Monday evening I returned home from a fabulous four days at the ADF Wellspring Gathering. The folks at Stone Creed Grove, ADF (Cleveland, OH) did their usual fantastic job of organization and operation of the festival. Worshops on several interesting topics were given, though perhaps I shouldn’t have attended the Brewers Guild one just before my own presentation…
After an all-day seminar on ancestor worship and the making and use of ancestor dolls, Sr. Druid Earrach Canali {and several members} of Sassafras Grove, ADF (Pittsburg, PA) led a deeply moving ritual in the National Nemeton to honor the Ancestors and the Mighty Dead.
At the end of the annual meeting I was privileged to present the first three Founder’s Awards for exceptional public service in 2005 to Awen’s Breath Protogrove ADF (Hollywood, CA), CedarLight Grove ADF (Baltimore, MD), and Three Cranes Grove ADF (Columbus, OH) for volunteer work, food, blood, and financial donations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I hope to make such awards an annual event.
Wellspring 2006 was four days of fun, scholarship, ritual, and communication with and between the leadership and the members of ADF. I came away from it having learned a great deal about Our Own Druidism and my own carrying capacity for home brewed beer (“What do you do with a drunken founder?”). I am deeply proud of how an idea that a few friends had in 1983 has blossomed into nearly 1,100 members and scores of groves and protogroves across North America.
My special thanks to Bardd Dafydd and Mapf of Red Oak Grove ADF (Mount Laurel, NJ) for transporting me to and from Wellspring. I wouldn’t have made it without them!
{This post originally posted May 31}
>>Worshops on several interesting topics were given, though perhaps I shouldn’t have attended the Brewers Guild one just before my own presentation…>>
Think of it as yet another way of making Wellspring a memorable event. I’ve seen references to that particular afternoon in four Live Journal accounts so far
Anyway, thanks for posting about Wellsping. I’m not getting to any festivals this year–first time in 22 years *that’s* happened–so I must live vicariously through the accounts of others.
Karen