Squinting at the Sun

The Dream of Gaian Culture

Almost all of the Gaia Consort ideas came from the dream of building community and culture around celebrating the natural world. Imagine a world where the Great Cycles were taken seriously, hearkening back to the early days of agriculture, when we didn’t have the “luxury” of ignoring the seasons. None of this illusory separateness that lets us live in boxes, away from sun, air, weather. When your life counts on knowing the cycles, you pay attention.

You’re probably reading this on a signal that has been sent to space and back. So most of us know it’s mid-summer because we’re reading about it, not because we’ve been out in the fields before dawn until sunset. I’m beginning to think that all the effort we put into getting people to listen to us on screen, maybe didn’t get people outside the boxes. I’ll have to work on that.

Party With A Purpose

The dream, 30 years ago, was millions of naked hippies at the beach or in the woods, dancing the circles, drinking the mead, trysting to the beat of the natural rhythms, with Carlos Santana’s rhythm section leading the drum circles, and everyone feeling our connection to each other and the living world around us in the marrow of our bones. What the “holy” days ought to be.

In my cynical moments, it comes out kind of like the SCA’s “Middle Ages as they should have been,” except about religion. Burning Man meets Faerieworlds for Pagan Christmas in June, with Santa leaving magic mushrooms for everyone. With flush toilets, showers, and feather beds for them that want ‘em. *sigh*

Solstice Call

I wrote a call to the Circle:

“There’ll be bonfires from Klalaloch to Portland tonight
All come! All come!”

I imagined a kind of Lord of the Rings beach fire signal corps, to celebrate, all lit up to sing out the light. It’s the peak of summer, the longest day is sweet with the air on our skin, and the summer filled with promise and bounty, even as we begin to move toward the long tunnel of winter. Here in the Pacific Northwest of the US, it’s light ‘til almost midnight in the maritime twilight.

Now it’s 2023, and bonfires are maybe not the best idea, given the planet burning and all. Here in the west we’ve gotten accustomed to it, as much as one can, but we can only adjust so far. Breathing is one of those things almost everyone I know likes to do.

And of course, we’re coming out of three years of isolation. We see our friends, squinting at the sun, and we’ve all changed a little, or a lot. Some are more cautious than others, but everyone is a little skittish, and it will be maybe years before we feel safe with each other again. I miss the kissing at parties.

Did It Work? Maybe?

Change is what it’s all about though – the variations of earth and sky, young to old, and being born and dying, and replacements being born to follow.

Did we bring about meaningful change? I think we did. The hard part is to remember that it’s entirely possible that the real change that matters is mostly one to one. I cling to the moments when people have told me our music meant something to their lives – getting through chemo, finding the courage to leave one life for another, one friend told me she’d lost her virginity while listening to Gaia Circles! Bringing pleasure to our friends and loves is a noble purpose. We may not have made Summer Solstice as popular as the winter one, but the ones who know us, know. Come out, come out, wherever you are. Come to the Circle. Sing out the light. We’ll save the bonfires for another year.

Songs released since the last blog:

Mama Can’t Do Drag https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kFbH5yvIVA
The Plague Year https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R6i2lj-_GE
Coming June 16, 2023 “Only Skin” https://www.christopherbingham.com/murphy/Only-Skin-2023-Sue-master.mp3

For more information about Christopher Bingham, including his collected articles here on Pagan Song, his bio, and links to his Bone Poets Orchestra and Gaia Consort sites on the web, check out Chris’s page on Pagan Song.

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