OJAI : Equinox Retreat Lets Men Be Men

Scores of drummers toned down their primitive beats Friday as a frightened young man held a four-foot tomahawk up to the harvest moon.

His painted face reflecting the glow of a ritual bonfire on the shore of Lake Casitas, he began to speak softly about things in life that bother him.

The young man was just one of many men and boys from around Ventura County who held the tomahawk, a so-called “talking stick” in American Indian tradition, before speaking in group circles at the Friday retreat.

“A lot of men just took up the talking stick to say they were scared and wanted to confront their fear,” said Bruce Gladstone, an Ojai psychologist who coordinated the Men’s Gathering.

The gathering, which drew 60, was held to mark the approach of today’s autumnal equinox and to give men of all ages a chance to share emotional support, Gladstone said.

The meeting was not specifically for American Indians, but their tradition was honored because it reflects a culture in which men are more closely in touch with the natural cycles of life.

“We’ve been doing this for a year on the solstices and equinoxes,” Gladstone said. “There are men’s groups that do drumming and share stories that meet weekly throughout the county, and we are bringing them together in Ojai . . . to experience their wildness out of doors.”