The Freedom Festival of Sweetwood Temenos

by Iacchus

The inspiration for the Freedom Festival came to me when I realized the celebration of the Independence of United States of America was a celebration of freedom and that freedom is also a pagan concept. I thought, then, that the celebration of freedom could be a Neo-Pagan Holiday. I came to believe freedom as an experience of being and a realm is to be celebrated. To celebrate Freedom on the Holiday that celebrates the Independence the United States of America and its spirit of democracy would be an auspicious religious and magical act. Thus the Freedom Festival begun in 1997.

The words freedom and friend have a common root meaning loved one or dear one. Freedom can in this sense be a community of Dear Ones. Sweetwood Temenos as a church is a community of Dear Ones whose kinship is defined by the spirit of friendship and in this way is a realm of the free. Sweetwood Temenos is a Freedom whose realm is defined mainly by five values and a primary belief. These values are: (1) Deep Friendship, (2) Self Knowledge, (3) Positive Sexuality, (4) Attunement with Nature and (5) Religious Pluralism. The primary belief is the belief in the Immanence of Divinity, which is expressed in our communion of Water-Sharing and its words “Water shared is life shared, is love shared, May you never Thirst, Thou Art God/dess”. Sweetwood Temenos is evolving customs, celebrations and rites that foster a religious tradition and spiritual paths of freedom, which are in concord with these five values and primary belief.

The Freedom Festival is a summer gathering of the Good Folk of Sweetwood Temenos, their friends and guests. It is a time when as “together hearts” we celebrate and relax in our Nature Sanctuary. At the Freedom Festival there is a sharing of smiles, good friendship, food, drink, tasks, skills, knowledge and love. Freedom Festival is the major fund raising event for Sweetwood Temenos. There are workshops, meditative activities, a silent auction, a “give away”, a symposium, walks in the woods and field, starry nights, rituals, fests, bonfires, dancing, music, chanting, singing, poetry reading, and the Sweetwood Temenos Thing (the annual general assembly). Sweetwood Temenos has a custom of being excellent to one another and the Freedom Festival is an occasion where all can practice excellence in common. The Freedom Festival blesses nakedness, as it is a religious rite of Sweetwood Temenos where nakedness is an expression of being a Dear One, a sign one is free, a shameless thanksgiving of the goodness and Divinity of body and sexuality.

The main ritual of the Freedom Festival is based on a myth celebrated in the year 2000 where two warring traditions, one matrilineal and the other patriarchal make peace through a marriage of their younger Gods. These Gods are the Sun Goddess and Moon God of the matrilineal folk and Moon Goddess and Sun God of the patriarchal folk. They are envisioned as friends who treat each other as cousins and form a group marriage. This sacred marriage is a peace-pledge that is a living symbol embodying the five values and belief in Divine immanence, which are the foundation of Sweetwood Temenos and its freedom. Each year the Freedom Festival’s the main ritual alternates its celebration of Freedom with a Sun Goddess and Moon God or Moon Goddess and Sun God. This two-year cycle remembers their sacred marriage and its peace and love that are to guide humanity in the Aquarian Age.

Blessed be & never thirst!!
Iacchus