Poetry for the Esbat: Night Life Moon or Beetle Moon

Night Life: Prionus Root Borer (Prionus spp., likely P. californicus)

Night life. Probably a Cottonwood Stag Beetle (Lucanus mazama)

Another Esbat careens through time, leaving me mentally & logistically unprepared. 

For our people, this is generally the Mushroom Moon, time for frenzied harvesting & Full Moon Mushroom Shrine construction. And it still is, but I feel a compulsion to take a moment out to talk about recent lessons from the Night Dwellers.

In these modern times, we occasionally hear the phrase, "No one knows their neighbours anymore..."

But did we ever? 

I am not an early hominid, so I cannot say. Maybe way back when, we at least knew more about who is palatable & who to avoid & who will lead you to something you might want to forage... 

Because of the cooler temperatures, we worked very hard into the evening in the High Desert. Sometime in the last month, whilst surrounded by the teeming life of dusk, twilight & nightfall, I realized that I knew of some of our neighbors, but never really took the time to know them. Especially the Night Dwellers.

Female Field Cricket (Gryllus spp.)

And I confess that I still cannot claim to know them, but at least in my efforts I came to understand them a wee bit better.

When we humans think of the denizens of the Night, we tend to think of crickets, fireflies, owls & bats. But rarely to do I hear mention of beetles. Yet hoardes & hoardes of beetles emerge from the underworld every night to stalk the earth in search of... food? adventure? love?

I don't know what they are doing, but every night I watched them -- they abandon their holes to wander under the starry cloak of the Night mother Nyx, to bask in the varying shades of Lady Moon.

Prionus Root Borer (Prionus spp., likely P. californicus) burrows.

Sometimes they engaged in very strange gyrations. Sometimes they seemed to meander directionless while other times, they marched forth with great purpose.

And sometimes they died.

And this is when I find their desiccated frames, shining in the morning light & I can take a moment to try to understand what it might be like to stalk the shadowy world in a very different body...

If I am lucky, I encounter them as they go about their enigmatic business &  I can capture their image before it is too dark & photos become blurred,

  But they move so quickly.

Such busy business to be a beetle. What are they doing?

This is the question we could ask of all our Night neighbors because we really, really do not know them.

And this brings me to the poetry for this beetle-pondering, Night Life honouring Esbat. I love this piece. It is a personal encounter with the nocturnal neighbourhood, a world which continues about its business, "... proceeding whether we observe or not..." 


Night Life  by Vivian Smith


Disturbed at 2 a.m. I hear a claw
scratching the window, tapping at the pane,
and then I realise, a broken branch,
and yet I can’t turn back to sleep again.

Slowly, not to wake you, I get up,
thinking of food, perhaps a quiet read.
A cockroach runs across the kitchen floor,
its lacquered shell as quick and dry as seed.

Outside the chalice lily lifts its cup
in adoration to the mirrored moon,
full of purpose as it trembles there,
collecting drops of moisture on its spoon.

Noises of the night, it’s all alive,
birds shifting in the steady trees,
slugs and snails eating fallen flowers,
a moth freighted with fragilities.

Nocturnal life, the other side of things,
proceeding whether we observe or not,
like rows and rows of brown coastal ants
transporting food from here to another spot.



To listen to this piece read by the author, visit "Night Life" at The Poetry Foundation.


Blessings to you this Esbat, my friends.

Quoth the Fungi: "Evermore." (We Own You.)

Oh, so much never said about our last trespass in the Hight Desert, thanks in large part, to recollections on a ceremony in the Boreal Forest.

Ah, well. Sometimes the dreaded Detail is an imperative.


But now a brief reflection on experiences recently past among the spirits of arid places...

Earthstar Fungus (Geaster spp.)

I wanted to take the children up to the family getaway & rangeland restoration project area for a second visit since the Place is so supremely beautiful -- from micro to macro.

 Peeking through the Indian Ricegrass (Oryzopsis hymenoides). What do we see?

The prettiest, most tenacious things around.

Cactaceae spp.

Cactaceae spp.

Gambel Oak (Quercus gambelii) with a Cynipid wasp gall?

Red Harvester Ant (Pogonomyrmex barbatus) mound.

Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja scabrida).

Salvia, Artemesia spp.?

Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa).

In the distance, The Aquarius Plateau.

So we packed the tent & a dinner destined for the engine block with the hopes of drinking in the rich Darkness of Night, the starry spill of the Milky Way & the haunting cries of the coyote. Dawn would bring a list a GPS coordinates to follow -- a Red Harvester Ant (Pogonomyrmex barbatus) scavenger hunt, without the scavenging.

