EVENTS
Events 2020
Fond thoughts to all: our movements are curtailed, events put on hold and it’s hugely challenging: but people are responding with acts of love and generosity, to cheer our hearts as we cope with our retreat situation. Meanwhile, to get notifications of my online talks and blog just sign up to the mailing list, and I’ll update this page when events start again.
What I should have been doing this Spring:
As a Druid celebrant, I – with partner Arthur - was due to officiate at two 30+ wedding anniversary blessings and a Druid wedding; we look forward to celebrating these in due course. Several of my speaking engagements at camps and celebrations are in doubt and, of course, we will miss meeting up with hundreds of members of OBOD in June: we look forward to making or renewing those connections with friends old and new in 2021 now.
But I was busy earlier in the year:
and the highlight was a visit to Vienna, to co-facilitate a workshop for two Groves and be shown round by the most thoughtful hostess. It’s a golden memory of Druidry, joy, fellowship, glorious art, culture and coffee shops.
Back in the UK, I celebrated Imbolc with our Grove and gave an Imbolc talk for the Library of Avalon. We also organised a Wassailing event for Glastonbury Abbey in January, a great community celebration for all, and these photos serve as a reminder of happy times.
And to explain why we’re raising our hats, here’s a traditional song and shout – which you must imagine supported by a hundred voices and percussion in a frosty orchard.
“….Let everyone raise up their hats, here’s a health to the old apple tree.”
Wassailing is a British custom of singing to the orchards, especially in the South West, where the apple harvests produce our famous cider.
Wassail comes from the Norse toast ‘Wass-hail’; whose reply is, ‘Drink-hail!’
It means ‘Be thou hale (in good health)’ and ‘Drink and be healthy’.
We circle the orchard with traditional song with lots of percussion and frequent stops for toasting, to gently stir the still-sleeping trees into a remembrance that the growing season will soon be here. We praise and toast them and anticipate a bumper harvest, sharing our cider and toast with the trees and so with the wildlife, for the fertility of all. This year 150 people joined us on a chilly January afternoon to honour the trees and, as I write, the orchard is filled with pink-white blossom and the sound of bees. Soon the petals will have dropped and the apples of Avalon will be growing again.
