Midwinter / Yule

Chokecherry Grove, ADF, will be celebrating the Solstice on Sunday evening, December 20th, at 2929 S Elm St, Denver, Colorado. This is an open public ritual, so all folk of good will are welcome at our fire. Our ritual will be Norse-themed. Please bring a dish for our post-ritual potluck and at least 2 non-perishable items for our food drive. Gather at 3 pm, ritual begins at 4 pm.

Samhain

After the excitement of our Colorado Retreat, the rhythm of the seasons reasserts itself. In just over two weeks it will be Samhain. We have left Overland Pond Park by our beloved Mother Platte behind until spring; for Samhain we are planning an evening ritual to celebrate the coming of the Dark. Plan to join us on November 1st at 2929 S. Elm St. in Denver for a Welsh-based ritual full of lore and magic! Gather at 4 pm, ritual starts at 5 pm MST (sunset). The ritual will be followed by a potluck feast, so bring a dish which suits your taste. As part of our community service this quarter, we're also asking people to bring at least one new, unwrapped toy for Toys For Tots.

Update on our Retreat

The autumn equinox has passed; the moon has survived her eclipse. It's time now to turn our thoughts to indoor pastimes - Chokecherry's October Retreat on Saturday October 10th!

There are only ten days left to preregister for this first-time occasion, when we will be offering a full day of ritual and workshops, plus morning coffee and a light lunch. Our special guest speaker will be Rev. Jean Pagano, ADF's Vice Archdruid, who is flying out from Michigan to join us. Preregister now though our website here for special reduced rates - $30 for ADF members and $35 for others - as opposed to $40 at the door. No prepayment is necessary, but we need your information now for planning purposes!

The day's program includes:
• Connecting with the Spirits of the Land: The Four Permissions.
• What is an ADF Priest? (panel discussion).
• Daily devotions: ADF Hearth Cultures and Personal Practice—Two Viewpoints.
• Hospitality: The Basis of Right Relationships (by Rev. Jean Pagano, Vice Archdruid of ADF).

The afternoon’s programming will conclude with an ADF Unity Ritual, usually seen only at regional festivals. This will be followed by a potluck supper, allowing time for fellowship and discussion. Mark your calendars and preregister now - attendance may be capped due to space constraints.

Pagan Pride 2015

Chokecherry had a good Pagan Pride Day today. We talked to a bunch of folks who hadn't known about us before and some who had, handed out a lot of informational brochures and flyers for our upcoming Retreat, sold some books and awen patches, and even made a little money. We also did a Core Order ritual in under 30 minutes (our allotted time slot)! The only drawback was the hot weather - but on the other hand in Denver this time of year snow would also have been possible, so we're not complaining too much!

Chokecherry at Denver Pagan Pride

Join us tomorrow (Sept. 26th) for Denver's Pagan Pride Day! We will be presenting an ADF core order Druid ritual - our first at PPD - and will also be waiting to talk to you at our booth, where we will have lots of information about ADF and about our upcoming (in two weeks!) ADF Colorado Retreat! Hope to see you there!

Autumn Equinox

I'd like to thank everyone who came out for our Autumn Equinox ritual. It was a beautiful if rather warm day beside Mother Platte, who has now returned to her normal early autumn level. Our celebrant was Kevin Jenkyns, who led us in a very special ritual which combined elements of his Welsh and Native American background. We were also fortunate to be visited by Davin Mac Lugh, ADF's Southwest Regional Druid, along with many other new and old friends. It was truly a blessed day!

Drums along the Platte!

Autumn Equinox will be here before you know it! Join us again at Overland Pond Park beside the Platte River on September 20th when we honor the Kindreds with drums and offerings. The Deities of the occasion will be Beli and Dôn. Gather at noon, ritual starts promptly at 1 pm. Like all our rituals, this one will be followed by a potluck feast, so bring a dish to share. As part of our community service this quarter, we're also asking people to bring at least two items for our food drive. This may be our last outdoor High Day of the year before the arrival of winter sends us indoors, so join us to celebrate the turning of the seasons - and bring your drum!

Looking forward, looking back

A good if warm Lughnasadh. We were able to use the riverside platform again, Mother Platte having gone back to her usual level. After our ritual and feasting, we held a hobby horse race and a paper-scissors-rock tournament, the later complete with Celtic-style pre-bout insults. Proceedings were then brought to a halt by a heavy downpour, which was greeted with rapture and relief. Hail, Thor!

Our next public ritual will be Autumn Equinox, once again held in Overland Pond Park, hopefully on the riverside platform. Join us for one more outdoor day before we go into winter quarters!

Mid-July already!

How time flies! Only yesterday, it seems, we were celebrating Midsummer. Now we're looking forward to Lughnasadh. Join us on Sunday August 2nd to celebrate First Harvest at our usual location in Overland Pond Park on the banks of the Platte. After the ritual we are planning child-friendly Lughnasadh Games!

Feel free to bring any offerings you wish for any of the Gods, Ancestors, and Spirits. (Please limit your offerings to that which is burnable or biodegradable to reduce our impact on the natural environment which we hold ritual in!) Our celebrant on this occasion will be Angela Davenport.

