And the Wheel of the Year turns ‘Round and ‘Round...

Reflections from Taniquetil

We have just passed through Mother Night, celebrated the Secret of the Unhewn Stone, and greeted the God on His return. This has been a tremendously eventful Cross Quarter. Arghuicha, Gayomard, Odinda, Magos and Tara arrived from Europe as scheduled. Hera was with us in spirit, but sorely missed on the physical plane. Michael Regan and Willow, Leaders of the Temple of Danann, drove down to be with us from Indiana. The Wee Little Viking from Arizona and Inana from California flew in for a few days. We also had kith and Kindred from Fort Worth, Central Texas, and the local area join us for a weekend Celebration.

There is insufficient space and are no adequate words to describe the experiences we all felt over that fourteen day period. Love. Connection. Hope. Transformation. Renewal. Peace. Commitment. Gemütlichkeit. I don’t even know where to begin. I suppose the beginning would be a good place. The surge of the Spirit of Place felt by our European Kindred the instant they stepped out of the cars took their collective breath away. They described it in much the same way I experienced the moment I stepped onto the tarmac at Rhine-Main one snowy April morning almost thirty years ago. I knew from their initial reactions that we were all in for a spiritual ride, I just had no concept of the magnitude and intensity with which we would experience it. We celebrated private Coven rites; we celebrated intra-Coven and intra-tradition rites. We celebrated Open Rites. We sang the Song of Making. We heard the Indian sing to the wolf, and the wolf sing to the Indian. We created the Circle of Stone. We created a bridge across an ocean. We created a vortex from the Center to the Infinite. We created portals to a Place in the Other World. We created a bond between the Spirits of this land and the Spirits of our Ancestral lands. We created a sacred and indelible bond among us. We created a family We were one again as we had been before, and will be again and evermore. The gnarled old Mesquite trees have awakened and proudly stand guard in the North. We sang to the stones, and now the stones sing to us. Their voices grow stronger and more beautiful every day. Every day we walk the Circle. The indigenous Limestone in the North midwifed by the Wee Little Viking from the ledge of a dry creek bed; the Sandstone from Sedona in the East, a gift from Corona Borealis; the fiery stone of petrified wood in the South, a gift from de Zilveren Kring; the huge green obsidian in the West, a gift long ago from friends in Belgium now in its proper place. At the Consecration ritual we were asked to maintain this place as a sacred space. At the closing ritual, Yará Silmárilde, Clan of the Fox and the Heather, assumed guardianship of the Circle of Stone on behalf of the clans, covens and groves who gave life to the Circle, and those who shall come bringing Love and Light. So shall it ever be.

Reflections from Arghuicha

So, we went to Texas.
So, we're back.

So I was driving from Hulst to f-----g Brussels this morning. 07.30 a.m. local time. 00.30 in San Antonio Texas, 23.30 in Apache Junction Arizona, 22.30 in Oakland California. Traffic as usual on road to Antwerp. When suddenly before me I saw something which was there and yet was not. Part of me kept watching the traffic. But my other eye saw the Circle that is in Yara Silmarilde's keeping.

From the wild lands to the NorthEast a fox came and stept between the two mesquite trees. And Fox went to the cauldron in the centre, which was just an aura of simmering Power on top of the centre stone. A flickering of colours of black and blueish red. The fox went around the Navelstone,sniffing. Then it sat down and listened. Listened to a soft murmuring, the whispering of the wind in the branches of the mesquites. Then the Song rose and Mesquite was singing to Fox. And the Song rose higher and touched me as I was driving on the road to Antwerp, my eyes on the traffic. And I joined the Song with Fox and Mesquite and remembered. How I had been standing in that circle on the night of Thanksgiving. With Taniquetil and Itarilde, Victoria, Michael Ragan and Willow, Magos and Tara, Gayomard and Odinda. And this is what I remembered.

For as we were standing there within the Circle of Stones, we became the Circle. We were the Stones. We had been standing there since the beginning of Time and would stand there still, long after Man will be forgotten. Wolf was singing to the Indian. We WERE the song. For just a short span of time, we were a pantheon of Stones. Entropy fell away. Like a flash of lightning, like the whistling of the leaves of brother Mesquite. The laws of nature crumbled between our feet. The Stones sang in our blood. Until at last, words started bubbling up. Whisperings, small breakers on a tide of time. And the earth again took form around us. The Land was singing to Wolf. We had been hanging upside down in the Mesquite tree, our hair submerged in the waters of a fleet river. Flowing with the Song of Making. And we were trying to remember. Hands groping in the darkness, touching each other and trying to catch a glimpse of the universe we had created.

And later when Inana joined us, I took her to the Circle and showed her the Song of Making.

And later still, we said goodbye, but part of our soul will always stay there.
And it was that part that sang while I was driving to f------g Brussels.

I'm in my office now. So, forgive me for sharing this with you.

Blessed Be,
Arghuicha

Aman Nai, Arghuicha, and thank you.

LINKS TO SITES OF PARTICULAR INTEREST

1. Fort Hood Open Circle: News and Events

2. Traditional Craft Wicca in Europe: Homepage of Jan de Zutter (Dutch Language)

3. White Bard's Home Page
   This is J. Bethancourt's primary pagan page. The material is well researched and well presented, as are the next three links which you will also find fascinating and informative. Joseph is responsible in all or in part for these pages as well, and they are well worth the visit.

4. Debunking Stupidity
   Serious information and serious humor, both essential for spiritual well being.

5. Rowanhold Bardic Circle
   Beautiful music in the bardic tradition and a wealth of other information.

6. White Tree Productions
   Meet Joe Bethancourt, the North Carolina Banjo Picker and itinerant bard of County Mayo.
   

7. Sacred Sites: Photography and Research by Martin Gray
   Martin is an anthropologist and photographer based out of Sedona, Arizona. His imagery is breathtaking and his research is outstanding.
   

And the Wheel turns ever on.