After Covid we held a River Festival in November 2021 where we declared the Rights of our River Marden. A lot of people in the town came to see our local Town Crier declare the Rights in speaking to the four cardinal points. I have spent ten years in a Druid Grove in North Oxfordshire, and brought that experience and learning to our River Festival.
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| Town Crier declaring the Rights of the River Marden from the four cardinal points. |
We attempted to hold another River Festival in November 2022 but the weather was too awful on our chosen day. We delayed till March 2023. By this time the Festival had become a Blessing.
I had contacted a Shamanic friend in Stroud to ask her to join us. She couldn’t
come at the last minute, but she gave me Kate Dineen’s details. Kate is perfect
for this work. She had had an initiation into Quechua shamanism where she had learnt
the principle of the ‘dispacho’; a practice of making offerings of love and
reverence.
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| Kate Dineen with her ‘dispacho’ made with the help of local children. |
I had already contacted our local bishop, Bishop Andrew of Ramsbury, and I taken him to the Source of our local River. I asked him if he was happy to be involved in our River Blessing, and he said he’d love to.
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| Kate and the Bishop in the River together with the dispacho. |
Kate and the Bishop put on waders and climbed into the River together. She sang him a song from her tradition, and he sang her a song from his.
Together they released the dispacho into the River to the applause of the
people watching from the bank of the River.
After the Blessing our local Japanese neighbours, organic farmers, played the
Taiko drums.
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| Taiko drummers |
After the Blessing we held a raft race for children in the River, which the most exciting moment for them.