Mount Franklin Pagan Gathering 25-27th October 2013

Spring flowers courtesy of Mel's garden

Hello all, soon we will come together at beautiful Mount Franklin and join together in the celebration of our Sacred Festival of Beltane. We are so privileged this year to have the lovely Seline Cardamon-Cairns and Hawthorn facilitate the ritual with friends. this is the chant that we will be chanting as we enter the circle as we each make our way in with the Spiral dance. To assist them and to be inclusive of the ritual please find following this the words to the chant that we will be using during the ritual. If you could familiarise yourselves with them that would be sincerely appreciated.Last year we held a torch making workshop and, as it proved to be highly successful we will again be running another this year. To make your own torch you will need to bring and provide the following items:Kerosene, and strips of old bedding/materialA metal tin/container deep enough to leave your torch to soak in the kero-don't try plastic please! 

Balefire 2012 courtesy of R McLeod

Finally just a few reminders:

You must bring  your own firewood to the crater! You are not permitted to cut wood for fires at Mount Franklin either, so please leave chainsaws, handsaws, bush-saws and light-sabres at home. You can purchase firewood from a property at the foot of Mt. Franklin, just on the Castlemaine side. There is a large sign advertising firewood for sale and if you cannot bring your own that would be the first place to look.

You must also bring your own toilet paper! Parks Victoria keep the toilet blocks supplied but that is not sufficient for our Gathering's needs so please, bring your own! Don't expect to rely on there being paper provided, so bring your own to avoid being caught short.

The "Mount Franklin" brand of spring water you can buy at the shop does not, in fact, come from Mount Franklin. It is owned by Coca-Cola Amatil and they say the water comes from a variety of natural Australian water sources. The water you will find at the campsite is untreated and therefore unsuitable for drinking. It's very important that you plan ahead and bring plenty of drinking water with you to the campsite. 

ALL rubbish created, must be taken back. Including-general refuse, doggy doo, nappies, cigarette butts etc. Please do not throw bottles, tinnies, etc into fire places. Take them home for recycling-we advise some garbage bags to cart home all rubbish.

Please take note of our No Weapons Policy and courteous conduct expectation of all attendees
Anyone deemed intoxicated will not be permitted to partake of the Gathering ritual for Beltane. No exceptions.
Designate a driver if you plan on staying off the Mount.
Drink responsibly.
MFAPG Inc. Takes no responsibility or liability for those that cause problems or concerns across the Gathering weekend. Any troublemakers will immediately be pointed out to the local constabulary. We also take this opportunity to point out that attendees are expected to exercise magical hygiene and self responsibility.

Beltane Ritual Chant 2013

Ritualists lead the Spiral Dance into the circle area and Chant –

WE ARE THE PAGANS TURNING HAND IN HANDWE PRAISE THE POWERS AND THE SPIRITS OF THE LANDSPIRIT OF THE PAGANS, CHILDREN OF THE NIGHTSPIRIT OF THE PAGANS, JOIN OUR BELTANE RITE

This is the 2nd chant as we raise the Beltane energy...

When they have done so the Ritualists continue –

NOW TURN AND FACE THE OUTER CIRCLE

When they have done so the Ritualists continue –

WE CALL ALL THOSE WHO DANCE BETWEEN TO DO SO IN LOVE AND JOY

Hawthorn leads call and response chant –

I AM THE LORD COME DANCE WITH ME.

Seline leads call and response chant –

I AM THE LADY WILD AND FREE.

Hawthorn & Seline lead call and response chant –WE DANCE IN BELTANE ECSTASY

Torches 2012 courtesy K McCredie

Dates....

Gathering.......


Hello one and all! We hope you are all keeping warm and toasty and are enjoying the wintery months. We are loving the crisp frosts, warm fires, good companionship and ease with which life has granted us. As usual we hibernate during this time and keep busy with all the usual commitments as well as crafts, markets, shared cups of tea and great get togethers.

Once again the wonderful folk from Hepburn Relocalisation Network asked us to host the Winter Solstice Ritual. It was a beautiful perfect Yule night, filled with warmth, good food, new friends and stirring music. We thank you all for joining with us and allowing us to share with you all.

More can be read here:

http://relocalisehepburn.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/winter-solstice.html

Slowly as befits this time of the year, we begin to wind our organising up in the leading months prior to the Gathering. We have had many emails enquiring about the Gathering this year and confirm the following dates for your diaries!

The Gathering is always held on the last weekend of October regardless of whether that weekend leads into November. For 2013 the dates are from Friday the 25th October to Sunday the 27th October.
Once again we remind those wishing to participate that we have a capped level of attendees that can be covered under our event insurance. You may still camp at the Mountain of course but we cannot include you in any insurance unless you have registered your legal names with us.

