Brookberg Litha

This weekend I celebrated Litha with the Children of the Circle on the Brookberg. It was very special, because Ron was coming too. We had invited Gaialynn to join us and Wonder took Amarinde (he and I met her at Litha last year on the Brookberg). We left very early with two jam-packed cars, so we arrived in time to pitch the tents. Ron and I had brought our tent, Wonder his own. Strange to sleep there in another tent! At night and half asleep I almost walked into the wrong tent after a visit to the toilet... ;-)

One by one everyone arrived while we were pitching the tents and unpacking the cars. Mostly well-known faces for Wonder and me; it was great to introduce Ron to them. After all you don't know me completely if you don't know Ron!

Unfortunately I got a blackout and fell down outside. It has been months since I had one. One of the newcomers, Monique, sat beside me and gave me a healing; that felt good. When I came round after a while, I was tired and had a headache as usual. It didn't last very long though. Ben2Bears said it was a blackout on a psychic level, not physical. In the sweatlodge I was able to let go some of the blockade and old remains.

We did the opening circle in a beautiful yellow rapeseed field next to the driveway. B2B explained the meaning of Litha and welcomed everyone. We were blessed with special oil and did an introductory round. The weather was wet and dry, sunny and cloudy in turns. The forecast for the weekend was very bad, but turned out much better than expected. It's a kind of magic...

The group split up into smaller groups for the workshops and sweatlodge. Most workshops seem to be very interesting, but I always choose the sweatlodge. I stood inside when the blankets were put on the lodge to cover it up. Quite the experience (if you're not claustrophobic) to see it get darker until you can't see a thing!
We each blessed two stones, one for ourselves and one for someone else. My first stone had a lot of cracks, so my wish was that my unnecessary resistance in life would crumble away with the breaking of the stone. With the second one I wished healing for Ron, who was standing right beside me. All the stones were piled up, we put wood around them and the fire was lit. We drummed around the fire. I was a bit nervous to use my drum, afraid to do something wrong. Ron is a great drummer, so I let him play it too.
The sweatlodge was very, very, very hot this time, one round with 24 hot stones from the fire. Not everyone could persevere until the end. Ron and Gaialynn left earlier too; Ron didn't have enough space to sit properly, so he couldn't relax enough. Pity! It was tough, but I made it until the end. I could only concentrate on surrendering to the heat and got in a trance. I put my hand on Wonder's back and was allowed to give him a healing. I also saw some of the images he later described. Outside the sweatlodge I had to acclimatize for a while, before I plunged into the lake. Wonder and I swam to the (artificial) swan in the middle of the lake and back. Ashore Ron was waiting with a big towel. It was an unusual sweatlodge session, but special as always.

It had gotten late, so we were quite hungry. Everyone had brought something; Ron and I three different quiches, Gaialynn a huge watermelon and Wonder had made a delicious rice dish. Unfortunately it took a lot of time to get it hot enough to eat, so there was a lot left over. After dinner we just sat and chatted with the others. I really feel at home on that place with that loving group of people, almost like a family. I have tried to explain that to Ron before, but now he was able to experience it for himself. He felt very welcome too.

Later in the evening we gathered around the remains of the fire. It was fanned until the flames burned highly again. Ron and Gaialynn were very tired and decided to skip the drum circle. It took me a while, but I finally got the vibe and played my drum without being nervous. Because Wonder is left-handed and I'm right-handed, the backsides of our drums were facing each other. It was as if they reacted to that and started to "sing" together, a magical moment! We call them brothers now, belonging together. I'm looking forward to the drum circle after the handfasting ceremony in two weeks already!

It was around 2.30am when we finally went to our tents to sleep. I sat outside for a while to enjoy the night. It's such a lovely place with a beautiful charisma, relaxing and soothing. I slept good, although I had to go to the toilet very early. When I went back I stood outside again to absorb the beauty of the early morning.

Ron was up early too; he wanted coffee and a hand-rolled cigarette! The breakfast was very pleasant. We even had caviar! No champagne, but I wouldn't have taken that anyway. :-) There were all kinds of bread and fillings, fruit, etc. Yummy!
After breakfast Francis played Phoenix (his electric guitar). He had warned us not to expect too much, but that was nonsense: he is fabulous! I was impressed and enjoyed it very much. Wonder has recorded some of it on his mobile phone. The music is enchanting, I'd love to have a real CD of it!
Meanwhile Sylvia showed us her selfmade oracle deck. She made the cards with encaustic art. She's trying to get the deck published. I really hope (think) she'll succeed, I will most certainly buy one of the first! Everyone that saw them agreed.

Then it was time to take down the tent, do the closing circle and say our goodbyes...
Another unique, heartwarming and special celebration on the Brookberg...