SolstiCelebration Evolution
By Amy Martin
creator, producer and promoter
Life changed for me on a Winter Solstice day when in a moment of meditation I looked into the abyss of memory and found truth. My life opened up. For me, the darkness symbolized by Winter Solstice was regenerating, healing, initiating, anything but the demonized dark so pervasive in the west. In facing the darkness, I lost my fear.
A year later my colleague John McMurphy held a Winter Solstice event at White Rock Lake’s Winfrey Point and invited me to participate. It was a pivotal point in my healing. The community, the ceremony, the celebration, fed me to the core. (So did the sheer wackiness of poet Jeff Davis in tights being ritually birthed between Martha Murphy’s loins.) A few months later I read an article in The New York Times on copadillas, Mayan ceremonialists who present indigenous celebrations of special Mayan calendar dates. I decided right then and there I wanted to be an American copadilla.
I jumped right in! Summer and Winter SolstiCelebrations were the backbone of things. In the beginning there were events for scattered fall and spring equinoxes, a Beltane or two, and a few seasonal events just for women, plus some Full Moons and lunar eclipses. Summer SolstiCelebrations moved all over White Rock Lake and two of them got huge, over 2,000 people! After a decade of that, things have been scaled back to a manageable annual Winter SolstiCelebration.
With attendance of over 700, SolstiCelebrations join a select league in the nation of large-scale public Solstice events, including Santa Barbara’s (summer) Solstice Parade and Festival and Paul Winter's Solstice Celebrations. Certainly our success is unique to the non-coastal heartland.
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Celestial Rhythm Celebrations
After a while, reporters kept asking me: Who is putting this on? I’d explain that it was me and a loose-knit group of volunteers that changed from event to event. Occasionally I’d work with co-producers like Lora Cain and Martha Murphy Hall, or with groups like Joe Stanco’s Poets’ Roundtable. So the media would ask again: Who is putting this on? A name, I get it, they need a name. So I came up with one: Celestial Rhythm Celebrations. It makes them happy.
But it’s really not a group – it’s a community. And I think of what we do as a movement. Before CRC started, public seasonal celebrations were mostly unpublicized pagan events. Now there are about a dozen public North Texas events for the Summer Solstice alone and even more fall harvest celebrations. We’ve helped Earth-centered spirituality in specific, and non-mainstream spirituality in general, come out of the closet and become accepted in this buckle of the Bible Belt!
As with any good quasi organization, we have a mission statement: “Celestial Rhythm Celebrations is an informal not-for-profit movement in Dallas committed to popularizing seasonal observances. Because natural holidays like solstices and equinoxes are shared by all ages, races and religions, CRC is dedicated to peace among humanity and appreciation of the Earth.” Eventually I hope to develop what I call American Shinto, a calendar of public events for the 21st century that addressed human psychological needs while providing community bonding and entertainment. It refers to the Shinto festival calendar shared by all religious and ethnic groups in Japan. Spring and Autumn Equinoxes are federal Japanese holidays! You gotta love it.
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Summer SolstiCelebration: the downtown poetry years
The very first foray was with Joe Stanco’s Poets’ Roundtable. The weekly Wednesday gathering was a lot like therapy for several of us exorcising some serious demons. By summer of 1993 I was feeling like a human again. I noticed that Summer Solstice fell on a Wednesday and convinced the poetry gang to put on a public show. We dubbed it “Summer Solstice for Pagan Poets” and I was a “pagan poet priestess” because we loved alliteration. But that was the last time the word pagan was used because the events weren’t really pagan, more like shamanic-Buddhist-anarchist. I burned magic herbs on a hibachi and we did some wacky yet intense ceremonies and performances, all in the courtyard of Club Dada, a Deep Ellum nightclub.
