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Some older Blog entries ?
Dec 22 2010
Our Full moon Fire, Dance and Drum night last night was bigger
than ever... yesterdays heavy rain went
away and the weather cleared for us (this tells me the gods &
goddeses and still happy with our efforts) ... the clouds
cleared for a bit so we could see the lunar eclipse, and it
looked lovely... about 30 of us had a lovely mid summer ritual
(thanks Spiral & Orion)... all our friends came out to play and
many new faces came and had enjoyed the night... our new
percussion toys went down well... we drummed, spun some fire,
danced and chatted... what more can one want
Dec 18
2010
Kiwiburn is keeping me really busy, I have purchased almost
everything required for the Pirate Ship, I have purchased or
made most of the stuff for the Greeters station (as I am also
organising that) and our Pagan Camp is starting to come
togeather, I have one big list with everything on it, much of it
is ticked, of course the biggest job 'The Pirate Ship Build' has
still not been started, that is scheduled for next week. Our
Pagan Camp at Kiwiburn will provide a Pagan friendly drop in
zone, we are not out to convert anybody, but we will answer
questions and run some workshops, it will also provide a Kitchen
resource centre for any of our friends who are lacking in some
of the camp kitchen requirements, we plan to offer team meals
for those who wish to join.
Dec 13
2010
Yesterday I attended my first Meeting with the "Guardian Elm
Circle" in Albert park, these are a lovely bunch of young (and not so young)
pagans who have formed in Auckland. (You can find them on Facebook and on the web). They had a Wicca lesson that was well
put together and nicely presented and I am happy to recommend
them to others, especially the younger kids. This was
followed by my first Inquisitive Witches Meetup, this group is
madeup of many of the same people and again there was a lovely
energy and some good stuff was discussed by the group. They will
be meeting on the second Sunday of the month from now on. Now
that Raven has been removed from this group there is a much
nicer and friendly energy happening.
Dec 12
2010 After discussions with a number of people I am looking to do
another Mid Winter Magick Earth Festival (MEF) at Waitawheta and
a Beltane one at a new venue near Glorit (just north of
Auckland) in 2011. Easter 2012 will be another Easter one at
Waitawheta. We will also do one in Northland if we can find a
suitable venue.
Dec 11
2010
Again Helensville provided us a good mixture of regular
customers and fresh new faces, the town now boasts it's own
lovely little healing and crystal shop called "The Healing Heart
of Helensville" and it is run by some familiar faces from the
area. Friday night we had a great little drum circle that
created some fun beats and introduced some more people to the
benefits of drumming. It's great to see how much a newbie can
get from our simple drum circle workshop and how quickly they
can get up into the rhythm. Laughter is always a part of my
circles with newbies.
Dec 7th
2010
Time is rolling on and Kiwiburn is now "Next Month", I have
officially registered "Pagan Camp", this will be a Pagany place
to hang out and meet with like minded folks, we have been donated several comfy couches
and have been allocated a position with a big old tree for Tree
Hugging etc. We also plan to run workshops on a variety of
subjects. I think the maypole will also be erected and dancing
around it encouraged. For my friends who don't have all their cooking
equipment it will also be a kitchen resource centre, please let
me know if you wish to join in. The Pirate Ship design has
been completed and I have been busy buying life jackets, timber,
nails and etc, construction will start soon, I hope to have her
finished before Christmas as my January has now got really busy.
Dec 6th
2010
Holding this show in Paeroa would give 'The Family' a last
chance excuse to get together for the year, Saturday night was
also used as a celebration for Edwards birthday, this meant we
all sat around, chatted, drank and ate too much, pretty normal
really. On Sunday a couple of car loads of of our MEF family
came in and spent the day with us, we even arranged a couple of
off the cuff workshops for them. I am really lucky to have such
an awesome pagan / spiritual family and I love them all. Of
course our MEF family is also pretty amazing and has such a
loving energy in the group.
Nov 29
2010
Tirau is a town where many people stop and stretch their legs or
get a coffee on their way elsewhere, that's why we have had our
fair in the middle of town for 3 years now. Again the days got
off to a good start with a mixture of locals and passes by, as
usual a number of our regular customers either tracked us down
or just happened to be driving past and stopped. On Saturday
night our drum circle took our chairs out onto the footpath and
we got plenty of encouragement from cars and trucks passing by.
Afterwards we adjourned to the pub next door for a chat and a
couple of beverages. While talking about Kiwiburn it came out
that Warren who has been very helpful with the hall booking etc
is the big brother of my mate Mango Rich and has many family in
Mangakino and knows all the fire brigade members who help our
Kiwiburn very well, NZ is truly a county with only 2 degrees of
separation.... again the stall holders told me they want to
return to Tirau so we have booked March 12-13
Nov 24
2010
We have a facebook page "Fire and Drum nights" and it will have
details about other Fire and Drum events we facilitate during
the year around the country.
Nov 23
2010
I arrived early and enjoyed my pizza and before long unfamiliar
faces started arriving, many of them set out their blankets
around the edge. I soon had a small group of 8 newbie drummers
enjoying the drum beats they were creating. As the night wore on
many familiar faces came and joined in the festivities, some I
had not seen in ages. At least 1 group used a corner of the park
for a small ritual and another friend was celebrating his
birthday. Some of our experienced drum friends helped create
some strong beats and our fire friends, including some out of
towners, put on a great show, before I knew it the security
guard was there to remind us it was 11pm and to move our cars so
he could lock the car park. Thanks to everybody who joined in
and helped to make it a great night and extra thanks to the
majority of you took who cleaned up their own rubbish. Roll on
December...
Nov 21
2010
Western springs saw a good number of our Auckland pagan friends
come out of the woodwork and attend the show, it was good to
have a quick chat to them in between our many other customers. I
passed on the sad news about the demise of Natures Magick and
the NZ Pagan festival, but these sort of things have happened
before and change is a part of life. I now have 3 small shows I
am organising in Tirau, Paeroa and Helensville over the next 3
weekends so I am flat out putting out signage, organising
advertising etc etc.. oh and tomorrow night is our next Full
Moon Fire and Drum night and it seems that more and more people
are hearing about it... good stuff.
Nov 14
2010
Pebbles & Potions has been going for over 11 years now and in
Whangarei this weekend among our many customers was a mum with
her teen age daughter and they admitted they have been buying
our crystals since she was very young, they both left happy with
more interesting crystals for their collection. Another had been
broke when he first saw us last time but had saved his money
since then and purchased several good books to help him with his
studies, It reminded me of the volume and loyalty of these
regular customers and it made my good day even better. On
Saturday night I did some drumming in the park and taught a
couple more
drummers who enjoyed their night and who would like to do more
drum circle stuff. I also chatted to a couple of
local pagans about organising some Magick Earth type events up in
Northland and we hope that we can make something happen next
year.
Nov 9
2010
I would like to thank all those
who came to our Kiwiburn newbie BBQ, it was lots of
fun, 30+ peeps and I talked to a dozen newbies, they all seemed
to have a good handle on the basics but they still had lots of
good questions. Special thanks to our Fire Friends Kelly & Heidi
who entered the 'Bake off' competition with home made fudge,
fruit cake and Banana cake for all to share and judge (I thought
it was to close to call a winner). In true Burner style lots of
sharing of food and drinks ensured. We finished the night with
some fire spinning with our Fire Friends. Thanks also to the
Weather Gods who gave us a clear and fine afternoon & evening
and my Parking Goddess who arranged for me to park the van with
all the gear right next to the park when others were driving
around in circles looking for one.
Nov 3
2010
The Hamilton gardens are always beautiful and shows there are
always lovely, setup on Friday gives us the chance to catch up
with many fellow stall holders we have not seen for a while as
well as a chance to wander the many different gardens. As usual
Saturday morning starts with me leading a simple opening
ceremony in a lovely spot on the grass beside the lake before we
grab some hugs and then head off in for a busy day. Saturday
night we headed back to the lake for some drumming. Sunday was
another beautiful day in paradise and we enjoyed chatting with
our customers.
