Didges Christ is an offshoot band consisting of Shawn Bowen and Jeremy Lembo from World Collision focusing on raw tribal drumming and percussion mixed with Jeremy’s didgeridoo with hard rock energy and arrangements. The performances feature interpretive dance and theatrical costumes, projection, blacklights, and what Shawn describes as “eerie witch-doctor freak-show fun.”

I had the privilege of speaking with Shawn about himself and the bands as well as his favorite haunt, the Siesta Key Drumming Circle.  Previously, Shawn had joined the band Neurotica and was discovered by Brian Johnson of AC/DC, who lives in the same town as Shawn. Additionally, Brian produced their first album, Seed, and even sang backup on one of the songs Deadly Sin. With their second album, Neurotica became involved with WWE wrestling and later the Ozzfest tour.

After, Neurotica eventually disbanded, Shawn opened a small music store specializing in unusual instruments and became inspired by world music and drumming circles. This interest has led to a huge collection of drums and other instruments as well as a recording studio.

Shawn Bowen indicated that Didges Christ SuperDrum is currently working on a new album that doesn’t yet have a title. He shared with me that he has a really strong new song about congress called “Broken Robots” which may end up being new album title, but that could change as the album is not scheduled for release until the end of year. The original album is all instrumental, but they have taken those songs and added some vocals and guitar on the next release.

In the meantime, Didges Christ SuperDrum has put a four song recording on their website, which is only available by download. The recording is called “Alien Technology” performed with Jett and Bezl from the World Collision band.

When asked about the name Didges Christ SuperDrum, Shawn stated, “As far as the name, I am always coming up with silly parodies of band names in my head and that one just stuck, I always loved the Jesus Christ Superstar original Broadway recording with Ian Gillan as Jesus, so it was swimming around in my head when I was trying to think of a name for our new Drum and Didgeridoo project”

One of Shawn’s favorite haunts is the regular drum circle on Siesta Key in Sarasota, Florida. You can often find him (as well as the other members of World Collision and Didges Christ SuperDrum) jamming with other well known musicians and local drummers. The Siesta Key Drumming Circle has been going strong with experienced and beginning drummers for over fifteen years and is worth visiting if you live there or are visiting in the area.

Albums ~ World Collision (See Videos below):
Embark (2008)
Trancention (2009)
Nosferatu (2011)
On Fire (2011)

Albums ~ Didges Christ SuperDrum (See Videos below):
Didges Christ SuperDrum (2010)
Alien Technology (2011)

Contact Info:
Didges Christ SuperDrum: Website / Facebook /
World Collision: Website / Facebook /
Siesta Key Drumming Circle: Information

Videos:

The One True Devil by Didges Christ SuperDrum

Bel comes by her name honestly as her April 30th is her birthday. After hearing her magickal voice many years ago, someone once told her that her she was a “singer of spells” and she thereafter appropriately assumed the name “Spellsinger” as well. She told me it’s the “magickal moniker” or craft name that she has used since 1996 after attending her first PSG, and discovered the spirit of the Spellsinger within herself.

As to her personal life, Bel is happily married with children and bakes cookies and homemade meals for her family. She shared with me, “All in all, you could easily say, that I am a pretty down to earth gal. “Earthy” as it is, might be how some describe me. I love music with a passion, and am immersed daily in the magick of just living and being… with my family, my land, Love itself, Passion, Life, Art… Green Living, and learning as much as I can about it all as I go.”

At the moment, Bel only has a “compilation” disk out, entitled Spellsinger; Days of Yore,” to date, but she is currently working on the first official “all original” Spellsinger material and plans to hopefully to released toward fall/winter of this year on a CD entitled “The Darke.”  She promises that it is going to be full of mystical, magickal, marvelous delvings into the spellbinding worlds of pagan enchantment and the Otherworld with a lot of rock. No worries though as I’ll be sure to let you know when her album becomes available.

In anticipation of the future CD, her “Gypsy Song” video below gives you and opportunity to hear her amazing voice and talents. She is also in the preproduction stages of her second, real live video “with the real live me in it and everything” according to Bel.

