Honoring a Mentor and Friend

I’ve had the blessing of a few really great mentors in my life, people whose teachings and support are valuable to my development as a person, druid, and human being. Few have been as impactful as Sara Greer. Many of you may have already heard by now about the passing of Sara as earlier this week; John Michael Greer wrote a very eloquent and beautiful post on Ecosophia about her and the news is making its rounds. I wanted to take some time today to reflect on Sara, my experiences with her, and her legacy. I will also share a link to my letter about Sara to the AODA community earlier this week, which shares a bit about her work and legacy in AODA.  This post will be a bit more personal and expansive–a weaving of my own story, Sara’s story, a bit of JMG’s story, and the story of the AODA. I think it’s important that this story is shared, specifically because she was so good at blending in the background that few people really know how much she impacted the modern druid tradition.

So let’s start where the story begins, with AODA’s revitalization. In the early 2000’s, the Ancient Order of Druids in America had only a small handful of elderly members left.  JMG had found a listing for AODA in a book and was attempting to contact them through mail, to no avail.  But then, the Greers came across John Gilbert at a Tarot conference in Portland in 2001—Gilbert was already in his 60’s and was the youngest of a handful of members propping up a variety of old magical orders, including AODA.  JMG and Sara joined, and three months later, JMG found himself as an Archdruid, with Sara following into leadership as the Pendragon and doing the bookkeeping a year later. AODA was formed in 1912, and we’ve gone through many iterations–but if JMG and Sara had not come along, the AODA would have ceased to exist. Sara continued to manage the order’s finances and then moved into the role of Archdruid, eventually taking over all secretarial duties for 5 years. While JMG was the visible head that everyone knew–publishing the Druidry Handbook, recruiting members, working on the order’s rituals, and so forth–Sara as the Archdruid of Water was the backbone of the order, particularly between 2010 – 2015. She meticulously kept the order’s books and records, processed memberships, provided support and mentoring, managed our membership communications, and oversaw the moderation of our online spaces. During that time, she became the founding preceptor of the Gnostic Celtic Church and also created Three Rowans Grove, a grove for mentoring apprentices in AODA. She also published her adept project, Pagan Prayer Beads in 2007 under the pen name Claire Vaughn. (Most of this you can read about in more detail from their interviews in Trilithon vol III here)

I joined AODA in early 2007–according to AODA’s member database, I was the 151st member of AODA in its current iteration. I had a series of life events that led me to need to find a spiritual path; I had found AODA’s website through a web search, I liked their open philosophy and flexible spiritual path, and decided to become a member. From my very first interaction with AODA, Sara was always there, patiently dealing with my often basic questions and supporting my spiritual development. In those early days, we had a Yahoo group where many interactions happened (AODA still has a full archive of that Yahoo group, but we had to eventually move away from it in about 2016 as Yahoo was phasing those groups out).

After about 5 or so years of online interaction and me progressing through AODA’s first two degrees, I had the pleasure of meeting both JMG and Sara at the 2012 OBOD East Coast Gathering. By then, we were all familiar with each other from our interactions in AODA, but meeting them was great and we all really connected. They had moved to Cumberland, and my family was in Western Pennsylvania so we began conversing regularly and I arranged to visit them during the holidays. It was a wonderful visit and that started a wonderful friendship. Both JMG and Sara taught me so much–they were fun and quirky, hilarious and yet very tough, always encouraging me to read new books, take up new courses of study, and grow in new ways. We would go eat Chinese food, Sara would play one of her instruments, and I’d take them to some fun places. Sara immediately recognized some of the rather difficult spiritual work I was doing (which directly ties to all of my land healing work) and took me under her wing as a student. And let me tell you, nothing got by Sara. She called me out more than once and put me firmly back in the right direction if I started going astray. She provided energetic support when I needed it, and always offered her love and friendship. In many ways, Sara and I did a lot of parallel work, and she was the first person I would share things with, and she always knew what to do when I encountered challenges. Through both JMG and Sara, I received a first-rate occult and druid education.

About a year or so after I began spending a lot of time with the Greers, I had a major fallout with my in-person druid community. I was deeply hurt by the situation, and I was thinking that I was going to quit druidry altogether. John and Sara were there to pick up the pieces and support me during what was one of the more difficult times in my life. They assured me that I was needed and wanted. Sara sat with me, listening to everything that happened, just holding space for me while I cried and shared. They encouraged me to deepen my volunteering with AODA, which was just what I needed to bounce back from what had happened. I began serving as Chief Editor of Triilthon and then after that, I stepped into the position of Grand Pendragon to serve as Chief Editor overseeing all of AODA’s publications (this is a role I still hold for AODA, along with my duties as Grand Archdruid).

As these years passed, Sara’s health continued to decline. In all of my interactions with Sara, I was struck by how incredibly tough she was. She had major, debilitating health conditions that progressively got worse. Knowing her these many years, but only visiting a few times a year, I saw her health continue to worsen with many of my visits. She kept a very positive attitude about it and continued to do everything she could while she was able to do so. However, it became clear that her health was not allowing her to do everything she used to do, including her work with AODA. AODA was also growing and growing–by 2015, thanks to the success of JMG’s Druidy Handbook and Archdruid Report blog as well as Sara’s continual efforts of keeping the order going, we had about 800 members with more new members signing up each month. Through all of this, Sara gave AODA everything she had to give.

