Wyoming Attracts Druids, Wiccans, And Pagans For Eclipse

It isn’t just scientists and astronomers looking to flock to Wyoming for the solar eclipse on Monday.  Pagans, wiccans, and druids are also en route to the Equality state for the “transition” and energy surrounding the eclipse.

Wyoming has a population of 585,000 and during the eclipse, that is expected to double. While natives in Wyoming prepare as they would for a winter storm and food sells out around the path of totality, many more people are still expected to descend upon the state for the solar eclipse.  Among them is Ken Biles, a Colorado man who goes by the name Greyhart. A solar eclipse is a transition, and transitions are powerful moments both for cultures and individual people, Biles told the Casper Star-Tribune.

“Greyhart” plans to conduct a ceremony near Glendo Reservoir during the eclipse.“There is an energy that surrounds everything and at this point in time, we don’t have the technology to detect or measure it,” Biles said. “We are going to take that energy from the eclipse and manipulate it to our own desires.”

Greyhart isn’t the only one making his way to Wyoming for ceremonies during the eclipse. Others include California author and wizard Oberon Zell Ravenheart. He plans to congregate at Beartrap Meadow on Casper Mountain. Ravenheart has experienced three other previous eclipses with other pagans, and this one won’t be much different.

“I tell people who don’t believe in magic, I ask them, ‘Do you believe in love?’ Love is universally regarded as the most powerful form of magic,” he said. “One definition of magic is simply ‘The science we don’t yet understand because we don’t yet have a theory for it.’”

While there are dozens of different rituals someone can perform, such as taking a ritual bath, astrologer Sarolta DeFaltay says the most important aspect of any given ritual is that it’s personal to the one performing it. Jaya Saxena, co-author of the Basic Witches: How To Summon Success, Banish Drama, And Raise Hell With Your Coven, agrees. But instead of meditation and candles, she uses crystals.

“People consider eclipses time of just great energy,” she says. “Even if you’re a totally rational person and you know exactly what’s happening in terms of how the planets are moving, it’s still really unsettling to see the sky turn black in the middle of the day.” Saxena will be charging her crystals during the eclipse. She says that crystals are often used to focus someone’s thoughts and energy on a particular outcome, idea or goal. You can charge them by holding them and thinking of that exact idea during periods of intense sunlight or moonlight, according to Saxena.

While all of these rituals may seem odd to some of us, others are going to use their time during the eclipse to perform ceremonies that are right for them.  As long as people are happy and it harms no one, perform all the rituals you want.  Everyone should enjoy the eclipse in their own way,