In addition to Bel’s musical talents, she also runs a land sanctuary in the Southern Ozarks, called Wolvenwold, where many pagan musicians over the years have popped in to play on the stages.

When asked about her beliefs, Bel shared the following:

“YEP! That’s me… for sure! Wholeheartedly pagan here,
child of the Goddess and the God… and damn proud of it!!!
My future albums will all likely have strong pagan themes, as well.
It is very much a part of who I am, through and through.”

Contact Info:

Beltana Spellsinger – Website / Facebook / MySpace / Twitter / Reverbnation

Music:

Generally, the past two weeks seemed to inspire a lot of new video releases by our artists.  I’m not sure if it was the Ostara energy wave, but we get to enjoy the result regardless of the source of inspiration.

The really big news of the week, however, is the upcoming New Pagan Musicians Series in April 2012 here on the website. Be sure to visit daily and to give our love and support to the emerging musicians and bands bringing us the music of our future.

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Damh the Bard ~ Damh released a new live album entitled As Nature Intended.  Also, he also has a newsletter and the March issue is available HERE.

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Kellianna Girouard ~ Kellianna finished writing the Artemis chant and is heading in today to record it for her new album.  She has seven songs completed and will be recording the drum and vocals on the Daughters of the Earth today as well.  It looks like the album will be completed and ready for release by the end of April.

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Jane Blue & The Hunters~ Lolly Jane Blue announced a name change to the band to Jane Blue & The Hunters.  shared a new video with us this week. She recently played at PaganiCon and I’m sure gained a number of new fans in the process.  She is also raising funds for her debut album.  You can hear some of her music and find more out about helping her raise funds in this video:

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Beltaine’s Fire ~ Beltaine’s fire also released a new video Quit My Job, which really funny.

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Vixy & Tony ~ Vixy & Tony wrote a new song called The River and you can check the lyrics out on their website.

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What was the criteria for choosing musicians and bands for the new series?

First, the musician or band had to have released its first CD sometime within the past five years. I chose five years rather than a shorter period of time because in PST (Pagan Standard Time), it equals two years. Additionally, because Pagan & Wiccan music is such a niche market and most works are done as a labor of love, there are fewer emerging talents than in other mainstream genres. I made a few small exceptions for a few really talented artists who have not yet released a CD, but for the most part I wanted to make sure that there was a CD or MP3 download so that you can support, enjoy, and share their music with others in the Community.

Secondly, the musician or band had to have a video or some other type of music link so that you could appreciate their music throughout the series. This just makes the series more fun, so I made it a requirement so you can listen to the music and/or see the artists while we are discussing their work.

Thirdly, they had to have a strong appeal to the majority of the Community. Most music that is presented on my website is more of along the middle road of the Pagan & Wiccan Music niche. Occasionally, we’ll discuss a heavy metal band or an ambient artists on the other end of the spectrum, but mostly the focus on the website and in the series is more in the middle road that appeals to a wide variety of ages and levels of spirituality in the Community. I’m not a big fan of heavy death metal type of music and I don’t really have an ear for it, so I recommend anyone looking for heavy metal type of music to check out A Darker Shade of Pagan by Jason Pitzl-Waters does an exceptional job covering the metal genre. As for the ambient genre, I do have an appreciation for ambient music, but unless it really stands out with some unique technical or tonal quality, I honestly tend to pass it over for more of the middle road music with lyrics that inspire my religious beliefs and faith. I have, however, included some metal rock and some ambient artists simply because they were so talented and unique.

More importantly for everyone to keep in mind is that I didn’t look for perfection. Although many of the musicians and artists I’m going to introduce have had access to professional recording and production equipment, some did not and they were not excluded from the list because of this. In time and with our support, hopefully, they will have access to more equipment and bring us higher production quality in the future.

What inspired the New Pagan Musicians Series?

In February, I wrote the first musician series call 28 Pagan Musicians in 28 Days in which I tried to pull a wide variety of artists from different decades and musical types as well as artists that had a strong impact on the Community with their music, activism, and/or charitable contributions. Since the series was focused more on a wide presentation, I wasn’t able to cover as many artists that I felt really deserved to be featured as well, but could not because of space limitations. This realization and the popularity of the first series inspired me to running a continuing music series. The research, preparation, and writing for the series was extremely time and energy intensive which contributed to the decision to run a series every other month. Additionally, I wanted to be able to continue to share other articles in the alternating months with various subjects that I had been addressing over the past six or seven years on the website’s past life as a blog.