Thus, in early 2015, JMG and Sara shared their intentions to step down from AODA and invited me into the Archdruid of Air role, taking over many of the day-to-day operations of AODA from Sara. I was actually pretty surprised they asked. See, I hadn’t planned on being a leader in druid order. I had a demanding career, and I never really saw myself in a role other than being Chief Editor of AODA’s publications, a role to which my professional skillset is particularly well suited. Both JMG and Sara saw more in me and knew I could bring a different kind of energy to AODA, to nurture the order through the next phase of its growth. They were very open to me saying no, but I sat with it for about a month, and then I said yes. On my drive down to Cumberland to receive my Archdruid initiation and do the transfer of duties, I saw a triple rainbow in the sky overlooking valleys in Bedford County, PA. It was a good omen.

When I took over Sara’s AODA duties, I finally understood how incredibly much Sara did in running the order on a daily basis. She was a one-woman powerhouse: as the preceptor of the Gnostic Celtic Church, she supported the spiritual formation of our clergy; as the bookkeeper, she kept meticulous records of our finances and kept our legal non-profit paperwork in order; as the Order’s secretary, she handled all correspondence and membership mailing; as an Archdruid, she moderated our spaces and she led Three Rowans Grove with Lexie Devine to support the development of Apprentices…the list goes on and on. And then she started doing the same work for the Druidical Order of the Golden Dawn, which they founded after JMG released The Celtic Golden Dawn in 2013. She also did similar work for some time for other magical groups and traditions supported by John Gilbert.  In all of this, I don’t really think that Sara was well-recognized for this work, and I don’t necessarily think she wanted to be. Her druid name was “Oakmouse” which was very fitting–just keeping everything going in the background, supporting all of us, keeping things going. And so, with me stepping in to serve as an Archdruid, Sara and John Michael both retired from AODA in 2015, giving Sara time to explore other areas of her creative and spiritual practices.

Beyond druidry, occultism, art history, music, and many other areas, Sara was an outstanding herbalist. She taught me a good deal about what I’d call a druid’s practical herbalism–herbalism that gets the job done, herbalism that is connected intimately with the plants where one lives, herbalism focused on making simple medicines that are extremely effective for everyday problems, and, of course, herbalism connected to spirit. She and JMG also taught me about Cell Salts and more energetic medicines. She was committed to learning the medicines in her yard, the ones that put themselves in her path–I remember such a discussion about the common fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus) which got her attention because it was growing on the paths in her garden, touching her legs as she passed. That’s how Sara was–Fleabane was speaking, and she was listening. She was always listening–to spirits, to plants, to everything. The art of listening on multiple levels is one of the things she taught me, and it is wisdom for which I am most grateful.

Sara taught me how to make soaps, and when she no longer had the energy to make her own soaps, she passed all of her soapmaking tools onto me. That was the way of it, all too often. She kept teaching me and then passing things on to me as her health continued to decline. She passed on her duties to me in AODA. She passed on many critical spirit teachings that formed the cornerstone of my practice. She passed on her spiritual tools when she could no longer do certain kinds of work. I was grateful but sad to receive these tools, and I cherish and use everything she has given me.

Sometimes it was hard to accept her gifts because those gifts often came with her own practical acceptance that her body was yet again limiting her in new ways. I knew it was important for her to pass those gifts to me, and I continue to do my best to honor all of her gifts, in whatever form. But it was hard to see how often it happened, because every time it did, it likely meant that there was something else she had to set aside or shift due to declining health. It became very clear to me that she was passing more than physical things on, in her own quiet way, she was passing on her legacy. But also, once she was able to pass these things on, she was able to grieve and let go, freeing up that energy and creating some space. This allowed her to have the opportunity to take up some new things, at least for a time, until her health declined yet again. She had such a resilient spirit. She had acceptance and peace about where she was and her physical limitations. She did not fret over it, she just dealt with the situation and worked to make the very best of it.

One of my favorite things she ever gave me was an Apothecary Rose (Rosa gallica) plant. First of all, Sara didn’t have any showy modern roses in her garden–no, she had the most magical and medicinal rose in history. Rosa Gallica is one of the first cultivated rose species–used extensively by the Ancient Greeks and Romans, and for millennia, considered to be the finest medicinal rose in the world. Apothecary Rose is wonderfully fragrant and yet very straightforward–no ornate or showy spirals, just a row or two of bright pink petals. And yet, this very straightforward and practical rose makes the best rose water, the best rose oil, and the best rose tea. Sara’s Apothecary Rose took up a full third of the back wall of the Greer’s garden: with wicked thorns and simple pink flowers, the rose bush stretched further and further each year. When Sara and JMG were getting ready to move to Rhode Island, Sara gave me part of that rose plant for our garden. The Rose plant took root in our herb garden here at the homestead, and now Rose takes up a full third of a large bed–with the same wild display and potent magical energy that Rose had at the Greer’s. As Sara’s Apothecary Rose has quickly spread, I have dug up many of the spreading canes and shared this rose plant with other friends and herbalists–now Sara’s rose is growing in many gardens.

Sara was a lot like that rose. Tough and uncompromising, even prickly at times, and yet incredibly nurturing, supportive, and kind. Sara’s teachings and influence spread a lot like the rose plant–now growing in many people’s gardens, continuing to share good medicine. I am so grateful to have known Sara, have been mentored by her, and have the privilege of sharing some of her legacy.

I’ll end this post by sharing an excerpt from my interview with Sara I did for the 2016 edition of AODA’s Trilithon, which you can read in its entirety here (link to PDF, starting on page 19). I think this is an excellent example of Sara’s wisdom of the druid tradition and her insights into connecting with nature.