We had a full turn out for our first ALGNC Samhuinn celebration October 28th. We started the evening with relaxation and final prep for the ceremony, then began the evening with a meditation prepared by Jeremy around a patio fire bowl. The evening was crisp with a fall chill and the sky was clear.

Our ceremony was conducted by all the members of the grove filling the roles in the OBOD Samhuinn ceremony. The event was moving and full of wonderful magic, invoking all the seasonal energies of the night! The ceremony ended with blessings and offerings, finishing with dinner prepared by Wendy and Ken of roast, salad and drinks with desserts brought by Amanda. Matt provided wonderful sachets of herbs for the members during the ritual.

After eating, we spent a couple of hours sitting by the patio fire, talking and enjoying the night air.

Thanks to all the members for their participation and making this a perfect night!

We had a wonderful Mabon ceremony and ritual Thursday. The misty evening lit by the torches in our Grove added a wonderful atmosphere to this magical night and the OBOD ceremony was performed wonderfully. Special thanks to Matt for his work in helping me put this together for the grove! Additional thanks to Wendy for filling the role of ‘Lady Ceridwen’ – she’s a natural.

Samhuinn is around the corner. We have our ALG ceremony planned for Friday evening, October 26th at 7:00pm at Wilderness Grove. I really get excited this time of the year! This is a wonderfully magic time of year ends, and year beginnings and will be the first ALG ceremony to mark its passage. We will perform OBOD initiations for those who are interested and further work on developing ALG’s “inner plane grove” as well. We will be doing some practice runs in October to prepare for this event.

I’ve had a request to have ritual time to ‘charge’ items for members during the ceremony. This is an opportunity to bring something that you would like to imbue with deeper meaning and influence in your life, perhaps oghams, a talisman or some other item of importance. Also, take time to think about what thanksgiving or offering you would like to make to that special God/Goddess/Spirit/Ancestor in your life during the ceremony.

I’ve started using the Groups calendar tool too. You can review what’s coming up, and it will be sending out reminders as well to help you in your planning <here>

We will have a pre-grove planning meditation in October, date and time to be announced. The goal will be to review the site of the proposed Sacred Grove planting at Bass Lake park and to receive any special signs or instructions from the land. If all goes well, we hope to schedule this for November. We have a ‘green light’ from the park manager and he will provide a bench for the grove. We will be able to have a plaque added to the bench – I propose this:

“It is wise to listen to the voices of the trees,
for they tell us much that we might otherwise forget.” – Tacitus

Sacred Grove Site 2007 – Awen’s Light Grove – algnc.org

I look forward to working with everyone in what is turning up to be a busy October!

Greetings!

When: September 17th, 2007
Where: Barnes and Noble bookstore at Maynard/Walnut – Cary. Here is map.
When: @7:30pm

The lunar calendar is used for meetings dates. We meet each month on the first Monday after the New Moon.

Greetings!

When: August 13th, 2007
Where: Barnes and Noble bookstore at Maynard/Walnut – Cary. Here is map.
When: @7:30pm

The lunar calendar is used for meetings dates. We meet each month on the first Monday after the New Moon.

August News:

• Lughnasadh Faire planned for August 11th – Matt Hilliard-Pinkston

Previous News:

1. I’ve established a website for the grove: http://www.algnc.org

2. The members present agreed:
-we don’t want to require membership in any specific environmental organization
-we have established a ‘Environmental Values Committee’ to guide our grove efforts
-that we would align with the National Arbor Day Foundation
-we would begin work on planting ‘sacred groves’ and registering them with OBOD in the ‘sacred grove registry’
-ken would get in contact with town of holly springs and check on a location we could establish our first grove of trees
-do a trash cleanup of river/stream TBD

3. Ken to investigate other message/forum boards for use by the grove

4. The grove will be dedicated to:
-Action, environmental improvement, sacred grove project, living green
-Learning, supporting members on the path to enlightenment through Order of Bards Ovates and Druids
-Ritual, participating in the Wheel of the Year celebrations with our membership

5. Need to write article:
-Touchstone OBOD – first swag by Matt
-Ad in Innerchange

Meeting Agenda:

Review open items above

New items?

Benefit from Community

• Opportunity to make new friends, pick up new ideas.
• Help everyone to feel confident in their spiritual practice and connection with Earth.

Membership Contributions to the Bardic Arts

Jeremy Edwards: Author of ‘The Stonehenge Effect – Brander’

Ken Webster: Professionally Trained Life/Spiritual/Strategy Coach. See my blog to get more information and schedule a sample session ‘Helping you find the compass within’. Contact Ken at ken@sacredcircle.us

Cherie Lassiter: Musician and Songwriter http://www.myspace.com/cherielassiter

Reading Ideas
Complete Idiot’s Guide to Celtic Spirituality. This book is a really great introduction to Druidism and has all kinds of historical references up to developing your own spiritual practice. This could be a good primer for new members to our grove that hasn’t enrolled with a Druid organization yet. Check it out..

OBOD Links of Interest to the Grove Member:

What is Druidry?

Ethics and Values

About the Order