Celebrating Solstice
I disappeared again into the mountains for a few days. I am sure some of you noticed, and this time it was for a very good reason. Besides the best party of the year, the summer solstice, it was my birthday. I have been attending this solstice party for 10 years now, and one of my favorite things about it is that it is my birthday party. It is an awesome thing to have a birthday party that lasts about 3-4 days with an attendance of about 200-300 people. Not every one of those people are people I even know, but the majority (like 92%) are my good friends, my family, and most of the people I happen to adore in life.
This year was a great one. It rained from early morning Friday to late morning Saturday, which would usually be a good reason for people to not show up, but amazingly enough there were about 150 people there on Friday night, willing to live with the rain. I tried to firmly plant the image of a blue sky into every persons head that I possibly could. On Saturday it was totally overcast, but very little rain, a blessing. Being in a meadow the way we were, it was a truly magnificent thing to be surrounded on all sides by clouds. All one would have to do is climb one of the 'bumps' (the name given to the bumpy hills that are glacier remnants) up about a hundred feet and you would have been in the clouds. I'm not much for damp weather, but I do love it when its like that.
Before dinner, which are all potluck all weekend long~incredibly delicious hippy food "Organic wants to be fun too!"~ we always have a circle. Whoever wants to be part of the circle joins us out in the field and we say our names, were we came from or whatever little bit of poetic waxing we wish to do. The best words spoken in the circle were Swamp's, he is an incredible poet, and running in a close second was Wren's, who is a little 5 year old girl. She said "My name is Wren... and I don't think many people know this, but... I have a giraffe in my room!"
When it came to my turn, I said my name and then slowly asked everyone in the circle to, for just a moment... envision... a... blue... SKY! This way they all had to think of it without any choice in the matter... the power of suggestion and all. Sure enough we were all wakened by the sun the next morning. It never ceases to amaze me what the power of many minds concentrating on one thing can do. After the name game we have the spiral dance which seems to be quickly becoming a tradition. If you've never experienced a spiral dance, I highly recommend it. I won't try to describe it, wouldn't come out right, but one day if you join us at Solstice, you will get your chance.
I am a gemini. That means different things to many different people, or to many different astrology books, I only know what it means for me. Versatile is one of the most common descriptions of gemini's, as well as talkative (oh definitely) and often hard to hold onto. I enjoy stretching my versatile legs every year at my birthday party by wearing the costumes I love to collect. This year because of the rain, my cloak came in wonderfully as witch and rain gear. Also I got to belly dance. There are a group of women, young and...not as young, who have been practicing together, they asked me to join them and it was great fun and great work, not to mention that I love the costumes. After 10 years of solstice celebrations I am known for my versatile way of dressing... I am actually trying to inspire a sense of festivity and ritual. Last year I spent a day topless at the party, to reintroduce the nude element which used to be commonplace at these events, it's tough work but somebody has to do it. One of the great things about hippie communities is that nudity is not rationed or exploited, they tend to promote the idea and when you are walking around nude you never feel preyed upon or disrespected. Not that it isn't appreciated and even desired, but no one stares or oogles or makes you feel uncomfortable in any way. It is a real feeling of freedom.
So to finish this off, I am going to leave you with some birthday wisdom from a talkative gemini. "At least once a year party with all your favorite people, dance unencumbered and whole-heartedly around a bonfire, and get naked with your friends as often as is humanly possible."
Goddess Bless.
This year was a great one. It rained from early morning Friday to late morning Saturday, which would usually be a good reason for people to not show up, but amazingly enough there were about 150 people there on Friday night, willing to live with the rain. I tried to firmly plant the image of a blue sky into every persons head that I possibly could. On Saturday it was totally overcast, but very little rain, a blessing. Being in a meadow the way we were, it was a truly magnificent thing to be surrounded on all sides by clouds. All one would have to do is climb one of the 'bumps' (the name given to the bumpy hills that are glacier remnants) up about a hundred feet and you would have been in the clouds. I'm not much for damp weather, but I do love it when its like that.
Before dinner, which are all potluck all weekend long~incredibly delicious hippy food "Organic wants to be fun too!"~ we always have a circle. Whoever wants to be part of the circle joins us out in the field and we say our names, were we came from or whatever little bit of poetic waxing we wish to do. The best words spoken in the circle were Swamp's, he is an incredible poet, and running in a close second was Wren's, who is a little 5 year old girl. She said "My name is Wren... and I don't think many people know this, but... I have a giraffe in my room!"
When it came to my turn, I said my name and then slowly asked everyone in the circle to, for just a moment... envision... a... blue... SKY! This way they all had to think of it without any choice in the matter... the power of suggestion and all. Sure enough we were all wakened by the sun the next morning. It never ceases to amaze me what the power of many minds concentrating on one thing can do. After the name game we have the spiral dance which seems to be quickly becoming a tradition. If you've never experienced a spiral dance, I highly recommend it. I won't try to describe it, wouldn't come out right, but one day if you join us at Solstice, you will get your chance.
I am a gemini. That means different things to many different people, or to many different astrology books, I only know what it means for me. Versatile is one of the most common descriptions of gemini's, as well as talkative (oh definitely) and often hard to hold onto. I enjoy stretching my versatile legs every year at my birthday party by wearing the costumes I love to collect. This year because of the rain, my cloak came in wonderfully as witch and rain gear. Also I got to belly dance. There are a group of women, young and...not as young, who have been practicing together, they asked me to join them and it was great fun and great work, not to mention that I love the costumes. After 10 years of solstice celebrations I am known for my versatile way of dressing... I am actually trying to inspire a sense of festivity and ritual. Last year I spent a day topless at the party, to reintroduce the nude element which used to be commonplace at these events, it's tough work but somebody has to do it. One of the great things about hippie communities is that nudity is not rationed or exploited, they tend to promote the idea and when you are walking around nude you never feel preyed upon or disrespected. Not that it isn't appreciated and even desired, but no one stares or oogles or makes you feel uncomfortable in any way. It is a real feeling of freedom.
So to finish this off, I am going to leave you with some birthday wisdom from a talkative gemini. "At least once a year party with all your favorite people, dance unencumbered and whole-heartedly around a bonfire, and get naked with your friends as often as is humanly possible."
Goddess Bless.
posted by clothosfate at 7:44 PM
3 Comments:
Clothosfate - Very cool post. I know I come across as a meathead American, but I'm very sympathetic to the environment and a big proponent of organic foods. We had a measure here in town to stop Genetically Modified Organisms from being grown in this country. We were winning, but suddenly, the corporations came in and outspent us over 10 to 1 and we lost a close fight. I was heavily involved in this and it's too bad we lost.
They started lying like you can't believe, saying that GMOs will fight terrorism (wtf?) and that food prices will double or triple. And of course, the average working stiff, being scared of a living increase, bought it.
I used to go to nude beaches but they've all been overrun by gawkers so they've lost their appeal to me. America is so sexually frustrated it's sickening.
Whoops, I wish there was a way I could edit my post. I mean county, not country.
Hey its ok, I do it too...lol. It feels good to be concious of what you are eating and of lies being dolled out like candy. It insprires me to know there are people like you. And you don't come across as a meathead American by the way, you have a distinctive characteristic that they seem to be lacking.. like intelligence.
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