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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in Twin Cities Pagan Pride
We Gather in the Midst of Gods: An Address on the Occasion of the Ninth Annual Offering to the Falls

 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.

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  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Honor and offerings to the Poudre and all our waterways! I'm convinced that part of the ongoing importance of this ritual is that
  • Chas  S. Clifton
    Chas S. Clifton says #
    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 i

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Is Paganism an -Ism?

Hey, Pagan Pride: I've got a suggestion.

A web-search for Twin Cities Pagan Pride turned up (in more than one location) the following lead sentence.


"Pagan Pride is a free fall event, open to the public, that offers education about Paganism to the larger community."

With all due praise to the local Pride committee—who work their butts off every year to offer to pagan and cowan alike a beautiful event in a sacred place, an event that we can truly be proud of—I'd like to suggest a gentle rewrite.

Whether or not such a thing as a unified “Paganism” ever existed anywhere but in the minds of those who hated the Old Ways, I very much doubt. It didn't exist then, it doesn't exist now, and (thank gods), it never will exist. This fact is encoded, genetic: the very nature of the “pagan” religions, new and old alike, militates against such a unity.

“Paganism” isn't an “-ism.” “Pagan” is a descriptor, an identity perhaps: a way of talking about something that already exists, not a thing in and of itself.

So here's my suggestion for an opening that's truer to lived Pagan reality:

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  • Mark Green
    Mark Green says #
    Macha, did you see this post of mine? It's about exactly your topic. https://atheopaganism.wordpress.com/2019/01/08/talking-pagan
  • Aline "Macha" O'Brien
    Aline "Macha" O'Brien says #
    I agree completely with Murph, Ian, and Mark's comments. We are weakened by divisiveness and strengthened by solidarity. In the
  • Murphy Pizza
    Murphy Pizza says #
    Thanks for feedback all - and no offense taken, Virginia. And as an Italian American girl myself, I can totally get on board wi
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Diversity is healthy. Diversity is sustainable. Diversity is inevitable.
  • Mark Green
    Mark Green says #
    I talk of Paganism as "a constellation of religious paths", the sole true commonality of which is self-identification as Pagan. Th
Record Attendance at Twin Cities Pagan Pride Leaves Stomachs Rumbling

Minneapolis, MN

Well, it was a beautiful late summer day at one of the great local beauty spots, so there were plenty of non-pagans at Minnehaha Falls regional park yesterday, too.

Even so, pagans turned out in such numbers for the 17th annual Twin Cities Pagan Pride celebration on Saturday, September 8, that the only food vendor in attendance had run out of food by mid-afternoon, leaving behind plenty of hungry pagans.

Numerous merchants reported record sales.

Reportedly, Pagan Pride organizers had originally contacted a second food vendor, who had declined to participate on the grounds that such an event would not generate a large enough turn-out to be financially worthwhile.

Moral: Pagans turn out. Pagans like to eat. Pagans spend money.

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  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    Saturday I went to the 60th annual Armenian Festival. Armenian refugees wanted a church of their own and raised the money to buil

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
The Original People

We are the pagans.

We are the Firstborn.

We were here in the beginning.

We have been here all along.

While humanity endures, we will always be here.

We are the pagans, the Firstborn: the Original People.

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In Which Our Intrepid Blogger Has a Big Idea and Makes an Outrageous Proposal to the Twin Cities Pagan Pride Committee

Dear Twin Cities Pagan Pride Committee:

I've got a totally outrageous proposal for you.

Let's kick off Pagan Pride 2018 with an act of public pagan worship at Minneapolis City Hall.

As you are probably aware, the centerpiece of the Minneapolis City Hall is Larkin Mead's monumental 1904 sculpture of the River-god Mississippi: Father of Waters.

Let's get permission to hold a ritual there Friday night.

We can invite Mayor Frey and the city council to join us. The media, of course, will be all over it.

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  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    A warm welcome would await you. I'll certainly keep you posted.
  • Aline "Macha" O'Brien
    Aline "Macha" O'Brien says #
    I would definitely be on board for this were I nearby. Good luck!
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    I've got a letter in to City Hall. We'll soon find out.
  • Mariah Sheehy
    Mariah Sheehy says #
    Awesome idea! Just wondering though, how the church/state laws work for this.
Rename the Falls of 'Saint' Anthony Now

Minneapolis, the capital city of Paganistan, has the great good fortune to be home to two sacred waterfalls.

The better-known of the two is Minnehaha Falls, on Minnehaha Creek as it approaches the Mississippi River. This year for the seventh year running, the local pagan community will process to the Falls and make the traditional offerings to her as we kick off our annual Pagan Pride celebration.

The other is the falls on the Mississippi River in the heart of what is now downtown Minneapolis. (In fact, the city of Minneapolis was originally sited where it is precisely because of the falls.) This is the Mississippi's only waterfall; it loomed so large in local lore that in Dakota the Great River itself is known as Hahawakpa, “the river of the falls (haha).” In the whirlpool at the waterfall's foot lived Wanktehi, god of waters.

In 1682 Belgian explorer and missionary Louis Hennepin “named” the falls for his patron saint, Anthony of Padua. They've borne this imposed name ever since.

Well, it's time and high time to lose this imperialist name, which has absolutely nothing to do with the falls themselves.

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In Which Our Intrepid Blogger Comes to Paganistan for the Very First Time

The omen could hardly have been clearer. I guess you could say that a wall spoke to me.

It was spring break of my junior year in college. I'd come to Minneapolis, ostensibly in search of a graduate program. Actually, I'd come in search of a community. In search of a people.

My friend had picked me up at the train station. Driving home down Lake Street, I saw it.

Minneapolis is a City of Murals. There it was, covering the entire side of a building.

Flowers, butterflies. (Hey, it was the 70s.) These words:

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  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Well, speak of the Horned, Chris! I was thinking of you fondly just the other day. Hope this finds you happy and in health.
  • Chris Sherbak
    Chris Sherbak says #
    And who'd'a thunk that just a little while later you'd join in at Paul's magickal place for a weekend hosting amazing men from all
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Thanks Eli, the feeling is entirely mutual. How did we get so lucky?
  • Eli Effinger-Weintraub
    Eli Effinger-Weintraub says #
    Y'know, it's funny: when I moved here from Michigan for college, I never expected to stay here. I had no intention of going back t
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    It's a weird place (in both senses of the term), in some ways a hard place, a cold place. Not everyone manages to fit in. Just ma

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