The ideal day begins, of course, with a little bit of breakfast. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but there are options. There’s coffee, fruit, oatmeal, hardboiled eggs, muffins, donuts, bagels, and a few of your other standard breakfast items. And it’s all right in front of you in a giant buffet — you just need to bring your own plate.
After breakfast, it’s learning time. Maybe you’re in the mood to discover something new about soap making, plarning, eclipse moons, astrology, besoms, or fluid condensers — either way, you’ve got options. In the midst of all this learning, people around you give gifts of plants to each other.
All of the learning makes you pretty hungry. Around noon, it’s time for lunch. And maybe a little bit of a nap.
Lunch recharges you, so you decide to learn a little bit more. This time, maybe you feel like investigating Brigid, sourdough starters, or wood burning. Again, you’ve got options.
A little bit later in the afternoon, you hear that someone in the community is doing a cool ritual for their kid’s coming of age. Obviously you attend.
And… after that, you’re in the mood for a bit of music. Yes… there is definitely music on the ideal day. Luckily, someone nearby plays a concert.
The ideal day’s dinner has to be pretty special. I’d imagine that an entire community comes together, prepares a meal, and feasts around giant tables. It’s delicious. There’s plenty of food to go around. No one leaves hungry.
The rest of the night is filled with magick, drumming, fire circles, dancing, and fellowship with old and new friends.
Wait, did I just describe my ideal day? Or did I just describe festival? Maybe they’re the same thing. Sounds strangely similar to our weekend at Turning the Tide 2024…
Good morning and happy Monday, friends!
We’re back from Turning the Tide 2024 and it was such a fantastic festival. I was honored to teach a workshop on fluid condensers and even more honored to be able to perform some of my music before the Saturday pot luck dinner.
I’m sure there are a couple videos from the concert floating around, so I’ll put a clip up on YouTube when I have a chance. I sang until I could no longer sing — actually, until I could no longer speak, so I’m sure I gave it every ounce of energy I had. In the next couple of weeks, I’ll post a full writeup of my experiences.
There was so much great discussion at the fluid condenser workshop that I made a quick Facebook post about it and uploaded the slideshow presentation to Patreon. Some topics were brought up that I’d definitely like to talk about more in Part 4 of the Fluid Condenser Series — Part 3 is basically done, but Part 4 is going to take me quite a little while longer.
On the way home from festival, Selene found a Buddhist temple, so we decided to stop by for a visit. When we pulled up, there were quite a few people walking around the grounds and working — honestly we thought we might have been interrupting something. They told us to come in, make ourselves at home… and even offered us some of the food they had prepared. Turns out they were just setting up for a new year celebration, so there were fresh flowers and decorations all over the grounds. It was really quite beautiful! They invited us to come in a few days for a service where they’ll greet the new year with prayers and chants. I’m not sure if we’ll make it back, but it does sound wonderful. And they were just so… welcoming and kind!
We took a nice walk around the grounds, left a small offering to Quan Yin, and continued on our way home. Why is it that when people are kind… it feels so surprising and out of place?
This past week, I was able to finish Episode 7 with Thorn Mooney, which is available on YouTube and will soon be up on your typical podcasting platforms. The intro montage was a silly little test of my video editing abilities — I was honestly picturing something more along the lines of A Beautiful Mind in my head (you know, where all the “codes” float in the air around Russell Crowe), but I’m not at that level yet. I’ll have the full writeup of this episode posted in a few days for all of you who prefer to read!
I can’t wait to share more with you about my festival experience! Stay tuned for more soon!
Aerik Arkadian 
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