Modern Paganism in Spain part 1

Modern Paganism in Spain part 1

Greetings all, 

and my apologies for the super-duper long break. Today I want to share with you some of my memories of my recent trip to Spain and the summer solstice ritual I took part in with the Spanish branch of Reclaiming Wicca.

Summer Solstice with Reclaiming Spain

It began about two years ago, while pottering online and discovering what a powerful draw I felt to Starhawk's Reclaiming tradition of Wicca. Reclaiming focuses on combining Goddess spirituality with global and local political activism, and with its strong, happy network of people, an abundance of unique chants and songs, an ever-questioning attitude and gallant allegiance with the Wiccan Rede, I have yet to find anything at all I don't like about the Reclaiming tradition. I discovered that week long 'witchcamps' are run in several countries throughout the world, and I casually searched the European list, just in case, such is my love for the Spanish language, there might be one in Spain. When the camp in Gredos, Avila came up, I couldn't believe my luck. But nahh. Too far away. Too scary!

It wasn't until only a few short weeks ago, when gap year plans of going to the States to work fell through that I was in need of a rapid rethink. I revisited the Reclaiming Spain website in vague hopes of finding an upcoming event, and stumbled upon a most perfect 5 day retreat around the time of the solstice, with a ritual and herbal workshop. The catch? No-one speaks a word of English. But that's ok! I speak A Level Spanish! Be cooly cool, Sophie!

HA.

Anyways.

After multiple mad flaps trying to find various planes, trains (on which I was robbed on my first day) and elusive buses, I somehow miraculously managed to make it to the meeting point in the local town on time to be taken to the mountain camp. And what a beautiful place....a little tipi haven shrouded in pine forests halfway up the mountain, with a crystal clear river gently trickling through. The first 24 hours I was there I was having less than a good time; there were 15 of us, all of them were Spanish, most of them seemed to know each other and I began to feel increasingly like I was gatecrashing a weekend jolly in the woods of Pagan friends. The mental stamina required to think and speak in Spanish all day every day was gargantuan, and settling into this group was no easy task. But when workshop number 1 got under way I began to feel much more at home. We were divided into a women's workshop and a mens' workshop; the men disappeared up the mountainside and the women gathered in a circle to discuss our perceived life stage and what life changes were happening at this point in our lives, which I managed to cobble together in Spanish surprisingly successfully. After this we went down to a particularly secluded spot by the river with a bowl and took turns to stand in the waterfall and cleanse ourselves of any negative crap that might be swirling around in our minds and bodies. I asked the Goddess to return to me in some way some of the money that was stolen from me (and that she did, about a week later, through a dozy cashier who gave me 47 euros change for a salad paid for with a 10 euro note, and shooed me away before I could argue.) Following the cleansing, we partook in a 'feast of abundance', and set up the ritual space. There were separate altars for each Element in each quarter, all beautifully decorated. We began by raising a circle, and some of the young women adorned in greenery purified us individually with smudge sticks. We invoked the Gods Helios and the Green Man, and the Goddesses Litha and Brigid, and invoked the Elements. We sang some traditional Reclaiming songs, and it wouldn't have been a proper Reclaiming ritual without the awesome Spiral dance that followed. We lit and jumped over a balefire and shared what summer means to us, and what we hope to nurture within ourselves (I went for safety on my travels). What happened next was like a huge party; drumming and song and dance prevailed in the circle for many more hours, and I think the idea was to stay up all night and watch the Sun rise the next day but everyone hit the sack before then. The next morning we welcomed the longest day with more drumming and singing. We then climbed to a clearing in the highest point in the camp which had spectacular views, and completed the ritual with a dance around the maypole of abundance. I did wonder about the significance of having a maypole at Litha but figured that the symbolism of the merging of male and female energy at the height of power made just as much sense. The women dug a hole in the ground and decorated it with flowers, and the men carried the pole up the mountain and stuck it in the ground. We did a group meditation with more dance and drumming, followed by blessings and prayers. When dismissing the quarters at the end, I was surprised to find that they actually said 'Hail and farewell', and when I asked Morgaine the Priestess about this, she told me that she hadn't found an accurate Spanish translation for it and everyone was happy to use the English. But for 'so mote it be' they say 'que así sea'. 

These people, I found, all want to go to England to visit the sacred sights and attend the rituals in Avebury, Stonehenge and Glastonbury, but I'll be frank, this ritual made the one of the Druids in Avebury seem quite dismal by comparison. I've attributed it to the party attitude the Spaniards have; the Spanish, like Pagans, will take any excuse for a festival, and I think this may be a major factor in the growth of Paganism in Spain today. Morgaine also told me that she thinks the land in Spain is very masculine, dry and dominated by mountains and pine forests, but loves visiting England because the land is so feminine, with hills and lakes, which gave me food for thought.

The next two days consisted of a workshop on the magical and medicinal uses of herbs which I really enjoyed, and had ensured that I'd learned as many of the Spanish names for herbs as I could before I went out there which proved invaluable. We had a theory lesson, then went down to the river to collect herbs, and I discovered that they had many of the same herbs as we do in Britain but the leaves were much thicker or a different shape, to adapt to the dry climate. I'd wondered why, on the first day, we'd collected so many mountains of St. John's wort from the mountainside only to discover in my very own Earth Pathways diary that this is exactly what one does at summer solstice to make oils and vinegars from it. The next day we continued the workshop, the table strewn with all manner of herbs, fresh and dried, jars and oils and vinegars, and to my amusement, herbs that won't grow in the dry climate were purchased from Star Child in Glastonbury. I now have recipies and worksheets to translate, and never having had a full practical herbs lesson I was surprised how much I gained from this. On the final night, when I must've eaten something a bit dodgy and had an unhappy tummy, everyone leapt in to help; within 10 minutes I'd had reiki done for me and a specially made mug of digestive tea shoved into my hands. All in all, once I got into it, a very enjoyable experience that I'd love to repeat someday (when my Spanish improves.)

Thought of the day

One thing that was really reinforced in my mind during this witchcamp was the importance of intent in prayer and magick. These people wouldn't have fully understood my prayers and invocations, and I came to the conclusion that words are pretty much meaningless to Spirit. How could the people upstairs learn so many thousands of human languages? Many spells and invocations have rhyme with the intention of giving the concious mind something to focus on while the subconcious gets to work. But something so simple as humming a single syllable is potentially equally as effective. I was reminded that if your spells are simply spoken words (which when in Spanish, when I wasn't fully awake, didn't mean much to me at all), you won't get far at all. In our moments of silent prayer and meditation, I realised that while in different languages (not everyone had Spanish as their first language), everyone's intent was heading in the same direction, which is what really makes all the difference.