Who Are We?
First, know that we are not currently an ADF Protogrove. We will be re-applying for Protogrove status, but until that is approved we are no longer formally affiliated with ADF. We will continue to hold public rituals which follow the ADF core order of ritual.
Protogrove of the Valley Oak, ADF saw its first sparks of life at Imbolc 2012 when four members of Sacramento's Sierra Madrone Grove, ADF (caitlin, Ash, Victoria and Kevin) gathered in a park in Santa Clara,CA for ritual, and agreed to join together to bring ADF Druidry back to the San Francisco Bay Area after an absence of a few years. Our Grove Organizer's Survey (basically an application for permission to form a Protogrove) was submitted to Ár nDraíocht Féin by caitlin the next day (6 February 2012), and we received official ADF approval on 29 February 2012 (is that not an awesome, liminal birthdate for our group?! Love it!).
We're officially based in San José, CA, but have members all over the SF Bay Area as well as other parts of Northern California. We celebrate eight public high days each year. We have members with hearths based in the Irish, Norse and Greek pantheons, and have held rituals based on all of those.
In early 2013, Caitlin left the grove, and Kevin became the new Grove Organizer.
First, know that we are not currently an ADF Protogrove. We will be re-applying for Protogrove status, but until that is approved we are no longer formally affiliated with ADF. We will continue to hold public rituals which follow the ADF core order of ritual.
Protogrove of the Valley Oak, ADF saw its first sparks of life at Imbolc 2012 when four members of Sacramento's Sierra Madrone Grove, ADF (caitlin, Ash, Victoria and Kevin) gathered in a park in Santa Clara,CA for ritual, and agreed to join together to bring ADF Druidry back to the San Francisco Bay Area after an absence of a few years. Our Grove Organizer's Survey (basically an application for permission to form a Protogrove) was submitted to Ár nDraíocht Féin by caitlin the next day (6 February 2012), and we received official ADF approval on 29 February 2012 (is that not an awesome, liminal birthdate for our group?! Love it!).
We're officially based in San José, CA, but have members all over the SF Bay Area as well as other parts of Northern California. We celebrate eight public high days each year. We have members with hearths based in the Irish, Norse and Greek pantheons, and have held rituals based on all of those.
In early 2013, Caitlin left the grove, and Kevin became the new Grove Organizer.
What is Ár nDraíocht Féin / ADF?
The Irish words, pronounced "arn ree-ocht fane", mean "Our Own Druidism", and that's just what ADF is - a completely independent tradition of Neopagan Druidism. Like our sisters and brothers in the other Neopagan movements, we're polytheistic Nature worshipers, attempting to revive the best aspects of the Paleopagan faiths of our ancestors within a modern scientific, artistic, ecological, and wholistic context. Like our predecessors and namesakes the Druids, we're people who believe in excellence - physically, intellectually, artistically, and spiritually.
We're researching and expanding sound modern scholarship about the ancient Celts and other Indo-European peoples, in order to reconstruct what the Old Religions of Europe really were. We're working on the development of genuine artistic skills in composition and presentation. We're designing and performing competent magical and religious ceremonies to change ourselves and the world we live in. We're adapting the polytheologies and customs of both the Indo-European Paleopagans and the Neopagan traditions that have been created over the last fifty years. We're creating a nonsexist, nonracist, organic, and open religion to practice as a way of life and to hand on to our grandchildren. We're integrating ecological awareness, alternative healing arts, and psychic development into our daily activities. Together, we're sparking the next major phase in the evolution of Neopaganism and planting seeds for generations to come.
-Isaac Bonewits, Founder of ADF
For more on ADF, try this page, or if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail us!
The Irish words, pronounced "arn ree-ocht fane", mean "Our Own Druidism", and that's just what ADF is - a completely independent tradition of Neopagan Druidism. Like our sisters and brothers in the other Neopagan movements, we're polytheistic Nature worshipers, attempting to revive the best aspects of the Paleopagan faiths of our ancestors within a modern scientific, artistic, ecological, and wholistic context. Like our predecessors and namesakes the Druids, we're people who believe in excellence - physically, intellectually, artistically, and spiritually.
We're researching and expanding sound modern scholarship about the ancient Celts and other Indo-European peoples, in order to reconstruct what the Old Religions of Europe really were. We're working on the development of genuine artistic skills in composition and presentation. We're designing and performing competent magical and religious ceremonies to change ourselves and the world we live in. We're adapting the polytheologies and customs of both the Indo-European Paleopagans and the Neopagan traditions that have been created over the last fifty years. We're creating a nonsexist, nonracist, organic, and open religion to practice as a way of life and to hand on to our grandchildren. We're integrating ecological awareness, alternative healing arts, and psychic development into our daily activities. Together, we're sparking the next major phase in the evolution of Neopaganism and planting seeds for generations to come.
-Isaac Bonewits, Founder of ADF
For more on ADF, try this page, or if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail us!
