Updated May 2022
How long have you been involved in ADF?
I joined ADF in 2012 after a 10-year romp through the ranks of modern paganism. ADF seemed like something I’d never seen before, but I liked a lot of what was described to me on the website. I decided that I was going to wear a Druid Hat for one full year, and to work the Dedicant work along the way. Six months in I knew I’d found something that was what I needed to pursue.
Shortly thereafter I got together with some friends and founded a study group, and that led to my becoming the leader and then priest of what is now Nine Waves Grove, ADF in Houston, Texas.
What else have you done with your life?
In my secular life, I’m a Marketing Automation Specialist working in the Healthcare Technology Industry. A recent transplant to North Texas from the Gulf Coast, I’m relearning gardening and climate and the landbase here as I get to know this place, as well as re-establishing myself in community.
I’m recently married and that brought two stepchildren into my life. A compulsive collector of interesting and only vaguely useful information, I love cooking, letter writing, and fountain pens, and in a previous life was almost certainly a hobbit.
What do you do in ADF?
I’ve done a few things in my time in ADF, including a long time as a Grove Organizer and Senior Druid for Nine Waves Grove, ADF in Houston, TX, and a term as Non-Officer Director on the Mother Grove. From 2012 to 2020, my primary work in ADF was as a group leader and community builder, and then, after completing CTP, a priest – a responsibility and a call that I formalized at my ordination into ADF Priesthood in 2018. Now that I’m in North Texas, my primary service is to the folk in a one-on-one context, and I do that work mostly online in a post-COVID world.
Tell us a bit about your personal religion?
My personal religion is, at its core, about hospitality and reciprocity, and has elements that are ancestral, devotional, ecstatic, magical, animist, pagan, and polytheist. As well, my druidry is very landbase oriented, as I try very hard to be The Druid Of This Place, wherever I happen to be living. A mentor and very dear friend, Rev. William Ashton, said to me once that “Druids are humans in service to communities that are tied to the land” and I strive in my work always to embody that.
While what I do is informed by historical practice, I am very open about the structure of most of my practice being largely modern, and that works well for me. Beyond that, I think personal religion is best discussed over a cup of tea around a fire.
What is your personal vision for ADF?
My personal vision of ADF is one that provides an example of grounded, animist and polytheist practice that can be applied to the lives of anyone who wishes to live more in connection to reciprocity and hospitality.
I believe our focus on the fire, on hospitality, and on reciprocity has the opportunity to connect us to many human beings across the world, regardless of their religion or lack thereof, in a time that people feel so increasingly disconnected.
My goals for myself as a priest, and for ADF in general, are to make the best use of our greatest strengths to create a place for people from all kinds of backgrounds and beliefs to join together in hospitality and reciprocity around the sacredness that is the fire. And my vision is that we will always and without fail remember that what we strive for and what we do must always be informed by who we serve and the needs of the folk around us.
Where can I find you?
Discord: Anna#4745
Email: LaurMM@gmail.com
Website: https://prairiedruid.com