Australia

OBOD Members Travel to 2019 Southern Hemisphere Assembly

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MANAKAU, NEW ZEALAND – Members of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids are travelling to New Zealand this week to take part in the eighteenth annual Southern Hemisphere OBOD Assembly. 2018 marks the first time the Assembly has been held in New Zealand. Hosted by Grove of the Summer Stars, the Assembly will have many New Zealander and Australian OBOD members in attendance, along with OBOD Chief Philip Carr-Gomm, Scribe Stephanie Carr-Gomm and newly chosen Chief Eimear Burke. The Grove of the Summer Stars is based in Pukerua Bay, north of Wellington on New Zealand’s north island. The Assembly itself will run for six days in Manakau, a suburb of Auckland, but attendees will have the opportunity to visit the Grove during a “magical mystery tour” on the Saturday.

Culture

Big Data and the Pagan World

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TWH –  Almost everyone uses Google to search for information. AS we all know, Google provides other types of information as well and some of that content involves Pagans, Wiccans, Druids, and Heathens. But before going on, proceed with caution.  There is some nerdy tech-iness ahead. . Google Ngram Viewer

Google has digitized millions of books and through that process has made those document searchable and comparable in a variety of ways.  Google Ngram Viewer is a tool that examines books published between 1500 and 2008.

Australia

Spiral Dance songwriters capture magick, myths of two lands

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ADELAIDE HILLS, Australia — The members of Spiral Dance are “song catchers of magick, myths and legend” – so says the Australian folk rock band’s website. On Land and Legend, the band’s latest album and its ninth since its 1996 debut, Spiral Dance walks in two worlds. Its members celebrate the gods, goddesses, and myths of their ancestral roots in the British Isles, and they seek to connect to the spirit of their Australian home. The Wild Hunt spoke to singer and main songwriter Adrienne Piggott, as well as accordion player and songwriter Paul Gooding, about walking that walk. TWH: Do you identify as Pagan?

Australia

Druids Down Under organize a national gathering for 2018

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SYDNEY — Australian eclectic Druid group Druids Down Under is set to host its first national event in the Pennant Hills this weekend. The gathering will include workshops, musical performances, meditation, creative spaces and nature walks, with organisers expecting around 60 participants from a range of established traditions such as Ár nDraíocht Féin, the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, and the British Druid Order, as well as eclectic and solitary practitioners. Organiser and eclectic Druid Julie Brett hopes the gathering will be significant and uniquely Australian. “It focuses on what it means to follow the path of Druidry in the Australian landscape specifically,” Brett says. “This is the first time that we have met in large numbers from around the country in person.

News

Prison Samhain ritual brings together Druids, Wiccans, and Heathens

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CONNEL, Wash. — On Nov. 4 – 5, 2017, ADF members and prisoners hosted a pan-Pagan Samhain, ritual and mini-conference at Coyote Ridge Correctiosn Center in Connel, Washington. This mixed minimum- and medium-security prison has a capacity to house 2,468 prisoners. About 60 Heathen, Druid, and Wiccan prisoners participated.