Oct 26
2010
It was great to be back in Taupo, it was a new venue for us in a
lovely school hall, several familiar faces came in along with
many new faces. Many of our friends were also down at the park
with the Tinkers and Traders fair, we joined them for a small
drum circle on Sunday and Monday nights along with some fire
spinning. On Saturday night I went for a walk down to the hot
stream for a soak and came across still more of my friends, the
weather was beautiful and what a great weekend all round. I hear
that despite the absence of many regulars the full moon drumming
at Tahaki reserve went well and much fun and laughter was had by
all.
Oct 20
2010
The Tauranga Gem and Mineral club is the best and friendliest in
the country and we always love catching up with our friends
there. Lots of people came thru each day to see a very large
array of rocks and minerals. It was also good to see a several
spiritual and new age stalls including a clairvoyant and massage
therapist down our end of the hall.
Oct 11
2010
Another weekend, another show, but also another bunch of lovely
customers coming to see us and then finally leaving after having
found something special. I really enjoy these chances to chat
with our customers. On the way back, I stopped at Mission
Bay to attend the regular Sunday Fire Night, this was also an
International Memorial Spin for 'Burning Dan' event. We had a
great night of fire and LED spinning. I saw a really neat Kite
out flying in the night with lots of LED lights on it.... maybe
after I build some of my other projects I will build one of
those.
Oct 7
2010
More work on
the web site, adding lots of pictures and new pages. Last nights
Talking stick moot talk "A short history of Medieval Witchcraft'
was both well attended and very interesting. Riell Greyeyes
originally hails from Hungary. She moved to the UK in 1990s
where she studied Philosophy and Theology. She is a practitioner
of many years and a medieval scholar. She is also both an
interesting and passionate speaker, I now have a better
understanding of how many ideas and events connected together to
bring us to where we are now. I have decided to try this lighter
Olive colour instead of the harsh black, we will see what I
think of it after a couple of weeks.
Oct 6
2010
Pakuranga,
and this time we shared the centre of the main room with our
friends from Beachaven Books. Our big Salt lamp display gave off
a lovely warm glow and attracted lots of interest and sales,
also our latest shipment from the US also included some new cast
iron Cauldrons and jewellery that I am still sorting thru. We
also now have good stocks of White sage smudge sticks and
Frankincense Resin. New stocks of smaller Singing bowls and a
full size range of Tingshas from Tibet arrived yesterday.
Oct 2
2010
With new
stock of
Crystals and
Bumper
Stickers I decided it was time to add some new pages
to the web site listing so you can see how big a range we now
have.
Sept 26
2010
Saturday
morning was our first time to setout our new Amethyst Crystal
circle, 20kg's can go along way in a circle. Some fresh new
faces come into the show and I was able to clarify some thoughts
they had on witchcraft and drumming. That night we had a nice
little group of mostly novice drummers but everybody passed
"Drum 101 basics" and we had some great drumming. Sunday was
quieter but also a good chance for me to get a Reflexology
treatment on my feet, I was also surprised to see and old friend
pop in because she was looking into getting into crystals, this
small world does not surprise me anymore.
We now have a
Yahoo group
Drum Circle Auckland
to help
spread the Drum beat. Initially it is Auckland based but as I
travel the country we would like to see it grow. This is our new
channel to get the drum beats out there and we will notify group
members of what is happening.
Sept 24
2010
Well despite
the weeks of rain before hand the night was clear and a lovely
blue (except for a couple of drizzly patches) and the wind
dropped to make it safe for fire spinning. We started the night
with half a dozen newbie drummers who passed their drum 101
workshop and seemed to enjoy themselves, several more of our
experienced drummer friends showed up to give us all a night of
good beats to dance and spin to. Our candle circle was a victim
of the breeze (they kept blowing out) but the stage floor was
pretty fun of people sitting around and enjoying themselves. The
ground was mushy but it takes more than that to stop our serious
Fire Performers, It was also a night to break in at least 1 new
fire performer and some new fire toys, thank you to all those
who came and made such a great night of it all.
Sept 22
2010
Last
night was an emergency Magick Earth Committee meeting, first up
the Mangaweka festival is lacking numbers and may have to be
cancelled. We hope the get the numbers they require to hold the
event. Secondly Polly announced that she has had enough and is pulling the plug on
Magick Earth after our Easter 2011 event in Waitawheta.
But have no fear, she has given us permission to carry on with our awesome MEF
events up here exactly the same, but without the Magick Earth
name and logo. So it will be business as usual up here for our
MEF family, for many of us MEF is what helps us to live in this
default world.
I have booked our lovely Waitawheta site
for Easter 2011, 2012 and 2013, as well as looking at another
date a bit later in the year, perhaps Hecate's festival will return or
maybe Beltane, instead of the Mid winter festival.
Sept 17
2010
I have
decided to get involved with the organisers of Jambalaya, a
music and
dance festival that is jam-packed with international and
national acts, top international dancers, workshops, theatre
shows, music & circus performers, market stalls, kids program
and
street performance. I will be creating a healing zone there so
if you want to be a part of it please contact me, Note: the
festival has great camping facilities for you to take advantage
of.
Sept 14
2010
Well I guess
I can now add the term "As seen of TV" to both myself and my big
drum "Abby". The TV documentary "How the Other Half lives" took
a look into the NZ Pagan scene, and I was one of those happy to
stand up and show people in the Default World some of what we
get up to. The filming was heaps of fun and most importantly
Mark Ellis and the crew were respectful at the right times,
while joining in the lovely atmosphere created on the night.
Thanks to Tracey and the others who also took part... now I will
just wait for my agent in Hollywood to call... lol...
Sept 13
2010
It was a damp
weekend all around NZ but we had plenty of smiling faces in the
Palmerston North convention centre for the "Total Wellbeing
Expo". Like all the towns we visit many of our regulars came
along including those who lived an hour or two further south.
Actually thinking on it, we enjoy all the towns we visit and the
stall holders combine to create a nice warm and friendly
atmosphere that I feel is important in any kind of spiritual
show.
Sept 6
2010
The NZ National
Rock & Mineral show was put on by my club, "North Shore" in
Henderson so I had to have a stall there, we spent all day Thursday setting it up, then
we had 3 days of the biggest
Rock show in Auckland for many years, many of our fellow Rock
nuts also had a stall there, hence I spent lots of time and
money at their stalls. Some personal pieces for me, some new
stock and my Crystal circle's now have an additional 3 kgs of Quartz
points and 20 kgs of Amethyst points
(enough for a full Amethyst circle). As always there were lovely customers to
chat with, I had
a nice chat to a mum & her daughter about quartz and
crystal circles, she told me she had read something about them
on the web.... oh.... it turns out it was here on my web site, chalk up somebody else who has
enjoyed reading my
web site... yeah.
Aug 25
2010
Comming up on
TV1.... Monday Sept 13 at 8pm is the screening of the
Documentary "How the Other Half lives" featuring pagans and
Witches from around the country. We all came together to
celebrate and cast some light on Our Path and what it means to
us. I wanted it to go well and the best way to help achieve that
is to get involved. Many of us were old friends but as usual we
also got to meet some new ones. We had a great time and as
always I learnt something new, I think it helped that although
it is 'Our way of life' we don't take ourselves 'Too seriously'. The
team filming it were respectful and good sensible questions were
asked, hopefully the editing will produce a result we can be
proud of.
