Setting: Warwick, England. Year: 1585 (…sort of…)
The summer of 2011 was a wonderful experiment and as I reflect back, I hear the Monty Python lines coming to mind: “And now for something completely different…”
In the carnival-like, fantasy context of the Sterling Renaissance Festival, I was blessed with the opportunity to serve spirit and play ‘dress-up’. The reading weekends were meaningful and full of fun. The costuming and pseudnym brought forth my playful spirit and distant Irish genes. I wore several era-inspired costumes, my favorite being a deep woad-like linenShinrone dress designed and made by Stephanie Lalonde of Red Moon Creations. Inspired by meaning, (aine means “radiance”) and compelled by Aine’s appearance in fairy-folk tales, ”Aine O’Breena”, became my chosen period-appropriate pseudonym (spelled “Anye” by the English of the period.)
As Aine, I offered 15 to 30-minute consultations with Spirit loved ones as well as Tarot Card readings in the “Fortune Teller’s Camp”. Serving under the willows, at the signs of the triple spiral and the oak, beside the swamp of dancing frogs, under the totem of the hummingbird, I engaged in a magical and memorable experience. There, a hummingbird came into the tent and hovered with us while in the middle of a reading and on another day, a frog caught a caterpillar while a client looked on. In the words of the Ogham writing on the Potomac Leather Belt I adorned myself with: “Though countless lives I have lived, I will not forget”. And in this, I count my blessings.
Perhaps in 2012 you will find Aine O’Breena emerging at the festival again? Be sure to join me for the magic!
