Our Druidry is made up not only of Solitaries, but also Groves and Protogrove congregations. When a new ProtoGrove is formed, one of their tasks is to come up with a name that will represent them and become their identity. The Grove Organizer’s Handbook gives some guidelines, but here, we wanted to asked Senior Druids and Grove Organizers what their name means, and how they came up with it. Don’t see your Grove in this list? Email blog@adf.org with your Grove’s story!
Grove of the Red Earth, ADF
story submitted by James Lock
Our grove name came from a very straightforward but important aspect of our area. We are in Georgia, and this state is known for the red clay of its soil. Everything in this area is literally built upon a “red earth” due to the high iron oxide content in the ground. Not only does this give the soil here a distinctive look but it makes the soil especially good at retaining nutrients, thus making it more fertile than many would think. Rich, fertile soil with an easily recognizable appearance seemed a good foundation for our practice and a name for our grove.
Raven Wood Grove
story submitted by Patrick Donlea
It’s pretty straight forward. The three of us who formed the Grove were trying to come up with a name when we noticed that three ravens were perched on the roof of my truck. Since we were going to be holding ritual at Lori and Pat’s home which is located in a hickory grove, it seemed to us that the Gods, or at least the local Ravens, wanted the Grove to be named Raven Wood. We hived off of Wild Onion Grove located in Chicago.
Three Branch River Grove
story submitted by Linda Sager Kazalski
Three Branch River Grove is named after the Elizabeth River, a major tributary into the Chesapeake Bay. It has 3 main branches that look like a crooked Awen. Their SD lives between two of the branches.
Raven’s Cry Grove, ADF
story submitted by Michael Talvola
The name “Raven’s Cry” is inspired not only by our local native raven Nature Spirits who typically welcome us with a “flyby” – watching and commenting with us at outdoor rituals, but we are also named after the aspect of the Morrigan known as Badb, the goddess of battle. Badb translates to “Battle Crow, ” and her cries echo over the battlefield prophesying victory or loss. There also is a sort of play on words – “Raven’s Cry” vs. “Raven Scry”.
Sierra Madrone Grove
story submitted by Rev. Sean Harbaugh
We were originally Protogrove of the Valley Oak. We were at a member campout when we were contemplating evolving into a Grove. One of our founding (and former) members came up with Sierra Madrone as a name. “Sierra” due to our proximity to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and “Madrone” which is a native tree specific to the northern Sierras and Pacific Northwest. It stuck, and we’ve kept it ever since.
Protogrove of the Osprey
story submitted by Seamus Ravensea
After spending a lot of time living at the beach in Pensacola, Florida, (National Parks Campground Hosts) we would quite often see Osprey all over the place. So I started to do more study on this fantastic raptor. It was during this time we were also discussing a Grove name, and I realized that the Osprey truly embodies this region. It has amazing skill at fishing and hunting and can see for miles as it is a member of the Hawk family. And they often go toe to toe with bald eagles. A truly, majestic, water bird, I thought it the most fitting to represent this Florida grove.
Paumanok Island Protogrove
story submitted by Michael Houze
When our Pgrove organized here on Long Island we chose the name Paumanok Island in tribute to the name given to the island by Native American tribes (Algonquian ,1st recorded in tribal deed 1639) located here.
Orange Blossom Protogrove
story submitted by Elizabeth Walker
Pretty simple really we’re located in Orange County, California a place known for orange groves and having grown up in the city of Orange I wanted something a bit more inspiring than just the fruit and the blossoms smell so amazing.
Holuntar-Hain, ADF Germany
story submitted by Matthias Dolgner-Trampnau
Before we became Protogrove, we always had a close relationship with the goddess Hel and chose her as our patron goddess of the grove. The elder has a strong connection to Hel, so we decided to incorporate it into our name. Simply Elder-Grove (Holunder-Hain) was too simple for us, so we agreed on the old German word Holuntar.
Thornhaven Grove
story submitted by Tasha Smith & Rev. Julie Desrosiers
Thornhaven Grove is a chartered grove located on an 18.5 acre piece of land in Inkerman, Ontario, Canada, about one hour south of Ottawa on the South Nation river watershed. It is called Thornhaven because we have a proliferation of all things pointed and prickly. We have very old hawthorn, roses, thistles and nettles galore (watch out!) and various other pointy plants. Not the best place for walking around bare-foot. On the upside, all the prickliness gives the land a highly protective energy which makes it conducive to serious (and joyful!) pagan work.
Grove of Nova Scotia Druids
story submitted by Brian Larter
We originally started as the Order of Nova Scotia Druids and at some point in ADF history, they created orders and asked us to change our name. We are not nearly as creative as others here on the list haha. We have members from all over the province from Cape Breton to Bridgewater.
Spirit Valley Protogrove
story submitted by Rev. Jason Sprick (Garrik Hamr)
Our group was originally called the Summit of the Gods worship group, and we were practicing ADF ritual but not a part of the org. When we made the move to an ADF Protogrove, we realized that, despite how apt the name was for how we approach ritual, it was a little pretentious, so we held a vote of a number of possible names for the new Protogrove. Cary Hayes and I collaborated on the name Spirit Valley; we chose this name because our group had strong animist leanings and nearby lies the Cuyahoga River Valley. Luckily for us, this is the name that our small group selected in the vote. I’ve been proud of the work we’ve done here since.
