FSG report

[kmusser]

I'm back from Pagan Camp, had a lovely time. Spent most of it slacking, chatting with friends. So the goal of having a more relaxing FSG than last was met :-) Also there were silly hats. Detailed report lies within. See also Del's more eloquent summary.


I got to hang out with a bunch of transgender Tibetan monkey pirates into the spanky spanky.

In our cabin: wylddelirium, ninjaslug, mohnkern, ravenrose, divalion, random221b, evcelt, monsteralice, i_scribble, Bishop and some fine folks from Asphodel. Right next door where castalusoria, fairerhiannon, fhenix, whillow, sistert, and switchy1 and in tents were the Sacred Mark Sanctuary folks. (anyone else in our immediate group have an LJ?) sharrainchains and danamorrigan also came to hang out with us, so yay :-) zammis and deboranter were sorely missed.



I arrived at Pagan Camp Wednesday afternoon. At registration I looked at the schedule and noticed my Paganism & Gaming workshop was RIGHT NOW so I parked and went to do that. Went ok, though even more sparsely attended than last year and we didn't cover any new ground. I'm disinclined to run this one again, maybe something different that's gaming related though.

Anyway after the workshop I got to unload and sent up my tent, etc. Finished with enough time to eat, make mohnkern twitch, and attend opening ritual which welcomed us to Faerie.

Thursday I started the morning with a toast to Aegir, the Norse god of mead, and then spent most of the day slacking. In the afternoon had my community service workshift which involoved helping Zenlizard prep the fire circle. In the evening went to the concert, Kenny Klein and KIVA (augmented by several incredible drummers) and did much dancing.



Late Thursday night somebody (Ninja's are highly suspected despite ninjaslug not arriving until the next day) delivered a large number of ducks to the camp swimming pool and one of them was caught reading the Principia Discordia. The ducks were well received and they all found new homes by the end of the weekend.

Friday I slept in, missed a worshop on American Gods I was planning on going to. Did anyone else make that one?



In the afternoon I went to divalion's workshop on Romancy. Her concern is with the lack of love in the Pagan community. Love is often relegated as only important to fluffy bunny types - and especially in a community that puts so much emphasis on sacred sexuality - not recognizing the importance of love would seem to be missing the boat. What's missing is a Lover archetype and a Path of the Lover that would be equivalent to the Paths of the Warrior, Healer, Shamen, or others that are respected within the community. The discussion is what such a Path would entail - one thing would be to include all forms of love, not just sexual - hopefully going beyond the role of sacred prostitute, though it might include that. There is a longer post on this subject I want to write, for now suffice it to say I strongly agree with divalion and hope to participate in whatever she plans (I encourage others interested in the subject *cough*tyrsalvia*cough* to join her LJ).



In the early evening we did our trick or treating rounds. We were hoping for more kids, as it was we got one, and I think we made her day. Anyway, all were decked out in silly hats and we wandered the camp asking for treats. All I can say is that Pagans are an incredibly generous bunch, we raked in much candy, fresh fruit, mead, laughter, and a box of Sangria from Amber Rose.

After that was the Mecca Bodega concert, they have a neat mix of tribal African drumming and jazz probably my favorite of the concerts (largely due to the company ;-)), though didn't do nearly as much dancing as my poor feet were tired. Didn't make it down to the fire circle, for which I blame Magpie's mead.



Saturday was mostly taken up with doing the Freeze, the design was the same as last years, and putting together the structure was much easier. Once again I want to thank wylddelirium, ninjaslug, mohnkern, and Zenlizard for making it happen. We got many more people this time which was great. mohnkern brought a chalice for passing around the frozen mead which looked very cool with the application of dry ice (hopefully he'll post a picture, I know one was taken). Unlike last year, this one lost the serious tone pretty quickly and ended up being a massive ice fight. The attendees all seemed to have alot of fun. It did not get as cold as last years, presumably because of the larger number of warm bodies. We may need better insulation, it was suggested we make styrofoam walls instead of using blankets, which I think would work. If we do it again I'd like to aim for a balance between the tone of this one and last years. I liked the silliness, but I also liked hearing peoples winter stories, it also occurred to me afterwords that we forgot to do introductions *doh* Anyway, still alot of fun and hopefully to be repeated.



