All I want is a little fucking glimmer of hope, is that too much to ask???
The camp was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. The energies were great, the people were friendly enough, and our group had a really wonderful time. For the first day, that is.
Saturday we spent having a wonderful time, just relaxing, going for walks, checking out the farm animals, playing put-put and getting sunburned beyond belief. I was psyched for the ritual, because I'd been chosen for a lot more roles this time - basically I was in most of the High Priest roles, which was really fantastic.
Actual ritual was amazing. The energies were so strong that even though the night was pretty cold, we were warm in circle. I was in a short-sleeved top for all of it, and only afterwards did I have to put on three extra layers. We had a beautiful, peaceful time. We finished up and headed back to our tents for supper.
And then a large group of very drunk, very Christian Afrikaans people in bakkies (pick-up trucks for any foreign readers) surrounded our camp with their headlights on bright. They demanded what we'd been doing performing "satanic" rituals, before rushing off to check the ritual site to check for any signs of ritual sacrifice or crimes committed. Obviously, they found nothing and left. We thought that was the end of that.
We were wrong.
At about 9:30, the police arrived. They said they'd had complaints from the owners that we'd been playing loud music the night before and they wanted us to leave. We protested: the music had been a group of loud-mouthed drunks who "adopted" our fire and blared their dance music for all to hear.Then they said there'd been other stories, tales of "ritual stuff". We said "Ja, and?" which probably wasn't the best thing to say about it... but you could see they'd totally got the wrong idea. The owner chick started going on about "I didn't know you'd be doing this sort of thing, we have to protect our farm and our reputation blah, blah, blah." Jane protested saying that she'd told the owner in an email that we were a Pagan group and would be performing a ritual to celebrate the Autumn Equinox. But to no avail. They demanded that we pack up and leave, and gave us an hour. When I pointed out, hoping to get the police on our side, that our constitutional rights to practice our religion in a peaceful manner were being undermined, we were told that they were, and were still told to get out. When we further protested that most of us had been drinking and were unfit to drive, the police still insisted we get out.
So, not only did the police as well as the camp infringe upon our consitutional rights, they also broke the law by forcing inebriated people behind the wheels of cars.
We got home close to midnight on Saturday night.
I had a field day yesterday, sending letters of complaint to the SAPS, as well as the farm we stayed at. I'm livid, absolutely livid that this kind of racist behaviour still exists 15 years into our democracy.
*Snort* I guess the fact that groups were singing the old national anthem should have been my first clue.
Seeing my boss at 8:30 this morning - wish me luck!
Saturday we spent having a wonderful time, just relaxing, going for walks, checking out the farm animals, playing put-put and getting sunburned beyond belief. I was psyched for the ritual, because I'd been chosen for a lot more roles this time - basically I was in most of the High Priest roles, which was really fantastic.
Actual ritual was amazing. The energies were so strong that even though the night was pretty cold, we were warm in circle. I was in a short-sleeved top for all of it, and only afterwards did I have to put on three extra layers. We had a beautiful, peaceful time. We finished up and headed back to our tents for supper.
And then a large group of very drunk, very Christian Afrikaans people in bakkies (pick-up trucks for any foreign readers) surrounded our camp with their headlights on bright. They demanded what we'd been doing performing "satanic" rituals, before rushing off to check the ritual site to check for any signs of ritual sacrifice or crimes committed. Obviously, they found nothing and left. We thought that was the end of that.
We were wrong.
At about 9:30, the police arrived. They said they'd had complaints from the owners that we'd been playing loud music the night before and they wanted us to leave. We protested: the music had been a group of loud-mouthed drunks who "adopted" our fire and blared their dance music for all to hear.Then they said there'd been other stories, tales of "ritual stuff". We said "Ja, and?" which probably wasn't the best thing to say about it... but you could see they'd totally got the wrong idea. The owner chick started going on about "I didn't know you'd be doing this sort of thing, we have to protect our farm and our reputation blah, blah, blah." Jane protested saying that she'd told the owner in an email that we were a Pagan group and would be performing a ritual to celebrate the Autumn Equinox. But to no avail. They demanded that we pack up and leave, and gave us an hour. When I pointed out, hoping to get the police on our side, that our constitutional rights to practice our religion in a peaceful manner were being undermined, we were told that they were, and were still told to get out. When we further protested that most of us had been drinking and were unfit to drive, the police still insisted we get out.
So, not only did the police as well as the camp infringe upon our consitutional rights, they also broke the law by forcing inebriated people behind the wheels of cars.
We got home close to midnight on Saturday night.
I had a field day yesterday, sending letters of complaint to the SAPS, as well as the farm we stayed at. I'm livid, absolutely livid that this kind of racist behaviour still exists 15 years into our democracy.
*Snort* I guess the fact that groups were singing the old national anthem should have been my first clue.
Seeing my boss at 8:30 this morning - wish me luck!