Bishop in the Grove

Tag: ADF

  • I Went Camping in the Woods and I Came Back a Druid

    I Went Camping in the Woods and I Came Back a Druid

    Organized sports never suited me. But wrestling with my faith? Someone should give out trophies. I would have a garage full. When I left for the Eight Winds Festival, the first ADF gathering I’d ever attended, I was concerned that I may not be able to invest myself fully on account of a little religious […]

  • When Jesus Hitches a Ride to the Druid Camp

    When Jesus Hitches a Ride to the Druid Camp

    I’ve been a stay-at-home Pagan, a bookish Pagan, a CUUPS ritual-attending Pagan, and a blogging Pagan. But as of yet, I have not been a festival-going Pagan. That all changes this week. On Wednesday I shall make my way to the Prosser Ranch group campground, located just outside the town of Truckee, California, and celebrate […]

  • The Awen Moves: An Offering in the Morning

    The Awen Moves: An Offering in the Morning

    There is an intrinsic connection between creativity and spirituality, I think. The impuse to create feels very much to me like the impulse to worship, to do ritual, or to pray. Perhaps this is why my heart sang out so loundly when I first found the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids. OBOD asserts that […]

  • One Little Pagan on the Huffington Post

    One Little Pagan on the Huffington Post

    I remember when I first came out as gay, I wanted to read other gay writers. I wanted to listen to gay music, and wear gay t-shirts, and stitch a gay patch to my high school backpack. Gay was the thing to be, as far as I was concerned, and “gay bling” was hot currency. […]

  • You Say Tomato, I Say Druid.

    You Say Tomato, I Say Druid.

    Ever since I took the name, Teo Bishop, and made it my own — both in a religious sense and through the proper legal channels — I’ve had cause to explain what it is that I do on this blog. My writing, as well as my deepening engagement with my own spiritual work, are both […]

  • WARNING: Call on a God, and He just might show up.

    WARNING: Call on a God, and He just might show up.

    I drove an hour to Malibu for my Spring Equinox ritual. The location was a secluded, public beach called “El Matador.” The site opened at 8, and I arrived just a few minutes after the top of the hour. I followed the dirt trail down the edge of the cliff side, wearing jeans and work […]

  • Chew on THIS, Pagans.

    Chew on THIS, Pagans.

    We set fire to the kitchen last night. Metaphorically, I mean. The conversation started while I was preparing dinner, and it continued on throughout the meal and into the clean-up. I woke up thinking about it, and I feel compelled to share some of it with you, my readers; my community of dig-deepers. I’m not […]

  • Doing It Alone on the Equinox

    Doing It Alone on the Equinox

    I find that the best way to get my house clean is to throw a party. My desk may be covered with books and papers, my laundry bin filled, and my various interests — knitting and sewing being those that come with the most accessories — all sprawled out across the dining room table, but […]

  • What do we want from our Pagan leaders?

    What do we want from our Pagan leaders?

    In this last week of post-Pantheacon decompression, I’ve discovered a few things about myself. First, as much as I am invested in my online work, either through blogging or social networking, nothing compares to real-life, skin and sweat, handshakes and hugs interaction. You can imagine all you want about how great it would feel to dance, […]

  • The Action of Worship

    The Action of Worship

    My religion is experienced in the doing. This became clear to me as I entered the sacred space of our ADF ritual at Pantheacon, lifted my voice to invoke the spirit of Inspiration, and, for a moment, left my mind behind. When I stepped in front of the altar and began to sing, I was […]

  • The Urgency to Understand Pantheacon

    The Urgency to Understand Pantheacon

    I brought my little tin-can altar to Pantheacon, and set it up in my hotel room on the glass, circular end table next to the lounge chair. The conference program was rather stern about not burning incense or lighting candles anywhere in the hotel, but I chose to believe that the rules didn’t include small tea […]

  • Oh my Gods, I’m at #Pantheacon.

    Oh my Gods, I’m at #Pantheacon.

    I’m buzzing. Vibrating. I know that sounds New Age-y, but that’s really what it feels like to be in my body at this moment. I’m sitting in the lobby of the San Jose DoubleTree Hotel, and Pantheacon is exploding all around me. There are men in skirts, women in top hats, people whose gender is a […]

  • Liturgy is Sexy to *this* Druid

    Liturgy is Sexy to *this* Druid

    Here’s why ADF is awesome: The Core Order of Ritual. There are other reasons, too, but the Core Order of Ritual (or COoR) tops my list at the moment. The COoR is the key liturgical framework for ritual that unites the Druids of Ár nDraíocht Féin, regardless of what Hearth Tradition they’ve adopted for themselves […]

  • Isaac Bonewits holds me up… Pants and all.

    Isaac Bonewits holds me up… Pants and all.

    I’m wearing Isaac Bonewits’s belt buckle. Have been for days. The pewter Pan, which once held up the pants of a great Druid, is now playing his flute just above my zipper. This seems both an appropriate and terribly dangerous location for the randy God. I’ve never been a devotee of Pan — at least, […]

  • Holy Crap… I think I may be a Wiccan

    So I’m talking with one my best girlfriends this morning, pacing around her kitchen as she cooks up some kale, and I’m telling her the story of me being told by a women that, “Women, by nature, understand the Goddess better than men,” or that, “There’s just something about women that makes it easier for […]

  • The Day The Heathens Built A Chapel

    The Day The Heathens Built A Chapel

    The burly, bearded, leather wearing Heathens didn’t quite know what to make of Sister Who, but that didn’t stop them from helping build her Interfaith Chapel. Sister Who squinted as she gave the instructions for how to put which pole into which joint, and when she did her fake eyelashes fluttered like plastic butterflies. Every […]

  • The Fire Of A Solitary Druid

    We may experience our spiritual journey in solitary, but there is something powerful which unites us all.

  • How I Arrived At Pagan

    I’m writing to explain my relationship with the identifier, Pagan, and how it sometimes fits and often does not fit my sense of religious identity.

  • Show and Tell: My Bookshelf

    Following the lead of a friend, I share a photo of my spiritual work space as a reminder that yes-I am more than the sum of my online profiles!

  • An Expostmodern Response

    There’s a buzz in the Pago-blogosphere about this idea of expostmodernism, specifically as it relates to religion, it’s survival, or it’s demise.

  • Turning Over The Earth

    The Spring comes, and my life transforms. It seems to be almost as reliable as the coming of the Cottonwood snow. It happens every year, this pull towards the world; this letting go of Winter’s introspection.