Welcome to Gaea Goddess Gathering!
A Festival for ALL Women
Gaea Goddess Gathering (GGG) is a festival for all women. The founding mothers, Carrie Moonstar and Rosalie Vaught started GGG in 1997 and the festival has evolved into a wonderful 4-day women's spirituality event focusing on the celebration of the Goddess in every woman.
Gaea Goddess Gathering is held at Camp Gaea; 168 acres of beautiful wooded land with camping, cabins, a bathhouse with hot showers and flush toilets, and a 9-acre lake with swimming and a few row boats.
Special Events
Opening Ritual - Opening Ritual begins at 7:00pm on Thursday evening. Meet at the Sacred Fire Circle on the Ridge. A brief dedication of Lakshmi will immediately follow Opening Ritual.
Talent Show - Come one, come all to the Pavilion at 8:30pm on Thursday night, and sing, recite poetry, dance—NO TALENT REQUIRED.
Goddess Café - GGG’s Gathering Spot for your pleasure. Check out the Goddess Café located in the Merchants’ Circle. Stop and chit-chat with our Café Goddesses.
Morning Glory Rituals - Facilitated by a variety of the GGG women. A great way to start the day off, and connecting with spirit. Meet at 8:30am just outside of the Dining Hall.
Fires and Drumming - Come dance, frolic or sachet around in the sand as the fire burns bright thanks to Aislinn and “Women of the Flame!”. “Women’s Drumming” will be leading the drumming this year so bring your drum and join in. Make sure to bring a chair or blanket to sit on around the fire.
Ritual Etiquette - Please refrain from talking above a whisper, eating, drinking and smoking within the circle. If you are late and wish to join the circle, please wait until you are invited to enter. A circle is a religious service. You are welcome to observe quietly if you do not wish to participate. For your comfort bring a chair, and something to drink to be place outside ritual circle.
Main Ritual - To be announced.
Rites Of Passage - Calling all Crones! Friday after the concert at the Sacred Fire Circle. All are welcome to join in. You may bring a gift for someone you know is going to take part in this ritual, or gift everyone in the circle. Please notify Aislinn if you are participating.
Concert - To be announced
Closing Ritual - Closing ritual will be held at noon (12:00 pm) on Sunday. It is facilitated by the women of GGG. This will be held at the Sacred Fire Circle.
Sacred Fire Symbols - Come join Women of the Flame each morning as they create the Sacred Fire for the evening festivities. Once the logs are laid in the fire pit, add your own sacred symbols to the dance area to be “given away” to the land. Each symbol can be personal, healing, for the land, global or whatever you wish.
Rituals
Gaea Goddess Gathering is dedicated to honoring the Goddess within and all around us and to that end we feature several rituals during our event. The goal of our open rituals is to create a strong community of women for the duration of GGG so that we can all take the lessons, joy and strength back home with us to help guide our lives for the next 12 months.
To facilitate that goal, we have three major rituals throughout the festival. Opening Ritual is on Thursday night and is used to create a strong sacred space that contains elements to protect us and the camp from negative outside energy and to aid release of any negative energy the participants may wish to rid themselves during ritual or healing and a cleansing process to help women shed the outside world and prepare themselves for a weekend focused on themselves. The extents of the Sacred Circle is the entirety of Camp Gaea's boundaries. Main Ritual on Saturday night honors the year's chosen Temple Goddess to invoke the wisdom and blessings she imparts and is often interactive with the participants. Closing Ritual on Sunday is when we all gather to thank the Goddess for her blessings and protection, discuss the event, hug, laugh, and then close our sacred circle.
In addition to our main rituals, every morning at the Dining Hall we have our Morning Glory Ritual where we welcome the new day, recharge our Sacred Circle and get ready to face a new day of spiritual growth and fresh possibilities.
So please plan on joining us at ritual and let the goddess energy of our whole community bring us together in love and friendship.
Silent Auction
The Silent Auction is a hugely popular part of our fund-raising for Gaea Goddess Gathering and every year we have wonderful art, crafts, books, clothing, collectibles, and just plain fun stuff for you to bid on. Every dime is invested back into our general fund so that we can continue to the 2013 GGG festival.
Donating is simple, just bring your items to the Silent Auction tent and fill out the information sheet. Bidding is easy too, if there is something you like, just write your name on the information sheet along with your bid and check back from time to time to see if anyone is outbidding you. The Silent Auction is open from 10am to 5pm on Thursday through Saturday and bidding closes at 5pm on Saturday. The last minute bidding can get fast and furious, and is often very entertaining (anyone remember Mary Ellen's duct tape dress?) so make plans to attend the auction closing festivities. Winning bidders (or their proxy) are required to pick up and pay for their items by 5:30 Saturday evening, otherwise the next bidder on the list will become the winning bidder. Auction items not bid on or picked up by 6:00pm Saturday will either be returned to the person who donated it, or retained and donated to our sister event, the Holly Holly Holly Days Sale, for use in the raffle.
The Silent Auction accepts all sorts of donations, from gently used clothing, household appliances and collectible home decor to brand new jewelry, artwork and herbal concoctions. Although it is not precisely required, we strongly encourage merchants to consider donating, especially if you have handmade wares that you want to show off. On Thursday afternoon a band of roving women will come by your booth to beg for your contribution. Please be nice to them.
If for some reason you are unable to attend GGG, live in the Greater Kansas City area and have items you wish to donate (within reason!), please contact me and we will see what we can do to help. My contact information is on the registration form available on the Gaea Goddess Gathering website.