Aug 24 2010
The Gods
provided us with a lovely night.... clear skies... a nice moon
with a huge ring around it... The people of Auckland provided us
with lots of lovely drummers.... fire performers and belly
dancers.... thank you to all that came along and shared their
energy in our special community... I got to have my first play
with my new Camera (last one got stolen) and managed to get some
video of Sharleen & Patrick spinning as well as some photo's of
the drummers. Once I get used to how it works I will be able to
post up more photo's and video. On a side note It was Olivers
Birthday so Delphine baked a cake for us to share... yummy...
Aug 22 2010
It has been
many years since we have been to Browns Bay and it's very close
to home so we welcomed the chance to talk to the locals and
tempt them with our array of beautiful products. Despite initial
light rain the day cleared and a good number of people found us
in the hall and they seemed to enjoy the workshops and
interesting array of stall holders on show. Yes I would be happy
to return next year.
Aug 13 2010
I have been
spring cleaning around the place and so it seemed only logical
to do some spring cleaning on the website. After searching
around I found a new font that is easier to read and more
'modern' looking so I have
converted the pages over to it, I hope you all like it.
Aug 10 2010
This trip to Rotorua was as much fun as our one earlier this
year, plenty of familiar faces coming in to check out the show
and as always some great workshops to interest the customers in
between getting their reading or healing and lovely product
stands to browse. One of our friends who makes lovely staffs and
wands came in with some awesome staffs for me and 2 of my pagan
sisters and left with a bag full of crystals to make some more
unique pieces. If a beautiful staff or wand is on your wish list come and
have a chat with us. We are also going to run some workshops
where you will be able to make your own American Indian drum.
Aug 2 2010
This was our fifth visit (I think) to Te Kuiti and like
everywhere else we have built up a collection of regular faces
who we love to see and chat with. Saturday was a fine but very
cold morning, during setup my windscreen iced back up, Sunday
was a bit wetter but good numbers of locals ignored the weather
and came along to the show. There were fewer than normal stalls
with many stall holders pulling out in the lead up and even on
Saturday morning, this made it even better for those of us who
did make the effort and we look forward to our return next year.
July 27 2010
At 6pm I got a call from Chewy "I guess it's cancelled with this
rain", to which I replied "I am leaving soon and we will be on anyway"...
guess what... the weather cleared up for us to have a lovely night and to see
the Moon in all her beauty... guess this is another reminder
that we are on the right track.... thanks Chewy & Bex for bringing us
some real African drummers, they helped our beginner drummers make some
great beats. The regular Auckland fire crew didn't show but we
had some good fire and LED spinning anyway, several times the
photographers did out number the fire spinners.
July 25 2010
Orewa is our local show, the space in the theatre is tight and
this time we had a new spot where our stall was long and skinny. The weather was cool but fine and
we saw many of our local customers as well as a number of our
pagan family over the 2 days. We will be returning in January
for our regular summer Orewa show.
July 19 2010
Another Magick Earth event has come and gone... some of the
facebook messages:
Had The Most AWESOME weekend ever! Met many
wonderful people, hugged them all, gave 12 massages, saw and
experienced and talked about things that will stay in my mind
for many years, sang, danced, did laughter yoga, Medieval
combat, drumming, made many awesome friends and cant wait to do
it again soon! Love and hugs to all
Hi, my name is xxxxxxxxx. I'm a MEF addict.
What an amazing weekend, spent in the hinterland
of Kaimai Ranges. New friends, some lights turned on, community
living, making music, dance and entertainment, nature, rain and
sunshine, rituals and chanting. Fantastic. Blessings to all the
new friends I have made and blessings to all the older friends
reacquainted xxx
You have
done your job well. I am now a MEF addict to.
Still bouncing.
had a good time at mef i hope everyone had a good time and i
wanna say thank you to everyone there for everything i love you
all
WOW What an awesome weekend MEF rocks!!!!! Made
some cool new friends and caught up with ones I have not seen
for a while.
Back from Magick earth, awesome weekend,
reconnected with friends, made new ones. Always love being
there. Its a pity we cant have one every weekend
omg mef rocked thanks to everyone there and for all the things
that we learnt cant believe its been a year and a bit since i
went to the last moot but it shows that pagans are family no
mater what and you cant go there with expectations or views of
what things should be
yup i was wary last year because i wasn’t use to
being surrounded by other pagans i had online pagan friends but
you guys helped me realise that i was a part of a warm loving
environment
MEFs rule hun always have and they seem to get
better every time
July 5 2010
The Quest of Paeroa's new shop was the venue for our small fair
with most of 'The Family' attending, the high ceiling and ample
natural light provide a lovely energy in this new venue for us,
situated in the middle of town we get a lot more passing traffic
coming in.
Continued problems with our adverts in the local papers didn't
help attendance but we still feel encouraged to return in
summer, probably early December.
June 27 2010
This was the First Birthday of our Full Moon Fire, Dance and
Drums events. The weather gods gave us a lovely night with a big
moon to perform under, a collection of old and new faces came
and helped us to rock up some lovely drum energy for the dancers
and fire performers to move to. Many thanks to all those
who came and help make it so much fun, and we finished it all
with a partial Lunar Eclipse.... how cool was that...
June 21 2010
For those who know about the Burningman festival, I have been
appointed one of the new Regional representatives here in NZ for
the festival by the organisers back in the US. This means I will
continue to promote the festival but now with official
bl;essings and help. I am also a member of the organising
committee for the NZ regional festival 'Kiwiburn' and we have an
even bigger and better event planned for late Jan 2011...
see
www.kiwiburn.com ... lets start getting excited.
The weather was not the best and a few people stayed away from
the Mt Albert show until sunday afternoon when the sky cleared
and we got busy. Again it is one of those shows where certain
locals are guaranteed to come along, have a look at what's new
and a chat. The quiet saturday gave me the chance to spend time
discussing things with customers and they left with some ideas
to try out. Now it's time to get organised for our next Full
Moon at Tahaki reserve.
June 7 2010
We have missed recent Mind Body and Spirit shows in Gisborne
because of our commitments to Magick Earth, this year we ensured
that we would be back to catch up with our Gisborne friends and
it was well worth the effort. Good numbers of people attended
the show over the two days and we chatted to many familiar
faces. Highlight of the weekend was spending an hour or so with
some of my old friends in an impromptu hands on crystal circle
building workshop at the end of the day.
May 30 2010
The weather gods gave us a lovely
night to enjoy the Full Moon here in Auckland, no rain, no wind,
an almost cloudless sky and a big round moon to bathe us all in.
Some of our Hamilton friends made the big trip up to play with
us, bringing friends, fire toys and drums. Plenty of regular
faces were visable and there were some new faces enjoying the
night, thank you to all who came and shared their beautiful
energy. FYI The next one is also Winter Solstice.
May 17 2010
The Whangarei shows always have a lovely energy and this was no
exception, most of our regular friends and customers were there
and we were very busy on Saturday morning. Things got a bit
quieter later in the day and Sunday was more slow and steady. I
had received a suggestion from one of our regular customers that
we have a bit of a drum circle on Saturday night and so this
message was passed on to people who showed an interest in the Djembie's on my stand, in the end we had nine of us, as most had
never drummed before we started with a drum circle basics
workshop and they all loved it and we soon had some great
rhythms happening, I also started the idea of rotating around
the different drums available so we all got to play on a range
of different drums. The group swapped phone numbers and I
suggested they get together for drum circle fun on at least a
monthly basis, if you are interested contact me and I will pass
your details on.
May 10 2010
Another 1 day show in a new town, this time Drury (south
Auckland), many of the usual stall holders setup in the small
hall behind the shops and a few faces that I recognised came in
the door. We enjoyed ourselves and generally had a customer to
talk to so we didn't feel lonely. I will be happy to return here
next year, perhaps not so close to the Pukekohe show just down
the road next time.
