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Stones Rising 2010

2010-Blessings of the Harvest

A work of years, Stone by Stone.
Built by our Tribe, Generation after Generation.
As we build the Stone Circle, the Stone Circle builds our Tribe.
We have grown together, learned together, and laid the foundation for our future.

We speak often in the metaphors of the planter: Seed Stones, planting our hopes and dreams, and a Circle that Grows.

Stones Rising 2010 will expand that metaphor as a focus for the entire complex; we planted the seeds at Beltaine, and we have tended them with care as the rains have fallen, and the hearth fires crackled, by our celebration, by our service to the Land and to one another and by the ceremony we have made across the Land and amongst the Stones. As the wheel turns, and the autumn winds blow, we will set our hands to a great task: to harvest all that we have sown, to raise the first Stones of the second half of the inner ring, to store up those blessings for the winter, and the Generations ahead. Blessings of the Land and the Tribe.

Each ceremony during Stones Rising 2010 will focus on one part of the work of the Harvest. We will gather in the raw energy, focusing on the work ahead. Next we will refine it, threshing away the chaff, and milling it, so it is prepared for the individuals and small groups of the tribe to shape it and prepare it as they see fit. We come together to share our individual works as we, together, raise the new Stones in the Circle. After the Stones are raised we join together to celebrate, offer thanks, and formally seal our work, blessing our 'fields' in preparation for the coming winter and the next growing season. Finally we sow a winter crop together, as we take our leave, to share the blessings we have received. The Blessings of the Harvest.

This is our Work. We labor together with a common goal and purpose. We are building our home, Stone by Stone.

Stones Rising 2010 is a six-day challenge of the mind, body, and spirit, as the Tribe comes together once again for its greatest purpose: to Raise the Stones that stand as symbols of our legacy, Past, Present, and Future.

The Western Gate stands tall, and a new challenge is set before the Tribe as we lay our foundations into the second half of the Circle.

And we'll all stand together, and we'll Raise another Stone
to the Seventh Generation, and the Children Yet Unknown!

Help create the event! Join the SR Event Planning thread on our forum; people who gather together to envision, design and create the event and its major ceremonials. If you are not yet a forum member please do consider becoming involved.

The Rising: The Heart of Stones!

While Stones Rising is a complex ceremonial matrix in which each ceremony builds on the previous one, it is the rites of Sunday that form the core of our work during the event. They are the climax of all that has come before, and lead into the denouement and bittersweet tears of Monday's Closing.

Stones Eve

    Saturday evening explores many aspects of ceremonial preparation for the Rising to come.

We start with a ceremonial Altar Walk, a procession that will visit the Seven Shrines of Stillness. Celebrants will receive a token of their journey at each Shrine, coming finally to the seventh Shrine at the Fire Circle.

Drumming, dancing, song, and other offerings will provide an energetic focus for various forms of divination. The Warriors will stand in service to the Tribe and the Land, guarding us throughout the night as we all prepare for the morning's work. The Corn Mothers and Fathers will be busy in the kitchen, baking the bread that we will share to begin the day.

We are all invited to do whatever we need in order to find the inspiration that the Divine offers to us in this time. Once dawn comes on Sunday, and the sun creeps over the mountains to the east, the Day of the Rising begins. The Land has been blessed by the attention and care of the Vigil-keepers, and the Stone Circle is ready to receive the new Stones..

The Ceremony of Commitments

Throughout the early morning, we will come to the Painters of the Body Tribal, that we may be marked with the symbols of our work, our hopes, our prayers, our lives. When the Church Bell rings, all gather in the Green across from the Stone Circle, and prepare for the Ceremony of Commitments. In this ritual, we take up the ribbons of Service and solemnly, joyfully process into the Stone Circle in preparation for the Great Work to come.

The Rising

This year, the People will complete the Western Gate. It will take heroic efforts, attention, and intention of the entire People to accomplish this Work. The focus, will, and strength of every member of the Tribes of Four Quarters will be required. The Sacral Foods will sustain our strength, as it is no understatement to say that we will need absolutely every person to participate, every person to bring his or her best self to the process, every person to offer what they have to give to the process. Whether you're on the ropes, witnessing, carrying water, or engaging in any one of the many ways to serve during the Rising, your work and attention are important and necessary.

The Baby Blessing

One of our most beloved rites at Four Quarters happens immediately after the Rising. The People will move across the Circle from the West, where the Stones have gone up, to the East Gate, where the Mother Stone stands prepared to welcome the newest members of our community. Since the Mother Stone was Raised, she has been the center of a ritual that began as a spontaneous expression by parents, of their sense of Tribe and family at Four Quarters.

If you have an infant or small child who has yet to be welcomed into the People, please sign up on the list at the Coffee Dragons, and bring your child to the Baby Blessing. In this ceremony, an adult, usually the child's mother, stands behind the Mother Stone and passes the child through the Hole in the Stone, where another adult, usually the child's father, receives the child. Then the child is lifted up and the community is told his or her name. The community responds with welcome and acclamation. While many Four Quarters members write their own private baby blessings, and invite family and friends to share in those ceremonies, it is the Baby Blessing at Stones that is the first formal welcoming for most of our wee ones.

The Giveaway and Libation

The Giveaway and Libation express, as does the Baby Blessing, our gratitude for all we have been given, and our commitment to continue to work for the benefit of all. During the Giveaway, every celebrant is given an item with which to mark Stones Rising of that year.