Over the coming weeks we will post once again the handy list of things to bring and what is and is not permitted.

We are very pleased that this year we get a year off (woot!) and the ritual will be hosted by the very lovely Seline Cardamon-Cairns.

Mount Franklin Annual Pagan Gathering welcomes all pagan practices, so if you (or you and your group) wish to host a ritual please stick your hand up at the Sunday Moot to do so. The only requisite is a bonfire-of course!

Happy days with Imbolc approaching fast...not long to go now :)

MFPG Inc

STUFF!

Updates here, there and everywhere!

It would seem that everyone has been busily sorting the wheat from the chaff, the shit from the sugar, the good from the bad! Here at MFAPG HQ we seem to have emerged into the Winter months feeling the benefit of reflection and discarding of what has been and what is unnecessary to move solidly into the future. We come to our first AGM shortly and its been one amazing journey that has been supported solidly by the core group and everyone in the public for who the gathering has made a home in their heart and minds. Once again we are bginning preparations for this years event, this year the ritual will be hosted by the very beautiful and fabulous Seline Cardamon-Cairns. We are enormously excited to be a part of Seline's path and we may also have another announcement to come to add to this but we are still waiting on confirmation of details.

As always the Gathering could not take place without the wonderful support of SHARE-Hepburn Sustainability Group. You can find out more about the great work they do in the community here: 
http://share.asn.au/ 

We also could not function without the continued support and input from Parks Victoria and the wonderful rangers who liaise with us regularly regarding MFAPG.

http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/

For the last few months we have been busy monthly with the markets and these have continued to grow each month. Our aim is to give back to Mount Franklin in terms of preservation, heritage and improvement.

We also could not manage without you! Those wonderful people who come and celebrate in the spirit of friendship, companionship and likeminds. We have been overwhelmed by the amount of support given to the Gathering by all of you.

In the community there have been some great new enterprises running such as:

http://lilithsherbgarden.bigcartel.com/

Catherine has been an avid supporter of the Gathering for over 20 years so the least we can do is show her and Verity's new venture off!

"Once upon a time in the land of Melbourne there were two women who met by chance and became friends. They were both wives and mothers; one of them was a herbalist (that's Verity) and one of them was an acupuncturist (that's Catherine). One fine day they decided to pool their passions for herbs, natural healing and working in harmony with Nature and Lilith's Herb Garden was born.

Lilith's Herb Garden is a place where you will find an eclectic mix of herbal teas and energetic medicines, as well as healing ointments and balms. All products are handmade by us, using organic ingredients wherever possible"

https://www.facebook.com/Greenmanmagazine?fref=ts

"The Green Man Quarterly is a new Australian magazine taking a deeper look into Witchcraft, Paganism and the Occult" 

William is the editor of the new magazine and has been a great supporter and attendee of the Gathering for some years now. We wish him well!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/268316103305788/

Exciting news aas Seline and hawthorn once again take up the Euphoria mantle once again for those familiar and not familar please check the following group page for more information!

As the wheel ever spins, enjoy this gorgeous time of the year and more news to follow! Next up Midwinter!!

From all of us at MFAPG HQ-Merry meet and merry part.

Ever Changing...

I drove into Mount Franklin during the school holidays for a visit recently and found a great change to the area. The large Scots Pine that sits next to the clearing on the west of the crater, where the organisers and registration is situated, has been cut down. I've not tried to find out why, but I'm sure Parks Victoria had their reasons (and I am naturally assuming they are responsible). All the branches with its needles are now gone, but its large trunk sit forlornly nearby. The crater has changed so much over the years - trees being planted and others cut or fallen down, droughts, roads mended, fencing areas off for safety and preservation etc, so we should expect a bit of change now and again. A part of it may have broken or fallen, so cutting it down may have been the safest thing to do.

Still it's sad, not much we can do about it now, it will be strange to not have the pine there anymore. It was such a great tree!

 

 

 

 

Josie standing on the stump

Pic of the tree from Beltane 2012, only 6 months before.

 

Another one from 2012 Beltane - No more shade!

 

The Mount from a Tower

On the Chillout Festival Weekend, in early March, my friend Lee and I walked up the towards Wombat Hill (on a very warm day) and went into Convent Gallery to see the artwork on display.

We ended up climbing to the roof where the old infirmary was, and then into the bell tower. Here is the view of the surrounding landscape from the top of Convent Gallery. When I saw Mount Franklin (to the right of the centre in this picture) I remember saying out loud 'There's Mount Alexand...' and stopped myself when I realised that it would actually be our fair Mount Franklin and that Mount Alexander, further north, might not even be easy to see from there, and on such a hazy day! How silly of me not to realise straight away that it was Franklin!