Category: News

In Memoriam Lola Moffat

On the evening of Friday September 18, 2015, Lola Moffat passed away less than a year after being diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma. She was only 37, and is survived by her sister, Katie Daly, and a niece and nephew. She was a talented massage therapist, graduating from Centerpoint School of Massage this year. She was an active and beloved member of the Paganistan community. A member of the Wiccan Church of Minnesota, and regular attendee of the Earth House Midsummer Gather, she touched the lives of many Twin Cities and upper Midwest Pagans. Known for being a kind and loving person, the community was able to come to her aid after her diagnosis with a fundraiser last May.

Lola received a healing blanket and necklace at her fundraiser and healing ritual in May.

Lola received a healing blanket and necklace at her fundraiser and healing ritual in May.

Some community members shared these remembrances of Lola: Continue reading →

Earth Conclave – Manifesting Social Justice – Register this week!

       The  Earth Conclave Gathering is coming up October 30 – November 2, 2015. Additional Registrations are needed and due by September 18, for the event to continue. If you are considering attending please reserve a spot this week! Register / RSVP at https://events.smartcrowdz.com/ManifestingSocialJustice .

Earth Conclave is a Non-Profit Pagan and earth based community that does functions twice a year and we collectively decide upcoming events based on community interest. This Falls theme is Manfiesting Social Justice. This is an open event at a beautiful location in Southwestern Wisconsin. Meals, lodging, workshops, meditations, and all other activities are included in the event price. We have a self determined sliding fee scale of $125 – $235 and ask for $65 down at RSVP by September 18, 2015. The $65 is paid toward the total cost and is totally refundable if the event is cancelled.

We feel that this theme really resonates with a large number of people due to the current media focus. This will not be political focused but individually focused. The goal is to heal human kind one person at a time with common techniques such as: the ripple affect, law of attraction, web weaving, prayer flags, focused energy raising, and healing support to victims of social injustice.

Appointed Officials Set To Okay Illegal Coldwater Spring Project

 

Ducks at Coldwater Spring as it was...

Ducks at Coldwater Spring as it was…

Two sets of appointed officials are lined up to okay a project that explicitly violates the law. The Metropolitan Council is promoting sewer replacement construction that contravenes the Coldwater protection law by threatening the flow to this 10,000 year old spring.

UPDATE: * The Minnehaha Creek Watershed District meeting to discuss & vote on the sewer project permit  was postponed to Thursday, March 26 to allow more time for the public to comment.

The Minnehaha Creek Watershed District is set to permit the project with assurances about “contingency plans” for unforeseen circumstances, “restoring” Coldwater Springs after “temporary” dewatering, and orders to monitor the spring daily during the 2-year construction project.

Take action. Ask that sewer construction be redesigned to the location of the current pipe without tearing up the north end of Minnehaha Park and threatening the flow to Coldwater Springs:

Adam Duininck, Chair, Metropolitan Council, 651-602-1390 or adam.duininck@metc.state.mn.us

Lars Erdahl, Administrator, Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, 952-641-4505 or lerhahl@minnehahacreek.org

National Park Service, 651-293-8438 or http://www.nps.gov/miss, click on Coldwater and follow prompts

THE LAW – Section 1.  [PROTECTION OF NATURAL FLOW.]

Neither the state, nor a unit of metropolitan government, nor a political subdivision of the state may take any action that may diminish the flow of water to or from Camp Coldwater Springs.  All projects must be reviewed under the Minnesota Historic Sites Act and the Minnesota Field Archaeology Act with regard to the flow of water to or from Camp Coldwater Springs. (passed in 2001)

 The language of the law is specific, forbidding “any action that may diminish the flow.” Not “temporary” dewatering, not permanent dewatering—no “action that may diminish.” The language of the contingency planning (below) is slippery.

Coldwater is the last major natural spring in Hennepin County, is where the soldiers who built Fort Snelling lived (1820-23) and where a civilian pioneer community gathered to service the fort. Some consider Coldwater to be the birthplace of Minnesota. The spring furnished water to Fort Snelling 1820-1920.

THE PROJECT: Metropolitan Council Environmental Services (MCES) project 1-MN-344 Tunnel Improvement:   A sanitary sewer pipe is scheduled to be replaced at the north end of Minnehaha Park. It is an underground construction, about 45 to 50 feet below the surface, with two 18-foot diameter access shafts cut through bedrock at either end, and a 44 by 60-foot subsurface vault. Groundwater “will just flow around” these subterranean buried structures after construction planners reported at Minnehaha Creek Watershed District board meeting (1/29/15).

 A replacement 1,000-foot pipe would run horizontally below Minnehaha Creek, the Hiawatha Light Rail Transit line and Highway 55 to replace a 1930s-era sanitary sewer pipe. The project is scheduled to run for two years from this summer to June of 2017.

 Both groundwater and deep well dewatering is planned that is, pumping water out from above the limestone bedrock and below in the sandstone. Daily monitoring at Coldwater is called for.

Assurances by experts of “no loss of flow” from the Highway 55 reroute resulted in the permanent loss of nearly a quarter of the flow to Coldwater. MnDOT was court-ordered to monitor the spring flow for 20 months post-construction. Despite the Coldwater protection law a permanent, daily loss of flow of 27,500 gallons was reported.

Before Highway 55 reroute construction the flow to Coldwater was measured at about 130,000 gallons a day. Now the flow rate is about 84,000 gallons daily. Adding the 27,500 daily dewatering lost to Coldwater to the current flow of 84,000—there is a mystery loss of more than 18,000 gallons

Coldwater Spring

Coldwater Spring

CONTINGENCY PLANS FOR PROBLEMS 

Consultants at the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District meeting admitted that the “contingency plans” are unknown, that conditions are “unforeseeable,” that an observer will be on site to come up with “reasonable solutions.” 
Continue reading →

Prominent Pagan musician arrested on child pornography charges

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New Orleans musician Kenny Klein was arrested Tuesday morning on 25 counts of possessing child pornography. Mr. Klein was a frequent guest of Pagan gatherings, such as last year’s Sacred Harvest Festival in Minnesota.

