), but it all fit nicely as one episode. As always, find us on Facebook, support us at threecranes.org/donate, and learn more about Druidry at adf.org.

There are lots of things that we can all do to improve our work. Rev. Avende and Rev. Dangler tackle some of their own internal critiques and bounce ideas off of each other. They discuss what they feel they can get better at in ritual, and offer solutions to each other as well. Recorded on the way to Harvest Nights Gathering in 2019 (and dealing with tolls along the way), we are back in full swing for the festival season, even if the festival season is mostly delayed due to Stay-At-Home orders. We're here for you, though, and we're gathering ideas for how to make this a bit easier for everyone. And remember, both Rev. Avende and Rev. Dangler are building content to help you stay connected. Feel free to reach out, or find their Patreons: Rev. Avende | Rev. Dangler Wanna help with gas money? Ship us a donation at threecranes.org/donate! Find us on Facebook, and learn more about Druidry at Threecranes.org, or adf.org.

You may have heard by now that most of the early season festivals have been cancelled, including the Trillium Gathering, where we usually start our season. Well, it turns out that even though we can't actually go to festivals, we recorded a large number of episodes on the way to Harvest Nights Gathering late last year. So, we have a back catalog from a simpler time that we can all enjoy listening to during this rather difficult period. This intro was recorded during a mission to obtain the constituent parts of a garden for Rev. Avende, during which we maintained our social distances and respected the space of others. But we happened to be in a car, going to a place, and so we were able to record this short intro to the coming year. We're both doing a lot of work to help bridge the physical gap, from a recent Spring Equinox Rite on Facebook Live, to Zoom rituals and individualized works on Facebook and Patreon. We talk about some of that work in the podcast episode today. If you're looking for our Patreons, you can find them here: Rev. Avende's Patreon | Rev. Dangler's Patreon If you're interested in donating to Three Cranes Grove, ADF, while we all get through this together, you can do that at threecranes.org/donate. Festivals will start again (we're still hoping Summerland Gathering will be on in August, though it might look different than it has in the past), and we'll be back on the road together eventually. This podcast, so far as we can tell, will continue. Our hope is that by starting to put out episodes a little early, we'll all get a bit more time together, and a bit more joy in the work. As always, follow us on Facebook, listen to us on Podbean, and learn more about Druidry at threecranes.org or adf.org. We're here for you. Stay safe, stay home, and stay (virtually) together.

If you've never been to a festival, it's the time of year to start planning your season out. Whether you make it to just one festival, or you make it to a bunch like we do, it's good to know what you're getting into. This year, Three Cranes Grove, ADF, is picking up the mantle and hosting the Summerland Gathering near Yellow Springs, Ohio, on August 13-16, 2020. If you've been riding along with us for a while, you'll know that we're big on consent, inclusivity, and cooperative work. So, before we put up any registration pages, we began developing a code of conduct for organizers, presenters, and participants. But of course, we have to build it first! After our first in-person meeting to work out the Code of Conduct, Rev. Avende and Rev. Dangler chatted about the process the Grove is going through, how it felt to engage, and what it's like to workshop a code like this. We're not done, but our start was promising, and we thought there was plenty of value in sharing our conversation. There are a few festivals mentioned in the introduction, so here are their links: ConVocation (Detroit, MI) - Feb. 20-23, 2020 Pagan Fire Seminars (Columbus, OH) - April 4, 2020 Trillium Gathering (Cross Junction, VA) - April 16-19, 2020 Summerland (Yellow Springs, OH) - August 13-16, 2020 Summerland doesn't have a direct registration page yet, but you'll know when it does. Also, Pagan Fire Seminars will have a remote attendance option! We hope to see you soon. Consider subscribing at https://druidsincars.podbean.com/ or wherever you get your podcasts. If you want to subscribe to our YouTube feed, that'd be awfully cool, too: youtube.com/3cgvideos Learn more about us and our podcast at threecranes.org/podcast and learn more about Druidry at adf.org

What is it about talking about technology in ritual that makes us do weird things? I dunno, but come and (literally) ride along with us this time! While we're usually audio-only, on our way to Harvest Nights Gathering in Connecticut, we decided to try something new. With a 360 camera in our back seat, we experimented to see what it might be like to sit and listen in. With the topic of tech in ritual, this seemed like an obvious opportunity to try something new and different out. You can check out the 360 video (and even put on a VR headset and watch as if you're in the car with us!) on YouTube! (You can also navigate the 360 video with your mouse pointer, or on a phone by moving the device in full screen.) The video carries the same audio podcast episode, so you won't miss anything if you watch this instead of listening to the pod, or vice versa. Find this episode on our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/Mj4FzQVFDhk Consider subscribing at https://druidsincars.podbean.com/ or wherever you get your podcasts. If you want to subscribe to our YouTube feed, that'd be awfully cool, too: youtube.com/3cgvideos Learn more about us and our podcast at threecranes.org/podcast and learn more about Druidry at adf.org