On the way home from Wellspring, though they were not driving together, Rev. Avende and Rev. Dangler stopped at a rest stop and caught up to remember the event. Held each Memorial Day weekend in northeast Ohio, The Wellspring Gathering is also the ADF annual meeting and this year, site of our Archdruid reinstallation and an ADF Initiation. We got to meet new people and visit with old friends, and try out new camping gear. The Bards of Three Cranes Grove, ADF, played quite a lot of music at the b...
Jun 02, 2022•16 min•Season 5Ep. 8
Today we're chatting about the things we do with our hands and bodies during ritual, focusing on gesture and posture in particular, and how we've developed them for use in our personal and Grove-centered work. We'll also talk about how they connect with trance and prayer a bit. We're definitely back on the road (in fact, you are listening to this as you drive out to Wellspring with us, right? because that's where we're going today!). This year, we're going to be working hard to find more voices ...
May 26, 2022•29 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Today, we talk about how we've made group ritual work, including some tips about both online rituals and in-person rituals. We've had a lot of different strategies over the past 20 years here in Three Cranes Grove, ADF , and exploring what worked and what didn't as we've been planning, and what to do when things go wrong (on either a large scale, or a small one). We also talk about how to follow a lead in ritual, the benefits of trusting your fellow ritualists, building enthusiasm, and Rev. Aven...
May 19, 2022•28 min•Season 5Ep. 6
CW: This episode discusses pet loss and grief surrounding it. One of the strange things about owning pets is that they become an integral part of our lives, our practice, and the spaces we inhabit. And, with limited exceptions, we may be with them for their entire lives, but they are only with us for a part of ours. Both Rev. Avende and Rev. Dangler have lost pets, and both have had to find ways to work those pets into their own religious lives, and those of their families. We spend a lot of tim...
May 12, 2022•29 min•Season 5Ep. 5
Today we're chatting about our portable altars, and what we take with us when we head out on the road (or even when we're just out and about close to home). We discuss the physical things and the spiritual things we bring with us, how we use them, and how they help us. As the conversation evolves, we begin to speak about our prayer lives as well, and how being on the road impacts those things. Rev. Dangler's Altoid Tin Travel Altar (Image) The Shop Altar at The Magical Druid #PrayerADay Bonus Ep...
May 05, 2022•27 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Today, we're taking a look at the (most intentionally) silly rituals we've done. We cover a lot of ground, and there are a lot of links worth looking at here to give you an idea of what we're talking about, so here's our list of resources for this episode (mostly) in order of appearance/mention in the episode. The Jimmy Buffett Ritual: Text " Beach House On The Moon " (the song) on YouTube The Jimmy Buffett Oracle The Rush Oracle " Dressed Up As Freyja (Goin' Down to Jotenheim) " by Art Shipkows...
Apr 28, 2022•24 min•Season 5Ep. 3
We've eased back into the festival season by attending the Harvest Nights Gathering in late 2021, and it's worth talking about how good it feels to be back with our fellow Druids in the woods. A small festival has a lot of flexibility, and we were able to get back into the work in a joyful way. Over the last two years, we've done a lot of festivals virtually, and there have been a lot of missing pieces from that; being in the physical presence of other humans magnified what has been missing for ...
Apr 21, 2022•16 min•Season 5Ep. 2
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...
Apr 14, 2022•31 min•Season 5Ep. 1
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 ....
Nov 25, 2021•26 min•Season 4Ep. 19
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 i...
Nov 18, 2021•17 min•Season 4Ep. 18
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...
Nov 11, 2021•26 min•Season 4Ep. 17
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 confere...
Nov 04, 2021•22 min•Season 4Ep. 16
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 pi...
Aug 26, 2021•23 min•Season 4Ep. 15
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 onli...
Aug 19, 2021•24 min•Season 4Ep. 14
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...
Jul 22, 2021•24 min•Season 4Ep. 13
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 c...
Jul 15, 2021•16 min•Season 4Ep. 12
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 discussio...
Jul 01, 2021•25 min•Season 4Ep. 11
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 additi...
Jun 24, 2021•49 min•Season 4Ep. 10
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'...
Jun 17, 2021•30 min•Season 4Ep. 9
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...
Jun 03, 2021•27 min•Season 4Ep. 8
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 u...
May 20, 2021•21 min•Season 4Ep. 7
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 druidsincars@threecranes.org Find us on Facebook , check out our Grove at Threecranes.org , and learn more about Druidry at adf.org ....
May 13, 2021•23 min•Season 4Ep. 6
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....
May 06, 2021•19 min•Season 4Ep. 5
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...
Apr 29, 2021•20 min•Season 4Ep. 4
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,...
Apr 22, 2021•26 min•Season 4Ep. 3
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.or...
Apr 15, 2021•25 min•Season 4Ep. 2
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 th...
Mar 19, 2021•21 min•Season 4Ep. 1
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....
Oct 08, 2020•18 min•Season 3Ep. 24
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 ....
Sep 18, 2020•24 min•Season 3Ep. 23
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...
Sep 04, 2020•20 min•Season 3Ep. 22
