bardic mayhem and the joys of community
Mar. 28th, 2005 03:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelidonThis weekend totally exhausted me, but also fed me in such delicious ways. Friday I was up until 2am finishing putting in the hardwood floor in the rooms we'd be using all weekend, then back up again at 6am to bring out the tractor to scrape and plow the turnarounds and parking areas, and clean up the icy/muddy roads and our bridge in anticipation of many cars in and out all weekend. Then the person I was co-teaching the Self point of the Iron Pentacle with (actually I was there largely as support, since the purpose of this group, and this class, is to teach others how to teach) showed up, and we taught and met until late afternoon. One of the things we did was brainstorm ways to help out one of the class participants whose partner was in a bad work accident and who needs a lot of help, financial and otherwise. Everything from money to childcare to help doing yurt repairing and a work party on their land to a dozen other things were manifest -- this is what community is for. Then I helped clean up and reset the house for the bardic circle planned for that night, got a too-brief nap to recharge, and the bardic circle began, running as usual into the small wee hours of the morning.
And what a bardic circle it was, the first real big one we've done here since we move up nawth and away from our huge, beloved rambunctious and far-flung community centered in the D.C. area. We've been doing these every 1-3 months, back to, oh, 1986 or so. It's a lovely way to get people together from different groups and backgrounds to share stories, songs, drumming, dancing, limericks, whatever, in an atmosphere of friendship, comraderie, and joyous celebration. In a very real way, the long series of bardic circles we've hosted over the last 18 years have built on one another as part of one big long magickal working, one piece of the Work of manifesting a better and different world -- to take a piece from the past, when gathering people together to share the songs and stories of our souls was just a normal part of life. Not a few people sitting passively, zombie-like in front of a TV sucking up advertisements. nor even a crowd of people sitting in a dark room passively absorbing explosions and bloodshed in front of a movie screen, but friends coming together to share pieces of themselves with each other, gifting each other with those puzzle-pieces of life we all carry inside us. Giving each other precious shards of truth, of beauty and wonder and terror and laughter and joy, stories of life and death and journeys, bawdy songs of sex, the romance of love, the pain and sorrow of love lost or betrayed, the old tales of our ancestors, and the new tales of our own lives. It is really, truly magic, one of the best kinds I know.
I'm passionate about this, and it does feed me in a very deep way, as I hope it feeds most or all of those who choose to attend. And this time, we had a houseful of old friends and new, young and old, from one of my oldest and dearest friends who was my Best Man fifteen years ago and has been at bardics with us from 1986 and who flew up from Maryland just for the night, to friends who moved up to the area from Maryland a bit after we did, to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
devbrain and draiguisge and threefrognight and of course housemate lylythe_strega and new and old local friends and a number of lovely, delightful people we met just that night and will hope to see again, and again.
This was one of the old style bardics, a joyful mix of profundities, songs to touch your heart, raw bawdy wickedness, mirth and reverence. Things that would make you cry alternated with limericks of unprintable nature, a sublime drumming riff and skillful juggling alternated with songs to make you blush, and the bardic cup, candle and silly hat went around and around the circle, again and again, far into the night and morning. There was good (amazing!) mead (bartered. not bought, natch), delicious potluck goodies, chocolate in decadent excess, cheesecake, marshmallow Peeps, wonderful wine (including some chocolate port...mmmm), feather boas and silly hats everywhere, drums and guitars, dancing, and in the end, getting on towards dawn, people crashed out on most of the beds and horizontal surfaces in the house. And, in one of the signs of a successful party, in the morning unidentified and unclaimed undergarments strewn around in various places. Good for you, whoever you were. In the morning those who were here treated each other to pancakes with home-made maple syrup, orange-peel scones, and other goodies cobbled up from the supplies in the larder. And coffee, always lots and lots of coffee. I couldn't stay, had to get one attendee to the airport at an obscenely early hour, but there was that warm post-bardic afterglow throughout the house all day, which yet lingers on today.
There are few things more precious in the world than love, joy and community, and the sharing of our collective bounty of all of these things. None can be bought, but all are worth finding, nurturing, strengthening, and feeding wherever they are found. It is from these things a home is made, a village is built, and a new world created. I am profoundly grateful for the bounties in my own life, and for all those who take part in the making and sharing of those riches.
