The Wood
This drawing by Ronald M. White has the following inscription on the back: ‘To George with Best Wishes Yule 1976′.
The latest issue of The Cauldron is now out. It contains an excellent article by John of Monmouth on ‘The Regency and the Robert Cochrane Coven’. The Cauldron website has information about the other articles in this issue plus instructions for obtaining a copy.
It is well known that the Regency met mostly in Queen’s Wood, Highgate, London. John says in his article:
‘The Regency made imaginative use of Queen’s Wood. This use of the wood was also integral to the rites. It provided a journey through the landscape of the wood that reflected the allegorical journey. At different times of the year, the celebrations took place in different clearings in the wood. These, chosen for their power to reflect particular seasons were linked by a sinuous, labyrinthine path. As the year turned, the Regency celebrations followed this path.’
The next section of The New Pagans’ Handbook deals with the selection and dedication of sites for rituals:
Places
The holding of a ritual is no trifling matter. Not only does it require thought and planning, but a careful consideration of ‘Place’. We should also decide upon any ritual implements to be used, and, if needed, masks and images.
In theory, a ritual can be held anywhere, and in practice we may have to settle for places that are less than ideal. Nevertheless every attempt should be made to ensure that the place of the rite is felt to be somewhere special, or, by a dedication, has been made so. Ideal of course are woods, preferably old woods of deciduous trees. Open places, moorlands, heaths, stone circles and any fragments of the wild that have been left to us by the exploiters and despoilers of our landscape. Even if it is indoors and in a city the site should be carefully considered. The atmosphere of a place is of paramount importance. We all know that there are places which repel and are unfriendly, sometimes even downright hostile. Any scintilla of doubt about a location should effectively rule it out for ritual. T. C. Lethbridge in his perceptive book Ghost and Ghoul, has discussed this problem of influences at some length, and in this connection it might be helpful to study it.
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