Bel-Summer is over for the year. I was somewhat disappointed at the low turn out this year but it was a nice group. On Friday the Sacred Cauldron bulb planting turned out to be a sweet intimate ritual with three women, Tamara, Me, and Kris, who represented Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Kris designed the rite as a devotion so we honored the elements and spoke of their help with the planting and growth. We planted iris, windflowers, and buttercups. Then we dedicated the Cauldron to Hecate Dreambringer and Artemis as an oracle site. We walked for a short distance down Artemis Trail and discovered a bush covered in small 5-petalled, wild white roses. What a luscious scent! It turned out to be a wonderful bonding rite and come next spring the Cauldron will be surrounded by lovely flowers.
On the way back my Subie (Subaru - all-wheel drive) got stuck in the mud. We have had so much rain that many areas near us had flash flood warnings but are land is mostly up a hill so rain isn't usually a problem for us. But this was a low spot where the water drained and it was saturated. We walked back to the house and Tom got the tractor to pull the car out. Luckily he was back from the Cave Rite. Now the car is covered with mud splatters. Even on the inside of the car since I had to have the window partially down to hear his instructions. The mud sprayed up into the car and on me but we got it out.
I heard the Sacred Cave rite went well but due to Pagan Standard Time the Cauldron planting got delayed and ended up happening at the same time as the cave visit. The participants painted symbols on rocks that they brought with them to leave in the cave and a few tiny symbols on the roof of the cave. I thought there was only enough room for someone my size (you know a normal height of 5'2") to stand but apparently there is a spot where even a 6 footer could stand.
The 7 Souls ritual, which I wrote for this festival, worked quite well and the people representing the souls did a great job. Tamara represented the watery, heart soul, and did so with grace, beautifully. Kris represented the soul of the body, this incarnation, and helped to ground us all. The other roles were carried by Jack -- Will Soul, Tom, my partner, -- Mind Soul, Aeona -- Ancestral Soul, Ken Heronheart -- Soul of Divinity, and Phoenix, a StarSpring nestmate, -- spoke for center and our huge oak tree. Kim and Callista helped the flow of energy by drumming throughout. I was quite pleased with the way it turned out. The idea behind the rite was a Shamanic soul integration. Some cultures believe that each of us have 7 souls and that we can lose one or more of them due to trauma, psychological shock, etc. This results in a loss of power, illness, or other problems. So we called back the 7 souls for ourselves and for the World Soul to heal us and so heal the world. Afterwards we decided that it was a keeper. The chant we used to call/invoke the souls was too slow for the purpose though, so I need a different one for next time. We also dedicated the large oak tree in the orchard by giving it a ritual cord and powerbag with magickal items inside.
On Saturday, we had a StarDragon Regional CAW Branch meeting that helped to refocus us and bring us more enthusiasm for continuing the work of building community. In fact one of the non-members decided to join right then and there. We also talked about providing training. Many people write in looking for Wiccan training and a coven system. Perhaps that is all they know and if they were aware that they could get Neo-Pagan training in a different context they would be interested in that. I talked about the Grok-System developed by Cougar Who Waits. It is an interesting system of training that draws from many different traditions and suits the philosophy of All Worlds. It looks like we will be starting up Grok groups in this area as a training method. Several people are interested in taking one on.
Later though I received one of those phone calls that parents dread. Luckily I had trained my son well. The first words out of his mouth were "I am ok but..." He and his girlfriend had had a car accident. I turned over the Dearinth ritual to Jack and Kris. One of the skills of CAW clergy is being able to handle a ritual on little to no notice. Tom and I drove to the hospital. As it turned out Kevin only had bruises from the seat belt (another one of those things we taught him that actually worked out). Tracey had not been wearing one and had a concussion. She is very sore and black and blue in a lot of places. She was very lucky. We were able to bring her home after several hours although we had to wake her up every two hours for the next 24 hours to make sure that she was lucid. Although she seemed quite lucid when she was released she doesn't remember the Dr. who talked to her just before she was released. They discussed Welsh Corgi's as they both have them and he told funny stories about his dog.
Their car was totalled as was the other car. But the girls in the other car were also released without being admitted and seemed to be relatively unhurt as well. They were all very lucky.
Kevin is unemployed at the moment and Tracey works at a dry cleaners for not much money. Her bill so far is $1800 without the Dr.'s bill or the radiologist's one. Kevin's was only a few hundred. Neither Kevin nor Tracey have any kind of insurance. Now we are waiting to find out about the accident report.
Copyright © 2000 Kyril Oakwind