HEARTH NEWS

HEARTH NEWS

5th July Open Circle - Ron's Last Day with the Hearth

After ten years with the Hearth, our High Priest Ron is leaving us to make a new life in Scotland with his wife Maureen. Ron has been an inspiration to all of us, and we will miss his quiet wisdom and strength greatly. There were tears all round...

Ron and the coven

Tim, Jen, Sue, Sally, Ron, Paul, Anna, Roger, Tina, Karl, Sharon, Emma, (another Lady from the outer circle), Neil

Ron is presented with a besom covered in charms and talismans from the coven members.

31st January - Ghanaian Street Rhythms Workshop at the Beacon with Pip MacFarlane.

HALLOWEEN PARTY 09

HEARTH WITCHERY CAMP SEPTEMBER 09

Members of the Hearth gathered for the last camp of the year. Rather than the intensive nature of our last two Hearth camps, which were on Healing the Wounded King and Quantum Healing, we focused on the practical skills of hearth witchery, foraging in the hedgerows and making natural dyes, salves and Sue the Weaver got us doing some felting with fleeces we had dyed. Pip lead us in some brilliant drumming and chanting and Ghanaian street music workshops around the fire in the evenings.

Drumming round the fire	Making dyes	l
The dyed wool	There was a howling round my tent and when I woke up this had happened....!
Felting	Herbal salves from the hedgerows

MERCIAN GATHERING SEPTEMBER 09

Over 800 Pagans attended the fifth Mercian Gathering. The weather was kind and I really think it was the best one yet! We had a packed programme of talks, workshops, rituals and entertainment, with around 100 separate events in three short days. The weekend seemed to fly by, and the atmosphere was amazing. Thanks to all the speakers, entertainers, archers and workshop leaders, the volunteers, all the people who came in such good spirit, and most of all to the crew whose hard work all year long make it all possible. I am so proud to know them all. Anna x

More pics and videos on www.merciangathering.co.uk

JEN AND KARL'S WEDDING AUGUST 09

Wessex Gathering May 09

A sizeable contingent [about 20 of us] from the Hearth of Arianrhod went down to Wessex , where we traditionally provide the labyrinth each year. The weather was glorious, and the atmosphere chilled out . Wessex is a very laid back and organic festival, so it gave us the chance to relax and catch up with old friends and make new ones. A good time [and sun burn!] was had by all.

MAY 09 GRAIL CAMP

This was the first Hearth camp of the year, and though the weather was a bit cold and wet, we all got a great deal of out of the experience. We began Friday evening with the story of the Grail Quest, thought about what we each brought to the quest, making heraldic shields that demonstrated our best qualities. After a shared meal, we performed a ritual to dedicate ourselves to the quest, beginning by chanting the circle into existence. Saturday morning, after a shared breakfast, we began the talks, discussions, stories and meditations of the day, searching for our goals and identifying what holds us back - our wounds. The evening ritual began with extended chanting, then each person was lead away into the darkness to find and identify their issues alone. After washing in the healing waters of life, we returned to the circle for the Grail Mass. On Sunday, we held a talking stick circle to discuss what we'd got out of the weekend. It was an emotional time for all of us. Thanks to everyone who came with open and loving hearts who shared this magical experience together.

These Hearth camps are a great teaching/learning opportunity for those from the Open Circle [or even from the coven] who are serious about their spiritual progress. The Open Circles only give us the chance to introduce a subject, but on a camp we have the time to explore the issue in more depth, do meditations, perform rituals together and spend time talking to everyone there.

FEBRUARY 2009 TRIP TO FLAG FEN

Taking advantage of their Open Day, we had a day trip to the Flag Fen Bronze Age Centre. Flag Fen Archaeology Park is home to a unique ancient wooden monument. A kilometre long wooden causeway and platform are perfectly preserved in the wetland. 3500 years ago this was built and used by the Celtic fen people as a place of worship and ritual. 60,000 upright timbers and 250,000 horizontal planks are buried under the ground along with many swords and personal items given as offerings to the watery fen. Over 400 years the causeway was added to and developed from two rows of posts and a walkway, to five rows of posts with a wattle fence to its northern side. This causeway effectively cut off the northern edge of the ‘fen basin’ a large area of wetland. Within the structure many hundreds of metal, stone and bone artefacts have been found. Some fixed in place between the wood. These items have not been lost – they have been deliberately placed. Equally they have not been found in a hoard hidden away for safety. Furthermore excavation has uncovered large amounts of animal bone (sheep, cows and pigs). In addition skeletons of dogs have been found within the monument. There are also replica Bronze Age roundhouses [one of which had a fire lit, and a guide explaining the construction of the house], one replica Iron Age roundhouse [where bards were telling stories] and a museum.

