The Witches of Red Haw

Recently we gathered at Red Haw State Park for a Full Moon Ritual. We chose the largest shelter house at the end of a turn around loop. We were hoping for privacy, and chose this location because of its closed brick walls on two sides facing the roadway. Passers-by could see that the shelter was occupied, but could not see sufficiently inside to know what was going on. We soon realized that this was not going to work out very well when we got a visit from the local DNR officer. He came into the shelter as we were sitting at a lone picnic table, candles lit in votive holders and birdseed poured out in a circle around us. “What’s going on in here, ladies?” he half-demanded. I explained to him that we were gathered for a simple candlelight ceremony, and that we had spread birdseed as a treat for the barn swallows occupying the rafters above us. He also noticed the very small fire burning in the fireplace, and my dutch oven sitting on top of it. So I let him know that I was just baking some dinner rolls in it, and showed him. He then proceeded to take his time cleaning and squeegee the cement floor while listening to our meeting. We talked about donating money to the local animal shelter, or to the Red Cross, we spoke about the lore and traditions of the Holly Moon, and he quietly left without giving us further hassle. I prudently decided to leave out some parts of the discussion so he wouldn’t have anything to munch on.

Now we have decided to move our rituals to an open-air shelter house on a single lane driveway. This way we can avoid the cruisers gawking and straining to see “what’s going on in here”, and we won’t be interrupted by anyone seeking to mop floors at 8 pm like its an IHOP or something.

When we left that night, we drew pentagrams (using sticks and our feet) in the gravel parking lot where we had parked our cars. We worked on them so they would stand out and be noticed in the morning. I hope that DNR officer enjoyed it!