🌸🏵️🌹🥀🌺🌻🌼🌷
Beltane Erosia 2024
Safe Space Policy
🌸 Beltane is a celebration of the sacred energies of springtime: new life, new growth, the joy of renewed creativity, the fertility of the coming year. At its center is the sacred union of the Goddess and the God, the symbolic source of all creation. The theme of joyful, creative union runs throughout Beltane.
As a community, we enact this theme when we erect the Maypole and select the May Royals. As individuals, we rejoice in this energy in a wide continuum of ways, always bearing in mind that we are in sacred, safe space and that each of us is God/dess embodied.
🌿 Beltane Erosia is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, including all genders, gender identities and expressions, sexual orientations, abilities, physical appearances, body sizes, races, ages, or religions. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. Participants violating these rules may be expelled from the festival at the discretion of the organizers.
🌺 All Acts Of Love And Pleasure Are My Rituals: People at Beltane may choose to flirt, dance, and play with one another in sensual celebration. We may be gay, straight, flexible, poly, and any of a multitude of other shades in the palette of human sexuality. We may be fully dressed, skyclad, or somewhere in between.
🌈 This freedom to express ourselves arises from the community promise that our innermost divine selves are respected and valued, and that we will not be harassed, insulted, assaulted, or shamed.
🌟 Accordingly, slurs and similar offensive comments based on any assumed or actual characteristics of the person, including gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, ability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, or religion are expressly prohibited. Likewise, deliberate, intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, and disruption of rituals or other events are forbidden.
🔥 Naked In Your Rites: We work with the Mason County Sheriff's Office to assure that our religious activities - specifically, ritual nudity - are afforded the protection due them under Washington's State Constitution, Article 1, Section 1. Accordingly, you are likely to see partially or completely naked people in the festival's ritual spaces, particularly at the Balefire and at nighttime fire circles.
If you are not accustomed to this kind of setting, you may feel self-conscious. Keep in mind that other celebrants are simply doing their own thing. They are being naked around you - not at you. (If someone is, in fact, being naked at you, please tell a Beltane Erosia coordinator, Order of Leaders, Order of Caregivers, or Order of Healers member immediately.)
Whether to go skyclad or not is a matter of personal choice, and each attendee should decide for themselves what to wear, or not wear, without pressure or coercion.
👧🧒 If you are attending this event with children, it would be wise to discuss this with them in advance. Navigating these issues is a difficult but important part of parenting, especially for pagan families. You can set clothing rules for your own family, of course, and for your personal campsite. However, if the prospect of seeing nudity in public spaces disturbs you, or you believe it will be harmful to your children, we recommend that you not attend this event.
🔥 Fire Circle Curfew: To maintain the late night fire circle as a safe space for all participants, those under 18 must be in their own camp or their friends’ camps by 9p.
💞 Consent is Sacred: Erotic energy is a traditional and vibrant theme for Beltane festivities. As such, Beltane Erosia honors the spectrum of loving and pleasurable rituals which are sacred to many Pagan traditions. Beltane Erosia also holds consent as deeply sacred. It is a focus on consent that reminds us to honor the divine in one another and to ensure that our actions are safe and fun for everyone involved.
🙅♀️ Our expressions of sacred sexuality are not open invitations to all passers-by. You want to get involved? Get to know people. Ask questions and ask permission. Be sensitive to context. Be respectful and fun. And work at centering the enthusiastic and express consent of anyone with whom you interact in this context.
Pressuring/coercing anyone into sexual activity, unsolicited commentary about a person's body, non-consensual touching, and non-consensual sexual attention are expressly forbidden.
🍃 Don’t end up like Actaeon, who felt Artemis' wrath after he transgressed against Her. Meaningful consent requires that all participants are fully conscious. If the person with whom you are interacting is very drunk or otherwise impaired, it is your responsibility to ensure that s/he is capable of consent. When in doubt, don’t.
Meaningful consent requires that all participants feel equally free to act. Many things may limit someone's ability to act freely. For example, fear of physical harm from a larger person, emotional coercion, or a history of victimization may all cause someone to “freeze” and become passive. This is not consent.
🔊 Consent is an active process, and not saying “no” does not mean “yes.” Meaningful consent requires that all participants have clearly communicated their willingness and permission. Inaction and passivity are not signs of consent. Consent can only be given by clear and unambiguous communication about what is desired. If a situation is ambiguous, do not proceed further until you have clarified it with your partner. 🔊
Finally, be aware of the people around you. Observation is also a form of participation; therefore, people engaging in explicitly sexual interactions must take into consideration any and all people who might be exposed to said activities. We welcome the tradition of bringing in the May in whatever form that takes for you, but we also ask that all explicitly sexual activities be conducted only in the presence of those who have actively and clearly expressed consent to observe you.
❤️ LOVE is the Law. Love is Mindful and Intends No Harm: Our community protects our children. Minors at Beltane are easily identifiable by their different-colored wristbands. It is a crime to (1) provide alcohol to, (2) provide drugs to, or (3) have sex with a minor. If you observe someone sharing intoxicants or engaging in sexual activity with a minor, please tell a Beltane Erosia coordinator, Order of Healers volunteer, or Order of Leaders member immediately… basically anyone with a walkie talkie.
📢 If you are being harassed, if you notice that someone else is being harassed, or if you have any other concerns, please tell a Beltane Erosia coordinator, Order of Healers volunteer, or Order of Leaders member immediately. If you do not see one in your immediate vicinity, go to the Gate or to the Healers area by the meadow. We will be happy to provide escorts, contact law enforcement, or offer whatever other assistance is required for you to feel safe for the duration of the festival. We value your safety and presence.
🏳️🌈 Hope this adds some color & clarity to our safe space policy! 🏳️🌈
🌸🏵️🌹🥀🌺🌻🌼