A Druid Handfasting

On Saturday the 14th I took part I a very important ceremony. My friends and co-founders of the Celtic Moon pagan group, Vandrake and Breaca had their Druid Handfasting.
For those not in the know, a Handfasting is a pagan wedding ceremony where traditionally the bride and groom wed for a year and a day, they have their hands binded together in a ritual cord symbolising the couple binding them selves together, in this world and the next. It is also traditional for the wedded couple to jump over a besom (broom) to complete the transition of leaving one life and starting a new one together.

The ceremony was at The Fighting Cocks pub in Horton Kirby. My other half Leon was the photographer and I was to be part of the circle invoking the quarters.
We arrived at 12 o'clock to help set up the cakes, flowers, napkins and anything else I could find to help with the organisation.
The pub soon got busy as friends and family members of the bride and groom arrived and so did the rain!
It was touch and go if the ceremony would go ahead outside as planned but the decision was made and we ventured ahead and we were lucky that the rain lessen and then stopped during the ritual.
The members of the Celtic Moon circle were all dressed in fleece cloaks with hoods up and when the guests were seated we walked in single file down the aisle to the drum beat provided by the Pentacle Drummers.

Waiting for the go ahead

The Celtic Moon march

Pentacle drummers

We fanned out to make a semi circle besides the gazebo where the altar and the celebrants stood to conduct the service.

The ritual was beautiful. The vows were heartfelt and touching and it was very difficult not to shed a tear.

After the vows and rings were exchanged the couple held hands and were tied together with a handfasting cord.

Here is me in the role of giving thanks to the south quarter. I hope I said the words correctly!

Leaping over the broom.

Celtic Moon <3

The gorgeous cake by Anna of ANe Cakes

The wonderful portrait of the couple painted by he very talented Esther Remmington

Gift giving! Mine was a hand knitted blanket, more about this in my next blog post.

After that there wasn't much else to do but party!

It was a wonderful day and one I will treasure for many years.

Congratulations to Vandrake and Breaca!

Photographs courtesy of LJS Digital photography: https://www.facebook.com/LJSDigiPhoto

Wedding cake: https://www.facebook.com/ANeCakes

Venue: http://www.fightingcockshortonkirby.co.uk/

Esther Remmington art: https://www.facebook.com/Esther.Remmington

Cloaks by https://www.facebook.com/legendarycostume

More information on Handfasting can be found here: http://handfasting.org/

Important day

Today is a very important day! It is my Friends and circle priest and Priestess Handfasting!
I will blog about it after today and go in to more detail about what a Handfasting entails. I can't wait as I know I will be spending the day with some wonderful friends.

Also last night I went to a shamanic drumming circle, which I will also blog about at some point. Right now I have to get ready!

Cornwall holiday

Gosh I can't believe we are in July already!
Last month was very busy for me as I had a 2 week break in beautiful Cornwall. I feel that it is the home of my soul and I love visiting and we try to go there every year. This year me and my other half decided to make a long break of it and left on 11th of June and didn't come back till the 21st!
We camped on Bodmin moor and the weather got a bit hairy on more then one occasion. One night our tent started leaking so we had to visit a camping store for some waterproofing spray.
My main aim for this holiday was to visit some of the many ancient sites that can be found in the landscape. We managed some but there are many left to find next year!
Now on to photos:

Yes, all that did come out of that Smart car!

 The camp site kitties who made themselves at home in out tent.

This is the standing stone just a short distance from our camp site, the day of this photo we had done a lovely walk around the farm through some lovely wooded areas with a lovely clear running river.

We found The Stone circles called the hurlers and up from them the Cheesewring, a natural formation of the granite. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheesewring

While we were here we walked to an amazing disused quarry. I didn't take any photos here but if any one visits the Hurlers then I recommend walking across to the quarry. The deep turquoise water and the sense of calm I felt here was amazing.  While were walking back to the car I realised that my phone was no longer in my pocket. I panicked and couldn't remember if I had my phone with me or not so we drove all the way back to the camp site to see if it was there, finding it wasn't we woke early next morning to find it. It was a foggy wet morning but luckily we found my phone who was no worse off from the cold night alone.

We also visited Mevagissey which is a lovely coastal town with an amazing alternative pagan shop called Lavender Pillow (see links at the end of post) and a great pirate shop too.

A beautiful area we found near St Agnes called the Blue Hills.

Scratch the Smart car enjoying the view

Saturday was 3 Wishes Faery fest day! I had a really great time and I was sad that we only went for the one day instead of all 3 but I managed to do a lot in that time. Here is the inspirational Brian and Wendy Froud speaking about their new projects. The lovely Troll in the middle is Mother Leap.

The Lovely faerie artist Linda Ravenscroft had a drawing workshop which I participated in. She told us to look around and be inspired by the things we find in nature. We each picked up a few objects to use as reference for a drawing. I found a tiny little conker, a lichen covered stick and a spiky conker casing. This is what I came up with:

All dressed up to take part in the word record attempt of largest gathering of faeries in one place. Requirement: Wings, a wand and a Tutu.

World record participators. We smashed the record with over 200 tutu clad faeries!

Evening entertainment provided by Frenchy and the Punk.

And The Dolmen!

On the Sunday we headed to Falmouth to see what the Sea Shanty Festival was all about. groups singing sea shanties, lovely ;)

On Monday we visited Padstow, where our friends Esther and Martin were camping for the week. we walked along the beach and came across some strange standing stones...

and balanced stones

On the next day we all went to Tintagel to see if you could not find the infamous labrinths carved near the rocky road on the route between Tintagel and Boscastle. Armed with a map and a book about ancient historical spots in Cornwall we set off and...

