Samhain 2024 - Update

 Chokecherry will be celebrating Samhain on Saturday November 2nd. As usual with us now, it will be hybrid. Gather on line at about 5 pm MDT, ritual at 5:30ish. The ritual will probably be Celtic as usual.
Zoom link.

Samhain 2024

 Chokecherry will be celebrating Samhain on Saturday November 2nd. As usual with us now, it will be hybrid. I'll put the details here next week.

Our Rocky Mountain retreat went very well. We won't be going back to La Foret next year (alas) - logistics have not been great. It's a lovely site, but too far from town, and expensive. Instead we are planning a one-day virtual retreat analogous to our March Divination Workshop. 

One more note about the retreat - during the Saturday evening ritual the celebrant invoked Arawn as Deity of the Occasion. Immediately the Wild Hunt flew over us twice! Well, two very loud, very low military jets on approach to the air base - but that was the effect! 😮

Rocky Mountain Retreat next weekend!

 A reminder that our tenth annual Rocky Mountain retreat will be held next weekend! The subject this year is "Sacred Darkness" and we have some great speakers lined up. The schedule: 

Saturday:

9:30 a.m. MDT: Rev. Jean "Drum" Pagano, ADF's Archdruid, speaking about Sacred Darkness.

 11:30 a.m. MDT: Anthony Murphy of Mythical Ireland, speaking about the subject of his newest book, Fourknocks passage tomb.

 2:00 p.m. MDT: Kevin Jenkins, speaking about Sacred Darkness in Native American traditions.

4:00 p.m. MDT: Rev. Gaarik Hamr, speaking about The Road to Hel.

6:00 p.m. MDT: Full moon ritual.

 

Sunday:

9:30 a.m. MDT: Rev. G. R. Grove, speaking about the archeology of cave rituals in Western Europe.

11:30 a.m. MDT: panel discussion.

1:00 p.m. MDT: walking the La Foret labyrinth. 

All presentations will be recorded and available afterwards to everyone who signs up. To see the signup link, look at the right sidebar on http://www.chokecherryadf.org/ (I
f viewing on your phone, scroll down to the bottom of the page and choose web view.)

Rocky Mountain Retreat

 Our annual Rocky Mountain Retreat is coming up in two weeks! Our Saturday speakers will be Rev. Jean "Drum" Pagano, Anthony Murphy of Mythical Ireland, Gaarik Hamr, and Kevin Jenkins. For more details, see this page. All sessions will be recorded and available to everyone who signs up afterwards.

 Our Zoom Equinox celebration will be this Saturday: gather at 6 pm, ritual 6:30 MDT. Link: Zoom link.This will be virtual only; it looks like rain.

October Rocky Mountain Retreat...

 ...is coming up in two months. Details here.

UPDATE: Confirmed presenters:

• Rev. Jean "Drum" Pagano, ADF's Archdruid, speaking about Sacred Darkness.
• Anthony Murphy of Mythical Ireland, speaking about the subject of his newest book, Fourknocks.
• Rev. Gaarik Hamr, speaking about The Road to Hel.
• Kevin Jenkins, speaking about Sacred Darkness in Native American traditions.
  
• Rev. G. R. Grove, speaking about the archeology of cave rituals in Western Europe.

Lughnasadh 2024

 We'll be celebrating mostly via Zoom on Saturday evening August 3rd starting at 7 pm MDT. Link: 

Topic: lughnasadh
Time: Aug 3, 2024 07:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89573848660?pwd=6SkIQO89abpmmVPxRaCqbdVYwnKL6L.1

UPDATE: DUE TO HOT WEATHER AND FIRE HAZARDS, OUR LUGHNASADH RITUAL WILL BE ZOOM ONLY THIS YEAR.

Midsummer 2024

 We will be celebrating Midsummer on Saturday evening June 22nd this year. Again, the ritual will be largely virtual, and I will post the Zoom link a few days before. Gather at 7pm MDT, ritual 7:30 or thereabouts. 

Apologies for no notice for Beltane - I was ill, and due to our video tech being unavailable, in the event the ritual was canceled.

UPDATE: Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83995984713?pwd=ajbwV7MfOgn1fXOVw3c9bnOKiaLxot.1

And afterwards...

 

Many thanks to everyone who participated in yesterday's Divination Workshops. We had a great time and plan to do it again next year!

Our next public ritual will be Beltane, probably Saturday May 4th - more details when we get closer.

And planning ahead - our October Rocky Mountain Retreat will be the weekend of October 18-20th this year, and the theme will be "Sacred Darkness" - so mark your calendars now!

Update: Beltane: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89962836171?pwd=SjJYc0VVZXd4enBrSnV2MTJQTlJJdz09

Divination Workshops - last update

This is the last update for Saturday's Divination Workshops. You can still sign up until Saturday morning. The schedule and other details are here: http://www.chokecherryadf.org/p/march-divination-methods-workshop.html. The Zoom link for the evening ritual which starts about 5:30 pm MDT is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84832880662?pwd=a3crUEJ5SWRYUE1uU0N5aElRWmJnZz09.

Spring Equinox 2024

 This year we will be celebrating the Spring Equinox a bit early and in a special way. We will be holding our annual March Divination Workshops on Saturday March 16th, and have decided to end the day with a virtual Core Order Ritual celebrating the Spring Equinox and the first quarter moon. I will post a free Zoom link for the ritual here, but for only $10 you can attend any or all of the presentations (which will be recorded and shared with everyone who signs up afterwards) and get a coupon code for a free ebook of our ritual order (pictured here) as well!

Imbolc 2024

 We'll be celebrating Imbolc via Zoom on Saturday February 3rd, starting around 5 pm MST. Link: imbolc 2024