Written @ 9:11 p.m. on 2007-06-16
Solstice
I had a wonderful day today, but I have felt a little bit weird since I returned home from my adventure.Today I brought the girls to a Pagan Solstice Celebration. I asked my body what was going on with me, and my spirit laughed. I was in a ritual circle today. I'm not grounded! It has been so long I almost forgot how it feels. I will try to write coherently, though.
What a whiz-bang day! Today was an area festival for the solstice, and so I packed up the girls and travelled deep into PA Dutch country, past hex signs, amish buggies and shoo fly pies for sale. June is exploding with fertility over here...the fields are pushing up, the trees are pushing out, everything is green and growing. We travelled to a park I had never heard of, a campground, creek, and some RV hookups. The day was just glorious (my father used to say that-a GLORIOUS day! My father taught me to find God in Nature). The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the humidity was giving us relief for the day.
I found not much of a festival. A few vendors. A few witches. At first I was tempted to turn back, not knowing anyone and realizing, in such a small venue, that I would be forced to talk and make friends. There was a d.j. playing bagpipe music. We all tumbled out of the car and towards the sound.
Well, I made introductions. I browsed some wares. The girls fast made friends and disappeared, only to resurface when called. I had brought along some henna and made a few tattoos. I gave a donation to the woman's shelter and the wolf sanctuary. Then we were called to ritual.
The circle was to be a handfasting, but none like I'd seen before. There was an older woman and a younger woman to be handfasted...were they a couple? I don't think so. I think perhaps they were spiritual teacher and student. There was also a man and a woman to be handfasted, a couple who wanted to be bound together as long as they could learn from on another on the spiritual plane. The leader, who someone mentioned looked a lot like Charles Manson might today, lead a great handfasting. He knotted two cords together, and said,"...you are bound together, but it is not seamless. There is a knot. There are bumps. There are issues. This is not perfection. This is reality. But the cord is not weakened by this knot, it is strengthened by two pieces coming together." Then he bound the hands of the couples together, symbolizing their spiritual bond. He asked them if they believed their bond to be fast, they said, "I do." I liked that. If you believe it, then it is so. It was as if to say,"What do you need us for? YOU make the bond." I took away some good stuff from that.
I sat in on a lecture on Satanism. The man spoke so softly one had to lean in to hear him. He wasn't gothic or dark at all, and basically his take on Satanism is that we are all animals, and no one gets a prize for refusing their instincts. I get that to a point, but there are still some issues I take with Satanism. Why do they advertise themselves to be so dark and demonic, when the real doctorine is anything but? It is Anton Levay's carnie backround, trying to rein in the "mark", but is nothing more than an advertising ploy. That's not the way I like to take my religion.
I also sat in on a discussion with a native american elder. He spoke about his family having to hide their "indian-ness" in fear of being shipped west to reservations. He spoke about Spirit not working when three things are present,negativity, distractions, or, I think the third one was exploitation. That is why one must be very careful who they share ritual with. Which goes directly against the public handfasting we all took part in, I might add. He said his friends didn't like him associating with Pagans, because they thought he meant the biker gang.
There was a raffle, and N. won a native american bear totem necklace. It's a big ol' thing. It looks funny on a cherubic little girl, but she wore it proudly, puffed up like a bantam rooster. I had to beg to keep her from sleeping in it. P. was very jealous.
The girls ran free in the woods with their new friend, which is as rewarding for me as congregating with the pagans. Every day I mourn the fact that I don't live in a place where I can just say,"Go play." I am afraid my children won't know how to play with out being in a structured environment, but they figured it out. When I came to collect them, I hung in the shadows a minute just to enjoy the sound of their freedom.
On the way home, we stopped at an amish stand and ate local strawberries and pecan pie until we could bust. A thunderstorm manifested and soaked us before we could get home, but I was happy. Dirty, smokey, henna covered and happy.
Another great day, and I am SO grateful.
BLESSED BE