This year’s public rituals consisted of two main rites around central circle, a vision quest, a funeral for one of the better-known merchants, and the usual Memorial Day service. Having not known the gentleman in question, I did not attend the funeral, and, being an anti-nationalist, I never attend the Memorial Day service. I did, however, attend the main rituals and vision quest.
The Main Rituals
The main rituals were a marked departure from the norm in that they consisted of two rites—an opening rite on Thursday and a main/closing rite on Sunday—rather than the usual three, with the main rite on Saturday. I heard rumors that the ritual had been altered to accommodate some last-minute change—perhaps the funeral—but am uncertain as to their veracity.
Owing to Saturday night’s full moon, the theme for this year’s ritual was The Dragon Moon, and the Sacred Experience Committee elected to build their ritual around the theme of the five Chinese elements. For the opening ritual, five persons bearing lantern-like globes were spaced equidistantly around the circle, which was traversed first in pentagram shape and then circumnavigated by a fairly large paper-mache dragon. The ritual, itself, told a story of creation and dissolution: order rising from and then collapsing into chaos. We, the audience, were implored to consider our own life stories and determine where we wanted to go, and how the cycle of creation and destruction could aid us. We each took a ribbon, which was to be tied to the dragon and would be burned to fuel the rite at the end of the festival.
The main ritual, as is often the case, used the same setup and partially reenacted the first. We gathered around the bonfire about to be lit. There were more incantations by the ritual leaders, our intention-charged ribbons were thrown into the pile, and it was all lit to send our intentions out into the universe.
Overall, the rituals were highly theatrical: very pretty, well orchestrated, and fun to watch. Unfortunately, I did feel that there was a strong divide between the ritual leaders and the audience and that we were more “watching” than “participating”. There were few callbacks, and not even any real energy work for us to do.
My party and I did find ourselves a little frustrated at the generic quality of the magical aspect: “what do you want out of life” is a rather large and nonspecific question to tackle in any ritual, let alone a public one. On the other hand, it rather amused us that, given the synchronicity which rules these things, that was the question that apparently everyone was wrestling with this year, as well.
Finally, I was a little troubled by the fact that we were a group of largely White witches performing a ritual based in “ancient Chinese lore”. While I don’t think the Chinese are harmed by this sort of thing the way, say, Native Americans and other aboriginal populations are, there was definitely an air of appropriation to the whole thing. Even something as simple as greater specificity in the pamphlet description of the ritual—“… based on the Chinese philosophy of Wu Xing, which is often imprecisely translated as ‘Five Elements’…”—would have gone a long way, and it would have been better if they could have found a primary source to cite for us. The sad thing is, “ancient Chinese lore” (much like “ancient Native American wisdom”) is often code for “some shit I just made up”; the imprecision puts my back up (as an academic if nothing else) and the whole thing comes of as a bit racist.
The Vision Quest
Since returning from my failed life in St.Louis, the vision quest has been a major part of my Heartland experience. This was the first year that, having gone (I didn’t last year), my party didn’t make a point of being the first in line. That proved to be a mistake.
The theme of the year was Heroes and Villains. Villains included the Banshee, Baba Yaga, the Pied Piper, Lucifer (if I read the marks on his chest correctly), the Boogie Man, Lilith, and at least one figure I was not able to identify. Heroes included Queen Boudica, Robin Hood, Sigmund, and Beowolf. There were definitely some themes that resonated with me: honor and honesty and promices not kept, the question of what you’re willing to do to achieve your goals. At the end, though, the message I received was more direct and immediate: chill the fuck out, go have fun. I’m finding this charge painfully difficult.
The people playing each of the roles did fabulously. They had clearly worked very hard to find the “voice” they were aspecting and deserve nothing but commendations.
The overall experience, however, was deeply marred by logistical complications. I’m not sure what, exactly went wrong: maybe the gatekeeper was letting people in too quickly; maybe one or more of the guides on the path was consistently taking more time than they were supposed to. Regardless, despite my best efforts to move at a moderate pace, I caught up to the person in front of me after the first station. By the fourth I was caught in a pile-up that went at least three ahead of me and at least five behind. The long waits, my own irritation, and the increasingly frustrated presence of other Questers made it extremely hard to maintain the appropriate mindset. Ultimately, I spent half of the time on the path increasingly furious at the orchestrators of what had turned into an ordeal of patience.
