The Importance of Festivals

I went to Trillium Gathering last weekend. I’ve waxed before about the importance of festivals to individual spirituality; that experience of being immersed in a group of people with similar practices is a tonic, even if you miss every scheduled workshop and rite. Add in a smattering of workshops and rites, and your practice can go in new directions — or sometimes you can find out something isn’t of interest before spending a lot of time exploring it.

For the Pagan seeking to found a group, however, festivals have even greater importance. The beginner at leading a given ritual format can find out they are doing it right (or wrong) without having to directly expose their uncertainties. The experienced Pagan can network, giving their nascent group a face that others will pass along. The person assembling a new personal religion — all group organizers, of course, but some more than others — can present their ideas to a clean slate. In all cases, ideas can be blended, grow, and be refined, whether from a workshop discussion or a late-night chat in front of a fire. All of these things can be done online to some degree, but there are advantages to the in-person exchange. What sounds good “on electrons” may not have that swing when performed.

Plus that tonic aspect can be very useful when a group organizer feels a bit drawn.

End of Year One & Ostara

Hemlock Vales Protogrove, ADF was officially approved on 3/22/07, which makes this the last hour of the last day of Hemlock Vales’ first year as an official Ar nDraiocht Fein Protogrove. There have been some ups and some downs; days when I felt everything was going well, and days when I questioned why I’d bothered. As we head into year two, I’m already leaning more towards finding interest via other means. Celebrating the High Days is great, but there needs to be more there — a larger understanding of ADF’s perspective, and even more social bonding. Post-rite potlucks do help with that, but that only works for the people who are there.

Our first rite was an Ostara rite with five in attendance; this year, there were three. Though I’m not certain scheduling the rite for tomorrow would have prompted more turnout, I am certain it wouldn’t have prompted less, as only the two regulars showed. With a death possibly impeding one person’s attendance, I know this is how things can go — but it was during one of the weekends bookending Spring Break.

There were some slight speedbumps in preparing for the rite. Most notably, I accidentally cracked (but did not break) a jar of grain loading it into my car. I was at a loss for why a slight bump like it received cracked it, until I discovered the stone Well was on the other side. I will have to plan more carefully when loading ritual gear into canvas bags for transport; I’d never had this happen before and so had become complacent. Fortunately, when I arrived at the UU fellowship one of the regulars helped me remove the grain and recycle the broken jar.

The rite itself flowed fairly well, as one might expect with the regulars present; in fact, it flowed rather quickly in hindsight, taking under half an hour. I was surprised, but even the regular that often has difficulties was following along well. This is, of course, the sort of thing that tempts me to “mix things up” a bit for the next rite. Most notably, I’m thinking about adapting my usually-private Walpurgisnacht celebration for group use in lieu of Beltane being, well, Beltane.

The omens were reasonable, and I think reflected the functional nature the rite had:

Acceptance: Tiwaz, the God Tyr (involved in War and Justice, among
other things). I said it was accepted, but just so, like a balance.

Ancestors: Dagaz, Day; Nauthiz, Need; Wunjo, Joy. A day for getting
what we need to bring us joy, but also a request to remember them.

Nature Spirits: Eihwaz, Yew Tree; Fehu, Cattle; Uruz, Aurochs -
Growth, but with a need to have the proper vision to direct it (lest
it trample other things).

Gods & Goddesses: Ingwaz, the God Freyr; Ehwaz, Horse; Isa, Ice -
Fertility, to boast about before the first frost.

I won’t deny I was disappointed with the turnout, but the omens were good while pointing to things to be done, so I’m pleased overall.

Announce

Here’s a secret of mine: I dislike writing the email announcements for upcoming rites. I’m not certain why, exactly; I think part of it is that in addition to announcing on a local list and Witchvox, I also post announcements on a number of regional lists — one for Central Pennsylvania, two for Pennsylvania itself, and one for ADF’s Heartland region (PA is the eastern outpost of it; it’s actually faster for me to get to Trillium Gathering, in northern Virginia, than to get to the Ohio border).

I suspect it may be that I feel I’m reiterating the information on the additional lists without people necessarily getting anything out of it. Part of it, I know, is to make certain others across the state are aware there is a group in this area, for word-of-mouth.

Perhaps I should show off the most recent email announcement, more or less . The level of detail varies based on the region; the PA lists know what “State College” means, but the Heartland region might have more than one.

Subject: HVP Ostara 3/15 11:00am (State College, PA)

Hemlock Vales Protogrove, ADF will be holding an Ostara rite at
11:00am on Saturday, March 15th. It will be in Room 1 at the
Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship of Centre County, in State College.
There is a map with arrows at http://www.uufcc.com/smap.shtml — note
that they are off the traffic circle at the end of Waupelani Dr.

Web page: [Edit: defunct website]
Phone number: Feel free to call me at 814-321-5521 with any questions
or last minute directions help.
Email to: hemlockvalesadf@gmail.com

So, I wonder: good? bad? more info? less?

On timing

Strangely, it seems I haven’t posted about the timing of rites yet.

