What are you doing this weekend? there's still a few spaces available for anyone interested! Here's info from the Inn.....
And we'll see a bunch of you at the FIRST ARCHAEOLOGY DIG of 2025 on Sunday at 9 am!
top of page
Search
Hey folks! Just wanted to let you know about a NEW EPISODE on the Mystical Musings Podcast! The Power of Story and Sacred Spaces: Exploring the Fertile Ground Gathering is now live at https://mysticalmusings.buzzsprout.com and is being loaded onto your favorite podcast platform now! Here's a description:
In this episode, Tava Baird and Jennifer Taylor dive into a profound discussion on storytelling, sacred spaces, and the transformative power of communal gatherings. Joined by Liz and Cael Jacobs, of Wilder Grove, they explore the essence and offerings of the Fertile Ground Gathering, a unique event that weaves together spirituality and community in a sacred natural setting.
Register or read more about the Fertile Ground Gathering in May at
Yup, that's right, Jennifer and I and her husband Keith will be teaching at the Fertile Ground Gathering in a few weeks in the Fredericksburg, VA area! We've designed a unique experience for those in our workshops that integrates storytelling, sacred dance, channeled music, and more. I'll also be leading several community workshops at the Gathering, including a Beltane paint-and-sip (herbal tea) class, a Bone-casting demo and Q&A, a corn husk doll poppet-making class, and I'll also be leading a Community Craft gathering called Arachne's Circle where you can come and make protection poppets with me or bring your craft of choice and just hang out.
There's lots of other amazing stuff happening at Darkflower Books & Folk Art too! This weekend, April 5th and 6th, I'll be vending at The Grapes of Wrath Medieval Combat Event in Culpepper, VA, and then on April 12 I'll be vending in a Victorian cemetery in West VA where you can picnic among the tombstones! The haunted Blue Ball Inn has its first dig of the year on Sunday, April 13th, and then I'll be vending a TON of original paintings at the Winchester Apple Blossom Festival at the end of the month at the Fairgrounds in Clear Brook, VA! For more info, go here:
The Book of High Places is proceeding merrily along, and whoa...brace yourself for a wild ride! We're on track for the book to be out early summer! Woot woot!
AND....Wyldwood is currently in the process of being updated and re-printed through MPC Publishing and will find its way into your local bookshop later this year! So excited for this!
AND....Circle of Three is currently being turned into an audiobook! I've heard the first few chapters and Andrew is KILLING IT.
Other fun things on the horizon in May:
Darkflower will be at The World of Fae Faerie Market in PA!
And....the VA Ren. Faire the weekend of May 31-June 1!
And in June, we head for The Age of Viking Mead Festival in Culpepper, VA!
Hope to see you at a market, dig, or just out and about!
Sending you so much love,
Tava
On the Metaphysical Musings Podcast titled Navigating Times of Change: Finding Peace and Purpose in Uncertainty, Samael had some words to share. Here is the transcript:
Let us speak of cities. Why do humans make cities? Let us think on that. The embodied live together for comfort. For convenience. But most of all, for safety.
Together, humans make the bricks and mix the mortar to build the walls. And yet cities can be places of great danger on their own. Disease spreads quickly inside the walls. Humans can become locked in to their own starvation. Trapped with the fire. They convince themselves that it is still the best choice.
But no, Uumshalah, not in times such as these. What is it you said? "I would rather exist with the bear than the man." When those in power behind the walls show themselves to only crave regression, you must leave the city and build a new home.
It is time for a pilgrimage. When a tree becomes too top heavy, it must be pruned.
First, decide what you will take with you, and whom. You will be forming a new tribe and each must earn their place. The city wants you frantic. Move in calm instead.
You need healers, leaders, farmers, laborers, teachers, warriors, priestesses, gatherers, and artists. Assemble your circle and go through your things.
Do not dwell in minutia. That is not the divine view.
Dream of what your new homestead, your new village, will be. Disassemble your old and give what is left to the needy.
Your perspective will be different once you start walking. Once free of the stale air and stagnation of life between the walls. For where are you going, Uumshala? Back towards the wild. Back towards nature. And so, back towards God.
They will not want you to leave, for they wish your obedience. But you have only one leader, and it is the wild. Learn to defend yourself. Form collectives to share resources and trade and defend.
With no one to rule, the kings will fall in ways you could never have predicted.
Do not worry the wounds they deliver. Stitch them up and leave the abuser behind.
Move from churches to circles. Move from townhouse to cottage. Purge the commercial poison from you. Draw inward, but once your energy is marshaled, find new ways to reach out.
Do not give hate attention. Instead, feed those around you, and prepare for the day when the city does fall. In its place, you will have made a society anew. Be ready. Grow strong in body and spirit.
You say, we have gone backwards by decades. But not all progress is lost. You cannot see it, based on where you stand. The walls shake before they fall. The jackals growl before they consume themselves.
Remember, this is not the only country. Find your own allies. Turn off the boxes, go outside, and find a hand to hold. Look to the Victory Garden, and build your own. A place of nourishment in a time of war. You do not need to watch the unstoppable wounds being delivered. Thread your needle to prepare for reapir. It is now time. The "someday" when you would step into your own.
It is here. Build. Crowd out what does not deserve your energy and attention. Lead.
bottom of page