After the Freeze sat around slacking while waiting for the main ritual, which I have to say I was rather disappointed by. The ritual involved offerings being made to the four directions, each represented by a faerie court. I felt like I was watching a play rather than participating in a ritual - I wasn't involved, no energy was raised, and it didn't seem to have a purpose other than welcoming us (which was already done in the opening ritual). Was talking to divalion last night about it and she prompted the idea of doing on workshop on how to scale rituals based on audience size - perhaps.

After ritual was the Telesma concert, a groovy tribal techno-ish sound. Left a little early so I was able to attend mohnkern's closing Sumbel. I don't think I've done a Sumbel before, but I really liked it. It's three rounds of toasts, the first to the Gods, the second to ancestors, and the third to your own accomplishments (the boast round), each usually accompanied by a brief story about why that particular God, ancestor, or accomplishment is important to you. It was a nice way to wind down the end of festival and also to get to know the other people little better.

Afterwords I went down to the fire circle, but I didn't stay all that long, just wasn't feeling it. Wondering if I did something to piss off fire? Normally fire likes me, but this weekend was feeling kind of dissed - maybe it didn't like the Freeze.

Anyway, that's all folks. Sunday was just packing up and heading home.

As a PS to mizbuffy, please take care of yourself, I don't want to be attending your funeral anytime in the near future.

PPS: There was also a group of Druidic Discordians there, I witnessed but didn't participate in their ritual to Asphaltia, the Goddess of road trips. Overheard was a threat to outdo the ducks, probably from the same group. A schism in the making? We can only hope so.

Comments

[thatliardiego.livejournal.com]

transgender Tibetan monkey pirates into the spanky spanky

This will be the title of my band's first album.

[evcelt.livejournal.com]

I am sorry you were disappointed in the main ritual. We were trying something different than the normal run of things (including, IIRC, trying to address problems experienced in the past). I feel that it worked very well*, based both on comments recieved and my personal feelings...

I'm assuming there will be a survey sent to all attendees, and that there will be a section on the main ritual track. If so, please feel free to comment in detail- constructive criticism is always welcome! If there is no survey or space about the ritual on it, please email me with your comments, suggestions, etc. and I will get them to the ritual group.

* admittedly, we should have propitiated better, perhaps, in order to avoid the ambulance festival. Gah.

[kmusser]

I'm probably going to spin this out to its own post as I have alot of thoughts on the matter, once I get them collected. I think it would've been fine if you only had 20-30 attendees, and probably was good for those that were actually playing roles - but it failed to use the masses at all, which in my mind is the whole point of a main ritual. You'll have to tell me at some point what pitfalls you were trying to avoid, I thought the main rituals of the last two years were much better (though I've definitely seen ones that were worse as well).

[evcelt.livejournal.com]

You'll have to tell me at some point what pitfalls you were trying to avoid, I thought the main rituals of the last two years were much better (though I've definitely seen ones that were worse as well).

We have had problems (not so much with the more recent rituals) with the participatory element getting way out of hand- logarithmically increasing the time of the ritual. IIRC, people were staying away from main because it was taking too much time.

[kmusser]

Ones that have everyone do something individually I agree (like having folks write things on bits of paper - does not work so well), what you want is something everyone can do as a group, most of those that I think worked well used either singing or dancing (or both).

[divalion.livejournal.com]

I think you guys were hampered (beyond your control) by the delay caused by the Great Ambulance Race, because darkness was so rapidly descending from the start of the ritual that it became very difficult to see anything except the fire spinning (which DID, conversely, look awesome in the increased darkness).

