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| Casual Shrine Remainder of Deer Camp |
I got back from Pagan Spirit Gathering last night and am spending the day sort of processing the experience and resting.
First things first... I had strong intentions of going through the Men's Rite of Passage, but that didn't happen this year due to a strong scheduling conflict. I'd been on the fence for the few days prior about whether I wanted to do it this year or next year so I just took it as a sign that it was meant to be next year, but there are now some other factors at play that might prevent me from wanting to go through it in the future... not at PSG, anyway. Some of these reasons I am not comfortable talking about, but ultimately I think I might be best suited to getting my masculine mysteries stuff through different means.
General Camping Stuff
As far as the regular camping stuff? I didn't sunburn as bad this year as I did last year, but I burned really bad last year so that's not saying too much. At the last minute I ditched my pop up canopy and it was kind of a regrettable decision. Next year I will make a concerted effort to bring it. We brought far too much meat and didn't package it well enough, but were able to eat well. I spent way too much on vendor food, although granted, it was delicious. Next year I will bring more things to drink, although I was able to manage fresh coffee and lemonade. We also need better fire pit maintenance, as the location we were in is not great for digging fire pits. It didn't rain as bad as last year (we forgot the rain fly last year and had to rig one together from tarps and garbage bags) so rain was less of a problem. We did, however, forget dish soap and trash bags so we wound up using old ice bags and just rinsing the dishes.
Next year I'll be making more effort to reduce the sunburn risk, especially since I hope to have a "fresh" (around six months old) top surgery and really need to keep the scars unburnt. I'll probably use tape on the scars themselves, try to get an adequate base tan by going outside without a shirt on earlier than the middle of the summer, and wearing lots and lots of sunscreen. Oh, yes, and my hat helped. I'll definitely always wear a brimmed hat at PSG in the future now (and it's kind of an identifiable feature for me now!).
Programming Stuff
Me and my partner really had a great time with the workshops we put on for children! We were thanked pretty profusely by some of the adults because there just isn't enough programming for youth at PSG. The kids were fantastic, although our activities were a little short so we will be bringing some other Pagan type things (coloring pages) and more supplies (we actually had adequate supplies but some kids would have liked to do the activities longer). Solstice Sunprints was logistically a little annoying because we had to refresh water (fun fact, we learned the paper we were using stops working when enough of the chemical on it gets in the water) and it was slightly overcast when we tried to do it. Pentagrams and More went really well and was more of a "learning experience" type thing than I expected as we and some of the parents taught what the symbols I'd put on them meant. Some of the kids just drew cats on blank ones, but that's also totally valid. Hail Bast! But yeah, Nakiiya and I already agreed that we will do two more kids and tweens workshops next year, although we'll probably modify or expand or do different activities. Ben (the third Deer Camp member, one of my besties) said he might do the same thing and joked he would do a "Cursing for Kids" activity. Obviously this isn't the environment for that sort of thing but I may in fact do a coloring book with that theme now.
There weren't a lot of workshops that really spoke with me this year. I went to one basic energy work workshop where I didn't learn a whole hell of a lot, but I did get to practice on a stranger.
I went to the Gender Liberation Check-In almost every day as well as both the "Rainbow" luncheons (the Magenta Luncheon for trans folks and the Lavender Luncheon for LGBT folks). Met some super cool people including somebody I found on Twitter before PSG who I didn't engage with because I am super shy and got to meet/friend on Facebook. I also went to their workshop on a possible future Rite of Transition which was... eh. The thing is, as somebody who isn't really a binary trans person but who is definitely a trans man I want there to be more all-gender and nonbinary programs available, but they always go in a direction that I don't really identify with or that I fear will compromise trans men's and more likely trans women's access to men's and women's spaces respectively; PSG had a major fuck-up in 2012 when the presenter they hosted who put on the Women's Ritual excluded trans women. Things are a lot better now and they are explicit that things like this must now be inclusive based on identity, but there are some worries among those of us who do get recharged and validated by women's and men's mysteries that the push for more non-gendered and nonbinary alternatives to them could inadvertently push trans men and trans women out of those spaces if it's not dealt with correctly.
I have been working a lot with plants and learning about plant consciousness so I went to a workshop with a presenter who invented equipment to convert electrical impulses from plant leaves to midi. I went to this workshop out of interest for the subject but also because I've been trying to give myself the permission to believe things people don't want me to believe; most of my friends are Pagans, but there's a strong skeptic vein that I ran with for a while and I really miss my ten-years-ago self who had given himself permission to believe weird things you find in New Age books about singing to water or earthing mats or whatnot. I was a spiritually happier person back then and I want to go back to it, even if it means believing in mockable things. That's its own post for the future, though. Anyway, he hooked this machine up to a big oak tree and then a small plant I couldn't identify, we did energy work with the tree and hugged it and observed the different tones that came from the speaker. I'd love to have something like that for myself, but he invented the thing so I can't just buy one off Amazon. Yet.
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| Dutch Oven Meals |
That was all the formal workshops I went to, although I did go to a lot of rituals and stuff in workshop slots. The Bast Ritual was really emotional for me as somehow I really got to thinking about my cat, Sherlock, who died several years ago but who I had for over fifteen years, including many of my formative years. The Rainbow Ritual was more contemplative than normal but was very nice, the Fairy Shrine Opening similarly was more low-key than normal.
Nakiiya and I went to a ritual to the Morrigan which was very moving. It turns out I didn't know much about her (the Morrigan not my girlfriend) and I might genuinely be kind of into her. We were directed that we needed to offer something from our body to her after the ritual, whether hair, saliva, blood, etc. and they also provided lancets for those of us who wanted to give blood... but no disinfectant, so I got some alcohol swabs from the med tent. It's not something I've really done before as I tend to work with Egyptian Gods, and most of them really don't appreciate human blood offerings due to ritual purity requirements.
The Men's Ritual was less arts-and-craftsy than last year when we erected a big pyramid of prayer flags we'd decorated. We received plain cords that most of us wore around our necks after (my profile picture as I write this shows it; I have it around the band of my hat). I also went to the breakaway after the gender rituals which was really nice. I met a trans woman who went to the Women's Ritual who I talked to and had a lot of other interesting discussions; Deer Camp's three members each went to a different ritual, with me going to the Men's, Nakiiya going to the Women's, and Ben going to the All Gender ritual.
I don't remember the opening ritual which was kind of hazy at this point (I remember being moved, which I usually am because I'm reminded of how happy I am to be at PSG). The main ritual was led by Spiral Rhythm and was super ecstatic and wonderful, although there were some accessibility issues (people with mobility issues regularly sit and were kind of crowded out) and consent issues (there was a lot of touching and hugging that we weren't warned about, and my girlfriend got touched in ways that were not appropriate).
Ben was in the Performer's Rite of Passage playing the fiddle and was a big success, too.
Obviously I had a lot more experiences than this, things that will be best served through their own posts, but that's about it for the initial recap.
Happy Trails,
-- Setkheni
