[And now a word from our California religion correspondent.  As Paganism becomes ever more popular, at least in the Golden State, and as nature resists and provides refuge in an increasingly mechanized (science fiction made fact) world, it's a good time to see what our druids have been up to this holiday season…]

by Erica Frank

In the Pagan world, the year is marked by 8 holidays, called sabbats: the druidic solstices and equinoxes, and the four traditional Celtic holidays on the cross-quarter days: the first of February, May, August, and November.

May 1st is Beltane, marking the beginning of summer, halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. Beltane marks the shift from virgin-maiden goddess to bride-to-be of the Green Man, the Horned God of the woods and fields.

It's May: When all the world is brimming with fun…Wholesome or "un." (From Camelot, 1967.)

It is celebrated with bonfires on May Eve, also called Walpurgisnacht, with processions and feasting and drinking to mark the hope of abundance in the coming summer and joy in life and community. Often, the High Priestess will read the Charge of the Goddess, which includes:

…as a sign that ye be really free, ye shall be naked in your rites; and ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music and love, all in Her praise. For Hers is the ecstasy of the spirit, and Hers also is joy on earth; for Her law is love unto all beings. Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever towards it; let naught stop you or turn you aside.

After the night celebrations, the next day, people gather around the May-pole adorned with ribbons and weave through each other in a dance that covers the pole with bright strips of fabric and flowers, symbolizing…

Well. We'll leave that as "it's symbolic of, um, the season," because this is a family publication. Suffice to say Beltane celebrations have plenty of dancing and merriment and fertility rituals. Some of those are very informal–as the Charge of the Goddess also says, "all acts of love and pleasure are Her rituals." And of course, there are plenty of Pagans who are always ready for a ritual.

Kore Incantation: O Holy Maiden of the kindling quick of merging myst and amazing echo: The innocent bounty of the trees bares your faerie flesh of wildness wonder magic mirth and love… your beauty seals our bridal with all life. The dance of your green pulse unfolds all bodies from Earth's fragrant form. EVOE KORE — F.C.A. 1968 Ostara–Beltane, from Korythalia Vol 1 no 2

Feraferia—a modern Pagan church
Feraferia is one of the first, perhaps the actual first, Pagan groups to incorporate as a legal church. They received their nonprofit status a couple of years ago, in 1967, and are growing strong. Their home is in the San Gabriel mountains in California; they host celebrations and welcome gentle visitors to share in their spirituality.

Their name is taken from the words "feral" and feria, Latin for "festival" – loosely, "wild celebration," or perhaps "untamed jubilee"; they seek to re-create the Eleusinian Mysteries by connecting with the primal erotic energies of nature.

They draw on both anthropological research and spiritual insight to build their practices and philosophies, combining history and mysticism into art and religion. Feraferia is "a faery faith"—drawing on the lore and legends of the Fay as symbols of how to live in harmony with nature, rather than attempting to control or dominate it.

Their Beltane holiday is the day the Lord Sun and Lady Moon become engaged, to be wed at the summer solstice in June. They mark it as the beginning of the divine courtship, and welcome the visible signs of lust and sensuality in nature: The unfolding of flowers awaiting pollination and the randy play of wild bucks are signs that humans, too, should be setting aside their winter solitude and seeking companionship and mates.

Kore (pronounced kor-ee), the Greek "Merrie Maiden" goddess of innocence and joy — Art by Fred Adams, one of the founders of Feraferia.

Aside from their 9 holy days (they have a "Repose" in mid-November in addition to the 8 traditional sabbats), they encourage daily meditations and prayers, and use both active and quiet communions to connect with the spirit of the Goddess and the sacred land.

They build henges in their land, rings of stone or sculpture, "fairy rings" that are aligned with the compass and the turn of the seasons, and tying the practitioner to the land with small gifts and offerings.

Daily Worship Practices
Fred Adams has published a "Daily Ceremonial Enactments" script for meditation and worship, involving the Kore Incantation and calls to the Fay in the four directions and the four elements: Sylphs of the air, Salamanders of fire; Gnomes of the earth; Undines of water.

It begins with: PART I: Facing the altar, perform the sign of the Phytala by outlining a large Phytala with your hands in the air in front of you. Hum as you gesture, and muse on the various meanings.

The Phytala, "the symbol of Feraferia. It embodies the tree of life, the Moon and Sun, a wreath of flowers, and specifically the young, budding branches of a fruit tree."

There are also weekly rituals, beginning on Saturday (well, Friday night). Each day invokes a different deity and is appropriate for different kinds of work or meditations. Friday, dedicated to Kronos-Zeus, is "the Day for constructing and Blessing Faerie charms of Wilderness."

Consider what it would feel like, to begin every Friday with this incantation:

Kronos-Zeus! I (we) dedicate this day to thee and to thine own land-sky-love-body of taiga, cone forests, all conifers, high cliffs and palisades, talus, rugged pioneer nature communities, all seres (ecological successions), weather formations. (Muse on these nature realms or archetypal landscapes.)

Blessed be thy faerie realms. They will grow in wildness and love even as they suffuse my (our) presence with joy and wilderness wisdom. Grant all wildlings in these realms thrive, find fulfillment and continual rebirth.

I (we) bestow my (our) genius and love upon these realms and all their wildlings.

May the wildrealms of Kronos-Zeus, bright emperor of night, bestow upon me (us) their genius for: Duration and endurance, ruggedness, wisdom, strength, self reliance, forcefulness, steadiness, continuity patience, elegance, dignity, magnitude, prophecy, order, appropriateness, accumulation, opportunity, will, attainment of goals.

Evoe Kore! Evoe Kouros! Awiiiyaaa!

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I'll certainly be looking at the rest of their practices. I don't know if I have the time to set aside for lengthy daily meditations—and I live in a city apartment; I don't have access to a yard with trees and a stone circle—but I could make a small shrine in my room, and try to connect to the natural world a bit more than I do.

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