Plus our best option for prehistoric climate control. The earth was the great womb for much of early humanity. The idea being they are not just older but deeper dwelling. Prior to that, it’s purported that even older and more ancient goddess worshiping faiths practiced deep in the caves under Delphi. Early Catholicism placed the center of the universe at Delphi. An outty symbol affixed over a navel center. The pole represents the axis mundi, or center of the world. It rests in the center of the soil that is the village green. The pole itself is openly a phallic symbol. They would sing of the tree, of the boy, of the seed. There was a time…when it was gay hearted boy childs. It was not always young ladies in white that gathered for the dance. Yet a seeker gon’ seek and it’s time for your Paul Harvey Rest of the Story. I feel like I should maybe shut it down and continue forward not.
Branches spread up reaching towards the sky, and tentacles spread down going with that deep deep under flow. K-Train selected a piece made of copper and sea glass in the shape of an octopus for his mother, and another piece in the shape of the tree of life for her grandmother. Young Bill had narrowed down the mama pickings to just one booth. We had made our passage through the rite.įree from the ritual, my attentions returned to K-Bill and hims/herms task at hand. In the end, the matriarch emcee approached the pole and gifted it with flowers before tying the ribbons into a bow with the girls silently clustered around her.
The circle of floating lovelies grew smaller and smaller as free ribbon became shorter and shorter. The effect began to knit the ribbons in a symmetrical and tight pattern down the vertical length of the pole. The girls on que started moving in opposing concentric circles with each tiny dancer holding her ribbon and weaving in and out of the flow of the opposite circle. The music started to build in momentum and tempo. They hung like skeletal remains of a long-abandoned circus, until the girls incorporated them into their dance, giving the ribbons transferred energy and life. Soon, they each took one of the evenly placed, varying colored ribbons that streamed down from the top of the centered pole. The girls began dancing slowly and in fixed positions. Certainly, the piece had a timeless, but if you had to put one on it… 1800’s feel. I’m undecided if the music was digital or needle scratch. She brought back old-world ritual with her when she returned home.Īfter the greyed and majestic queen bee spoke, a waltzy piece punched up on the PA. She learned of the promised blessings for bountiful harvests.
She learned some of the storied lore surrounding MayDay and of the MayPole. She inquired of locals as to the pole and its fabrics’ meaning. She kept seeing pole after tattered ribbon pole in the middle of village after long-yeared village. We were told of how the festival founder, a local elderly steel magnolia whose name magically escapes me, traveled across Europe in her youth. We stood in solemn witness as youthful, feminine innocence dressed in white made procession to the Pole. We communally knew the hour was coming near. The crowd began to gather at the MayPole. To walk the gardens amongst such women was a blessing for a salty old dog descended from Catholics and heathens.
I couldn’t help but feel the unbroken tether of mother and daughter weaving a magic around me. We snagged ours from Grace Mathis who was womanning a booth with her mother as her partner and backup. An Alvidres MayPole print is worth acquiring if there are still some available post-festival. We soon were to discover that she had done the artwork for the event. Truly, Ines’ smile is like springtime, warm and comforting. Greeting us in passing at the gate was local artist Ines Alvidres and her dear madre.