The News from Four Quarters

May 11, 2019

A Moon Service for The River

In the Yoruba tradition, fresh water rivers and all things Feminine, are the concern of the Orisha Oshun. Gold and yellow, honey and cinnamon, birth and children all belong to Oshun. And she lives in the free flowing fresh waters of the river.

For our Full Moon Service this coming Saturday, May 18th; we will offer gifts to Oshun and ask her blessings for Rainbow Bridge, which crosses her domain. After a Farmhouse Church Supper about 5pm, we will gather at the Hemlock Hole and prepare rafts of fruit, honey, colored cloth, candles and sweet perfumes; and set them floating on the water as our gifts for Oshun. Then ask for her blessings. And hear her answer.

Please do join us!

May 8, 2019

Beltaine Celebration 2019

The start of our event year, Four Quarters celebrated Beltaine once again on the land. We had a lovely, relaxed weekend with friends old and new, celebrating the return of life and spring and the people to the Land. It was a wet weekend, but the elements were gentle with us and blessed, rather than purified, our ritualsl. We danced the Maypole surrounded by exuberant May green. We showed off the stunning new span of Rainbow Bridge, linking Main and New Camps. We held our firsts - the first labyrinth walk, first fire circle, first sweat lodge of the new season, culminating in a magical evening ritual in the Faerie realm. Sunday as is our custom, an eager pack of young’uns pulled and raised the seed stone, a promise of large and heavy things to come.

May 6, 2019

Four Quarters is pleased to announce “Rainbow Bridge.”

This 210 foot long cable suspension bridge soars through the tall Tulip Poplar trees of the Big Bottom's river bank, to land 30 feet above water level in New Camp's Old Forest area. The two halves of the hidden valley that is Four Quarters are now permanently connected, making the place where "A river runs through it," whole and complete.

Planning for Rainbow Bridge has always been an integral part of our risky decision to purchase New Camp in 2015. Design work began that year with final engineering surveys completed in the summer of 2018. Structural steel orders were placed in October of 2018 and we broke ground the first week of March, 2019. A full photo essay of the construction of Rainbow Bridge will be published shortly.

April 29, 2019

Interesting Project!

If you’ve been following our news posts, we dangled a teaser for you good folks last time. But anyone who’s been about Four Quarters any amount of time knows that we do from time to time build stuff. Bunkhouses, Kitchens, Shower houses, Dining Pavilions, Stone Circles... Typically these are improvements to the camp to make things more comfortable for Members, guests and visitors and make the camp more efficient and safer to operate.

April 21, 2019

What is it?

What is it?

Find out at
BELTAINE at Four Quarters.

That's all we have to say about that right now. You're just going to have to show up to find out. See you around the Maypole!

Register for Beltaine Here.

March 27, 2019

Massive Midwest Flooding to likely get Much Worse

Back in October, we published here and in the 2019 Wheel of the Year, “Our Wettest Year Ever.” Much as the repeated drenchings, floodings, and culvert destruction was challenging, and consumed our resources – the Midwest has had it worse. Much worse. In our last news post, we posted an image of Sideling Hill Creek, swollen and risen with runoff as the weather warmed with impending Spring. Imagine those conditions cranked up to ELEVEN.

The “bomb Cyclone” storm that recently settled in the center of the Nation combined with heavy snowfall in late February, tropical rains and wet snow to utterly inundate the Midwest, particularly devastating in Nebraska. This unfolding disaster, which has caused billions of dollars of damage, destroyed infrastructure and faming communities, and prompted massive evacuations – has been largely overlooked in the mass media, distracted by mind-numbing stupid human tricks - the Christchurch Massacre, Brexit, The Muller Report. But the Science Press has taken notice and is genuinely alarmed.

“The rains and floods are expected to continue through May and become more dire, according to Ed Clark, director of NOAA’s National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. “This is shaping up to be a potentially unprecedented flood season,” Clark said, “with more than 200 million people at risk for flooding in their communities.”