Hello Elderflower Community!
This new blog is an innovation. The Newsletters will be sent out to the newsletter email list as bulletins with headlines. We hope you will click through to this blog to read the articles. We are trying this at the suggestion of the 2025 Elderflower Festival Community Meeting attendees!
To view the Newsletter associated with this blog post, visit: https://tinyurl.com/ewf-feb-2026-news
February 2026
2026 Festival Registration
The Online Payments and Donations pages are both improved with new forms!
Registration is Open!
Due to increasing costs, we were forced to raise the lowest rate for 2026.
However we also have Good news! We have an Early Bird Special: Register and pay $400 in full by March 31st at midnight to attend for last year’s lowest cost! Visit Fees and Policies for more details!
Downloadable forms are attached to the newsletter email and you can also find them on the website at Registration Home. The online registration forms are also available there.
We made a few improvements to make the online registration flow more easily. And you can now save your form and finish it later. If you click the link, the system will send you an email with a link to come back to it later.
Regarding online Registration and Payment
- Payment is on a separate page from online Registration. We don’t have a “shopping cart”.
- One registration per person – fill one form for each person.
- Once registration is complete (after you hit Submit on page 2), we will send out an automated email to confirm. Be sure to check for that message. It may end in “All Mail” or in SPAM.
- Whether you wish to make a downpayment and pay in installments or pay all at once, you will visit the Payments page – linked on the post registration page or you can use the main menu to visit Payments.
News from 2025
2025 Festival Overview
We had a great Festival in 2025, although it was smaller than usual. There was talk that women missed the faces of some of our long-term festival goers. (more about that in the Festival Feedback Section). As a result some usual workshops that women love to attend were not featured.
Some women decided to pass on the festival this past year for personal reasons, and some had other health and personal challenges that kept them away – many people had leg and foot problems at the last moment! We hope to see more familiar faces return.
If you are one of the women who missed some familiar faces, please reach out and invite those folks to 2026 Festival. In the meantime, we had a great new group of enthusiastic young newcomers who enjoyed the festival and will help to build and grow the Festival.
At the Opening Ritual, we called KuanYin, the Goddess of Healing, Compassion, and Kindness. The Main Ritual was a collaborative effort – created at the Festival. The focus of the program was on the Element of Water. There were a variety of health and wellness and movement-oriented workshops that received good reviews. The Priestess Program held a few workshops that focused on witchy practices. Kathleen’s What Makes a Priestess workshop was well-attended. It was rumored among us too young to attend that the Croning led by Faye was a great experience. As for the Amazon Ritual – Deep gratitude goes out to Bear and Suzanne for filling in at the very last minute. This is because our original Priestess was unable to attend due to a family emergency. Hopefully, she’ll be back this year to host it. The impromptu Amazon Ritual got enthusiastic reviews at the festival.
The food was delicious as always. Alice didn’t get a picture of the beautiful Goddess Bread last year because she was busy still drumming for the ritual when it was brought out! We did get a photo though!
Festival Community Meeting
- During the community meeting we discussed the question of Membership. The group agreed that it is a good idea to be a loose membership organization. The attending members agreed that we don’t want to accept money for women to continue membership, because of the possibility of outside interests trying to take control. Volunteering in various ways is a good way to include women who want to be involved but who can’t come to the festival. This allows them to have a way to become an active voting member without requiring any “membership” fees.
- How membership will work is to be decided by Guidelines, Policies and Procedures document Group with more input from the community.
- We also discussed the need for more volunteers to help produce the festival.
- We are looking for women who are interested in donating 9-10 hours during the year to help with various finite tasks to assist in the production of festival.
- The attending members expressed satisfaction with the existing Core Council response to the problem happened with the 2024 Core Council with the understanding that the Core is working with volunteers to put procedures in place to handle any future grievances in the community.
2025 Festival Photos
Alice Heimsoth has shared the album of her 2025 Elderflower Womenspirit Festival images with us. This is a private gallery. The images can only be viewed by people with a direct link.
The link can be found in the Feb. 2026 Newsletter bulletin. Here is a link to the Newsletter Archive on Mailchimp. The most recent newsletter is at the top will have the link there.
