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2 July 2010
London had culminated with Gin's Degree Show at Whitechapel and darshan of Chloe. It was wonderful to hear my daughter say that she was very happy with her life. The following night was a real treat with dinner at the River Café as the guests of Ossie and Tilly. It was a delightful kick-off for the transfer the following morning to Rhode Island, and, with the time change, it was only midnight by the time we got to bed. A long day followed – one crammed with countless things to take care of – but still managed to get to bed earlier and thereby be reasonably rested by the time we reached Camp Zoe in the Missouri Ozarks for the Pagan Spirit Gathering by the end of the next day. Nora, our cabin 'house mother', welcomed Richard and me with 'Silver' tequila that gently ushered us both into slumber land.
This was the first 'Pagan Festival' I have managed ever to attend. It was also PSG's 30th anniversary. Richard and I were being giving a tour the following day by Sharon/MoonFeather in a golf cart when she radioed the OK to open the gates and let everyone begin to enter. It was a moving moment. For us, that first full day was one of general orientation and connecting/re-connecting with the likes of Selena Fox, Dennis Carpenter, Drake Spaeth, Thorn Coyle, Patrick McCollum, River Higgenbotham, Jason Pitzl-Waters, David Smith and Cerri Lee.
My own jet-lagged disorientation was evident by the next day when I set my alarm by mistake to ring an hour earlier than intended so that we could greet to solstice at the moment of sunrise. We had determined that this last was occurring at 05:44 – so much later than in London or Amsterdam. Near the showers, there was a lovely spring, and we touched the waters at the propitious time. Since the summer solstice itself was at 06:28, we waited for our traditional aquatic immersion until then and used the Sinking Creek for the occasion.
The weather was torrid throughout, and our days were put together with various collective rituals, refreshing moments in the river, workshops, naps and incredible meals prepared by Juli and Heather. My own workshops were on 'A Polytheistic Mantra', 'How Has Paganism Re-entered the University?', 'Soul Talk' and 'Roman Religion'. Each went well, and each succeeding one had more attendees than the preceding. They were all 'firsts' for me, but in all cases they conformed with the overall PSG tempo of friendliness and general ease. That Monday evening, we opened our bottle of Coal Ila and had a spontaneous 'party' in the air conditioned Presenters' Cabin with Selena, Dennis, Thorn, Jason, River and Nora. Damn the Bard (Dave Smith) was the concert performer that capped that evening.
Tuesday comprised the Academic Network meeting, Cheiron's Pagan Ethics workshop, another on nutrition, the powerfully beautiful and fascinating Men's Rite, glu wine at the Musicians' Camp, and finally what was perhaps the most lovely PSG event of all: walking the candlelit labyrinth to the vibrational bowl accompaniment by MoonFeather. This last was utterly peaceful, gentle and awesome. I lost all sense of time so that it became a later than usual retiring.
Wednesday evening Richard and I joined in with WillowHawk's shamanic drum circle at the Ghetto Shaman Camp. During my trance expansion at this point, I connected our point in space and time with Shibaten's didgeridoo performance at the Main Stage as well as with Uluru from our time in Australia – a magical geo-temporal triad. A bit of Midnight Madness shopping on Merchants' Row concluded the night.
One of Friday's highlights for me was Richard's performing as part of the Talent Show. It was a first for him, but he had earlier volunteered and, with a keyboard on the stage, he then sang and played his song, "It Seems I'm Addicted to Your Love." Others found him remarkably good as well, so it was not just me that appreciated this moment. Though admittedly I am biased. Later that evening was Pan's Ball, a central PSG moment, and one of great inebriation. We passed on the 'brew' that had been concocted from everyone's contributions and stayed with the bottle of tequila I purchased at the general store since they had no scotch whisky. Everyone was warm and friendly, and it became a true bacchanalian experience. We hooked up with Selena and Dennis and finally went with them to the bonfire camp where we carried on and danced until 05:00. We were still able to attend the daily Town Meeting the next morning and then the handfasting of River, Joyce and Dave. The main spiral dance ritual concluded Saturday's events. A closing ceremony occurred the following morning.
After lunch, Joyce and Dave drove us to the St. Louis airport. Eventually we found ourselves sitting for two hours on the tarmac in an non-air conditioned plane before the pilot announced that we would be deplaning because of an approaching thunder storm that we could then see from the windows. We are not used to having connecting flights and of course missed ours from Detroit to Providence. Hundreds of others missed their ongoing flights as well, so the airport was bedlamesque. We did reach Detroit where waiting lines to speak to anyone were hundreds deep. No hotels were available in Detroit save for one in a motor inn on the far side of the city. The taxi fare to and from cost more than the room itself, but the three hours of sleep helped. Then we were back to the airport for countless more lines as standby passengers. A helpful Delta employee, Curtis, informed me that our standby status had not been 'activated', and after much difficulty he managed to do that for us. We were scheduled for our same flight that we had missed but 24 hours later. However, at the last moment, two seats on the 10:10 flight to Providence became available, and Curtis got us on that flight. Miraculously, my suitcase arrived in Rhode Island with us.
New England was torridly hot, but the following day we managed to slip in our own private midsummer celebrations. On the 30th, we attended with Shirley and Rosalind a most enjoyable production of Hello Dolly at the Theater By The Sea. And now we are into the second day of our nine-day alcohol-free, entheogen-free, caffeine-free, white flour-free and white sugar-free post-solstice nine day vegan purification. But the memories of the Pagan Spirit Gathering continue to refresh us as an utterly joyful experience. For me, my spirituality is essentially a private matter, but the PSG allowed me to recognize more fully than previously how central community is to contemporary paganism. Of course, for traditional and indigenous tribes, the collective has always prevailed over the individual, but I now am more aware how important this spirit and communion is for contemporary pagans as well. In all, it was a thrilling discovery, and something I have wished to understand more directly after having read Sarah Pike's excellent 2001 Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community. I came away with a warmth of comradeship both old and new that was laced with the magic of ritual and the embracing beauty of the Ozarks woodlands. I have now a new family and honour Selena and Dennis for what they have created and given. There were so many at Camp Zoe that were complete joys, but I wish to single out both always pleasant Jason (The Wild Hunt Blog) and, in particular, Thorn (blog: Know Thyself: Musings on Spirit, Body, Mind) – a totally delightful, amazing, intelligent, level headed and fun lady with whom we first crossed paths in Melbourne at the Parliament of the World's Religions. With such adept and seemingly tirelessly energetic people like Thorn and Jason and others like them, I see the next generation of pagan leaders and the promise they hold for the growing community that works for restoring the consciousness of enchantment to our world as a whole – one which encourages individual freedom and growth, a re-centering on the ecological sacredness of our mother earth, and the very growing of community and the joyful consciousness that comes with it.
One other memorable event – and Richard's favourite – though I cannot remember now when exactly it was – was the twilight fire twirling dragon dance in the Sinking Creek river. Fire and water were being a truly sensual display. Hauntingly beautiful.