But the Desert (or was it the Sky?) had other plans & after the splendor of the setting Sun,

Sun setting behind the Aquarius Plateau.

The Clouds began with their games.

Building pillared temples in the Sky,

And playing the trickster by pouring down uncharacteristically languid, Earth-soaking showers, blotting out the Night sky.

So much rain, that in the early hours of the morning, my father came to fetch us from our waterlogged shelter beneath a copse of Pinyon Pines...

The clay road would soon become impassable.

Wet gear flying into the bed of the truck, hot water on the stove to cut the chill. The eldest child shouts, "Moma, an EARTHSTAR!" 

Ah, I get it now. You own me. You own us.

Wherever we go, you will be there.

And sometimes you will call us home, from one home to another -- when it it time for us to revel in your season.

I depart with a deep, aching sadness, but I recognize full in my marrow, the Hunt is on.

Public Animas Ceremony Part 5b(4): Art. Let It In. (And Celebrate the Artists: Bryan Perrin)

Continued lessons from the Public Animas Ceremony: An Invitation to Passion.

Bryan Perrin. Artist, inspiration, friend.
Image courtesy Our Whole Grove.

If The Vision is true, it will find the right people. Celebrate them.

With great regularity I come across fundraisers, auctions, art shows, etc. featuring varied artworks where there is no mention of the artist contributor as a person. A name, yes. Maybe it is the animist in me, but when I experience art, it usually makes me want to know more about the artist. I think the humans behind the art should be celebrated as much as their work. So, in an effort to do so, we created laminated biographies to accompany each of the bowls that were created for this ceremony. Since the bowls were auctioned off as part of the don't-let-your-ceremony-bankrupt-you strategy, each person who took home a bowl also took home something to help them "know" the artist better. It's all about relationship.

For the next few entries, I will be including the biographies of our artists in an effort to further celebrate them & express our gratitude. Also included are the statements they provided (if provided) about their piece for the Animas Ceremony: An Invitation to Passion.

Bryan Perrin Studio

ART of Nature, Place and Spirit – Samsonville, New York

Bryan Perrin: Environmental Teaching Artist, ADF Priest

Bryan uses art as a tool for learning, teaching about and understanding the environment. His lifelong study of aquatic and land eco-systems is fueled by a profound passion for nature and creative expression.

Bryan has created environmental and arts projects for a wide range of educational institutions, environmental agencies and organizations. His design and development of interior environments, crafted natural landscapes and structures, and traditional exhibitions, lectures and presentations all help to cultivate in children and adults, the reverence, awe and passion that our miraculous environment deserves and the care and respect it’s habitability requires.

Fairy Mound, by Bryan Perrin
Image courtesy Bryan Perrin Studio.

Bryan is currently Master Ceremonialist for Our Whole Protogrove in Samsonville, New York. He was one of the six individuals chosen to be Àr nDraíocht Féin’s first group of formally ordained Druid Priests and was inducted a the ADF Wellspring Gathering in 2002. He is also the Founder & former Senior Druid of Green Man Grove of New York (now Grove of the Other Gods).

Much of Bryan’s current illustration work is for local and environmental groups, but he has also worked for a diverse group of publications from Enchanté and Green Egg to Playgirl. Combining his artistic skills with his devotional work, Bryan also creates objects and spaces for ritual worship. He lives on a mountainside with his family and has enjoyed moving in the inner circles of the art world's outer fringe of Toledo Ohio, Cocoa Beach Florida, Jersey City New Jersey, & Woodstock New York.

Bryan Perrin is Co-Director of UrthArts Center of Samsonville and a volunteer at the Hudson River Maritime Museum.

To browse Bryan’s online studio, visit http://bryanperrinstudio.com

"Bowly" by Bryan Perrin

“Bowly”

Multi-Media: Wood, Gold & Silver leaf & Shellac and Acrylic Paint

About this piece:

Adhesion or Holding. 

Togetherness & Bonding 

The interconnectivity and

Mixing it up 

It’s a bowl, it’s a container

If The Vision is true, it will find the right people. Celebrate them.

Animas Ceremony Complaints Department: Where Am I Going with This? (An Explanatory Outline.)

Due to feedback received by the Pray to the Moon complaints department, I am adding a brief explanation for what I am sure seems (from the outside) to be a bizarre meandering about in details rather than an explanation of how a ceremony came to be.

To clarify, I am actually telling this tale in the order in which it unfolded. Really & truly. The ceremony proper was not written until long after choreographing & costuming & painting & many other things like logistics & gathering of offerings were long underway. 

This is the honest truth.

Why?

Because I don't like to write ceremony. (Actually, I don't like to write anything when it feels like an assignment.)

