Temple of the Goddess Celebrates Hallows with Ritual Theatre
By Joanne Elliott - LA Pagan Examiner
October 25th, 2010

This past Saturday in Pasadena, celebrants descended into the depths with Kore to discover their own personal myths. Temple of the Goddess is known for its professional mythical ritual theater productions and this Hallows they captured our imaginations again.

Before the myth enactment, those gathered were invited to leave behind the outer world. Through music and dance all were entranced into slowing down. Wendy Rule's song "Slow Down" was sung by Eryyka Jiminez as Kamala did a healing dance with a temple snake.

After the circle was cast, more music and dance followed, turning us all ever further inward, preparing us for the journey, the ritual theatre to follow. Another Wendy Rule song, "As Above So Below," was performed by Minni Jo Mazzola. She sang with a voice like dusk descending. A very pregnant Candy Jo Dahl danced as the Universe birthing the Earth. Not only can Minni Jo Mazzola sing, she also can dance and did so to the song "Witchwood" by Strawbs, accompanied by Ananda (temple Music and Choir Director) and Patrick Cleary on guitars with David Jacks on bass.

With the spoken word piece "The Dead Are Never Gone" by Birago Diop, performed by Zachary Tatum-Nolan, we descended into the story. He also directed the cast in the performance of the myth.

A highly stylized version of the Greek Goddess Kore, played by Briana Murray, paced the stage. Every now and then she looked toward a bright light, her destiny beckoning to her. A trickster crow, played by Patrick Humphrey, enters. In her contemplation she sat on a gray stone that turned out to be a mirrored man, Psyche (Soul), played by David Jacks. He and crow tried to help Kore understand that she must descend into the darkness, the unknown, her own unconscious to discover her true self. At one point a haunting voice is heard. A veiled figure drifts toward the stage. It was Kore's dead sister, played by Ananda, who sang a song of encouragement, "Your Soul is a Lantern in the Dark" by Wendy Rule. Kore was hesitant and almost deterred by crow's raucous warnings about chaos and change. Finally she found courage and with a gift of a compass and a journal headed toward her destiny. click to read more...

Image: Kore and Psyche by Charles Elliott. Click for more photos.

Then Wendy and Tim Van Diest, who is both her boyfriend and guitar accompanist, came on stage. Wendy opened by casting a circle with "The Circle Song" from her Wolf Sky CD. Since the stars look different in the southern hemisphere, Wendy noted she also wrote a Northern Hemisphere version. But she lamented that she can't find the recorded Northern version, so if you downloaded it in the past, she hopes you will email it back to her so she can put it on MySpace again for free download by fans.

The beautiful gown Wendy wore was something she made herself for the launch party of her latest CD, "Guided by Venus." She has six full length CDs to her credit and in two 45-minute sets performed songs from a number of them.

The moon shined brightly on everyone gathered under the oaks and inspired Wendy as she sang "My Sister the Moon." Many of her other songs draw upon nature themes, too. She tells the story of extreme heat the previous summer in her native Australia and how on a bike path she found a baby tiger snake coiled and dead, dehydrated and perfectly preserved by the hot sun. The preserved snake now rests on her home altar so she can contemplate it and learn from its energy. Though saddened by its passing, she expressed gratitude for "these gifts. It's such a beautiful symbol of life and death."