One other issue that came up, though, was that it was also very difficult to hear. There was a good 2/3 of the spoken parts of the ritual at least that I couldn't hear at all, so I sort of pieced together what was supposed to be going on from what little I could hear and from what I knew about it because I knew some of the participants.

I liked the effort to experiment outside the standard cast-circle-call-quarters-etc-etc ritual structure. I thought it was utterly charming that you guys gave the kids bubbles, and I also really liked the "faerie food"-- simple as it was, for some reason that struck me as very effective. But on the whole, I kind of have to concur with kmusser...it just didn't do much for me. My experience was mostly everyone jostling each other as we tried to expand the circle enough, straining to see and hear, and trying to figure out what I was supposed to do or what I was whooping for. So, I wasn't really in "ritual head" during it.

But, I will deconstruct all this in the survey when it comes out.

[evcelt.livejournal.com]

But, I will deconstruct all this in the survey when it comes out.

Fair enough (and I've just confirmed that it will come out).

Until then, I think I won't worry about it too much. Because I can balance your and kmusser's comments with several unqualified positives- including monsteralice's, who is:

1) extremely picky about large rituals
2) generally disinclined to attend any of the FSG main ritual track
3) a merciless critic even when it's something I'm involved in and near and dear to me.

As a matter of fact, she snorted in incredulity at the idea that there wasn't enough of a participatory element...

But we could play anecdotal ping-pong with this sort of thing for an indefinite period, so I think I should ignore the whole thing until later. I don't want to make my usual post-FSG emotional rollercoaster any more of a thrill-ride. ;-)

[kmusser]

Well, the other thing to keep in mind is that no ritual is going to please everyone - things I look for in a large ritual may very well be turn offs to other people.

[evcelt.livejournal.com]

Very true, and something I often have trouble remembering.

[divalion.livejournal.com]

I was also sorry to miss the American Gods talk, but it was opposite (I think) my dance class. However I talked to one of its organizers, and it seems like this was the same sort of "toe in the water" workshop as Romancy, and that they might re-run it or do an expanded version in the future. So, yay!

Just to clarify-- it's not that I think there isn't enough *love* in the Pagan community per se but rather there is not much of a focus on "sacred romance" as a spiritual path in its own right. "Love" in a pagan/magickal sense tends to either be entirely conflated with sacred sexuality (and the sex seems to eclipse everything else) or else to be relegated to the shallow end of the pool with the "101 Spells For Hip Witches To Win A Tantric Lover With Your Soulmate Astrological Match" newage books.

Basically, if you feel called to (for example) the path of the Warrior I think there is ample support and structure for that in the community. Ditto for paths involving Crones or Dark/Cthonic gods, Tricksters, Healers, Shamans, and Sacred Whores, to name a few. But my search for resources, groups, books, or traditions focused on the Lover-- in a way that includes sacred sexuality but is not defined by it-- yielded next to nothing. I found a lot more food for thought outside of modern Paganism, in Hinduism, Sufism, Vodoun/Santeria, and even certain aspects of Gnosticism. I felt that there must be a way to grow a more tangible tradition/practice for those who feel seriously called to Love in a spiritual sense that fits neither the sacred whore model nor the chaste compassion model.

From the reaction I got, it seems like there is a real thirst for something like this-- beyond the enthusiasm of the people in the workshop, I talked to *many* people at festival who just lit up when I explained the idea and wanted to hear more. One of the women in my dance class talked to me earnestly and at length about some of her spiritual crises because she felt strongly that the things I was talking about were things that could help her solve them. So yeah, I think there's a lot to explore there!

[evcelt.livejournal.com]

Just to clarify-- it's not that I think there isn't enough *love* in the Pagan community per se but rather there is not much of a focus on "sacred romance" as a spiritual path in its own right.

Word.

I'm glad that workshop went well, and hope you offer it (or others like it) again sometime... sorry I couldn't make it... :-(

[elffire78.livejournal.com]

wow, i almost feel like i was there! LOL!!

but i'm glad you had a great time and hope to be there myself next year. ;)