Tag: Circle Sanctuary

PSG – New Home, Same Spirit

The Pagan Spirit Gathering, one of the largest and oldest Pagan camping festivals, has changed location this year. The former site, Camp Zoe near Salem, Missouri, has come under federal investigation. This prompted Circle Sanctuary, hosts of Pagan Spirit Gathering, to move the festival to Stonehouse Park near Earlville, Illinois.  It is a venue change that many past attendees are applauding.

Pagan Spirit Gathering
Summer Solstice, June 19-26
Stonehouse Park near Earlville, Illinois
Registration closes June 4th

“I love going to PSG, but it was so hot and humid at Camp Zoe that I wasn’t going to attend this year.  All I did was lay in the creek and I missed most of the workshops because it was so hot.  But now that it has moved to the much cooler and less humid Illinois, I’m going!” said past attendee Eisling, “Just think, it should be nice enough we can even have camp fires at night.”

PNC-Minnesota talked with Ghetto Shaman Billy Crow Staver about the move to Stonehouse Park and what PSG will be like this year.  The Ghetto Shamans are a camping group that attends PSG each year and helps Circle Sanctuary with marketing the event.

“The PSG experience is something really special.  It’s a place where people can come together and let their guard down.  Magically things happen there.  It’s where I met my wife, I met her at PSG.  I’ve met some of my best friends through PSG,” Mr. Staver said of his years of attendance.  ” The people who attend PSG seek new connections to the Divine and form a new tribe.  It’s an experience that is hard to explain and shouldn’t be missed.”

Organizers say Stonehouse Park offers many more amenities than they have had at other PSG camps.  “There are more electrical hook ups throughout the camp.   There’s a larger shower house and a community store.  People will be able to keep their camp site cleaner since they have community sinks available for dishes and washing your clothes,” says Mr. Staver.  He notes the best change will be in how the camp feels to attendees, ” We’ll be able to camp closer together and be able to see one another and this creates more of a family community type feeling and that’s one of the biggest benefits to camping at Stonehouse park this year, we’ll get that feeling of a close family again.  We kind of lost that at Camp Zoe.”

Continue reading →

Green Burial at Circle Sanctuary

1 Comment

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.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Continue reading →

Healing for Japan Ritual Tonight – 7pm

From the comfort of your own home, join Circle Sanctuary in a healing ritual for Japan. The ritual is to be started at 7pm central time and Pagans from across the world are invitied to follow the ritual provided by Selena Fox, Circle Sanctuary founder.

If you wish to join in group ritual, all Pagans are welcome at Sacred Paths Center tonight to join in the ritual.  Ritual starts at 7pm sharp, so please arrive early.

Click this link for the ritual format.