Pagan Spirit Gathering

Monday, 6/24/19

After a week at PSG (Pagan Spirit Gathering), I landed last night at Elizabeth Sturino’s place in Dayton, OH. Since PSG had no wifi, I’ve been offline for 9 days—the longest time I can remember! I’ve spent today catching up with emails and Facebook. Now to catch up with my journaling…

Elizabeth lived in Amsterdam for a few years and served as Personal Assistant for Michael York in 2014-‘15. She has some amazing life stories! We have quite a few friends in common, and have attended some of the same festivals, but never actually met before now. We’ve been totally hitting it off. Her daughter Chloe and four grandkids are also living here, and I think they think I’m Santa Claus…

Elizabeth’s grandkids: William (6), Declan (4) and Eisen (2)

It’s been raining here since I arrived, but tomorrow is supposed to be clear, so we’re planning to drive out to visit Ohio’s Great Serpent Mound—which I’ve always wanted to see.

So, right after my last entry, I drove to Hannon’s Camp America Campground, near College Corner, OH, for the legendary Pagan Spirit Gathering, which I’ve heard about for decades, but never managed to attend before—although Morning Glory came once back in the mid-‘90s. This was their first time at this new site, and intense rain over the first few days turned much of the campground—including the main ritual area, the vendors row, and the dancing ground in front of the band stage—into a sea and rivers of mud. It made me think of Woodstock. But everyone had a positive attitude regarding this adversity—having had a PSG a few years previously completely washed out by flooding!

OZ and Selena Fox

PSG is an annual production of Circle Sanctuary, and Selena Fox and her partner Dennis (“Dr. D.”) were omnipresent, directing, solving problems, shuffling schedules, conducting rituals, presenting workshops, and, well, everything it seemed. Most of the 600 people present were members of Circle, and this is the only Pagan festival they ever attend.

Although I knew very few of the people there, everyone seemed to know me. I was deeply moved by the warm welcome, acceptance, and honoring I felt from everyone. Many people came up to me and told me how I’d changed their lives. As at all Pagan festivals these days, “Welcome Home!” was a common theme, even printed on the complimentary guest tote bags.

OZ with Penny & Zenobia

Other special guest authors were the elegant Lady Tamara Von Forslun (“The Witch of Oz”), my friend Jason Mankey, and Kristoffer Hughes from Wales, whose book, “Journey of the Soul” had been an important reference for my own forthcoming “Death Rights & Rites.” We enjoyed each other’s company and conversation at the authors’ pavilion and mealtimes. Many other charming new connections: Dineh, John & Paul; Penny & Zenobia; Ash, Bob, Jim, Harry, and so many others.

Laura Gonzalez—born in Mexico City, now living in Chicago—shared a bunkhouse with me. She has shows on CircleTalk Blogpost Radio in Spanish and English, and now Portuguese as well. We stayed up late in the cabin seeing eye-to-eye on many topics. I look forward to an interview on her show.

OZ with Laura Gonzalez

The schedule was full of Circle events, rituals, and particularly Rites of Passage: baby blessings, girls’ and boys’ coming of age ceremonies, rites of motherhood, handfastings, ministerial ordinations, and rites of croning for the elder women. A group of older men had initiated a comparable ritual of “saging” for men, and this year I was the only candidate. Despite my being well over the traditional age of “Sage” (55), and a founder of the Grey Council, such a rite had never come up for me before, and I was deeply honored by the ceremony.

A major aspect of Circle is their commitment to total inclusivity, which extends particularly to the trans-gendered, gender fluid, etc. For every event and rite of passage, it was emphasized that people should go wherever they identify, rather than being bound to their biology.

Bardapalooza

As befitting a Pagan gathering, there was plenty of music, performed by several bands as well as lone bards, such as Louis Garou and Mama Gina, who had also performed at the last three Pagan events I’d attended. Bands included Spiral Rhythm, who had performed at PUF, Thundersirens, and Arthur (“King of the Britons”) Hinds and the Round Table. Saturday night they all came on stage for “Bardapalooza.”