We have posted some of the images in the Private Elderflower Facebook Community Group. Here is what Alice says about the photos:
Hi Elderflower sisters, Here are photos in a private gallery that only we can see with this link. You can hit the arrow under the Elderflower 2025 title to see the slideshow.
You can download and print yourself, or you can buy from Smugmug – at Walgreens’ prices – if you want to order prints yourself. I don’t make a profit!
Blessings – My purpose is to witness the Spirit in people and nature and document this essence through photography.
Please remember to obtain permission if you want to post an image with anyone in it besides yourself.
Truth Circle Workshop
Both sessions of this healing workshop were well attended.
2025 Festival Finances Report
Bylaws Document
Stacey and Naomi wrote up a little explanation (click here) about how and why the Bylaws were finally developed. Elderflower Womenspirit Festival is 37 years old this year (although we missed one festival in 2020) and we finally put on our big girl pants and devised Bylaws so we could ensure the future of the organization and incorporate with the State of California.
Guidelines, Policies, and Procedures Document
The Community Guidelines, Policies, and Procedures document is still a work in progress. Some of the members of the Bylaws group have joined to help with the workload. We (the volunteers on the committee) will be providing more information about the document in next month’s blog post.
Plans for 2026
2026 Program
Program Theme
The Archetypal magical element that we will celebrate in 2026 is Fire.
Because we meet in the woods, we want to be cautious and avoid manifesting any physical fires! So we will focus on the Primal, Personal and Social power Transformation that is represented by archetypal Fire.
Fire, the hearth for warmth, the comfort of cooking good food, and the creative power of the forge fire.
We are still working on drafting the text for the theme. (Feb.)
Opening and Closing Priestess
We are looking for a woman to Priestess the Opening and Closing Ritual.
Main Ritual Priestesses
Donna T.-Z. and Anne Rene G. will be our Main Ritual Priestesses for this August. More details will be coming in the next few months about the Ritual.
Crone Coordinator for 2026
Suzanne S. is the Crone Coordinator for 2026. More information will be coming about the Crones in 2026 in the next several months.
New Moon Spirituality Chat Schedule
What is the New Moon Spirituality Chat about?
New Moon Spirituality Chat is held on Zoom every month on the Sunday closest to the the New Moon. Meetings begin at 3:30PM Pacific and finish at ~ 5:15PM. You are welcome to come late or leave early.
This Zoom chat is an opportunity to get together to support each other about our various spiritual paths and practices. We all have wisdom to share. We usually do a round of check-ins to start the session. Conversations vary widely. We often finish with a guided healing circle. On rare occasions, we decide to hold a ritual to celebrate the season rather than actually hold a conversations.
All Elderflower women and girls are welcome to join. If you’ve never been to Elderflower, you are welcome to attend if you are sponsored by a friend who already attends the Chat, or if you are registered for the festival coming up in August.
Naomi sends out a reminder from her personal CopperJet email a day or two before the meeting each month. If you wish to receive an emailed invite, send CopperJet your name and email address. Use the Contact Us form if you don’t have CopperJet’s email.
Meetings on the Sunday closest to the New Moon at 3:30 PM Pacific time
2026 Schedule so far ...
- Feb 15 | 2 days before Aquarius 28°49’ New Moon on Tue Feb 17 at 4:00 PM PT (Solar Eclipse)
- Mar 15 | 3 days before Pisces 28°26’ New Moon on Wed Mar 18 at 6:23 PM PT
- Apr 19 | 2 days after Aries 27°28’ New Moon Fri Apr 17 at 4:51 AM PT
- May 17 | 1 day before Taurus 25°57’ New Moon Sat May 16 1:00 PM PT
- More Dates will be be posted on a page on the website later in the Spring.
Zoom Details and Link for the Chat
Please return to the Newsletter email for the Zoom invite information. Here is a link to the Newsletter Archive on Mailchimp, the most recent Newsletter link is on the top. And you can also visit the Facebook Elderflower Community Group (private) to see the Zoom invite in the Events page.