Affinity Group Ritual

 So much happens in such a short timeframe at camp. So much! This is why I have had to do separate posts for happenings on the same day and today at camp I have tripped over a deceptively flat and unimpeded emotional surface that wasn't so flat after all and I've had a fall, so I am finding it difficult to step back into the last half of yesterday. However, I want to honour the integrity of this journey for those who might be reading along and tell it in a linear fashion. I am just naming that for myself and to honour that today's energy as I write this, is different to yesterdays energy when I experienced what I'm about to narrate to you.

Ok. Give your lungs a nice big deep breath with me right now and shake off whatever might be trying to cling to you that isn't needed right now.

If you've been reading along up til now, you will be familiar with the Affinity Group. My group of waves composes four humans whose pronouns range from she, her, they and them. It takes work to hold a person's preferred pronouns, I'm just naming that too while I am here. It is work I am very willing to make, I simply want to acknowledge though that it does take work and energy and brainpower and I want to view my opinion that those out there complaining about honouring an individual's preferred pronoun are likely not wanting to carry the load, the load may feel too heavy for them or whatever. I feel that too. I feel the desire to not want to carry the load but again, I will. I will because I honour all people's in all the ways they wish to show up in the world. Anyway, moving on...

Through camp we do a number of rituals and the rituals have an arc from first opening ritual to the closing ritual. Each ritual has it's place in the overarching theme of camp. The theme this year is Iron into Pearl. The points of each of the pentacles Iron and Pearl correspond. Now, I am no expert on this subject at all. I am new and learning so if you want to learn with true accuracy I invite you to take your own journey I just want to be transparent in that all I write is MY OWN understanding of what I am hearing and learning so may not be complete or 100% accurate. With that provision, the pentacles of Iron and Pearl have a bridging energy that allows us to travel from one point to the corresponding one and I believe this comes from a human named Dawn Isidora. It goes like this:

IRON        BRIDGE               PEARL

Sex            Connection            Love

Self            Awareness             Wisdom

Passion      Temperance           Knowledge

Pride          Integrity                 Law

Power        Responsibility        Liberation

Thus, each ritual has a focus around each of the points of Iron bridging into Pearl. Every day all the witches gather to take part in the ritual except on the Saturday. On the Saturday, the Affinity Groups are given the intention and they go off to organise and perform their own rituals together as a microsatellite of the whole. The intention for this ritual was:

LISTENING AT THE BOUNDARIES WE TEND OURSELVES AND EACH OTHER. WE ARE CHALLENGED WITH PRIDE AND INTEGRITY.

I'm not going to spend any time unpacking that here because there is a lot. I'm just here to share with you my experience of our Affinity Group ritual. I'll pause here to mention again, I have been blessed with amazing humans as part of my Affinity Group and I am incredibly grateful for that. I was flat this day and while the talk of Passion helped inflate me a bit, I was still flat and I had a headache and my energy levels were deplete so I definitely was not up for some exuberant full of life and energy ritual like I got to take part in with my first Affinity Group, so I was grateful when one of the humans in my Affinity Group took charge and made an awesome suggestion where she would guide us through a trance, we would do some sharing around Pride and Integrity then we would go off out into nature to listen at the boundary and notice what we heard, if anything came through, etc.

I am blessed to live right across the road from a Bushland.

It is full of concrete paths but there is this one unpaved path that I love and I knew that was where I was going to go listen at the border. If you've been reading along, you also know I have been accompanied by Spider even before this WitchCamp journey began and wouldn't you know it, there was Spider awaiting me at the boundary, high enough that I could walk under if I so chose.

I had taken my journal with me, because I am what I think of as a mute channel. It's similar to automatic writing but automatic writing is where it can seem like someone or something else is taking over and writing by way of your hand, that is not what I do. I channel words and images into my brain and I usually write or draw them out. A lot of channels just speak what is coming through them; however, my voice is often blocked. I struggle to speak out loud, to verbalise, to use my voice (on many levels) yet put a pen or pencil in my hand and I find fluidity, fluency, articulation abounds.

I admit to feeling quite foolish, standing there at the boundary and looking up at this Spider in silence, waiting, listening. Thankfully it was an overcast day and raining in dribs and drabs so no one was walking the paths but I would have been visible from the road if anyone looked through the small strip of trees. I let my discomfort around looking like a crazy person go, though, and I simply sank into the Bushland. I connected to the Spider at the boundary and I breathed. It did not take long for the words to flow and flow they did. So now, the prose that flowed out of me at the boundary as I listened and tended to myself holding Pride and Integrity in my mind:

The spider guards the boundary where I stand

Asking

Do you dare, do you dare?

It says

Take care, take care.

Beware.

It holds its treasures in its web

Out of reach, out of reach

It whispers in your ear

Challenging you, goading you

You look along the path before you

The spider asks

Do you pass, do you pass?

What knowledge do you seek?

What secrets do you keep?

How long until you weep

as grief lay at your feet?

Be sure. Be certain.

For there is no turning back

If you dare to cross this boundary in your path.

Will fear stop you
From showing up in the world?

Will fear be your downfall?

Or can fear meet with integrity as the pearl consumes the grit

And will fear allow you to step upon the path

To surpass your wildest dreams.

Fear might hold you but Integrity beholds you

And if you listen close

The path will open up

But do you dare? Do you dare?

What is it you might find there?

Do you even care?

Do you take a step onto that path

Into the great unknown

Where everyone will see you

Where everyone will hear you

Do you dare? Do you dare

To show up as your real self

Shedding the masks, shedding the farce ​

Shedding, shedding, to get within

The secret treasure protected by the spider

Hidden inside ya

Do you dare? Do you dare?

Do you care? Do you care?

Will you meet You there?

Stay out of my hair!

You spider up there

For I dare! I dare!

I care, I care!

I hold my breath

While the treasures I do seek

I care, I care

I dare, I am there

To meet myself

Laying at my feet

the fear I can no longer abide

What once was sin

Can now begin

To be rejoiced, rejoiced

In my new-found voice

I accept, I accept

The challenge will be met

As I breathe breath into this life

I breathe breath into this place

This place I come to embrace

All that I am

All that I am

For I am Sovereign

I will no longer be damned/dammed

I will be heard

I will be loud

I will be proud

This path I walk with integrity

For all to see the real me

So mote it be

So mote it be

So mote it be

Usually, the rituals happen after dinner but the Affinity Group ritual actually happens in the middle of the day but that is to give enough time for a Bardic Night where the campers show off their talents, skills or step into their edges and be brave enough to do performances, be it dance, singing, poetry reading, acting etc and in between we cast a spell to "Bring a Witch to Camp!" where we raise funds to offer people a scholarship to camp. We raised enough funds to send potentially 14 witches to camp next year, so if you're interested in attending a CloudCatcher definitely check out the website and at the end of the year when registration for next year's camp opens up, apply for a scholarship if you need to and come along! All are welcome at camp, from the neurotypical to the neurodiverse, to the fae, the dragons, the mischief-makers, the queer, the rebels, everyone is welcome here. So come along and have some fun :)

Until tomorrow you gorgeous creatures, In Joy!