Tag: ritual

Yule in Minnesota

Winter Solstice at Stonehenge

Maybe it is the climate, or seasonal competitiveness but Yule is BIG in Minnesota. A few early events have already happened last weekend. If you are looking for a Pagan Yule event this weekend, check out these events beginning Friday evening and continuing through Sunday. If you know of other public events, please add them as a comment!

2013 Winter Solstice Drum Jam

with Minneapolis Sacred Fire Dancing Tribe
Friday, December 20, 2013
8:00pm until 1:00am
BE Coterie,  165 13th Ave NE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55413

Doors open at 8pm. There will be spin toys for everyone to play with from 8-8:30 > Opening Ceremony begins at 8:30pm > fire dancing performances at 9, 10, 11 and 12 > and drumming throughout the night!This is a family friendly event. Suggested donation $5. Children 10 and younger are FREE.There will be a potluck so please bring food and/or drinks to share (something fitting for the holidays). If you bring something you are not required to pay the $5 entry, though it would still be appreciated :)Opening ceremony at 8:30pm which includes a meditation to help you connect with your inner light to assist you in manifesting your hearts desires (and better!) throughout the coming year.
Accepting donations that will be given to East Side Neighborhood Services.

Reclaiming Winter Solstice ritual

Saturday December 21, 2013

10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Living Table United Church of Christ, 4001 38th Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55406

Please join us as we celebrate this intention for the Winter:
Declaring we are not alone, we kindle our hearths’ Flame.

There will be a light potluck following the ritual and you are welcome to bring something to share with community. There is a small kitchen at the church. You do not have to bring a potluck item to attend the ritual and share in the feasting.

All are welcome, including children and folks from other traditions. Donations are also welcome, but please note that no one will be turned away for lack of funds. This is a sober event. We also invite you to refrain from the use of perfumes, lotions, and other scented products to ensure increased accessibility.

Harmony Tribe Yule

Celebrate the changes with Harmony Tribe
on December 21, 2013

Gather at 2 pm, ritual at 3 pm

Michael Servetus Unitarian Society, 6565 Oakley Drive Northeast, Fridley, MN 55432.

Feasting and camraderie to follow! All are welcome to attend; this is a FREE and very family friendly environment. Bring your family and a dish to pass. Ritual early in the day, early enough for those with other Yule obligations to attend.

2013 Wiccan Church of Minnesota (WiCOM) Public Yule (Winter Solstice)

“Hearth and Home as We Await the Sun“

DATE Saturday, December 21, 2013
TIME 6:30 p.m. Gather, 7:00 p.m. Ritual
RITUAL
PLACE		 Living Table UCC
4001 38th Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55406

Join us in a family-friendly ritual to commemorate the Holly King’s contributions and to celebrate the return of his counterpart, the Oak King.Bring a beverage and a dish to share for the feast, and we’ll lift a cup to the Sun.

Saturnalia Sabbat Open Ritual

with Our Lady of Celestial Fire
Saturday December 21, 2013
6:30 pm – 9:00 pm (GMT-06.00) Central Time (US & Canada)
Eye of Horus, 3012 Lyndale Ave S., Minneapolis, MN 55408
Ritual 7-9:00pm Gather at 6:30 for setup Join Our Lady of Celestial Fire for this open circle celebration of the rebirth of the divine child. Any ritual garb may be worn. A potluck feast and fellowship to follow.This event is Free, but donations are appreciated to cover the costs.

Winter Solstice Sound Healing Concert

Doors are open at 7:30pm, concert at 8pm.
610 W. 28th Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Join Steve Sklar and Johnna Morrow for an evening of sonic exploration celebrating the Winter Solstice. An “inner adventure” intended to evoke and stimulate an enhanced sense of well-being, spiritual connectedness, healing, and meditative journeying. Tibetan singing bowls, didgeridoos, guitar, igil (Tuvan horsehead fiddle), voice, exotic flutes, drumming, throat-singing, sruti box, ehecatls and an amazing set of huge gongs. Special guest Brett Fehr will lead an opening invocation.

