En Route to Body Resonance

In a few hours I will start a trip to Schloss Broellin, an Art Center in development where I will attend a 10 day Butoh workshop "Body Resonance" by Yumiko Yoshioka


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The first stop will be Externsteine in Germany, where I will meet up with my daughter Donna and my grandchildren Tala and Olivier.


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The Externsteine were a centre of religious activity for the Teutonic peoples and their predecessors prior to the arrival of Christianity in northern Europe. Research into this area was carried out as early as 1564 by Hermann Hamelmann.

Some Neo-Pagans continue to believe that the Irminsul was located at the Externsteine and identify a bent tree depicted beneath the cross in a 12th century Christian carving with it. It is a popular place to go for Wiccans and other followers of the 'old religions'.

I visited Externsteine first in 1993 as part of my training by the Wicca Coven I was a member of for about 2 years. Our coven, which was founded by Jetske & Maurice from Haarlem, the Netherlands, introduced me to the strange beliefs of Wicca.

Wicca (pronounced [ˈwɪkə]) is a Neopagan religion and a form of modern witchcraft. It is often referred to as Witchcraft or the Craft by its adherents, who are known as Wiccans or Witches. Its disputed origins lie in England in the early 20th century, though it was first popularised during the 1950s by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant.

Maurice wrote a nice book about it in dutch. "Heksen Bestaan!", ISBN 90-6010-848-5.

The belief-system of Wicca was not so very interesting to me, but the practice of rituals, and achieving magick through ritual really caught my interest. Luckily our coven was a Ritual and Party Coven with lots of wein, weib und gezang.

These rituals gave me a lot of performing experience that I am still using...