THE DRUIDCRAFT FELLOWHSIP: A HISTORY
he Druidcraft Fellowship is an evolution of what was formerly known as The Druidic Order of the Covenant of Avalon, founded in Washington, DC in the year 2000. The Order went largely inactive around the time of Lughnasadh in 2006, but was revived with a different spiritual emphasis — that of combining the traditions of Druidry and Wicca together — two years later. Its revival began with the formation of Fellowship of Anamastia Coven in northeastern New York in the spring of 2008.
In the Spring of 2007, the Order’s founder, Rev. E.J. OakLore, together with a Wiccan friend of his, began imagining a coven dedicated to exploring Wicca and Druidry together, a harmony he had come to call “Druidcraft,” after the book by Philip Carr-Gomm. The idea was motivated by people he’d met in his travels seeking ways to explore and practice both paths. Both Carr-Gomm and OakLore believed this not only to be possible, but that a powerful way to connect people with the magick of both traditions could be cultivated from the many points of connection between them.
Anamastia Coven held its first meeting on May 3rd, 2008 in Granville, New York. During this meeting, a young man, Draig Teine, became the Coven’s the first Dedicant. For the first year, the Coven had only a hand-full of comers and goers, but held regular rituals in celebration of the sabbats.
In March of 2009, a handful of Coven folk gathered to celebrate the vernal equinox. Present at the ritual were visitors from another burgeoning group in the area, to whom the Coven folk took an immediate liking. FoA and the other local group began to meet together for joint events, and found in their shared fellowship a great kinship and energy.
Fellowship of Anamastia officially merged with Temple of the Sacred Earth Trinity during the rites of Midsummer, 2009.
The partnership, though a happy one, was short-lived. By autumn equinox of that year, divisions over the group’s spiritual emphasis moved Fellowship of Anamastia to separate from TSET, though the two groups maintain a warm ecumenical friendship.
The newly reformed Coven met at Samhain, 2009, at Crandall Park in Hudson Falls, New York, with a surprising turnout. Almost immediately, several newcomers dedicated to the Coven and Fellowship of Anamastia was up and running again. Months later, all of the original members had rejoined the Coven.
In the summer of 2010, the Coven began holding its events in downtown Albany. The move brought several newcomers to the circle.
Over the years the New York Coven enjoyed a strong fellowship and attracted the participation of others in the community representing other groups and traditions. We came to call these good folk, “friends of the Coven.” This participation turned into a tradition, and members of Druidcraft Fellowship covens to this day regularly participate in the activities of other groups in their local areas, and enjoy supporting the work of the wider Pagan community.
In the spring of 2014, Rev. OakLore moved to northeastern Florida and founded a second Druidcraft Fellowship coven, called Heart of Manannán. The Florida Coven took off immediately, blessed by folks who came eager to be a part of our tradition, and who have given so selflessly of themselves. The members in Florida enjoy meeting regularly on the sabbats, esbats and for socials, workshops, and classes.
In 2015 Rev. OakLore called together an Interim Board to meet and begin to establish — or re-establish — the parent organization for these two Covens. The Board approved the first draft of a Constitution, Bylaws, and Articles of Faith, and elected Rev. OakLore to preside over the Order’s spiritual affairs as Interim Archdruid.
Between 2014 and the 2016, the upstate New York coven eventually went inactive, as Pagan groups sometimes do. Consequentially, the Board began to feel that “Anamastia” should be dropped from the Order’s name, and that it should adopt something more descriptive of the Order’s Druidic-Wiccan tradition. The Order adopted the name “The Most Sacred Order of the Druidcraft Fellowship” or, “TDF” for short, in the winter of 2016.
Three years later, at midsummer of 2019, the members of the Order, many of them new, gathered together for the TDF’s first-annual Convocation (annual meeting). During this Convocation, the final drafts of the Order’s Constitution, Bylaws, Articles of Faith, and Articles of Incorporation were officially ratified and adopted. A new Council of Elders, the officers of which would form the Board of Trustees for the purposes of incorporation, was officially elected for the ensuing four-year term, and Rev. OakLore was permanently elected Archdruid. He was officially installed on that date, Saturday, June 29th, 2019, and he, in turn, installed the new Council of Elders.
The history of The Druidcraft Fellowship continues to write itself. As the wheel turns, moving us through the seasons of our lives, new events and new people continue to shape who we are and where we are going. But one thing remains steadfast, thanks in no small part to the zeal of our founder, that The Druidcraft Fellowship is, in a very real sense, a family. And as a family we are, by the grace of the Gods, united together in purpose and spirit.
May it always be so!
Thank You for reading. Blessed Be!
The Druidcraft Fellowship 