Into the Mound: Working With the Dead

Winterstar Ancestor Rite
ACE held our 27th annual Winterstar Symposium in February 2009, once again at the Atwood Lodge resort in central O­hio. This is always a pleasant event, with wonderful facilities and a select crowd of Starwood clan types and assorted interesting guests. An effort is made to make program a step above the introductory level, and a wide variety of ideas are usually represented. (And thanks to AJ Gooch for drumming and singing for the rite, and for the photos shown here…)

This year’s theme was ‘Tribal Spirituality’. This came to include various ‘shamanic’ ideas as well as discussions of some actual tribal basics from several continents. Not surprisingly more than one presenter chose to do spiritual work with the spirits of the Dead. Sue and I decided to work a rite for the ‘Spirits of the Clan’ in a Gaelic sense. Good plan – now what do we mean?

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