Samhain 2004 - Issue 64
From Vice-President Wren
Stones Rising – Labor Day Weekend 2004
Four Quarters – an InterFaith Sanctuary of Earth Religion, Artemas, PA (http://www.4qf.org)
Simply stated, this is the best festival I have attended in twenty years.
At first, it was difficult to put my finger on precisely why this was the case. Arriving as a stranger, I was warmly greeted by staff and seasonal residents. The land is also welcoming perhaps due to years of loving care.
Perhaps it was the focus for the long weekend – to raise standing stones.
This was a weekend during which approximately three hundred Pagans of diverse races and creeds come together to combine their minds, bodies and spirits for one purpose – to raise standing stones.
There are no workshops per se, but rather “practicums” conducted in support of raising the stones themselves or rituals performed in support of raising the stones. If you are not hardy enough to actively participate in the handling of the stones themselves, nor the all night vigils, there are other “Pathways of Service” designed for participants of all ages and abilities to support the goal of the weekend – to raise standing stones.
I had an occasion to visit Four Quarters Farm and the Standing Stones in 1996, when only the first three were erected. In 2004, I stood in the same entrance to the Sacred Space and beheld twenty-eight stones honored and decorated with garlands and marked with blessings that would wash away and yet remain. The simultaneous sensations of my mind, body and spirit are impossible to describe. Is it the magickal residue of those of us in the present that “sacrificed” for these stones? Is it the connection with the Ancients whose techniques we used? Is it observing a Circle that is less than half complete beckoning to the children of the future who will continue this labor of love for the greater community? Perhaps it is the moving combination of all three that stop me in my tracks awestruck. All I know is that I will return next year and perhaps you will come, too – to raise standing stones.
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Raising of Stone 26
Photo by Wren |
