Le Chalet Crepuscule ~ Lammas/Lughnasad Full Moon Gathering 2019

Two Days of Magical Workshops & Nights of Rituals,
plus a Third Night of Ritual Theatre and live Music around the Lammas Harvest Feast

15th-17th August 2019

 

After a wondrous Inaugural Gathering for Lammas 2018 and a smaller more intimate Beltaine full moon gathering 2019 (images above), the Twilight Temple of The HermAphroditic ChAOrder of the Silver Dusk in the Ardennes forest of southern Belgium opens its gates for the third time for two days of workshops and rituals celebrating the Lammas/Lughnasad (Harvest Festival) full moon.

This time, however, an extra night has been added to try something new now Le Chalet Crepuscule is established:

After the more limited (23 people maximum) 2 days of workshops and rituals, more guests can arrive along with a sound-system for a 3rd night -of ritual theatre and diverse live magical music...:

Above: Images from The Feast of Valhalla, and earlier MetamOrphic Ritual Theatre production which similarly revolved around a feast

Le Chalet Crepuscule is just 1 hr 40 mins by train from Brussels -then an 8-min bus or cab ride (so only about 4 hrs from London via the Eurostar train).

Circe’s Banquet

The tradition of a Lammas (pagan harvest festival) Feast will be juxtaposed with an immersive ritual theatre experience. The ‘audience’ become the members of Oddyseus’ crew and are invited to dine on Her island by the ancient sorceress Circe, where the theatrics unfold around them as they feast…


This is one of the largest Metamorphic Ritual Theatre productions in Europe thus far (writer-director Orryelle having just recently moved here from Australia), featuring Sophie Veldeman as Circe, Tobias Buckenmaier as Oddysseus, Hedera Homoiophis as Penelope, and Orryelle as Hermes.

Mostly written by Orryelle, it will also include a short extract from Jack Grayle's 'Heiros Gamos' (with the author's permission) ritual theatre from his book The Hekataeon.

Above: Harvest Feast at Lammas Gathering Le Chalet Crepuscule 2018

Between (and sometimes during) the scenes and following them, five eclectic live musical acts will play a rich diversity of multicultural ritualistic songs and soundscapes (some directly related to the ritual theatre unfolding), ranging from ethnic ambience to industrial electronica:

Naa Chan Kan Mexico/BE ("The House of the Celestial Snake" in Mayan language) -a project to preserve an essential part of ancient cultures through music and art.
With his native lineage Hugo Tlecuauhtli has been initiated into the Mexica Tolteca tradition, and is sharing and in this way preserving ancient native medicine songs.
With his duality Charlotte Abracadabra they create music with native flute, drums, rattles, singing bowls and prehispanic instruments, adding ancient Nahuatl poems to preserve the language through music.

Sarmoung Ensemble/Paganland (Iran/Berlin) is a neo-folk semi-acoustic band. They present their hypnotic music with original Persian primitive & rustic oriental instruments and movements which were used in folklore rituals and dances and entice their audience thereby into a fascinating world full of intensity and magick.

Chrysopa Occulta (BE) combine their passion for didgeridoo, native American flutes, shamanic drums, ethnic voices and a touch of electronics. Hailing from the forests on the border of Leuven, they blend their sounds into a mixture of ritual trance and atmospheric ambience, with Middle-Eastern and Mongolian influences.

TraumaSutra (BE) takes you from one atmosphere to the other: sometimes very quiet and minimal, others noisy and and extreme.
However, its always a reflection of this own chaotic mind- using broken cymbals, iron plates, bricks, elements of nature, toys, construction site materials, etc. The use of synthesizers and ‘normal’ instruments is kept to a minimum.

Orryelle & UrZon (Australia/BE)
The melodic and often middle-eastern strains of Orryelle's violin -periodically warped through loop and FX pedals- and vocals inc. throat-singing, provide a ritual ambient contrast and at times catharsis with the pounding industrial beats and strange layers of insectoid electronica of UrZon in this collaborative synchro-mayhem.
Orryelle and UrZon will probably each play separately for some of the evening too...

