Sirius 2011
This year, we went to Sirius Rising at Brushwoodinstead of Starwood, which was held earlier this year, and at Wisteria in Ohio again, or Summerfest, which is this week. Sirius has been around for a while, but this is the first time we went to that particular festival. Although we have been to the Sirius Saturday bonfire a time or two before.
As a festival, Sirius is much more mellow than Starwood, and is a slow build, gaining in population and energy over the course of the week. I liked that. I know it doesn't suit everyone, but I liked that accumulation over time.
Normally, I hate non-participatory rituals. The sort where most of the people spend most of the time watching rather than taking part. The elemental ritual set at Sirius were pretty much watching for most folks. But there was something in them that I like. Partially because they were using the Hero's Journey as a framework, and I've always been fond of that. And they did it very well. I missed the Air ritual on Monday, but saw the rest. The last one was on Friday, and I think I liked that best. Not as much for what they did with the character of the hero (I liked those bits best in Water and Earth), but the Spirit ritual included walking the labyrinth. Despite the lack of encounters with David Bowie, it was a wonderful experience. I think watching the full moon rise while walking the labyrinth makes up for the lack of rock stars in tight pants. It was that stunning!
Also, as part of the spirit ritual, they released fire powered red paper hot air balloons. Roughly the size of a beach ball, though more balloon shaped, if that makes sense. We saw them test one Sunday night, but on Friday they sent up 23 (I think that was the final count) during the ritual itself, then more later on that night. They were wonderful to watch. I think they were my favorite thing if I had to pick one thing out from the entire week.
It's impossible for me to write the experience up in any sort of organized way. It just doesn't fit that way in my head.
There was a lovely party at Debauchery Cove, Tina and Patrick's site. Tina pulled all us Lansing Pagan Village folks off to the side for a Mekong singing and even though we weren't able to get a hold of Jason, it was fabulous.
All sorts of random conversations were of course a highlight. Two are most outstanding to me - one a difficult and impassioned yet powerful argument about gender and sexuality and kink and other related things that I still need to process. The other being one that I mostly listened to that sounds like the set-up for a joke - A physicist, a chemist and an engineer sitting at the Blue Lady. That was also the conversation during which Lisa totally failed at being a dumb blonde. Dumb blondes do not have favorite chemical elements, and if they do, it would be something like gold because it's shiny, not strontium!
The wonder and the marvel and the joy of festivals, I've found, is the sheer variety of people that come to them. There are some tremendously talented people that you can meet in the hot tub. Or dancing around the fire. Or just randomly wandering around camps.
I've never managed to do a festival write-up before. I think it's because there's so much that I could say and write about and no matter how much, I'd still miss things!
My back, then my feet, then my knees, gave me more and more trouble over the course of the week. I'll be a day or two or more recovering, I think. Ow. Goals for to have ready for next year - bring a funky cane or walking stick, and not need it as much. I would have gotten a lot more out of some of the festival if I hadn't been hurting quite so much. In particular, I didn't make it to the semi-impromptu (two days planning counts as semi-impromptu!) full moon ritual. I enjoyed the elemental rituals, but they didn't fit my mental/spiritual "ritual" niche.
The Lansing Pagan Village crew is an amazing bunch of people. I think we had more people who aren't actually living in the Lansing area than locals this year, but that doesn't matter. LPV is more than just a "real world" location now. Some LPV folks used to live around here and have since moved. Others just got pulled in. It's a fabulous group. And we were camping right next to the Aardvarks, who are also a fabulous group!
And the weather? The best it's been since I've been coming to Brushwood! Only a few splatters of rain, and mostly not too hot or too cold, though a few days were hot and a few nights were cold. Still, it wasn't a miserably hot all week thing, or a miserably cold every night thing, both of which have happened. The weather is never going to be perfect but this time it came damn close.
Okay, that's about all I'm going to manage to write up at this point. There are some things that may make their own posts, but that's my first day back take on the week. And it was good!
As a festival, Sirius is much more mellow than Starwood, and is a slow build, gaining in population and energy over the course of the week. I liked that. I know it doesn't suit everyone, but I liked that accumulation over time.
Normally, I hate non-participatory rituals. The sort where most of the people spend most of the time watching rather than taking part. The elemental ritual set at Sirius were pretty much watching for most folks. But there was something in them that I like. Partially because they were using the Hero's Journey as a framework, and I've always been fond of that. And they did it very well. I missed the Air ritual on Monday, but saw the rest. The last one was on Friday, and I think I liked that best. Not as much for what they did with the character of the hero (I liked those bits best in Water and Earth), but the Spirit ritual included walking the labyrinth. Despite the lack of encounters with David Bowie, it was a wonderful experience. I think watching the full moon rise while walking the labyrinth makes up for the lack of rock stars in tight pants. It was that stunning!
Also, as part of the spirit ritual, they released fire powered red paper hot air balloons. Roughly the size of a beach ball, though more balloon shaped, if that makes sense. We saw them test one Sunday night, but on Friday they sent up 23 (I think that was the final count) during the ritual itself, then more later on that night. They were wonderful to watch. I think they were my favorite thing if I had to pick one thing out from the entire week.
It's impossible for me to write the experience up in any sort of organized way. It just doesn't fit that way in my head.
There was a lovely party at Debauchery Cove, Tina and Patrick's site. Tina pulled all us Lansing Pagan Village folks off to the side for a Mekong singing and even though we weren't able to get a hold of Jason, it was fabulous.
All sorts of random conversations were of course a highlight. Two are most outstanding to me - one a difficult and impassioned yet powerful argument about gender and sexuality and kink and other related things that I still need to process. The other being one that I mostly listened to that sounds like the set-up for a joke - A physicist, a chemist and an engineer sitting at the Blue Lady. That was also the conversation during which Lisa totally failed at being a dumb blonde. Dumb blondes do not have favorite chemical elements, and if they do, it would be something like gold because it's shiny, not strontium!
The wonder and the marvel and the joy of festivals, I've found, is the sheer variety of people that come to them. There are some tremendously talented people that you can meet in the hot tub. Or dancing around the fire. Or just randomly wandering around camps.
I've never managed to do a festival write-up before. I think it's because there's so much that I could say and write about and no matter how much, I'd still miss things!
My back, then my feet, then my knees, gave me more and more trouble over the course of the week. I'll be a day or two or more recovering, I think. Ow. Goals for to have ready for next year - bring a funky cane or walking stick, and not need it as much. I would have gotten a lot more out of some of the festival if I hadn't been hurting quite so much. In particular, I didn't make it to the semi-impromptu (two days planning counts as semi-impromptu!) full moon ritual. I enjoyed the elemental rituals, but they didn't fit my mental/spiritual "ritual" niche.
The Lansing Pagan Village crew is an amazing bunch of people. I think we had more people who aren't actually living in the Lansing area than locals this year, but that doesn't matter. LPV is more than just a "real world" location now. Some LPV folks used to live around here and have since moved. Others just got pulled in. It's a fabulous group. And we were camping right next to the Aardvarks, who are also a fabulous group!
And the weather? The best it's been since I've been coming to Brushwood! Only a few splatters of rain, and mostly not too hot or too cold, though a few days were hot and a few nights were cold. Still, it wasn't a miserably hot all week thing, or a miserably cold every night thing, both of which have happened. The weather is never going to be perfect but this time it came damn close.
Okay, that's about all I'm going to manage to write up at this point. There are some things that may make their own posts, but that's my first day back take on the week. And it was good!