And what a bardic circle it was, the first real big one we've done here since we move up nawth and away from our huge, beloved rambunctious and far-flung community centered in the D.C. area. We've been doing these every 1-3 months, back to, oh, 1986 or so. It's a lovely way to get people together from different groups and backgrounds to share stories, songs, drumming, dancing, limericks, whatever, in an atmosphere of friendship, comraderie, and joyous celebration. In a very real way, the long series of bardic circles we've hosted over the last 18 years have built on one another as part of one big long magickal working, one piece of the Work of manifesting a better and different world -- to take a piece from the past, when gathering people together to share the songs and stories of our souls was just a normal part of life. Not a few people sitting passively, zombie-like in front of a TV sucking up advertisements. nor even a crowd of people sitting in a dark room passively absorbing explosions and bloodshed in front of a movie screen, but friends coming together to share pieces of themselves with each other, gifting each other with those puzzle-pieces of life we all carry inside us. Giving each other precious shards of truth, of beauty and wonder and terror and laughter and joy, stories of life and death and journeys, bawdy songs of sex, the romance of love, the pain and sorrow of love lost or betrayed, the old tales of our ancestors, and the new tales of our own lives. It is really, truly magic, one of the best kinds I know.
I'm passionate about this, and it does feed me in a very deep way, as I hope it feeds most or all of those who choose to attend. And this time, we had a houseful of old friends and new, young and old, from one of my oldest and dearest friends who was my Best Man fifteen years ago and has been at bardics with us from 1986 and who flew up from Maryland just for the night, to friends who moved up to the area from Maryland a bit after we did, to
devbrain and draiguisge and threefrognight and of course housemate lylythe_strega and new and old local friends and a number of lovely, delightful people we met just that night and will hope to see again, and again.This was one of the old style bardics, a joyful mix of profundities, songs to touch your heart, raw bawdy wickedness, mirth and reverence. Things that would make you cry alternated with limericks of unprintable nature, a sublime drumming riff and skillful juggling alternated with songs to make you blush, and the bardic cup, candle and silly hat went around and around the circle, again and again, far into the night and morning. There was good (amazing!) mead (bartered. not bought, natch), delicious potluck goodies, chocolate in decadent excess, cheesecake, marshmallow Peeps, wonderful wine (including some chocolate port...mmmm), feather boas and silly hats everywhere, drums and guitars, dancing, and in the end, getting on towards dawn, people crashed out on most of the beds and horizontal surfaces in the house. And, in one of the signs of a successful party, in the morning unidentified and unclaimed undergarments strewn around in various places. Good for you, whoever you were. In the morning those who were here treated each other to pancakes with home-made maple syrup, orange-peel scones, and other goodies cobbled up from the supplies in the larder. And coffee, always lots and lots of coffee. I couldn't stay, had to get one attendee to the airport at an obscenely early hour, but there was that warm post-bardic afterglow throughout the house all day, which yet lingers on today.
There are few things more precious in the world than love, joy and community, and the sharing of our collective bounty of all of these things. None can be bought, but all are worth finding, nurturing, strengthening, and feeding wherever they are found. It is from these things a home is made, a village is built, and a new world created. I am profoundly grateful for the bounties in my own life, and for all those who take part in the making and sharing of those riches.
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:>
Date: 2005-03-28 10:27 pm (UTC)My gratitude and affection to all you LJer's (astral thanks for everybody else) who attended for a wonderful, raunchy, touching, and illuminating evening!
(Actually, the underwear was found by one of our houseguests before the weekend...but whenever it was found, we've still to find out who its former owner was...what is it about this household that attracts discarded underwear? Right - dumb question... ;>
no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 10:28 pm (UTC)Also Casa Chaos provides example of "consummate hosts" and "graciousness". I'm glad your first big bardic at your house was beautiful.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-28 10:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 12:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 01:48 am (UTC)Or, as my Grand Master Hinode incarnation would intone,
bliss bliss bliss bliss //
bliss bliss bliss bliss bliss bliss //
bliss bliss bliss bliss //
Bounties.....hmmmmm.....sounds good to me....
Date: 2005-03-29 01:57 am (UTC)I am glad that a wonderful time was had by all, and look forward to being a happy and inebriated member at another one of your fantastic and legendary Bardics! I think that chocolate fondue in the hot tub is an excellent Winter bardic theme, and I'm hoping that one such event can be planned in advance for sometime in the Winter of '07 or early '08.
Until I can join in, do something wickedly fun and put my name on it!!
Here's breathing fire atcha, baby!
PS. I love the pics of that feyling of yourn. You don't get apples off a pear tree!!!!
no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 05:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 05:24 am (UTC)Re: Bounties.....hmmmmm.....sounds good to me....
Date: 2005-03-29 05:30 am (UTC)And chocolate fondue *near* the hot tub is good, chocolate fondue *in* the hot tub clogs the filter. Believe me. Speaking of which, we didn't do the fondue this time (tho' of course, chocolate in general was plentiful), had plenty else on my hands this weekend, but next time...
And there is absolutely no doubt that we'll do something wickedly fun in your name. We're all looking forward to your eventual migration nawthwards, and will hope to experience your company much sooner than that!
no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 06:05 pm (UTC)Re: Bounties.....hmmmmm.....sounds good to me....
Date: 2005-03-30 03:42 am (UTC)We talk soon, yes?