Admission is $15 in advance and suggested $20 donation at the door.

3012 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55408

Saturday, Dec 21st 9:00pm to Sunday Dec 22nd 8:00am

Sacred fire circles are purposeful nights spent working through a personal alchemical process of burning off one’s dross to reveal the gold. It is a deliberate, intense and intent-full night of dancing, drumming, rattling, chanting, meditating, healing, and holding space in ritual mindset.

This event costs $21.00 per person, and pre-registration is required.

Winter Solstice gathering
Sunday, Dec. 22nd from 4-6 pm .
At the NEW Walker Church building–3104 16th Ave. S., Mpls.

Candles lit to celebrate the light in our lives and bless the growing power of the Sun.
Join with members of the Walker Community Church.

You are welcome to arrive between 3:30 and 4pm at the entrance circle with the fireplace.  Candles and Cider will be provided.

Peek at BareBones 20th Anniversary Extravaganza

image provided courtesy of BareBones theater collective

image provided courtesy of BareBones theater collective

Both Maren Ward, Halloween Artistic Co-Director, and Mark Safford, Section Designer and a performing puppeteer in this year’s show, refer to the annual BareBones  theater production as a ritual. This tradition, always staged during Halloween season, explores where life juts into death. For its 20th anniversary, that ritual explores grief.

Barebones theater, a collective of acrobats, puppeteers, actors, 2-dimensional artists and interested volunteers are an exotic staple of Twin Cities Halloween celebrations. This year’s play, Carry On: a Requiem for 20 Years, hosts visiting artists from years past and even includes the reprise of the character Jack Pumpkinhead, taking the ne’r-do-well on another misadventure as played by Julian McFaul. Participant-creators describe this year as invoking a little bit of Dia de Los Muertos and a little bit of Kali Ma.

Among other returning artists is Roger Peet, a printmaker and visual artist. He did this year’s poster design and is creating the two dimensional images used in the spectacle.

Every year the story is developed at a community brainstorming session. This year, several primary designers suffered significant personal losses and those sorrows gave direction to the show.

The implicit story explores grief as process and time as predator. Says Ward, “[The actors] are going to have grief-cases with little stories of their own personal grieving – a story about a person that they lost, about not having children, about global warming, grieving the glaciers -looking at different ways of being impacted by grief at a personal level.” Time itself will appear as a giant cuckoo clock that processes mourning with a carnivorous energy, acting as a giant grief monster. Other surreal moments in the evening’s journey will include a dance of marigolds, tea with spiders and ultimately coming face to face with a giant grief monster.

The community art collective is well known for its tradition of aerialism, puppetry and pageantry – this year acted to the sound of a 20 piece orchestra, with minimal dialogue.  Each production has grown the pageant in increasingly complex ways. The very first production began with a scuba diver emerging from the Mississippi River and a bicycle-operated 60 foot skull. In other years, shows were staged near the Ross Island power station; later on BareBones moved to private land. A particularly ambitious year featured the production in three locations: Marina on the Saint Croix, Audubon Park in northeast Minneapolis and the Ross Island Power station. Says Safford, “Traditionally this was the local bard’s show. We could do whatever we wanted.”

What initially drew a few dozen audience members expanded over the years to over 1000, enough for the city of Saint Paul and Hidden Falls Park to increase its park use fee from around $50 to $7500 to cover the use of porta-potties, insurance, security and technical gear. In addition BareBones had to pay its artists and fund the pieces used in each production. The years the collective has received help in the past from Bedlam Theater and Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater. This year, in addition to these fees, the company is attempting to raise funds to pay for the show and its attached party, as well as to cover the travel costs of some of the collective’s returning artists.

Safford makes sure to mention something even frequent visitors may be unaware of another BareBones tradition: free food after the show. “A really important part of this show is that we eat together. Waffle, the person that travels from Florida to cook for the show is a really important part of the process. There are moments that are heartbreakingly beautiful. I remember last night seeing people from a long time ago and more recently a guy came from New York riding the rail; he was on walkabout and ended up helping Waffle cook. The food is terrific and sustaining and Sisters Camelot  helps facilitate that.”

