Category: Community Notes

Heart Of The Beast, May Day Parade!

If you have never heard of the parade, first read about it. If you missed one of their donation buckets, you can also donate ! I asked some of the Free Speech Sections participants what group they were with, and why they were here?

Photos: M Bardon

Eric Angell – Our World in Depth, ” I’m here to be festive with friends and neighbors in Minneapolis.”

Erick Boustead – Line Break Media, ” I’m ‘shooting the parade,’ and to soak in the awesome mix of the art and theater. ”

Gary Lingen –  Upper Midwest Pagan Alliance, ” Over the 29 years I have lived here, I have only missed one May Day! I missed last year because of surgery, but I always come here in any type of weather to be part of the celebration today.

Continue reading →

Community Notes; May 2-8

Even though it was very cold, Heart of the Beast May Day celebration in Powderhorn Park was still a wonderfully Pagan event. Of course, that’s what you’d expect in the heart of Paganistan.

The parade told a story, but also included certain ritual elements, such as the first person in the parade carrying a branch from a tree to sweep away the negativity in the route and cleanse the way for all which is to follow. There were also two Pagan groups in the parade.

Harmony Tribe was the first of the two, promoting the 14th Sacred Harvest Festival, August 6-14. The log for this year says, “Roots and Branches Intertwined”. In talking to Harmony Tribe people, it really does seem like this year they are really exploring both their roots, and the different places to which the festival has branched. SHF is always a wonderful festival precisely because of the degree to which they explore the depths of their theme, and this year promises to continue that tradition. Learn more and register at http://harmonytribe.org/shf2011/

Upper Midwest Pagan Alliance followed. UMPA adopted a stretch of highway several years ago and will be gathering May 21 to clean it up. In most places in the US, Pagans struggle to get enough people together for even occasional volunteer projects. Here, Pagans are able to organize consistently, year after year well enough to maintain an adopted stretch of highway. This is a significant piece of proof that Paganistan really is one of the greatest Pagan communities. Learn more about the highway cleanup at http://umpaganalliance.com/schedule.shtml

Earth House Project had an informational table set up in the park where they told many people about their midsummer gather, June 19-26. This festival is in a luxurious campsite with many amenities that you just don’t find at any other Pagan camping event in the region. In all my travels, I’ve never been to any other festival with electricity at every site, water at every site, and a miniature golf course. Learn more at http://www.earthhousemn.org/gather.htm

Before and after the event there were parties hosted by Pagans and attended by many people from Northern Dawn CoG who always present beautiful rituals and will be having a Beltaine ritual next Saturday in Mounds Park (10 Mounds Blvd, St. Paul, MN) at 3pm. It is one of the most beautiful and sacred sites in Paganistan. Learn more at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=210035432359367
___________________________________

For more detailed information (addresses, descriptions, etc.) or further updates, check out the much ballyhooed Twin Cities Pagans Yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TwinCitiesPagans/

Pagans in Prison – Women Ministers in Prisons

2 Comments

Emrys Anu is a Wiccan Minister volunteering for the last six years at Rush City Correctional Facility.  She has volunteered in the past at Red Wing (18 months) and Stillwater Correctional Facility (2 yrs.).

A Prison Beltane Altar

What is it like working with your “guys”?

They are funny, engaged, and interested. They are incredibly grateful for the time and interactions that any volunteers bring. Just to show up, look them in the eye and shake their hand and treat them like human beings. They don’t get that often enough except with the religious volunteers. I think that attitude sets the foundation for the engagement. We develop a give and take trust that makes education in this setting possible. The topics that we touch on are the difficult topics of life transformation. We don’t talk about their crimes, they all know that they are in their for a crime, we even joke about it. Once I mentioned, “Ya, well I get to go home after this”, and they replied, “Ya, they keep us here because we are criminals”. They know that they have made bad choices. In those moments when they are calm and grounded and connected, they want to be able to make better choices and know they don’t have the skills to do that. Continue reading →

Community Notes; April 25-May 1

Paganistan now has its own Wikipedia entry. This is just the beginning. Please feel free to make it better. For instance, there are only 21 active groups listed, and we all know that there are far more than that. There is also a 22 year gap in the history section: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganistan

For the sake of promoting Paganistan, we need a high resolution picture of a local Pagan potluck. If you have a photo that you’d be willing to share for a good cause, please email it to TwinCitiesPagans@yahoo.com. If you have an event coming up with a potluck, please take a picture, preferably staged with lots of Pagan stuff. Or maybe with out-of-the-closet local Pagans holding hot-dishes. This picture will be of historic importance to Paganistan.