And because I trusted this Thing to emerge from its chrysalis naturally, at the right time. So I began all the needful preparations for its arrival & waited for it to unfold. 

cRaZy. Sometimes you just go with it.


So, in an attempt to placate the audience (which is odd, since I generally write under the presumption that I don't have one), I will provide a draft outline of Where-I-Am-Going-With-This (subject to change, of course). 


Animas Ceremony: An Invitation to Passion, Table of Contents


I. Public Animas Ceremony Part I: Breaking in the Bellwether

• Discussion of the origins of the Animist Bellwether & its first use as an introduction to ceremony.

II. Public Animas Ceremony Part 2: Having A Vision

• Discussion of receiving, recognizing & trusting a Vision that is True.
• Includes formal public announcement for Summer Solstice Animas Ceremony & Ecstatic Dance Event: An Invitation to Passion.

III. Public Animas Ceremony Part 3: Communicating & Manifesting The Vision (Even Without the Written Word)

• Discussion of communicating a Vision to others which remains unwritten.
• Includes concept sketches of ceremony visuals.

IV. Public Animas Ceremony Part 4: Trust Your People

• Discusses, in three parts, trusting the skills of experts to assist in manifesting the Vision.
• Also emphasizes the importance of gratitude for these people's contributions.

1. Public Animas Ceremony Part 4a: Trust Your People: The Costumer
2. Public Animas Ceremony Part 4b: Trust Your People: The Choreographer
3. Public Animas Ceremony Part 4c: Trust Your People: The Magus (DJ, that is)

V. Public Animas Ceremony Part 5: Art. Let it in.

Public Animas Ceremony Part 5a: Art. Let It In. (And make it an offering.)

• Discusses the use of art as an offering as well as an aesthetic, spiritual & communication device.
• Includes images of Art Bowls used in the ceremony.

Public Animas Ceremony Part 5b (1-8): Art. Let it in. (And celebrate the artists.)

• A succesion of biographies for artistic contributors to the ceremony. 
• Also a reminder that animism is about relationship & this includes our human relationships; respecting, understanding, honouring & having gratitude for those who enrich our lives.

1. Public Animas Ceremony Part 5b(1): Art. Let It In. (And Celebrate the Artists: Anna Nelson)
2. Public Animas Ceremony Part 5b(2): Art. Let It In. (And Celebrate the Artists: Lee Harrington)
3. Public Animas Ceremony Part 5b(3): Art. Let It In. (And Celebrate the Artists: Joanne Harnagel)
4. Public Animas Ceremony Part 5b(4): Art. Let It In. (And Celebrate the Artists: Bryan Perrin)
5. Public Animas Ceremony Part 5b(5): Art. Let It In. (And Celebrate the Artists: Susan Perrin)
6. Public Animas Ceremony Part 5b(6): Art. Let It In. (And Celebrate the Artitsts: Alica Wolter-Hausser)
7. Public Animas Ceremony Part 5b(7): Art. Let It In. (And Celebrate the Artitsts: HPS CC)
8. Public Animas Ceremony Part 5b(8): Art. Let It In. (And Celebrate the Artitsts: Moma Fauna)

Remaining Subjects, in Tentative Order:

VI. Public Animas Ceremony Part 6: Offerings. (More? Really?)

• Will discuss yet more offerings including art eggs, herbals & poetry. May require multiple entries.

VII. Public Animas Ceremony Part 7: Selecting & Tending Your People

• Will discuss the process of selecting Officiants, getting commitments, the importance of communicating their personal value & the power of relationship.
• Will also briefly discuss the folly of the standard call for volunteers & why, imho, it does not work. Also a bit on how & when "ritual by committee" can & does work.

VIII. Public Animas Ceremony Part 8: Ceremonial Structure

• Will reiterate reasons for hosting this ceremony as well as the intent, language & structure of ceremony.
• Will include outline of Officiants Invo/Evoc/Invit-ation to/of spirit(s) of Passion.
• Will include link to full ceremony document (PDF via Google Drive).

IX. Public Animas Ceremony Part 9: A Wee Bit on Ecstatic Dance

• Whys, hows & goals around the ecstatic dance portion of the evening.

X. Public Animas Ceremony Part 10: Rounding it Out & Covering Bases. Even More Communication & Gratitude: Ceremony Programmes

• Will discuss the value of providing a ceremonial programme, particularly for newbies & persons unfamiliar with animist concepts. 
• Will include images of Animas Ceremony: An Invitation to Passion programme as well as a link to the full programme document  (PDF via Google Drive).