Closing ritual

In addition to the ever-popular Phil’s Grill (a staple at several Pagan festivals), there were excellent meals by Jeanette Catering of Sharonville, OH. As they were a mundane operation, I had a nice talk with Melanie S., who headed up the catering crew, regarding what she thought of this gathering of Pagans. I was pleased that she said we were just the nicest bunch of folks she’d ever served. The next day she told me that she’d looked me up, and would be following my adventures on Facebook, so here’s to you, Melanie!

One Year of The Walkabout

Saturday 6/15/19

It is now one year since I placed everything I own into storage, and hit the road in MG’s little burgundy Prius on an indefinite Walkabout. My Mission is to travel around the country making personal visits with old and new friends and lovers, interspersed with book-signings and talks at Pagan stores and gatherings. Previously, people who wanted to meet me had to come to me. Now I’m coming to you! (or at least to a Pagan venue in your neighborhood).

After adventures last year in California, Reno, Las Vegas, Austin, Guatemala, Salt Lake City, Omaha, Kansas City, St Louis, Cincinnati, numerous places in Pennsylvania, and NYC, I arrived in Salem, MA on Oct. 10, in time for Samhain. I stayed in Salem with Gypsy Ravish through the Winter, doing Tarot readings and working to open the Cosmic Connection Temple of Stars at her Witch store, Nu Aeon on Pickering Wharf.

Gypsy and I attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Toronto the first week in Nov. Then I spent most of January with Dona and friends, in Texas, New Orleans, and Mississippi, before returning to Salem for Feb. 

On the first of March I headed off on the eastern and southern part of my journey, down through the Eastern states and into Florida, and back up to TN for the Pagan Unity Festival. Then west to St Louis (where it all began over 50 years ago…) for the Pagan Picnic, and south to AR. Now I’m back in Nashville for a few days, before heading up to Ohio for Pagan Spirit Gathering and Starwood.

Three Gates Gathering – group photo

Last weekend’s Three Gates Gathering in West Plains, MO (in the bootheel of the state, 3 miles from the AR border) was delightful! There were about 40 adults and a passel of kids. Among the illustrious Elders were Melissa Anderson of the Circle of Ancient Sisters in KY; Rev. Don Lewis of Witch School and the Correllian Nativist Tradition; Terry Riley of the Southern Delta Church of Wicca (ATC) in Jonesboro, AR; Rowena Whaling (author of Voices from the Stars) from Nashville; and of course, our hosts, Alfred Willowhawk and Willo Wellspring of the Wite Rayvn Metaphysical Church.

We were entertained by bards Mama Gina (aka 9 Toes the Bard), Mystic of Dragonstone, and Ginger Ackley (aka Posey). There were three tracks of workshops every hour, and delicious home-cooked food for every meal. There was a fire circle both evenings, a sword dance, a double handfasting, and two birthdays.

It rained a lot on the first day and night, and the site was pretty muddy. But spirits were high, and everyone had a good time, with great conversations.

The event officially ended early Sunday, but a hard core stayed over a few more days. Terry Riley had left some stuff behind, so I left on Tuesday to drive down to Jonesboro, AR to take it to him and visit with him, HPs Ivy, Ashley, and other SDWC folks, over a great spaghetti dinner. Their church was famous for their big Freedom of Religion March on Lughnasadh (Aug. 1) of 1993, in protest over the Fundie attacks on their store, The Magick Moon, which only survived a month. Now they have all sorts of public projects going, such as a community garden, adopt-a-hiway, and other services to benefit their local community.

OZ with HPs Ivy (L) and Ashley (R) at SDCW

The church house is a labyrinthine sprawl that seems far bigger on the inside than the outside—like a TARDIS. They put me up in a guest room with a private bath! The ritual circle in back is well-appointed with Quarter Gates and a stone central altar. They showed me videos of a few of their musical movie rituals, with songs and characters from Grease, Rocky Horror, etc. taking ritual parts.

