I’ve decided to respond to some of the feedback that I’ve received from folks at Ecumenicon regarding my review of the conference I attended in March of this year. I’m not participating in their e-list discussion about myself and my viewpoints, but I do have some things to say and will continue to say as long as the flame war continues. And since this is a public journal, I have a right to say what I please on it for the world to see. And when people do search for Ecumenicon on the web, my site will pop up because I have a decent google ranking.
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I had a great time at the Trillium Gathering this year, like every other year I’ve gone. This is by far the best festival/event I go to throughout the year, mainly because it’s so close-knit and the people are so wonderful. The theme of this year’s festival was to honor the Nature Spirits of that land (more specifically the Shenandoah).

Caryn and I arrived early on Thursday, about 2pm or so. We had a meal-plan setup for Thursday night and Sunday morning during setup/tear down of our camp so we didn’t have to mess with fixing meals at that time. The meals are usually done by Mountain Rhythm Cafe and these guys are amazing. They do everything organically and the food is phenomenal.

Friday was a day of workshops. I attended a workshop on Biodynamic Farming which was pretty interesting, and another which was a ritual to meet the Sidhe done by Ian Corrigan (at least I think that’s what the purpose was). I like participating in rituals done by Ian because he’s very well-versed and well-spoken. He is able to really set up the unified group mind when he talks.

Friday night was the bardic circle which I was asked to open. I played a few songs, and the circle was a little slow getting people involved, but I didn’t go back to camp until 2am because it turned out pretty amazing. A lot of drumming, and more singing of songs that I haven’t played in years, and tons of mead. I actually got the chance to sing one of the chants duet-style with Ian while he sang harmony. -That- was actually a lot of fun.

Saturday I participated in a workshop on Peak Oil, but slept through a workshop done by Skip because of my shenanigans the night before. The Peak Oil workshop was really interesting, and had a lot of discussion about climate change and our role in it, which I’ve always been fascinated with. The woman who presented it and I spoke about a workshop I was setting up on Disaster Preparedness for the Grove. Apparently it’s what her husband does for a living so I’ll be able to email him with any questions or tips that he can provide.

Saturday night was a communal potluck with a concert by Liafel, whom played all of my favorite songs. This was followed by an impromptu drumming circle around the bonfire till 2am when the rains came. And boy did they come. This morning was pretty miserable tearing down everything in the rain. I’m still shivering because the cold just soaked into my bones from being wet.

I was really happy to be able to say more than hello to Chronarchy, and spend a little time with Art and his wife. I also got to see more skin of the ADF leadership than I think I ever wanted, but as Chronarchy says, it -is- ADF.

The only complaint I really had about the weekend, which I think others did too, was some obnoxious drunken behavior by one of the participants. But what are you gonna do.

I just got home from the ADF Trillium Gathering (review to follow) and just checked my email.

Apparently the open “no bs” review I gave for Ecumenicon was Googled by some folks involved with Ecumenicon and was not taken very well. Thus I am called a snob, and like I pretend to know more than I do, and a few other stereotypes I didn’t understand. My blog was even linked to all of these people (I don’t think they know I was forwarded some of these emails from someone I met at Ecumenicon this year), which to be honest it was an open review so I’m not concerned about that. What does concern me is these issues are being discussed and I am be bashed in their inner circle, and only one person has the inclination to come to me about my concerns (to which I am thrilled and will respond to below). You can’t run an organization and ask for feedback, and then bash the people that don’t give you the feedback you wanted. Ask for “positive feedback only” if those are the results you want.

I didn’t bash anyone in the review, but I’m certainly going to point out the weak spots when I see them. That’s what constructive criticism is supposed to be about, or so I assumed.

Does this change whether or not I’d go to Ecumenicon next year? No. If I like the programming, I’ll most certainly go. Will I vote to sponsor the conference in the Grove next year? That will take some serious thought process on my part.

Now the teacher that responded with positive questions on how I could help with the programming of her class, that was really impressive, and probably the main thing that would definitely have me pay money to go back (unlike the bashing).

The only two main suggestions I would have for the Palmistry 101 classes are 1. Focus solely on one type of Palmistry (I was getting confused with the different types, Runic, I-Ching, etc), and 2. Add more about interpretation and maybe do a sample reading on one of the students and ask everyone else what their interpretations of that reading were. That would have been really helpful, and give the students a chance to glimpse into an actual reading.