Safford describes the company’s work as “High magic, low tech.” He also adds, “It really comes out of nothing but the hearts and minds of the people participating in it.”

****

All performances are at Hidden Falls Regional Park. When planning your attendance this year: dress warm, bring a blanket, try to carpool and they do supply bike racks. Visitors need to bring flashlights; no alcohol is allowed. All shows are followed by a performance from the Brass Messengers.  The food and drink after the show is supplied by Sisters Camelot. The afterparty runs until 10 pm.

If you wish to contribute to BareBones Theater extravaganza, visit their IndieGoGo page.  All funds raised provide free food to theater crew and audience, cover travel costs of visiting actors and pay for the show the following year.

Show Dates:

All shows start at 7 pm.

Saturday, October 26th – with ASL interpreter

Sunday, October 27th

Thursday, October 31st

Friday, November 1st

Saturday, November 2nd

Suggested donation of $5 – $20 upon entry

Bike racks available. Carpooling strongly encouraged.

Weather cancellation hotline: 415-640-2116 after 3 pm on performance dates

Twin Cities Pagan Pride 2013

A good crowd attended Twin Cities Pagan Pride (TCPP,) at Minnehaha Park this year. Many stayed the majority of, or the whole day. You were in public, as a self declared Pagans, talking to anyone who found you interesting that walked by,  I know I talked to at least a few non-Pagan people who left knowing more and feeling better about a world where Pagans exist next to them. For those of us who like the idea of similar people getting one last chance to hug and appreciate each other despite our differences before winter sets in,, it was a perfect day.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Why spend a day of your valuable life, heck, your Saturday, at Twin Cities Pagan Pride (TCPP) ?  If you believe Pagans need to be supported in their desire for public acceptance, you were there.  What if you are a Pagan, what did you get out of attending ?  There was a full schedule of many different types of ritual to experience, Music, dance, and many booths selling items, promoting ideas, or experiences were on hand to entertain you, If you are a Pagan you did get to see, talk to, and connect with many old friends and make some new ones.  Saturday at TCPP it was also hot.  I guess that was a bonus for Minnesotans, You got to spend one of the last days of hot weather you might get this year, outdoors with friends.

Nels Linde

Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone – Interview Part 3 The Future

3 Comments

Part two of this interview series with Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone ,  guests at Heartland Spirit Festival , this continues from the second portion of our interview. This section of the interview focuses on life in Ireland and a look into where deity work is moving Neo-Paganism in the future.

 

Janet and Gavin

Janet and Gavin

Nels (N) : What happens when Pagan culture get truly in touch with their deities?

Janet (J) : This is the manifestation in Ireland, which is truly wonderful the resurgence of many of the old faith festivals. I am one of only five legal pagans in all of Ireland allowed to legally marry people. A legal solemnizer. I am on the health board as a hospital visitor. Ireland is a tiny island, but this is a major break through. Around 1982 Stewart  and I won the first witchcraft case in Ireland and changed the law which had made witchcraft illegal. It went to the high court in Dublin, and was given compensation because when “Eight Sabbats’ (A Witches Bible) came out a journalist called it devil worshiping, porn blasphemy. We won the entire case and were taken out be all the high court judges for a champagne reception.

Gavin (G): This really explains what has been going on in Ireland at the moment. One of the effects of working the way we have is that now the deities don’t care whether you are Pagan or not. They want to come through, they want to speak, and they want the connection to develop. This happened in Ireland because as the Catholic church began to lose control from the early 2000’s the people of Ireland still wanted that connection to their spirituality.  Initially they sought it through the Catholic church, but now  we now find ourselves involved in ceremonies with the general public, particularly one at Samhain every year in County Meath at the Hill of Ward, also known as Tlachta.

J:  Tlachta is the only witch goddess in the whole of Ireland that the church fathers, the monks, tried to write out of the history. But they ultimately failed.

