Hey Mercury and other sisters/brothers--
I know these are old postings, but I feel words rising that must be shared, even if they disappear into the ethers. Faerie culture has plenty of structure-less forms and playfulness. If that aspect is what draws you to the Faeries, there's a multitude of playgrounds. But the Naraya is a structured ritual by nature. There's no such thing as a "Faerie Naraya," because it is a Shoshone ceremony for us to connect with our ancestors through their own ancestors. It is a gift to those of us who have had the line to our own ancestral tradition broken by history. If we were to plant a tree and dance around it singing our own songs, the same thing that we find so powerful about the Naraya would not happen, because we would have to remove the key ingredient -- the native american ancestry who are called by the traditional prayers and songs. And this is not to say we can't have our own traditional prayers and songs, but such compiling requires well... a structure of sorts... a history, at least a generation perhaps of knowledge passed on.
The daytime circle around the tree you mention, Mercury, is something that was added years later, because Faeries were feeling divided, like this Naraya was a powerful ceremony and why can't the Faeries have as powerful a ceremony, too. It used to be a talking circle where a talisman was passed and people shared their experiences with dancing the night before. People were taken and at times there were walks around the tree, but there was a structure to it that seemed to fit better with the structure of the rest of the dance... in my opinion. I think that allowing this part to be somewhat of a divergence into Faerie culture was a risk that Clyde took. But Clyde could see that Faeries as a whole are people that understand the importance of connection with Divine and here was a way for the old tradition (Shoshone) to lend a hand to a new emerging one (the Faeries). But at SMS, it was toned down a bit and somehow seemed more integrated with the whole ceremony... into the structure.
And that's all for now. Blessed be...
Buffy