This was one of our all-day celebrations. It featured a potluck feast, a costume party, and assorted games and divination in addition to the ritual. The ritual took advantage of the time change occurring that night, incorporating "The Hour That Vanishes" to empower a banishing.
Janet M: Saturday: This was a long and busy day. I got up reasonably early and joined the shopping expedition, where I got the remainder of the casserole ingredients (potatoes, onions, apples, parsley, caraway seed) and additional makeup for my costume. We all spent the rest of the afternoon cooking and prepping for the party.
The potluck was filled with great food! We had chips and spinach dip, venison-heart stew with mushrooms, baked spaghetti, kielbasa casserole, snap peas, pasta salad, cherry cheesecake, apple cheesecake, and pumpkin spice whoopies (these were large soft pumpkin cookies stuck together with spiced cream cheese frosting).
The party was designated a "Nemesis" or "Come as You Aren't" party. I costumed as a stereotypical femdom (black lace stockings, black lace camisole, black brocade corset, black brocade skirt, black high-heeled sharp-toed boots, heavy makeup, cane), leading to the spit take of the afternoon (nowhere near the food, honest): "So, will you be using a stage name tonight, or will it be Mistress Janet?" Given that:
1. I'm not any variety of top; and 2. I'm *really* not kinked for the DS range of BDSM; and 3. despite my best intentions, I seem to be incapable of role-playing a dom, other than by being impeccably polite, as all the best doms I know are;
my response to this suggestion involved a sudden and dramatic shift from relaxed and leaning back to wide-eyed and sputtering.
Other opposites included a nun, a Puritan, a Pilgrim, a zombie (his username is Scooby), a Jedi mystic (the group's token Christian), a blushing bride, a shepherd (his totem is Wolf), a wolf (her totem is Rabbit), another femdom, a RingWraith, a farmer (he grew up in and prefers cities), Jessica Rabbit as a nurse, and a lovely androgynous Desire from Gaiman's Endless.
Non sequitur of the evening: I introduced myself to someone, saying, "Hi, I'm Janet, I'm from out of town." Her response was, "You certainly are. My GOD you've got cleavage!" I'm still not sure what my residence has to do with my size, but it apparently made sense to her. (My response, stolen from Rivka), was, "Why, yes, I AM a mammal".) Later, her two-year-old daughter looked around the table, pointed at the zombie and said "Monster!", pointed at the RingWraith and said "MONSTER!", and pointed at me and said "Big boobies!" *shrug* I certainly can't fault the kid's powers of observation, and at age two, I'm not going to fault her manners. Kids that age tend to call 'em as they see 'em, and mine were right out there.
After dinner, we played several games of "Are You A Werewolf?", which is fun. I got to be a Seer in my first game, then I was a Villager a bunch of times, then I moderated several times. Then some people gathered in the living room to do trance work and I took a nap until it was time for ritual.
* * *
Ritual: A banishing, based on two major factors:
- the end of Daylight Saving Time, and - us all being present as what we aren't.
The ritual began at 1:00 a.m. on Sunday. We each left a token of our "true selves" with the gatekeeper before entering the ritual space. Once there, we built two concentric circles (one to keep the outside world out and one to keep the discards in) and raised power. We discarded various intangibles into the fire; I chose to banish self-doubt. Then, just at 2:00 A.M. when the clocks were turned back and the hour vanished, we collapsed the inner circle around and into the fire.
Afterward, we returned to the house and reclaimed our tokens; I immediately took off the damn high-heeled boots and was exceedingly glad to do so! People stayed to talk for a while, then drifted off.
A version of this essay originally appeared on LiveJournal in 2004.