I am certain I have overlooked something. So I will continue to update & adapt here & ultimately I hope to create a Ceremony Section for this journal where all this & future ceremonial details will be recorded. However, that must wait until I complete my current work on the Nyx devotional gallery page.

Public Animas Ceremony Part 5b(3): Art. Let It In. (And Celebrate the Artists: Joanne Harnagel)

Continued lessons from the Public Animas Ceremony: An Invitation to Passion.

Trespasser Joanne scaled a fence to join this party...
a woman after my own heart.

If The Vision is true, it will find the right people. Celebrate them.

With great regularity I come across fundraisers, auctions, art shows, etc. featuring varied artworks where there is no mention of the artist contributor as a person. A name, yes. Maybe it is the animist in me, but when I experience art, it usually makes me want to know more about the artist. I think the humans behind the art should be celebrated as much as their work. So, in an effort to do so, we created laminated biographies to accompany each of the bowls that were created for this ceremony. Since the bowls were auctioned off as part of the don't-let-your-ceremony-bankrupt-you strategy, each person who took home a bowl also took home something to help them "know" the artist better. It's all about relationship.

For the next few entries, I will be including the biographies of our artists in an effort to further celebrate them & express our gratitude. Also included are the statements they provided (if provided) about their piece for the Animas Ceremony: An Invitation to Passion.


Joanne Harnagel: Artist, Teacher, Intuitive Reader, Theta Healer, World Traveler
A Passion for Painting -- Poulsbo, Washington

“Way back in the heart of the woods in a rustic log house above Indianola lives a pretty, merry-voiced Goldilocks... She sits all day in her orange and gold print gown at her studio table painting beautiful flowers...” -- Nan W.

Joanne Harnagel is an artist and seasoned traveler whose noticeably grounded energy does not betray her proclivity for wandering. Her footprints can be followed across many lands including Italy, France, Switzerland and Greece. In her youth, she lived on a pig farm in rural Italy and later, in the small coastal village of Riomaggiore she taught herself to draw and paint. She began with passing the rainy days painting market places, horses and other regional features.

Joanne earned a degree in Italian from California State University (CSU) in Sacramento and while she has undertaken some instruction in art, she prefers to limit her exposure to formal art education because, as she puts it, “I didn’t want to have a professional art education because I’m the type of person who will follow a rule if I know there is one. There are a lot of rules in art, and I just didn’t want to know them because then I would have to spend a lifetime learning how to break them.”

Seduced by the beauty of the northwest, Joanne now spends most of her time in her home studio painting photorealistic watercolours of flowers which she produces from images she captures with her camera. While she has worked in many different mediums, she prefers watercolours for their flow and brilliance. 

When Joanne isn’t stalking flowers with her camera and paintbrushes, she dreams of traveling to India and works as an Intuitive Reader and Healer for the renowned Phoenix Rising metaphysical bookstore and at various intuitive arts fairs throughout the Washington area. Her readings and healings are a combination of clairvoyance, clairsentience, clairaudience, and Theta Healing. Joanne has been doing readings and healing energy work for over 20 years. In addition to her work as a psychic, she has also shared her love of art and creative, nurturing spirit with children through expressive arts education programs.

Untitled (no statement available)

Untitled, Joanne Harnagel

If The Vision is true, it will find the right people. Celebrate them.

Public Animas Ceremony Part 5b(2): Art. Let It In. (And Celebrate the Artists: Lee Harrington)

Continued lessons from the Public Animas Ceremony: An Invitation to Passion.

Lee Harrington, Artist, Educator, Friend.

If The Vision is true, it will find the right people. Celebrate them.

With great regularity I come across fundraisers, auctions, art shows, etc. featuring varied artworks where there is no mention of the artist contributor as a person. A name, yes. Maybe it is the animist in me, but when I experience art, it usually makes me want to know more about the artist. I think the humans behind the art should be celebrated as much as their work. So, in an effort to do so, we created laminated biographies to accompany each of the bowls that were created for this ceremony. Since the bowls were auctioned off as part of the don't-let-your-ceremony-bankrupt-you strategy, each person who took home a bowl also took home something to help them "know" the artist better. It's all about relationship.

For the next few entries, I will be including the biographies of our artists in an effort to further celebrate them & express our gratitude. Also included are the statements they provided (if provided) about their piece for the Animas Ceremony: An Invitation to Passion.



Lee Harrington: Artist, Instigator, Educator
PassionAndSoul – Anchorage, Alaska

Lee Harrington is an internationally known spiritual and erotic authenticity educator, gender explorer, eclectic artist and award-winning author and editor on human erotic and sacred experience. He is a nice guy with a disarmingly down to earth approach to the fact that we are each beautifully complex ecosystems, and we deserve to examine the human experience from that lens. He’s been traveling the globe (from Seattle to Sydney, Berlin to Boston), teaching and talking about sexuality, psychology, faith, desire and more, and is grateful for the journeys and love he has found along the way. He has been an academic and a female adult film performer, a world class sexual adventurer, an outspoken philosopher, is a kink/bondage expert, and has been blogging about sex and spirituality since 1998.

