Isaac Bonewits: "Last night (Thursday),the festival held it’s opening circle, which was not what most festival-goers think of as such. First there was an hour-long ritual briefing earlier in the evening, then everyone was sent to their tents to nap. When the ceremony began at 11:00 pm, it was an intense, all-night ritual, focused around the alchemically transformative power of the sacred fire and the drums. It seems that many of the drum circles now being done in the western part of the USA are more structured than those in the east, and are designed to produce deep trances and psychologically important changes, rather than just the ecstatic joy I’m used to seeing in eastern Pagan festivals."

"While the first hour was a familiar Wiccan style rite, the organizers (Mountain Moon Circle) had obviously spent a great deal of time and effort on costumes, including spectacular masks and ceremonial props and including a five-person Chinese dragon! Then the drumming started out very low and slow while the participants moved slowly around the fire softly chanting "It starts, very quietly, it starts in the heart. It starts in the center, it starts from a spark". This was one of a dozen fire chants I’ve never heard before that the organizers provided people with lyric sheets of in their registration packet."

"For the Mountain Moon Circle, the fire dancing is specifically an alchemical ritual designed to help people burn away the dross of their spirits. Alas, I still have most of my dross, since my medications don’t let me stay up all night, but from the scarcity of people around at 11:00 the next morning, it appears that three-quarters of the attendees were dancing most or all of the night."