May 3 2010
Saturday & Sunday - The New Spirit Festival in Albany is the
'Big one' for the year and again we had good numbers at the
show. Many people came along and said 'Hey I know you from Prana',
a reminder that you can never escape from your customers, but
rest assured they were all happy customers. We also had many of
our Pagan friends come along and say hello, along with a big
group of our regular customers including a lady who made a point
of coming to tell me that the crystals we picked for her child
had been successful in helping them to sleep. I love a happy
ending.
Friday - We headed down to Taupri to help Tracey and Craig & co
set things up for a lovely ritual that was being filmed as part
of a TV doco on 'how the other half lives'. As usual Tracey was
panicking but with the help of her friends she had it all under
control. The evening went off wonderfully and Misty and I had
great fun providing the drumming. Unfortunately I had to head
off after the ritual and before the feast as I had to get back
to Auckland for the weekends big show. Thanks to all who came
along and shared the evening with us.
Thursday night - It is no longer summer and although the night
was fine and clear, the grass was damp with dew, and it was a
reduced group who showed up for a great night, some of our
friends from Hamiltron came up to join with us for the "Full
Moon Fire & Drums". We are still receiving good interest and
feedback about this event so we will continue with them thru the
winter. Thanks to those who came along and w/e hope to see you
there at our next full moon.
Apr 28 2010
A busy day on the keyboard adding several new pages of
information about Magick Earth and it's events and doing a complete reorganisation of the existing pages. I hope that it is simpler
for you to find what you want.
Apr 25 2010
Saturday was a one day show in Onehunga, a new area for me, and
lots of new faces showed themselves. The reduced setup time
resulted in a smaller stall than usual but I still managed to
get all the books, oracle cards, bowls on the tables along with
a big Crystal display to fit on 4 tables. We have also spent
lots of time over the last week planning new shows and updating
the websites etc with a bigger than ever schedule of shows
between now and the end of the year. Next weekend is the towns
biggest Mind Body Spirit festival, the New Spirit Festival at
the Albany Stadium. Due to the high cost of stalls I will only
have 3 tables but I am working out how to get the maximum amount
of my stock into the limited space. Looking forward to seeing
many of you there.
Apr 18 2010
Helensville is a small rural type town and we decided to
continue our Friday & Saturday market plan as Sunday is pretty
quiet around here. I was reasonably pleased with the numbers who
came thru the doors on Friday and the locals seem happy to have
us their on a regular yearly basis. I had several locals who
wanted to chat about 'what it was to be a pagan' and took the
time to discuss with them about how 'Pagan' means different
things to different people and that there are some good
opportunities for meeting like minded souls at the 'Talking
Stick Moots' and 'Magick Earth Festivals'. I am always happy to
chat about Pagan thoughts and encourage others to take a step
out of the 'broom closet' and into the real world. You don't
have to be as 'out there' as me with the big witch on her
broomstick on the side of the trailer but people out there are
becoming a bit more accepting these days.
Our Friday night drum circle had only half a dozen of us sitting
around but numbers don't matter to me, I just want to get the
message about Drum Circles out there and help get people into
the healing and the power that flows from it.
Apr 12 2010
We have been coming to Pukekohe for many years now and always a
lovely energy fills the hall, this was no exception. Our regular
customers found time to come along and browse our large range of
products and leave with some thing special. Interest in Oracle
cards was high and we sold a number of these to first timers
looking for a way to add some more 'soft fluffy positives' to
their lives on a regular basis.
Apr 6th 2010
Prana and Paradise are two words that belong together, this
Easter mini festival again featured the drum energy of Chris
Berry teaching a group how African Dance and Drum work together
in a healing energy. Again our Prana family was expanded with
the addition of lovely new people. I ran a couple of amazing
drum workshops in the cave where we joined our quiet drumming
with a diji, a flute and some of my Tibetan singing bowls, the
glow worms showed their approval by staying on and I am happy
that the spirits residing there enjoyed our concert.
Mar 31 2010
Tuesday night was a Blue Moon (the second Full Moon in a
calendar month) and the Final Tuesday fire night (with Marky and
Pauly deciding to give it a rest after 12 years). Well there
were approx 150 people there and the night went off big time.
The weather gods were on our side with no clouds to hide the
lovely moon. We had more drummers than ever come and spank some
skin to give the fire performers a beat to dance to. There were
plenty of fire performers with up to a dozen burning at any one
time and some LED spinners as well.
A BIG thank you goes out to all of you who came along and helped
celebrate this night...
Mar 29 2010
Pakuranga is an old regular show but it seems for some unknown
reason many of our regular customers didn't show up and it was a
quiet show for all stall holders with us spending far to much
time talking to each other instead of customers, oh well that's
the way things go sometimes.
Mar 22 2010
Palmerston North can be cold, but there people there have warm
hearts, this year we were there a few weeks later so our
university friends were back in town to come and visit us. With
the absence of Beachaven books I took their place at the back of
the room with a bigger than even display of our lovely stock. On
the way down I visited several crystal wholesalers and spent far
too much buying many of their newly arrived pieces to grace the
table over the coming shows. I like to make it a point to always
personally select the crystals to ensure that I get the best of
what they have, and if it is not good enough then I will wait
till another time. We now have more unusual crystals than ever
before so come and check them out.
Mar 15 2010
No show but lots I thought I should let you all know about....
I have just had my first weekend at home since Christmas, shock
horror.... just as well I have Brendon to look after the place
when I am away. I decided that I couldn't afford to go to Womad,
much as I would have liked, well lets see about next year.
Instead I went to nieces birthday skate party.... yes I am an
old skater boy....
We have decided that the 11 hour trip to Levin for the next
Magick Earth festival is too much for Kerry, Daniel and I so we
will be going to the Coromandel for our Easter and joining with
our Prana family. Chris Berry will also be there for the amazing
drumming / healing / dancing workshops so we look forward to
jamming with him around the drum circle again.
I have had some fun computer issues and they have caused me to
lose some data and lots of time but all is now sorted, I have a
(cheap) shiny new fast laptop (for the first time ever) and
going forward things will be even better.
I have decided to take ownership of
www.drumcircle.co.nz
and we will be doing more with our drum circles around the
country. Initially I have just linked it to the existing drum
circle page but I plan to grow it into it's own living entity
creating lots of healing energy and fun times.
On the sad side our friend, supplier and fellow crystal lover
Ron Abbott passed away suddenly and it was a reminder of how
mortal we all are, it was also the first anniversary of mum
passing over.... Kerry and I went to Palmerston North for the
funeral and were surprised to see how many of our rock hound
friends from around the country we saw there. We will miss you
mate.... and your stories.....
Another positive was that while I was at the funeral Russell
Ireland (aka raven heathen) launched another nasty attack on me thru facebook, but
my pagan friends soon closed him down and removed him from the
group. In the past they have told me they are watching my back
and it is nice to see they don't let their guard down.
Mar 8 2010
Our friend Kay has a lovely shop in Paeroa and has recently
moved to bigger premises (halfway thru town on the left as you
go south). The new shop has room for running workshops and drum
circles and we have lots of new thoughts to ponder on how to
unleash the full potential of the place, it is an old cinema
with a very high ceiling but a far wall full of windows so it
gets a huge amount of natural light. The rear faces the domain
with good access and plenty of parking, stay tuned for more
developments on this over the next year.
Our Paeroa show had disappointing attendance, this was not
helped by the local newspapers not running our advert (as a
result we are not paying their bill, this allowed us to refund
stall holders their half of the money that was allocated to the
newspaper advertising), the positive side was some brain
storming on saturday encouraged us to work with the locals more
getting them to help us with free advertising, we even got free
radio advertising and some people heard it and came to the show.
Mar 1 2010
We had not been to Alexandra park for several years and this
time instead of the horse stalls we were up in the convention
centre. A large selection of stalls was present offering lots of
different products and people to see for advice, healing etc. We
enjoyed ourselves and will be happy to return again.
