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!

Pagan Spirit Gathering 2014

Opening ritual

Greetings! This post is just going to be mostly photos. We went to Pagan Spirit Gathering for the first time ever. Not my first pagan festival, but it had been several years since we'd been.

Selena Fox

I will say that our first PSG was hard... We spent the first few days fighting high winds, so we were constantly fixing our encampment. It rained a lot as well, which kept us under shelter instead of enjoying the festival programming. And then on friday night I fell and hurt my wrist, which we found out later was broken. But, we still had a great time!

Tuatha Dea Concert

 Selena is the founder of Circle Sanctuary, the organizers of PSG.

PSG is a week long festival that culminates in a celebration of Midsummer/Litha, but there are numerous rituals and celebrations all week long, in addition to workshops, concerts and other activities.

the God Pole

I loved meeting folks, the tarot workshops, the Tuatha Dea concerts. Kevin spent much of his time at the Tween center, where kids his age could go in the afternoon to do crafts, play, and hang out while parents went to workshops. 

My covenmate Melanie, selling raffle tickets

millions of tiny toads... everywhere

Labyrinth

If you ever get the chance to go, you should! It is about an hour and a half from Chicago in a lovely private campground.

I can hardly wait for next year!

44 Days of Witchery - Day 40

44 Days of Witchery - Day 40
My altar, if I have one.

I'm posting a picture of the Ganesha altar we set up this month for the 10 day festival of Ganesh, Vinayak Chaturthi.

I didn't have a lot of proper Ganesh stuff, but I used what I had and made a pretty paper banner spelling out His name. :)  My son added an offering of candy from his stash.

Next year I'm trying for a more traditional altar!