Spring 96

This Winter's Night

(and that one and that one...)

This Winter's Night, EarthSpirit's ritual performance for the winter solstice, was held in three places this year: Cambridge and Shutesbury, Massachusetts, and New York City. Members of EarthSpirit, including the performers in MotherTongue, came together with Pagans in each locale to create a community Yule celebration filled with music, joy and quiet magic.

The ritual began as a gathering and feast: merriment presided as the Fool cavorted among all present and traditional carols were sung by all. As the Yule logs were brought in, the setting and tone began to change. The gathered crowd danced together into the woods to wait through the longest night together with story and song. In the still and quiet of the darkest hour, fears were let go, sparks were kindled, then wishes were made and released with the rising of the Solstice sun. More dancing followed, then a sharing of food, drink and good company enough to last us through the coming winter.

This ritual performance was a blending of two ongoing aspects of EarthSpirit - the seasonal community rituals and the performances of MotherTongue. It represents the beginning of what we expect will be a continuing coming together of ritual and the arts in what EarthSpirit shares with the Pagan community, and we are looking forward to the evolutionary process.

For the Shutesbury event at the Sirius Community, EarthSpirit collaborated with Karin Muller-Grass and Full Circle, a networking group in the Pioneer Valley who have been offering open circles to the community there for the past couple of years. They provided connections and information about the ritual to many who would not have otherwise heard about it, and we truly appreciate all of their effort. Perhaps the next time we work together there won't be such a huge snowstorm...some of the performers in MotherTongue didn't get home that night until 3 am!! In New York City, EarthSpirit joined with Phyllis Curott and The Minoan Fellowship to create a blended ritual at a U U church on Central Park. The enthusiastic community involvement and the large, vocal and participatory crowd made for a wonderful celebration with music, Morris Dancers and ceremony. We look forward to more joint ventures with these folks in the near future.

It was wonderful to see so many people and feel the spirit of community so strongly at these events. Since Yule we have been receiving telephone calls in the EarthSpirit office from many of you who attended one of these rituals, telling us about what it meant to you to be able to share the Solstice with your community in this way. We appreciate your calls and, with you, offer thanks to the many many people who volunteered their time and energy to create these and other EarthSpirit events. It is their effort which allows EarthSpirit to flourish so that we can continue to provide a place for all of us to gather to celebrate the spirit of life