Things We Saw at Starwood

My coven and I just returned from the 38th Starwood Festival. I've gotten used to the transition from festival to the regular flow of life after attending for quite a few years  but still, that transition is tough. You get homesick for Starwood. 

There's a reason why everyone is welcomed home upon showing up at the Wisteria Gate. It's home in a way that regular home isn't. It's home of a different kind, maybe an ancestral kind. Not ancestral as in having your people born on that land, but the home of a particular consciousness or remembering what's been before and what can be again.

Although, for that to happen, Empire would have to crumble. It probably is, but anyway...

Every year has its own uniqueness, lessons, struggles and laughs. ("Hey... Is that...?" x5)*

Here's a little taste of this past week, in what we saw...

Santa driving a shuttle cart

A T-Rex, born out of the Saturday night Bonfire run off into eternity

A man in a three piece suit walk around the Paw Paw fire while balancing a crystal ball on his bald head

A concert performance in the Pufferdome by a guy in a silver suit and chicken mask

An autistic boy celebrate the bonfire with a joy I could only wish to experience

A guy completely rock some gold spandex shorts better than I ever could

A woman in an electric wheelchair firedance

A Pharaoh

A man dressed like an Octopus

The Villagers, Drummers and (fellow) Hunters participate in the Sacred Hunt - one of the most profound rituals I've ever been a part of (and that will get it's own blog post shortly)

A woman in an LED dress who danced around the bonfire like an electric moth

Blacksmiths

Faeries

Magicians

Witches

Occultists

Wizards.. And Oberon Zell (who chatted with me and admired our Shrine)

Druids

Energy Workers

Musicians

Artists

Magic

More creativity than I can account for

Love in many forms

The friendliness of strangers

Community

Acceptance of whatever floated anyone's boat

Old friends

New friends

A being, who just might be Yahweh incarnate (and who possibly, but once a year, comes before the Goddess, dons blue stretchy shorts, a glow stick halo and dances the bonfire like no one else)

Pan dance with Selene....

.... at the Gaia Shrine

And... What really matters.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to ACE, those I know by name and the many I don't. You put on an amazing festival.

This is the main touchstone of my year and, as always, I'm again changed for the better because of it.

* Sorry. Inside joke. ;)