The 'Circe's Banquet' Performance Night (17th August, 7pm-late) is limited to 40 people only -including the performers- so if you wish to attend it is recommended you buy a ticket quite soon (presale only, we need to know how many to cook for etc.) :

25 euro including the feast, 1 free drink (Circe's enchanted mead), all the entertainment and tent space (if needed):

(Further alcoholic drinks will be available by donation on site)

The nearest train station to Le Chalet Crepuscule is Marloie (Luxembourg Province, Belgium)

All pertinent information will be emailed to guests soon after payment.

Above Payment Button is only for the Performance Night and Feast on the 17th Aug.
If you wish to also attend the more limited (max 23) two days of workshops and rituals preceding it (15th and 16th Aug) please email [email protected] regarding availability.
All information about these two days follows... :

 

The second larger-than-human-size statue on the land (which is gradually becoming a sculpture park), of Cernunnos the Celtic (its on celtic land) antlered form of the Horned God:

Clay, maple wood, metal (skeleton), cement, moss.
Approximately 8 feet/ 2.5 metres tall.

Cernunnos and Hekate Trimorphe together on the land

Rather than creating a new larger-than-human-size statue as in previous Gatherings (one a year is enough for now!) Orryelle is finishing a series of smaller sculptures for Lammas 2019, like the 'Dryad Reaching for the Sun' depicted below...

Facilities at the Chalet are basic: solar-heated shower, and no electricity -instead gas stove and lanterns, candles and fires! (except on the 17th when a generator will be hired to power the sound-system) so be prepared for a real back to nature experience, part of the elemental enchantment of this place which is somehow simultaneously remote and yet in the middle of central Europe bordering 5 different countries by just a few hours.

Accordingly the workshops and rituals will be based around connection with nature and by extension the body, and the Genius Loci or spirits of place, primarily in the context of the rich Indo-European magical traditions, though also incorporating aspects of diverse related pantheons and techniques.

 

Ready for Ritual - Le Chalet Crepuscule Beltaine Gathering 2019

 

APPROXIMATE WORKSHOP & RITUAL PROGRAM so far (15th & 16th Aug)

 

DAY 1 (15th Aug):

12 Noon: Yoga and warm-ups, Chanting, Introductions etc.

1pm Lunch

2pm Totensprache - "Language of the Dead" with Tobias Buckenmaier (DE)

An introduction to the practice of ancestral worship and classical necromancy as it has been a pillar of spiritual practice through the ages. The practical focus is to establish a connection with one's own ancestral line and the whispered prophecies from beyond the veil -in rite as well as a daily practice with both ancestors as well as the Gods that reign beyond.

 

4.30pm: SEETHING and BREATHING with Orryelle (BE/Aust.)

-A series of physical and energising practices, from Tantric Bastrika pranayama ('fire-breath'), to Seidr (Norse seething/shaking), and Sufi drum-breath also explaining ways such techniques can be used in ritual contexts (this is also preparation for the ritual to follow that evening)...

6pm: Discussion of evening ritual ideas

7pm: Dinner

8.30pm: Lughnasad/Lammas full moon Ritual -

Hermes and Hekate will be the main deities worked with in these rites. Hermes bears many affinities to Celtic Lugh of Lughnasad, as trickster and master of Artes.
As a psychopomp (guide to and fro the Underworld), wayfarer and Crossroads deity, He also has a close connection with Hekate, who relates to Lammas in Her aspect as a Goddess of Wyrd/Fate, and the mid-August full moon is traditionally one of Her two major nights: Nemoralia


Hekate and Hermes will be acknowledged as the Lord and Lady of the Crossroads for the ritual. The Hekate Trimorphe statue (first unveiled at the Lammas 2018 Gathering) will be integral and there will be the ritual co-creation of a Herm -a pillar of stones which are traditionally created at crossroads to represent the Messenger God and have Him watch over travellers.

With live acoustic music by Crysopa Occulta, Orryelle and others -didgeridoos, flutes, drums, voices, percussion, violin.

At last year's Lammas Gathering and this year's Beltaine Gathering (above) participants were asked to bring threads and fabrics to tie into Hekate Rexchthon Coatlicue's serpent skirts.
These continue to develop progressively with more layers being woven in as others begin to decompose in the elements, so again participants are asked to bring threads, lace and/or other fabrics to ritually tie into Her skirts...

