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We were invited to a shop opening last night - someone's opened a studio in town selling stained glass. It's beautiful work, so we went along to support the artist, expecting it to be the usual meet-and-greet, 'drink a glass of indifferent wine' sort of thing. Instead, when we got to the shop, we walked into a ritual - but not a pagan one. These folk are Christians and they work with Mary in Her various aspects. There were various central elements to the ritual, including a bowl of red roses, a candle which comes (via the Goddess Temple) from the shrine of Bridget in Kildare, and a circlet of roses, honeysuckle, and passion flowers. Three women spoke about the meaning of each element and then one of them, a very intense Irish girl, did what in pagan circles would be a visualisation.
They were very welcoming, in a 'this is what we do' kind of way rather than a cloying way, which made me smile given that half the 'audience' were wearing devil's horns and one woman was dressed as Zena, it being the season of Hallowe'en parties.
I spoke to one of the women about working with the Virgin Mary. "She's very kind," she said, "But very particular. She likes everything to be right." I found this rather endearing.
It was good to meet this lot. Very different from the fostered intolerance of the Catholic procession over the last 2 days.
Then we walked up to the Chalice Well to their Samhain celebrations - the gardens were beautiful, filled with pumpkins and tea lights and lanterns. We listened to someone doing a very compelling re-telling of the Baldur legend (when she did the 'Loki as evil witch' bit she had such a great cackle that T turned to me and hissed 'I wanna go HOME!'). Eventually we did go home, by which time it had started to pour with rain.
They were very welcoming, in a 'this is what we do' kind of way rather than a cloying way, which made me smile given that half the 'audience' were wearing devil's horns and one woman was dressed as Zena, it being the season of Hallowe'en parties.
I spoke to one of the women about working with the Virgin Mary. "She's very kind," she said, "But very particular. She likes everything to be right." I found this rather endearing.
It was good to meet this lot. Very different from the fostered intolerance of the Catholic procession over the last 2 days.
Then we walked up to the Chalice Well to their Samhain celebrations - the gardens were beautiful, filled with pumpkins and tea lights and lanterns. We listened to someone doing a very compelling re-telling of the Baldur legend (when she did the 'Loki as evil witch' bit she had such a great cackle that T turned to me and hissed 'I wanna go HOME!'). Eventually we did go home, by which time it had started to pour with rain.