We finished off the day with a pub meal.

February 09 Outer Circle cancelled

Owing to the treacherous road conditions in the snow. Apologies for this, we will be back in March - weather permitting!

WHITTLESEA STRAW BEAR FESTIVAL DAY TRIP 14.1.09

This year saw the 30^th anniversary of its revival after a seventy year break, its previous existence ended by the local police inspector who deemed it a form of begging in 1909. This event had been a local custom for a very long time, from a time when the land and its bounties were more respected and venerated. The first public report of this ritual was mentioned in a newspaper in 1882, mentioning the event taking place on the Tuesday following Plough Monday (the 1^st Monday after Twelfth Night). One of the locals would be dressed in straw and given the name ‘Straw Bear’. The newspaper reports that “…he was taken around the town to entertain by his frantic and clumsy gestures the good folk who had the previous day subscribed to the rustics, a spread of beer, tobacco and beef.” The Bear was described as having great lengths of tightly twisted straw bands prepared and wound up the arms, legs and body of the man or boy who was unfortunate enough to have been chosen. Two sticks fastened to his shoulders met at a point above his head and straw was wound around them to form a cone above the bear’s head. The face was quite covered and he could hardly see. A tail was provided and a strong chain fastened around the armpits. He was made to dance in front of houses and gifts of money, beer and food for later consumption was expected. It seems that he was considered important; the straw was carefully selected each year from the best available, the harvesters saying, “That’ll do for the Bear”. The modern day festival now involves 250 dancers, musicians and performers from many parts of the British Isles including molly, clog and sword with these supported by street performers and mumming plays. A decorated plough is also pulled through the town by the local morris side. In recent years they’ve been joined by the German straw bear from Walldum near Frankfurt, another town that celebrates its own Straw Bear Festival. See pics!

Ron Fox

YULE PARTY 13.12.08

We held the Yule party on Little Yule, the day we traditionally light the Yule log as the first of our three Yule rituals [the second is the Yule rite proper, and the third is the wassailing to wake up the spirits of the land after the festive season is over]. Ron led us in the celebration, and we burned away what we wished to be rid of with the passing year and toasted the blaze. We also had an hilarious mummers play, based on the Oak and Holly Kings, Pagan carols led by Keith and Sharon and my fiendish Yule Quiz. Thanks to Paul for my surprise birthday cake- it was delicious! See pictures here.

HALLOWEEN PARTY 27.10.08

We had a great time at the Halloween party, kindly hosted by Jess and Conan. See pics here

LEGAL HANDFASTINGS 8.10.08

We are now able to offer handfasting ceremonies at the Beacon Centre in Nuneaton, Warks with, or without, a fully legal registration of the marriage. This means that if you wish you can combine your handfasting with a legal wedding. Contact us if you are interested.

MERCIAN UPDATE 7.10.08

We raised £4000 for our charities, the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and the Beacon. It would have been a bit more if we hadn’t had to buy 19 tons of woodchip to keep the roads flowing. In addition, we decided to retain £1000 to buy some roll out road in case we ever get such severe weather again.

HEARTH CAMP 26th-28th September 08

6pm Friday to 6pm Sunday. £10 per head. We will have a central kitchen, please bring food to cook and share together. There will also be a tipi for communal meetings. Pre-booking is essential. For more details and to book please contact Paul at greymoonowl@msn.com

MERCIAN REPORT 10.9.08

Despite the severe weather warnings around the country, the Mercian Gathering went ahead as normal. Nearly everyone braved their way through the floods and around 730 Pagans celebrated the harvest together. It rained... oh boy, did it rain! Even our normally free draining fields started to get water filtering up from the water table as well as down from the skies. If you saw me on Friday before the opening ritual, it was pushing cars, spreading straw and shovelling woodchip in an attempt to keep the roadways flowing. The gateways to the fields and the spot down by the cafe became a quagmire. But we still had fun, and it’s been much worse at Glastonbury!
    Even if they couldn’t give us a dry weekend, the Gods made sure we could celebrate all our rituals in dry weather - it cleared up half an hour before the opening ritual, and started raining again half an hour afterwards. It rained throughout Saturday, but stopped just before the fire labyrinth and wicker man ritual, drizzled a bit after it was finished, then stopped, and we had a fine day on Sunday. All the rituals, entertainment and workshops went on, and only the archery was affected, with one session out of four going ahead. We had a fantastic night with Gary Brienholt and Damh the Bard on Friday (who came despite his injured back). Keith stepped in to fill the vacant spot in the cafe, and did a superb job. Saturday we had two absolutely brilliant bands, Laienda and Endless Knot, who both raised the roof and got everyone dancing. Thanks to all the speakers who made a bigger effort than usual to join us.
    We must give a more especial thanks to Sue the farm owner, who had to put up with us making a mess of her fields. She jumped into her tractor on Sunday to drag out people stuck in the mud, smiling broadly all the time. Please write to thank her [if you had a ticket you have the address] and let her know how much we all appreciate her kindness and hospitality.
    I want to thank everyone who came in such good spirits and with a sense of adventure - they proved they were real Pagans at one with Nature and the elements, not the armchair variety afraid of getting their feet wet. Thanks also for all your kind comments, cheerful dispositions and praise for our efforts. It is that that makes all the hard work [and it was harder than usual this year] worth while.