DAY 2 (16th Aug):

11.30am: Yoga and warm-ups, Chanting etc.

12.30pm Lunch

1.30pm Seeds of Magick with Idris Elsenussi (DE/Egypt)

A workshop about finding the seed of magick in us to figure out our path, through exercises and ritual work to aid the particpants in their quest to understand their true will. Release from limiting beliefs using body work, concluding ina joint ritual to aid particpants to charge up their desires and manifest what they want from this year to come thus having a basic guide of ritual construction...

4pm: Shape-Shifting Workshop with Orryelle

An exploration of Theriomorphic Metamorphosis. Breath-work and other techniques to induce trance and invoke the energies of atavistic selves, then stretching and shifting the human form to bring out other beasts within.
This is also a prelude to the ritual theatre in Circe's Banquet on the performance night...

6pm: Close Combat (Self-Defence) Workshop with Alcide (Fr.)

'Martial arts and magic have been linked for ages but the method I am proposing here, although based on military Close Combat and therefore partly on Ancestral Combat, is extremely easy to digest and more adapted to streets than mats. It is based on principles and not on strict techniques, in order to create your own combinations of moves once you have understood the mechanisms behind it (hello Chaos Magick!).

It would also be an occasion to create some nice choreography for the final fight scene between Odysseus and his adversaries at Circe’s Banquet, to spice things up a bit and make it look more realistic…

8pm Dinner

Preparations for ritual, Beltaine Gathering May '19

9pm to late - Brief discussion of Ritual, followed by Ritual:

There will be two parts to this ritual: one revolving around Cernunnos as Lord of the Beasts (also know as Pashupati in Tantric traditions) and Theriomorphosis


The other rite involves the fusion of Hekate and Hermes (as acknowledged individually in the previous night's ritual) into the composite crossroads deity Hermekate (Who appears in the Greek Magical Papyri)...

Silver Dusk members and some of the other attendees have already performed several of the practices involved in rites and workshops (drum-breath, chakra tone chanting etc.) at previous SD gatherings (Sintra Portugal, Le Chalet Crepuscule last year, etc.) and various group rituals worldwide (Egypt, Bulgaria, Glastonbury) giving a strong foundation of group energetics for newcomers to join...

The event is non-profit but to cover costs a donation of 75 euro for the three days (inc. the feast and concert) is asked -this includes vegan (vegetarian options) meals and accommodation.
The price can be reduced considerably if you wish to help with cooking/cleaning/preparation/organization. Please offer your services in an email if so: [email protected]

If you can only come for a single workshop/ritual day (15th or 16th) 40eu is asked, or 55eu together with the Circe's Banquet performance night (which alone is 25eu).

Space is limited for the 15th and 16th Aug to 23 on the land (40 for the performances on the 17th).
Participants can bring their own tents, and there is room for 6 in the chalet itself -this should be arranged with the host as soon as possible if required.

Participants are welcome to arrive the night before (14th) if pre-arranged -this will mostly be for setting-up/meet and greet but a short informal establishing ritual will also occur.

So far (early July) 18 spaces are already reserved for this Gathering.

If you wish to participate (or make enquiries) please email Orryelle at [email protected] as soon as possible to secure a reservation.

Your host Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule is an esoteric artist in many media, including painting, writing, sculpture, sound and performance art. His 'Tela Quadrivium' series of hardback alchemical art books are published by Fulgur Limited (the final volume of four 'Distillatio' in 2015); his text-based book 'Time Fate and Spider Magic' by Avalonia Books (UK), and The Book of Kaos Tarot by iNSPIRALink. Multimedia Press

He is the writer-director of Australian-originating Metamorphic Ritual Theatre Company who have presented many major original productions based in (and updating/mutating) various ancient mythos, and often performs and exhibits internationally (US, UK, Europe).

The instigator of The Hermaphroditic ChAOrder of the Silver Dusk, he has also given talks, run workshops and facilitated group rituals around the world, including at many festivals, the Esoteric Book Conference (Seattle USA), OTO and other magical lodges, and at various global sacred sites.