Category: Happenings

NordCoG Beltane 2011

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Beltane 2011: Earth’s Passion: A Rite of Spring
A Journey to the Otherworld

The Procession from Indian Mounds

Earth

LUNA tantalizes EARTH

“Welcome everyone to the Northern Dawn chapter of the Covenant of the Goddess’s celebration of Beltane for this 5th day of Hare Moon, in the year 34,255 Skystone Wiccan Reckon Calendar, that’s May 7th in the Christian year 2011. We all know that Samhain, Halloween is when the ancestors leave the Spirit World and join the living. In symmetry today we will journey to the Otherworld and visit them. We will hear the stories of their lives. We will journey into the woods and meadows of dreams. But first we honor the Ancient Chiefs.”

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PCOD Celebrations Draw Crowds

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Just over 20 Pagans attended the local Pagan Coming Out Day celebration at Sacred Paths Center on Monday, May 2nd. The celebration started with a libation and prayer to Hestia, strengthener of family and community bonds, for those Pagans in our community planning to ‘come out’ to someone they know. Champagne cocktails and desserts then followed with a screening of the documentary American Mystic.  “Speaking as someone who was there, and has been semi-closeted for 35 years, this was simply fabulous,” said Karen.  The movie, which was signed by director Alex Mar, was donated to the Sacred Paths Center library.

International Pagan Coming Out Day Chair, Cara Schulz, spoke to the group about Pagan Coming Out Day and how it was impacting Pagans around the world.  “We have received messages from Pagans in the US, Canada, Russia, France, Columbia, South Africa, and the Philippines to name a few countries.  Very positive stories about the events they are holding, about coming out to friends and family, and about how the religious community has supported them,” said Ms. Schulz.

Ms. Schulz estimates that hundreds of Pagans told someone they know they are Pagan on May 2nd and many more indicated they are considering it after hearing about the mostly positive outcomes on the organization’s facebook page. Others simply decided they would stop hiding their religion and would speak the truth when asked.  Thousands of more ‘out’ Pagans wore something that identified them as Pagan as they went about their normal business as a low key way to push back against stereotypes and show our numbers.  As a sign of how popular the day was, just under 300 t-shirts with the IPCOD logo were purchased in the last 3 months.  “I think it was being able to marshal the support of the community that gave the strength, comfort, and encouragement needed for people to take this step.  Plus the excellent Guide to Coming Out put together by IPCOD committee member Drake Spaeth, PsyD, gave people tips on how to actually have this conversation, said Ms Schulz.  “It’s one thing to say “come on out!” – but it’s another to say this is how you can do it and we’re right here with you to support you.”

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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.

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Local Celebration of International Pagan Coming Out Day

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From a formal High Tea to a rally on the White House lawn, Pagans across the globe are celebrating Pagan Coming Out Day on May 2nd with local events and rituals.  The Twin Cities celebration includes cocktails, desserts, and the screening of American Mystic – a movie that the Wild Hunt called “the best documentary involving modern Pagans that this generation has seen.”

The event takes place May 2nd at the Sacred Paths Center and is open to all Pagans and Pagan allies, no matter if you have been ‘out’ for ages or are not yet able to be open about your Pagan spirituality.  It directly follows the usual Monday night Pagan Potluck and the event is offered as a free gift to the community.  An opening Hellenic-style libation to Hestia, a Goddess that strengthens the bonds of family and community,  kicks off the evening, with champagne cocktails, non-alcoholic drinks and desserts to follow.  Once everyone has their treats, the movie American Mystic will be screened for the first time in the Twin Cities area.  The documentary opened at Pantheacon to rave reviews. More about the movie below.

Pagan Coming Out Day Twin Cities
May 2nd – Sacred Paths Center
7pm to 9pm

Pagan Coming Out Day is an international movement created to be complimentary to Pagan Pride events. It’s a day when individuals, deciding on their own terms, stop actively hiding their religious identity to someone in their life. It’s also a day when our religious community comes together to support those coming out to a person or group and celebrates the more public emergence of their Pagan identity.   The not-for-profit organization behind Pagan Coming Out Day says they are “working to achieve greater acceptance and equity for Pagans at home, at work, and in every community.” To learn more about Pagan Coming Out Day you can go to their website or friend them on facebook.

Chuck, a Lakota sundancer in the badlands of South Dakota

Morpheus, a Pagan priestess in southern California

Kublai, a Spiritualist in upstate New York

AMERICAN MYSTIC is a documentary about three twenty-somethings, each a member of a fringe religious community, who have separated themselves from mainstream America in order to live immersed in their faiths. Kublai, a Spiritualist in the former revivalist district of upstate New York; Chuck, a Lakota sundancer in the badlands of South Dakota; and Morpheus, a Pagan priestess living off the grid in old mining country in southern California. Rather than an analytical, journalistic approach, AMERICAN MYSTIC takes a personal, visually lush approach, immersing the viewer in the subjects’ experience of their controversial faiths through their own words and worship.

Editor’s note:  Cara Schulz, editor at PNC-Minnesota, Chairs the Executive Committee of International Pagan Coming Out Day.  Jason Pitzl-Waters, Project Coordinator of PNC and author of the The Wild Hunt, also serves on the Executive Committee.

Green Burial at Circle Sanctuary

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Spring is the time to celebrate approaching intimacy, and what is more intimate than sharing a loved one’s passing?  The first  ‘green burial’ took place at the cemetery at Circle Sanctuary in Mount Horeb, WI. this past weekend. Selena Fox presided over the ceremony. Many Pagans claim to want a green burial, but what is it like?  I talked with Robert Paxton, a Circle Sanctuary minister, who participated in funeral, as part of a community weekend at Circle Sanctuary.

Describe what the funeral experience was like?

It was very much different from any funeral I had attended. The person who had died was a long-term member of the Madison folk music and dancing scene. The funeral was a genuinely beautiful and touching event. Family and friends, about a dozen, helped with every element from carrying the casket to the gravesite. They sang song and read poetry. They spoke as they were individually moved to about the life of the person who had passed. Typically, the funeral director said, they would lower the casket into the grave, there would be just a few words and the family would step away and head down the hill. Community members were there to help fill in the grave. It didn’t go like that. We placed the casket in the grave, and the family looked over at the pile of dirt and the half-dozen shovels. They picked them up and got to work. The grave was nearly filled when they tired and the community members took over. They were very engaged in the whole process. Once the mound had risen, they took flowers from the earlier memorial service and placed them lovingly on the grave. One of the funeral party, in one of those ‘ah-ha’, deep truth moments, took a night crawler from one of the last shovelfuls of dirt.  He laid it on top of the mound and said, “Here is the first one, get to work!” It was a very loving experience. It was done very clear-eyed, we are committing these remains back to the earth. We will honor her with this last loving and personal act. At the same time they were completely realistic and open about the nature of what had happened. It was the most truthful funeral I had ever experienced.

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