Spirits of the Earth Festival
In the short nine days I have between festival travels, I wanted to take the time to share my experiences at the last event – the Spirits of the Earth Festival (www.spiritsfest.com) in Ontario, Canada. It was my first time attending, and while friends like Dorothy Morrison, M.R. Sellars and Trish Telesco have attended in the past, I wasn’t sure what to expect. We had booked pretty far in advance and I must admit I’ve overbooked myself this summer, as usual and was really wanting some days of rest and relaxation, not to attend another festival. Well, I sort of got my wish. If it’s possible for a festival to be both mellow and exciting at the same time, SOTE pulled it off!
We started out with a wonderful ice breaker of pagan karaoke, where I was able to sing Blondie’s One Way or Another, complete with Hula Girl Back Up and have some lovely mead brewed by one of the main organizer’s, Fox. He and Tameika both kept me well cared during my stay. On the first night, I also met Fey of the popular podcast Darkly Fey (http://darklyfey.com/). One of my students is a big fan and introduced me to her work, and we talked about doing an interview before I arrived, and then decided to do a phone interview once we got home, so be on the look out for me to appear on Darkly Fey soon, coming to you from the red leather couch. Well, the red leather couch is at her place. I’ll be coming from the black leather seat in my office. So much leather, so little time…. She truly became my festival bud and out time together was a highlight of the whole event. I’m quite awful away from home and from my men, and can be a big baby when I’m not in work mode, as surprisingly I’m an introvert at heart, and she noticed that right away and gave me just the right level of support. And I really loved our conversations about the Craft, ethics, mysteries, devotion, tradition, trance and sexuality. Should be a good talk when we get together for show. And her husband is super cute too dancing around the fire!
Celtic Mist, another key staff person was our tent neighbor and another festival buddy. It was amazing to see her go from fairly normal urban/suburban health care worker to pagan goddess by Saturday night. I really enjoyed her company and in particular our car rides together. She gave me a good idea of the Ontario scene and I liked it a lot. I hope to be back sometime. Everybody was quite wonderful on and off staff. Fun, engaging and during the day very mellow.
I spent a lot of time strangely hanging out with the “mommy tribe” and their little kids. Folks know I am not a big kid person, but I totally bonded with this little baby named Jade – ascended master in a diaper, mark my words! There was just kinship there when our eyes met. And her mom Kimi is great too! I also spent time with Dono, a great guy, promising musician and all around go to helper, as well as his two “moms” though I misread that situation and they liked to keep me guessing. They were fun camp mates too. I look forward to hearing Dono’s original music sometime soon.
John Huculiah shared his Romani ways with us in the opening ritual and has an amazing degree of knowledge and understanding of comparative religions and traditions. And a great love of tea. I went to his “Don’t Blame the Fey” sadly thinking it was a workshop about the Good Folk, and turned out to be an even better workshop idea on community and responsibility. And it had nothing to do with me and Darkly Fey drinking around the revel fire, thanksfully. Lol.
Other highlights included spending time with the Dragon Ritual Drummers (www.dragonritualdrummers.com/). Our paths keep crossing a few days short of each other, and I realized I had been to a Voodoo ritual hosted by one the drummers, Utu, at Starwood years ago, but didn’t realize he was Utu of DRD. Well now that we’ve made the connection, I hope to see them more. Utu and I got to talk a little about Voodoo and hopefully we’ll visit him up in Niagra soon. I also got to catch up with the Gypsy Nomads. I’ve known Scott and Samatha for years through mutual friends and we haven’t connected in quite a while. Usually they are playing as I’m getting taken to an airport.
I taught four workshops there, each somewhat in tune with the elemental tribute. I taught on past lives, ascension, plant familiars and trance techniques. Unique to SOTE, each day is devoted to an element. I wish I read the website more carefully before I attended, as I didn’t have all the necessary colors for the day, so I stocked up on sarongs from our local vendor coordinator, the lovely gnome named Gus. Each night was a really beautiful and creative ritual honoring the elements, with puppets, costumes, face paint and on three nights – people on stilts in elaborate costumes. One night Fox was a very sexy giant Pan which he totally pulled off. Another night, I think it was Tameika as a skeleton crow, after the Voodoo ritual. Fire was the most spectacular night and I can’t even describe it.
During the day, I had most of my time free. I worked with each elemental altar set up around the camp on the appropriate day. I spent some time visiting with the plant spirits, particularly Elder, St. John’s Wort and Yarrow, and I think I found some Hemlock (not Queen Anne’s Lace though they look similar). I also got to talk to Dr. Nina who is an author on a plant book. I missed her week walk, though she helped me identify “tall ragweed” which had me stumped and I went to her slide show on local medicinal herbs and plants. The Medieval Feast was a sight to see, and sadly I was called on to flog one of the serving wenches. Few besides my “Between the Worlds Brothers” (www.betweentheworlds.org) know what a trauma flogging has been for me, so while I was fearful, it was a fun chance to redeem myself. Every time we crossed paths for the rest of the festival, she would say, “pleased to see you my flogging friend.” The flogger of choice was this weird plush snake like flogger I believe belonged to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Penis.
Great folks are too numerous, but special thanks and hugs also go out to Trina, Donna, Rod, Robert, Andrew, Kathy, Mike West, Scotty, Emerson and Ronda (of my favorite new product company, White Flame www.whiteflamecompany.com/) for great fun hanging out at meals and talking at the fire. It was a blast. My apologies to anyone unmentioned and I look forward to seeing you all again sometime soon.
Ok, now to correct my online students homework and off to French Lick Indiana for Chrysalisi Moon Tribe Festival (www.chrysalismoon.com/) to hang out with Lord Foxglove! Wish me luck, as you know how much I love camping!