Faery Friends, Fun and Fellowship

I spent an amazing day Saturday. We had a fundraiser this past weekend for Front Range Pagan Pride, a Faery Frolic! It was a beautiful day and we had a really nice local shop to have it. We had readers and vendors, entertainment and AWESOME food (shameless plug for North Woods Inn in Littleton, CO).

We had a kids Faery Craft booth where kids of all ages could make Faery wands and Faery doors to invite the fae into their homes. It was great to see them having fun using markers and ribbons and glitter and stickers in such wonderfully creative ways.

Around noon, there was an open ritual lead by Living Earth. It was beautifully done and very energetic. We focused our energies on creating a united, if not unified, Pagan community. A community in which Pagans of all traditions can come together to play, work, and yes, worship in our wildly different ways.

In the middle of the ritual were the children, dancing and waving their newly created Faery wands. Some of the kids didn’t know each other, but they held hands and jumped for joy as each element was called. They giggled with glee at being part of the ceremony.

As the kids gathered around, a wonderful story was told about the Lord of the Forest and the Lady of the Gardens. The big kids had fun being the improvised sound effects for the wind and the leaves and the rain.

All in all, it was a great ritual and a fun day.

Yes, we worked hard to raise funds for Front Range Pagan Pride. Yes, we had a long day from set up to take down. Yes, we got to see other members of our community that we don’t get to see as often as we’d like.

But what struck me the most was the kids. Their joy and complete lack of inhibitions and their ability to reach out in friendship to someone they didn’t know. Talk about perfect love and perfect trust!

I absolutely love when my kids participate in ritual. My daughter, though she’s going through an “I-don’t-want-to-be-different-than-everyone-else-in-school-and-nobody-else-is-Pagan” phase, still loves doing ritual. In fact, she was right there with me, helping the little ones make faery wands and doors. And she’s looking forward to Pagan Pride Day when we have a kid’s tent for them to make their own magical tools and then help them write their very own ritual.

And my son is absolutely beside himself if he can’t call fire! He still doesn’t understand it all, but he loves doing it. He loves the candles, he loves saying the words and turning in a circle. Of course, the hard part is getting him to stop turning in circles!

There have been some amazingly powerful rituals in which I’ve participated and a few that I have led. They have been life altering and spirit renewing. I keep mementos of these rituals on my own altar, especially that darned seahorse!! But I can honestly say that my favorites have been ones in which children are fully participating and enjoying every moment of it.

As a Pagan parent, I sometimes wonder how I’m going to teach my kids my beliefs. I find myself telling my kids “Well, honey, some people believe in only one god.” Part of it may be the Unitarian Universalist in me that wants my kids to learn about all sorts of beliefs. I mean, heck, they’re going to find their own paths, I just want them to be well educated about them all.

Hey, I’m a scholar. Ok, let’s face it, I’m a geek. Whenever there’s a question about religious history, my friends turn to me. I don’t know all the answers. Hell, I don’t know half of them. But I apparently know a whole bunch more than I realized I did. And I was shocked to discover I was actually an adult when I found out that one of the textbooks for my Religious Studies degree was a book I had already read. Twice. For pleasure. Queen of Useless Information and Ambassador of Geekdom, that’s me.

But Paganism is an experiential faith. You can read all you want about the Goddess and the God. You can spend hours upon hours studying about ritual and divination. You can listen to guided meditation CDs and learn about all the techniques for a “proper” mental state. But until you feel the breeze in answer to calling Air, or until you smell cool, clear, summer rain when you call water, or feel the energy rush through your limbs when you experience a Drawing Down, you just don’t know. And even then, you haven’t even begun to fathom the depths to which this faith can infuse your soul.

I want my kids to experience it as fully as possible. Not just with my tradition, but with as many traditions as we can find. I want them to draw from that vast sea of experience and knowledge to find their own place in the arms and service of the Lord and Lady.

In what ways do you share your experience of Paganism with your children?