It was four years ago that the Veterans Administration agreed to permit Wiccan service members to have pentagrams on their graves. Thank you to all who participated in the pentacle quest.

There’s now a Google map dedicated to the Asatru & Heathens.  You can find it here.

A great many local Pagans fell in love with John Michael Greer at Paganicon, and now there is a movement to bring him back to the Twin Cities for a weekend intensive. If this sounds like something you’d like to attend, please leave a favorable comment wherever you are reading Paganistan Weekly.

The Keys of Paradise grand opening went well with approximately 175 people touring the new space.

Angelina Rosenbush pointed out in the Examiner that local Pagans didn’t have a public Earth Day celebration this year.

Local Pagan JRob Zetelumen was a guest on Pagans Tonight last week, where he talked about Paganistan. You can listen to the show here.

Heart of the Beast May Day celebration is coming up, Sunday May 1 in Powderhorn Park. I’ve heard it argued that Mardi Gras is the largest Pagan celebration in the United States. In that sense, Heart of the Beast May Day is the largest Pagan celebration in the region. When the word Paganistan was originally coined, it referred to the area around Powderhorn Park because of all the Pagans who live there. After the parade, the event culminates with the ritual reenactment of the return of the sun. Usually at least a couple Pagan groups set up booths. Paul Eaves builds a labyrinth. There are food booths, and shopping booths. It’s a beautiful spring day out in a wonderful park. It’s a huge wonderful event.

There will be cocktails, movie, desserts & fun for Pagan Coming Out Day, 7pm May 2, at the Sacred Paths Center.  The award winning documentary American Mystic, which features Pagan, Spiritualist, and First Nations faiths, will be shown as part of the celebration.  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=167230013331471 & http://pagancomingoutday.com/

Celia will be performing at the Sacred Paths Center, May 21 at 7pm. Celia’s performances are always a major draw. Tickets are available here.

T. Thorn Coyle will be coming to town to do a weekend intensive at the Eye of Horus, May 28 & 29. She had developed quite a following in the Twin Cities, and this promises to be a significant event.

Do you enjoy this newsletter? Chances are that you have a friend who would enjoy it also. Please mention it to them.

Pagans in Prison – Wiccan Minister in Minnesota

3 Comments

George A Edgar, Wiccan Minister and Pagan Prison Religious Volunteer at three Minnesota Correctional Institutions;  Stillwater, Faribault, and Shakopee

How are these decisions about religious civil rights for Pagans in prison made ?

The important decisions about what inmates can have or do in their religious practice are made by those that are least qualified and educated to do so. If you are pulled over for speeding it is the police officer who decides if you get a ticket, not a judge, a specialist in the law. If you say, ” I am on my way to minister to inmates”, they might just say, “Have a nice day”, and let you go. That has happened to me!  It is the same in the prison system, it is the guards and the chaplains who decide what goes on. When you get to the upper echelon, the Warden or the Department of Corrections, and they get excited, you tend to see draconian measures because they don’t want any headaches. They see things very practically, and the Pagans represent a slippery slope. They had to cave into the Native Americans. They allow outdoor ritual, the sweat lodge, the use of tobacco, now what if the Druids want that too? If you can get three or four guys together and a religious volunteer, you become a legitimate religious group. All of a sudden you may have thirty outdoor rituals a week, with special guards and space requirements. Where is the funding, where are the extra staff? They just don’t want the headache. They want to stop this as best they can.

Continue reading →