Stones Rising

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Stones Rising

The Voyage of the Argo

Wednesday August 31st through Monday Sept 5th, 2011

Sept 4th, The Rising

 

The Stone People's Intensive

Friday August 26th - Tues August 30th 

A work of years, Stone by Stone.
Built by our Tribe, Generation after Generation.
As we build the Stone Circle, the Stone Circle builds our Tribe.
We have grown together, learned together, and laid the foundation for our future.

Our Ancestors knew and experienced life as an ebb and flow of living energy, a proper time of expansion and growth outside of our selves; and a proper time for drawing within amid hardship to reaffirm and nurture the center. In times of difficulty and travail, it was considered wise to journey within and return to the center, to take stock of oneself and offer Sacrifice for those things most important to us... our Family, however that may be defined. And to then make Ceremony for the Land, to protect and sustain that which protects and sustains our Family, so that the promise of return might be kept. And in making this journey of Service, and Ceremony for the Land, we will have cause to Celebrate the Blessings we enjoy... and to make our Giveaway, so that the gifts of Family and Land can in turn become our own gifts and best hopes for Tribe, Nation and the World.

 

Stones Rising is a physical manifestation of intentions: our intent to maintain a place for all spiritual paths to come together in peace for a common work; our desire to build something physical and spiritual to sustain "our children's children's children"; the needs of individuals within the community to do work that is valuable to the community, whether it's feeding the masses, tending the fire, or Witnessing the actions of the tribes.

 

Stones Rising has become its own ritual, spanning several days, incorporating components such as Walking the Labyrinth, The Pathways of Service, The Procession of The Stones, The Creation of the Witness Arbors, The Ceremonial Fire Circle, Stones Eve, The Feast of the Corn Mother, The Ceremony of Commitments, The Rising, The Give-Away, The Feast of the Standing Stones, The Circle of Consecration.

 

It's a ritual of homecoming, of family reunion, of acknowledging both a spiritual power and a work that is greater than any individual. It's a recognition that any great endeavor, whether it's building a Stone Circle or building a community, requires the participation of every person involved in the community.

 

Everyone who experiences the Rising carries some of this community back into the world with them. Maybe this will manifest in a simple act of kindness, or maybe some great world change will come about as a result. Anything is possible!

 

And we'll all stand together, and we'll Raise another Stone
to the Seventh Generation, and the Children Yet Unknown!

 

The ceremonies of Stones Rising 2011 are based upon The Voyage of the Argo. Written in the middle of the third century b.c.e. by Apollonius of Rhodes, The Voyage of the Argo includes many familiar stories and characters from Greek myth and legend, such as Jason and the Golden Fleece, Heracles (Hercules) and Hylas, Medea, Orpheus, Phineas and the Harpies, as well as deities from the Olympian Pantheon: Apollo, Hecate, Athena, Zeus, etc. The events of the novel will become the stuff of our ceremonies, places on the Land will become the Argo’s exotic ports of call, and Stones Rising participants will become the characters of the Argo.

 

Each ceremony during Stones Rising will be experiential and interactive, so that involvement will be personally transformative. To enhance the dramatic adventures of the Argonauts, altars will be built around the Land to facilitate spiritual, emotional, ethical, and psychic experiences.

 

Help create the event! Join the Stones Rising 2011 thread on our forum; people who gather together to envision, design and create the event and its major ceremonials. If you are not yet a forum member please do consider becoming involved.

 

http://4qf.org/