Sharing water with Terry Riley of SDCW

Before I left Wednesday afternoon I did a water-sharing with Terry, Ivy and Ashley. Then I drove over 4 hours back to Nashville to spend a few days with Kadira before heading off to PSG on Sunday, and that’s where I am now. Tomorrow I’m off to PSG.

I am being sustained on this Walkabout journey (and storage fees for my extensive esoteric Library and Museum of Arcana collections) by personal appearances, fundraising events, and your generous donations, particularly via my Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/oberonzell. Thank you for your support!

#pagan #roadtrip #wizard #bucketlist #adventure #ozpatreon #iampaganandivote

Keeping Busy – A Massive Update Since My Last Entry

Thursday 6/6/19

I’m now in West Plains, in the bottom of MO three miles from the Arkansas border. I’ve been here since Tuesday, staying with Alfred Willowhawk and Willo Wellspring of the Wite Rayvn Metaphysical Church. Everyone is busily preparing the 4.9-acre farm for the Three Gates Gathering, which starts tomorrow. I’ve been so busy since my last entry that I haven’t had time to catch up in this journal until now.

I left Moria’s Monday afternoon, the 27th, and drove 4 hours back to Nashville to stay with Kadira for a few days. On Wed. the 29th I drove 1½ hours to Summertown to visit my dear friend Alayne at The Farm. The Farm was founded by Stephen Gaskin, who led a caravan of 300 hippies in 60 buses, vans, and trucks from San Francisco back in 1971—a year before Greenfield Ranch was founded in NorCalifia. Stephen’s wife, Ina May, is known throughout the world as “the mother of authentic midwifery,” which has been a major aspect of The Farm since its founding.

Stephen died in 2014, and Ina May no longer lives on the land, but The Farm continues as a well-organized utopian village community, with approximately 200 members and residents on about 1,750 acres of common land. An additional adjoining 2,000 acres have been acquired by Farm friends over the years, including a land trust, Big Swan Headwaters Preserve.

When I first visited The Farm eight years ago, Alayne was married to Jay-Sun, with a delightful 10-year-old daughter, Alexandra, with whom I really hit it off. They broke apart a few years ago, and Alayne recently re-married a very cool dude named Thai in a big ceremony. We had a fine dinner and evening getting acquainted, getting high on Farm sacrament, and listening to the hippie music of The Farm Band.

OZ, Alayne & Alexandra

Thursday morning Xandra showed up. She is now 18, beautiful, brilliant, and working in a marvelous 30-year-old program called “Kids to the Country,” which brings city kids (5-14) out to the land, along with counselors (12-22) and adult helpers. Xandra has become an excellent artist, and is marketing her vividly colorful paintings as posters, cards, bookmarks and stickers, which she gets produced by stickermule.com.

Xandra drove Alayne and me on a wild golf cart ride around The Farm to visit various sites of interest, including the innovative playground and the beautiful graveyard, with around 200 green burials and headstones. Stephen, of course, has a major cenotaph, but he is secretly buried elsewhere.

Stephen Gaskin’s cenotaph

Xandra’s breakneck buggy driving seldom followed roads or even paths, but careened madly through the woods, swerving between trees and gullies, like a crazed Disneyland ride without the rails. When it started to rain, we just kept tearing along, getting drenched. An exciting follow-up to my white-water rafting of a few days previous!

Thursday evening we all went to a talent show at The Farm’s gathering hall, which was such an archetypal commune experience. I loved it.

Jay-Sun in his store

Before leaving The Farm Friday morning, I visited a bit with my old friend Jay-Sun. Then I drove six hours to St Louis to stay with Kendal Gravitt and Bryant Biek at their lovely home on Park Ave.—the same street Martha and I had lived on when we landed in St Louis for graduate school at Washington University back in 1965 and watched the Arch being built down the street.

The weekend of June 1-2 was the 27th annual St Louis Pagan Picnic, in Tower Grove Park. I was the “Special Guest.” My previous visit to St Louis for the 17thPagan Picnic was ten years ago. When Morning Glory and I left St Louis for the West Coast in June of 1976, there were maybe a couple dozen Pagans in the area—mostly members of our own Church of All Worlds. Now this event was attended by over 5,000 people, with 95 vendors, music, rituals, belly dancing, workshops and general merriment! Paganism has certainly come a long way regarding public acceptance in the past 43 years!

