What’s with the name is probably a question you have.
When the grove was originally founded at the end of 2000, the group was centered around 5 friends that were at that time committed to the ADF path. When it was time to determine the name for the group, we looked at what geological features are prevalent in the area. These are obviously the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers. Since the Hudson is larger, and has an extremely large effect on the area, and much of eastern New York, we decided to go after a name dealing with the Hudson. So how did Tear of the Cloud come out of that you ask… well here is how it came out of that. There are many hills, some call them mountains, in the Adirondacks, and Mt. Marcy is the highest. Just south of Mt. Marcy’s peak, in the col between her, Gray Peak, and Mt. Skylight, there is a small lake. This lake just happens to be the highest body of water in New York, and also happens to eventually flow into the Hudson River. So Lake Tear of the Clouds, as it is known, is the highest headwaters for the Hudson River, and what better way to dedicate our protogrove to the river than by using that name.
Shortly after I graduated from college in 1999, I settled in the Albany area. A couple of months later, my friend Amber, who was also in ADF, moved into the same apartment complex. Somewhere during that summer we decided that it would be a good idea to start a protogrove. We got together with a couple of other friends, Tim, Jessica, and David, and founded the Tear of the Cloud Protogrove, ADF. I was elected the Grove Organizer.
I honestly don’t remember much about how much ritual stuff we did. I do remember that we did some ritual work though. I also remember that we were at first a tight group of friends. Well, things happened and friendships ended. We all did things that were regrettable, and we all went our own ways. At that time, I was the only member of the Tear of the Cloud Protogrove, and I was too busy putting the pieces back together in my personal life, and figuring out where I was going to really concentrate on getting this group going. I did however do regular ritual practices on my own.
Then towards the end of 2000 or start of 2001 I got a letter from Gretchen. She was interested in joining the protogrove. I also got an e-mail from Angie and started to see that there may just be an interest in getting this thing going. March, 19th 2001, I sent out the following e-mail to all those that were on the mailing list, and had e-mailed me individually:
Howdy,
I bet you guys forgot that you are members of the Tear of the Clouds mailing list. I almost did. I a writing you today to see if you would like to help re-start the Tear of the Clouds Protogrove of ADF. I know that we have been basically dead for about 6 months, if not more, and I have had a couple of people e-mail me about joining recently. This makes me think that some people want or need a grove in the area.
So, if interested, please reply back and lets get some conversation going on what to do.
Illious
That is what I now consider to be the true beginning of the grove. At that point we had a core group of 3 interested individuals, me, Gretchen, and Angie. We started small and started working together. We had various people aide us on the way, one in particular who provided some space to work in was Angie’s friend Deb. In the spring of 2002 we started getting bylaws together. For Samhain 2002, we did our first major public rite, but it was in Binghamton for the Binghamton Pagan Community. From there we started to get a regular schedule going for rituals, but meetings were always tough to come by. For Lughnassadh 2005, I again, with the help of Gretchen and many from the BPC group ran a large public rite in Binghamton.
Not long after that, things started to pick up. We picked up Blake in October of that year, and we started to see things gaining speed. In March of 2006, for Ostara we did an all night vigil to induct the 4 ADF members we had at that time into the Folk of the Grove, the last thing we needed to do so we could have proper leadership per our bylaws, and could apply for provisional charter. We did, and we were approved, a good six and a half years after the journey began. Our founding officers were me as SD, Gretchen as Pursewarden, and Blake as the Scribe. After that, we held our first, truly public rite in the Albany area, Summer Solstice. Through that event we gained some members, and we have been growing since.
The rest is to be written. I hope when I revisit this next summer that the group has grown immensely. I hope we have a very established group of people to worship with. I hope that by the end of my first term as SD that we can apply for a fully chartered grove, but that will take a great deal of work from all of us currently involved.