The 1994 event was the first to use the trademark name SolstiCelebration and included a mini-play I wrote called “The Sword, The Jewel and the Mirror.” It related the story of Amateratsu, the Sun goddess of Japan whose Shinto myth explains Winter Solstice. My poet friends were kamis, or gods, and Martha Murphy was Uzume, the bawdy goddess (wow oh wow!) who one-ups Amateratsu and saves the world. It even included a genuine swordsman martial artist, John Fields.
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Summer SolstiCelebration: lake party and drum-a-ganza
After two years enough eco-sensibilities kicked in that a move to the outdoors was needed. A bond election had just passed to fund the dredging for Dallas’ centerpiece body of water, White Rock Lake. Silt acculmation had caused all but one marina to close, fish populations had declined and birds were not frequenting the lake. It had become trashy and crime ridden. Summer SolstiCelebration 1995 was the first large public event after the bond election and folks were evidently ready to celebrate reclaiming the lake. Over 2000 showed up!
Fortunately the night-long event had something for everyone and room to spare. We started out with a wild opening ceremony on an abandoned stretch of the lakeside Lawther Drive. Chinese lion dancers gave a blessing to the lake. Dancing Tongue performance ensemble told the story of Pegasus, complete with a paper-mache flying horse the size of a small house that even frolicked a bit with the Chinese lion. Surreal doesn’t begin to explain it. Then we dispersed to various “villages” in the trees around the Dreyfus Club with West African and Latin drumming, European folk dancing, juggling and performance poetry. A central stage had Japanese drummers (Kobushi), Phillipino dancing, and even a wheelchair-bound dancer (Alex Spitzer) who ultimately made a success of himself in New York.
At sunset, famed drum-circle leader Arthur Hull wrangled the drummers into a parade led by Pegasus. Drummers Happy Shel, Jeremy Wanamaker, Kwazi, and other local drum heroes were all a big part. That was the warm-up to an immense street dance to nuclear polka band Brave Combo that featured a mega version of the Hokey Pokey. The stage itself never showed up, too long a tale to tell, but the band (grudgingly) made do on the pavement. It concluded in a huge, and I mean huge, Arthur Hull drum circle with lots and lots of dancing that went on well past midnight. It was great fun! Except the amount of money I lost on the event.
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Summer SolstiCelebration: the big kahuna
Lost my mind and even more money for the 1996 Summer SolstiCelebration. This one went all day and attracted between 2000 and 3000 people, way too many to handle. We spread over the entire abandoned stretch of Lawther all the way to the Bath House Cultural center where we had a real stage with high-class performers like D’Drum. The villages had tents and went all day, instead of two hours, with drums, dance, cultural demonstrations and lots of just hanging out. I brought back rhythm guru Arthur Hull along with national drum-circle stars Kalani and Paulo Mattioli. Eric Stuer set up a large junk-percussion playable sculpture. Classes and workshops, vendors and food court, impromptu drum jams, an outside main stage, poetry enclave, even bigger sunset drum circle, street dance with Ooga Booga – it was a GIANT happening!
But it had additional costs beyond losing money (thousands!) and mind. The previous year had been a cooler than normal summer. But 1996 was back to normal highs in the upper 90s. People were wilting. The buildings and tents turned into saunas. The electrical load at our Dreyfus Club headquarters kept tripping the breakers, eventually for good, taking with it lights and the ability for food vendors to cool or heat their food. What little organization I had fell into chaos. My health totally blew along with the electricity, eventually landing me in an ambulance for heat exhaustion and neurological meltdown.
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Summer SolstiCelebration: the lost and labyrinth years
Summer SolstiCelebration was on hiatus in 1997 while I put myself back together. It resumed in 1998 under the shepherding of Martha Murphy, returning to its roots of poetry, herbal magic, mythological characters, and crazy performance art, with the new additions of sacred circle dances and yoga.
