Part One – by Hollis Taylor (they/them)
As I sat at the children’s tent, just over 40 years old, recently experiencing hormone changes and awakenings that were speaking to me, I had a vision – not only based on my experience but my awakening about the future!
I have attended alchemical based circles for many years, all of them being all night long, for 3 nights in a row. My first one just before I was 30 was exciting, deeply moving, and completely changed everything in my life. I attended these circles each year, for 3 years in a row. Each year my life would change on a different level eventually bringing me out of the closet, away from my abusive blood family and eventually stepping away from an abusive spiritual group. I took a break from all spiritual groups at that time and took to deep work with Yoga, meditation, and Buddhism. My deep solitude dive brought me out of my Saturn-return with a level of consciousness I had never experienced before.
Towards the end of my solitude I recognized the magick the alchemy had blessed me with and I hosted a very small fire circle event, where I was empowered to explore my spiritual side again. Eventually, as I began to enter back into community I was faced with a person I would walk many spiritual paths with. Oddly enough we both had connections to the alchemical style and she was still attending them. I began to attend the events with Bright Hawk, as support for her. Event after event I began to notice something, it was much harder than it was when I was 29yo. My body was asking me for something different, but if I went to sleep it meant missing out on most of the magick. Again and again, I found myself torn.
This night as I sat watch outside the children’s tent I recognized that my body, my soul, and my mind all agreed. This isn’t good for me. Up all night, 3 nights in a row, this is not good for me. There must be another way! Then I began to hear person after person tell me how it wasn’t good for them. I would have conversations with people that stopped attending because they were ‘too old for this’ or ‘their bodies just can’t take it anymore’! I was so happy for them to put their health first. This appealed to me, deeply. I had a vision that night as I watched the young people move around and around the circle, dancing, singing and drumming. Maybe there was another way?
I heard a whisper in my ear “Hollis, do you really need to spend more time with your shadow? Don’t you need to learn how to walk in the light? Is this an ordeal, haven’t you already experienced that?” I began to see it in my mind’s eye like a vision on a TV screen, simply dancing into the light. The counselor and healer within me knew this wasn’t good for many of the people that were doing it, but they didn’t want to miss out on the magick. I understood that and as I listened to them express this opposition I became aware of the next choice and I wrote it on a piece of paper tucked away in my circle bag.
Let’s make an event with EVERYONE, children YES, but older adults, too! I want to hear from my elders, the wise ones that have walked this land. Let’s make an event that teaches us to dance in the light! We can stop the self-sabotage, now, we know its not necessary. We are worthy of so much more! We are worthy of the light! The more I talked it out with people the more I realized – One all night circle is more than enough if you need the ordeal, if you need that shadow time, that time to pull against what holds you back. Then the next night, honor it yes, honor the darkness within you and walk it forward into the light. Be ready, hold it within you, bring that ordeal to the light and make it your gold. By the final day you are ready to bring it forward and if you have had access to enough sleep, wise elders and inspiring children it would be so much easier to step into the light. If you were supported by a healthy community of people taking deep care of themselves, therefore able to take care of you, too, you could be walking in the light in a way you never have- with an entirely new perspective, a new heart and a new aura. You can recognize the cycles of life, where we are headed and how life is unfolding for each of us. Practicing living, leading, and being in a healthy community that integrates their shadow to transform it into the light. To change one’s perspective from dancing in the dark to dancing in the light! Recognize where we have come from and where we are going. Embrace your future and Dance in the light!
I know that I am different, that’s been apparent my whole life. I see things differently, I experience differently and often I process differently. As I stood with this new information I knew there was only person that I could trust to hear me, Bright Hawk. She heard me and even began to share her own experience. What she visioned could be different and as we walked with this fresh idea we walked right into C-Star who also saw the vision with the same inspiration. Again and again people would be inspired by the idea and I began to wonder, maybe I am not as weird as I used to be. THEN Covid happened and I recognized that suddenly my ideas were no longer too strange, too out of the box, or even too “Uranian”. Suddenly people began to hear me on a deep level, become inspired by me and see my intentions more purely. Especially as the people I surrounded myself with were more and more healthy. I became inspired and I passed the spark, and as others became inspired, we began to put it together and what you see here, The Mystic’s Circle, was born!
Visioned, Backed, Organized by powerful Queer Women and NonBinary people. Inspired by a vision of a new way to approach the alchemical ceremony that didn’t involve unhealthy choices and an ordeal. A whole NEW WAY FOR A NEW WORLD! Honestly, haven’t we all had enough of an ordeal. We all know about walking in the dark, we have experienced that. Now let’s move forward into the light where it can transform and experience the alchemical process of change. I am deeply moved by every inch of this event from the back-end planning to this website and the future vision. I hope you will come and be part of this vision! Let’s manifest a whole new world!