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.