Pagan Ritual

I met up with the druids 12pm on a pleasant September Saturday - surprisingly normal-looking folk with a hint of countryside hippy about them. There was a singularly depressed man who was obviously wrestling with some deep issues, a long-haired psychotherapist and a not-unattractive divorcee and her son. We were soon joined by a couple of the organizers. A very friendly middle-aged lady who had found a look that works for her – hippy eco fabric skirt and kagool. The leader of this ritual was a hippy of the type I thought only existed at Boom Psytrance Festival. I was pleasantly surprised at how down to earth he was. Most extreme-looking hippies tend to look down on me and other non-tofu-eaters. He had brought with him a staff with manicured, holly-laden branches like a druidic bonsai tree. We walked up to the ‘Grove’ which is a space encircled by trees which druids use as a place for rituals. There were a few more people waiting there. Mostly normal-looking middle-aged folk but then, so were the inhabitants of that island on the Wicker Man. I kept my wits about me. The ritual was something to do with harvest and the transferring of summer to winter or ‘the dark part of the year’. They took out the sacrificial goat and… well I wish. The whole thing was a bit tame. No outlandish costumes or offerings of beer to the elements. The ritual followed a printed script with joining-in bits and bits for the qualified druids to say they were disappointingly similar to the Church of England in this respect. The best bit was instead of saying ‘Amen’ we said ‘Awen’ except it was drawn out into something like ‘Aaaaaaaaawwwwwweeeeeeeeen’ which is a much more awesome way of saying ‘Amen’ in my opinion. There was a bit where a guy playing the Spirit of Summer had to relinquish control to the Spirit of Winter or the Holly King. We ran around in a circle as these great elemental titans battled it out. Well, it was the depressed guy and a guy with a hat made of leaves reading from a sheet but use your imagination and you could get there if you tried. The highlight was doing a group meditation – pretty standard meditation stuff really. We were lead blindfolded in a circle, asked if we wanted to leave anything behind us as we traveled into winter and, as the blindfold was removed, we were welcomed to the ‘dark part of the year’ by the lead druid with his face covered in mud. Then we had a picnic. It beat bumbling around the house with a hangover.