Past Events

On these pages you can read about events C.U.P.S. has held in the past.

For the time being, we have write-ups of a few of our past trips and rituals (updated January 2007); soon we plan to add pages for more past events as well as resources for our regular events. 

Tarot Coffee Club

Witchcraft 101

Hermetic Study Group

Trips:

Sacred Sites of Glastonbury, 2004

Boscastle and Tintagel, Cornwall, 2004

Stonehenge and Avebury, 2005

Rituals:

Imbolc 2004: Brighid Ritual

This Wicca-based ritual celebrated the festival of early Spring, the maiden Goddess, and her manifestation as the Irish Goddess Brighid.

Sun 31 October '04

Samhain Ritual

C.U.P.S.'s Samhain ritual 2004, with a Mystery Play of Persephone's Descent into the Underworld. This is only the ritual itself: you can see the Mystery Play performed during it (the 'surprise' part in "Ushering in Winter").

Samhain Mystery Play 2004: Persephone's Descent into the Underworld

During the Samhain ritual we surprised people with a Mystery Play, retelling the Greek myth of how Winter first came about. The myth is also a story about the soul's descent into the darkness and its rebirth from it.

Beltane Ritual 2005: The Alchemical Marriage

Beltane Mystery Play 2005: The Alchemical Marriage

Celebrated and performed on Barry Beach around a Bel fire, this ritual and mystery play marked the union of Goddess and God at this time of year, as well as celebrating the wild and passionate nature of the festival of beltane. The mystery play involved a "love chase" which culminated in a symbolic alchemical union.

Samhain 2005: Mystery Play of Taliesin's Death and Rebirth

This Samhain ritual focussed on the theme of death and rebirth, as retold in the Welsh myth (from the Mabinogion) of how Gwion Bach was eaten by Cerridwen and reborn as the famous bard Taliesin.

Imbolc 2006: Mystery Play of Taliesin and Elphin
Following on from our previous ritual at Samhain, where we saw the death of Taliesin, at Imbolc our mystery play showed the other half of the Welsh god-hero's story: his rebirth and inspiration.

Samhain 2006: Mystery Play of Inanna and Erishkegal

For this ritual we took a myth from ancient Mesopotamia and retold it in a mystery play. The ritual participants were, during two different parts of the play, asked to involve themselves in the proceedings, first by approaching Erishkegal herself in the Underworld, and secondly by aiding Inanna and Dumuzi to rise from the Underworld.

Ostara 2006: Mystery Play - The Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys

Using a text that has been translated by E.A. Wallis Budge from the Pyramid Texts (the earliest Egyptian texts in existence), CUPS performed a ritual which included a mystery play of the return of the fertility of the land as represented by the God Osiris. In this mystery play, Osiris' dead body (murdered by his jealous brother, Set, representative of the barrenness of the land) is mourned over by his sister-lovers Isis and Nephthys, and returned to life using ritual.