Hill of Tlachta

G: Brid is not technically a witchcraft goddess, although some people say she is. Tlachta is the only goddess where the word witchcraft is actually associated with her. Every year there is a procession up the hill and the witches group, along with the Druids, are the ones that lead it.  When we get to the top we tell the old story  of her, and the traditional Samhain fire is lit. The majority of the people behind are not Pagan. They are good Catholics who are probably off to church on Sunday.

J: Half way up the hill is the well of Tlachta. We have a woman cloaked doing trance work and beside her we have a Knight in full armor, so if anyone hassles her, he is there.  All the witches and Druids pass with their flaming torches and behind them come all the villagers singing, “Tlachta Lady, goddess fair, light your night on moonlit air…..” . They sing a chant to this goddess as we light our fires. These Catholics are singing to a Pagan goddess. When they have all passed the parents bring their children to the lady of the well, Tlachta herself, to prophesize for them. To put her hands on them, and bless them.

Video from Tlachta Samhain Ritual

Continue reading →

Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone – Interview Part 2 Deity and Trance

4 Comments

Part two of this interview series with Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone ,  guests at Heartland Spirit Festival , this continues from the first portion of our interview. This section of the interview focuses on the current practice of  Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone, what they have experienced with deity work and integrated.

Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone

Nels (N) :Is it easier to speak to the deities now?

Gavin (G) : Something interesting is going on, as Pagans we have been waking the gods since the 1950’s. Voudon and the Caribbean traditions has a few hundred years on us! When you go to a Voudon Bembe, with its ecstatic drumming and dancing,  they come through really strong, riding (possessing) the participants. We are now reaching the point where this beginning to happen now in modern neo-paganism, even though it has only been fifty years.  This is because we have been waking the gods up. We have noticed something interesting as we have done the work. We are forming a Neo-Pagan pantheon. We only have a finite amount of energy to give the gods as spirits as they wake up.  You see the same gods and goddess coming up all the time in our community. Hecate, Brid, Isis, Morrigan, Freja, Odin, Diana etc.  Because there is only this finite amount of energy for them, they are congregating and forming a  new pantheon.  All awakened gods from different cultures forming a pantheon, and redefining roles.

Hecate Photo: wikimedia

Over the years as we done trance possession we have kept having Hecate appearing, even though neither of us have felt inclined to work with her,  but now it seems we haven’t got much choice! As we did the trance prophesy she started coming through at almost every event and  public workshop. We had strange occurrences.  On one occasion we started  conversation wither her in Connecticut through a priestess in trance, and she finished with us, unprompted with a priestess in California.  Now it has reached a point where when she comes through somebody, I will know if it is Hecate, because she will burst into fits of laughter when she knows it is me!

Janet (J) :  The last time it happened in America she turned around and said to Gavin, “Oh God, it’s not you again”.

G:  She has been developing and evolving and  has taken on the role of teaching trance with in this new ‘pantheon’.

J:  She is taking on the role of a psychopomp for trance, quite fascinating.

G:  This does  mimic what happens in voudon. She is taking the same role as Elegba/Ellegua.  You also have other deities fulfilling other roles as well. That is what is starting to occur, as simple as that. You see it where Brid is taking over the healing role. Brid is forming into three Brid’s, the triple goddess Brid consisting of the original Celtic Brid, Saint Bridget, and Maman Bridget from Voudon. Every priestess we know who works with Brid has found that is what is occurring. Suddenly they get this dark aspect of Brid, this dark earth goddess, the Maman Bridget from Haiti. It is getting drawn to them to balance the other two aspects.

J:  There is the Brid of fire, who says right, you are going to be my priestess but I am going to put you through hell, put you on my anvil and beat the shit out of you! She is an initiatory type of goddess.

G:  The Morrigan is a protective type of goddess, the Macha.  We are also seeing that Freya, who is taking on a different type of role. She is a goddess of journeying.  Which is how this all started for us, by working Freya.

Continue reading →