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Ye Gods... it didn't crack 0 degrees Celcius (that is, the freezing point) all day -- WITH almost constant snow drifting down from the cloudy sky. And yet there we were, about 50 hardy souls, outdoors participating in a Beltane festival, including a ritual and a maypole dance. (I managed to stand outside for the circle, but had retreated back under the covered picnic shelter with the food by the time the maypole dance came round and refused to come out. Damn, I'm getting old and crotchety!)
As in the past two years, I brought, set up, and ran a little shrine to the Lord and Lady, where people could light sticks of incense from a covered candle and offer them to the Deities along with prayers and good wishes for the coming year. Pictures will follow as soon as the nice fellow who took them gets them processed, scanned, and sent along to me.
It was cold enough that by the time we packed up to go home after a few hours outside, the hot coffee I'd poured into the shrine chalice as an offering to Themselves had literally turned into iced coffee. :-P
I think it went well, though: at the end of the day there were 26 little burned sticks in the sand, as well as a few offerings of sweet smoke that went up from a charcoal in the censor from raw frankincense resin. I received numerous compliments on the shrine, including several folks saying that it was absolutely lovely and what an excellent idea it was, especially for people who might not feel comfortable or able to take part in the public circle.
This year I tried a new set-up, bringing all the shrine equipment in a small suitcase which, with the lid open and an altar cloth draped over it, served as the shrine enclosure. Success! Before next Beltane I'll have to dig up a better suitcase, one with little metal hinges on the side to prop the lid open securely; Holly, another local Wiccan and most excellent teacher, has offered to sew me a lovely inner lining for it in an appropriately Pagan fabric.
And yes, I brought THE Pan statue for the shrine -- as my Winnipeg friends will attest, He is... ahem... MIGHTY! He stands about 6" tall and sports a 2"... ahem again... priapus. The perfect God representation for a festival of fertility...
EDIT: And here He is, behind the cut. Cut for, um, priapage. Yeah. Priapage.
The God and Goddess from my portable Beltane shrine:
I know, I know... two different worlds, huh? The Goddess statue was given to me as a joke -- she has a sticker underneath that declares her to be Fluffia, the patron Goddess of Bambi Paganism -- but somehow, she just... works with this bold and unabashed statue of the God, which is a replica of a type of statue common in Greece from ancient times.
EDITED AGAIN TO ADD: Oh, and I am now officially the Organizer of the Winnipeg Witches Meetup -- joy is mine. :-P
Plus, the GAFF forums are down, and I am going through withdrawal in a major way.
As in the past two years, I brought, set up, and ran a little shrine to the Lord and Lady, where people could light sticks of incense from a covered candle and offer them to the Deities along with prayers and good wishes for the coming year. Pictures will follow as soon as the nice fellow who took them gets them processed, scanned, and sent along to me.
It was cold enough that by the time we packed up to go home after a few hours outside, the hot coffee I'd poured into the shrine chalice as an offering to Themselves had literally turned into iced coffee. :-P
I think it went well, though: at the end of the day there were 26 little burned sticks in the sand, as well as a few offerings of sweet smoke that went up from a charcoal in the censor from raw frankincense resin. I received numerous compliments on the shrine, including several folks saying that it was absolutely lovely and what an excellent idea it was, especially for people who might not feel comfortable or able to take part in the public circle.
This year I tried a new set-up, bringing all the shrine equipment in a small suitcase which, with the lid open and an altar cloth draped over it, served as the shrine enclosure. Success! Before next Beltane I'll have to dig up a better suitcase, one with little metal hinges on the side to prop the lid open securely; Holly, another local Wiccan and most excellent teacher, has offered to sew me a lovely inner lining for it in an appropriately Pagan fabric.
And yes, I brought THE Pan statue for the shrine -- as my Winnipeg friends will attest, He is... ahem... MIGHTY! He stands about 6" tall and sports a 2"... ahem again... priapus. The perfect God representation for a festival of fertility...
EDIT: And here He is, behind the cut. Cut for, um, priapage. Yeah. Priapage.
The God and Goddess from my portable Beltane shrine:
I know, I know... two different worlds, huh? The Goddess statue was given to me as a joke -- she has a sticker underneath that declares her to be Fluffia, the patron Goddess of Bambi Paganism -- but somehow, she just... works with this bold and unabashed statue of the God, which is a replica of a type of statue common in Greece from ancient times.
EDITED AGAIN TO ADD: Oh, and I am now officially the Organizer of the Winnipeg Witches Meetup -- joy is mine. :-P
Plus, the GAFF forums are down, and I am going through withdrawal in a major way.
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(no subject)
And you're not the only one who's going into GAFF withdrawal... I've been poking at the site all day to no avail...
(no subject)
Hell, Crowdog, that statue would fit right in with the Sex Museum we went to in Shimoda, Japan.
It was a little bitty museum -- they had all kinds of phallic symbols, some of them dating back to when MY ancestors were painting themselves blue and running around with bronze swords. A lot of them were just suggestive rock formations.
What was REALLY interesting was that people who came through would leave little offerings to the exhibits. Some of them would even clap their hands twice (to summon any gods who might be nearby) and briefly pray. In a museum.
See, the Japanese believed that these exhibits were still real -- they were "kami" (gods) -- and deserved just as much attention as any other god in any other shrine they might go to.
It was deeply strange and wonderful at the same time.
Oh, crap, I'm rambling again -- sorry.
Here -- I'll write some more about kami in my LJ. Soon.
Glad to hear Beltane was a success -- can't imagine it being that cold right now.
(no subject)
Well I'm willing to help in any way ^_^ Tho, with my money situation, I'd rather do a yahoogroup... :)