This was our biggest Full Moon Fire, Drum and Dance celebration
yet, the drummers moved out onto the middle of the grassed area
where we could watch the moon come up over the mountain while
also watching our many fire friends strut their stuff. Bex and
Ash also entertained us with their new toys..... Fire Whips....
awesome.... I enjoyed swapping between drumming, spinning fire
and chatting with friends.....
Feb 24 2010
It has been several years since we have been to Rotorua, and we
loved the chance to return, this time we were in the Sound shell
by the lake. Lots of people including many of our local friends
called in to shop. We made a couple of interesting connections,
one is a local guy who makes lovely staff's and we have given
him some crystals to see what he can come up with. All in all a
great weekend was had by us, we will be back....
Feb 15 2010
It had been about 5 years since the last NZ Pagan festival and
so nobody was sure what to expect, the tight financial situation
put some people off, but we had a good mix of regulars and new
faces present. Showers and wind provided an occasional damping
of spirits but there was too much positive energy from the
participants to kill the lovely vibe. The rituals were enjoyable
and I picked up a couple of good ideas, one was a very simple
way to give all participants some special reminders of the
elements used in the ceremony and mementoes to take home with
them. The market place had more familiar faces and it was great
to catch up with old friends and fellow pagans. I can now put a
few more names to some of the people I had previously only
communicated with online. Next years festival has already been
set, same place (Morrinsville), February 18-21.
Feb 9 2010
The NZ Juggling convention is an event that attracts many
overseas visitors as well as locals, this time we were in Levin.
These circus / Juggling people have a strong sense of community
and it is very easy to join their ranks by simply sharing that
community ethos. Although we had a stall there we were more
concerned with networking and learning. Lots of workshops and an
amazing public show was put together for Saturday night, we were
invited to find some drummers and provide music for the opening
act, we had a great time and the audience loved it, stomping and
clapping to our drum beat, like us they didn't want to stop.
Feb 2 2010
Kiwiburn is our favorite festival and a truly special
place (Prana is the second best). We arrived on Monday to help with
camp setup etc. This years theme was based on the four elements
(Earth, Air, Fire and Water) and we saw plenty of all of them
over the week. This years Man had arms that moved up and down
and he was taller than ever. We had more participants than ever
before (and beyond most of our expectations) and a great
selection of theme camps for people to enjoy. Many of my friends
became first time 'Burners' and most of them have already vowed
to return next year. We had a practice burn on saturday night of
'Norse man' (a special creation of Otto von Danger from the
USA). Sunday night was the burn of 'The Man' and then 'The
Temple' (a large 3 story structure) separately. We were honored
with the presence of two officials who are employed by
Burningman USA, (Maid Marion and Megs) these two lovely ladies had a great
time and I am confident they will not forget us down here very
quickly. It is impressive how many people in the Burningman
scene overseas know of Kiwiburn and want to come here for it.
Our energy is huge despite our smaller physical size.
Jan 25 2010
We spent several days helping to setup things at the Taupo
International Jousting Tourney, the rain was heavy and wet and
it was a great team building exercise to spend hours in the rain
digging moats and trenches to try and save the period
encampments, then things got even worse and we were all wet and
still it rained and the water wasn't soaking into the ground. It
must be hard to keep the faith when your beautiful period tent
has a river over 300mm deep flowing thru it. Despite all this
the camps looked great when the public arrived and Saturday only
had a couple of showers and Sunday was beautiful. We had a great
time running a drum circle workshop each day using a few drums
and a dozen plastic paint buckets.... and we had lots of
happy participants. Nic also put on a great evening of
entertainment on Saturday night and we did some great drumming
and fire spinning. There are lots of drummers, dancers, fire
spinners and pagans within the re-enactor clubs and they are
also very friendly and helpful.
Jan 19 2010
We love the people in New Plymouth (like many other towns)
unfortunately due to a stuff up the organiser got the venue
wrong in most of his advertising. the This resulted in
many people not even knowing that the show was on and so we
missed many of our customers. As always we did meet some lovely
new customers and "Festival of lights" was lovely as always and
a good reason for us to schedule the show in town when we can
enjoy these sights and sounds.
Jan 11 2010
We were "first timers" to the Parihaka Peace Festival but the
number of our friends who seemed to follow us from Prana helped
make us feel at home. The lovely crew putting the festival
together were very helpful in all matters. During the 3 days
customers strolled by and with 3 stages of various sizes I was
able to find music that suited me during the evenings. We were
also able to organise some fire spinning on saturday night so 3
newbies could have their first fire spin.... they had a great
time and are now converted. I also had some fun building a
crystal circle and for the first time a crystal spiral one
evening with an Australian crystal lover. One of the standouts
was the chance to see how one man was taking drumming to the
kids using plastic buckets and simple sticks, a very low budget
way to get the message across and something I will be "playing"
with further. True to the weather forcast sundays wind got even
stronger and in the evening after most had packed down we were
treated to a heavy downpour and serious lightning show that
stopped the festival and forced us all under cover.
Jan 6 2010
Well we were once again happily living the "Prana life" over the
new year, 6 days of awesome Prana energy, it is so good for the
complete Mind, Body and Soul. Converted some more of our friends
to it's wonders. We caught up with heaps of our Prana family and
made some lovely new friends (including one we named the
"Crystal Goddess", this sweetheart is only fairly new to
crystals but she has a lovely energy and a beautiful smile, she
made me my new necklace and will be doing more jewellery for
me). Again we had some amazing drum and dance nights in the big
teepee with a different energy level and type each night, from "rockin
along" to "wild jungle beats" (on news year) to "Shamanic" (the
next night) and we didn't get much sleep, my legs are still sore
from dancing and shoulders sore from drumming... but I worked
really hard to get that pain. Some lovely fire dancing was done
on the beach with many of our fire friends. Our daily drum
circle workshops were resumed by popular request and we
converted more people to the wonders of drumming. The sun stayed
on us until packup day when the heavens echoed our sadness and
we got cleansed by the tears of the gods falling from the sky.
Dec 28 2009
Well I hope you all had a great time, whatever you may call it.
We spent our time with family and friends. The way that the
weather co-operated (a small group of us stayed out under the
stars on friday night creating a special memory) and special
people just showed up while we were enjoying our time at Piha
on saturday tells me that we are on the right path. I am now
looking forward to really getting into the festival season......
and meeting more of my special festival family members.... roll
on summer....
Dec 23 2009
It was a last minute decision to hold a simple Summer Solstice
ritual in conjunction with our regular Tuesday Fire night. I
figured that the Sun God is probably one of the most apt ones
for a Fire Spinner to work with. Several of our Pagan friends
joined some of our Fire friends and some new friends came along
on the night and it was a lovely way to start a night of fire
spinning. Special thanks to those who came and enjoyed the
night.
Dec 20 2009
It was not a Spiritual Expo but it was a very spiritual event, I
went to the Fleetwood Mac concert on Saturday night. Danced in
the rain for 2 1/2 hours (with my drizabone on), Mick Fleetwood
is a mad crazy drummer who was having way too much fun, Lindsey
Buckingham really poured it into his guitars and sang with his
heart working up a serious sweat and Stevie Nicks, well I love
you more than ever... no flashy stage gimmicks just serious full
on music.
Dec 14 2009
Last night was the last official Sunday Mission bay fire night
as Charlie has been posted to Christchurch in his job. Most of
Auckland's Fire family came together for a fun filled day that
continued on into the night. Once it got dark a large number of
burners set their toys alight for a great display for everybody.
My big drum Abby boomed out across the park to accompany a
couple of songs before I put her away to spin some more fire. A
big thank you to all who attended and helped to give Charlie a
great send off.
Dec 12 2009
Last night was our last Thames Drum Circle for the year, to mark
the special occasion we used the lovely place that Hawkwind has
next to the river. A couple of new faces joined with familiar
faces for a lovely night. Drums, Didgeridoo, Flutes, Fire
dancers, Chanting and a central fire were all combined to create
some lovely energy.