As for this particular series on new and upcoming Pagan & Wiccan musicians and bands, I realized during the series that our new artists really don’t have many avenues to promote their work to the Community. Although most Pagans & Wiccans are becoming technologically saavy, we are still communicating through “word of mouth” although we are using a keyboard. It still takes years and quite often decades for an emerging artists to become known in the Community and the established artists do get the most attention because they have become so beloved to us all.

What was it like writing the new series?

Honestly, the excitement level has ebbed and flowed from conception of this series. The last series took around 80 hours a week to research, locate, write and communicate with the artists. I really enjoyed speaking with so many old friends and new friends who were of major facilitators to getting that series together and helping me to locate artists that we haven’t been in contact with for decades. It was really exciting to think about communicating with new artists in the same way and documenting their journey trying to make their entrance into the Community musical arena.

Then, I started looking for these amazing new musicians which became a daunting task. We don’t exactly have a Community billboard saying find new musicians HERE, so I had to spend the majority of time not writing or organizing, but simply on the location and selection process which extended a variety of sources: Facebook friends, YouTube, Amazon, ReverbNation, MySpace FM, pagan podcasters, and sites that hold sound tracks used by artists to link their music.

Bless their hearts for trying and I appreciate anyone breaking out and trying something new, but to be honest some of the music was painful. Additionally, there is rarely anything to indicate what type of music you are stepping into. You just put on your headphones and play musical roulette because you might get jazzy ambient music or immediate screaming of Nordic death metal right off the bat. However, my family thought it was hysterical watching me during the selection process and suggested making a videotape just on my efforts to locate the best upcoming musicians. During the thousands of sound clips, there was muttering ~ a lot of muttering. I actually ended up doing a prayer each time I listen to a new sound clip: Sacred Mother, please protect me and don’t let me ears bleed too much this time.

What are the upcoming trends in Pagan & Wiccan music?

While I think the popular folk rock and Celtic types of music are going to continue to dominate Pagan & Wiccan music, you can look forward to a greater variety coming out as our artists are experimenting and expanding with various techniques and structures including the following:

RAP ~ Yup we actually are getting some talented rappers. A few of them will be featured in this series as well, but I only included rap that had strong Pagan & Wiccan themes. I didn’t include regular rap by a Pagan or Wiccan artist and I didn’t include music that was predominating negative or had a high density of profanity. They were chosen based on religious inspiration and not to the standard of mainstream rap artists.

TRIBAL DRUMMING ~ Tribal drumming is really taking off in popularity.  It is losing the stigma that it is separate from Pagan & Wiccan music and is coming to the forefront these days. The growing trend within tribal drumming is to incorporate other native type instruments and musical flow along with the drumming which makes it very exciting to see where our artists are going to go with this. I hope that at some point we see the emergence of symphonic tribal drumming featuring the drumming, but also incorporating elements in a fashion similar to the emergence of symphonic rock in the mainstream.

HORNED GOD ~ Music featuring the Horned God coming into the Community has been trickling in and I think we are going to see more music with themes of balancing and more directed towards the masculine aspect.

If you have any questions about or during the series, but sure to leave a comment or write me at meadmuse@hotmail.com

Brightest of Blessings! Mead

Next Sabbat: Beltaine – 05/01/12 Tuesday

Moon Phase: 1st Quarter (Waxing Moon): 03/30/12 Friday

Items of Note:

03/31/12 ~ Last day to register for $105 until prices go up to $115 for 05/03 – 05/06/12 Ocala – Florida Pagan Gathering Beltaine

Upcoming Florida Events:

• 03/31 – 04/08/12 Miami – Florida Renaissance Festival – Key Biscayne
• 04/06 – 04/08/12 Plant City – Writers Retreat at All World Acres
• 04/06 – 04/08/12 Double Secret Location ~ Annual Retreat of the Everglades Moon Local Council Covenant Of The Goddess
• 04/12 – 04/15/12 Bonita Springs – Beltaine Flame – CANCELLED for 2012
• 04/12 – 04/15/12 Plant City – Beltainia at All World Acres
• 04/12 – 04/15/12 Bowden, Georgia – Hawkfest Dragon Hills Retreat
• 04/28 – 04/28/12 Fort Lauderdale ~ MoonPath CUUPS Open Ritual to celebrate Beltaine ~ Festival and Open Ritual.
• 04/13 – 04/15/12 St. Petersburg – Green Song Grove Beltaine and Grand Sabbat 
• 04/27 – 04/29/12 Silver Springs – Paralounge Drum Gathering
• 05/03 – 05/06/12 Ocala – Florida Pagan Gathering Beltaine
• 05/05 – 05/05/12 Jacksonville ~ Jacksonville Zombie Walk ~ Night of the Living Dead Zombie Walk & Art Show/Auction at the Phoenix Taproom with benefits to save the Evans City Cemetery Chapel
• 05/11 – 05/12/12 Bonita Springs ~ Flowstival by The Gulf Coast Drum Foundation

Upcoming Florida Occupy Events:

• Occupy Fort Lauderdale – Every Sunday at 4:00 p.m. – General Assembly Meeting at City Hall, 100 N.Andrews Avenue in Fort Lauderdale.
• Occupy Jacksonville – Wednesday General Assembly Meeting at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday General Assembly Meeting at 4:00 p.m.
• Occupy Orlando – Every Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. – General Assembly Meeting at Orange County Administration Building, 201 S. Rosalind Avenue in Orlando.
• Occupy Sarasota – Check Site for Dates – General Assembly Meeting
• Occupy Tampa – Every day at 7:30 p.m., except Wednesday is at 7:00 p.m. – General Assembly Meeting at Voice of Freedom Park, 2101 W Main Street in Tampa.

Local CUUPS Chapter Calendars in Florida:

• CUUPS Main – website
• CUUPS Cocoa - Circle in the Woods - website / calendar
• CUUPS Fort Lauderdale - The MoonPath Chapter of Continental CUUPS - website / calendar
• CUUPS Fort Myers - CUUPS of Fort Myers - website / calendar
• CUUPS Hollywood – Silver CUUPS of Holly – website / calendar
• CUUPS Jacksonville - Jacksonville CUUPS - website / calendar
• CUUPS Lakeland - Earth Families CUUPS - website / calendar
• CUUPS New Smyrna Beach - Mistletoe CUUPS – website / calendar
• CUUPS Tampa - Circles in the Woods CUUPS - website / calendar

Meetups:  You can also check the Meetups website for other local pagan events.

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POST GAME ~ What did we think about Phoenix Phyre Ostara 2012?

In discussions about our experiences, please note that we make a point of not comparing one festival to another in terms of which is better than the other. While I might make a note about differences such as venue size or type of entertainment, I strongly believe that each festival or gatherings has its own flavor and merits which really makes it impossible to “compare” them one against the other. Additionally, I feel that attempting to do so causes unnecessary tension in the Community and, therefore, is inappropriate simply on that merit alone.

OVERALL ~ The Abyss tribe gave the overall experience at Phoenix Phyre Ostara 2012 a unanimous thumbs up. There was the wonderful combination of the humor, fun, mischief, and spirituality that we, as a festival tribe, prefer when visiting festivals and gatherings. The weather stayed in a comfortable range typical of this time of year.

We would definitely return to Phoenix Phyre. In fact, we have already made to plans to return next year for Ostara 2013 and will be hosting a Pagan Pirate Party on Thursday night with the usual Abyss flair!

VENUE ~ I loved the Maddox Ranch for a variety of reasons. The kids were able to spend a great deal of time in the pool. It was well-maintained and, obviously, I didn’t have to worry about alligators. The Ranch also provided a cage of newly hatched chicks for the children to enjoy as well.

The camping area itself is actually the center pasture of a large ranch, so we did not actually abut the forest. Sometimes I like being able to easily ramble through the forest, but this was the first time we brought two of our five children and they were able to have free run of the campground without any concerns whatsoever which was greatly appreciated. There was plenty of shade trees throughout the site and I actually didn’t get sunburned once even without any sunscreen and my very fair skin.