In 1999, the labyrinth years began, gathering beneath the trees outside the Bath House Cultural Center. Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration provided a portable canvas version of the famous labyrinth in the Cathedral of Chartres. Its circular, circuitous path provided a potently condensed approach to sacred pilgrimage and spiritual journey. It was significant to me since I’d recently launched a series of pilgrimages to divine feminine sacred sites in Mexico and the Southwest. The sunset solstice ceremony included sacred circle dances with Martha Murphy and Priya Yoga led Salutation to the Sun. Except for a rainstorm, it was all very small scale and refined.
So you knew that couldn’t last! We moved in 2000 to the large Winfrey Point building and set up the canvas labyrinth, from Cathedral of Hope this time, inside, having learned from the prior year’s “wet walk” as it came to be called. Outside were more grass labyrinths made using chalk lines like on a sports field. Custom-designed by my hubbie Scooter Smith, one was a four-square elemental/directional labyrinth based on a Hopi labyrinth. The triangular Lightening Labyrinth was based on the number 3 and the Star Trek Labyrinth, which looked like the television show’s insignia, was based on the number 5. We did a lovely Martha Murphy sunset ceremony in which people processed through a series of arches representing points of passage. Fortunately it was a cool year.
The event and labyrinths returned to the same place in 2001 with a large ceremony featuring a pilgrimage though portals created from people who did blessing actions like smudging, holy water spritzing and even bubble blowing. Constellation with Raqsat Aladeen kept things going on the complex participatory Orbital Dance. It was a lovely relaxed event. I’ll always remember Geoffrey Rickets playing full-scale classical harp on the sidewalk, adding beauty to the event. Photo Essay
In 2002, we jumped to the west side of White Rock Lake to TP Hill, a breezy point of the lake. Instead of an expensive building, we rented an inexpensive picnic shelter. A truly great crew led by Reese Mack recreated Scooter’s labyrinths on the shore of the lake. We added to it a meditation walk through the zen Parable of the 10 Bulls. Once again we enjoyed a large pilgrimage and portals ceremony and a wacky participatory Orbital Dance with Constellation and Raqsat Aladeen. Circle dances, yoga and a vegetarian potluck, it was all so grand. But it just exhausted us all. I had to face it: Summer Solstice was too dang hot in Texas. We decided to give it just one more run. Photo Essay
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Summer SolstiCelebration: the finale
Ah, what a run it was! In 2003 we camped out at Big Thicket on the east side of White Rock Lake with a Storytellers’ Porch, Yoga Grove of free classes, Peace Scene with origami crane folding, Kids’ Corner complete with face painting and children’s magic show, Alternative Energy Area with hybrid car drives, and more. A giant Nia dance jam and interfaith circle dances got everyone warmed up for the event’s big feat: a successful world record for group phooning (which, alas, has since been broken).
A phoon is a comical frozen running posture. The challenge is to (1) do it in the most ridiculous places or in ridiculous ways and (2) get a decent picture of it. We got 75 people. You have to see it to believe it. It included an anarchist facing the opposite direction of everyone else, all ages of people, and several dogs. The event even made the big time as a bottom crawl on CNN newscasts and a blurb on national radio news syndicates! It was a great way to bring a quirky tradition to a close. Photo Essay
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Winter SolstiCelebration: Winfrey Point and on the road
The first few Winter SolstiCelebrations were held at Winfrey Point. Because it had a fireplace, as part of a World Tree ceremony we burned a Yule Log. One year we nearly burned me up, too! It turns out that frankincense and myrrh are rather flammable. The event in 1993 featured Japanese drumming, lots of poetry and dance, and Dancing Tongue poetry ensemble. The Stanco Family Christmas was a delightfully warped take on Andy Williams. In 1994 we presented the Amateratsu play, “The Sword, the Jewel and the Mirror," with Cassandra Fink in the Uzume role, plus more drumming, poetry and dance
Then the Winfrey Point building went down for renovations and in 1995 we moved to the Dallas Horticultural Center (now Texas Discovery Gardens) at Fair Park. The Amaterasu play made a final round, this time with Japanese taiko drumming by Kobushi. The African drumming by Kweku Codrington in the Blachly Conservatory of exotic plants from Africa was cool. We schlepped in a large BBQ cooker to burn a Yule Log on the patio. It was a beautiful elegant place with a Cottonwood trees that reflected our World Tree theme, but the place lacked the casual homey feel we’d grown to love and had no food facilities.