A fourth generation artist and sexual adventurer, Lee was doomed to become an artist even if he fought against it as often as possible. First his paternal grandmother and great-grandmother were both who’s who world artists, but he said no, I can resist it. Then his mother was a sketch artist, but no, he could resist that too. Then his father handed him a camera and his school put him in a stage show at the age of 7. He gave in.

Processing Transformation by Lee Harrington.
See more at his DeviantArt gallery.

Photographer, Performance artist, Installation creator, Fire Dancer, Aerial Rope Performer, Burlesque Artist, Stripper, Drag Queen, Clown, Painter, and collaborative fashion designer and sculptor, Lee also looks at his historical work as a Model as a form of performance all its own. He also directs shows from time to time, is the creator of a one man show, takes part in Happenings, Flash Mobs, and Guerrilla Art, MCs, and lives life in the name of art. His sexual life is part of an ongoing life art project that has been being recorded in some way since 1991.

Check out the trouble Lee has been getting into, as well as his regular podcast, tour schedule, free essays, videos and more over at www.PassionAndSoul.com.

Within the Green

Multi-Media: Wood, gesso, acrylic

Palm upon palm, layer upon layer. Not only is the world made of layers both seen and unseen, but so are our lives. On this acrylic coated wood bowl, layers of fine paint were brushed and hand-worked in, and handprints of a slightest changes in greens and gold were build up to express these layers upon our lives. Painted out under the Alaska sun, the golds were asked to capture that solar energy. Each life we touch, from the smallest gnats to the largest deities, all leave their handprints upon our lives. These are worked in and held true, deep within the green.

Within the Green by Lee Harrington.

If The Vision is true, it will find the right people. Celebrate them.

Public Animas Ceremony Part 5b(1): Art. Let It In. (And Celebrate the Artists: Anna Nelson)

Continued lessons from the Public Animas Ceremony: An Invitation to Passion.

Such a delight: Annabelle & her magpies.

If The Vision is true, it will find the right people. Celebrate them.

With great regularity I come across fundraisers, auctions, art shows, etc. featuring varied artworks where there is no mention of the artist contributor as a person. A name, yes. Maybe it is the animist in me, but when I experience art, it usually makes me want to know more about the artist. I think the humans behind the art should be celebrated as much as their work. So, in an effort to do so, we created laminated biographies to accompany each of the bowls that were created for this ceremony. Since the bowls were auctioned off as part of the don't-let-your-ceremony-bankrupt-you strategy, each person who took home a bowl also took home something to help them "know" the artist better. It's all about relationship.

For the next few entries, I will be including the biographies of our artists in an effort to further celebrate them & express our gratitude. Also included are the statements they provided (if provided) about their piece for the Animas Ceremony: An Invitation to Passion.

Anna Nelson: Artist, Adventurer, Dreamer

Artist, Creature of Passion & Whimsy -- Anchorage, Alaska

Anna Nelson is a life long adventurer, dreamer and bubble blower.  She is completely enamored with all of natures whimsies , be they cacti plants in the red dust of Sedona or tiny arctic orchids in the mountains near Denali.  

Her passion to express herself has lead to painting, with a brush or sometimes her whole body, found object sculpture and hooping.  Most recently her obsession has been with anything aviary and she has been harvesting and collecting delicate skulls of all kinds of winged creatures which she is organizing into an upcoming show.  

Poppies by Anna Nelson.

Anna has lived in Tempe desert, which is where here heart is, and somehow managed to tear herself out of the desert long enough to earn an Associate of Arts degree in graphic design. She now resides in Anchorage Alaska.

Anna is a recipient of the Fred Machetanz Art Award.

In her spare time she runs a family business, gardens, laughs (a lot) and tends to a dog named after “The Outlaw Josey Whales”.  The rest of the time, she blows bubbles. 

POPPY

Multi-media: wood, acrylic, laquer, dreams

Poppies have long been used to symbolize our want for remembrance.  Our need to keep and cherish those we loved an have lost close to our hearts.

Poppies also are for fertility, who can argue that with all those tiny seeds.

They are also for regeneration and renewal.

Indeed then, what else says “Passion” from the natural world like the soft petals of a darling poppy?

Poppy by Anna Nelson.

If The Vision is true, it will find the right people. Celebrate them.