Pagan Spirit Gathering 2016

Pagan Spirit Gathering 2016 fell on June 19-26 this year, and was held at Tall Tree Lake Campground in southern Illinois.

If you've followed my first two years going to PSG you'll know that those two years were not the best for me! So I had a lot of hope that THIS year would be injury free! And it was.

Last year we lost our big tent in all the PSG flooding, it was over 10 years old anyway so I wasn't too surprised. Since the location of PSG had moved to a site nearly 6 hours away, I knew that I probably shouldn't drive one of our vehicles there, old and decrepit as they are. If I had to rent a vehicle anyway, might as well rent one that we could sleep in and save myself buying a replacement tent. I rented a U-haul cargo van and I took our cots and other camping gear. I'd never tried this before but after setting up our encampment, I was very happy with the result. We were as comfortable as we could be. Though I think I'd like to try an air mattress instead of cots next time I do the van idea.

I liked the camp site when I first saw it driving in. It seemed large enough to handle PSG at first glance. The only problem I saw was that the merchants along the road was a long walk and some might not visit all the merchants because of it. But the walk to the shower trailer was even longer... a full mile! I only walked to the shower trailer once, and rode the shuttle cart back. After that, I developed my own shower situation at our encampment and actually liked it better.

My favorite things about PSG 2016:

• I did a craft workshop for the tween center, a memory book which I had the blank book prepared and the kids glued decorative papers on the covers and pages, as well as prepared pagan stickers that I'd made for them. It went very well!
• The MUSIC.  I had parked our encampment right by the stage, and though it meant a few bedtimes were loud, for the most part our spot was perfect, as we got to hear all the concerts up close and personal, without even having to leave our camp if we didn't want to.
• Camping near my coven of course! they were all camped under the trees, which were right across the road from me. I couldn't park a van under the trees at this site.
• Pan's Ball was super fun. It was held at the stage, next door to my camp. Again, very convenient. I dressed up in my satyr horns and a skirt and had a great time dancing. I did not get drunk though! So no broken bones. lol
• Met some great new friends! 
• My favorite workshop was on ritual drama, and I was very impressed with it. I enjoyed all the workshops I went to.
• My coven was asked to do a ritual belly dance for the women's ritual. :)
• The raffle, run by my covenmates Melanie and Kim, was awesome. I brought home a couple awesome prizes.
• dragonfly friends, everywhere!

My least favorite things about PSG 2016

•  Not PSG's fault but damn, this year was HOT. I'm not at my best when I'm overheated, and my kid was unhappy in the heat too. He did his best the poor thing. It seriously got up to serious high heat index. Towards the end of the week we gave up and sat in the cab of the van while I ran it with the AC on for a while. It was the only way to survive.
  
• I eventually learned that the site had some drawbacks, including: unexpected holes that people's feet fell in, including a covenmate who hurt her leg in one. The site was infested with ticks. I personally saw 3 types and removed 2 from us. Somehow we seem to have escaped tick issues. There were leeches in the lake, and my kid stopped going to the lake when he found out. I didn't mind that as he came back from the lake filthy. But he did cool off there. There was a LOT of poison ivy. Nearly everyone camped under trees suffered from it. We were lucky and escaped that too.  Again, not PSG's fault but there are things that can be done to help some of this stuff... like regular mowing and filling the holes in.
• I thought the site was not the best for older and disabled folks. There was very little electric service so space was limited for those that needed it for medical reasons. Just some rough circumstances for a lot of people. 
• I thought the shower trailer being a mile plus away from many of the campers was an issue. We did have a pretty good shuttle system going which helped but sometimes it was hard to get a seat on it since everyone needed on it. I'm hoping the campsite owner is able to put some electric and water service in more places in the campground before next year, if PSG will be there again.

I don't think I'll be going back to PSG next year. I want to try something new next year, and have signed up for another event. So at this point I'd have to have a major financial windfall to afford to go to PSG as well as that other event. Who knows? :)

Iowa Lammas Fest 2015

Two weekends camping in a row! I am exhausted! :)

Our local pagan festival has been around for 13 years, though this is my first year going. Not sure exactly why I waited so long to go, but there were several years where I wasn't doing much camping.

It was certainly laid back, which is exactly what I needed since I was already tired! The fire at main ritual was lovely. My coven danced as only witches can dance!

The event has a chosen charity to raise funds for, the MacBride Raptor Center. An educator came and spoke about raptors and brought out a Kestrel and a tiny Screech Owl, as well as talked about other raptors. The birds were adorable.

We spent most of our time just sitting around! Saturday was so so hot! We sat and knitted and chatted between activities. My covenmate Melanie taught a bellydance class, fortunately for her she likes the heat. Her partner taught a poi spinning class. The kids played and explored the Devonian Gorge that was at the park we were at.

We did get together and take a picture in the afternoon. Most of the kids were off somewhere so we didn't get them into the picture. Coven friends also joined us. :)

Sunday looked to be another hot day, so we all packed up after closing ritual and headed down to the Dam and the beach. I was so exhausted that I almost didn't go, but the kiddo really wanted to (he'd gone on saturday with some of the others).  We went, and it was lovely. The water was cool and refreshing, though the sand was hot! We found lots of fossils in the sand.