Dec 10 2009
Last night I spent some time watching "Sensei Brian" skin a new
drum and learnt several tricks, this was a first time experience
for me and I now know several tricks to building a better drum
and fitting a tighter skin for my next drum.
Dec 7 2009
We were encouraged by our friend Nicky to join the Greenpeace
March because they wanted some noise.... we grabbed our big Drum
"Abby" and headed to Albert park. Abby's strong beat soon
attracted the drummers and drum lovers to us. The parade took us
across the park and down the hill before marching up Queen
street to Myers park. Our spare drum sticks were handed out to
those around us, including some friends we had not seen for some
time. Again the benefits of her trolley base were enjoyed with
Daniel easily pulling her around. We were positioned near the
tail of the march but were the noisiest, with our matching beat
echoing in the canyon that is the City's main street. We were
joined by some people pulling a 44 gallon drum who needed proper
drum sticks, my new rubber headed sticks were just the thing and
at one point I was playing one drum on each side of me, by the
time we reached the park my hands were numb and I was having
trouble holding the sticks but it had been a great experience
and helping to support a good cause. We enjoyed the concert in
the park for several hours before heading off. Thanks to
everybody who participated.
Nov 30 2009
Tirau is a lovely town that many people stop at
on their way north or south, this was our second year and again
we got a good selection of locals and people passing thru. We
had several stall holders that could not make this show due to
other events but I put out a large range of books, crystals and
giftware on my huge stand taking up the centre of the hall and
it attracted lots of interest. We also had a couple of new stall
holders join our group and they were happy to help create our
trademark fun healing energy in the hall. We also had several
locals who are keen on drumming and fire dancing chat to us so
we are keen to try and get some drum circle and fire dancing
action happening down there.
Saturday afternoon the rain came down and washed
out our thoughts to repeat last years effort of drumming and
dancing our way down the main street, instead we sat inside with
a newcomer and taught her drum circle basics.
Nov 23 2009
We have lots of friends up north in Whangarei and most of them
call in to see us whenever we have a show up there. Dean has
been running this November show for many years and again we got
to chat with many of our old friends as well as make some new
ones. Some stall holders didn't make the trip up this time but
there was still a good range of stalls with plenty of product
and information available.
Nov 20 2009
We have made half a dozen visits to Thames this year, in the
afternoon we spend a couple of hours with people at the
'Stepping Out' centre. These lovely people enjoy our monthly
drum sessions and have made great progress in their skill
levels, they happily start their own rhythms and enjoy taking
the beat and the energy places. They are even working to fund
their own drums so they will be able to drum when ever they want
rather than relying on me.
The evening was spent outdoors (for the first time) at the
Victoria park band rotunda and although rather breezy we all
enjoyed the different energy that is created outdoors. I took my
big drum Abby and a couple of fire staffs along to play with as
well. The drums were joined by a didgeridoo and flute and we
finished the night with a lovely chant, what a beautiful way to
spend the night.
Nov 11 2009
We were back in Mt Albert for the second time this year, numbers
thru the door were better than 6 months ago but the economic
times are still tough for all of us out there. Many of our
regulars attended and it was nice to chat to them about how
their life was working out. This was also the first time I used
my new bookcases I had built the previous week and they
certainly made setting up and packing down easier.
Oct 27 2009
I am always blown away by the
lovely people I meet at Magick Earth events and Taranaki was no
exception. The sun shone and each day
brought more networking, more learning, more fun. It was nice
not to be the organiser this time but Londa got lots of support
from those present. My Teepee stayed down due to the high winds
but my crystal circle captured several sleeping beauties and the
fire pit provided its usual central focus once the sun went
down. My new Maypole went down a treat and we had great fun
weaving 2 layers of energy filled ribbons on to it. The medieval
dancing lead by Rachael built some lovely energy and we all
danced into the circle for the main saturday night ritual (we
will be encouraging more dancing in future events). There were
some good new workshops as well as some old favorites. For all
the pictures see
http://picasaweb.google.com/magickearthnz . A big thank you
goes out to the organisers (Londa and Louise) and all those who
attended.
Oct 21 2009
We had another enjoyable morning drumming with people from the
Hauraki Stepping out centre. It is interesting to see how our
drum community there is evolving, one of the participants who
was being silly and constantly out of the beat was given a
verbal warning by the drum circle (nothing to do with me). In
the evening we adjourned to the home of one of the locals and
sat in their lounge (as it was cold and wet outside) for a very
pleasant evening of drumming and chatting.
The Hamilton Natural Health expo is a highlight of the year, the
venue is amazing and Claire always goes to a lot of effort to
ensure the atmosphere reinforces that. Stall numbers were down
but this is partly because Claire is fussy and the quality of
stall holders at her events. We were again talked into doing the
opening ceremony and the sun emerged to bath us all as we stood
on the lawn outside. Saturday night we had permission to drum
lake side and converted couple of new friends to the power of
drums and fire.
Oct 13 2009
New Lynn is rushed setup first thing in the morning but we were
open for business as the first of the people arrived just after
10am. We were at the back of the hall this time instead of our
usual spot at the front door. As is typical we had a mixture of
regular customers and new faces. I feel this is a sign that our
message and help is working and continuing to grow.
Oct 8 2009
We have been attending the Pakuranga show for many years but
unfortunately the way the hall charges keep rising we will soon
be going else where. A good selection of stall holders with a
large range of stuff, reasonable numbers of customers to keep us
fairly busy. Meet some lovely followers of the path and was able
to spend time chatting to them.
Unfortunately we were rained out of our monday night Full Moon
drumming, we have had 5 good full moons thru winter and get
rained out in spring... never mind. November will just be bigger
than ever.
Sept 29 2009
This was our second year in Belmont and even it is getting
better each time, we had a few new stall holders join us and
only Gavin was missing from our regular spiritual family.
Saturday got going after a while with a good steady stream of
attendees and we were kept busy till almost 5pm despite the
theoretical closing time of 4pm. We had a small drum circle on
saturday night but our group included 2 newbie's who really
enjoyed themselves, and this is one of the key reasons I like to
organise the drum circles. Sunday was the start of daylight
saving and a couple of our stall holders slept in along with
many of our customers but things got going later in the day and
all the stall holders seemed pretty happy.
Sept 22 2009
The trip down the coast to Ohope was pleasant (as usual) and
there was a great turn out of locals and not so locals on
the saturday, unfortunately the lovely weather on sunday
gave many the chance to do other things. Happy to return again
next year. I spent the night listening to the waves breaking on
the shore and the next morning helped a stranded camper van get
out of the soft sand nearby, Traveled back the long way checking
out some halls for new shows next year.
Sept 18 2009
Unfortunately I have had to pull the plug on Pythonfest this
year, this means I will continue to develop and promote the idea
and we will be back in 2010 for the 41st anniversary of their TV
show entering the airwaves.
Sept 6 2009
The weather gods smiled on us big time for our Full Moon
drumming nights, first up was saturday night at Mt Eden and we
got many of the regulars (some were out of the country so we
forgive them for not showing) and still more new faces (which is
always great to see). We kept a space clear in the centre of our
drum circle and our Belly dancers didn't disappoint us. Sunday
night I headed down to Hamilton Uni to join some locals down
there for several hours of enjoyable drumming, we decided the
afternoon was so good that we adjourned to the outdoors for our
drumming , Learnt a great new drum circle game that I will pass
on and a new beat to play with.
Aug 31 2009
We weren't sure what to expect with our friday & saturday show
in Helensville.... what we got was 2 lovely days with lots of
people dropping in and an awesome energy in the hall. We had our
usual family members along with Dean on the Aura camera and my
dear friend Lily taking over from Gavin as a reader. Local lady
Marie Narbey (of Pine Tree Retreat) joined us doing foot detox
and along with 8 drum virgins formed our drum circle on the
friday night where we created some great dynamic rhythms. We all
enjoyed the night so much that we are looking to organise more
Drum Circle nights in the area.