And I do honestly feel the class did it’s job by opening my interest in Palmistry, and I’ll definitely be doing my own research. Perhaps I will even email them to compare notes and ask questions.

The saddest part about all of this, is all the work I did on their website, which didn’t even compare to the cost of the conference, but I did so as a donation because I wanted to support their cause. I’ll probably still lend a hand now and then, but my desire is certainly disappointed.

For those wanting my response to the current discussion going on, on the Ecumenicon E-List, click here.

I just got finished making my famous devilled eggs. My dad is cooking up chicken and homefries for Easter dinner. I have some red cabbage and onion skins to dye some eggs later, and may use cantip leaves as decoration since I don’t have much available in the way of botanicals.

Yesterday the Grove celebrated it’s Ostara High Rite, and boy was it awesome. Several of us have been gathering before ritual to do small projects and such, and for this High Rite we decided to gather pinecones, plaster them in homemade peanut butter, and roll them in bird seed for the Nature Spirits. We hung about 30 of them all around the sanctuary as an offering.

This ritual was completely dedicated to the Earth Mother, kinda like a surprise birthday party for the Earth Mother. Everything in the ritual was organic and/or sustainable, from the offerings to the tools we used. Nothing plastic. Even the string we used to hang up the pinecones was made of cotton.

Most of the offerings were various forms of grass seed since the sanctuary is becoming fairly muddy and pitiful as far as grass is concerned. I happened to invite the Nature Spirits for this particular ritual.

I’m not sure what the omen was, as it was kind of confusing. I guess I’ll wait for the Seer’s Guild to interpret it.

I conducted a small auction of goods at the Grove during revels after the High Rite. I donated $86 worth of goods, which those particular goods raised over $109 (more than half of the total raised) for the Grove. Our grand total raised was $200.25, not bad for a small auction that wasn’t really pushed all that much.

One of my goals as Senior Druid has been to alternate every High Rite between a Fundraiser and a Charity. Our Imbolc High Rite was for the Lakota Blanket Drive (which I will get a total count of blankets next weekend), and Ostara was an auction Fundraiser. For Beltane we may do a book charity drive. So far keeping up with this project has been fairly easy

Today is going to be finishing up small projects around the house and relax spending time with my dad for his Easter.

I invited the Vice Arch-Druid to come visit the Grove this past weekend, and I really wanted him to teach his workshop listed on his website on integrity. Integrity has been something I’ve been pushing recently at the Grove, and was also the topic of our Imbolc/Ostara newsletter that came out this past week.

I’ve always been semi-intimidated by the ADF leadership, as I never get much of a chance to “mingle” with them during festivals and have no reason to hold conversations with them in other formats such as email or anything (Granted Skip did sit down and pull pieces of wood that were embedded in my arm at the last Trillium). So I was a bit apprehensive about how Kirk and I would get along.

Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly), however, we got along swimmingly. He showed up on Saturday evening close to 5ish and I stayed at the Grove for him to make sure someone was there to help him get settled. We showed him around the Grove Space since he has never been there and we are the only Grove in ADF to actually own our own building. I treated him to dinner and afterwards he and I came back to the Grove and shared some white wine and talked and talked for hours about everything under the sun. Not all of it ADF related, which was the best part because it really gave me a chance to get to know him on a personal and real level, and hopefully vice versa.

Sunday he participated in our Rites of Caffieena and Walk with the Old Ones Sunday Brunch and Ritual. And then he gave his integrity workshop (which was very awesome and even emotional for some, I noticed). And he also quoted me in his workshop from something he and I were talking about the night before that I wrote in the fall issue of the Grove newsletter, which was just plain cool. I recorded it so I hope to have the workshop up for listening on the Grove website within the next few days. We went out to dinner again tonight on him to reciprocate the night before.

I hope he enjoyed his stay, and I certainly enjoyed hosting him. You just have to make your own impression about folks instead of listening to hype or my own sub-conscious paranoia. I can say I was happy to see the ADF leadership as real people.

I was also happy to see that some of the networking at WABA-PLC paid off, as one of the local Coven folks I met there stopped by today per my invitation. She’s really an awesome chick and I hope I get to hang out with her more.