Tag: community

Restorative Justice, Restoring Communities – Editorial

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We live in tumultuous times as a society and as a Pagan community. Conflict has caused many divisions, often accompanied with the drawing of lines. These can easily become permanent fractures, solidifying within what might be a unified and joyous community of similar beliefs. Often these conflicts are personal, or begin as personal disputes, or emerge in community settings. Just as often a community gets drawn into them. I participated in a restorative justice circle at Sacred Harvest Festival (SHF), facilitated by Crystal Blanton, and will refer to that experience.

Restorative Justice (RJ) is an idea and method to repair some of the damage these conflicts cause in community. It was developed and used in criminal victim-offender mediations in the 1970’s and has been adapted and applied to a broad range of conflicts, from within our schools to whole societies as in the The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a court-like restorative justice body assembled in South Africa after the abolition of apartheid . It can be used in a community setting through ‘restorative group conferencing’ or ‘peace circles’.

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Sacred Path Center Update – Governance/Financial Reports and History

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The Twin Cities Pagan community center,  Sacred Paths Center, updated its website with a historical narrative and links to governance and preliminary internal audit documents. As part of the SPC’s commitment to ‘transparency‘, the narrative is a frank statement describing events that have led to the present state of affairs within the SPC. 

Sacred Paths Center (SPC), the Pagan community center in Paganistan whose recent financial troubles, successful fundraising effort,  ‘indefinite’ closing for audit, and subsequent reopening made national news, is in the news again.  Yesterday, they released the findings from their governance audit and  noted a failure to meet duties required of Minnesota non-profit corporations, by board members.  The report went on to include suggestions to resolve the problems listed through a clear declaration of duties and Board education.

SPC also posted a historical narrative describing the confusion of the interpretation of the roles of Executive Director and Governing Board.  It states:  Continue reading →

Celia, on the Road at Sacred Harvest Festival – Interview

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Celia Farran, singer, songwriter, actress, and storyteller who dishes up the most delicious concoction of the silly and the sacred, performed  at Sacred Harvest Festival on Tuesday, August ninth . I got a chance to talk to her the next day.


What have you been up to since you last appeared at Sacred Harvest Festival?

I have been working really hard, really hard. I have been consistently putting out Cd’s

Do you have your own studio?

I have my own studio now. The first CD I did on my own equipment was ‘Alabaster in Blue‘, which the song ‘Symbol‘ is on. I’ve done everything else myself since. I do the recording and then have someone else mix and master it. My most recent CD, ‘Carry Me Home‘ , I did all the recording, engineering, and the mixing, and the mastering. The learning curve is steep, a whole other hat to wear. Continue reading →

Happy Birthday PNC-MN! – Editorial

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The Pagan Newswire Collective – Minnesota Bureau is one year old! Evolving from a meeting at PSG with Jason Pitzl-Waters, and consultations with a local group who had also sent a proposal for a Minnesota bureau, this bureau posted “Community Notes”  from TCPagans on July 28th, 2010. How the PNC idea had gotten to this point is another whole story, but for us who formed this bureau; Heather Biedermann, Cara Schulz, and myself, Nels Linde, it was the start of an ambitious project.

What is this bureau?

The vision we acted upon was of a blog based information source for our community. The concept of ‘news’ is a hard one to define. Is it ‘Dog bites Pagan’, “Pagan bites Dog’, ‘What Pagans think about Dogs’, ‘Pagan wins at Dog Show’, ‘Pagan buys Dog’, ‘Dog bites Pagan in Detroit’, or ‘Pagan bites Pagan’? Well, we believe it is all of these topics and more. Our concept is to cover whatever seems to be the demonstrated interest, issues, and news we find in our community, and also to stretch that interest. As volunteers, with limits on our time, resources, and local experience, our content will also reflect our personal interest (I may have not written about Pagans hunting, if I didn’t hunt). As much as we are defining who and what we are, we also realize the idea of a local information source is ‘news’ to you, our readers. We know that your expectations may not match with our vision, and pay scale (we are all volunteers and have funded the costs, and time involved, in our reporting out of our pockets). We expect as we all grow and learn, these inequities in understanding will be resolved. Continue reading →

Largest Upper Midwest Pagan Festival opens in 10 days! – Interview

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Sacred Harvest Festival (SHF), located in southern Minnesota near Albert Lea, opens Saturday, August 6th, The last day to register online  and before gate rates is Sunday, July 31st.  I had the chance to interview Bress Nicneven, festival site director and board member of Harmony Tribe , the event’s sponsor.

Why do people continue to return to Sacred Harvest Festival?

SHF has gained a national reputation for quality and timely speakers and musicians. Celia’s video for the song ‘ Symbol’ was filmed at SHF, before the Pentacle Quest  became a household Pagan word. It is known for having a defined theme each year, and presenting profound rituals and speakers that all build on that theme for a complete experience. One of the few festivals that does this each year. In stressful financial times, this festival offers the cheapest per day rates of any festival in the country for the quality of the programming and activities.

It is a really reasonable family vacation for Pagans. It is an upper Midwest tradition, going on 14 years. SHF is really a place for everybody. There is a Kid’s cauldron, operated by parents and volunteers, that keeps kids happy all week. Families get the time and space to worship together as a family. They get time together and also adults have time for individual experiences. It is really strengthening for both families, individuals, and our community relationships. We have a great location in a shady oak grove with easy access from Des Moines, Madison, and the Twin Cities.

What is this year’s theme about?

Forest Family, Roots and Branches Intertwined  is our theme this year. It encompasses the roots of the Tribe itself, the thousands of people who have grown this festival over the years. We come each year to celebrate at this magical grove, and this year we specifically want to connect with the marvelous shady and protective trees there. Trees are an appropriate symbol of how we are also all connected, and essentially like the forest that we camp under. Like the burr oaks, we are still growing, and changing, and each season together we reach out within the festival and our home communities to integrate our spiritual experience back into our foundation, our roots. Continue reading →