The Pagan Society So Far

The idea of the Bring and Buy evening was to have the normal social meeting at the pub, but let people bring Pagan items they no longer wanted or need, for swap or sale with others. The evening was very enjoyable, and people went away with new books, ritual items, crystals, and Tarot decks. It is hoped we can make the Bring and Buy evening a yearly event.

April 28th: A Wiccan Perspective on Exorcism Talk

Peter Nash kindly gave this talk in the Student's Union. He told of his own experiences with exorcisms, and busted some of the myths surrounding them. It was very interesting to hear about how Wiccans approach unwelcome entities, and most useful to hear about the signs and symptoms of the common household poltergeist, amongst other things.

April 30th-May 2nd: Boscastle Trip

Out of all the trips I went on this year with the Pagan Society, this is the one I enjoyed the most. Boscastle is a beautiful, quaint village surrounded on either side by sheer cliff, and situated on the edge of a natural harbour. We stayed in the Boscastle YHA, right next to the Witchcraft Museum.

Needless to say, our first port of call on May 1st (Saturday) were the many Pagan/New Age/occult shops in the town. Unlike most towns with some claim to mysticism, Boscastle is very cheap, and so we spent a happy few hours blowing all our cash on things we obviously needed. ;p After that, we visited the Boscastle Witchcraft Museum (highly recommended) and the fundamentalist Christian shop situated opposite it, en masse. Their anti-occult literature gave us some good laughs over lunch, and then we were off for some trekking around the cliffs and harbour. Some of us decided to be adventurous and climb to the highest point we could, taking some great photos in the process. The highlight of the day however is witnessed by video footage of Matt falling down the cliff on his derriere, graceful as always.

After this eventful sightseeing we located (after getting lost a couple of times) the Hurlers Stone circle on Bodmin moor, and Trethevy Quoit- an ancient burial chamber. After dinner we drove to Bude beach, where we held our Beltane celebration (complete with Bel fire) beneath the cliffs. Halfway through our celebration however we were joined by some teenage hecklers who preferred to believe we were raising evil spirits. After some correction and a mini-lesson on Paganism shouted up at them (they were on the cliff), they left- but not before apologizing for disturbing us. Ah, kids. Aren't they great?

Sunday 2nd we visited the town of Tintagel (more Pagan shopping!) and Tintagel castle- a wonderful mound of ruins, walls, caves, and cliffs, surrounded by sea. Oh, and steps- lots of horribly steep steps running up the side of horribly steep cliffs. Tintagel really is beautiful though, and you can easily spend a whole day there.

After that, we visited Rocky Valley, where the labyrinth carvings can be found, and St Nectan's Waterfall. To get to this waterfall you have to walk for quite a while, a lot of it up hill. But it is worth it. St Nectan's waterfall is a very spiritual, very powerful place full of symbolism- if only people could see it. As you descend the steps to get to it, you can see the analogy of the God descending into the Underworld or womb of the Goddess. The waterfall itself is hidden on three sides by cliff wall, and the only way you can properly see it (you can't see it from shore) is to walk onto the centre of the makeshift slate bridge over the lake. When standing there it is very womb-like, and you are standing as the God in the Underworld/Womb of the Goddess, waiting to be consecrated, cleansed, invigorated and reborn. The form your cleansing and consecration takes is obviously a very personal thing, and I shall not speak of my own. As you ascend once more (after looking at the offerings others have left there) the God ascends as well, rising from the Underworld to meet new challenges. A beautiful and spiritual experience indeed.

After that, it was home again for a much needed rest!

May 5th: Spirit and Sound Workshop

This delightful workshop was hosted by the group Crane's Egg: Jenny, Karen, and Ken. The idea of the evening was to explore your connection to Spirit through sound and voice, and so we began by choosing the instruments we would use, and blindfolding ourselves. We were then led into a meditation, during which we ask a question of the figure who appears. He replies that we will find the answer in what we do next with our voices and instruments, and so the music begins. Because you are blindfolded, you feel free to do whatever you want with your voice or instruments, and what resulted was an amazing mixture of sounds that were all different yet all blending in somehow. What felt like 5 minutes rapidly became half an hour, after which the music died down naturally, and we took our blindfolds of for discussion and some jamming.

May 6th: Annual General Meeting

The minutes of the AGM will soon be available on the website, and they were emailed to everybody previously. In short, a new Treasurer was elected (Jon Underhill), a new Secretary elected (Nic Phillips), the post of IT Officer created (Andy Holland), and the President re-elected (myself, Kim Huggens) Also under discussion were the website, magazine, society t-shirts, events, and Fresher's Fayre.