The Artemis Gathering - day 1

It was an early start today, not intentional but just the way it was. Toni got up around 5 and I was up around 6:20. Despite not having any mattresses I actually had a really restful night and woke up refreshed. Toni was busy cooking sausages and lots of coffee was made. It was a bit chilly but it was nice sitting outside, enjoying a peaceful atmosphere..... and here I am

Gemima went off to do a Muggle Magic session and Toni and I went to a talk on Essential Oils & Brews. This was a very interesting and practical session led by the slightly wacky Pandora (in a good way). She was very down to earth and kept things very real and personal.

Toni created a cleansing/purifying oil which smelled lovely. I went for a sensual oil (that I have named Bedroom Glitz!) containing:
2 drops patchouli
1 drop black pepper
4 drops orange
1 Blob benzoin (it was too thick to poor as drops)

Our next session was on Spellcraft and utilising energy. Again this was a practical session that was very useful and will enable me to channel what I already know.

What was supposed to then be an opening ceremony turned out to be the hand fasting of Merlyn and Cathbodva. Whilst containing some similarities to ours it was also wildly different. It was lovely to be involved in such a large open gathering to celebrate the love of two kindred spirits.

I then popped along to an excellent talk on Creative Visualisation with Kevin Groves. Once again there were lots of handy hints on building on I already know and do.

Next up for me was Professor Ronald Hutton with an excellent talk on The Return Of The Horned God. He'll be presenting a new series on Channel 4 this Saturday 17th that looks pretty good: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/a-very-british-witchcraft/episode-guide

Creating A Personal mythology was a fascinating talk by Tylluan Penry on the importance of history and stories. Nice to hear someone else that we have history inside us rather than us jut writing history. Some very poignant points about government censorship of words too!

Our final session of the day was Heka The Magic Of Ancient Egypt by James Bennett. This was an amazing talk that rekindled our love of Egyptian mythology and gives us something to explore on the magic front.

After this we took time out some excellent food from the Artemis Cafe before settling in for an evening of music.

Daughters Of Gaia were up first with some different realisations of classic witch chants. There can be up to six of then but today it was just the two founding members. It was good fun and they started to get everyone into the party spirit.

The night was danced away to the high energy pagan folk sounds of The Dolmen. This band have never disappointed live and always manage to get a venue cheering and dancing. Tonight was no exception everyone was dripping with sweat by the end of their set.

The day ended with a spectacular fire display, a burning dragon and some fireworks.

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