Today’s prompt asks us to describe a family member. This seems apt for the time of year, as Samhain is often a time for remembering lost loved ones.
Rather than describe a particular family member, I’ll talk about what the term “chosen family” means to me. That’s a topic that’s been on my mind since we spent the last week at festival.
Obviously, you can’t pick your blood relatives — at least, not from the vantage point of this lifetime. You’re born into it. You may or may not get along with your brothers, sisters, parents, cousins, etc. Personally, I get along with my blood family just fine, but we share very different spiritual beliefs. As long as we don’t bring up religion or politics, we can all have a wonderful time together.
Surprisingly, I’m getting to know some of my blood relatives better posthumously, but working with ancestors is something we’ve already talked about quite a bit this month.
When we start doing spiritual work with a particular group of people, we’re inevitably selecting our chosen family. These are people we want to be with. I also think this feeling is enhanced when you start framing it within the confines of a coven, and sometimes even further with initiatory practices.
This is why sometimes we’re particularly choosy with who we let into our outer court for training classes. Some of those people might become our future family members! And it doesn’t stop with them. Every initiate has the potential to move through the degrees and form their own coven, where they can initiate their own people and add to the extended family.
Our chosen family is growing all the time! We’re meeting new brothers, sisters, and cousins each year! These are the people the people that we want to grow with, teach, learn from, and be vulnerable around. There’s a bond that’s difficult to put into words… but what I can tell you is that it gets stronger over time.
Good morning and happy Monday, friends!
This past week was FPG. I’m probably going to do an “official” post about it within the next coming weeks, but for now I’d like to approach it from a personal point of view — my feelings, experiences, and all that jazz.
First of all, I think I can say that I’ve never had a better festival experience. And that might have to do with the extended length of time we spent there. It was the first time Selene and I had been present for the entire festival (Weds – Sun). It’s funny because those extra days had certainly been causing me extra panic during the planning phase, but it all ended up working out for a wonderful trip. We had more than enough time to really settle in and get comfy with our extended spiritual family.
We arrived on Wednesday evening. Arriving is one of my favorite parts of the whole week. There’s this one moment where you get to walk up and see a big group of people that you haven’t seen in a long time — people who, like you, have all traveled a decent distance for the shared purpose of fellowship. After a big round of hugs, Selene and I started to put up our tent. I guess it’s part of our tradition to set up camp in the dark, so we’re getting pretty good at it.
The next morning, we were introduced to some of the staff and they very kindly made us breakfast. Our meals were included as part of the whole arrangement, but Selene also likes to cook, so we’ve got a full pop-up kitchen as part of our camping setup. To top it off, our coven family area was always filled with food, so there was no chance of ever being hungry. I had a sound check later that afternoon and then my concert in the evening.
From my point of view, the concert was a blast. Some of the younger kids came front and center to dance and sing along to my songs. Two of them stuck around and helped me make a fluid condenser on stage. I had them take turns pulling ingredients out of a bag and throwing them into a pot. That condenser stayed out for the entire show so it could receive all the energy that we raised.
And we raised a ton! I don’t think I’ll ever boast about my frontman or showmanship abilities — I’m usually the guy that shows up, plays some songs, and walks out… but [upon the advice of my wife] I tried to involve the crowd more this time. One of my opening numbers was a new, upbeat song I wrote to Pan. I did a “call and response” bit… the entire room was shouting his name! I also threw in covers (Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash and Madness by Muse) that I’ve always wanted to play, along with a few extra “loop pedal” sections of songs where I drum, sing, or yell into my guitar to make a live backing track.
I bottled the fluid condenser later, which at that point was basically a musically charged potion, and gave it out at my workshop the next day. People who showed up had some really interesting input about using their voices in magick! I actually took a few notes from conversations we had. I’d like to transform this whole thing into a YouTube series one day soon.
The rest of the festival… we danced (I mean, I spun poi) around the fire, listened to drums, and… well, you know what? I’ll tell you more about it in a future post. For now, I think I’ve got a Samhain article to write. Festival week was so packed, I didn’t write much. I’ve got a bit of catching up to do!
Also, this week I’m also planning on trimming some of Oracle’s interview into 60-second shorts. Stay tuned for more!
Aerik Arkadian 
Leave a comment