The Old Guys: Tom Kullman, OZ & Don Wildgrube

As always when I visit my old stomping grounds, my oldest friends Don Wildgrube and Tom Kullman showed up to hang around my vendor’s table, helping out and catching up. So many reminiscences from those thrilling days of yesteryear! It was in St Louis over 50 years ago—on Sept. 7, 1967—that I first claimed the term “Pagan” to describe myself and my new religion (CAW) that was just going public after five years as an underground secret “water-brotherhood” (Atl—eventually incorporated as the Association for the Tree of Life).

We incorporated CAW on March 4, 1968, rented a 5-story Victorian on the corner of Gaslight Square, and began publishing Green Egg at Ostara—using it to contact other newly-forming groups I’d hear about, and encourage them to also identify as Pagan. That was the beginning of a religious movement that now encompasses millions of adherents worldwide. And it all began here!

Saturday evening after the Picnic closed the core organizers went to dinner at Sqwires. The party consisted of Kendal (Autumn Moon), Bryant (MoonHawk), Karen Ladyhawk, River Higginbotham, Jasmine (Lisa Bruce), Stag (Sean-Thomas), Liz Rohret, Ambiaka Maupin and me. Our waiter, Mark, recognized our pentagrams, and told us he was really interested in Paganism. We invited him to join us at our table when he got off, and he totally merged in. The next day he showed up at the Picnic with his lady, and spent some time at my booth, buying a Grimoire and a Millennial Gaia statue. One more homecoming!

It rained fiercely Saturday night, with lightning and high winds. Despite putting my merchandise in boxes under the table and lowering the canopy, my table was soaked and several books became sopping bricks. Welcome to the Midwest!

OZ’s vending table at Pagan Picnic

The theme for the Pagan Picnic this year was “Seeds of Hope,” and this was reflected in the rituals and workshops. Jasmine’s opening ritual was a powerful enactment of the myth of Pandora. I presented my talk on “Awakening into Quantum Consciousness.” I was also asked to create and Priest the main ritual Sunday afternoon, which I did with Liz Rohret as Priestess. We worked really well together, staying up late Saturday night with other participants to plan and assign parts.

The main ritual was well-attended, and went really well. First, everyone took a handful of compost and filled it with all the negativity of their darkest fears, anger and frustrations. Then, with a circling chant widdershins, we deposited it into a cauldron. Next, each person took a handful of seeds and filled them with their hopes and 2020 Visions. With another circling chant deosil we placed the seeds into the cauldron of compost and charged them to grow…

OZ at main ritual

Sunday I drove up to Florissant to see Carolyn Clark at Christian Hospital. Ordained by CAW at Beltaine of 1973, she was the first Priestess in the western world to be ordained by a legally-recognized church since Emperor Justinian closed the ancient Pagan temples throughout the Roman Empire in the 6th century CE. Carolyn served as CAW’s High Priestess from 1973-1979, to be succeeded by Morning Glory (ordained at Lughnasadh 1974). Now she is very ill, and can barely move—though she says she’s getting better, and she looks forward to writing the story of her life, with a ghostwriter to help. We talked for several hours, and I fed her lunch by the spoonful. So many sweet memories!

After leaving Carolyn, I drove to University City to stay the night with Pendragon. A highly-trained academic artist—sculptor, painter, and art historian—she came into my life shortly after I met Morning Glory in 1973, and the two of them became best friends and sisters. We modeled for each other, and my drawing of her as Lilith appeared as the cover of Green Egg #74 (Samhain 1974), and on the back of her Pendragon Tarot deck. We had so much to talk about!

And Tuesday afternoon I drove four hours to West Plains, where I’ve been relaxing and catching up before the Gathering begins tomorrow. A number of people are here already fixing up the facilities. In the evenings we’ve been playing “Magic the Gathering” and watching movies: Stardust, Bruce Almighty, and Addams Family.