Photoshoot

 At the beginning of the year, I was contacted by a lady who was putting together an exhibition of photos of women involved in pagan practices around the country.  I have been known to do the occasional ritual, and I did go to the Pagan Picnic in Hereford the other year, so I just about qualify!

So last week, she contacted me again, and said that she now had funding for the project, so yesterday she came round to take some photos.  I took her to Swan Well, which is extremely photogenic, especially now that people have started leaving flowers there.  Then I took her down to the Warren and talked about the Friends of the River Wye and how all the pagan activities I've done seem to involve water in some way.  This includes himalayan balsam bashing!  Some pagan activities can be very practical - it's the intention that counts.  I've also successfully dowsed for water - which is a useful talent at the moment!

Then I took her home and showed her my collection of Tarot card decks.

It was all great fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing copies of the photos she's taken.

Her exhibition will be on at the Portico Library in Manchester later this year. 

Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk

 I was going to just huddle at home after I'd been to see the Craftland talk at the church - but I had noticed that there were free music events in between the Festival talks up at the Castle.  One of them was the Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk.

Anyway, early in the afternoon I decided to listen to a podcast.  Next on my list was Druidcast - and Damh the Bard was interviewing his friend Phil, who is one of the Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk group.  It was such an interesting interview that I had to go and see them in action after that.

They are influenced by Border Morris - the sort where they bang sticks together - but they put together their own dances. They wear black tatters, and each dancer has an individual hat or head dress, sometimes based on the dancer's totem animal (there was a girl with a brilliant fox mask).

I saw three dances (there was another session later that night that I didn't go out for).

They started as a choir, singing a Pagan song about the changing seasons.  Then they performed a dance based on the Skirrid Inn, where a horse skull was found under the floor (no-one knows why it was put there).  They have their own, blue, horse skull, which is not a Mari Llwyd, but an English variant - I can't remember the name.

The second dance was based on the Anemone, the Flower of Death, and the third was a solo Irish jig in honour of the Black Hairstreak moth, which only lives in hedgerows where blackthorn grows.

There wasn't a lot of room in the Castle Great Hall - the group has about fifty members, so they were only able to do a cut down version of their usual performances, but it was great fun, and a good taste of the sort of thing that they do.

At the end of the performance Nino, a stray Shantyman, passed by.  The friend I was standing with said that the Hay Shantymen's performance had been packed out, earlier in the afternoon. 

Hereford Labyrinth

 I needed a new Senior Railcard (I have some plans for days out later in the year).  I tried to renew the card online, but the website wouldn't let me do it.

Thank goodness for ticket offices!  I went into Hereford yesterday and bought a new card over the counter in minutes.  The online version had to allow ten days for the card to be delivered.

So, while I was in Hereford, and had plenty of time, I decided to go in search of the Hereford Labyrinth.  I'd heard of this via the new local Pagan group that has a page on Facebook, the Herefordshire & Worcestershire Pagan, Witch and Spiritual Community - not exactly a snappy title, but does what it says on the tin, and it has 1.3k members!

The Labyrinth was built by volunteers, in the last few years, and the information online said it was on Castle Green.  So I walked all round Castle Green, without success.  There's a rather pretty footbridge across the Wye to Bishop's Meadow, so I thought I'd try there.  

On the way, I stopped at a coffee stall, and the lady there pointed me in the right direction.

It is, indeed, in Bishop's Meadow, surrounded by park railings, and free to anyone who wants to go in and walk the labyrinth, or sit on the benches around the edge.

The benches are just out of shot, in the corners of the fenced area.  The four quarters of the compass are marked with small stones around the edge, too - the labyrinth begins in the North East.

The difference between a labyrinth and a maze is that a maze has dead ends and you can get lost in them, whereas a labyrinth has one path that meanders towards the centre, and then out again.  It took me about ten minutes to reach the centre, walking slowly.  It's a very peaceful experience, and is often used as a method of meditation.

Pagan Picnic

 A Facebook page started recently for pagans who are local to the Herefordshire and Worcestershire area.  

Normally, I can't go to meetings, or moots as pagans call them, because they're in the evening and there are no buses (and my broomstick can't fly all the way to Hereford!).  However, the Facebook people organised a picnic on Saturday on Castle Green in Hereford, so I thought I'd like to go along to that.

Little did I know that the picnic was cancelled at the last minute because of the dodgy weather - I was already on the bus.

Going through Herefordshire was interesting, in the run up to the general election.  I saw about 5 Labour posters, and one for Reform on the bus route.

Dorstone was having a Heritage Skills Day, and as the bus drew up by the Pandy, two ladies were setting up a wicker weaving area on the little green.

I didn't go straight to Castle Green when I got into Hereford, either.  It seemed like a good opportunity to find the EE shop and renew my phone contract, since there is no longer an EE shop in Hay (it's now St Michael's Hospice shop).  The young lady I spoke to was very helpful, and even got a slightly cheaper deal for me.

Some pagans (and a couple of cute dogs) had turned up at Castle Green, despite the weather, and it didn't actually rain while we were there.  I'd brought food to share, and we chatted about local history, and archaeology, and pagan meetings and rituals, and it was lovely.  It's a pity more people didn't turn up anyway.  

I also discovered that there is a labyrinth elsewhere on Castle Green, and I think I'd like to go back soon and walk it.