Also during the Giveaway, many of us who have not yet made our donation pledges for the year make those pledges and give to the fundraising program of Four Quarters. This is the time for us to honor all that we have been given by our experiences at Four Quarters: of People, Land, Stones, Magic, and the ever-present Divine. We give as we have received, in joy and gratitude.

The Libation is another concrete expression of this giving and receiving, reminding us that what we have, we have because others have gone before us, and what we do, we do for all those who come after.

The Feast

A Giveaway of loving members of the Tribe, who labor away from the community so that we can celebrate the bounty of the Land with each other. Where we all come together and eat as One Tribe.

Rest

As life is balance, just as there is time for action, there is a time for rest. Eat, rest, spend time with loved ones. This is the time to recover from the labors of the early part of the day and prepare for the focused magical work of the Consecration.

The Consecration

As the Circle grows, so the Family. As we have welcomed new children into the Life of the People, so we welcome the new Stones into the Life of the Land. We are halfway to our destination, and at a critical point in the life of Four Quarters as People, Institution, and hope for the future. We come together in the Stone Circle to honor what has been done in the earlier parts of the day, and to connect with the Stones that have been Raised and the Stones yet to come.

Stones Rising An Introduction
     by Orren Whiddon, 2004


    Even now in our tenth year (2004) it is difficult for me to get my arms around Stones Rising, and with this introduction I can only hope to lift the curtain a little bit for others. Because Stones is not a festival as that concept is commonly understood. We do not offer to entertain you and we offer no message that can be expressed in words.
    For Stones Rising is a community’s exploration of itself and the individual's expression of their own Spiritual sensibilities. You should be here for your own experience of ceremony in the first person, and to share the meaning that you find within your own heart with those around you. For there is great meaning here on the Land, in Ceremony; working with the Stones, the People and with Spirit.
    We offer a tool kit of Ceremony, Set and Setting, from which you can weave your own experience within the context of a functioning Ceremonial Community. And that community of shared experience is a continuum; living, breathing, changing with the years, as we all grow and change in our experience of the Standing Stones and of each other. For no Stones Rising is like the one that came before, and I dare say they will never repeat themselves. There is no beginning and certainly no end to the process, no beginning or end to the Ceremonial Circle. No single Rising can transmit all that is to be learned, as each year becomes an indivisible part of what came before and what will come after. Stones Rising is a community of shared intent and commitment, struggle and achievement that goes far beyond any one person or time.

     It is true that some of us have been privileged to be present when the first Stone was raised, and for some this will be a first time under the Witness Arbors. But it is our hope that no matter when you joined us, you will find that you too stand in the Center of the Circle.
       
    We are honored to stand here with you.

          For our Members this process can begin with The Stone Peoples Intensive beginning the weekend preceding Stones Rising, an Act of Service preparing the Stone Circle and the Land for the People to come.
          For those who have the resources to arrive by Wednesday, we offer two days and nights of preparatory ceremonials and many "Pathways of Service"; ceremonial commitments that you can make and keep in your own Service to the Circle.
          Our major ceremonials begin Friday evening at The Labrynth with "The Dionysian Mysteries" and the torchlight procession of the first Stone into the Stone Circle. They continue through Saturday with the "Long Pull" as the second stone makes its journey up our mountain and into Circle, a stone dedicated to our Land. Sunday Morning begins with "The Feast of the Corn Mother" and "The Ceremony of Commitments" honoring the Pathways of Service made and fullfilled over the previous four days. Then, "The Rising" as the third stone is brought into Circle and all three are raised to join the Standing Stones. Followed by our GiveAways and then "The Feast of the Standing Stones" and rest.
           For those who can only arrive Friday afternoon or later, we hope to provide a full and rich experience during their three day weekend on the Land. A time when you can discover your place in Circle and make your own Commitment of Service.
          The Volunteer Staff of The Starvin' Artist Cafe make a very special Commitment of Service as their own part of this very special Stones Rising. Beginning with The Stones Peoples Intensive continuing with hundreds of Meal Plan meals throughout Stones Rising, they offer their own work, sweat and love in feeding the people. Sunday's "Feast of the Corn Mother" and "The Feast of the Standing Stones" will be prepared and presented to Stones Rising attendees as their gift.

          Four Quarters began fourteen* years ago, and our early years were a struggle. In fact, we survived those hard times because of the gifts that were freely given by those whose lives we touched, often the very food we ate and clothing we wore. Since that time we have grown. Thirty-seven* Stones stand in the hilltop sunlight and much of the Land is now owned by the Sanctuary, in permanent trust made possible by more gifts, freely given. The past few years have been very good to Four Quarters, but we never forget what it was like to live in want.
          It is a time of thanksgiving for what we have been given. But Stones Rising remains for us a giveaway. A giveaway for those whose lives have been touched by these troubling times, and our best wish to offer solace in these times of travail. Because we remember.
(*As of this year)

            For more information about Stones Rising, please review the detailed information contained in the linked pages to your right. Or feel free to call our offices.
     

We invite you to join us as family, taking part in this real community,
Making ceremony together as only the people can.

These are the gifts of
Sacrifice, Ceremony and Celebration;
and they await you, as Blessings of this Land
upon You and Your House...   Stones Rising