by Jamie Wiseman
The following was sent by myself in response to several
questions about how to start a grove. It's not a complete article in itself,
but I thought it might be helpful to share the relevant content here ...
Firstly, it is most most most important when starting a grove,
to understand what it is you want to get out of it. So many groups I've seen
in the past have failed because they were intended as a great gesture of giving,
with the organiser receiving nothing back. If there is no exchange, no receiving,
no nourishment from your group, you will not be able to sustain your connection
to it. This was a slow lesson for me to learn, and I find now that this is
the first thing I have to understand before embarking on a voyage of trust
with even a handful of other souls.
I find it helpful for myself to understand that a grove is
a meeting of people and place. The place holds the group, and the group learn
from, while acknowledging the place. It is primarily the spirits of place
which will have an impact on your group, and these are the first things you
will usually encounter, being the most physically obvious. For this reason,
these are the first things I tend to take into account, whether working formal
ritual or not - I just tend to make sure I'm listening. Often, it's the spirits
of place that will give the grove its identity - lending a name, or an emblem.
Something to draw the disparate souls of humans into something cohesive.
Find a relaxed, easy, common way of sharing. Eating together
is a good start. You can use food as a reminder of common sources of nourishment
together, and explore it - tell stories about where it came from, really get
into the experience of eating. Sharing stories is also good. Or experience
- one grove I was a part of made it a policy for each member to take a turn
to share some teaching with the other members every time we met (I think it
was every month). We managed to cover some very diverse and interesting subjects!
Even going for a drink at the pub together can be good, as long as it's not
the sole purpose of your group.
Have a think about the people you want to connect with. How
will you safely admit people to a trusting space? Will you agree to meet people
at a neutral location beforehand? Will there be a 'weirdo test' as my first
grove leaders called it? Will there be public events to which anyone can come?
What is it you'd like to do? Will the levels of experience
in your group have any bearing? How will you share? Will you follow a course
together as a group? Group work can be a powerful way of accelerating your
learning.
How will you incorporate the place? In several groves I've
been a part of, we worked for a year at first, simply being in a place, watching
the changing seasons, and listening to its song. How would you like to listen
to your place? Will it be a single place? Maybe a valley, maybe a whole area,
maybe a woodland?
