Category: Human Interest

PSG Report: Wiccaning for Wisconsin boy at PSG

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This morning, young Arden received a Wiccaning blessing presided over by Rev. Selena Fox.   The Wiccaning ceremony took place at the Ritual Circle at the Pagan Spirit Gathering held this week in Illinois.

Rev. Fox blessed the child with element of earth, air, water, fire, and spirit and gifted Arden with a feather found on site.  Arden enjoyed the first half of the ceremony, especially when Fox played peek-a-boo with him.  But as the sun came out, so did some tears.  Rev. Fox noted that was just what Arden should expect from  life, times of laughter and times of tears.  The parents, Kidril and Twitch, then gave their baby his first drum and gave him their blessings.  The community was then invited to grant Arden blessings such as friendship, comfort, peace, and love.

Upper Midwest Pagan Alliance Cleans Up! – Editorial

The highway cleanup on Interstate 35E, sponsored by the Upper Midwest Pagan Alliance (UMPA),  took place Saturday June 4th. The cleanup had been delayed by the storms that swept through the Twin Cities the weekend of May 21st. A cheerful group of seven met,  and after going over safety and procedure concerns, hit the road by 11am.  It was a beautiful summer day!

UMPA sign view headed South on 35E

We split into two teams and also had vehicle support with water, bars, and sandwiches nearby. With no adjacent fast food, the pickings were light with the exception of a few with a taste for “Ice House’ beer making frequent deposits!  By about 2pm the ending overpass was in sight, and it had heated up a bit.  On cue a generous breeze made the remaining cleanup feel much easier. This was the first spring cleanup of this site near Hugo, MN., after the move from Coon Rapids. With three on a side, we had just enough volunteers to cover it in one pass. The site could easily accommodate seventeen volunteers (8 per side,  4 teams working to the middle, and support people) and make the service a less demanding two-hour task. The site feels very rural and we always find something naturally beautiful or interesting along the way.

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KC Drum Tribe – Build Community with the Drum – Editorial

Skewb, founder of the Drum Tribe

I had a chance to interview Skot ‘Skewb’ Person, and Leslie Ravenhair of the Kansas City Drum Tribe (Katumba) while at Heartland Spirit Festival this year. There was some challenging weather, but it was proved again that a day at festival is a better day than anywhere else! It was a festival with one of the best drum and dance grooves ever, and I’d give a lot of credit to the Kansas City Drum Tribe.

Skewb is considered one of the main forces behind the tribe’s development. The Kansas City drum circle started as a meet-up group started by Kim Ousler in Overland Park, at Wild Oats, an organic food store. For Skewb it felt weird because the location was in an upscale suburban location. As Kim became busier, she passed the organization on to Skewb who energized it and changed the name to Kansas City Drum Tribe.

Skewb:

I started posting that drummers would be in Loose Park on Monday nights, an inner city park in KC. (Kansas City). I started going with a couple of friends that I met through the KC witches meet up. I got more people interested through using the internet, and people started showing up. It evolved from maybe 4-5 people regularly a week, to 150 plus people over four years!

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Gathering at Ft Snelling Honors the Fallen

For the third year in a row Pagans in the Twin Cities area gathered to honor all fallen Service Members and hold a special ritual for fallen Pagan Service Members.   There are now two headstones in the Ft. Snelling Cemetery that bear pentacles – one for Sgt. Jason Schumann and the other for Specialist Daniel Schrankler.

The Crego family place offerings during the Memorial Day observance

This year over 40 area Pagans attended the event, including entire families.  Tracy Jarvinen, one of the organizers for this memorial observance, said, “We honor all of the soldiers who have fought for our freedoms. We give special attention to Jason Schumann and Daniel Schrankler because as they had once fought for our freedoms, Joe and I, and many, many others helped fight for their freedom to be buried under the Pentacle. It is bringing things full circle.”

Just a few years ago, neither headstone could have legally been marked with a pentacle. The years long legal battle to force the VA to include the pentacle on its list of approved religious symbols is, as Dr Murphy Pizza describes it, “a bittersweet victory;  celebrating a hard-won right also brings with it the acknowledgment of the growing number of Pagan military folks and the sacrifices that they are making in order for this and other rights to be upheld.”

Headstone for Sgt. Jason Schumann

The Twin Cities Pagan community was active and engaged in the VA Pentacle Quest and continues to show fallen warriors honor each Memorial Day through offerings, words, and by comforting their family members in their time of grief.  That comfort can reach across long distances.  The mother of Sgt. Schumann sent this message,

Dear Tracy and Joe,

Thank you for honoring my son’s grave!  We moved last year to Indiana, and it breaks my heart I could not be there, but I am comforted knowing that he was surrounded by people to honor and remember him. 

Blessed Be )O(“

Each person in attendance left a flower or token at the headstones of Jason Schumann and Daniel Schrankler. The Honor Guard created the sacred space for all to honor. An attendee who is a Vietnam Veteran read the poem, credited to General George S Patton Jr :

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In Memoriam

This famous speech was given by the Athenian leader Pericles after the first battles of the Peloponnesian war, but he could easily be talking about the United States and our war dead. Pericles gave this speech to honor the dead of his time and to extol the virtues of his city and its people. PNC publishes it today to honor our dead and extol the virtues of our country and our people.

Hail the Honored Dead!

“Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favors the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if no social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life. There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbor for doing what he likes, or even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive, although they inflict no positive penalty. But all this ease in our private relations does not make us lawless as citizens. Against this fear is our chief safeguard, teaching us to obey the magistrates and the laws, particularly such as regard the protection of the injured, whether they are actually on the statute book, or belong to that code which, although unwritten, yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace.

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