Quiet Gifts of the Forest on Solstice

"Goddess Shrine", America's Stonehenge 2007, 

by Valerianna Claff, Katja Esser, and Lisa Bouchie

Today we mark the longest day of the year in 

the northern hemisphere. At RavenWood, 

we will gather for a ritual fire and witness 

the light fading into dark. For many years I 

co-facilitated a huge celebration at America's Stonehenge 

in New Hampshire. My friend, Katja Esser, 

had been creating a big, public celebration for 

years before I joined her in 2000. We took it to a whole 

new level together employing our artistic skills to create 

impressive clay shrines and ritual spaces. My favorite shrine 

was the one that had been in my mind for several years - 

a huge, clay goddess at the center of the circle. We built her out 

of artists clay and natural clay that Lisa dug from the side of 

a river bed. We spent the whole day prior to the celebration 

building her. Below, Katja and I work on the detail of her face.

In the ritual,the participants each had a 

moment to enter the centerof the circle and 

place a flower symbolizing their authentic selves 

in the belly of the Goddess. It was a ritual 

of coming home to the Mother. 

It was a very sweet ritual, one of my favorites 

that I facilitated with Katja. These gatherings grew 

to over one hundred participants, quite a thing

to hold, and a wonderful experience. 

Dancing in the summer...

Last summer, for the first time in 10 years, I decided 

to stay here at RavenWood to celebrate solstice. 

It was a hard decision, some scheduling things 

contributed to my choice and also the need to 

create smaller, less complex and more intimate 

ritual space. My time facilitating at Stonehenge was such 

an amazing ego boost - everyone would bow down to us and 

rave about the shrines, our singing, our facilitation. 

So, in giving up this ritual, 

I gave up a big bit of ego boosting for the year! 

But it felt and feels important to me to honor 

the profound healing I receive in this gentle forest of RavenWood. 

There are no huge views, no amazing standing stones, 

no throngs of revelers to celebrate with wild abandon - 

the gifts here are the simple beauty of moss covered stones, 

humble forest flowers, a gathering of red mushrooms amongst twigs. 

It is a quiet, introspective forest that gathers me in and asks 

me to be myself beyond the masks and roles of the 

world beyond. I feel myself woven into the web of all life as 

I witness the flow of seasons and the creatures living their lives, 

sharing the land.It is a place I feel sometimes more owl, 

tree or bear than human. I wander for hours in the forest 

and perch on logs listening to stories sung 

by frogs and held in the stones, not knowing until I move 

alongthat a raven was perched in a nearby tree, watching. 

afternoon sunlight on just one trunk

Our gathering tonight will be intimate, calling on deep 

truths - spoken, sung, danced - shared and witnessed around the fire, 

reflecting the quiet magic of the forest here. We will be blessed 

with luna moths and owls, bobcats and coyotes, with wind in 

hemlocks and a growing crescent moon - though we might see only

the beauty of ourselves reflected in the eyes of another, speaking a 

prayer into the fire....