Yule Ritual, Sunday, December 20, 2009 6:00 p.m.

Please join us at the Church of the Earth this Sunday, the 20th at 6:00 p.m., as we hold our Yule celebration at the Gardens. Also called winter solstice, Yule is the shortest day of the year and marks the time when the days will begin to once again get longer. Yule is often celebrated with offerings to the Elements, Deities, Animal Spirits and Ancestors, all in effort to entice them to return or show favor, bringing life and light back to the earth.

Led by our pastor, Steve Stone, our Yule ritual will honor those traditions with an elemental circle and the burning of a special yule log made up of 9 local woods. The ritual is expected to last about 30 minutes and will be followed by a pot luck feast.

Central NC Pagan Pride Day (CNCPPD) was last weekend and it was a great time! With 1,800 attending, 4,099 meals raised for the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC in the form of over a ton of food and half a grand in cash, and 23 units of blood donated through the Rex Blood Bus, it is the most successful CNCPPD we have ever had, and is definitely one of the most successful in the world this year! It was supposed to rain all weekend, but with a couple thousand pagans hoping, casting and pleading for sunny days, the gods smiled on us, or at least didn't frown. We ended up with some sun, some clouds and lots of cool, overcast hours, but no rain to speak of. And that was just fine with the crowds.

Tamara put together another beautiful booth for the Church of the Earth this year, complete with Autumn decorations, cool water, snacks, band-aids and Tylenol. Also, Rob and I created a nice brochure to hand out at the booth, and we will have some of those at the gardens to hand out to new people from now on. Though I worked the festival as staff again, we were better organized and I actually had the chance to spend a couple hours working at our booth on Saturday. We had lots of visitors, including one who, after hearing a brief description of Pagan beliefs in general, asked me, "So where is the Devil in all this?" I was a little taken aback, so I answered literally, "In someone else's religion." The thing is, she was really trying to understand, so we continued the discussion and I think we found common ground. She will likely never become a Pagan, and that's fine, but it certainly seemed like she had found a way to accept that there might be more than one valid path, and that's great! And the best part was the next day, while I was doing my shift at the front gate, she came back, with friends. They all planned to learn about Druids, so I am hoping Ailim over at the Druid booth fared as well as I did. It seems our festival planted at least one seed of tolerance and understanding at a Church somewhere in Raleigh. I am actually more excited about that than about the donations, the bands, the workshops and all the other great things that went on over the weekend.

Blessed ba, ram, eu,
Silly Rabbit (a.k.a. Johnson)

The 9th Annual Central NC Pagan Pride Day Festival at the fairgrounds is on September 19th and 20th this year, and the Church of the Earth of NC has reserved a booth. Now we just need ideas and volunteers. We need about 22 people so that we can have eleven shifts of one hour. It should be easy work, just greeting people and handing out a card or brochure if guests want one, and there will be snacks! You do NOT have to be an expert on the Church of the Earth, especially since there is no such thing, and you do NOT have to "sell" the church, either. If someone has questions, just answer based on your own experience. The festival should be a really fun day, with lots of entertainment , workshops and more , so come on out one day and help us at the booth for a little while, then spend the rest of the day playing!

We need two people at the booth for each of these shifts:

Saturday - One hour shifts
12pm
1pm - covered
2pm - one volunteer
3pm
4pm - one volunteer
5pm

Sunday - One hour shifts
1pm
2om
3pm - covered
4pm
5pm - one volunteer

Also, setup is Saturday at 9am and breakdown is Sunday at 6:30pm.

If you can help, please call 800-979-4423 and leave a message for me with a number where I can reach you.

Thanks,
Johnson (a.k.a. Silly Rabbit)

This holy day comes on the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. This is a night of magic and madness, as the creatures of forest mythology are very active this night. This is a time when the darkness begins its reign and the days begin to shorten. It is a time for introspection into your soul, when you begin to look at yourself as an individual and work on changing yourself for the better.

Join us as we celebrate summer in the midst of its magickal transformation. Shakespeare considered midsummer to be the most magickal of times, come and see why. Magickal or medieval/renaissance dress and musical instruments always enhance gatherings, so feel free to dress up and celebrate.

This is a family friendly event, so bring everyone out! It will be held at Gaia's Gardens at 855 West Morgan St, in Raleigh on Sunday, June 21st at 3pm.