Wake

[jack]

For posterity, I shall record the (not-completely-traditional) order of my Afmaelisdagr. IIRC everyone but me joined hands, and circled three times widdershins. Then I handed an avatar of the earth (an apple) to a Reeve or Companion, and asked them to hold it aloft while I called on it in the name of maybe twenty aspects, relatives, or parts to aid. This was repeated for five planets.

Some of the names were mildly mangled, as even the kinder rot13 was tongue-twisting, but the kicker was the Aztec-god aspect of the sun.

Five assistants were intended to form the points of jomscarf-pentagram about me, but at the last minute I listen to the baying of the new sun and decided this particular one would appreciate strength of feeling more than ritual.

Then they circled again, I called the names of the five planets and the sun, everyone had a *small* sip of mead from the horn, a libation was poured on the ground, and the sun rose. Just about.

Several people joined us that morning, including davethedog, of whom we still have his mark-signature added to the list of Jomsvikings. Unfortunately I was made to promise not to name him as the next reeve.

For that day the day was beautiful -- crisp, cool, but warm in the sun, and all round a perfect morning. Unfortunately since, it seems to have been uniformly grey, to the extent that I wondered if we were under a nuclear fallout and I just hadn't seen the news.

Comments

[robhu.livejournal.com]

Are you going again this year?

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Yes. Are you thinking of going? Are you on the cusfs mailing list? If not, email the committee :)

[robhu.livejournal.com]

I'm not on the cusfs mailing list... I got an email from [Bad username or site: atreic' / @ livejournal.com] today saying she thought I ought to go. I had no idea what she was even talking about until I read your posts about it :-)

I am unsure as to whether I want to go. It sounds cool, but it sounds like a cool thing for people who are already part of that group, and I don't know any of the people going (except you who I ever so slightly know).

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

It's a cool group of people you might like. We stay up all night playing board games and drinking and similar, and then do the ceremony at sunrise. I was going to say it mightn't be the best introduction, but then I don't know what would be. Certainly there'd be no harm in turning up and saying hi :)

[robhu.livejournal.com]

:-)

Thanks for the invite. I might come.

So I have to be where at what time?

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

The wake is from 8.30pm Saturday night, venue "to be announced". It will almost certainly be the same place as the last few years (155 Gilbert Road), but we should wait -- afaict there should be a proper email about it later in the week. Email soc-cusfs@lists.cam.ac.uk if you want to receive it, or hang around on LJ or the cusfs website on Friday and someone can confirm it :)

[robhu.livejournal.com]

Yay!

I have emailed them.

I would like to come to some cusfs stuff. I am quite shy in large groups, and happily fell into some social circles when I moved here because of LJ. So I have become very lazy wrt joining any more :-)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Cool! Well done.

CUSFS stuff tends to be a bit hit and miss. I don't think I've been this year, except to social events like the games evening. There's an old guard I know a lot of, and are generally at those. The weekly meetings tend to be more patronised by current students, and sometimes there's lots and sometimes there's almost none, I don't know how it is at the moment :)

[robhu.livejournal.com]

Are you going to go on saturday?

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Yes, the wake and the veizla are the two big social occasions.