Ea and Akesios represented GFG at Winterstar 2007 this year. They assisted with the hosting of the Faerie Woods cabin along with Joe Rothenberg from the Association for Consciousness Exploration (A.C.E.), and fellow Faerie Woods members Raven, Paul, Kat and Dana. The weekend was quite glorious, despite the snow and 0 to 10 degree temperatures. For those that are unaware, Winterstar is a small gathering held at Atwood Lake Resort in Northern Ohio that is hosted by A.C.E., the folks who bring you the annual Starwood event. There are not many presenters at Winterstar, due mostly to space provided at the resort, but the classes are all very interesting. This year’s theme was Vision Quest. Ea presented two well attended workshops. One on coming out as a vision quest - a GLBT themed workshop, and the other on traveling the Enochian Aethyrs as a vision quest. Both Ea and Akesios attended a workshop on theatrics in ritual and a two-part workshop on stillpoint, the art of meditation. The theatrics workshop was presented by Sally Eaton and focused on using what you already are to stand in appropriate places in ritual. In other words, if you are normally a extroverted, all-loving male, you might be an excellent choice for Dionysus. The stillpoint workshop was very enlightening. The presenter, Patricia Monaghan, presented many different ways to meditate and the theories behind them. She authored a book on complete meditation on which he class was based. It’s main purpose was to aid you in finding the best meditation method for you. Akesios and Ea greatly enjoyed both classes. On Friday night, Akesios and Ea managed to gather several GLBT members and friends for a feast at the resorts nightly buffet. Saturday night was spent hopping the cabin parties and spreading the word about the Between the Worlds Men’s Gathering (BTW). Flyers were left at the Winterstar registration desk on Thursday, but more were passed out throughout the week. Overall, it was a successful venture and GFG will attend again next year.

On Saturday, January 27, 2007 the brothers of the Green Faerie Grove celebrated Imbolc. The ritual was held at grovestead and facilitated by Quill. As part of ritual, we made bags into which we put tokens representing our hopes and dreams and the energy to make them come to fruitition. Quill wrote a wonderful poem for the ritual, which you can read here.

After ritual, we shared a wonderful meal together and spent a while laughing, joking and talking. From all of us, the brothers of the Green Faerie Grove, a happy and blessed Imbolc. May your dreams and hopes grow with the growing warmth of the season.

Blessed Be!