A Plum of a Lammas

The fruit hang heavy on the old plum tree in the back yard. Tomorrow morning I will pick a bucketful to share. I’ll be spending the weekend in Sonoma with friends, planning the restorative we are offering at fall equinox – A Fool’s Journey.

Tomorrow is Lammas, a cross-quarter marker in the turning of the seasons that Witches and Pagans hold sacred. A year ago I was grieving an old friend’s death and feeling the harbingers of the increasing dark. This year Lammas finds me harvesting fruit, celebrating good work done, and tending the planting for a further harvest.

Just this week, a project/revolution I envisioned well over a year ago was finally fully manifested. The Reclaiming web page now has in it’s resource section a huge list of blogs and webpages. Furthermore, there is even a widget we can add to our blogs that streams in new entries.

Taking this juicy success, along with my plums, to the retreat this weekend is satisfying beyond words. I am hopeful I can sustain that feeling throughout and beyond the weekend.

After years of teaching “intensives”, I am looking forward to being part of creating a “restorative”. Teaching Witchcamp intensives has historically involved meeting for a few days before the camp. Holed up in someone’s living room or basement, teachers meet for hours and hours upon end, breaking only to eat and minimally stretch, than back to meeting. Oh, and usually at least two of the people are completely jet lagged. Out of this comes an overview of the week’s rituals, most usually scrapped by day two or three when the magic takes a different turn. However, the intensity of the meetings does forge a bond between the teachers that at best creates a solid team. At worst, all the irritations and power struggles between the teachers creates a template for that week’s interpersonal drama.

I’m hopeful that the planning of this restorative in itself follows a different pattern than planning an intensive. No one will be jet lagged. We don't have the crunch of planning for a camp that starts in three days. We will be talking around and in a pool, modeling the sacred lounging I hope to invoke at the restorative. No doubt there will be some interpersonal struggles and/or small irritations, but we all know each other pretty well and nobody in the group tends to run with scissors. And...what's the problem with community? People. We are the fly in our own ointment. That's a given.

There’s so many ways to practice magic.

One of them is by growing, harvesting, sharing and eating plums.