rimrunner

A couple of weeks ago I did something that I'd been contemplating for awhile: took a week-long wilderness walkabout/survival course with the Wilderness Awareness School.

It wasn't always fun, but overall it was an immensely positive experience and one that I'm really glad I did. Among other things I came home in the best state of mind I've been in for over a year. There might be something to that recent research about getting out in nature to fight depression. I really like the school's teaching philosophy and the way it structures learning. It's also pretty close to what I visualize my spiritual practice being in the future: in a very real sense, I suspect that this is what I've been looking for.

That also means that my ongoing priority shift has taken on a new urgency. In the past year, this has looked like the following:
- Mr. Darcy quitting a soul-sucking job and going back to school for something he really enjoys
- beginning to make some changes in our finances to aid independence for ourselves and our families
- research into buying rural land in preparation to move
- completing my MFA and making a serious time commitment to writing, with some early rewards (I've sold a few stories and have three novels in various states of progress)
- spending more time playing music
- spending more time constructing Wild Gods as a spiritual practice

Here are some possible changes in the works:
- change in my own state of employment
- I'm directing the Orpheus Ascending festival this year. This is the only year that I will do this, though the festival will be an ongoing event—the only presentational ritual event I'll be doing extensive work on in the future is Wyrd Sisters and I'm excited about this year's event
- I'm currently on the board of ACRL-WA. Once my term is up, I will not be seeking another elected position
- taking more courses with WAS, including possibly the full-time Anake program
- I'll be online less generally.

Yeah, couldn't help myself.

Yesterday, after what will hopefully have been the FINAL SMF script revision meeting (there are a few bits to tie up, but they can be done online), RR and I drove down to Sidhehaven to do a Wild Gods ritual. This one was private, and initially I wasn't sure it would work with a group. But in retrospect I think it would, and we may well be structuring a group event along similar lines.

The idea was to explore what happens with Artemis and Pan energies in the winter, and how to they get along in a more constricted space—in this case, around a fire when the weather is very cold. (Although, thankfully, not windy, rainy, or snowy. It was as perfect a winter night for the ritual as I could have asked for, really: still, quiet, clear, and cold.) Pan fed the fire (as He does) because, it turns out, Pan does not like the winter. Pan leaves when it gets cold for warmer climes. Yep: Pan is a migratory species. Ha.

Artemis, not so much. She likes the cold, and running through the wilderness when everything is quiet and still, even the water. I did initially get visions of a masculine divine energy that was more stag than goat, but that would have been Cernunnos, not Pan. He left once the ritual got going and Pan decided to show up.

What I'd hoped was to learn something about the seasonal energies of these gods, and whether there is any sort of variance or cycle. Turns out there is. Artemis is active and present in winter. Pan is not. And Artemis is less a huntress when the babies are born and the mothers are nursing, for obvious reasons. And that is a time when Pan is more present.

All of the above is U.P.G., but it gave us some additional ideas for how we might work together in ritual space. Artemis wasn't quite so much a drill sergeant this time, either; She wasn't very nice to RR in the ritual we did last summer, but this time She was more curious, if not really friendly. And the sniping between Her and Pan had some good humor to it. Still no pointy objects on circle, but it was really rather fun.

I had thought that there would be a hibernation element to the ritual, but not so much really: Pan migrates, and Artemis stays active through the winter. On the other hand, when we did go to sleep we had to pile so many blankets on (the Yome at Sidhehaven is heated, but it was below freezing outside) that it was a bit like huddling in a cave. A nice, warm cave, thankfully.

So, thanks to Sidhehaven for letting us use their space, and thanks to the weather for cooperating, and thanks to the gods for granting us this work. And thank you to RR for agreeing to work on it with me. Onward!