There were a lot of bugs and ants, however, which is typical of Central Florida at this time of year. So if you visit this venue (or any other in Florida) always be sure to bring Benadryll, calamine lotion, bug off sprays, and Itch X or ammonia pens. The first aid tent at PP had most of this stuff (and COFFEE), but it’s always good to keep it on hand.

The camping area is not overly large either and it is pretty much flat land. I was able to make a full circuit a few times during our stay with my cane. It was plenty spacious at the same time though. No one was camping on top of each other either.

We had a few minutes to speak to the ranch owner while we were there and he had an extremely warm and engaging personality. Nice guy. Really nice.

ENTERTAINMENT ~ The headliners was awesome and readily available. I had the opportunity to speak to almost all of them individually. There were interruptions in the events due to rain and not due to planning or staffing issues. I’m not sure what can be done in that regard.  The entertainment overall was very enjoyable and the workshops seemed well-planned and we had no complaints whatsoever. As mentioned, PP was recently bought and is now Community run so I think we can also look forward to seeing a maturing process over the next few years as well and I’m interested in seeing whether they take it.

CHILDREN ~ I already mentioned the pool which was a big hit with the kids, but PP also arranged to have some type of entertainment activity for the kids on a daily basis which was nice. Also, the people who attend the festival are very kid friendly and tolerant and more so than I’ve seen at other festivals.

CAMPERS ~ Phoenix Phyre’s policies towards campers is really people friendly. If you are running a generator, you need to be in the generator area at the edge of the camping area. If you aren’t running a generator (and you don’t have a semi truck), you can camp in the same area as the tents. For someone like me who is beginning to have some mobility issues, this is a great perk which is greatly appreciated. I’m not sure how much longer I will be able to sleep on a blow up bed and, quite frankly, I worry about one day being ostracized to a parking lot or a cabin away from our Tribe’s hearth and my tribe mates because of it. The PP policy alleviates that concern for me.

PLUMBING ~ Camping is still camping, but there were plenty of portable bathrooms throughout the site which were well maintained every morning. There are showers with plumbing, but sometimes depending on the number of people, it can be warm water/cold water roulette which turned into a mass of giggling for those showering. I was told that they ranch is doing some upgrades, but we had no complaints about the facilities. You should note though that the showers are communal and not separated by sex.

STAFF ~ Staff was exceptionally cordial and accommodating. Any concern or inquiry was quickly answered and/or resolved. The communication was extremely impressive for a festival and we always felt that our input was desired and greatly appreciated. Can’t say enough good things about all the staff.

SHOPPING ~ Awesome! Publix and Walgreens were less than 5 miles away and a McDonalds with WiFi was just one exit down the way (10 miles or so).

So thank you everyone who worked so hard to bring Phoenix Phyre Ostara 2012 together in such an amazing, wonderful, fun, and spiritual experience!  See you next Ostara in 2013 and be prepared for our Pagan Pirate Party on Thursday night!

Then, we headed off to walk around for a little bit stopping by to see the Rupert’s Tales show that Kyrja & Randy presented at Phoenix Phyre. Our son thoroughly enjoyed the tales and songs. If you have never sat in on one of these children’s workshops, it is worthwhile and enjoyable even for adults.

Afterwards, Kyrja and Randy stopped by to visit our hearth. Always love spending time with her and was glad to spend some additional time chatting with Randy as it seems that we often only had a few moments in passing previously. They have a lot of projects in the works and when they are firmed up a little more, I’ll be sure to share the future adventures of Rupert’s Tales.

One of the funniest things to emerge from our conversation was “Glitterdome ~ Two Fairies Enter ~ One Fairy Leaves,” which provided giggles from everyone throughout the rest of the festival. Much more silliness went on, but what can you expect when Kyrja and a muse set down and chat.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent chatting with more friends and visitors around the heart and then a quick nap before the early evening community meeting and then the main ritual

The main ritual was entitled The White Goddess ritual and was hosted by Belladonna Laveau, who will become the Archpriestess of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church, Intl. in Litha of 2012, along with her working partner Dusty Dionne of the WISE tradition of British Traditional Witchcraft.

