Life bleeds. Life is raw. Life has teeth and bones, sinew and skin. For all too many of us, though, life is a plastic paradise filled with toothless distractions and virtual vitality. We live our lives surrounded by computer monitors and neutered beasts, claiming to love a feral inheritance but doing little to cherish that legacy.

Lupa wants to change that.

By way of her blogs, the website she shares with her husband Taylor Ellwood, and — best of all — the books they both edit and author under the Megalithica imprint of Immanion Press, Lupa is trying to bring the Wild back to the wasteland of plastic Paganism. Sure, she lives in a modern home; she and Taylor maintain active web presences… and yeah, they're total geeks. Still, Lupa refuses to settle for an air-conditioned life that's factory-sealed for her protection. Lean, fit, and active, she lives the path she describes, and inspires others to do likewise. A shaman in deed as well as name, Lupa favors the raw edge of modern magic, working up a new future with her hands in the soil, in fur, and occasionally even in blood.

I don't know about you, but when the weather gets warm, my thoughts turn to Festival Season. I love a New Age Fair - the inspiration, the healing, the music, the shopping (I'm always in the market for some new tool, totem or talisman) - but before events like these went all "holistic," they were steeped in swirling capes and bawdy banter - Renaissance Festivals! For over forty years, these once-upon-a-summertime fetes have been bringing the past - and with it, Pagan ways - to the attending mainstream populace.

The first Renaissance Festival was a backyard affair put on in 1963 by Phyllis Patterson, a California schoolteacher. It preceded the first New Age event, Colorado Spring's Celebration Metaphysical Fair by over ten years. Later that same year, she and her husband Ron produced the Renaissance Pleasure Faire. It was supposed to be a one-weekend fund raiser, but it was so successful (it drew a crowd of about 8,000 people) that it became a bi-annual event. For some time after its inception, The Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California was held in the Spring with an emphasis on "a-Maying" events, while another Faire was held in the Autumn, essentially a Harvest Festival. Methinks I sense some Pagan undertones.

There are now thousands of "Renaissance Faires" across North America, some owned and operated by entertainment companies, while others are a labor of love produced by small groups of talented (and tireless) enthusiasts. While you'll also find them in other corners of the globe, the Ren Fest as we know it - a recreation of a romanticized 16^th century English village - is considered an American tradition: part amusement park, part interactive theater, and part shopping mall, all with a hefty dose of fantasy, corsetry, and belly-dancing thrown in.

Renaissance Faires had their start with an educational purpose, but they have become, at least for many, an entertainment venue. Depending on the philosophy and standards of those behind the scenes (some producers are uber-focused on authenticity), alongside Elizabethan figures like Shakespeare, you'll find personalities such as Robin Hood, as well as fantasy characters like hobbits and elves with whom to mingle. Films, books and artwork inspire tangent themes for Faires to follow; the more loosely interpreted, the more variety you'll find. Don't be surprised to see a few (ok, maybe dozens of) Captain Jack Sparrows walking about, as well as Froud-ish faeries, and vampires that run the gamut from goth to Edward Cullen. I recently attended an event with a steampunk-burlesque theme, complete with a strip-tease act. "All the world's a stage," isn't it?

It’s a hot August day in Eugene, Oregon. The sky is blue, the sun is bright, and there is a hint of magic in the air. Crows call overhead in the lush green trees, their harsh voices adding to the cacophony coming from the swirling crowds. Sylphs in diaphanous beribboned gowns dance with pixies in striped stockings and sparkling wings of every hue. Wooly-legged, bare-chested fauns compare horns with dark sprites wearing lacy black corsets and wicked leather boots. On-stage, a Green Man in vivid leafy rags introduces the next performer while a roving jester juggles fragile glass balls; a satyr on ten foot tall stilts navigates deftly among the dancers as a rainbow-clad goddess makes her way through the audience. Tiny babies dressed as bumblebees and lady-bugs nap contentedly on patchwork quilts and blankets. Their mothers braid ribbons and yarn into each other’s hair and chat with passersby who stop to admire their adorable infants.

Welcome to Faerieworlds, one of the largest and most popular festivals dedicated to the celebration of all the lands of Faerie.