May you find joy, love, hope, seek poetic vision in the reimagination and transformation of ourselves and our world, free yourself of things you wish to escape and let go of in the bonfire dance, perform your uniqueness and find your glorious purpose.
For guidance in the celebration of Midsummer I turn to Shakespeare’s beautiful manual of rituals A Midsummer Night’s Dream, written to codify the pre Christian faith of the British Isles in the way that Wagner and his lover Ludwig of Bavaria designed the Ring trilogy and the Brothers Grimm recorded the oral traditions of fairytales to preserve that of Germany.
Shakespeare, however, had other purposes, which may serve us well in revolutionary struggle, for A Midsummer Night’s Dream demonstrates the interdependence of his two great themes; first that love redeems the flaws of our humanity and can transcend the limits of our flesh as it reveals the truths immanent in nature and written in our flesh, and can return to us our true selves as liberation from authorized identities and falsification. Second that transgression is a gateway to liberty as an autonomous and self-created being, beyond the boundaries of the Forbidden, the limits of normality, and the tyranny of other people’s ideas of virtue, three things I practice as a sacred path to the truth and as revolutionary struggle. A golden thread of anarchy and critique of power in the state as embodied violence informs all of Shakespeare’s theatre.
Happily, the Dream also charts a course of poetic vision as reimagination and transformation as an explicit dream navigation guide of ecstatic trance, much like the Tibetan Book of the Dead and aligned with the whole project of Surrealism.
A Trickster god’s labyrinth of transformation, the redemptive power of love, the liberation conferred by transgression and reversals of order, the truth of ourselves set free and returned to us in the gaze of a lover, rituals of ecstasy and vision; may your dreams this Midsummer be full of fearless wonders and joys.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream film trailer
Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being, Ted Hughes
Sheryl Crow performs ‘Soak Up the Sun’
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Entire Play | Folger Shakespeare Library
https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/a-midsummer-nights-dream/read/
Modern Perspective: A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Folger Shakespeare Library
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (music by Felix Mendelssohn)
https://www.laphil.com/musicdb/pieces/160/a-midsummer-nights-dream
The Faerie Faith and Fairytales, a reading list
Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex, and Politics, Starhawk
The Faeries’ Oracle, Brian Froud, Jessica Macbeth
Brian Froud’s World of Faerie, Brian Froud, Ari Berk (Foreword by)
Faeries, Brian Froud, Alan Lee
Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale, Marina Warner
From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers, Marina Warner
The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales,
Bruno Bettelheim
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/444388.The_Uses_of_Enchantment?ref=nav_sb_ss_2_84
Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales, Marie-Louise von Franz
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1269427.Shadow_and_Evil_in_Fairy_Tales?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_54
The Vanishing People: Fairy Lore and Legends, Katharine M. Briggs
Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, & Other Supernatural Creatures, Katharine M. Briggs
Beauty and the Beast: Visions and Revisions of an Old Tale, Betsy Hearne
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/402049.Beauty_and_the_Beast?ref=nav_sb_ss_2_72
Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality, and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale, Catherine Orenstein
Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion, Jack D. Zipes
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/283851.Fairy_Tales_and_the_Art_of_Subversion
Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales, Jack D. Zipes
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/291164.Breaking_the_Magic_Spell
Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre, Jack D. Zipes
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/207106.Why_Fairy_Tales_Stick
The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, Jack D. Zipes (Editor)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/207109.The_Oxford_Companion_to_Fairy_Tales
The Hard Facts of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales, Maria Tatar
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/110746.The_Hard_Facts_of_the_Grimms_Fairy_Tales
Off with Their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood, Maria Tatar
Secrets beyond the Door: The Story of Bluebeard and His Wives, Maria Tatar
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50540.Secrets_beyond_the_Door
The Annotated Brothers Grimm, Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm, Maria Tatar
(Editor), A.S. Byatt (Introduction)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22914.The_Annotated_Brothers_Grimm
Snow White, Blood Red, Ellen Datlow (Editor), Terri Windling (Editor)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/141024.Snow_White__Blood_Red
Black Thorn, White Rose, Ellen Datlow (Editor), Terri Windling (Editor)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/397400.Black_Thorn__White_Rose
Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears, Ellen Datlow (Editor), Terri Windling (Editor)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/371638.Ruby_Slippers__Golden_Tears
Black Swan, White Raven, Ellen Datlow (Editor), Terri Windling (Editor)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/739891.Black_Swan__White_Raven
Silver Birch, Blood Moon, Ellen Datlow (Editor), Terri Windling (Editor)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/81039.Silver_Birch__Blood_Moon
Black Heart, Ivory Bones, Ellen Datlow (Editor), Terri Windling (Editor)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/81038.Black_Heart_Ivory_Bones
Torch of Liberty 
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