Dear Queen Lady Passion,
For 20 years of outdoor public Samhains, I was privileged to witness up close your always-astonishing versatility and skill reach new heights every October. I want to offer you in this open letter my thanks, praise, and love for the many Witchy hats you wore as you perpetuated and brought new life to the ancient tradition of public Samhain ritual &emdash; artist, priestess, ritualist, healer, prophetess, hostess.
Artist: Every one of these rituals was a work of participatory performance art. You designed each theme, and spent countless hours using your training and experience in drama and the visual arts to craft costumes and altars and hand-decorate ritual props; and you did so without skipping a beat even as your eyesight was fading. But Samhain was never a one-woman show: You always encouraged every volunteer to contribute their own creativity to the whole, and along the way many discovered talents they hadn’t even realized they possessed. When the rites called for recorded music, you assembled such Witchy soundtracks that our Samhain playlists would make us a fortune if it were legal to sell them!
Priestess: Each year’s ritual theme was inspired by the Gods – literally. Sometimes They’d let you know what They wanted for the next Samhain before the current one was even past; other times you and I would wait with increasing nervousness through the spring and into the summer, till late one night when the germ of the next theme would present itself before your mind’s eye. Always your (contagious) intent was to create a thing pleasing to the Gods, but we never began with your or my or someone else’s idea – always with Theirs.
Ritualist: Even though no two Public Samhain Rites were alike, you always based each of them firmly on tradition. There are so many universal aspects to this time between summer’s life and winter’s death that we were able to explore many cultures’ rites without exploiting any. Yet exhilarating experience taught you why certain Wiccan traditions, such as the Spiral Dance, are the essential thread running through all our Samhain rites, and you always wisely arranged the rest of the rite around them.
Healer: We circled on some very dark nights in some very wild places! But thanks to your diligent care, not one of our thousands of attendees in 20 years ever suffered a single injury, and you never had to utilize your skills as an R.N. (although knowing they were there always eased my fears). Indeed, when your physical disability finally worsened to the point that you could no longer see to lead a Spiral Dance, it was your concern for the safety of others rather than your own that made you decide it was time to conclude our outdoor public Samhain rites after we completed a full score.
Prophetess: Your Samhain divinations each year have become legendary. After the last ritual dance, long lines of people seeking readings always promptly formed up to the picnic table or ground-cloth you cast your cards or bones or shells upon; and querents would often relate how accurate a previous Samhain divination had been for them. For many years – until we Witches overturned it – you did these public divinations in courageous defiance of our state’s anti-divination law, even when an officious little government attorney tried to threaten you with arrest. (That memory still makes me laugh!)
Hostess: Far from collapsing with exhaustion after returning to the Covenstead from another successful Samhain rite, you graciously and animatedly hosted an Afterparty celebration to reward all those who had volunteered. They were always brimming with questions about the Craft, which you would answer not just patiently but often very creatively, with magical games and exercises. Thankfully, this is an ongoing tradition, since our Samhain rites continue in more intimate form.
For we have been the worlds between,
And magic’s mysteries we have seen …
– *Diuvei, High Priest, Coven Oldenwilde