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Winter SolstiCelebration: the First Unitarian years
For the 4th annual Winter SolstiCelebration in 1996, Mark Clive, a member of First Unitarian, arranged for us to move there. He also originated the Lord of Misrule, a character that stayed with us for many celebrations. We stayed there several wonderful years until the crowds busted the seams of the 400-seat sanctuary.
At First Unitarian the event took on a format – a first half on darkness, an intermission, and a second half on light – as well as focus and depth. The tradition of honoring those who passed in the prior year started with this event with a powerful meditation by Martha Murphy Hall. The church had kitchen facilities, so we could have food at intermission, and a large fellowship hall to socialize in. We concluded the long intermission with a spiral dance to mark the change from dark to light. The spiral unwound into a dancing line that sped through the entire church! The usual poetry, music and ceremony rounded out the night that ended with drumming and the burning of a Yule Log in a cooker on the patio. It was a bit loud for the neighbors.
In 1997, Winter SolstiCelebration’s reputation for incredible performances was solidified by world music percussion by ConunDrum, an exceptional dance-prose rendition of the Inuit myth Skeleton Woman by Lora Cain and a mesmerizing set of mariachi music woven with a true-life tale of a near-death accident and recovery by Dennis Gonzales. On the lighter side, the Winfrey Point Morris Dancers presented the classic English Solstice folk dance, Abbot Bromley Horn Dance.
The following year, 1998, the 6th Winter SolstiCelebration, we went in a very different direction with drums. North Texas Caledonian Pipes and Drums made a joyful noise and had the job of parading us all outside to burn the Yule Log – in below-freezing temps – in kilts! They were brave. It was the first year for jazz trumpeter Freddie Jones and harpist Geoffrey Ricketts who quickly became favorites. Dance included Lora Cain and Martha Murphy Hall, plus long-time SolstiCelebration dance contributor Peggy Lamb. The centerpiece was a demonstration of Sufi whirling and circle dances plus Aramaic and Arabic chants and the poetry of Rumi blended with music. It was stunning. Gay Mallon Lustfield returned with an incredibly moving service and Leon Peek wove traditional American music and thoughts on a mutual friend’s hospice death with his own tale of dying several times in a 24-hour period before doctors stabilized his heart. Deep stuff! But it had been a year of deep loss for me.
Then 1999 was the year of the Big Idea: a long opening-ceremony production with full musical ensemble and elaborate procession that I wrote called Elements and Archetypes. My weakness for big production was further evident with a second half of rapid-fire performances, including Akiwowo drum and dance ensemble, and percussionist Ed Smith with music from Bali. Mark Clive as the Lord of Misrule wove things together by channeling Phil Donahue. This time, the Morris Dancers presented their parody of the Abbot Bromley Horn Dance, now renamed the Abilene Bromley Longhorn Dance and done in riotous cow costumes. People mooed with delight and it became a recurring favorite. But the event was a little snake-bit, too: a performer left early, the promised Yule Cake didn’t show, we spent hours baking cookies and there weren’t nearly enough, and a guest ceremonialist took a bunch of prayer flags attendees had signed and tossed them on the Yule Log fire, much to their horror and mine. I realized that the spiritual core of the event had slipped away from me in my obsession to put on a show. It was also the year the crowds absolutely busted the seams on the church; people had to park up to a mile away. The Solstice miracle was that the notoriously strict University Park fire marshal didn’t shut us down.
