I'm no longer a Jazzfest virgin.

[nolawitch58]

After living in New Orleans for nearly 14 years, you'd have thought I would have been to at least one Jazzfest. Nope. Not until yesterday. My legs are so sore today. At least I'm not burned to a crisp like some of the idiot lobster-looking twerps. I took SPF50 with me and made my friend apply it with me every two hours. She didn't get burned either and she's fairer than I am. The weather was perfect. The sun was shining, but it was cool and breezy. I figured after Saturday's deluge of rain the Fairgrounds would be a muddy mess, but the event staff had strewn straw everywhere the mud was so it wasn't too horrible. It had been pretty dry for a few weeks before so the ground must have soaked up the water greedily.

There was so much to see and so many people. I found myself shouting ahead of me, "continue on in a forward motion or get out of the way" to all the idiots standing around yakking on their cell phones in the middle of foot traffic. I also scared several children away from me. "Hey, you little fuckwads! I'm listening to the band and I don't want to hear you playing your fucking kazoo off-key behind me." I'll never understand why people drag small children to things they can neither comprehend nor appreciate. I'm glad there were no murders this year.

We had our Beltane ritual at dawn yesterday. For a change, we had it on the river instead of the lake. Drumming and chanting on the wooden dock at Rivertown while the Mississippi flowed beneath us was exhiliarating. A tugboat with a raft of barges made its way upriver while we drummed. We went back to the Pagan supply shop nearby afterwards and had breakfast. I have some serious drum envy. Mine is a small one that my friend made a while back in a drum making class. The shop has a very nice one for $80 that I'm going to snag when I'm gainfully employed again. They also have weekly drumming circles I'd go to if I didn't have such a goofy, little drum.

Comments

That sounds very cool!

[saminz.livejournal.com]

Both the Jazzfest and the Ritual. I haven't been to one of those affairs in ages, can't stand these crowds anymore. But as a kid - oh, wow. We had this really big thing every year on the "Allmend" (A huge "park" by the woods with little stream running through it). You could bring a tent, and stay all over Pentecost weekend. Only local bands, but they weren't the most important thing anyway. That was major fun :-)!
Who was playing at yours, then?

Only Beltane is done at dawn.

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

All our other rituals are at night.

There was so much cool stuff, none of which I bought because most of it was overpriced and I'm still unemployed and I didn't want to have to schlep it around with me. I was impressed that they had so many different stages set up and there was so little overlap on the sound. On the back stretch of the track, you could smell the barns a bit, but it wasn't overall a too horribly filthy event.

[nin-wife.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose you could elaborate on Beltane more? I had read about it in a King Author book supposedly written from Morgaine's (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) point of view. Don't ask me the name of the book because I can't remember to save my life. She described it as a group of folks having sex in a circle to celebrate fertility and hopefully get the ladies pregnant. Since I can't possibly imagine you doing that (well actually the sex part sounds pretty fun, but the fertility part would suck ass I'm sure) I was curious what it really is.

And didn't you know that its not the size of the drum, but the rhythm of your beat that matters? :P

"Mists of Avalon" by Marian Zimmer Bradley

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

Beltane is a fertility ritual. Unlike some of the more traditional fluffy bunny Pagans, I take the word fertility as figurative instead of literal. Back in the day, I'm sure procreative fertility was important to some people so they did their rites to ensure their families would increase and they would have hands to tend the crops and livestock. Nowadays, the Great Rite is usually performed symbolically and most Pagans without a cranial rectal inversion recognize the overpopulation problem that is only exacerbated by rampant fecundity.

I know the size of my drum doesn't matter, but it sounds like crap no matter what beat is played on it.

Re: "Mists of Avalon" by Marian Zimmer Bradley

[celticess.livejournal.com]

hmmm Question on the Great Rite. Do most covens do it symbolically. While I'm not wiccan I have seen at least one wiccan page where they advocated the high priest and priestest who were married to other people doing the great rite. Not symbolically, literally doing it(and I don't think with any protection either). In the page the one person(high priestest I think) was struggling with it because she was married but kept telling herself it was to support her beliefs. Though you'd think they'd be aloud to do the it with their spouses instead but the high priest was insistant they follow some sort of rules. I've not read Gardiners stuff really to know what that might be. Though yea I do have books on Witta, Picti-Witta, Kemeticism, Druidism, and such. Though they were more solitary(well ok not Kemeticism it wasn't solitary) so didn't quite get into anything much resembling the Great Rite. So I'm curious if more do it symbolically or more literally do it. And if many are like that one page I read where High Priest and Priestess must enact it regardless of sexual prefrences, marital status, etc.

Re: "Mists of Avalon" by Marian Zimmer Bradley

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

Symbolically is the only appropriate way if you want to be ethical. The only way I'd endorse doing the Great Rite literally is if the High Priest and Priestess were either married or lovers. There should be NO type of coercive groupthink involved. Gardnerians do it symbolically for the most part. They may do it literally for some very selective and private Inner Court rituals, but none of them that I know would ever do anything that wasn't consensual. That High Priest is/was abusing his power and negating the primary rule of Wicca: "An it harm none, do as you will." My Gardnerian friends would bitch slap that guy. First, they'd try to find out his lineage, which he probably doesn't really have, then they'd kick his ass.