*This article has been updated.

Louisiana State Special Victims Unit began investigating Klein after receiving a tip he was downloading child pornography. A search warrant was granted and police found a large number of sexually explicit videos and photos of children under the age of 13. Mr. Klein admitted the computer the material was found on was his and that he used the computer to download and share child pornography.

Reaction from area Pagans has been largely shock and anger.

“I’m so angry about this, I wish I had never met him at [Sacred Harvest Festival],” said Emma Lauren.

Klein is an elder and a High Priest in the Blue Star Wicca tradition and is credited with turning Blue Star from a local coven into a full tradition with covens across the country. The Twin Cities area hosts a Blue Star Wiccan coven.

Klein has also written several Pagan books published by Minnesota based Llewellyn. Other publishers include Immanion Press, Delphi Press, Siento Sordida and Knickerbocker Circus Publishing.

Harmony Tribe, the organization responsible for producing Sacred Harvest Festival issued this statement: “Harmony Tribe is deeply disheartened to learn of the arrest of one of our proposed guests for the 2014 Sacred Harvest Festival, Kenny Klein. We hold the safety and the comfort of our guests above all else. As a result of the arrest and the pending investigation against Mr. Klein, he will not be appearing as a guest for our 2014 festival as formerly planned.”

Immanion Press, publisher of Klein’s Book The Flowering Rod issued this statement: “Immanion Press is shocked and dismayed to learn that Author Kenny Klein has been arrested for Child Pornography. As a publisher and as contributers to the Pagan community, we don’t condone such behavior. We feel that any author (regardless of who publishes them) is a role model and representative of the Pagan community and as such needs to always remember that how they behave effects the perceptions of the pagan community by the world at large and also effects the safety of our community.”

Immanion also stated, in a blog post, that they are pulling The Flowering Rod from their catalog. ” At Immanion Press we do not believe in knowingly supporting acts of behavior that violate the Pagan community or how it is represented to the world by our authors. We are committed to publishing books that help the communities we are a part of, but we also believe that any author is a role model and should behave accordingly.”

Llewellyn Worldwide, publisher of three works by Klein, said, “Llewellyn is deeply disappointed to learn of the allegations against one of our authors.  The situation is regrettable but we cannot comment on allegations.”

Anne Newkirk Nivin, with PaganSquare and Witches & Pagans magazine said, “We are alarmed and saddened this morning to hear that prominent Pagan Kenny Klein was arrested in New Orleans on Monday on 25 counts of possessing child pornography. Kenny’s blog at our site at PaganSquare has been suspended until his trial (and should he be convicted or plead guilty, permanently.) As publishers and members of the Pagan community, we strongly condemn any form of predatory behavior towards our most vulnerable community members — our children — and support the work of law enforcement and the criminal justice system to root out, prosecute, and punish these crimes.”

 

As this story broke early, PNC-News does not yet have responses from the organizations mentioned in this article. When we get those responses, we will update this article.

 

Editor’s Note: I spent time with Kenny Klein during last year’s SHF and at other Pagan gatherings over the years. I found him to be funny and polite. Although every person is innocent until proven guilty, his admission of guilt speaks strongly.

Keys of Paradise moves location to grow bigger and better

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Keys of Paradise, a St Paul based Pagan retail and online store, is moving to a new location this month. The move is prompted by a desire for a larger space with improved facilities.

Owner Cameron Cegelske said the lease on his current place was up at the end of February and he realized he had outgrown the space available. He set out to find a location that would allow him to re-install the library, has more room for retail space, a room to rent for classes, and still include the large wooden ancestor shrine Keys of Paradise took guardianship of after the closing of Sacred Paths Center, a Pagan Community Center.

Keys of Paradise owner Cameron Celegske during the remodel of his new location

Keys of Paradise owner Cameron Celegske during the remodel of his new location


Success and challenges in today’s economy
During the recession and even the rather tepid and stagnant non-recovery, many businesses have closed or cut back. Keys of Paradise, while Cegelske says they are doing OK,  has also felt the economic pinch, but chose to expand, “We noticed a drop in sales in 2013, a big drop. We’re hoping the new place will attract more customers and it helps we’re not exclusive to retail.”

Keys of Paradise is actually three businesses in one. They have a retail store where shoppers can browse in person, an online website which sells to individuals and offers wholesale, and a laboratory where they formulate their own offerings.  They are revamping their website to beef up their wholesale channel and have recently purchased Fair Maiden Fusions, a cosmetics and skin care line.

New location
Cegelske found a space that would suit his growing needs, but needed some work before he could move in, “It needed some TLC. I’ve been sanding floors and painting, trying to get it ready by the end of the month.” Cegelske and the Keys of Paradise staff are doing much of the work themselves, with help from volunteers. “We are still looking for some help with painting and prepping the new shop this weekend and for the major part of the move on Sunday February 23rd to move the shop. Any help is greatly appreciated, it’s not easy to move an entire shop alone.”

The old location, at 713 Minnehaha Ave E is still open limited hours and Cegelske expects the new store, at 565 Kent St in St Paul, to be open by March first. He plans to host a grand reopening and 5th anniversary event to take place after Paganicon.

If you are able to help with painting, cleaning, or moving the store, please contact Cegelske through facebook or by calling Keys of Paradise at (612) 293-5397.