On Sunday many of us travelled down to Pukekohe for a one day
Psychic show organised by Dean. The weather and the people made
us welcome and everybody seemed to enjoy their day. I had missed
the last Pukekohe show due to Mums funeral and it was nice to
return there.
Aug 24 2009
Our Paeroa show drew people from the surrounding towns with good
numbers thru the door on both days continuing our belief that
Free Entry is the way to run things. The usual friendly family
atmosphere was enhanced by Saturday being Kay's 50th birthday so
once the show closed to the public we prepared to party with our
spiritual family.
Aug 9 2009
We went down to Hamilton for some full moon drumming at the Uni....
caught up with some friends and some new faces... they seem keen
to repeat it and move outdoors when the weather is warm and
dry.... some are also keen for a regular fire night at the Uni....
picked up a couple of new beats.... have started a book to note
them down in as I keep forgetting them.... have also got some
chanting ideas from some Facebook friends....
Aug 7 2009
We had a great
time at our Full Moon Fire and Drums.... lotza regular faces
showed up, lotza new faces showed up... lotza fire toys, lotza
led toys, lotza drumming (1 smashed bacchi)... what more can you
want... actually some of our Dancer friends have suggested
they would like to shake their booty's to our drum beats.... so
bring it on ladies.... we will set aside an area inside the drum
circle for you to let loose your moves...
Aug 3 2009
After 3 poor shows I had said I was not interested in going
back to Te Kuiti, I relented as I had convinced Dean to change
things and make it "Free Entry to all" . This made a big
difference and we had lots of lovely locals of all ages comming
into the show, really great to see and I will go back there
again.
July 21 2009
Well it seems that Paihia in winter is not all that busy.... but
as usual we did have some lovely new customers come in for a
chat and an exchange of ideas.
July 16 2009
Palmerston North was cold but the peoples hearts were pretty
warm, we saw many of our friends at the local rock and mineral
club show, lots of people attended the show and there was a
great selection of crystals on display for them to choose from.
July 8 2009
Our Full moon drum and fire night on tuesday night at Mt Eden
was great, the weather was ideal (for winter) and the moon
looked great with few clouds in the sky. We had new faces in the
drum circle and everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves. The
next day we then headed to Thames for our other full moon
drumming circle, in this smaller group we again had a mix of
regulars and new faces and soon got creating / sharing some
lovely energy. Orewa is our local mind body spirit show and this
time it was just 1 day at the community centre, we had many of
our old customers come into the show along with some new faces
and everybody seemed happy by the end of the day when we packed
up.
June 22 2009
The weekend was cool but clear and the Mt Albert show was bigger
with even more stall holders than last year, unfortunately we
did not see a corresponding growth in customers. Those that came
enjoyed themselves and the great range of readers, healers and
product stalls on offer. We are currently busy organising more
spiritual shows and drum circles for the rest of the year, see
our cumming events page for more details.
June 15 2009
Our mini Mind Body Spirit show in Kumeu went well, the small
hall was filled with lovely stall holders and beautiful energy.
Again a mixture of familiar and fresh faces attended and we had
some great chats with many of them. The cat show next door on
the sunday also allowed lots of cross pollination of attendees
June 9 2009
Well our drum circle in Thames was small but we built some
lovely energy between us all, and look forward to warmer nights
when we can get outdoors. Our full moon fire and drum circle in
Mt Eden had some regulars and some newbies who seemed to really
enjoy getting into drumming, my big drum 'Abby' got lots of use
so I have made more sets of bacchie (sticks) so we can now have
6 people standing around playing her.
June 3 2009
Magick Earth
Hollyfrost Moot - Our final numbers
were down to under 30 with some who had hoped to come unable
to get away due to various things (Dear Raewyn asked what
she could do when she told me she would not be able to
attend.... I replied how we loved her home baking.... So
Friday morning she delivered a big box of home cooked
bikkies and small cakes.... They went down well with the
troops..).
The weather gods were very
kind to us and although cool at night (the kids were ice
skating on the ice/frost on the main deck at night) we had
some lovely sun during the days and no real rain over the
weekend, enabling our growing pool of fire dancers to
perform for us each night.
The camp caretakers love to
have us back and had drawn a lovely welcome sign on the
blackboard for us, the camp also requires you to provide
your own toilet rolls but they had already placed leftover
rolls with the lovely courtesy fold in all the loos for us.
Due to the time of year we
didn't plan to use outside fires instead relying on the
heaters in the dining hall and my 2 LPG heaters brought from
home, suitable clothing and bedding / hot water bottles ment
we all kept pretty warm.
The 3 day weekend enabled us
the luxury of two whole Pagan days where we didn't have to
think about setting up camp or packing it down. Several of
our pagan friends who were unable to stay
over came down for
the day and enjoyed themselves.
For the Druidic/tree huggers
(I count myself as one of them) among us a lovely big old
tree was the centre piece of the opening ritual on Friday
and the closing ritual on Monday morning... and it received
lotza hugs, it also provided a calm relaxing spot in
contrast to my big crystal circle which was configured as an
energizing circle.
Friday night at midnight
some of us made a return trip down the road to our Hecate
shrine at the cross roads, and again somebody in a car raced
past during the short ritual (and again he got a bigger
fright than us).
Saturday nights highlight
was the lovely Handfasting ritual of Brendan and Sally,
locals who have been to MEF in the past. Sundays rituals
involved both a 'coming of age' and then later a Hollyfrost
one that involved everybody giving a piece of themselves in
the form of a dance, a song, a poem or whatever, this
culminated in some full on drumming, dancing and singing as
we all got off our chairs and joined in, really cranking up
the energy.
For those that wanted the
chance for quiet socialising and networking I saw lots of
this happening as well, several participants came to me over
the weekend and asked for me to continue to organise more of
these small events and actually referred to them as
"gatherings".....
As usual we got what I
consider a healthy percentage (25%) of newbies along to the
festival. One of them admitted to me that he preferred his
first festival to be a small one as it wasn't so scary and
we all made each other feel comfortable and at home.
One advantage of a small
gathering is that we soon all get to know each other and our
community becomes an extended family, very soon there are no
strangers in the camp.
We had a good selection of
workshops over the 2 days with a mix of regular favourites
and new topics given by a mixture of regular and new
presenters, new topics included "Surviving the dark times",
"Eastern Mysticism" and "Elemental Magick".
The craft village again
produced some great wands.
Anita and I continued our
discussions on chants and if she can get me an electronic
version before the next MEF I will print and laminate them
to be passed around during the evening.
The Kids were well behaved
and the entire community was involved in keeping an eye on
them all thus allowing their parents chances to pretend they
weren't parents and go to bed before their kids without
worries.
During the open discussion
at the end I asked for a show of hands of those who had
enjoyed the weekend.... All hands were quickly raised....
What more can I say....
Thank you again to all who
attended as they also put in lots of effort to make a great
weekend and also helped with the big cleanup operation at
the end.
Photos are available at
http://picasaweb.google.com/magickearthnz
June 2 2009
The sad news received while enjoying our Hollyfrost party at
Magick Earth was that "Mother Kaden" the matriarch of our
informal group has passed over to the other side. While this
means her physical presence will no longer be with us we are all
confident that she will still be watching from above and
sticking her oar in when she wants to.
May 25 2009
Well we spent fri and sat down in hamilton with Dwarfstar
Entertainment providing drumming to compliment their dancing and
fire, it was cold, damp and still lotza fun. Many of our
Medievil friends were also there, as usual they had built their
villages and were putting on a great show for the public which
is always worth watching, they really enjoy a good battle and
the chance to do so in front of others encourages them more.