A lovely weekend with my tribe!

PSG 2015

I just realized this is my 100th post. I guess it's good that it is about Pagan Spirit Gathering. :)

So, my vacation started sucky. It had rained just before we got up to pack for PSG.  So I stepped out on the porch steps to move my car and slipped and fell. I at least sprained my ankle pretty bad. It was painful to walk on and swelled almost instantly. What a bad omen! I refused to go to the doctor though. We couldn't afford another bunch of medical bills after last years PSG broken wrist.

So we packed up (we meaning my hubby did most of the work) and drove out anyway. When we arrived we asked the son of one of my covenmates to help us unload and set up, as I was not in any shape to do anything but supervise. 

Pretty much all I could do was hang out under our EZ-ups and sit. I had a cane that was just enough to get me to the porta-potty or to bed. This sucked.

Then it rained. And rained. In fact, it flash flooded on monday, it rained so bad. People had to be emergency evacuated from some campsites. My husband went out to help as we had some friends in the flood zone. On tuesday morning at the morning meeting, they announced they were canceling PSG and evacuating all of us. I cannot tell you the heartbreak this caused.

On tuesday evening, we decided to get together and have a big potluck, as we had so much food intended for potlucks and eating during the week and it might all go to waste otherwise.

One of the things I love about my coven is all the kids. Kevin has plenty of friends among our tribe, and these kids are a joy. I love them all! Though I have to be honest and admit that with my bum ankle, I was a little overwhelmed by all of their chatter in my little camp kitchen, but Melanie rescued me and shooed them out. lol

Wednesday morning we packed our vehicles and left. I overdid it of course because I felt bad that hubby had to take on the brunt of the work, but I did what I could to help. It was a mess. The mud tried to suck shoes off. I would have worn my rain boots but my foot and ankle were too swollen.  It was a sad, sad day, that 900 people left and went home, broken and depressed. Several people lost considerably... cars, tents, clothes, vendors lost some merchandise.

Most of my coven and some other friends went back to Many Hands House to recover. I went home to prop up my ankle, though on friday night I went out to hang with my friends and try to celebrate the summer solstice. It was hard though, we were all still depressed.

Blessed Litha to you.

Camping... again!

Yes, that's right, we couldn't get enough of each other so we went camping AGAIN the very next weekend. We had not planned to camp this weekend, as it was Memorial Day weekend and the campground was full. But we really wanted to be together again.

The weekend was not as nice, weather-wise, as the previous one. We had some sunshine, and it was warm enough one day for the kids to swim. After that though, we had some rain on and off.

We still hung out though. There was more time without rain than there was with. We had EZ-ups to sit under, and a tree over those. The kids also hung out for a bit in a camper.

We still had a great time! Though by the end of the weekend, we had no clean, dry clothes left. LOL

The highlight of our weekend was when Rachel made a pinterest find! She cleaned out a watermelon, put a spigot on it and filled it with a boozy drink! What the wha!  She's a keeper. ;)

Looking forward to lots more camping this summer!

Camping!

Wow! May really warmed up to be lovely so far!

The coven decided we needed to camp. Our full-time RV traveling member Christine is back to her summer spot so we decided to all camp there too. The weekend forecast called for rain and storms all weekend but the most we had was a few sprinkles on sunday. It was amazing.

Christine planned a few crafty ideas for the kids (at one point, when our outer grove members showed up, we had 25 kids in our group!). They made bleach print banners and painted paper banners.

We had a huge potluck sit-down meal with everyone. Amazing food! So many kids! LOL

Christine also planned a new moon ritual for saturday night on the beach. She and a few others went down to the beach and drew a pentacle in the sand ahead of time. Then later that night we went down to hold the ritual. It was amazing. The darkness, the wind blowing, the sound of waves on the lake. It was very powerful.

I have to say, camping with my ladies is the BEST. We hate it when we have to leave! I wish I'd gotten a photo with all of us in it. Oh well, maybe next time!

Mabon 2014

#nakedcoffee

My coven spent Mabon camping together at a local campground. Super awesome! We had so much fun! We like campfires, drinking and hanging out. :)

One of our members is pregnant and wanted a blessingway. We had a wonderful little ritual. We pampered her, hennaed her belly, made a special birthing candle and did some magick for blessing her.  It was lovely.

We also had a big "family" Mabon harvest celebration meal. Our meal gatherings are so awesome. Most of my coven is vegetarian, so we always have vegetarian potlucks. I love it because though I'm not yet vegetarian, I'm working in that direction. The potlucks help me find things I like, give me ideas on what works. My son doesn't realize it, but he and I were vegetarian that whole weekend.

witches knitting

In the evening, some of the boys spun fire, and we drank and hung out some more.

Sunday was cooler, overcast with occasional sprinkles. We were all kind of slow moving from our weekend of partying, not to mention a little sad that our weekend was drawing to a close. We mostly sat around chatting and knitting. :)

A lovely weekend together, we were sad it ended. Mainly because one of our covenmates and her family are full-time RVers, and they were planning to hit the road south in a few weeks, and we weren't going to see them again for months. Lots of wonderful memories though, and that's what matters!