This years Sacred Harvest Festival ended Sunday and down came at least twenty five festivant shrines expressing worship and devotion to deity. Festivants were asked to bring shrines and they sprouted like fall mushrooms after a rain. I am sure I didn’t photograph them all, they had to be sought out in both public and hidden spaces. Some shrines had a clear focus, others were a reminder of our diversity. These photos on a windy day give a casual look, at night they transformed and were all lit and tended, and offerings of incense and libation graced many of them. Some grew as the week progressed, others disappeared or re-appeared in new forms. The theme of the event was “Unveiling the Sacred, Immersed in the Luminous Light of Love”, and shrines were an important aspect of this years festival experience.
Enjoy!
Tag: sacred spaces
Labyrinth, a walking prayer at TC Pagan Pride – Interview
Labyrinths
Paul Eaves, and often Teri Starnes, are found creating, tending, and dismantling outdoor labyrinths around the Twin Cities. I talked to Paul at TC Pagan Pride on Saturday.
How long have you been making labyrinths?
The Farm in the City Labyrinth, Concordia College
Nine years, well actually it started way back in 2000 with a kids group, and we created a labyrinth at a university as part of a summer gardening program. It was there for two years, and then the university decided they wanted to build a library on top of it. While I was bust traveling around the world, a group of volunteers dug up all the plants and moved them to the other side of the university. Now it is a perennial flower garden labyrinth. Continue reading
Sacred Paths Center in Crisis – Broke, Closure Imminent
From The SPC website: http://sacredpathscenter.com/ :
Sacred Paths Center, the Spiritual/Pagan Center, open to all, first of its kind in the United States, is broke.
“What, AGAIN?”
Yes.
“Now why?”
Simple: lack of YOUR support. This message will reach thousands and thousands, but how many of you will care enough to do anything?
A physical banner has been put in the ground here, proclaiming this area as sacred to us; SPC is that banner. “Pagan Community”, “Paganistan”…it seems they are just words. There are thousands of us here in the Twin Cities metro, and among us all, we can’t give $3000 a month to keep that banner standing open. What does that say—really say—about “Pagan Community”? Less than a dollar each, and yet… Continue reading
Sacred Spaces Part 5 – Funding and Sustaining a Community Center
Sacred Spaces is a series that looks at successful examples of modern Pagans creating and maintaining permanent places for worship and fellowship. In this segment, we look at how Sacred Paths Center, a Pagan community center in St Paul, made it through a financial crisis that could have closed its doors and emerged financially sustainable.
In Part 6 of Sacred Spaces, we talk with Sacred Paths Center Executive Director Teisha and Board member CJ Stone about the profound impact the community center has had on the Pagan community in the Twin Cities and why it is worth the effort, sweat, and money to have a place where Pagans can be Pagans.
Previous segments of this series can be seen here:
Part 1 – Temple of the River: Getting started
Part 2 – Temple of the River: Challenges and Construction
Part 3 – Temple of the River: Funding
Part 4 – Sacred Paths Center: Birth of a Community Center
Sacred Spaces Part 4: Birth of a Community Center
Many Pagan groups share the dream of building some type of sacred space. A temple, a community center, a permanent altar. It remains a dream because they lack the information, skills, and experience to bring it into reality. Yet other groups have accomplished what can seem, at times, impossible. They learned how to raise funds, deal with city inspectors, and overcome challenges that have stymied the rest of us. We can learn from them and they are eager to share their successes and mistakes so that more Pagans can have their very own Sacred Space.
In Part 4 of Sacred Spaces we talk with the founder and a board member of a Pagan community center in St Paul and learn how they were able to get this project off the ground. They also offer advice on how your community can start a community center of your own.
In Part 5 of Sacred Spaces, we talk with Teisha and CJ about surviving Sacred Path Center’s first financial crisis and how they developed a financially sustainable model that other communities can emulate.
Previous segments of this series can be seen here:
Part 1 – Temple of the River: Getting started
Part 2 – Temple of the River: Challenges and Construction
Part 3 – Temple of the River: Funding
Pagan Newswire Collective - Minnesota Bureau 