Unfortunately I had to head back to Auck on sat night as I had a
1 day Mind body and Spirit show to do on the sunday in Glen
Eden. The day started reasonable and we were busyish but the
damp weather settled in and we again got damp while packing up
(but it coulda been worse !!)
May 18 2009
Whangarei is a favourite of ours and the sun came out of hiding
for the whole weekend, as usual we had lots of our regular
customers and a good mix of new customers. Several people
indicated their interest in a drum circle if we can get one
happening and we were told of one somewhere at Bayleys Beach.
Several interested witches in the area also convinced us to
continue our efforts to organise a Magick Earth Type event north
of Auckland.
May 11 2009
I organised a drum circle night in Thames for friday night and
although the weather was cold and damp we have a nice indoor
venue in the centre of town above the post office. Just over a
dozen locals came along with a couple of Paeroa and a lady from
Tauranga. Most were having so much fun they kept on drumming
when some of us stopped for a 5 minute drink break. Saturday
night the rain held off and the sky cleared enough for a dozen
or so to enjoy some full moon drumming at Tahaki reserve of the
side of Mt Eden. We created some great samba beats with the help
of a new friend and all enjoyed themselves. We plan to return
next full moon (monday june 8th) and we hope to have more fire
dancing friends attend (they are oftan busy on a sat night).
Sunday we had a one day Mind Body Spirit show in Papatoetoe that
was pretty quiet, but we did have some lovely new customers come
in along with some regular customers.
May 4 2009
Well "New Spirit" is the biggest show this side of Christchurch
and the people came to Albany in their droves on both saturday
and sunday. There were lots of other stalls including friends
with 3 other crystal stalls. The days were long but there were
so many old customers to chat to and still more new customers to
meet that the time went pretty quickly. Thanks to all those who
helped to make it a great weekend, even some friends who only
had time to call out a quick "hi" as they raced between
workshops. Now looking forward to some drum circle's happening
in Thames and Mt Eden... yea for drums... yea for fire....
April 20 2009
It was 12 months since we had been to Paeroa and many locals and
those from the surrounding areas came along for a great little
show. Several new stall holders joined in and all said they
would return for a show next year. We decided to hold a drum
circle on the saturday night and we were surprised by the number
that showed up. Almost all had never drummed before, we shared
the drums around and everybody had a chance to get some energy
and excitement happening. We will be returning to Paeroa in the
next month or 2 for more fun. Our current plan is to now hold
one in Thames and encourage some or the Paeroa people to come
along and get some good times happening between the two towns.
April 14 2009
Prana... it's a beautiful place and they decided to organise a
full moon festival over the Easter weekend. It was of course an
amazing weekend... although smaller in size to the new year
festival we caught up with many of our 'Prana friends' and made
some lovely new ones. The clear moonlit nights kept things
chilly but we had 5 separate fires provided by our hosts to keep
us warm. I spent much of my time in the teepee drumming, dancing
and just having a great time. We organised some great drum
workshops during the day and 'converted' plenty of people to the
healing and fun that can be found in drumming.
April 6 2009
The Pakuranga area has lots of our kind of people and many of
them make time to come along to the show there. Again we saw
many of our regular customers and a number of new comers who
were happy with what they found at the expo.
March 30 2009
Well Tauranga has probably the best gem and mineral club in NZ,
we always enjoy their lovely shows, full of friendly people.
Many of our regular customers came along and joined in the fun.
Saturday night was Earth Hour so we headed down to the beach
with our drums and our friends for a great time.
March 23 2009
We are back from the NZ Juggling Festival, great stuff, nice
bunch of people.... caught up with some of the Kiwiburn family
and some of the Prana family... also made some new juggling
friends... looking forward to Easter at Prana.... then straight
into OUR Paeroa show now with a drum and a fire night on the sat
night.
March 9 2009
Well the New Lynn show has come and gone, the numbers were not
as good as we would have liked but again we saw a mixture of
regular and new customers so that continues to give hope to us
all.
Feb
25 2009
It
was a hard decision to make but I won't be at the Magick
Earth Festival at Easter. After a lot of thought and
planning
about what we had to take down
with camping gear for everybody, marquees and tables for us
and our friends, bbq, microwave, (rental fridge) etc for the
kitchen as well as my stall stuff I decided that there is no
way I can fit it all in the van and trailer. I am also a lot
more careful about traveling long distances since I trashed
the van returning from Levin the other year and now always
make sure I have room in the van to take a nap if I get
tired.
I don't like to miss a MEF
(this will only be the second we have not attended) but
unless I go as a stall holder I can not justify the cost of
the long distances traveled.
I hope you will all have a great time and
a successful festival and I will be thinking about you.
Feb 18 2009
Thanks to all the lovely customers who came and visited us in
Palmerston North, this is always a lovely show full of beautiful
energy. The fact that another group had again been here the
previous week didn't seem to reduce our customer flow, again we
got a good mixture of regulars and first timers. It's a long
drive down but as long as the locals continue to support us I
will happily continue to make the long trip. This year we will
be back down on July 11-12 for the local rock and mineral club
show. We have another couple of weeks off while many head south
to Nelson and Christchurch before a New Lynn show on March 7-8.
Looking forward to seeing more of you lovely people out
there.....
Feb 12 2009
Well several weeks have raced by and we have not done a show....
we have been too busy having a fun holiday with my younger son
Daniel. We went to Hamilton and Cambridge for some great
drumming, then we spent the week helping setup the Medievil
Tournament in Taupo and spent the weekend as part of the
entertainment (drumming, chanting and fire dancing etc).... had
a great time and made lots of new friends. Then off to Whakamaru
to spend the week helping to setup for Kiwiburn and having a
great time making new friends, drumming, fire dancing etc etc.
One of the UNIQUE things about Kiwiburn is that it is a non
commercial event where people are encouraged to become
participants rather than spectators and this helps to create a
very special community for the festival.
Jan 19 2009
I always look forward to the New Plymouth show and again I was
not disappointed, lots of our regulars showed up and a some new
faces. As soon as we were setup on friday night we headed on
down to the festival of lights to enjoy the night, lovely
atmosphere and great music. Many of us went out on saturday
night to celebrate the birthday of one of the regulars before
heading back to the festival of lights. Sunday was a slower
start as is often the case and the weather started out looking
damp but both the weather and the customers picked up as the day
wore on.
Jan 12
2009
Friday night at Orewa we setup and then headed down to our
drumming spot by the beach for a couple of hours drumming with
friends, we even brought our big drum 'Abby' down for a play.
Saturday the small venue was packed with people (as usual) and
very hot (as usual), lots of our regular customers found us in a
slightly different spot to usual but with a bigger space to
display our wares. Many of us headed to a local Thai resturant
that night for food, drink and great company. Sunday was another
busy day with lots of people coming to hear Sue's talk.
Jan 5 2009
Prana New year Festival - A week of Paradise
The opening ceremony was lovely and the first time my big Taiko
drum had really been played properly ! ! ! The global village was great and we had a really great spot for
our stall up in the trees, the space there allowed us to setup
our crystal circle under the trees for people to play in while
not upsetting our neighbours when people wanted to play with our
drums including our big Taiko drum...
Helped run some great Drum workshops, I would get the beginners
started on simple drum basics and let the class size build as
people heard what was happening, and then let other Drum
Facilitators take over and teach some more complicated beats, it
was a great sharing that seemed to work well for everybody...
At night the Teepee was a great place for the drum circle
because were did not get over powered by the amplified sounds
from the Stage or the Barn and some beautiful energy was raised
there most nights...
Dec 25 2008
My first big drum
'Abby' went out for her debut at Takapuna beach in the evening
with a bunch of our fire friends. Lots a fun, our friend Charlie
seen in the photo has been confirmed as another energy junkie.
The second drum will get her skin in the next couple of days.
These new toys will be visiting fire nights and festivals around
the country.

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