Elderflower Blog
July Elderflower Blog
Here’s what you’ll find in this post
2025 Festival Evaluations Analysis
Report from the Policies and Procedures Document Group (P&P)
Community Report from July Meetings
Mendocino County News
2026 Festival Registration
Details on the 2026 Festival Program
Volunteers Needed At Festival
New Moon Spirituality Chat
Spring and Summer News
2025 Festival Evaluations
The Core Council holds a meeting to go over the results of the Festival Evaluation Forms every fall in September or October. Here are some of the highlights of what we learned based on the 2025 attendees responses, while still at the festival.
Guidelines, Policies and Procedures Document
After the Policies and Procedures committee has been chugging away in the last several months to refine the working document, we are excited to announce that we have our latest draft of our Polices, Procedures, and Guidelines ready to share at the festival this August.
The committee has been working thoughtfully to create transparent guidelines and roles, as well as defining and developing a glossary of key terms. This included working on defining our membership types: General and Core. The committee has also been working to refine the process for settling disputes within the community, as well as setting clear guidelines and procedures for our social media accounts. After much hard work from our community volunteers, we are excited to get to share with you all their hard work and efforts.
– Kathleen & Annie
Report from the July Community Meetings
The Policies and Procedures group has also been formalizing the way that future larger meetings and community meetings will be held. This will give everybody a chance to be heard using a framework that aligns with our community’s expressed values.
After holding our two community meetings on Zoom earlier in July and incorporating their feedback, we are excited to have our new Large Meeting Operation Roles & Procedures document. As per community feedback, there are now two versions within the document, one for Zoom meetings and one for in-person meetings. They are both very much the same at heart, with the only differences being to address the needs of each form of meeting in practice.
Our intention with this document is to have all who come to our meetings feel heard and to have many more community meetings in the future with volunteers from the community as leaders of the meetings, instead of the core leading, and even for meetings to be held by and within the community without the core when you wish.
A big thanks to all who joined us at the community meetings on July 9 and 11 and thanks for sharing your input and feedback! We will be sharing a copy of this new document along side the Policies & Procedures document at the festival. The intent is to edit it as requested at the Festival Community Meeting and then to publish it on the website.
– Annie
Open Core Meetings Planned
In keeping with the community’s wishes for more transparency, and to demystify what we do, this fall the Core Council will begin scheduling meetings that will be open to the community to attend.
Watch this Space for more News!
Astonishingly Good News for Mendocino County
I think most of you will be very pleased to hear that 136 acres of rugged, beautiful Mendocino coastland has been returned back to Native Tribal stewardship. The section of coast is just south of Westport, called Blues Beach and includes the surrounding bluffs.
The local tribes have formed a group for the purpose of taking care of the land called Kai Pomo.
If this interests you, please read more here from The Sault Tribe Guardian on July 3rd:
California Approves Historic Return of Mendocino Coast Land to Tribal Stewardship
This is a link to the governor’s announcement of the Transfer from July 10:
ICYMI: Newsom administration advances historic return of Blues Beach to local tribal stewardship
For a bit of background on the local situation with a humorous twist. From The Mendocino Coast News on July 14 in 2025:
Registration and Planning for 2026
Pre-Fest Packets were mailed on Mon. July 20
All attendees should have received the packet by now.
If you have not received your packet yet. We have posted a printable version on the website.
Pre-festival Packet – 2026
Please notify us if you didn’t receive your packet. Send message to info@elderflower.org.
Payment in Full is due at Check-in
If you haven’t paid your fee in full by August 5, you must bring CASH to the festival. We cannot accept checks, money orders, or credit cards.
2026 Festival Registration
Registration is Open until August 1st
We must know you are coming, so if you register last minute, contact us directly at info@elderflower.org.
If you have not paid your registration in full by August 5, you must bring CASH to the festival. We cannot accept checks, money orders, or credit cards.
Online Workshop Applications are still Open
If you want to present a workshop or lead a ritual we really appreciate your contribution to the festival!
If you submit your workshop presentation online, we will try to fit your workshop into the official schedule, but it may not make it into the Festival printed program, so be sure to
2026 Program
Archetypal Fire is our theme for 2026
The Archetypal magical element that we will celebrate in 2026 is Fire.
