Summer is finally here, and festival season is already in full swing! As folks arrive at festival campgrounds, faces are filled with anticipation, joy, and even glee. Tents are set up, the beer is rolled out, and festival clothes thrown on. Old friends meet, new friends are made, and for many, sex is in the air.

We Pagans are a lusty lot, and why not? We know that our bodies are not separate from our souls, that life is made for living, and pleasure is indeed a joy of the spirit. The ADF virtue of Fertility almost ended up being called the virtue of Sensuality, and we rightly celebrate our bodies.

But all this freedom does not mean that anything goes. Freedom does not automatically mean permission. For something to be sacred it must be ‘cut off’ from the ordinary, profane world. And for something to be ‘cut off’, it must be bounded.

Boundaries are the price of freedom – my freedom ends where yours begins. Boundaries may only be moved, or removed, by mutual consent, and only when both parties are legally permitted to do so (i.e., when they’re old enough). There are other issues involved here, of course, but this is the bottom line. No only means no.

ADF has recently enacted policies church-wide that address these issues. One is specifically about Child Abuse, and the other is about Sexual Misconduct. These new policies have been distributed throughout all of ADF’s leadership (and thereby to our groves), and may also be seen on our website on the public side, under ‘About’, and then under ‘ADF Organizational Structure and Documents’.

May everyone have a fabulous, fun, and safe festival season!