Re: "Mists of Avalon" by Marian Zimmer Bradley

[goddessmusings.livejournal.com]

Yes, he's definitely abusing his power as the High Priest. What.A.Jackass. When I took a college course with a prof that was also a Gardnerian High Priestess, she said that it was always done symbolically unless the High Priest/ess were married to each other, and even then, it was usually done only symbolically.
Hey- I e-mailed you, let me know if you didn't get it. I'm not sure I have the right addy.

Re: "Mists of Avalon" by Marian Zimmer Bradley

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

Got it. Did you also get the forward from Steph? The Music Man has a LJ account which shows his gross lack of communications skills. Check out all those links. I'm going to send that info to WB as well. Can't hurt to let them determine if there are issues they need to legally address.

Re: "Mists of Avalon" by Marian Zimmer Bradley

[goddessmusings.livejournal.com]

Yep. I saw it. Talk about a loser! Thanks for sending that to WB.

Re: "Mists of Avalon" by Marian Zimmer Bradley

[celticess.livejournal.com]

Well that's what I kind of thought too. The woman felt she had to do it and it was for her coven and ritual sake. That her husband understood, etc. But I don't think she was very happy about it. Obviously the High Priest liked it or he'd not of got her to do it.

Hmmm Gardinians have lineage? That wouldn't go back too far would it. Though some of us joined their groups when they formed many of us didn't and quietly stayed in the backgrounds. Or do some when joining give their histories to the covens? My family never really spoke of what we were. But we all knew we did things others didn't necisarily do. They were christian but they also did the other things. I'm not sure why they never gave the other things a name. Maybe it was fear after what they did to our kind during converstion/burning times. All redheads in my fathers family have a gift though since my dads generation died off nobody see's eachother to really say anything on that. But my aunt did tell me when we were younger. I think it is simlar in my moms family based on the odd thing my mom has said and what my grandma said the odd time before she passed.

Re: "Mists of Avalon" by Marian Zimmer Bradley

[goddessmusings.livejournal.com]

All Gardnerian's have lineage, meaning who intitiated them into the tradition. Gardnerian's are very secretive with their rituals. Outter court rituals are usually open to the public/non-initiated, but inner court are initiated only and aren't advertised. One thing that they will always tell is their lineage. If they don't, they likely aren't Gardnerian.

Re: "Mists of Avalon" by Marian Zimmer Bradley

[celticess.livejournal.com]

Ahh ok. Though they aren't the only ones that don't normally discuss inner rituals. Lost of things other groups wont mention that are hereditarily passed on. Only lineage I can give are my clans ;) I'm not even sure what name might apply to what practices my family had blended with christianity and stuff. But they were primarily scottish, then irish, a bit of british and scandinavian thrown in.(viking invaders and all that) I know none of us seem particularly into fae and don't think any of us have really any specific diety names for things. Though the name "Aristua" or something sounding rather similar came to me many years ago and I know is some sort of gardian to me. Also oddly when I have been dead what I saw included people I've never seen before in long robes carrying some sort of staff.(later as just energy)

Re: "Mists of Avalon" by Marian Zimmer Bradley

[blackbyrd2.livejournal.com]

My understanding was that the fertility referred to focused on a lot more than just children, more specifically the crops and livestock. Most of the pagan rituals were about the cycle of death and rebirth, harvest and sowing, etc.

And, btw, if it doesn't matter what your drum looks like, you can use a 5 gallon plastic jerry can (with the cap off) for some seriously deep, resonant bass beats. It's played best with bare hands, IMO, and a little practice provides a ton of variation in tone. Have fun!

Re: "Mists of Avalon" by Marian Zimmer Bradley

[celticess.livejournal.com]

It might not matter what the drum looks like. But it has more energy of a person in it if they constructed it. :) Though for some it's not easy to build your own.

My drum.

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

Maybe that's why it's so weenie. My friend who made it has weenie tendencies. She can make Marvin the Android look jubilant at times.

Re: "Mists of Avalon" by Marian Zimmer Bradley

[nin-wife.livejournal.com]

Ahh, that's it! Its been years since I read it and I never got my copy back after I loaned it to a friend. I did notice she has a sequel (sort of) in the bookstores. It takes place in Constantine's era.

Yeah!

[lab-rattus.livejournal.com]

It's about damn time!!

Jazzfest is plenty fun.

[willow-dragon.livejournal.com]

"After living in New Orleans for nearly 14 years, you'd have thought I would have been to at least one Jazzfest."

Don't feel too bad. I lived in New Orleans for 20+ years and still haven't been to Jazz Fest. I really don't like crowds...Marching in those Parades took care of that. (Though being drum major of a mostly black school when I'm a little white girl with no rhythm was quite interesting.)