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Winter SolstiCelebration: Cha-cha-cha-changes
The thought of moving the event yet again was nerve wracking to me. Fortunately I was leading a women’s drum ensemble at the time and some of the members belonged to Cathedral of Hope. It is the largest gay and lesbian congregation in the world with a commitment to interfaith outreach. Its symbolic building, designed by famed architect Phillip Johnson, has a 950-seat sanctuary and incredible sound/lights/video, plus great kitchen facilities along with a neat staff, especially HealtherMorrison. The parking is well lit and spacious – big plus! We collect canned goods for their food bank and give to their Interfaith Chapel fund. We are deliriously pleased to be there.
Now in a new building for 2000, Winter SolstiCelebration was reconfigured again to fit the space. The spacious lobby, or narthex, enabled us to set up tables for community groups and supporters of the event. People could come early and stay late to mingle. The huge fellowship hall and professional kitchen allowed us to present a feast instead of just some cookies and punch. Might seem small, but it was so important to creating a SolstiCelebration community. A half hour of music and socializing was added before and an hour of feasting and frolic with roving characters and a techno-dance band followed.
The Winter Solstice became truly highlighted with a three-minute meditation in silent darkness, a potently condensed version of the three-day Winter Solstice period [intra link]. The spacious sanctuary, which is all on one level, enabled participatory rituals and yoga. The event ended with everyone lining up and dancing through a giant Sun gate that symbolized passage into a new year. A big boon was a live three-camera video shoot broadcast on two video screens that allowed attendees to see close-up detail even in such a large space. After a couple years, we did away with the intermission dividing it into a dark half and light half, was too mired in dualism. This freed me up to be more creative with the program, allowing it to smoothly segue from light to dark and back again.
The shift to Cathedral of Hope brought with it the formation of a core group of performers and presenters: storytellers Gene and Peggy Helmick-Richardson; jazz trumpeter Freddie Jones; dancer Karen MacIntyre; harpist Geoffrey Ricketts; poet Jeff Davis and then Tim Cloward; Middle Eastern music ensemble Constellation with dancers from Raqsat Aladeen regrouped as Ya Elbe; yoga by Priya Yoga and Dallas Yoga Center alternately; Ed Townley and Bradley Ellis who fill a variety of roles; and lobby band tao jonesin. The new sanctuary was three times the size of the prior one and it takes a special kind of performer to fill that space. The professionalism of the performing core is something I am truly grateful for. I also began to see that I didn’t need to keep changing the line up to keep people coming back. People returned year after year because it was an important spiritual part of their lives.
A great professional support crew came together as well. Mary Beth Boehm directed the shoot with Paul Taylor’s excellent in-house tech crew. My hubbie Scooter Smith did the on-screen graphics and printed program and created for us a logo of the World Tree. Chris Cave took charge of the stage; Laura McMeley and then David Fisher ran lights. American Tradition of the Goddess stepped in to create the magical feast. JR Compton began posting a photo essay of the event on his web site. I am a blessed woman.
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Winter SolstiCelebration: the Cathedral of Hope years
For the 8th annual Winter SolstiCelebration in 2000, which came while I was deep in pilgrimages to North American divine feminine sacred sites, we focused on the theme of darkness as represented by dark goddesses, including a play excerpt on the Virgin of Guadelupe by Cara Mia Theatre and deep poetry on darkness by mary loving blanchard. Jeff Davis did a piece about being disemboweled and eaten by vultures – that certainly got everyone’s attention! Not many poems rhyme the word “entrails.”
Dancer Karen MacIntyre made her debut in a terrific piece about turning light into dark. Carmen Ortiz led us in a classic shamanic dream journey to the underworld and back. Martha Hall and Freddie Jones did a spellbinding set of music, movement and sufi poetry. Great music by Jimmy Barcus, American Bedouin, Brad Bogle, Chad Evans, Geoffrey Ricketts, and Constellation.
This year marked the first “big yoga” with lots of yogis on stage leading several hundred attendees in movement. Michelle Hague Hammarley of Priya Yoga did a great job. It was also the debut of Tim Cloward as the Bogeyman roaming the crowds afterward, daring folks to touch his cloak and transfer their dark side to him. Performance as ritual at its finest. His cloak was ceremonially burned at the next New Moon.
