{"id":274,"date":"2011-04-18T20:34:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-18T20:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/cma-beltane\/"},"modified":"2011-04-18T20:34:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-18T20:34:00","slug":"cma-beltane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/cma-beltane.html","title":{"rendered":"CMA Beltane"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
my campsite at CMA Beltane<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I\u2019m back from a 4-day weekend trip to the Council of Magickal Arts<\/a>\u2019 Beltane festival at Spirit Haven, CMA\u2019s group-owned land near Flatonia, Texas. This was my first large Pagan festival \u2013 it was quite an experience. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how many people were there \u2013 I didn\u2019t get an official count, and the orientation leader said they vary from 500 to 1500. My best guess would be somewhere in the 1000 range, but that\u2019s a pretty wild guess. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to try to review the event, and I\u2019m not going to try to do a \u201cmy first Pagan festival\u201d report. Instead, I want to talk about what I saw that I like.<\/p>\n

I like that a group of Pagans, none of whom could be considered wealthy, have been able to come together, buy land, make improvements, and host two major festivals a year. It speaks to what is possible when we share common goals, work together, and stick with something year after year.<\/p>\n

I like that everyone had to work a shift at community service. By sharing the labor, we keep the costs down, we avoid burning out volunteers, and everyone is reminded that the work that keeps an event (or a city) running doesn\u2019t get done by house elves.<\/p>\n

I like that there were many options for activities but no pressure to participate in any of them.<\/p>\n

I like that while the mead and ale were flowing I didn\u2019t see anyone out of control.<\/p>\n

I like that everyone I talked to was friendly. <\/p>\n

I like that Phaedra Bonewits led a Saturday night ritual that honored the spirits of the land with the music of her late husband Isaac. Leading a ritual for 120 (or thereabouts) people is very different from leading a ritual for 25 or 30 \u2013 Phaedra showed us how to do a large ritual right.<\/p>\n

I like that I got to spend three nights more or less unplugged. Only got half of one book read, though.<\/p>\n

l doubt these events will become must-do\u2019s for me, but it was an enjoyable weekend and I\u2019m very glad I went.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

my campsite at CMA Beltane I\u2019m back from a 4-day weekend trip to the Council of Magickal Arts\u2019 Beltane festival at Spirit Haven, CMA\u2019s group-owned land near Flatonia, Texas. This was my first large Pagan festival \u2013 it was quite an experience. I don\u2019t know how many people were there \u2013 I didn\u2019t get an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nCMA Beltane<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"my campsite at CMA BeltaneI\u2019m back from a 4-day weekend trip to the Council of Magickal Arts\u2019 Beltane festival at Spirit Haven, CMA\u2019s group-owned land\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/cma-beltane.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CMA Beltane\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"my campsite at CMA BeltaneI\u2019m back from a 4-day weekend trip to the Council of Magickal Arts\u2019 Beltane festival at Spirit Haven, CMA\u2019s group-owned land\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/cma-beltane.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-04-18T20:34:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-1oZFzf12KLM\/TazmDn5Nu8I\/AAAAAAAAAmE\/eDrzhxddw4E\/s400\/CMA+Beltane+2011.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/cma-beltane.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/cma-beltane.html\",\"name\":\"CMA Beltane\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-18T20:34:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-04-18T20:34:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"my campsite at CMA BeltaneI\u2019m back from a 4-day weekend trip to the Council of Magickal Arts\u2019 Beltane festival at Spirit Haven, CMA\u2019s group-owned land\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/cma-beltane.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/cma-beltane.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/04\/cma-beltane.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"CMA Beltane\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. 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