21/3/2005

Beltane Ceremony

Filed under: Events — Lorraine @ 10:36 pm
May ’05
1
3:00 pm

This year we will be going to a new location for London Grove, Hainault Forest Country Park. The nearest tube station is Hainault, which is at the end of the Central Line.

We will meet up at Hainault tube station first, at 3 p.m., and then any car drivers can ferry non-drivers to the car park nearest the woods, opposite the Camelot pub. Daniel will drive, so there will be at least one driver there, and as the forest is only a few minute’s drive away from there, we can make more than one trip if needed. However, Daniel would prefer if one other person was able to share the driving – so if you are able and willing to drive on the day, please would you contact him in the next couple of weeks on 020 8771 6941 or put a comment on this topic to say so. If you do choose to drive, the place to park will be on one of the side roads near Hainault tube station, e.g. Thurlow Gardens or Lancelot Road. Map of Hainault station area

For anyone who wants to chance turning up late, or just for curiosity, it is possible to get bus 150 from the other side of New North Road to the station exit, to the end of the route at The Maypole pub in Chigwell Row. Then you would need to walk down Lambourne Road towards Lambourne End for a half mile or so, until you get to Camelot pub. However, I don’t recommend this as it will be difficult to find us in the wood (there aren’t many footpaths, and there are plenty of trees!) This map shows roughly where we will be going, starting from the car park most towards the top right of the map.
Map of Hainault Forest area showing start of walk into forest

We will drive you back to Hainault tube station afterwards if you need a lift.

If anyone has a burning desire to take on the role of May Queen or Green King please feel free to volunteer in advance, otherwise we shall see how the mood takes anyone on the day!

Otherwise, please phone Daniel or Lorraine on 020 8771 6941 a day or two before the ceremony to let us know if you are definitely coming along. If you run into any delays on the way to the ceremony, you can also call Daniel on his mobile, 0771 238 3335.

12/5/2005

Pagans in the media!

Filed under: Conversation — francesca @ 9:12 pm

Hi everybody. Just a quick thing I have to comment on! Did anyone else see the programme on TV on Sunday night about Stonehenge? It was about English Heritage allowing access to the stones on Summer Solstice to pagans and druids and though it was interesting it also IRRITATED me. Isn’t it just really annoying how they always make the equation pagan = weirdo?! The focus was on two sets of people – the EH representatives who were all upper-class, conventionally dressed etc, who were trying to control the anarchic pagans, and the only ones of us lot they chose to focus on were the ones with hair and beards down to their chests and/or pink dreadlocks etc. I know it doesn’t matter what we any of us look like but wouldn’t it be nice if just for once we weren’t stereotyped in quite such an obvious way? Does anyone work in television or know anyone who does?! If so couldn’t we suggest they make a programme about how pagans are really quite diverse and you can’t always tell our beliefs from how we look? Sorry. Rant over…

12/4/2005

Seedgroup after Beltaine

Filed under: Events — Petra @ 7:49 pm
May ’05
22
3:00 pm

So, as discussed yesterday, we will do the Seed Group Meeting in the Chelsea Physics Garden, as it is quite central. 3pm at the main entrance at Swan Walk – entrance fee £6. Nearest tube is Sloane Square.

I will bring my book on herbs, and probably another one on medicinal plants, and we can explore the garden at leisure.

[ Petra originally wrote this – Daniel has added Petra’s comments to the main topic, so that anyone who takes a glance will see we are now going to Chelsea, and not H.Hill as originally suggested. The original post said:
“I would like to do a seedgroup on plants again – this time hopefully better organized. My idea was to have a walk around Horsenden Hill and take a look at trees, bushes and herbs growing wild there, identifying them and maybe learning something about them.
Any thoughts and ideas to this issues are welcome.”]

Petra

24/5/2005

Shared Calendar Now Available.

Filed under: Help — site admin @ 12:05 pm

Event Calendar entries are now available in ‘vCalendar’ format. This means that you should be able to view them through you desktop calendar program. It works on iCal for the Macintosh. It should work on newer versions of Microsoft Outlook too.

The calendar is at this address: http://www.theraven.org.uk/vcalendar.php

Let me know if you like this feature, or if you have problems.

Beltane Offerings

Filed under: Conversation — hilde @ 8:41 pm

Trui sent this picture of the offerings we left after the Beltane ceremony. It was a beautiful spot, a beautiful ceremony, and a beautiful (and bio-degradable) offering of thanks.
Click on the image for a full size version.
Beltane offerings

Chelsea Physic Garden

Filed under: Conversation — hilde @ 9:05 pm

Daniel took this picture of us a the Chelsea Physic Garden. It was a beautiful day, and we had a great time looking at and chatting about plants, getting to know the local cat and having tea and cakes. All extremely civilised. The short guided tour we had was led by a volunteer gardener who was brimming with enthusiasm. At the end she said that, even though she was not a religious person, she thought of the Physic Garden as a sacred place, and that she was walking on hallowed ground. A Druid at heart?
Click on the image for the full size picture.
London Grove at Chelsea

An invitation

Filed under: Conversation — hilde @ 9:08 pm

Anna says:
“I have a new pamphlet coming out – from a decent poetry publisher!! To celebrate I am having a bit of a do. I hope you can make it – there will be food and wine at the do and we will go on to a pub after.”
Invitation

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