A Word About ...

                  The Ivy Girls 

The Ivy Girls were a grand circle of Dianic women. We took our name after receiving a copy of a poem referencing women warriors of the Goddess called the Bassarids.

In assembling our research we found many references to the Bassarids. Historically, they are said to have served a god (Bassarus, Dionysus, and others). They were classified as wild, ecstatic women. They were shapeshifters, wearing fox skins and lion pelts. They were intoxicated on their own ecstasy. They were sacred priestesses in a time when sexuality was considered a gift from the Goddess, so sacred to life that the art of lovemaking was taught by these women in the temples of the Goddess.

There is a story that these women became frenzied and brutally slaughtered their husbands. In doing our inner work, we came to believe that possibly these women did not wholly serve male gods, rather the Goddess herself. The gods referenced historically were all gods who served the Goddess in such a way that they became goddess-like themselves. We understand how patriarchal "history" has stolen and written from a male point of view, our "herstory". If they did indeed, "slaughter" their husbands, it was because at that time in history the warring, vengeful sky gods came from conquering lands to replace their own beloved Goddess and as "warriors of the Goddess", they fought for Her.

As daughters of that Wise One, with our Third Eye in place, with those who came before, we were indeed "Warriors for the Goddess". We danced our dance of ecstasy. We served to enrich the lives of other women, so that they might speak Her Sacred Name and bring Her joy into their lives as we had.

Our Sacred Moon was the Ivy Moon. It was the season of the Bacchanal revels of Thrace and Thessaly in which the Bassarids, intoxicated on their own ecstasy, rushed wildly about on the mountains, waving the fir-branches of Artemis, spirally wreathed with Ivy - the yellow berried sort - with a roebuck tattooed on their right arms above their elbow.

The Ivy Girls' symbol was the Sacred Spiral; our animal - the Sacred Roebuck, who represents the "uncaptured spirit". Because of our work toward the empowerment of women, we were dedicated to Artemis, protector of all birth givers and Hecate, who stands ever at the crossroads to aid Her women.    

The Priestesses of the IvyGirls were trained within The Grove of The Blue Roebuck, the core source for the training and facilitating of Priestesses of the Goddess, now renamed The Apple Branch - A Dianic Tradition, incorporated as a non-profit in the State of Texas.  Our work and our rituals come from many sources.  We work with the trees of the Sacred Tree Alphabet, as well as the many trees here on the American continent.  We are Goddess based, drawing from goddesses from all cultures.  We have continued our research and hope that as we add to our rich and poetic foundation, our Tradition will be a "tradition in flux" ever expanding, ever blossoming, and be for us and for those who follow, an ever creative source of the Wisdom and Inspiration of the Goddess.

The Apple Branch continues as a strong vital source of strength for women.  We will work to bring the love of the Goddess to women wherever we are! We now have Sisters in California, Washington, Tennessee, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Texas, England and France! 

Blessed Be

Bendis