Past Events
February 2012 Social Gathering
February 4th
Theme: "Love Is In the Hat"
Imbolc/Valentine's Day
We had a wonderful meeting! People brought poems to share, which I wanted to share here.
Stan Morey II wrote a poem for the event, "Love is in the Hat.....", which ends in a haiku.
I don my cylindrical pyramid
My wide brimmed
Duns Scotas over the
Zenith
Apex
Apogee of my being....
I extend this cloth receiver into the
Ether of
Wisdom
Hidden knowledge
The ancient Internet
Teeming with infinite possibilities
Predating modern days
And more
Disconnecting ways....
And with this I join
Connect
Come online with
Thousands of others
That are and have come before
As standing stones in the great Circle
Of creation and
Change
As above
So Below
As within
So without
We stand on the
Balance point of the
Boundaries
Realms
Dimensional shifts
Of macrocosmos
To microcosmos
Of then
To when
Folding time/space
To my will and intentions
My hat reminds me
Of all that I am
And what I will be...
Next, Ranea Noha-Wright shared a poem called "Brigit Bright" by Hedgewytch.
She is known as Brigid Bright
Goddess who shines against the night.
At cille dara, at the setting sun,
Her sacred flame is kept by one.
Nineteen time the earth turns round,
As sacred springs come forth the ground.
Twenty times the sun has burned
And now the Goddess has returned.
Alone she tends her thrice bright flame,
Born of her heart that bears her name.
The Dagda Knows Brigid s daughter,
Triple blessed by fire and water.
Poets call her name to inspire.
And healers oft gain from her fire.
Wayland too would know her well
As hammer and anvil ring like a bell.
A sorrowful cry did she give meaning
When first she brought to Eire keening.
Oh sacred fire against darkest night,
Burn for Brigid, Brigit bright!
Fire in the head ... to quicken us.
Fire in the cauldron ... to heal us.
Fire in the forge of the heart ... to temper us.
Next, Gail shared a poem of her own, titled "The Lady & Her Consort".
Share the beauty of the dance.
They frolic through the valley's green,
Among the deer that prance.
The Lady & Her Consort, under the sky of blue,
Enjoy & honor nature, with their love so true.
They dance together in circle, in a special rite
To celebrate the season from Morn through
Dark of night.
From Imbolc to Ostara, it's Winter into Spring.
On to Beltane then to Litha, Spring to Summers heat.
Moving on to Lughnassadh, harvest time is here,
Mabon brings the falling leaves & Samhain ghosts appear.
The darker nights grow longer still as Yule time now appears,
It's the longest, and the darkest night of the year.
Not once, but eight times do we gather round the sacred space.
With the Lady & Her Consort we unite & celebrate.....Life!
At this point, Myque read a Robert Frost work from "Two Tramps in Mud Time".
The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When th esun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in th emiddle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March.
Finally, Dylan shared a poem by Anne Sexton, "Her Kind".
I have gone out, a possessed witch,
haunting the black air, braver at night;
dreaming evil, I have done my hitch
over the plain houses, light by light;
lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.
A woman like that is not a woman, quite.
I have been her kind.
I have found the warm caves in the woods,
filled them with skillits, carvings, shelve
s,closets, silks, innumerable goods;
fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:
whining, rearranging the disaligned.
A woman like that is misunderstood.
I have been her kind.
November 2011 Social Gathering
Theme: “Muggles”
Our November event was held at Sam’s Hof Brau Restaurant and the theme for this gathering was “muggles”. Everyone was encouraged to wear a “muggle” type black hat.
The social was a great success!
There were 24 in attendance, and we had a lot of great black hats.
Just before 10am, I stood outside with Stan, Modesta, Don & Pam as we waited for the restaurant to open. Then we headed in and to the backroom where we were to meet. I set up the easel and our Black Hat sign showing everyone where we were meeting. Right after that everyone else started arriving in a steady stream, they got signed in for the door prize drawing, got their name tags, claimed their seats then headed out to the buffet line to get their food and as everyone finished eating the socializing really got going good.