JULY 08 HEARTH CAMP REPORT

I’d like to thank Paul for organising an absolutely brilliant Hearth Camp. The venue was superb, on a scouting site, but in a private field surrounded by trees, in the middle of the countryside. It has really gentle, joyful, youthful energies. There was a toilet block and shower within easy distance. They also had an archery range, which we could make use of another time. In the end it cost us £2 per person per night!
    I was a bit worried about the weather when I set off, but for most of the weekend we had brilliant sunshine. It rained during the night, and we had a couple of showers when we were in the tipi having out talks, but it remained fine whenever we were outside – the Gods were kind.
    On Friday we set up and had a shared supper, then we held an opening ritual. The spirits were strong and instantly present, and it boded really well for the weekend. We were up till about 3 am chatting. The next day, Paul cooked us all breakfast, then I did a long workshop on the Wheel of the Year in the tipi with a break for a shared lunch. Ron took everyone off to show them how to build and use a medicine wheel, followed by a meditation on the Wheel of the Year.
    After a shared supper, we prepared ourselves for the evening ritual. This began around the medicine wheel with a chant, which was kept going as we processed, hand in hand, back to the tipi, where the chant continued. People soon fell into a consciousness changing rhythm of chanting and breathing. Continuous chanting starts to open doors in the mind. Then one by one I led people out to different areas which represented different festivals, depending on the energies they needed. When I collected them later on, a couple of people were in tears, a couple grinning like Cheshire cats, and some were silent and reflective. We went back to the circle and shared bread and wine. Again, we were up late, talking.
    The next morning we had a late breakfast, followed by the talking stick session, where everyone was able to share their experiences of the camp and ask any questions they wanted. We followed this by lunch and the closing ritual, in which we thanked the place for its hospitality, and all the spirits who had given us inspiration over the course of the weekend.
    If you were there, I’d like to thank you for your fellowship and good company. Especial thanks to Paul for organising it all, putting in so much work making things for the rituals and doing all the cooking. And thanks to Ron for the Medicine Wheel. If you weren’t there, you missed a fantastic weekend!

HEARTH TRIP TO EGYPT FEBRUARY 08

The Hearth of Arianrhod trip this year was to Egypt, and twenty six people went – fifteen Pagans and nine Methodists, the latter being members of Pauline’s congregation. Pauline is the minister who spoke at the Mercian Gathering for us in 2006, and who came to Malta with us on last year’s Hearth trip.

With so many people, some of whom had never been to Egypt before, I decided the best thing to do was a Nile cruise, starting in Luxor and sailing down to Aswan and back, taking in various sights and temples along the way. This gave us plenty of opportunity for drinking cocktails and sunbathing on deck too. Sue and Julia managed to bake themselves to a decent brown, but what about the fair skinned redheads? Kathy relied on fake tan and I kept my hat on.

This was my eighth trip to Egypt, and I never tire of it. The sheer spectacle, size and magic of the monuments remains undiminished by time. The majority of Egypt is dry desert, and only the benevolent Nile brings it life. Now, as thousands of years ago, the population settles along its banks, needing its water to exist. Ancient Egyptian religion centred on the constants of everyday life- the rising and setting of the sun, the surrounding arid desert and the annual flooding of the Nile, which left rich alluvial silt that provided a fertile medium for growing crops. Herodotus wrote that Egypt is the gift of the Nile. The gods represented these natural forces and ideas sometimes depicted in human form and sometimes as animal headed to emphasise their link with the natural balance.

Day one was a trip to the Temples of Karnak and Luxor. [Well for most people anyway. I needed to catch up on my sleep and I have been there several times before.] While houses were built of mud brick [as they still are], temples were built of stone beyond the reach of the flood plane. Each was approached by an avenue, flanked with statues. This lead to the first pylon [‘gate’], a tapering façade with an opening, flanked by an obelisk or towering statues, with flags. Inside was a peristyle courtyard surrounded by colonnades which may have been the public area of the temple. Opposite the first lay the second pylon with a smaller gateway. Access to this was restricted to priests. Inside were various rooms for equipment and offerings and the hypostyle hall with a roof supported by columns. Deep within the temple was the Holy of Holies, the sanctuary where the god dwelt in the cult statue standing in the naos [‘inner shrine’]. From the New Kingdom onwards the shrine took the form of a boat. Only the high priest or pharaoh could enter this shrine. The floor of the temple rose towards it to reflect the primordial mound. The primeval waters of Nun were reflected in the sacred lake where the priests purified themselves. The pylon represented the horizon, and the columns with their papyrus and lotus tops the original marsh.

