Our Herstory
Elderflower Womenspirit was founded in 1988 by Deborah Bender.
When asked how she came up with the idea for the festival, Deborah said
“The Goddess told me to do it.”
“One day I went to a friend’s birthday party and noticed that there were Goddess figures all around the house, and I realized that most women who had a spiritual connection with the Goddess were going to small private gatherings, or expensive events because that was all that was available.
That was when I came up with the idea for Elderflower. It would be a low cost, all women, grassroots event with a connection to the Goddess. It would be open to any woman who was interested, and women who attend the festival would share their skills and experiences by putting on workshops and rituals. Elderflower would also give women, new to women’s spirituality, an opportunity to spend time with long time members of the women’s spirituality movement.”
Elderflower was chosen as a symbol of the festival, because of its associations with Venus and the Earth Mother.
Elderflower was chosen as a symbol of the festival, because of its associations with Venus and the Earth Mother.
Its properties include protection, healing, prosperity, love, and “Crone Magic”, endings and rebirth.
The first Elderflower Womenspirit Festival was held in the summer of 1989 at The Mendocino Woodlands, in Camp Two, which has been its home ever since. The first festival was organized by Deborah Bender and Rita Rippetoe, with help from Emerald Matra.
The Festival grew very quickly.
By 1991, the festival had grown in attendance to over 120 women. It became necessary to rent Camp Three to accommodate all the attendees. A volunteer staff organized around Deborah as more women began to take on responsibilities. After the 1992 festival, Deborah Bender and the staff realized that the organizational structure needed to be changed. Deborah no longer wanted to be totally “in charge” of the festival and the staff wanted to take on more responsibility and be more involved in decision making. As a result, the Core Committee (now the Core Council) was founded, and the responsibility for organizing the festival was spread out among a collective group of 5 women, including Deborah Bender. Each member coordinates the staff working on different aspects of the festival. Members rotate in and out after working a number of years. Decisions by the Core Council are made by consensus.
After the 1993 festival, Deborah Bender decided to hand over the festival to the Council. The festival was transformed from a business owned by Deborah Bender to a congregation of the Association for the Integration of the Whole Person (AIWP), which lent our organization religious non-profit status. At that time, the festival bought out Deborah’s financial investment.
Today, Elderflower Womenspirit Festival continues to be run cooperatively by a group of women who meet throughout the year to plan the event.
In years past the festival has held community gatherings, rituals and events such as picnics, Samhain rituals, a one-day Harvest crafts festival with entertainment, a small gathering called “Spring into Elderflower”, and the Core Council hosted women’s rituals and a con-suite at PantheaCon over President’s Day weekend in San Jose for many years.
In the early days, it was said by Binah and Jules, who were on the early Core, that the group holds meetings throughout the year that are like one extended ritual and that the annual festival was the Ritual Libations for the membership of the whole community.
For this reason, today’s Core Council holds every meeting within the context of a sacred circle, calling the directions and the Goddess before each meeting begins and thanking the powers and the Goddess at the end of each meeting.
Currently the group is mostly meeting on Zoom with only a few meetings in person between October and July each year.
Independent non-profit status
In 2017 Elderflower Womenspirit became a recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit organization registered in California with the IRS. (Thank you Grace!)
As of March 2024, we have been reinstated as an acknowledged California business operating with 501(c)(3) status. After a short interruption, we are once again able to accept tax-deductible donations and provide receipts for your tax returns. Visit the Donations page to make a tax-deductible donation.