ritual churning

Knowing we will return to ritual reassures the psyche that we will not have to go it alone for long. - Francis Weller

Each July we throw a gathering called Butterfest. (Why and how this thing got started.) The event has grown and shifted over the years but the root concept remains: a celebration of the fat of the land and the richness of being together; an experiment in how generous and creative and joyful we can be for a couple of days; a commitment to making beauty our path.

All photos gifted generously by the inimitable Danielle Cohen!

Butterfest helps us remember and feel into how we want to be with each other. Everything is gifted; art is ubiquitous; the tables are long and heavy with beautiful food; people make their unique offerings and are appreciated; we live on and say thank you to the land; everyone is welcome and the circle grows; we keep each others’ children safe; we dance and sing in a working barn, filled with dry beans and pigeons; we work side by side moving benches and chairs and food and dishes; and as we work we laugh and cry and process all that has changed since we last gathered.

During the closing circle after our a gratitude parade of INTER-denpedence.

Ritual allows us to experience time nonlinearly and cumulatively, and gives us the chance to experience another way of being with each other, even if for a few moments.

Leaving a ritual space, we are presented with the question: how can our regular days could be infused more with that essence we found?

In these hard times where we spend most days deep in the struggle of resisting, it is critical we create islands of coherence, rituals of rejuvenation.

It is essential we churn fifty gallons of cream by hand while singing in the river! It is essential we make enormous puppets and dance them elaborately! It is essential we wear all yellow and goal while roller skating in a newly poured concrete barn basement! It is essential to remember the good and the creativity and the generosity that humans can create together, especially now!

Dori Midnight says that “how we do anything is how we do everything.” Ritual lets us deeply consider how we want to spend our lives.

who keeps us safe? we keep us safe! this picture by Sophie Wood Brinker

Rituals both distill and deepen our values, reminding us who we aspire to be and offering us a chance to practice. And ritual doesn’t have to be a massive weeklong project. It can be a weekly dinner, a morning cup of tea with your sweetheart, a practice of walking in the woods with a mentor. Whatever you ritual you dedicate yourself to, I hope it helps to restore and renew you, as this past week has for me.

Finally— a most deep bow and enormous thank you to the many of you who help create Butterfest, a golden island in time!

Beloveds and our shared pledge. Starhawk says “Any ritual is an opportunity for transformation.”

Robin Wall Kimmerer reminds us that “Ceremony can bring the quiescent back to life; it can open your mind and heart to what you once knew but have forgotten.”

Michael Meade expands that “One purpose of creative ritual was to experience the connection to “the other” as well as a deeper connection to oneself. Ritual made me more aware of how I’m connected to life, to the earth, to the spirits, to the song of creation, and made me more aware of who I am inside, at the level of my own being. What we’ve lost is partly the sense that we are each connected to the whole thing, that each human soul is secretly connected to the living soul of the world.”

ducklings and children are not in the way, they are the way

Del Suggs counseled that “Ritual and ceremony are powerful bonding tools. They result in a sense of community, a feeling of unity far beyond what you might expect.”

Frances Weller wrote that “We are designed to encounter this life with amazement and wonder, not resignation and endurance. We dream of full throated life.”

Bill Copperthwaite taught “Where there is an absence of beauty, we are in grave danger.”

butter poetry workshop thanks to Katie Spring

May the churn of collective ritual keep us nourished in the year to come.