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Temple of the Goddess
Spring Equinox Ritual & Celebration
April 7, 2012
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"The seasons and all their changes are in me."
--Henry David Thoreau.
The Wheel of the Year spins and we come together to honor the turning of the seasons and the Earth's never-ending cycles of life. We open our arms to welcome new beginnings, a year filled with wondrous possibilities. We start the year with a celebration of spring and plant our consciousness with seeds of hope and dreams for 2012.
As we emerge from the last days of Winter, we celebrate the Resurrection of the Earth and the power to, once again, renew ourselves with new directions, new dreams, new goals.
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April 7, 2012
Temple of the Goddess Spring Equinox Celebration & Ritual
Spring Equinox is the time of bursting forth, of realizing the potentials of Winter Solstice and Candlemas. On the equinoxes light and dark are equal in a moment's balance. The Spring Equinox is the time of conception, when the rising light is ascending and overcomes darkness.
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Newcomer's Meeting
5:45
Before the Ritual
If this is your first Temple of the Goddess Ritual or you just have questions, meet with Kamala in the lobby before the ritual. Bring your questions, fears, hopes, and desires. Newcomer's Meeting in Lobby at 5:45pm, before the ritual.
Spring Equinox Ritual & Celebration
Saturday
April 7, 2012
6:30 PM
Doors Open 6:00
Neighborhood Unitarian Church, Pasadena
NOTE: Families with children, please come early for a seat down front so your children don't miss anything!
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 The theme for our 2012 ritual productions is Change. As Pagans, our teachings are found in nature, the seasons, cycles, and the cosmos . . . all of which are in a constant state of flux. We have no Bible, Torah, or Bhagavad Gita . . . but in nature we find the reflection/lessons for how to grow, live consciously, and create the life we deserve. To that end we don't need to emphasize the need, or desire, for change. For Pagans that's a given. We understand the clarion call of life for change, transformation, shape-shifting . . . What we are bringing to our ritual and mythic theatre in 2012 are lessons on how change comes, how we can approach and embrace change . . . even consciously choosing what changes we want to make.
By choosing to explore outside the box, we can go beyond the metaphor of the cocoon or chrysalis, the shedding of the proverbial skin . . . all wonderful examples of the glory and promise of change . . . but also look to the ways that change can be approached, embraced, and integrated into our lives.
This is such a fertile subject and we are excited to be opening ourselves, artistically and spiritually, to this theme and the possibilities within it.
Image: Waking Up From A Dormant Cycle by Robyn Waters
Our mythic guide is Changing Woman, a Navaho deity who ushers us through our seasonal rituals and myths in 2012.
Changing Woman, a benevolent Goddess, is the personification of Earth and the natural order of the Universe. She is the cyclical path of the Seasons, Birth (Spring), Maturing (Summer), Growing old (Fall) and Dying (Winter), only to be, once again, reborn in the Spring. Changing Woman is eternally self-renewing. She teaches us to honor all natural cycles within and around us. Call on Changing Woman for support in following your own unique path and process. She is a guide, a teacher, a teller of tales.
Image: Changing Woman by Dreamagic
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Our evening of ritual theatre opens with a song and meditation on the path of change and the inherent possibilities that change will bring in the coming year. In song, dance and spoken word, we explore the power of surrender that change often requires. At this time we remember the myth of Persephone as she ascends from the underworld of winter and the dark.
In the modern retelling of this ageless story Persephone is met by Baubo who guides her through the change required of her when she returns at spring and the Earth is once again fertile with fruit and grains. Persephone makes this great change each year so that humanity thrives. But does she really like it? Do any of us like the changes that are given us to make?
We acknowledge that change is inevitable and not always of our own choosing. We celebrate Persephone and the Earth's constant renewal while exploring how to accept, embrace, and integrate the changes we must make into our lives.
Cauldron of changes
Feather on a bone
Arch of eternity
Ring around a stone
We are the old people
We are the new people
We are the same people
Wiser than before
(Cauldron of Changes Lyrics by Lindie Lila) Journey with us as we follow Persephone's ascent into Spring and Her renewal. As we witness Persephone's commitment to change, we remember the power we have to create our lives by choosing how we integrate the inevitable changes that come our way. Temple of the Goddess, and The Mythic Players, invite you to join us for an evening of art and ritual theatre in celebration of Spring. (Image: Persephone Ascending. Artist unknown.) |
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Celebrating the Seasons: Spring Equinox
Saturday, April 7, 2012, 6:30 PM
PLEASE NOTE: NEW START TIME
Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church
301 N. Orange Grove Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91103
818-771-5778
Website: www.TempleoftheGoddess.org
Temple of the Goddess offers seasonal celebrations for families and community at the Neighborhood Church in Pasadena. Multi-media ritual theatre combining, music, myth, visual art, dance, liturgy, spoken word, and participatory theatre which fuses drum and dance with personal enactment to re-connect us to the seasons and the Earth.
Click here to download flyer.
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All Things Change
I'm on the verge of something,
something bigger than I know.
Something born of nothing,
infinite and whole.
At the place where all things change
and no one is going to ever stay the same.
Welcome to the doorway.
What is on the other side?
It's not for me or you to say.
Because the blind keep leading the blind
unto the end.
Now here's where all things change.
And no one is going to ever stay the same.
We're on the verge of something
greater than we know
something that will rise above
the ashes of the old
Now all things change.
And no one will ever stay the same.
All things change.
(Lyrics of All Things Change by Kan'Nal)
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