We will focus on the Primal, Personal, and Social power of Fire through attributes such as release and transformation, the hearth and home for warmth, the comfort and healing of cooking good food, the creative power of the forge, and the energy fire brings to all our magickal endeavors in its many forms.
For our Main Ritual this year we will be honoring the goddess Brigid.
In the 2025 festival feedback many of you asked to have more goddesses represented in our rituals. We asked the facebook group and these are some of the goddesses you all responded with based on our theme this year: Brigid, Freyja, Vesta, Mama Nina, Chantico, Pele, and Oya, Amaterasu, Hestia, and Sehkmet. They teach resilience, embrace courage, and inspire passion and creativity.
Because we meet in the woods, and in general, we want to be cautious and avoid manifesting any unintended physical fires, so we will honor some of the more fiery goddesses more at our communal altars on site. If you have a goddess or attributes you would like to see honored at this year’s festival, we encourage you to bring totems to place on our communal altars during the festival and they will return home with you full of magical energy.
Opening and Closing Priestess - Christina
Christina S. is our Opening and Closing Priestess
In the opening, we will be welcoming newcomers, exploring our connection to each
other, and creating a safe and sacred space for everyone at the festival. We will call in
and welcome the Elements and the Goddess.
Our closing ritual will be offering gratitude and a blessing for this time together and
preparing to go out into the mundane world.
Main Ritual Priestesses - Donna Z & Rene G.
Crone Priestess
The Priestess for the Crones is Suzanne
Crones are women of wisdom, age and power. They embody all the wisdom gained through their experiences as women.
We will each progress into Cronehood as our lives continue (if we are lucky). This ritual marks the declaration of your intent to step into your power as an Elder in the community. You will be crossing a boundary into another life stage. Croning is a becoming, not a single event but a process to be celebrated.
In order to participate in this Ritual you MUST attend the Pre-Crone workshop and it’s also a good idea to talk to some of the Elderflower Crones about their experience.
For the Ritual you may want to wear clothing that invokes and displays your Crone spirit (frequently black, but not required), you may also bring your Crone stick/cane/broom decorated as fits a wise woman. Also any sacred objects you would like to place on the altar for blessings.
Amazon Priestess
The Priestess for the Amazons has yet to step forward.
Volunteer Positions
Volunteer positions through the year
The Core Council is looking for a few dedicated volunteers who would be willing to give 9 to 10 hours of help between festivals each year. Mostly these are shorter small tasks you can do from the comfort of your own home.
We have already begun promoting Elderflower Womenspirit festival at other small weekend festivals and functions. If you are interested in volunteering or have a suggestion for an upcoming place we could set up our Elderflower table, reach out to any of the Core Council members or email us at info@elderflower.org.
Onsite Volunteer positions still open
We are looking for Volunteers to Staff on-site positions during the festival! It is only through volunteers that Elderflower Womenspirit Festival is made possible. Please consider donating your time and effort. We have a list of all open volunteer positions on the Volunteer 2026 page of the website.
Women filling onsite volunteer positions are exempted from a Community Volunteer Service shift.
If you are interested in filling one of these positions please reach out to Annie via email at ascensionwitch369@gmail.com. You can also reach out via email at info@elderflower.org or the Contact Us form.
Some positions are more needed than others, here is a list of positions that are most needed:
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.
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 and also if you are registered for the festival coming up in August.
Meetings are held on the Sunday closest to the New Moon at 3:30 PM PT
2026 Dates
- Aug | NO MEETING | Leo 20°01’ New Moon with Eclipse on Wed Aug 12, 10:36 AM PT
- Sep 13 | 3 days after Virgo 18°25’ New Moon Thu Sep 10 at 8:26 PM PT
- Oct 11 | 1 day after Libra 25°57’ New Moon Sat Oct 10 8:49 AM PT
- Nov 8 | Day of Scorpio 16°52’ New Moon Sat Nov 8 11:01 PM PT
- More Dates will be be posted on New Moon Chat web page.
Zoom Details | Link for the Chat
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. Send a message to info@elderflower.org if you wish to be invited to join the Facebook Community, or ask a friend to invite you.
Naomi sends out a reminder invite from her personal CopperJet email a day or two before the meeting each month. If you wish to receive that email reminder, send CopperJet your name and email address. Use the Contact Us form if you don’t have CopperJet’s email.