About The Grove Union

About The Grove Union

The History of The Grove Union

This Site Today

A quick Who's Who

About The Web Site

The History of The Grove Union

The Grove Union can trace its origins back to 1994 when Aidan Odinson (known as simply "Aidan" back then) felt the need to establish a Wiccan/ Pagan BBS. A BBS, for those too young to remember, was a Bulletin Board System using a dial-up modem connection instead of the Internet. The Witches in the Eugene/Springfield area of Oregon had a need for a BBS which was going to operate consistently, and one in which discussion could be at a serious, more mature level. That began The Covenstead Grove BBS, and it began with words similar to what you saw when you entered this web site: "At a time which is any time, in a place which is any place, a comfortable place for Wiccans, Pagans and their friends to come together and share."

The year 1995 was the beginning of The Grove Union, essentially a "convention" of like minded BBS's, organized in a manner similar to a religious convention. Sysops and cosysops held religious titles, and every sysop held some form of ordination, if only ULC. The Grove Union was a powerful networking, and it grew to span both the US and Canada coast-to-coast. The rise of the internet was the downfall of BBS's, so by the year 2000 there was not much traffic on BBS's.

The year 2000 did have a positive note to it, because that was when Aidan Odinson and Stormy Windwalker handfasted. They had come across each other in 1997 when Aidan had joined the Witches Anti-Discrimination League (WADL) just as Stormy Windwalker took over as National President.

Stormy Windwalker had founded Temple of Gaia, and by the time of their handfasting it was doing well as a cyberspace coven. Following their formal handfasting/ wedding in 2001, Aidan and Stormy began work on building Temple of Gaia into a legal entity This was accomplished in 2003 when Temple of Gaia was granted a corporate charter by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The next step was to start The Grove Union as an integrated auxiliary of Temple of Gaia so that it would also have legal status, and then to organize it in such a way that Pagans and Wiccans might have the benefits of a larger body without having to surrender their autonomy.

Finally, it became apparent that The Grove Union as it was would not be accomplishing as much as it could when it was a separate entity. But, Aidan began a new ministry using new media when he began his podcast "The Secrets In Plain Sight." And so, this site is in relation to that ministry.

This Site Today

If you want to see the vision of what can be, read this.

Historically, we've been isolated from the rest of the world and each other since the very first efforts at persecution by the Christians. This also led to isolation from each other due to the basic fact that when following your religious faith is a capital crime, you tend to not trust very many people with knowledge of which faith you follow.

In the meantime, other faiths have been able to claim benefits as a matter of course which have eluded us. Veterans of almost any faith you can imagine, even atheists, have as part of their final thanks for serving their country a grave marker which includes a symbol of their faith - except us. In schools and workplaces, people are being told to not wear a pentacle even though a Christian might not only wear a cross, but even have a Bible on their desk. Where are the Pagan and Wiccan chaplains in the uniformed services? Why is it that when you go to the hospital and you tell them you're a Wiccan, the hospital chaplain doesn't know what to do for you. And worse yet, when a Priest or Priestess of one of our paths asks for clergy privileges at a hospital, the application is so often ignored or denied. The excuse in so many of these situations is the same: we have no body as so many others do.

Of course, many of us don't want that kind of a body, because we've seen what those bodies have become. For almost all of us, everyone is their own Priest or Priestess, but there are those of us who do enough that the title "clergy" is appropriate, but we still don't want the gulf between clergy and laity which has come to be in other "bodies". And we certainly have no need our desire for "ecclesiastical superiors" living elsewhere and visiting to "keep us in line". Can we have a "body" and still continue the tradition of minding our own business? This is an attempt to do so.

One of the ministries of Temple of Gaia is The Secrets In Plain Sight, a weekly podcast. This also includes The Virtual Mission Chapel Of The Archangel Uriel.

A quick Who's Who

Click here to link to a page about Aidan and Stormy.

About The Web Site

I try to give credit where it is due. Sometimes that can be a bit difficult. A few of the graphics I have are ones that I got from BBS's when they were in their heyday. I began working on web sites in the days when the 386 was still fairly current technology for PC's, Mosaic was the state-of-the-art browser what let you actually see pictures but not backgrounds, and 14.4 was the fastest really reliable modem connection you were going to get. So, I do have some graphics of un-remembered origin.

Over the last few years, I've organized the graphics whose origins I do know about so that I can remember where I got them, and the ones I know about I have credit given at the bottom of the page, and I intend to express my thanks further with links to their site as part of the final organization of the "links" section. I list them as to who gave me permission to use them. Some others are my own or Lady Stormy's. I've been messing with this sort of thing almost since it was available to the general public and Lady Stormy has a degree in Graphic Design, so it's not like we don't know this stuff and the associated tools.

Written works will contain appropriate attribution unless the source is either obvious, unknown, or too nebulous to dare.

Blessed Be!

Aidan Odinson

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Fire graphics courtesy Spot's Graphics Archive, used with permission