Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth

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We Gather in the Midst of Gods: An Address on the Occasion of the Ninth Annual Offering to the Falls

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

 Twin Cities Pagan Pride 2019

 We gather in the midst of gods.

People of the Waters, my brothers and sisters:

Today we, a sacred people, are gathered here in this sacred place, on this sacred day, to accomplish a sacred work, and this is the nature of that work: to pray for the well-being of pagans, here and throughout the world.

Shortly now we will begin our Procession to that sacred Being, that concentration of Power, known to the First People of this Land, the Dakota, as Minnehaha: the Water That Falls.

There we will make our traditional Threefold Offering to the Falls, and to our offerings we will add our prayers. From here, Minnehaha's sacred waters will bear our offerings and our prayers to Minnehaha Creek, and so to the Mississippi, and so to the Ocean, and to all the rest of the world.

It is the immemorial Pagan Way that offering bears prayer. Today, we make three.

With the offering of water, we pray for Life for the People.

With the offering of meal, we pray for Food for the People.

With the offering of flowers, we pray for Beauty for the People.

For without these three things—life, sustenance, and inspiration—no People can live and thrive.

Some of us will descend into the Caldera to pray from the foot of the Falls.

Some of us will pray from here above.

But wherever you pray from, whatever you pray for, and Whomever you pray to, be sure that our prayers together have Power, as the triad says:

Three things give wing to prayer:

the needful occasion, the offering,

the soaring prayer of others.

My sisters and brothers, let us begin our sacred work.

(Horn.)

 

Lead by Coven Prodea, now in its 40th year,

the Ninth Annual Pagan Pride Offering to Minnehaha Falls

will begin at 10 a.m.,

Saturday, September 7, 2019.

 

 

 

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Poet, scholar and storyteller Steven Posch was raised in the hardwood forests of western Pennsylvania by white-tailed deer. (That's the story, anyway.) He emigrated to Paganistan in 1979 and by sheer dint of personality has become one of Lake Country's foremost men-in-black. He is current keeper of the Minnesota Ooser.

Comments

  • Chas  S. Clifton
    Chas S. Clifton Friday, 13 September 2019

    When I was talking at the Fort Collins, Colorado, Pagan Pride Day on August 24th, I had a similar idea. Then I read that you all in Minnesota are doing it. Wonderful! Offerings to springs, streams, waterfalls should be part of all summertime Pagan Pride Days.

    https://blog.chasclifton.com/?p=10818

  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch Sunday, 15 September 2019

    Honor and offerings to the Poudre and all our waterways!
    I'm convinced that part of the ongoing importance of this ritual is that it gets us out of the "magic" circle and actually interacting with the Living World. Modern pagan ritual has been imprisoned in the bloody magic circle for far too long, "standing with our backs to the world".
    There's no one model for pagan ritual. The sooner we learn that, the richer our liturgies will be.

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