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Blessed High Day to you all!

Blessed Samhain and Beltane to everyone

June through September is Pagan Pride season in North America.  Members of ADF participated in a number of different Pagan Prides around the US. Here are just a few.
 

Erie Pagan Pride Day 2019

Members of Whispering Lake Grove gather for a group photo at the Erie Pagan Pride eventOn Saturday, September 21, 2019, Whispering Lake Grove, ADF hosted Pagan Pride Day for Erie, Pennsylvania, USA, at the Erie Unitarian Universalist Congregation.  The day’s activities included mediums/readers, craft vendors, presentations and workshops, a bake sale and a charity auction, and ended with a Harvest Tide ritual to mark the Autumnal Equinox and honor the Earth Mother for her generosity.

Erie’s Pagan Pride Day had been suspended for several years due to lack of organizers.  In the interim, Whispering Lake offered a similar event called Common Ground.  This year, we claimed the name and officially restarted Pagan Pride Day.  Our Grove aims to bring more groups, contributors and volunteers together in future years, to make Pagan Pride Day a diverse, shared event once again.  Around one hundred guests attended this year, a number we hope to increase in 2020.
 

Ann Arbor Pagan Pride Day

Rev. Rob Henderson of Shining Lakes Grove stepped up to run the main ritual at the An Arbor Pagan Pride Day. Check out his article in the Shining Lakes Newsletter about the experience.
 

Sacramento Pagan Pride

This year, Sacramento Pagan Pride held it's 20th Annual Harvest Festival. It is a 2 day festival, held on a VFW Post, with a full schedule of education, ritual, and fellowship. There are dozens of vendors and information booths, and entertainment including live music, belly dancing, and fire dancing. The outstanding food was provided by Sean Harbaugh's award winning Pipin' Hot Smokers.

Sierra Madrone Grove, ADF, hosted a booth this year, as every year, and performed the opening ritual. Our public Fall Equinox ritual is at Pagan Pride each year, generally the main ritual for the event. The key note speaker on this auspicious anniversary was our Vice Archdruid, Sean Harbaugh. Last year, Archdruid Jon Drum was the festival's most honored guest.  A Pagan Elders panel discussion included Stacey Weinberger and Phaedra Bonewits. We are a steadfast part of the community in the Sacramento Area, and I am personally very proud of our participation in this event every year. Admission to Sacramento Pagan Pride is any donation of goods or gift cards for a local charity serving the homeless.
 

And more!

Many other groves and individuals participated in Pagan Pride events around the world.  Are you interested in helping out? Check out the Pagan Pride Project to find, or start, a Pagan Pride Celebration near you.

Seers Guild


Interested in learning about Seership, divination, and other oracular practices? Check out the Seers Guild. You can join the Seers Guild via the ADF website then join the Seers Guild Facebook group to discuss your questions and practices.  Take up the Seer Study Program and explore the other-realm with us. 
Get ready for the 4th Annual #PrayerADay Project, started and led by Rev. Jan Avende! If you’ve missed it the past few  years, the idea is that you write one prayer a day during the month of November.  I encourage folks to share their prayers, but if you’re not comfortable with that, the most important thing is to just try writing one each day, or as many days during the month as you can. 
 
We use the hashtags #prayeraday and #adfdruidry so that people can find the prayers, whether you post them on Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, or  social media of choice.
 
While you are more than welcome to just write privately or keep your prayers to only your profile, if you’d like to join the Prayer a Day community we’ve got two ways to participate. There is an open FB Group where you are welcome to share your prayers each day. There is also a FB Page where I’ll be curating and sharing prayers from all different folks who are participating in the project. 
 
If you’d like to listen to a podcast episode where I talk about the history behind the project and my experience with it, I chatted on Druids in Cars, Going to Festivals about it last year.
 
Now, get ready to pray, because we start writing on November 1st!

Preparing for Yule


Upcoming Yule practice from ADF Heathenry and the Seers Guild:
The Väntljusstaken (Light Anticipation Candles) is a delightful pre-Yule practice that can be enjoyed by the entire family.
Gather 6 candles, decorate a fun set of holders (or the candles themselves), and designate one to each of the Elder Futhark of the runes. During the six days prior to Yule, (or one each of 6 weeks prior) light a candle to call in the energy and blessings of each of the runes.
For detailed information on the practice, visit Gifts of the Wyrd blog or podcast.
 
Vantljusstaken Candle Altar

Check out these Podcasts by ADF Members

Druids in Cars: Going to FestivalsKindling the Hearthfire PodcastGifts of the Wyrd Podcast

Grand Faire

We have a lot of great artisians, writers, and creators in ADF.  Here are just a sample of folks who are doing awesome stuff.

Rev. Ian Corrigan has a number of books on magic and meditation fit into an ADF Format at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/tredara
Crow by Sheri Chen. See more of Sheri's work at her website
What spiritual or druidic things are you doing? Are you helping different charities out? Or are you experimenting with some new prayers for the Hearth Keepers Way?  Or just prayers in general?  Do you have a blog about ADF and you'd like to share a cool post? Did you just add an interesting article or page to the ADF Website? Do you make awesome content and art that is druid-ly inclined?
Let us know at newslette@adf.org
Submit the cool things you do for the Newsletter
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Please send any questions or submissions to newsletter@adf.org

For information on submitting to Oak Leaves,
please see https://www.adf.org/publications/periodicals/oak-leaves/submissions.html

Copyright © 2019 Ár nDraíocht Féin, All rights reserved.


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