The temple was a place of learning, with the library being called ‘the House of Life’. It offered healing, kept all the public records and had workshops for the creation of perfumes and storerooms for the temple goods. Temples employed huge numbers of people; Karnak utilised over eighty thousand workers, though not all were priests. Ordinary people might spend part of the year serving the gods in the temple.

The lock at Esna is an experience always made entertaining by the sellers on tiny boats. They row up to the cruise boats and throw goods on board, for which you have to barter. This involves a lot of ‘you must be joking’ and throwing them back and forth, sometimes into the Nile. Kathy woke up from a nap, opened her cabin window and got hit in the face by a tablecloth and shouts of ‘Hey laydeee. Asda price!’ Kate and Sarah got confused about the exchange rate and paid £60 for a shawl they had agreed to pay £6 for, which must have made the boatman’s year. The experience didn’t slow them up, however, and they shopped so hard in the bazaars they often didn’t get as far as the sacred sites. [I think they managed to buy up half of Egypt from the amount of excess baggage they had to pay on the way home.]

We visited the Temple of Horus at Edfu, the Temple of Horus and Sobek at Kom Ombo, the latter, sadly, at dawn rather than sunset, when it becomes golden in the light, living up to its name, which means ‘mound of gold’. Some of us stopped at the tea garden at Kom Ombo for a cup of mint tea and a sheesha, and were serenaded by a local band who made us play their instruments and buy their CDs. Mine turned out to be blank when I got home.

My favourite site is the Temple of Isis on the island of Philae, near Aswan. Philae means 'the end' and lay at the southernmost limit of the Egyptian lands, at the beginning of the First Cataract. The ancient believed that the Nile emerged from a cave on Bega Island, near Philae, and the benevolent floodwaters of the Nile were described as the ‘Tears of Isis’ as she mourned for her dead husband who was entombed on Bega Island. Thus the flood revived Osiris, god of vegetation. Every tenth day, the priests of Isis would visit the abaton on Bega.

Modern visitors travel to the island on little water taxis, which the boatmen treat in the manner of fairground dodgems, and docking just means ramming into the nearest boat. And of course, during the trip out comes the inevitable jewellery for sale. Sarah got stuck in there.

Despite the fact that the temple the temple was moved during the building of the Aswan Dam, it seems to retain its magic. Thousands of years of history and worship lives on in its stones, made more poignant by the fact it was the last bastion of Paganism in Egypt before its priests were driven out and the sanctuary desecrated by the Christians; as with so many Egyptian monuments, in places the faces and hands of the gods have been literally ‘defaced’ to rob them of their power. Strange how the Old Gods were feared by people who professed not to believe in them, isn’t it?

Chalky’s week was made when he met Kent Weeks, the archaeologist who is excavating KV5. This was a bit of a surprise, as our Egyptian guide had commented he hadn’t been seen for three years and the excavation had been on hold. Then there he was, outside the tomb. Chalky was able to talk to him, and learned that he had had to return to America to raise the money to carry on. So far, 129 chambers have been discovered and he thought that they would be up to 150 chambers before the end of the season. Though the tomb had been known about since the nineteenth century, it was thought to be a shallow chamber of no interest. It was not until there were plans to remove it to make a turning point for the tour buses (!), that it was properly explored. Not a nice job since all the waste from the café had been funnelled into it, but then, as Weeks told Chalky, graduate students come in handy for such things.

Off the Valley of the Queens and the Temple of Hatshepsut, the only female pharaoh. The we got fed up of being on the tour bus and absconded, staying on the West Bank to visit some of the other sites, such as the Ramesseum.

It was wonderful to take my friends to the places I have loved for so long. We spent the nights on deck talking, laughing and singing daft songs along to Oliver’s ipod. So many memories of times shared – a picnic in the middle of the Temple of Medinet Habu [the security guards were curious, but left us alone], the Japanese tourists being more interested in Oliver the Dapper than the temples on offer, taking the local ferry from the West Bank to the East Bank and the beautiful deaf girl collecting money for charity, chanting Awen in a resonant tomb in Aswan, Sarah shopping everywhere, Oliver posing everywhere, and Sue the Weaver, in full costume, belly dancing to Damh the Bard’s Isis Unveiled, on the Nile, at midnight near to the Temple of Isis at Philae... it doesn’t get much more magical than that.