Collection

Goddess Ravenna Ravine Celebration Collection

Span Dates: 1989-2016
Bulk Dates:
Volume: 1.54 cubic feet; includes 6 CDs

Description

This collection includes primarily scrapbooks, memorabilia, published interviews and promotional materials on the Goddess Ravenna Ravine celebration, including 6 CDs of photographs.

Hist/Bio Note

The goddess Ravenna Ravine celebration was an annual celebration put on by LGBTQ spiritual community members during May in Ravenna Park to celebrate the goddess Ravenna Ravine on Beltane or Bealtaine, the Gaelic May Day festival marking the beginning of summer. The goddess Ravenna Ravine was the group's manifestation of the Ravenna Ravine in the Park as a Celtic goddess. The event was originally conceived by Patrick Dorman and other Ravenna residents in 1988 as a way to “celebrate this goddess in [their] own queer way”. Several queer spiritual circles, including Risk of Change, Big Hairs, and the Drum, came together to help birth the celebration. It was held from 1989 to 2016 and surrounded a ritual to manifest the goddess Ravenna Ravine who would then bless attendants. Each year a new community member would represent the goddess, tailoring the blessings and invocation to their perceptions of her. Those representing the goddess have largely been male, as a way to “celebrate the paradigm of gender fluidity” and were referred to with queen-speak and she/her pronouns during the ceremony. The goddesses from years past went on to make up a group of dowagers, who pick the new goddess, offer support to her, and plan festivities. The goddess Ravenna Ravine pulls from a variety of Native American, spiritual, and pagan beliefs centralized around the natural world. Guests would often come dressed in elaborate, sometimes handmade, costumes, although it wasn’t required. Other celebrations of the event also included walking through the ravine, potluck picnics, and maypole dancing.

Finding Aid

An online finding aid is available.
https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv603327

Location

This collection is located at Special Collections University of Washington Libraries Box 352900 Seattle, WA 98195-2900
https://lib.uw.edu/specialcollections/

Tags

Neo-Pagan/New Age Movements/Occultism/Spirituality | Washington | Seattle