Earrach* of Pittsburgh has a lovely essay about accuracy of timing on the Sassafras Grove site as well as an essay about correcting calendar drift on the cross-quarters. Timing is useful; a Walpurgisnacht Rite I did as night turned to day May first was a stand-out ritual experience for me.

This year, the vernal equinox is in the early hours of the 20th. We are planning a celebration on the 15th. Why? Why give in to convenience to the point where we’re using the more distant bounding Saturday?

I’d love to give a pat answer like “just as we define our ritual space as being at the sacred center, we define the ritual time as being at the sacred time for the ritual.” (Actually, there’s something to work with there, even though I’m not certain it’s really Indo-European.)

Instead, I’ll give a different answer: it’s about the community. If I’m celebrating ritual at 1:48am on the 20th, I’m likely celebrating alone. Indeed, the convenient times on the 19th and 20th of this month are have other events at the the Unitarian-Universalist fellowship, our preferred space (Beltane will likely be outside). The 22nd, though desirable for reasons of proximity, won’t work as well, at least in part due to the schedule impact of other holidays that weekend.

So just as we stretch ourselves as a people to reach for the sacred day, the day stretches to reach the sacred community. A Protogrove weaves itself together by making that public High Day available and accessible, and sometimes that does mean bending a bit so that the community can come together. I’d love to do perfectly timed rites — but it would mean ignoring the world we live in, and the needs of those whose work isn’t 8-5 M-F with three weeks off a year. I expect a larger turnout by planning for the 15th, and look forward to seeing many of the faces from last month again.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to work on completing those plans; some fool moved the equinox rite up.

*In case you ever meet Earrach, his name is pronounced Eric, not Ear-ache. Thankfully, I figured this out before he figured out I was trying to address him.

An “Ill-met” Imbolc

Saturday’s Imbolc was great; seven attended in total, the largest turnout since the official start of the Protogrove. I, however, was a bit miserable. Not because of Imbolc itself, though.

At 4:30am on Friday, I was sick. I found myself so weakened that I took Friday off of work. As I rested, I wondered about the Imbolc rite the next day. I knew, at this stage in the Protogrove’s development, that it could not go on without me. Should I cancel it, even though I knew there was interest? Could I cancel it, given that the notice went out to many people who I had no idea if they planned to attend or not?

I decided that the rite must go on. The illness was the sort likely to largely pass within a day. If I was well and truly unable to go the next day, I would contact those who I knew would attend and encourage an improvised solution. Besides, Brighid is a goddess of healing, and I could certainly use some.

I made two concessions to my illness. The first was to give up looking for the bag of tealights I had intended to have blessed during the Workings section and give out; being very weak on Friday meant that my usual advance preparation time was reduced. The second was to bring along cups for the Waters of Life. In times past we’ve simply passed a horn or cup around, but I wanted to do my best to avoid spreading my germs to anyone else. I’d been meaning to try individual cups, but hadn’t done so before — now it was necessary.

Preparations were definitely a bit rushed by my need for extra rest and inability to prepare the night before; still, I arrived at the UU fellowship second, and let everyone in. (The first person to arrive had done so surprisingly early.) In addition to the two UU regulars, two more occasional attendees and two new people showed up. The newcomers brought along “Persephone’s Milk”, a buttermilk-and-juice-based beverage that we decided to use as the Waters of Life.

We set up in the reserved room, which fit us well after some rearranging of the furniture. The setup seemed to take extra long; I don’t know if it was my own reduced energy or just my perception of time with new attendees present. After an extra long pre-ritual briefing due to discussion and extra time spent practicing the “chants” we would use, we began. Almost everyone chose to take at least one part, so the rite flowed swiftly by while I made certain everyone had any supplies or tools they needed at hand. Persephone’s Milk, though a little a-cultural in name, tasted a lot like Kefir, and with its active cultures was probably an ideal Waters of Life for my digestive system in its state. Only a very small amount wound up consumed by the tapestry I had thrown over the table. Some of those attending had brought offerings for Brighid; in fact, all offerings made during the General Praise Offerings were to Her, which isn’t always the case in this group. (Now there hangs a subject for a long entry.)

The biggest performance hink during the rite was my not properly cueing up a grain offering, which was notable mostly in that I’d been very on top of the requisite offerings. There were a few other, more minor things. I forgot the fire-plate for the fire. Also, I didn’t explicitly go over the idea of “Person 1: X, accept this offering. All: X, accept this offering.” so it wound up slightly off at first as everyone tried to say it simultaneously. Finally, there were the usual issues some have reading off a script.

As for the omen, the first acceptance omen was Nauthiz (Need). I saw this as a no, but did not see it as a personal push to do anything — closer to a more please. Since I had not known exactly what resources people would bring, I had brought with me a surfeit of libations, so I offered Brighid “the closest thing to Guinness I have with me”. Others made additional offerings from supplies they had with them, some surprising given the discussion during the pre-ritual briefing about offerings passing out of human use. I drew another rune and received Algiz (Elk) which I perceived as a yes, given the mentions of the protective aspects of Brighid in the ritual text.