I sat on the outside of the main ritual with our younger son, but was still able to enjoy the ritual, which was an adaptation of a veiled goddess ritual calling. The Mother Goddess aspect was called to commune individually with participants. This took a bit of time as there was quite a turn out, but the rite was well-done and appropriate to a gathering environment and venue.

After main ritual, we enjoyed a little more of the drumming by Tribal Soup, but then headed back as Druydess had promised everyone some of her spectacular Potato & Leek Soup, which required volunteers to stir the brew until it came to fruition.

It was another wonderful day and seemed like the festival was flying by quickly as the day ended and we nodded off to the sound of merrymaking and soup slurping over at Druydess’ neighboring campsite.

After our coffee consumption reached an acceptable level, several of us from our Festival Tribe, The Abyss, headed on down to vendors row.  (Hugs and kisses to my good friends, Lauren and Kelli who meandered with me.  Muwah!)  We have several pictures of some of the vendors and I’ll provide them later when we get them uploaded with names and contact information.

I did get to spend a few moments with the amazing and charming Grandmother Elspeth, who has practically become a “Living Legend” in the Community with her 82 years in this lifetime.  Grandmother Elspeth (also known as “the Crone on the Road,”) gives straight forward advice and earth-based “mountain wisdom”, along with a tale or two to those who stop by to speak to her when she’s vending or can catch up to her around the festival grounds.

I didn’t really get to speak very long with her and her consort, Nybor, as much as I would have liked.  Outside of vending, she moves far faster than I can with my cane, so I hope that upon our return to Phoenix Phyre for Ostara in 2013, we can have a chance to chat a bit more since we both have poetry in common.  Grandmother Elspeth, as well as giving workshops, has authored the poem “The Challenge,” and is the creator of the CD sets “Out of the Forest,” and “Gylantra’s Legacy.”  She also gave workshops during Phoenix Phyre, but I wasn’t able to attend any workshop this time, but was told that her workshops were truly amazing.

Nybor is an interesting person as well and is an internationally honored artist; as well as a healer, teacher, pastoral counselor, spiritual theorist, self-taught ritual magician, and a hermit at heart.  He is currently working on various theories of metaphysics as well which reflects the diversity of his talents.

After our soiree (Apologies to the vendors I wasn’t able to visit this time due to my health, but I’ll try to catch up with you all next time), we headed back to the hearth to visit with old friends and new ones that stopped by, including the ever so charming Lord Cheiron (Michael Cheiron, Ph.D.).  Lord Cheiron is a well known and respected Pagan leader in the Southeast area with a long line of credentials including Founder, High Priest and Elder of LunaFyre Sanctuary in the North Georgia; past Board member of Family Wiccan Traditions International; elder in Blue Lotus Grove; Member and Communications Officer for the Dogwood Local Chapter of Covenant of the Goddess; and a continuing list of outstanding accomplishments.  He is extremely knowledgeable and always welcome at our hearth.  It’s difficult these days for me to get to workshops, but I have heard that his workshops are very inspiration and thought provoking.  (Although he keeps forgiving me, I really have to find some time to get over there next time.)

Leraje with his charming companion, Brenna, also stopped by and we managed to convince him to hold a Sumbel at our hearth, which resulted in eruptions of fits of laughter especially since we decided to drink to every toast instead of once a round during our own toast.  Leraje graced us with the meaning of the Sumbel and after the three usual rounds, we threw in two more rounds.  One for the person who inspired us on our Path and the final round to the Crones and Sages that have influenced us.

There was also some discussion regarding information and experiences in a Second Life group called Second Coven, which I found rather provocative and interesting since I am unfamiliar with virtual covens.  However, I’m going to save a more detailed discussion about internet virtual covens for another article because I want to spend a little more time researching and speaking to other people about virtual covens.