It was wonderful seeing everyone, sharing, enjoying the gathering and laughing too.
Getting everyone’s attention we proceeded with introductions as we had several new people attending. What’s nice about this is that each time we do introductions, it helps us remember each other names a lot easier, at least for those who don't already know each other :-) We also get to talk a bit more and add more about us and
our path etc.
When we finished with the introductions we did a story time. This was fun and brought a lot of laughter as the story proceeded on. I started the story with "Once upon a time there was a girl walking down a path in a dark forest and her name was" then the next person takes up the story from there and so on until everyone in the room was able to add to the story, keeping in mind a pagan/wiccan theme. We planned to write it all down so we could post it here but good grief, we had so much fun and got to laughing so hard as the story progressed, Cathy, who was trying to write it all out for us couldn't keep up. Lets see, I remember the girls name was Astarra, something about dark but not so dark, a wolf, three wishes, a Chippendales dancer and that’s just a tid-bit.
So….. after story time, we had planned to do a fun quiz, putting everyone in small groups but we didn't have enough time, so that will be for another event. We had enough time left to get some announcements about events we knew of coming up in the following year....PantheaCon in Feb., Fairy Festival in June, Sacramento Pagan Pride Day Harvest Festival in September, and some of our upcoming Black Hat events that are in the planning stages. We hope to get the info for all of these including other Sabbat events posted soon.
October 2011 Social Gathering
Our October event was held at the I-Hop Restaurant. We didn’t have a set theme for this social but everyone was encouraged to wear their Witchy Hat, or any black hat they have. (Hats can be plain, simple, classic, or decorated.) Children were welcome to attend and participate.
There were 21 Black Hatters in attendance! That was great for our first gathering in just over a year.
It was easy for everyone attending to find us in the restaurant because when they entered they spotted the large sign sitting on the easel pointing the way. I managed to make a large sign for our gatherings and have a space on it to post an arrow for which ever direction we will be gathering in. The sign is handmade and as close as I could get it to our groups logo.
Next to the sign was a sign in table where there was a stack of sign in forms and a large jar to put them in which enters the attendee into the door prize drawing, a very small black box which is the same one to be used each gathering and inside is a door prize gift. The winner is to keep the gift inside the box. It is then the responsibility of the winner to bring the same little box to the next gathering with a new door prize gift inside.
We even had cute little place mats for the tables with our group logo and a border of stars. Some of the attendees kept theirs as a souvenir to put in their book of shadows.
For this gathering I was able to put together a nice little gift for each attendee that RSVP’d, it was a small little white box type tote which I drew our logo on. Inside wrapped in tissue was a mini candy bar, and an item representing each of the four elements: a feather for air, a tumbled stone for earth, a shell for water, and a tea light candle for fire. It was cute watching everyone opening their gift and setting it up as a mini altar on their tables J
Socializing began as soon as people started arriving and continued on throughout the evenings gathering. Everyone ordered something to drink and/or eat and after that we had our drawings. During this we all got the opportunity to introduce ourselves and share about themselves such as what path they followed, how long they have been on that path, why they joined the group, etc. It was just a sharing time. After introductions we proceeded on to the prizes.
The winner of the main door prize was Carolen who is now responsible for bringing the black box with a new door prize for our next gathering. It’s going to be interesting to see how each person that wins this little box finds something small enough as a gift to put in it.
Next was the Hat Contest!!!!
(Hats for the contest were to be worn)
Categories and winners were:
Largest/Tallest Hat – Gail’s
Smallest Hat – Stan’s
Most Glamorous Hat – Myque’s
Funny or Funkiest Hat – Richard’s
Classic Hat – Diane
There was one final drawing as a second little door prize because we had an extra gift, which was won by Mikki.
Besides getting acquainted and re-acquainted and sharing we discussed the future of our group and the kind of monthly gatherings we wanted to have as well as getting started on ideas for a fantastic and very elegant Witches High Tea at least once if not twice a year! We also discussed having a membership with annual dues to begin in January 2012 which would help us raise enough money to rent halls and other locations to host our High Tea and other events at. Everyone thought this was a great idea.
