May 8th: GOG's Beltane MayFaire!
Our MayFaire started with a cleanup day-- 5 attended, and a planning meeting– 12 attended. This year's theme was "Greek Gods & Heroes." Hestia's Hearth Fire! Hera's festive Floral Headwreath-making! Zeus' awesome Maypole! Poseidon's winged Hobby Horse! Apollo's inspired Drum Circle! Artemis's Hunt! Ares' Pinata Smash! Mad LIbs for Dionysus! Pennies for offerings to Hades! Face and Body Painting for Aphrodite! Edible Dirt Cups for Demeter! Athena and Hephaestus helped us create quilt squares for a Grove Banner! And with Hermes' help we held a Silent Auction of donated items to benefit grove friend Toni, who is heroically battling injuries from an automobile accident. We raised a sizable amount of money! And on the other side of the fence, Eris was honored with Her own altar! We had 15 beautiful outdoor Altars- thanks to all of you who took responsibility for an altar! During the day we collected cards to see which God's house we belonged to.
Patty was Druid-in-Charge of our ritual honoring Heroes and Olympian Greek Gods. The invocations were good, the songs went well (thank you bard Jen for "We Are the Champions") and the omens were Iota, Kappa, and Beta from 12-sided die that Karl constructed: We have a journey and we have work to do, we are in difficult times, but we will have help.
The ritual and this amazing day were organized by Patty and Tricia. Plus we had the usual feasting, barbeque, merriment; a flaming birdbath, and a firepit bonfire to gather around. Many thanks to Bob, Tricia, and Patty for hosting, and Bob and Norma for kitchen-witching. 32 attended. Photos by Bob, Ed, and Judy.
"What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods—the forces you call the Greek gods—are very much alive." -Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief