About Us
Albion Grove
Albion Grove
Albion Grove
- Albion. The word evokes the mystery of the British Isles. It is the ancient name for a land not yet forgotten, where Nature is the great communicator between Gods and Man. Albion is a place rich in esoteric teachings, from the Ice Age Shamans to the Priests of Stonehenge, from the Celtic Druids to the Saxon Wicce, from the Norse Völva to
- Albion. The word evokes the mystery of the British Isles. It is the ancient name for a land not yet forgotten, where Nature is the great communicator between Gods and Man. Albion is a place rich in esoteric teachings, from the Ice Age Shamans to the Priests of Stonehenge, from the Celtic Druids to the Saxon Wicce, from the Norse Völva to the country wisdom of the Cunning Folk. Lessons forged on the anvil of time are passed from mouth to ear, and carved in stone, bone and wood.
- Grove. The sacred space, claimed by villagers or wild-folk. A church made not by the hands of Man, but by the spirits of Nature. Here, beneath the dome of the heavens they gather, here they dance, here they honour the ancestors, and manifest the unseen forces. In the forest or along the shore, upon the mountaintop or hillside, the grove is the place where subtle energies meet and draw folk together.
Gili
Albion Grove
Albion Grove
- As a young child, Gili traveled the Florida craft show circuit where her father sold handmade wooden toys.
- After settling in St Augustine, her parents took up silversmithing and owned a successful shop for 30 years.
- As a teen, Gili showed a keen interest in photography, and pursued a career as a photo-journalist and newspaper photograph
- As a young child, Gili traveled the Florida craft show circuit where her father sold handmade wooden toys.
- After settling in St Augustine, her parents took up silversmithing and owned a successful shop for 30 years.
- As a teen, Gili showed a keen interest in photography, and pursued a career as a photo-journalist and newspaper photographer for the St Augustine Record. Her work was featured in numerous national and international magazines and newspapers.
- After a decade, she left the newsroom and returned to the craft life, joining the staff at a local craft museum. There she met her future husband Bradley and went on to co-create Albion Grove.
- Aside from pursuing her crafts, she is happy whenever surrounded by horses or indulging in true crime podcasts and science fiction novels.
Bradley
Albion Grove
Bradley
- Bradley was born in Epping, England, close to the heart of his beloved Epping Forest. As a child he was immersed in ancient history and traveled extensively, eventually emigrating and settling in St Augustine, Florida in 1995.
- There he quickly started volunteering and eventually working in a local museum, spending most of his years as a
- Bradley was born in Epping, England, close to the heart of his beloved Epping Forest. As a child he was immersed in ancient history and traveled extensively, eventually emigrating and settling in St Augustine, Florida in 1995.
- There he quickly started volunteering and eventually working in a local museum, spending most of his years as a blacksmith before moving onto traditional woodcraft.
- A devotee of British Paganism, he has amassed a library of esoterica and has given numerous lectures on aspects of ancient faith and modern practice.
- When not in his workshop, Bradley can be found engaged in his other creative pursuits, creating ambient music and writing.
Inspiration
The Pagan Isles
The world is full of mystery. For tens of thousands of years, the tribes of the earth looked to the earth for sustenance and the sky for omens. In the land that would become the British Isles, Stone age hunter gatherers carved headdresses from the skulls of stags. They carved mysterious spirals and circles in stone, whose meanings we are yet to decipher. Rapidly rising seas caused by Glacial melt drowned many, and cleft their home from the continent. In these new islands they would begin to see invaders from the mainland, bringing new technology, copper and bronze, and new Gods.
The Celts came and adopted the megalithic structures and integrated with local tribes. After the Celts came Romans, Saxons and Norse warriors in wave after wave of invaders. Each new upheaval brought Gods recognizable to the last settlers, yet distinct enough to have formed their own meaning to the tribes that worshiped them.
For hundreds of thousands of years, nameless Gods and Goddesses of the stone age were worshiped by the barbarian tribes of old Albion. Then legends formed by the new inhabitants took hold, and new Gods, such as Epona, Thunor and Odin would be worshiped over time. The conversion to monotheism was slow and often bloody. Some say that followers of the old ways were forced out entirely, some say they were merely driven underground. What is indisputable, is that memories of older ways remained in the holidays, the names of the weekdays and in the crafts. Chalk figures on hillsides, runes and ogham script chiselled in rock, mystical symbols in bone and wood and horn all speak to these ways. It would seem that the farmers, wise women and forest dwellers did not forget. They remember the names, the herbs and the traditions, for still they look to the earth for sustenance, and to the sky for omens...
And so do we.
Live Magickally!