For the blessings from the Ancestors, I drew Othala (Ancestral Lands), Gebo (Gift), and Dagaz (Day); I interpreted this as getting in touch with our ancestral gifts and power, but I wasn’t entirely happy with this interpretation, though nothing further has sprung to mind.

For the Nature Spirits, I drew Fehu (Cattle), Laguz (Lake), and Wunjo (Joy); I saw this as great productivity for the coming year, though flexibility would be required.

Finally, for the Gods and Goddesses I drew Mannaz (Man), Jera (Year), Ansuz (Gods; the God Odin), and Tiewaz (the God Tyr) also came out. I took this as a rebalancing in communication with others in the coming year; an attendee made a comment about “Three Gods of the Year” which I’m not entirely certain I understand, even after later discussion. (It might have been that I wasn’t 100% yet, health-wise.)

Afterward, everyone helped clean up and we all chatted a bit before heading our separate ways. The Persephone’s Milk sat calmly in my belly, and though I was still a little tired and a little out of it, I felt good as I headed home.

Advertising in the right way

Yesterday, there was a definite spike of interest in Hemlock Vales, apparently linked to a number of visits to the Imbolc page. (I wonder what I should do with that page once the rite is done.) Two new people signed up for the local Pagan e-list that is largely occupied by HVP discussion, which isn’t exactly a simple set of jumps from that page, given the need to sign up with a Yahoo and all.

Why was this? We’re having Imbolc at the local Unitarian-Universalist fellowship, and I submitted a note for their email newsletter including a link to that page, which went out at noon yesterday. After noticing the spike, I actually improved that page significantly from what it was to explain Imbolc a little better. I’ll have to remember to do that before the next announcement goes out, since if this works well I’m planning to have the equinox rite there as well.

Now, I’ve done sign posting on the fellowship’s community bulletin board in the past and the response has been mild. In my mind, the difference is that this made it easy. Instead of a slip of paper they could then lose or not get around to entering, it was a link they could click right at that moment. It’s the same thing as writing down the email address of the person you want to get in touch with instead of giving them a card (though, of course, both is better) — you’re lowering their barrier to taking action.

I look forward to seeing how this rite goes — I’ve already been given the option to use a larger room if needed (and settle the difference after), though their “small” room is larger than I remember from when I helped out with a Neighboring Faiths class.

The Hipster PDA and the Dedicant Path

Lupa expressed an interest in more detail about personal practice, so I figured I’d give some overviews of ways I have approached things. This might not be what she had in mind, yet perhaps more generally applicable.

In ADF, the Dedicant Path (DP) is the general term for a standard set of practices outlined in a manual member receive; when the practices are documented to certain standards, submitted, and approved, one has been said to have passed the DP, though it is a lifelong journey.

Part of the documentation requirements is five months of journaled mental discipline work. When I did that portion, I knew I needed a way to document it consistently. What I did was use a Hipster PDA. I found it a productive approach because it fit my work-flow.

I knew my method of recording must be easy to transcribe onto the computer (a tatty notebook is not a preferred submission format). Using the Hipster PDA, once a card was full I could easily put it next to my computer keyboard, unlike a spiral notebook. Then, when I had time, I could transcribe the entries; most of the time, I was able to fit four to a card.

I knew it had to easy to bring with me. At the time, I was doing more business travel than now. Also, if any insights occurred away from devotional practice, I wanted to be able to take them down at the time. It proved to be additionally helpful for taking down omens and other notes on group ritual. Simultaneously, if I lost it, I was only likely to be “out” a few days’ worth of devotional work. Cost-wise, losting it would probably be less than a dollar in materials (I never did buy a Fisher Space Pen).

I knew it had to be easy to use. Unlike an electronic PDA, it was easy to put a mixture of text and any sketches onto. Unlike my old Palm’s “graffiti” entry method, writing didn’t require much additional thought out of me, and it was easy to draw runes instead of writing out the names.

Finally, I knew it had to be multi-purpose. I’m not big on jamming my pockets full of stuff to go anywhere — the Hipster would double as a recording device for other things.

These days, I carry a Moleskine for many of the reasons I originally gravitated to using the Hipster PDA. The biggest objection I developed to the Hipster was the tendency to hurt my cuticles on the sharp edges of the excelsior clip I had; switching the clip for a paperclip or a hairband did not hold the cards together asa well for me. These days, my devotional work tends to be “at home” enough that I can use a single bound dairy-style book for it, and leave it in front of my Home Shrine, though I do need to get back into the mode of transcribing it — tremendous insights can be found in the process of transcribing notes that are a week or two old.

To bring it back to the main theme of this blog: don’t be afraid to take notes. Part of ADF’s Core Order of Ritual for High Days involves the taking of an omen after offerings are made (the exact nature of the divination is up to those designing and performing the rite). When I first started doing public ritual I wasn’t big on recording the omens immediately after the rite, and while that was usually not a problem, on occasion I found myself having to work to remember an omen. After a while I became cagey about writing down the symbols, but was then failing to write down the interpretation, which was often worse; further thought can elaborate an omen, but it’s important to know what was said at the time.

So, despite the ancient Druidic attitude toward writing, I do advocate taking notes; not only does it give a solid record, whether for personal or group use, but it helps enable further reflection.