We found them!!

From there we made our way to the beautiful and magical St Nectan's Glen.

Cloutie tree

Our last full day in Cornwall had us seeking out Trevethy Quoit. A beautiful portal dolmen.

From the Quoit we saw signs on the map to Golitha falls so we decided to pop and have a look and I am so glad we did because it was the most beautiful area I have been too.

Only thing while we were there I got something in my eye and I wouldn't stop rubbing it and as a result I ended up get conjunctivitis in my right eye so my walk through the myriad of twisting paths was rather ruined. A trip to the harbour town of Looe and seeing the pharmacist meant I had to take eye drops every 2 hours. We ended the evening in Port Isaac and had a lovely meal in The Golden Lion Pub.

Thursday morning was the 21st and the Summer solstice. I woke up just before sunrise but the moor was coved in a thick mist, so after sorting out my gunky eye I went back to bed.

We managed to get a cooked breakfast before it started raining but we had to pack the tent away in the wet.

By then I was in serious withdrawl of a sturdy roof and a mattress!

More photos of the holiday on my Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150902563101238.414303.516446237&type=3&l=57b9acba04

3 wishes photos:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150902619106238.414309.516446237&type=3&l=ec725ffbd6

Links to places we visited/ Shops

Camp site: http://www.southpenquite.co.uk/ Our 3rd year camping here and it gets better all the time. Actual camp fires allowed! (No Caravans)

The Hurlers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hurlers_(stone_circles)

Lavender pillow shop: http://www.lavenderpillow.co.uk

Vintage/ retro clothing: http://www.enjoyclothing.co.uk/ amazing shop in Truro. Lots of vintage finds from as little as £10!

3 Wishes faery Festival: http://www.faeryevents.com/faery-events/3wishesfaeryfest/

Frenchy and the Punk: http://www.frenchyandthepunk.com/about.html

The Dolmen: http://www.thedolmen.com/band.html

The labyrinths: http://www.labyrinthos.net/rockyvalley.html

St Nectan's Glen:  http://www.st-nectansglen.co.uk/ http://www.tintagelweb.co.uk/St%20Nectan's%20Glen.htm

Willow Moon pagan shop in Tintagel: http://willowmoontintagel.com/

Trethevy Quoit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trethevy_Quoit

Port Isaac: http://www.portisaac-online.co.uk/

The Magical Faerie Festival 2012

Last weekend I went to a Faerie festival run by The Magical Times Magazine. This is the first of two outdoor camps held in a beautiful village of Findon near Worthing and this time I took a stall with me to sell my artwork and mini top hats!
I turned up on Friday with my tent and trading wares packed into the smart car. People scratch their head and wonder how (and indeed why) I do it!

Tent, air bed, sleeping bag, shelves, art work. Check!

Good job it was just me going to this one otherwise we would of had to bring both Smart cars!

During the day more and more people came to set up camp and stalls and it was nice to be with my faerie friends again. 

The evenings entertainment was supplied by the wonderful Serpentyne. I remember learning some medieval court dances and roaring like a bear... The wine went straight to my head!

The next day we had breakfast and set up the stall again. Fellow artists Esther Remmington and Martin Winckles allowed me to share their gazebo with them which I was very thankful for as it did decide to rain half way through the day.

Lovely masks by EBG Leather

Mini top hats for sale!

More of my wares, including toadstool house earrings.

Relaxing by my stall. Photo courtesy of  Breaca http://greenwitchgoddess.blogspot.co.uk/

During the day I got a henna tattoo done, I went for a Steampunk heart theme. How cool is that?

 On the Saturday evening there was a faerie ball with music from The excellent Touch the Earth, Endless knot and Eleanor and the Lost. This is a time when people come out in their faerie best and I was pleased to see many people sporting their Mini top hats that they had brought from me earlier that day

 Blue and peacock butterfly hat

Another faerie with toadstool and ladybird hat

 Listening to Touch the earth as the dark clouds roll in.

The faerie Celtic Moon crew!

After this photo was taken it began to rain so we piled in to the marquee to hear Matthew Callow sing!

Matthew with a faerie dancer.

http://www.matthewcallow.com/

During this time the rain continued to come down harder and the wind picked up. After Endless Knot finished playing and Eleanor and her band began to set up and play the rain was coming down in a deluge. So much so that the ground under the marquee was turning boggy and it became too dangerous with all the electric equipment every where. The set was cut short and every faerie, witch, elf and sprite ran as fast as they could back to their tents.

That night was was one of the worse nights sleep I have had in a long time. I was completes soaked and there was no where to get dry so I snuggled in my sleeping bag and hoped my tent wouldn't float away!

Early Sunday morning I awoke to the sound of crows cawing and people surveying the damage of the rains over night. Luckily all the stock was dry as I had put it in the car before going to the ball. Phew!

After packing up the soggy tent and gazebo we decided to get on the road and find some where to have lunch. It was a shame the weather decided to change as the weekend before it had been glorious. Oh well much fun was had at any rate.

Would just like to add that today (8th June 2012) our beloved pet Codie Claws was put to sleep after weeks of deterioration in health. He was a beautiful Siamese kitty who I shall always remember with lots of love.

Useful links:

Magical Time magazine http://themagicaltimes.com/

Serpentyne: http://www.serpentyne.com/

Endless Knot https://www.facebook.com/pages/Endless-Knot/198666426830122

Eleanor and the Lost http://www.eleanoreandthelost.com/