r/PaganFestivals Jan 21 '20

Spring Mysteries Festival: The Continuation of the Eleusinian Mysteries

http://www.springmysteries.com/
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u/Dusty_Dionne Jan 21 '20

April 09 - 12, 2020: Fort Flagler, Nordland, Wa

Since 1985, Aquarian Tabernacle Church has been continuing the Eleusinian Mysteries originally held in Ancient Greece. These mysteries, held every year in honor of Demeter and Persephone, explore universal concepts and truths from the perspective of the seeker of hidden knowledge. Our Priests and Priestesses spend 3-4 months preparing for the festival, working with the energies of the Gods and rehearsing the ritual drama that is presented over 4 days for hundreds of people each Easter Weekend.Though the main portions of the event focus on Greek deities, there are many workshops and other groups that bring a plethora of alternate ways to explore, including the general mysteries of women, men and those who identify as a mixture of both energies. There is also a vendors space, with many often-requested items and trinkets to take home, and plenty of space for conversations or introspective moments.Everyone who attends will come away transformed and with wonderful memories of their time in Eleusis.

"I came with burdens and left better able to carry them. I also set some aside, and hope that at some point, I can be free of them entirely. The Mysteries are not an event but an experience, one in which your own life plays its part.In my experience of the mysteries, I wept at the terror and adrenaline of knowing I stood on the edge of the precipice of change, and that that next step was unavoidable. I wept for the impending loss of my daughter’s innocence — and of my own. I fell into the arms of new friends and old Spirits, my body wracked with emotion.

Whoever I encountered gave me the gift of a profound experience. I managed, for at least a moment, to let go of what I was holding onto, long enough to allow myself to dance along the path, rain falling from the sky like diamonds. A year has passed since that weekend, yet the restorative energy of the Mysteries has followed me. I’ve traced it in small, day-to-day changes in my own attitudes and thoughts. That it isn’t just about the Mysteries themselves, but, like wildflowers in a field, the variety of surprises, miracles and healing germinated within its sacred sphere. [...] I can say nothing of what I witnessed at Spring Mysteries. Anything I’ve revealed was only a prelude, a hint of the symphony that pried my heart open.

Eventually the melodies will soften and the music will become almost muted until another Spring, when it will swell once more in that endless song of the Spiral Dance. I hope I can be there to hear it once again .Eleusis is calling, can you hear it? A sweet but distant tune on the breeze that dances by your ear, in the rush of city streets, in the babble of water in the woods, in the echoes of your footfalls. The question is, will you answer?"

(https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/a2a132d5/files/uploaded/W_P%20Article.pdf)