We would love for everyone to bring a single piece of firewood from their home spaces to become part of our fire. After the rite we will have potluck fellowship in the park.! Please bring a dish to share that suits your own taste. We cannot have open glass in the park, so please bring beverages in cans, or expect to use a cup. Please also bring two non-perishable food items to be donated to a local food bank. We will gather starting at 11 am, and the ritual will start promptly at noon.

Summertime...

Summer solstice was HOT here in Denver, but our ritual and fellowship in our favorite park beside the Platte River were excellent. It was good to celebrate with old friends and to welcome new acquaintances whom we hope to see again. Mother Platte is currently running at near-record levels as the late snow pack in her mountains melts in the summer heat, and there was at least two feet of fast-moving water over the lovely platform where we celebrated Beltane, so we stayed up above her banks. We'll be having two more rituals at Overland Pond Park before winter returns, so come and join us!

It's June!

It's June, and Midsummer approaches. Join Chokecherry Protogrove on Sunday June 21st to celebrate the longest day of the year on the shores of our mighty Mother Platte!

We will be gathering to give praise and sacrifice to the three Kindreds and enjoy the company of our community. The chief deities of the occasion will be Baldur and Hodr, honoring the bright light of summer, and the darkness that approaches. Feel free to bring any offerings you wish for any of the Gods, Ancestors, and Spirits. (Please limit your offerings to that which is burnable or biodegradable to reduce our impact on the natural environment which we hold ritual in!) Our celebrant on this occasion will be Pink Pitcher.

We would love for everyone to bring a single piece of firewood from their home spaces to become part of our fire. After the rite we will have potluck fellowship in the park! Please bring a dish to share that suits your own taste. We cannot have open glass in the park, so please bring beverages in cans, or expect to use a cup. Please also bring a non-perishable food item to be donated to a local food bank. We will gather starting at 11 am, and the ritual will start promptly at noon.

Coming events...

Our next high day ritual will be held at Overland Pond Park again on Sunday June 21st. More details about that soon, but first I want to take a longer look ahead and mention something new and special we're planning in the fall - a one-day ADF Colorado Retreat! This will be a full day of workshops and rituals on ADF topics, on Saturday October 10th, 2015. I'll be creating a new page on this site soon with more information.

Summer's here!

We had a great Beltaine celebration beside the Platte River this past Sunday. Now we are starting to plan our next event - Midsummer, on June 21st. We expect to be at Overland Pond Park through September, so come and join us!

Getting ready for Beltaine

We're busy getting ready for Beltaine! For that weekend, we're doing something new and possibly unique - G.R. Grove, Chokecherry's Grove Organizer, will be the celebrant for Mountain Ancestors Protogrove, ADF's Beltaine on Saturday May 2nd in Longmont, CO, and Mountain Ancestors' Rev. William E. Ashton II will be the celebrant for our Beltaine ritual on Sunday May 3rd in Denver. We will also be swapping ritual styles, with some of our folk trekking up to Longmont to help, and some of their folk joining us here. It should be a weekend to remember - come and help us make Colorado ADF history!

Gather at 1 pm, ritual at 2 pm. Since ADF druids don't cast closed circles, late comers may still participate, but we ask people to try and arrive before 2 pm for the pre-ritual briefing.

Spring Equinox

Yesterday we celebrated the Spring Equinox - the balance point when day and night are equal - at Overland Pond Park. The park is looking good, and we were glad to be back there for the first time this year. We expect to be meeting there for the next six months, until winter forces us back indoors again. We are already planning to hold our Beltaine ritual there, which will be something special. More details in our next post!

Imbolc...

We had a wonderful Imbolc celebration last night at Spirit Wise Gifts. After a initial trance and centering in the hall, we began spontaneously to chant along with our Bard, and entered the ritual space chanting, being purified at the doorway by smoke and water. Kevin led us through the initial parts of the ritual, then spoke of Bridget, the Patroness of our rite, and several of us spoke of five of Her aspects. We made individual offerings, again with spontaneous chanting that filled our candle-lit room, and a final offering. Gwernin took the omen, which was excellent, and we shared the Blessings of the Waters of Life in the form of Rowen's wonderful mead. Then people spoke of challenges and blessings in their lives, and we closed the rite. The feasting that followed was full of joy and fellowship.

Imbolc update

On Sunday February 1st we'll be back at Spirit Wise (6590 South Broadway) for our Imbolc celebration. This year we honor Brigid, Celtic Goddess of poetry, smith-craft, and brewing. We will gather starting at 3 pm and begin the ritual at 4 pm. Please plan to arrive by 3:30 pm to allow for our pre-ritual briefing and attunement. This site is a basement room accessed by a steep staircase, so plan accordingly. This is a family-friendly ritual which will last approximately 45 minutes.  Please remember to bring two items for our food drive if possible, and a potluck dish to share during our after-ritual feasting.

Planning for Imbolc

We're busy planning for Imbolc on Sunday February 1st, time and venue still tba. Check back for updated information.