Walking the Hedge

 

 

“Happy Lupercalia!” I said to my roommate Grey once she had gotten home from work and settled in for the evening.

 

“What’s Lupercalia?” she asked.

 

“Far superior to Valentine’s Day” I replied, then grinned with delight as she read the Wikipedia entry.

 

“Too bad we don’t have any goat skin to wear and run around in.” said Grey.

 

“I have goat skin.”

 

“That’s right … you DO have goat skin.”

 

And so the plotting began. There was much giggling in our house that night. It’s all about celebrating how awesome life is, after all.

 

The next night we saw a man about harp and visited someone dear for Valentine’s Day. On the drive back home, we declared ourselves to be on a Valentine’s Day/Lupercalia quest.

 

One Witch said to the other: “Don’t worry, no matter what happens, we have a harp in the trunk.”

 

On the last day of Lupercalia, we headed into the countryside.

 

Grey and I put on our newly made goat skin garters, winter boots and warm cloaks (and not much else).  We trucked along down the path towards the forest and once out of sight of any neighbours, we gave the boys our cloaks to carry. Then, giggling like lunatics, Grey and I processed down the snow covered “yellow brick” road. Shaking rattles and shouting blessing at the land. An attempt was made to sing “Hoof and Horn” but running about in the snow whilst naked takes your breath away. We also couldn’t stop laughing long enough to sing properly.

 

We picked a birch tree we liked and stooped there. While the boys watched and smoked cigarettes, I stood a large and dark phallus in the snow. Grey and I surrounded it with the stems of tulips, lilies and daffodils, as well as the blossoms of pure white carnations. We announced the coming of spring and declared the land to be blessed. Sacred smoke was burned to entice Faunus to come along and play, bringing spring time with Him.

 

We turned about and holding hands, Grey and I skipped back down the road. Crash the dog followed along, far too busy finding good smells to care what we were up to. Once we reached the end of the trees that hid us from the neighbours, we waited for the boys to catch up and give us our cloaks.

 

Back in the house and warmed by a good fire and real clothes, I asked permission to burn the sacred cakes in the fire. If a man builds you a fire, you ought to respect him enough to ask before you start tossing stuff into it.

 

We settled in for the night to watch movies, drink wine and make merry. All acts of love and pleasure are Her rituals, right?

 

I hope you had a good Lupercalia, folks!

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