July Additional

AAARGH! I FORGOT THE WHINBERRY WALK!

That's what happens when you've got too much stuff in your head. Thank you to Jonathan for reminding me.

Anyway ...

The Radcliffe Moot's annual Whinberry Walk will take place on Sunday 31st July. We'll meet up at 11:30am on the car park of the Shoulder Of Mutton pub. Here's the address:

The Shoulder of Mutton
Holcombe Village
Ramsbottom
Lancashire
BL8 4LZ

We'll then take a gentle stroll up Holcombe Hill to Peel Tower where we'll have a little picnic. After that we'll stroll gently back down the hill, filling our butty-boxes with whinberries (or whortleberries, or blaeberries depending where you come from) and finish with a nice toast to Lugh at the Shoulder.

Whatever happens after that is anyone's guess, but we don't have to be up early!

See you there.
Seán
xx

July Announcements.

Hooray! We're back!

Actually we haven't been anywhere, it's just that I've had my head filled with so much stuff the writing of the Moot blog kept falling out. Thanks go to Francis for reminding me about it.

Anyway. Thank you to Bridget for last night's talk/workshop on chakras which was very enlightening and relaxing. For the future, though, there's not a lot to tell.

We're a bit unplanned at the moment. The next moot on Tuesday 9th August will hopefully be a talk from Vernon the Druid and Unitarian minister, if we can get hold of him. If not, it's been a while since either Sara or I took centre-stage so one of us will take over.

There are only a few announcements too.

Friends will be most welcome to join us at ARA to celebrate Sara's birthday on Friday 22nd.

We'll be away to Silverdale for the Woodspirit camp during the first weekend in August. Amongst hiding amongst the other treats will be a Dionysos talk by me, a Greek shields workshop by Sara, a talk on Ishtar and Purim by Bridget and, I think, some besom-making with Chris HailTheBadger.

That's about it for now.

See y'all soon.
Seán
xx

May Announcements and Open Ritual

Oooops! I missed last month, so to make up for it this month's blog is extra-long. That's because we're having our first ever open ritual. Eeep!

The Next Two Moots

Tuesday 14th June. An open ritual to celebrate the summer solstice, presided over by Nadia. See below for details.
It's also Linda's birthday the next day, just in case she's coming.

Tuesday 12th July. I'm going to do a little Womble mithering and she if she can get Dr. Vernon to come over from Wigan (I think he's in Wigan!) and do us a talk on Druidry, and possibly how he squares it with also being a Unitarian minister. He's not been well recently, though, so if he can't make it Bridget will take over with a talk on Chakras.

Coming Up

The Bolton Moot has now moved to Tuesdays. The next one will be from 8pm on the 17th May at, of course, the Man & Scythe.

Don't forget that (according to Harold Camping of Oakland, California) the World is due to end on Saturday 21st May, around 6pm. Just in case he's wrong, though ...

On Wednesday 25th May the Salgofnir's Call heathen moot will be happening at The Angel in Manchester from 7:30.

On Friday 27th May we're going to ARA and anybody who fancies a good old Goth-out is more than welcome to join us. Full details are here.

The Radcliffe Moot would like to officially send its love and best wishes to our friends, Mel and Nick, who are being handfasted on Sunday 29th May.

Friday 3rd June is World Naked Bike Ride in Manchester. Any human-powered transport will do, so come and join the fun being as Bare As You Dare. Details can be found here.

The following day, Saturday 4th June there's a regular litter pick at Eatock Lodges, Westhoughton from 10 until 12.

Finally, I'd like to cordially invite all the Moot's friends to my official stage debut as an adult. I haven't been in a proper play, on a proper stage, in a proper theatre since I was about 12!
I'll be playing Dr MacFarlane in the WAODS production of Hobson's Choice at the Whitefield Garrick from Tuesday 7th until Friday 10th June.
Tickets are £7 each and available via email or by calling 0161 278 8178

The Ritual

All being well we'll be performing this ritual in the back garden, but we'll move indoors if the weather decides to be troublesome.
Rather than being robed or skyclad please could everyone wear some summery, holiday-type clothes.
Please could everyone also bring a small, inexpensive gift representative of the sun and, if possible, some firewood.

The order will go like this:

Opening introduction and lighting candles etc. (Nadia)
Sweeping the circle (a volunteer)
Hand-in-hand to make the circle (everybody)
Calling the quarters (volunteers)

Evokation of the Sun God (Sara)

Chanting and drumming to raise energy for the healing of loved ones (everybody)
The chant will be "Helios, Sol, Apollo, Bel. Rah! Rah! Rah!"

A spiral dance with the song "The sun has got his hat on" (everybody)

Exchanging of gifts (everybody)

A meditation with music (me)

Cakes and wine (Nadia)
Cakes provided by Gillian, wine by us.

Goodbye to the Sun God and the quarters (by Sara and the same volunteers).

Releasing the hands and the circle.


I reckon that about covers it!

Love and spiral dances,
Seán