Dawning of a New Day – Editorial

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My wife,  Judy Olson Linde,  and I  appeared as guests this year at the Heartland Pagan Festival near Kansas City, Mo. I wrote this article for their newsletter, which was also published in their festival guide. It is excerpted below;  The theme of the festival was  “Dawning of a New Day” and I was thinking about what it would take for us, as a Pagan Spiritual community, to achieve that dawn.

Guests at Heartland Pagan Festival 2012 – Judy and Nels Linde at far right
photo: Aaron Smith

The Heartland Theme this year  really attracted us to contribute differently this year, as guests. In recent years most Pagan communities, organizations, festivals, and even small groups have experienced some kind of internal turmoil, and so have we. Our easiest reaction to this is to withdraw to personal isolation. We attribute conflict to, “Just politics, Pagans can’t agree on anything”. We may have just stuck our head up and tried to get involved in a community just in time to get it bit off, so back we go into the safety of isolation. If you persist and stay involved in community work you often see the same destructive processes repeated over and over. Working together to build a community of support, something beyond ourselves, can seem a hopeless task.

Respectful disagreement is a sign of change, and can be a motivator toward moving in new directions. When change can be so beneficial, why does it so often end up being harmful to individuals and communities, instead of an opportunity for growth? Is it an essential truth that Pagans working together is like ‘herding cats’? It doesn’t have to be. Working together doesn’t have anything to do with ‘herding’, and, have you ever seen film of a pride of lions hunt? Differences don’t need to be a source of disruption. Diversity of views in decision-making can be a group’s greatest asset.

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Paganistan Weekly; June 4-10

The Walker Community United Methodist Church burned down. This was a gathering place for many progressive groups, and its loss is mourned by many in our community. You can read more about it at https://pncminnesota.com/2012/05/30/walker-church-a-community-commons/

Transit of Venus is Tuesday. This wont happen again in your lifetime. There will be a gathering in Powderhorn Park at 6:30 to note this significant event.
Transit Begins at 5:04 pm
Ingress Interior Contact 5:22pm
Transit Center 8:27pm
Sunset at 8:57pm (viewing ends for us)
Egress Interior Contact 11:32pm
Transit ends: 11:50pm

The Eye of the Boar coven will be featuring a singing bowl workshop this Saturday at their monthly free healing Circle. Stop by the Eye of Horus Saturday between 7pm & 9pm to experience these good vibrations.
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Follow the Moon: Astrology of intention and mindfulness

by Teri Parsley Starnes

Teri’s interest with astrology lies with helping people see how following a practice of intention and self-awareness leads to a fuller relationship with Mystery. Astrology is a wonderful tool for this. Her weekly column orients readers to the seasonal energy of each month’s Sun sign in order to set magical/mindful intention for the lunar month beginning at the New Moon.

Each week Teri will write about the unfolding energies that support and challenge our intentions. The ebb and flow of the lunar cycle resides deep in our souls. Through following the phases of the Moon, we remember the natural cycles that guide us.

Astrologers divide the lunar month into eight phases. These are:
New Moon: Dreaming
Crescent Moon: Beginning
First Quarter Moon: Manifesting
Gibbous Moon: Perfecting
Full Moon: Illuminating
Disseminating Moon: Sharing
Last Quarter Moon: Evaluating
Balsamic Moon: Surrendering

Come follow the Moon as we practice intentional awareness together.

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Heartland Spiritual Alliance President – Interview

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I talked to sitting Heartland Spiritual Alliance President Angela Krout at Heartland Pagan Festival near Kansas City, Mo.  She was re-elected in April but has resigned for family reasons, pending the outcome of a special election.

What moved you to take the president’s role?

I’ve been a HSA (Heartland Spiritual Alliance) member for twelve years. I was treasurer last year when our then president stepped down for personal reasons. Myself and a couple others decided to run, and since we had an alternate candidate for treasurer I thought, “Why not me, Why not now?”

Do you have a new vision for the organization?
There is always room for improvement and growth. Some of it can be difficult to deal with, difficult to change. I would like to see HSA be not just a Midwestern voice, but an international voice in the Pagan community. Something that you will see and hear about all over the world.  We are no longer just a local community, we are a global community, and HSA needs to branch out and do that.

Can you share some of the problems you have encountered leading the organization and putting on a festival?
Personal accountability, that needs to start with someone. With me the buck stops with me, my personal accountability and responsibility. I know as Pagans we are supposed to ‘go with the flow’, but there is a certain time when you have to treat it like business, because that is exactly what it is. It can’t be a loose y goose y, very free flowing thing, a festival has to be run like a business. The more accountability we have, the more we will have organizations that run better.

Transparency is huge. From every dollar we take at the gate, to every dollar we disburse, it has been our goal the last few years to become more transparent, to have more layers of protection and accountability.

We have a great PR team this year, and they have been promoting us well. At this point we are still small enough, and even though we get national and international speakers that come in, people still see us as a regional festival, and we are not.  Next year we have Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone as speakers. They actually contacted us and wanted to appear. That blew my mind, so awesome. I am so excited about it.

Several ‘old timers’ here have stepped back and new folks are joining. Is that an obstacle or an asset?
It can be both. Those of us that have been in the trenches for so long can be resistant to change. Personally for me, change is growth and growth is life. A lot of people don’t realize it is the life blood of the organization. We can not have the same people year after year. We become too entrenched, to comfortable with the same set of standards when the rest of the world is growing. It could limit us to stay where we are, and get stagnant.

HSA President Angela Krout

What does the direction of the new leadership look like?
Yet to be determined. I plan to stay with HSA and support whoever is elected. At some point when my personal life is not taking over, I may run for President again.

Nels Linde