The Fellowship of the Sacred Grove is a Circle or Coven founded in the late 1980s in the Bhakti-Wiccan Tradition. I was welcomed into the Grove in its Outer Court about 1992 and have remained ever since.
My intention is to make the work we have done creating the Bhakti-Wiccan Tradition available to anyone who seeks a similar path. I am much better at writing and organizing than I am at finding new participants with whom to engage in our mystical rites.
Khalila RedBird 2025
Founding and Tradition
The founders of the Fellowship came together in search for the deeper mystical experience of meeting with their gods, the Lord & Lady, and interacting with them in a trance state. All other activities of the Fellowship were in support of that experience. The Grove was Their home, and we sought them there.
The members came from a wide range of religions and traditions, and most continued their association with at least one tradition outside the Fellowship. Each contributed to the developing liturgy and the Bhakti-Wiccan Tradition. We were in agreement: the Lord & Lady — our gods — are real, personal, and important to each of us, and we rejoiced in Their Presence.
Our Work in the World
In our hayday, we were welcome teachers and presenters at Pagan events throughout the midAtlantic states. We taught the responsible ritual uses of trance and we shared our ritual experiences with interested participants.
Growth and Flight
The members of the Fellowship who welcomed me have all taken their individual steps forward and away. One moved to Florida and established a new Grove there. At least two have passed. One is hospitalized in memory care. One of the founders has stepped away and is a hermit. In stepping away, he passed the Grove’s one material possession, the Grove Candle, to me.
Life in the Cloud
I have taken three major steps to preserve the Bhakti-Wiccan Tradition and the Fellowship we shared:
First, I applied to Sacred Well Congregation for the Grove to become one of its civilian circles and was ordained minister and cleric priestess by its standards, with the understanding that we followed the Bhakti-Wiccan Tradition rather than their Greencraft Tradition.
Second, I developed a website, now on WordPress as this one is, as a repository of the Book of Shadows and the key elements of the Grove tradition, including the writings of its founders.
Third, I extended the work of the Grove into chaplaincy and made initial forays into hosting our rituals online over Zoom.
I include in our Outer Court at least the people with whom I have an ongoing relationship in chaplaincy and my dear husband, who supports my work as he has all along (while taking a pass on joining in the rituals).
Going Forward
In our early years with SWC, Belle was officially Congregational Emissary for the Grove with SWC. Now, we are working together to bring her more actively into the Grove and preparing her for accepting the Grove Candle and such responsibility as needed when I pass.
For the Record — as of 11 September 2025:
Our domain, sacredgroveswc.org, is hosted on WordPress.
The website is maintained under a ________ contract with WordPress at $____ per year. 3 personal email accounts are also supported:
redbird AT sacredgroveswc.org
mark AT sacredgroveswc.org
Additional source files are maintained on my laptop and backed up through DropBox.