The 2001 event came just a few months after the 9/11 tragedies. There was such a sense of us, all 700 of us, huddled together against the storm. As part of the ritual where those who lost a loved one in the prior year stand and say their names, we ran a video by hubbie Scooter Smith. Called “Our Lives Like Rain,” a list of the victims scrolled against a backdrop of falling water. The dharma talk by Lama Dudjom Dorjee of the Karma Thegsum Choling Tibetan Buddhist center that followed and his presence in the darkness meditation was exactly what we needed.
That year debuted Gene Helmick-Richardson doing tandem tales with his wife Peggy. Bryan Lankford and friends presented a spiritual children’s tale in the style of Dr. Seuss. Freddie Jones on trumpet teamed with poet Jeff Davis to weave amazing cool jazz and word play. People were mesmerized by the Priya Yoga team all wearing red mittens that moved serenely through the air. To relieve the bottleneck of 700 people squeezing through one gate in the concluding dance with Constellation and Raqsat Aladeen, we debuted a Moon gate by Julia Schloss. Buddhist dance by Dorian Karthauser, music by harpist Geoffrey Ricketts, Mayan storytelling by Ed Townley, song by Leslie Anne Rogers, and Tim Cloward as the Bogeyman rounded things out.
It was the first year with a feast by the American Tradition of the Goddess at intermission. People were so happy yapping and munching that it was hard to get them back in their seats for the second half, so we moved the feast to afterwards and gave it twice as much time.
The 10th annual Winter SolstiCelebration in 2002 was the show that would not end, clocking in at two and a half hours. (After that I started using a writing system that enabled me to time out the event more precisely.) On the plus side, it was a Full Moon which led to the beginning of a beloved ceremonial tradition: the Solstice howl. Several hundred people howling like wolves was certainly a cathartic thing! And we started the tradition of community peace activities in the lobby and forming a humongous circle to start the event.
But it was the last time we’d see the hilarious Abilene Bromley Longhorn Dance; the Winfrey Bells Morris Dancers retired the following year. We did so love mooing at them! It was also the last time for Jeff Davis before he moved away, doing a jaw-dropping opening monologue with trumpeter Freddie Jones, flutist Lessa Ellis, and a poet choir. And it was the final service by Gay Mallon Lustfield, who spoke on darkness from a personal perspective: she’d survived a brain aneurism by being in a weeks-long induced coma. (She died a few years later in a car wreck.)
ClarySage took over seating music and harpist Geoffrey Ricketts moved into the main program. Dallas Yoga Center did an enthralling presentation with audience yoga (including a most charming booty shake!), chanting and sacred sounds. It was as refined as the body percussion with ClarySage and friends was wacky. Storytellers Gene and Peggy Helmick-Richardson and music by Mosaic women’s chorus were great, as was Jimmy Barcus belting out 3 Dog Night’s “Joy to the World” to bring us into light. Tying it together was the loose-knit Winter SolstiCelebration Voices of Change choir (funny, eh?). Yet another conclusion with Constellation and some dancers from Raqsat Aladeen. During the American Tradition of the Goddess feast, Father Winter (Ed Townley) dispensed gifts, the Lord of Misrule (Gus Cox) made merry, and Tim Cloward reprised the Boogeyman one last time before moving on stage as a poet. Photo Essay
Things were a bit subdued in 2003. I was down with a mystery ailment and depended on my core performers to get me through. We reached to the past and brought back some favorites, turning in a show of record brevity. Singer/songwriter Annie Benjamin warmed the audience up. Lama Dudjom Dorjee of the Karma Thegsum Choling returned. Tim Cloward, who’d now shifted to the stage, got folks howling with a piece called “Kangaroo” that featured dancing Chad Evans on drums. Constellation and Egyptian dance ensemble M'hotep created a lovely number using candles to bring back the light and went Middle Eastern for the concluding dance.
