Shining Lakes News

A Newsletter for Shining Lakes Grove, A.D.F.

Fall Equinox 2002 - Vol. 9, No. 8

Samhain Draws Nigh

I know that some of you folks who are reading this have never been to one of our Samhain rituals before, and maybe (I hope!) you're thinking about coming this year. I thought I'd give you some advice on what to expect. (You old-timers might want to pay attention too!)

We're having both of our rites, plus the pre-ritual Fire Watch, at Botsford Recreational Preserve. It's a privately owned nature preserve in Scio Township just outside the city of Ann Arbor. This is where our permanent nemeton (ritual space) is located, surrounded by old-growth trees and many kinds of animals.

The address is 3015 Miller Ave. To find it, take M-14 to the Miller exit, and go west. That's right if you've come from M-14 westbound (Detroit or US-23); left if you've come from M-14 eastbound (Jackson). We are not in the office buildings that you'll see on your left. (Yes, the sign says that addresses 3001 through 3061 are in the building. The sign lies. Don't trust it. It's probably cruel to animals as well.)

Just past the entrance to the office building, there's a deer crossing sign on the right, and a small dirt driveway on the left. That driveway is the entrance to the preserve. If you remember nothing else from these directions, please remember "across from the deer crossing sign."

So when do things get started? Actually, they start on the night of Friday the 1st, at dusk. This is when our Fire Watch begins, our all-night vigil to tend our newly kindled Grove flame for the rituals on Saturday. We also have a short ritual to initiate our newly elected Grove officers. You're welcome to stop by any time during the night to see the fire, put some wood in, make offerings, scry, sleep in the hope of having a prophetic dream, etc.

The next day, our afternoon rite will be at 2 pm. (This is also the day of the Michigan/MSU football game, which will be in Ann Arbor this year, so we strongly recommend coming early if possible.) This will be our family-friendly rite, celebrating the reunion of our tribal father god Lugh and our river goddess Ana, which happens around this time of year. We'll be doing a simplified, scripted version of our ritual, so it will be easy for children to take ritual roles. And we'll have some kind of craft project as part of the ritual, plus our usual raffle and potluck after we're done.

Our evening rite will begin at about 6:30 pm on Saturday, depending on how long it takes us to set everything up, and how many people show up to help us set up. (Hint hint!) If you're never been to our ritual site before, please please please try to get there early. That driveway is hard enough to find in broad daylight, never mind at dusk.

It will be dark and possibly cold, so bring a flashlight and a blanket if you think you'll need one. Also, keep the weather-and woodsy terrain-in mind when choosing your ritual garb. I don't know this from personal experience, but I'm told that pointy high heels are a bad idea. Otherwise, anything from jeans to robes is appropriate, including Samhain costumes.

This is our ritual to honor Mannanan and the Ancestors, and usually involves themes of death and rebirth, which may be too intense for young children to handle. There will be a potluck after, but no raffle (have you ever tried reading raffle tickets in the dark?), though we will ask for donations to cover our site rental fee. As for the potluck, hot dishes always go over well, and you can use the fire to keep your cauldron of soup warm!

So what exactly will be doing at these rites? That depends on what we decide at our Liturgists' Roundtable meeting. Those will be on October 15th and 29th at 263 Larkspur in Ann Arbor. If you'd like to have some input on what our ritual themes will be, which songs we use, which props we need, etc., then this is the place to be. You don't have to be a member of SLG to attend; we'll listen to anybody who makes the effort to show up and say something. (No promises we'll do everything that you say, of course, but the odds are pretty good, actually.)

And the last question you might be asking is, "Am I allowed to be there?" Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! Our rituals and our meetings are open to the public; we don't do the "secret society" thing in this group. (Thank the gods!) This is almost certainly our biggest holiday of the year, and we want to have lots of people there to celebrate it.

So please don't wait for a special engraved invitation to show up in your mailbox. (We can't afford those anyway.) In the words of that shoe company named after a Greek goddess, "just do it!" Be there! Honor the gods! Share their blessings! Share company and food with your fellows!

Yours in service to the Kindreds and the Grove,
Rev. Rob Henderson, Senior Druid

The Operation was a Success But the Patient Died

This article is very difficult for me to write. As it stands right now, there will be no festival for Lughnasadh next year. The festival this year ran so smoothly. All of the presenters we expected were there. All of the workshops were held as planned. The Feast was excellent. The auction had some of the most beautiful items I've seen in a long time. The weather was beautiful. We couldn't have asked for anything more, except participants. If you weren't there you missed a really great festival.

One of the things that makes this so difficult for me is that Lughnasadh is an anniversary for me. It marks the first contact that Chuck and I had with the Grove. Chuck had visited the website and we thought Shining Lakes Grove might be the group we were hoping to find. We came for the Saturday activities in 2000. We had so much fun we vowed to spend the whole weekend in 2001.

I enjoyed the festival so much that I began coming to the festival planning meetings. One thing led to another and I have become very involved with SLG. I can't help but think that there are others like me who need a venue like the festival to learn more about our Grove. It saddens me to think that next year we won't have that to offer. We have briefly discussed the possibility of a spring festival in 2004, but I guess much of that will depend on how soon we can recover from the financial losses of this year.

I can only hope this will all turn out for the best. In the meantime, I will cherish my memories of the first festival I came to and try to help put together a new festival so others will be able to find the happiness I have found here with Shining Lakes Grove.

Jude Howison

It Had to Happen Sooner or Later . . .

Way back in 1994, when the Grove was first getting started, we set our yearly membership dues just high enough to cover the cost of copying our newsletters. Obviously, the price of copying has gone up a bit since then, and for the past few years the money we get from memberships hasn't been enough to cover the newsletters, let alone our other expenses. So, effective November 10th, our membership dues will be raised to $20 for adults, with children's rates (12 and under) staying the same. Remember, if you renew your membership or join before November 10th, you can do it at the old rate!

Dedicant Program Study Group

Join fellow Druids who seek to gain a greater understanding of Druidry and their place in it through completion of the ADF Dedicant Program. Our goal is to start at Samhain and finish in a year, through self-study with regular study group meetings to keep us all on track. If you are interested, please attend our planning meeting at 2515 Miller Avenue, Ann Arbor, at 7 pm on Wednesday, October 23rd or contact Fred Paepke at paepke@ameritech.net.

SLG Leadership Council

Senior Druid
Rob Henderson robh@cyberspace.org

Assistant Senior Druid
Rodney Cox UberRod@aol.com

Administrator
Don Clayton dclayton204718@comcast.net

Scribe
Deanna Justice sjdeannaj@hotmail.com

Pursewarden
Rodney Cox UberRod@aol.com

Chronicler
Genevieve Stoyak gstoyak@hotmail.com

Outreach Coordinator
(position open)

Youth Activities Coordinator
(position open)

SLG Guild Leaders

Magicians' Guild
Rodney Cox UberRod@aol.com

Warriors' Guild
Rodney Cox UberRod@aol.com

Healers' Guild
Rodney Cox UberRod@aol.com

Naturalists' Guild
Fred Wark fllwark@htonline.com

Producers' Guild (unofficial)
Gen Stoyak gstoyak@hotmail.com

Those without e-mail access can contact our officers at our snail-mail address or phone number.

Shining Lakes News (©2002) is published eight times a year by Shining Lakes Grove, A.D.F., P.O. Box 1732, Ann Arbor, MI, 48106, (734) 998-1029. For information about SLN, contact the Chronicler at (734) 495-0813 or gstoyak@hotmail.com. For information about Shining Lakes Grove, contact the Senior Druid at (248) 446-0730 or robh@cyberspace.org.

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