Dancing the spiral..
Oct. 30th, 2006 02:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
artemis42I'm really glad we took the time to head into the city for the Spiral Dance. There were well over a thousand people there, and even a few familiar faces from the Vermont Witch Camp, which was very comforting to me. Ritual was very moving, from the reading of the names of the Beloved Dead, to the beautiful costumes of various goddesses from cultures all over the world worn during the invocation. Since there were too many people there to share our stories with everyone, we formed small circles where we were, and told each other of those lost in the past year, holding space to mourn together in community.
Dancing the spiral with that many people is amazing, as you pass in front of everyone in the course of the dance, all holding hands and singing, interconnected and raising energy together. It really helped to ease a bit of my recent scattered, homesick feelings of isolation, knowing that there's a large vibrant community of pagans nearby in the city as well as here in Palo Alto. I'm definitely glad I've been going to the weekly meetups, and learning to spin on the wheel and weave is also giving me another social activity as well as creative outlet. Though I know November will probably bring enough of those with NaNoWriMo looming to begin in just a few days.
Today's been nice and low-key. Henri got up and worked through his math problem set while I slept, and we went out in the evening to a haunted house event in San Jose that turned out to be mostly lame. Out of three maze-like setups, one had 3-D glasses you wore while wandering through it, which was disorienting and fun, and some of the artwork painted on the walls had 3-D imagery, but the displays were uninspired and the actors typically looking bored after doing the same thing over and over for hours at a time. We'll try the other event in Sunnyvale on Monday night and see if it's any better.
I think working at an event as well designed and run as the former Haunted Happenings in Hartford has really spoiled me on halfhearted attempts at scare houses.
We came home still in the mood for spooky things, appetite unsatiated by the blacklight and plywood, and watched the movie The Haunted, based on actual events reported in the 80's by the Smurl family of Pennsylvania. In my Wikipedian wanderings, I discovered that Ed Warren passed away this August, which saddens me. I really enjoyed the lecture I attended several years back that Lorraine gave, but even then Ed was no longer joining her in the lectures due to a recent heart attack. I'll add a candle for him to our altar on Tuesday night.
Now to spin a bit, and perhaps think of ideas for noveling before joining H in the land of sleep.
Later.
-Me.
Dancing the spiral with that many people is amazing, as you pass in front of everyone in the course of the dance, all holding hands and singing, interconnected and raising energy together. It really helped to ease a bit of my recent scattered, homesick feelings of isolation, knowing that there's a large vibrant community of pagans nearby in the city as well as here in Palo Alto. I'm definitely glad I've been going to the weekly meetups, and learning to spin on the wheel and weave is also giving me another social activity as well as creative outlet. Though I know November will probably bring enough of those with NaNoWriMo looming to begin in just a few days.
Today's been nice and low-key. Henri got up and worked through his math problem set while I slept, and we went out in the evening to a haunted house event in San Jose that turned out to be mostly lame. Out of three maze-like setups, one had 3-D glasses you wore while wandering through it, which was disorienting and fun, and some of the artwork painted on the walls had 3-D imagery, but the displays were uninspired and the actors typically looking bored after doing the same thing over and over for hours at a time. We'll try the other event in Sunnyvale on Monday night and see if it's any better.
I think working at an event as well designed and run as the former Haunted Happenings in Hartford has really spoiled me on halfhearted attempts at scare houses.
We came home still in the mood for spooky things, appetite unsatiated by the blacklight and plywood, and watched the movie The Haunted, based on actual events reported in the 80's by the Smurl family of Pennsylvania. In my Wikipedian wanderings, I discovered that Ed Warren passed away this August, which saddens me. I really enjoyed the lecture I attended several years back that Lorraine gave, but even then Ed was no longer joining her in the lectures due to a recent heart attack. I'll add a candle for him to our altar on Tuesday night.
Now to spin a bit, and perhaps think of ideas for noveling before joining H in the land of sleep.
Later.
-Me.