Dallas Yoga Center’s presentation was profound and an aural delight. I narrated a piece about spinning through the cosmos and hubbie Scooter Smith set it to celestial photos. Storytellers Gene and Peggy Helmick-Richardson and Geoffrey Ricketts on harp filled the bill. The American Tradition of the Goddess spread was joined by baked goods from Bread Haus, Crosby Café, and Kalachandji’s. Comatheatre kept us grooving and roving characters included Ed Townley as Father Winter, Gus Cox and the Lord of Misrule and Walter Five as the Boogeyman. Photo Essay
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Winter SolstiCelebration: staying on theme
For the 12th annual in 2004, we starting using event themes, in this case water and consciousness, assisted by a remarkable group of Water Women. All 700 of us partook in a Water Communion, using water blessed by color, prayers and the audience itself. Seating music with the dreamsicles (Tom Prasada-Rao & Cary Cooper) was extremely popular and shaman Lyn Birmingham and friends made a big impression with the opening. The imagery of flowing fabric to evoke water by several performers was hypnotic, especially dancer Karen MacIntyre. The Calling of the Water Spirits children's procession with face painting by Karen Weiss was charming.
It was also a year that vocals came to prominence. The event was laced with offerings from the Betwixt and Between Chorus. Vocalist Lainey Bernstein lifted people’s spirits with a rain song and singer Annie Benjamin belted out “Don’t Forget Life’s Blessings” with the impromptu Grateful Life Choir. Ritualist Luna led us in a Shout Out for Gratitude. Storytellers Gene and Peggy Helmick-Richardson floored everyone with a piece on Metamorphosis. (Picking up a sub-theme here? Can you tell I was felling better?).
Priya Yoga’s presentation was all breath and music. Trumpeter Freddie Jones, flutist Kim Bold, harpist Geoffrey Ricketts, and poet Tim Cloward rounded things out. Dancers and musicians from Raqsat Aladeen and Constellation did exceptional work and performed the final procession admirably, not missing a beat when the Sun gate broke mid-dance.
The lobby action expanded considerably, with tables from event sponsors Holistic Networker and Green Mountain Energy, along with a bevy of support tables and humungous Peace Zone. Gus Cox did a final Lord of Misrule before moving away and Bradley Ellis invented a new character: Wyld Professor, otherwise known as Boudreaux T. Wyldmon, Swamp King and Hoodoo Mage. Gift giving Ed Townley as Father Winter and the American Tradition of the Goddess spread, with bread from Bread Haus and Kalachandji's, and organic coffee from Crosby Cafe made the social hour a delight. Photo Essay
In 2005, the Winter SolstiCelebration theme was People of the Tree. The framework of the event was the story about who gathered in a forest clearing on Winter Solstice, and then followed how the people developed over time, while never letting go of their roots. Performances and presentations were woven into that story, narrated by storyteller Tim Couch. The Spirit Moon Shamanic Community set the tone with a tremendous ceremony evoking our ancient ancestors. The Native American flutes of No Rhyme or Reason did the same. Eileen McKee and friends joined us in breath yoga. Trumpeter Freddie Jones riffed with poet Karen X. Storytellers Gene and Peggy Helmick-Richardson moved us with a tale of sacred trees.
Debbie Ramaker sang us into darkness and the dreamsicles (Tom Prasada-Rao & Cary Cooper) brought us out with great joy. More great song from vocalist Lainey Bernstein. Operatic baritone Matt Woodbury (really!) and harpist Geoffrey Ricketts wowed us with a custom song on trees. Karen MacIntyre and dancers created a captivating dream forest. Rituals abounded including all 700 attendees forming a giant tree in lieu of the traditional group circle. Singer/dancer Lora Cain, along with percussionists Michael Kenny, Happy Shel and friends, got everyone on their feet with a song and dance celebration that had individuals becoming trees to create a forest.