Then came another round of early evening showers and we retired to the tent to take a nap.  Unfortunately, it rained a little longer than we had hoped, but it was funny when you would hear thunder and then shortly afterward you would hear the rally cry, “Hail Thor!” which was a remnant of the sumbel we had enjoyed earlier.  *giggles*

After the rain passed, we headed over to the Phoenix Rising Party where Alexian was performing and our friend, Druydess, had organized a Community stone soup for dinner.  If you are not familiar with Alexian (if that’s possible, lol), you can find more information on my previous feature on him.

The high point of the concert was a new song Alexian presented based upon the poem written by Grandmother Elspeth called “The Challenge”.  We also enjoyed the music of other favorites such as Cool to Be a Witch, along with watching many of our friends dancing the night away.

I know you all want to know what Alexian is up to and what is coming out in the future, but he gave me the full scoop while visiting the next day, but that wasn’t on this day, so you just have to wait.  *snickers*

After the concert, we headed over to the drum circle for a short time to enjoy the drumming by the Tribal Soup Drummers, who were joined by Community drummers including a few peeps from The Abyss (waves to Willow and Bill who are amazing drummers on their own.)

Afterwards, we headed back to the hearth so our son could turn in and enjoyed chatting a little bit before turning in for the evening.

Leraje presented a rather large and impressive horn for the toasting and explained the usual sequence during Sumbels. The first round is for honoring your patron gods. The first person will usually say something like, “I am the son of Thor, the master of the war hammer and striker of lightening. He has defeated ice giants and guards my people.” Then the first person takes a sip out of the horn and passes it along. This continues from person to person until the horn returns back where it started.

By the way, if you don’t drink, you can still participate in a Sumbel simply by kissing the horn instead of the toast, so don’t let avoidance of alcohol keep you away from having a really wonderful bonding experience (and making fun of those who are imbibing along the way. Lol)

The second round is dedicated to the Ancestors. Everyone picks a person who has crossed into Vahalla (or the Summerlands) and toasts that person. It doesn’t necessarily have to be from your bloodline, but this round was traditionally used to speak about the accomplishments of the family or tribal lines. We were also advised that if you toast someone who is still living in this round, it’s an indication that you wish for them to join their ancestors rather quickly, so be sure to avoid insulting the living during this round or else the “haunting” you get just might be attached to the arm of a mortal person.

In the third round, the boisterous boasting begins. The toasts are about yourself and your accomplishments. You are entirely expected to add lots of “color” and “flavor” to your boasts which usually results in a lot of giggling, laughter, and good natured ribbing by everyone.

There was a tremendous turn out for the Sambel, which made it quite a Community event, but unfortunately, it also made the rounds last far longer than I could sit for and I was disappointed that I had leave early. However, I learned that the Sambel was going to meld into the Bardic Circle which was supposed to be held right next to our hearth, so the return to the Hearth offered an opportunity to prepare a fire and some tasty treats. So prepared as I was, the gods had other ideas in mind and the rains came and sang its own bardic tales. We put everything away and scampered to the covered dining tent over we shared with our lovely friend Dru, who is always ready with a warm welcoming (and usually some kind of Soup as well) for old friends as well as new friends.

During the rains, there were some lovely conversations and I had the opportunity to meet a lovely couple from Illinois along with their daughter. The family originally came from Germany somewhere around 18 years ago or so and they presented a heartwarming story that I wish to share with you. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the father’s profession, we could not use photographs or real names, so I will refer to them as Allen, Mary, and their daughter, Emily, who was 16 and had Downs Syndrome.

Although Allen and Mary are Catholic, their daughter asked to have a “spiritual” vacation where she could enjoy nature and spirituality. It was heartwarming and inspiring that Allen and Mary arranged their entire vacation around Phoenix Phyre not knowing anyone at all upon arrival and having never visited a pagan festival previously. Fortunately for them, Dru took them under her wing as she often does with new comers and they each had a spiritual and fun-filled vacation.

By the time the rains let up, we decided to bypass the fire circle and head to the tents and get some rest in preparation for the weekend. We fell asleep to the rhythm of the drumming by Tribal Soup thoughout the night and slept well.

Our event photographer, Ms. Mayhem, hasn’t been able to forward the photos from the Sambel yet due post-festival obligations like work, but as soon as we get them downloaded, I’ll post them to the website so that you can enjoy them.