In the Nut for Your Dreams ritual, everyone got up and selected their own blessed pecan to take home. Singer/songwriter Annie Benjamin with Rahim Quazi warmed us up and tao jonesin kept us going afterward. Ya Elbe (aka the dancers and musicians from Raqsat Aladeen and Constellation) led us in a New Year dance procession through new Sun and Moon gates created by Chad Evans.
Afterwards, food presented by American Tradition of the Goddess was fun, with additional bread from Bread Haus and Kalachandji's, and organic coffee from Crosby Cafe & Catering. The Peace Zone had origami crane folding with Jo Wharton of Cranes Fly for Peace and Center for Spiritual Living invited attendees to affix a prayer tie to the Peace Prayer Tree. Kids of all ages got a free picture taken by Jennifer Walz of Sentient Photography with Ed Townley as Father Winter in his sumptuous new costume by Luna. Bradley Ellis as the Wyld Professor stirred things up. Photo Essay
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Winter SolstiCelebration: the event grows up
The theme of the 14th annual Winter SolstiCelebration in 2006 was We Are One, which wove beautifully through the night’s offerings. Singer/songwriter Annie Benjamin touched on it often in her seating music set. Michael Kenny and drum friends inspired the audience to feel their heartbeat and sway together. Grapevine Yoga led us in a Circle of Joy stretch ending in multiple namaste bows: The divine in me recognizes the divine in you. Vocal ensemble Somos blew everybody’s socks off with the Sweet Honey in the Rock Song “We Are (One).” Ya Elbe sang the “Dona Nobis Pacem” chant in many languages to show how we all want peace.
Karen MacIntyre connected us to our ancestors after the naming ritual with a beautiful dance to the Beatles’ “Across the Universe.” Chi Sing of the Awakening Heart Sangha guided us out of darkness with a compassion breathing meditation, aided by delicious flute by Cornell Kinderknecht. But we had great fun as well with upbeat songs by the dreamsicles. Storytellers Gene and Peggy Helmick-Richardson took us back to our roots with a tale of the Shinto goddess Amateratsu that had the audience stomping and howling along. Harpist Geoffrey Ricketts sat in with the Syrns Orchestra for a stirring rendition of Neil Diamond’s “Holly Holy” that filled the sanctuary with colorful swirling dancers. They returned later for a riotous version of “I am the Walrus.” The poetry of jazz trumpeter Freddie Jones was smartly performed by poet Fran Carris while he riffed and swooned on the horn. It all ended with Middle Eastern rhythms taking us through the ceremonial New Year gates, newly adorned with bright paint and fabulous cloth drapes for the opening by Chad Evans.
Babies and business concerns meant American Tradition of the Goddess had to step back from the food service, so Julia Schloss and a great group of volunteers stepped in to create The Splendid Table: A Feast of Breads, Fruits and Nuts. Many attendees brought baked goods from home to share. Father Winter looked amazing for his photos and the new lobby character Baba Yaga was enthusiastically received. The Wyld Professor sparked the crowd in his wild costume. Everybody loved guest saxophonist Lee Schloss sitting in with the lobby band tao jonesin.
But it was a difficult year for me as producer. I had to face it: the event was just too large for me to manage so many volunteers alone. And the finances were too much of a strain. Every year I worried endlessly on how we’d stay in the black. Doing a big event on a dime was just too much stress. So was working so many unpaid hours. At best I could go on another year. Or… I could become an official tax-exempt 501c3 non-profit and hope to get corporate donations and grants.
I’d contemplated this for many years. But the investment it would take – hundreds of hours of work and classes, about $2000 in lawyer, accountant and filing fees and – had put me off. Yet the event was too much to walk away from. We were a family. People depended on us as a part of their spiritual growth. Performers and rituals had been gaining such depth. It had to go on. I conferred with the core and made a commitment: 10 more years of SolstiCelebrations for a total of 25 years.
Photo Essay
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